THE TRIAL OF OUR FAITH
The Trial of Our Faith
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
October 7, 2012, the Year of Our Lord
“Faith says that order grows from chaos and that life is born from death. That from the wreck of rending stars behind the storm; there dwells a heart of central calm; and this, this is FAITH” (author unknown)
There is a shifting, moving, and shaking going on. I feel it. My friend felt it when he lost his job last week. He has a mortgage, a wife, and a five-year old son. Another friend had a job demotion and pay cut just a few years away from her retirement after years of faithful service at her company. And another needs a job in his 60’s when he should be looking forward to living on retirement.
Our own little idyllic church has been moved and our congregation seemingly afflicted, and tossed with tempest. Isa. 54:11-12: “O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles and all your borders of pleasant stones.”
Those of us who are seasoned in our walk of faith know we are not flying by the seat of our pants, or flying blind. We know in the midst of the storms around us we are in the middle of God’s plan to deliver us out of the tempest of the storm into the promise of God.
Job changes, no jobs, moves, escalation of wars, financial crisis, high gas prices, medical cost and insurance premiums off the charts, etc.
We have an ungodly administration over the government of the United States who is taking our nation to the brink of economic collapse to finance an ideology of Socialism and Marxism.
“As in the days of the prophet Habakkuk, the law was “slacked,” literally “chilled” (Hab. 1:4). It had been rendered ineffective, paralyzed. It had come to be looked upon as being without force or authority. Because of unrighteous judges, true law and justice had been set at naught. Most forms of judgment were corrupted; hence, life and property were insecure. The wicked were hemming in the righteous. Miscarriage of justice was the order of the day, ensnaring the God-fearing by fraud; the ungodly perverted all that was right and honest.”
The news pundits today would have us believe that a political party and a man will be able to deliver us in a topsy-turvy world.
Hab. 2:4: “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man…”
Habakkuk prophesied during the closing years of the wicked king Manasseh. The sins of the fathers carried over to the sons and the grandsons. Their most horrible practice was the sacrifice of human beings, especially children, to the gods of the heathen. (2 Kings 21: 1-5)
Manasseh was filled with wickedness. Horoscopes, witchcraft, sorcery, and séances polluted his court. Nothing was sacred, not even human life. He offered human sacrifices to the heathen god Molech, “the abomination of the children of Ammon” (1 Ki. 11:&; Lev. 18:21; 20: 3-5; 2 Ki. 23:10).
Another idol who demanded live human offerings was Chemosh, the national god of the Moabites. Like Molech, Chemosh was worshiped by burnt offerings of child sacrifice. The name “Chemosh” means to “subdue”. It can also mean the “power one.” (Numbers 21:29).
Manasseh’s and Habakkuk’s society not only killed its babies; it was marked by blatant, militant homo-sexuality and lesbianism, and had been for years. From Solomon’s day on, a myriad of pagan gods whose temple prostitutes were both male and female had invaded the land. The gay/lesbian issue does not set forth a new morality or an alternative life style. It is the same old abominable immorality.
In all this, the just are to live by faith. God’s ways are right. Our confidence must not be based on God’s favors, but on God Himself. Our rejoicing in the midst of adversity must rest upon a total acceptance of the ways of the Lord and his love for us.
My personal experience with the Lord has been once Faith is dropped into my heart by the Lord then there is a trial of that Faith. God gave Abraham the promise early, but fulfilled it late. As Abraham waited, he learned the ways of the Lord and became the father of the faithful for all generations to come.
God gave David the promise early, but fulfilled it late. But the trials that he went through worked in him a heart “after the heart of God” and the shepherd boy from Bethlehem became a shepherd king over all Israel.
God gave the whole human race the promise early, and fulfilled it late. God promised that the “seed of the woman” would bruise the serpent’s head”. Men almost despaired of the promise, but in the “fullness of time” He came forth. Jesus, the author and finisher of our Faith is better than all of the Old Testament faithfuls.
