Living Out a Life of Faith — Part 2

From Joseph: This post is the second part of the faith and leadership series by Gori Olusina Daniel . This is such a powerful series and I’d love for you to share them with others as you are blessed. More on Gori at the end of the post. If you’d like to feature a guest post on The Story of Hope, you can find my guidance here.

In the second instalment in our series on living a life of faith, we build on the thoughts established in the previous post and lift the lid on what faith truly is; and how to move towards living a life of faith through actions triggered by a disposition to obedience and devotion to God’s purposes.

Faith starts when we get to the end of ourselves

Cassius Clay (later to be known as Muhammad Ali) defied the experts to become the heavyweight champion of the world in an epic fight against a stronger, more experienced Sonny Liston who grossly under-estimated the young loud-mouth known as the ‘Louisville Lip’.

Throughout his career, Ali went on to defeat other fighters who appeared to be more qualified and stronger than him; defying the odds.

Faith manifests itself in many ways and often coincides with confidence, courage and persistence against all odds. In my experience and reflection on the incredible lives of many great women and men, I have come to realise that faith kicks in at the edge of the boundary of our strengths, capabilities and resources.

A look at Gideon

Gideon and his 300 men watched as God fulfilled His promise to deliver the Midianites into their hands (Judges 7:21-22). This as we see from the record of the events, was not achieved through conventional warfare which their capabilities could not achieve, but through a series of happenings that proved to them and those of us who learn of this story, that it could only have been God.

This as we see from the record of the events, was not achieved through conventional warfare which their capabilities could not achieve, but through a series of happenings that proved to them and those of us who learn of this story, that it could only have been God.

We learn from Gideon’s story that God called him to leadership, equipped him for leadership, gave him specific instructions and guidance on what he is empowering him to do, and then challenged him to act in line with the instructions he had been given in the assurance that He — the Almighty — will back him up with power.

Despite what he knew were real limitations and constraints, Gideon repeatedly stepped out in faith; once he had tested and established that it was God Himself prompting him.

Understanding faith

God intends for us to live a life of faith that is consistently reflected in a life of wonder, because what it accomplishes is not the fruit of our strength, labour or brilliance.

On the contrary, people of faith experience God at work in and through us in ways that demonstrate His faithfulness, power and  presence with us.

Faith does not rely on our current abilities, resources and networks; it is a creative force that triggers a sequence of coordinated happenings that brings to life all that is required to accomplish God’s intentions.

Faith is an act of trust and surrender akin to a transatlantic passenger taking steps to board an aircraft in the hope and confident expectation that the pilot will do the impossible by defying gravity and projecting this mass of steel thousands of miles to the intended destination.

Faith is the necessary human participation that permits divine intervention to extend God’s creative genius in our world (Hebrews 11:6). That’s why a life of faith is a life lived at the highest level of human potential; and is only possible within the context of a close intimate relationship with God.

God seeks yielded hearts

We must be able to clearly distinguish God’s promptings in order to be able to access the power to be unstoppable as we pursue to perform all God has called us to do.

Your ability to distinguish God’s voice comes out of the quality of your relationship with God, and this is evidenced by how closely you stay connected to God (John 15:1-4) in thought and prayer, and make yourself available to fulfil His purposes and instructions.

Like Gideon (and Moses and Jesus after him), we must also recognise that our success is linked to executing God’s commands His way, not our way. God achieves the impossible through the actions of yielded hearts who recognise that despite their (perceived) limitations and constraints, there is no limit to what God can achieve through yielded hearts committed to achieving His purposes on earth.

Prayer point

Father, thank You for Your word. Help give us yielded hearts. Help us to lean into You, hear Your voice and heed Your call to live a life of faith that manifests itself in us acting on Your word through courageous obedience, and experiencing Your power unfold in ways that bring glory to Your name.

Next week we uncover the truth behind the fact that “Faith is powered by obedience, not chutzpah”.

About Gori Olusina Daniel

Gori is a Partner at Adams & Moores, Author of Rise Above the Horizon of Average, Believer, Enterprise Champion and Lifter. Over the years, Gori has remained committed to empowering people to change the world through grassroots initiatives, including The World Changers and TheLifeCourse , among others.

Image courtesy of Google Images | Cindy Hatcher