Living Hope Fellowship Church

TO WALK BY FAITH

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

TO WALK BY FAITH

Preface

(trust God)

          Hebrews 10:38 says, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”

        Jesus is the author and the finisher of faith.  He knows ahead of time that something is going to be before it ever takes place.  He starts faith, but folks, He is also the finisher.  Put your situation, your troubles, and your life in Jesus’ hands. 

          Learn to fully trust God.  I’m asking God to deliver us from unbelief, that again we will be faithful witnesses for Him!

TO WALK BY FAITH

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          Faith pleases God, and it will cause Him to move for you.  If we say that we believe something, but we do not walk in that belief, that belief is vain, having no effect.  If you say that you believe for healing, but you will not pray for or believe for healing, then it has no effect.  If you say that you believe that it is possible for people to live a holy life, even in this fallen world, yet you do not live a holy life, your belief is vain. 

          If you say that God can do anything, yet you don’t give Him liberty to do so in every area of your life, then your declaration is vain.  However, when you please God, He will move with you, and it will get you “in Christ” in a supernatural way.

          Hebrews 10:38 says, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”  Criticism from other Christians who don’t believe to the same depth in God causes some to draw back.  Every time you take a step of faith there will be adversaries and obstacles. 

          Because of fear, people will criticize or warn, “You had better re-think that!”  They may hinder the person who wants to go on into the deeper things of God.  God is not pleased with anything of unbelief.  The Bible says in Romans 14:23, “. . . whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

          It generates excitement and anticipation when someone says, “God will do this, or it won’t get done!”  A few will risk their lives trying to believe that God will heal them, but most people are not in the position of faith to do that. 

          There is a difference in living by faith partially and living by faith totally.  Many Christians believe that God can do anything.  The big trouble is that they don’t believe that God does everything for everybody!  Some would have to say, “I don’t believe that God can do anything for ME.”  Others would have to say, “I believe that God can do anything, and that He can do anything for ME, but I don’t think that I can walk there.”

          The just, those who have been justified by the blood of Jesus, shall walk by faith.  That is a law of liberty.  God is glorified when you walk by faith, and others can be encouraged by your success in the Lord.

           Some may say, “I believe that God is going to heal me from top to bottom, and I’m not going to let doctors touch me.  God will heal me, or I will die.”  If they are living right and are walking what they are talking, it will be glory to God.

          Mark 4:24 says, “And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.”

          When your faith is one hundred percent for God, God gets all the glory, but when you walk a little bit by faith, God receives a lesser measure of glory. 

          “The just shall live by faith” is the epitome of the Christian walk.  Galatians 3:11 says, “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.”  We must get where our dependency is all on God.

          The highest place we can walk is by faith, but many people think it is too stressful, because instead of believing, they are constantly worrying!  “Well, I know God can, but will God?” they say. 

          We read about the children of Israel who said, “Can God?”  He had already sent plagues against the Egyptians.  He had delivered the Israelites with a mighty hand, fed them with manna, and gave them water out of a rock.  Yet they consistently tested God.  That generation experienced the miracle working power of God, and the nations around them knew about it.  It was noised abroad that God took care of Israel.  However, they began to sin and become like the people around them.

          Christians today blend in.  We don’t stand out, because we don’t walk by faith like we should.  We believe that God can do anything, but we don’t believe that He is going to.  You can rest assured that God’s way is not our way.  God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  Yet, if we will walk in Jesus Christ by faith, God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory (see Philippians 4:19).  

          I believe God wants to show Himself directly and supernaturally to us.  There is no “maybe” in Isaiah 40:31 which says, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” 

          Some people say, “Well, if I don’t get some help I might end up dying, and wouldn’t that blow my witness!”  Every believer is supposed to be a witness that Jesus Christ is Lord.  All things are possible to him that believeth.  God will never fail or let you down.  He may be behind in your schedule, but He will never, ever let a person down who will walk in obedient faith, believing Him.  God has never failed.

          The just shall live by faith!  Folks, there is coming a time, even in the United States, when we are going to have to walk by faith!  We need to get so dependent on God that we are totally independent of the world.  You can’t serve two masters.  The more dependent on God you are, the less dependent you are on the world.  Your focus has to be on Jesus.  Though the devil tries and tests you, stand upon the promises of God!

          Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  We must learn to live by faith. 

          Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”  When we please God, we will get our prayers answered, and what joy we’ll have as we journey on in Christ!

          It is “risky” for your reputation to believe God.  People will think that you are crazy.  You can get so far in believing God that everybody will just about leave you except God.  There is a price to pay for walking by faith! 

          Jesus is the author and the finisher of faith.  He says something is, and it is, even though you can’t tell if it is or not.  He knows ahead of time that something is going to be before it ever takes place.  He starts faith, but folks, He is also the finisher.  Put your situation, your troubles, and your life in Jesus’ hands. 

          As a child my mother sent me to Cairo, Illinois for swimming lessons at a community swimming pool.  It was the first cement pond that I had ever seen, and the water was so clear that you could see the bottom!  My parents had just built a house in the country, and Dad had dug a big pond by it.  He stocked it with fish, and God’s creation stocked it with snakes and everything else.  Mom was worried about me drowning, and I was her only child, so she said I had to take swimming lessons.      