1 Pet. 1:7: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tired with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
The writer of Hebrews begins his exhortation on Faith in chapter 10:26 with a sermon from Habakkuk, “The Just Shall Live By Faith”.
He reminds them of the great reward they had earned in the early days of their salvation. The writer says, “This is no time to throw away your confidence.” In verses 32-36, he reminds them of the former days, “which you were illuminated. You endured a great struggle with sufferings….Therefore do not cast away your
Confidence which has a great reward.”
He is referring to the “prophet’s reward.” Jesus mentioned it to His disciples, “Blessed are you when men hate you, ostracize you and heap insults on you…for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad and leap for joy, for great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way their fathers use to treat the prophets.” (Luke 6:22, 23)
It is possible for a person to lose his reward after he has once earned it. All he has to do is draw back from his stand of living for Jesus, start living for himself, and taking up the ways of the world. The Apostle John warns, “Hold fast what you have that no one take your crown.” (Rev. 3:11)
Habakkuk’s prophecy is divided into three parts:
- The burden----the Problem of faith 1:1: “The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see…” sobbing faith grappling with the problem---
- The vision----the answer of faith 2:2: “The Lord answered me, and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.”---seeing faith grasping with the solution.
- The prayer ---the assurance of faith (chapter 3)---singing faith glorying in the assurance.
In chapter 1, the prophet’s faith is tested. In Chapter 2, faith is taught. In Chapter 3 Faith is triumphant in the Person of God, the power of God and the Purpose of God.
In the midst of judgment of the greedy nobles and shameless religious leaders, God’s promises are conveyed to the faith.
The revelation of Jesus Christ in the book of Habakkuk is in 1:12: “Are you not for everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One?...” the One who justifies the righteous by faith, and the One who will fill the earth “with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (2:4). Jesus Christ is here revealed as the Judge of Babylon (Rev. 17-18) and the Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
Heb. 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
Like Job, Habakkuk neither used his questions to shield himself from moral responsibility nor shunned God’s claims upon his life. He was genuinely perplexed by the unpredictable nature of God’s dealings with him. He actually raised his protests because he thought so much of God, and hungered and thirsted to see God’s righteousness vindicated. God’s revelation of Himself laid the ghost of the prophet’s doubts to rest and gave birth to a finer faith.
This powerful prophecy begins with a sob and ends with a song! What did the prophet see that so impacted and changed his life? What was his vision about?
What is it that can cause men today to rise up, to transcend the circumstantial, appearance realm? What can lift us up, out of our despair and into the place of faith?
When there is no visible evidence of God anywhere around us, how is it that we can still rejoice and “rest in the day of trouble”?
The Chaldeans are not coming to our nation…they are here! Their names are economy, immorality, false gods, and violence.
Our times match those of Judah and Jerusalem over 600 years before Jesus was born. The Book of Habakkuk is the Word of the Lord to America in her present day of trouble.
The good news is that Manasseh did repent and two generations later, Godly King Josiah, Manasseh’s grandson, rediscovered the Scriptures in the House of the Lord. The Holy Bible was Judah’s and is America’s only infallible standard for right and wrong. Without it, there was and is no moral measure.
Godly King Josiah brought his people back to their foundations. The nation of Judah once again slew the Passover Lamb. Something powerful happened as revival swept the land!
Hebrews 11: The writer brings before us a list of heroes of the Jewish Faith and how they were approved by God. The Old Testament Saints had nothing but God’s promises upon which to rest. Yet they committed their entire lives to God on the proposition that He would do as He promised.
What is faith? “It is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen.”
- Faith is a spiritual force. God is a Spirit. He is a Faith God who is only pleased by Faith. (Heb. 11:6)
- Faith is the absence of doubt; the opposite of fear. (11Timothy 1:7)
- Faith is the present tense. “Now Faith is… (Hebrews 11:1).
- Faith is a gift. It is an impartation of the Lord. (Romans 12:3)
- Faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It grows. (Gal. 5:22-23; Rom. 1:17)
- Faith comes by hearing of the Word of God. (Romans 10:17)
- Faith speaks. (Romans 10: 6-10)
- We live by Faith. (Gal. 2:20, Acts 17:28)
- Prayer of Faith – Prayer that touches God and brings the answer. (James 5:15, 1Jn. 5:4)
Faith is one of the power or action gifts which enable us to do the Works of God. Weymouth describes the Gift of Faith as the God given ability to perform the impossible.
The Rhema Word means “that which is spoken (Faith speaks) what is uttered in speech of writing (Vine). It is commonly used to denote the Living Word (prophetic word) in contrast with the Logs (written word). The logos becomes the Rhema when spoke in the anointing. (Mt. 4:4; Lk. 1:37-38; Ro. 10:8)
Hebrews 1:1-3: “God, who at sundry times in divers manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high;”
The whole truth is both logos and rhema are written. The Word made flesh or visible.
The fruit of Faith is one of the characteristics of the nature of Jesus Christ.
(Hebrews 10: 35-36): “Do not cast away your confidence which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the Will of God, you may receive the promise.”
How does the promise come?
Several ways:
- Believe God as Abraham did. We believe God as we read the Word. (Ro.1:16-17)
- We believe God because He manifest himself through His creation (Ro.1:16-20
Faith is based as it is on the firm Word of God. It is then not “a leap in the dark.” It assures one of the realities of the invisible world and it’s superiority to the visible. Faith is fundamental to perseverance. Perseverance is Faith in the evidence of things not seen. Circumstances can be a stumbling block to receiving our promises without the dynamic of Faith.
The dynamic of Faith is described in Hebrews 10:38: “the righteous shall live by Faith.” In its primary meaning that despite circumstances, man who believes God and is walking in the revealed Will of God will be preserved and prosper. In the church era, we are lifted to a higher plane than the ancients. The promised life (the promise) is in the very life of the risen Christ.
The gospel, and gospel church knows no frontier except the frontier of Faith. This faith will break forth a church with the splendor of the noon day sun. For those of us who are frontier women and men of God, we have the assurance that we will spend eternity riding the crest of the waves of Faith.
The trial of our Faith can be one of the hardest things to overcome. Why do the Godly suffer? Our hero of Faith today is Habakkuk. He is described in Hebrews 11:32-39, “and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the word, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverances; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trail of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
Habakkuk commended in Hebrews 10:38 gave us the revelation, “The righteous will live by Faith”. Habakkuk is exceptional for his honesty and his moral and spiritual integrity with which he faces the circumstances around him. He grapples with this in a way, which can only be described as courageous. The conflict which erupts in his heart and mind is due to his inability to reconcile and understand the tragic reality he is witnessing with his bedrock conviction that all history and life is under the direct control of a sovereign, omnipotent and Holy God.
The inescapable reality appears to contradict this. Habakkuk cannot ignore the problem. Indeed the need to resolve it becomes for him imperative and urgent. He goes into travail and is pregnant with a gospel revelation and truth, “The just shall live by Faith.” In his travail, he births this great truth.
If we know how to get in the presence of Jesus, we can come out to face the trial of our faith and overcome with a deep rooted peace that will render us steadfast and immovable. It is a bedrock Faith.
Habakkuk approached God with a storm of anguished questions and complaints. (Hab. 1:2-4) He proceeds in turbulence but at length Habakkuk emerges tranquil and confident. (2:1-4; 3:16-19)
Habakkuk’s ministry is the reverse of the prophet’s traditional role. Habakkuk deals with God for the people rather than dealing with the people for God.
The promise of eternal life for the Faith-righteous man/woman is a living, creative, active, mighty force of Faith. So, it is impossible for this great power to fail to produce good works.
Whatever God brings you to, He will bring you through.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from KJV – I entered into the labors of Kelley Varner, Rest in the Day of Trouble and excerpts from a sermon by Pastor Carolyn Sissom, Faith is a Fact I