          This pool was about 3 feet deep all the way up to about 12 feet deep and sloped.  Not being fully confident of my swimming abilities, I liked the shallow end of the pool.

          We had only been there a few mornings, when the instructor told us to go over to the deep end of the pool.  I thought maybe it was just to watch her jump off the diving board!  I used to think I’d like to get on that diving board because it had a spring to it, and it didn’t have any splinters!  She said she was going to teach us about jumping off into water and how to keep yourself afloat until you could get to the edge of the pool.  Now, everybody knows that if you can reach over to the edge of the pool you can just hold on, because we can float some.

          I had a chronic fear of not being able to feel something under my feet.  If you don’t know how to swim you can understand what I’m saying.  If my feet couldn’t touch something, then I didn’t want to be there.  My mom and the instructor told me that I would just float, but I told them that I didn’t care.  If it was over my nose, then it was too deep.  I thought, “Yeah, maybe my dead body would float, but I can’t breathe with water on my face!”

          You just can’t hide a kid in a pool!  There were probably two dozen of us in there, and we all got out of the shallow, comfortable end of the pool and traipsed on down to the other end.  One by one (I got to the back of the line) we got up there, and the instructor told us what we were going to do.  She said for us to jump right at a certain spot, and the other lady, her assistant, would be there to help if needed.

          The instructor said when we hit the water we would just pop back up.  She said that she would swim over and put her arm around us, and for us to just put our arm around her neck.  Then she would take us over to the edge of the pool, and then we could get on out of the pool.  The instructor said she wanted us to get used to jumping in water that was over our head. 

          God is that way.  He wants you to get used to jumping in over your head to where you have no support except Him.  Folks, we are never going to go any further unless we do what God’s Word says. 

          The kids jumped in one after the other, and I thought, “Wow, they didn’t drown!”  Every single kid survived.  I thought that if you were in over your head it wouldn’t take any time at all till you were drowned.  Even kids don’t want to die!

          I’m standing on the edge looking down in that water, and wow, did it go down a long ways!  I loved the thought of a big diving board, but it needed to be on the shallow end of the pool!  When I hit, I wanted to hit the water and then hit something solid.

           She was on the side, and she told us to just jump straight out in front of the diving board into the pool.  She told us that before we even came up she would be right there to pick us up to swing us over to the side of the pool.  This was the plan.  I had already watched her do it with the other kids!  Finally my turn came.  I was the last one to get on that diving board.  I wanted on that diving board, and I knew it would be fun, and that it would flip me way up in the air.  I would hit the water with a big splash, but I knew that it was 12 feet deep down there!  It was over my head!

          The instructor and her assistant could both swim like a fish, but as I stood on the diving board I thought, “I have no business here.”  I had just a few days of learning to dog paddle, and some instructions on how to swim!

          The woman said, “Go ahead, bail out.”  She then said, “It will be all right.  Go ahead and bail off.”  She continued, “I’ll be right there to get you, so go ahead and bail off!”  So I jumped!  I jumped off of the board right on top of her and straddled her shoulders!  She was probably about five feet tall and slender built!  I felt her head hit me right in the chest area.  This did not get me any points.  I guess it could have killed her.  This 8 year old kid, weighing about 75 pounds, dove and landed on top of that woman.  I can remember that as we hit and went under water that the other woman was hollering the instructor’s name. 

          Why did I do it?  I had seen all that she could do.  I knew that she could easily swipe me up, but I thought somewhere along the line that she couldn’t catch me as fast as I needed to breathe.  We had learned a few things about swimming, but I didn’t trust my ability, so I jumped on her.   

          What happened after that?  I think the assistant probably did her quickest lap around the pool that day, but I amazingly did not knock the instructor out.  They were not happy with me and told me to go over to the side and work my way down to the swallow end of the pool.  They told me not to come back up there until they told me to! 

          Everybody saw what happened; they saw me fail.  They saw me jump on the woman.  When you take a step of faith everybody sees, and they are rejoicing with you, but when you draw back, everybody sees that too. 

          All the kids knew that I was in trouble.  I went to the other end of the pool by myself, and the other kids progressively got to swim out over their heads before I did.  I was the least in that class, because I did not trust the ability of the instructor.  They said they would take care of me, but I didn’t believe any of that. 

          In the Bible everybody that stuck their neck out by faith survived and even prospered!  If you don’t learn to trust God, you will never know the thrill of being able to say, without hesitation, “God can heal.  He healed me.  God can deliver.  He delivered me.  God can provide finances.  He provided mine.  God can save a lost soul.  He saved me.”  

          Folks, it is high time that we give it all to Jesus. We say we believe God, but sometimes we jump on our own instructor, and sometimes we draw back.  We know that God has no pleasure in that.  It grieves the Spirit of God, and we live under condemnation from it.  We say, “Can God?” when we should be declaring that GOD CAN, because HE IS.    

          God can handle every situation, if we will learn to fully give it to Him.  I’m asking God to deliver us from unbelief, that again we will be faithful witnesses for Him!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghope@hughes.net

www.livinghopefellowshipchurch.org

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.