The Requirements of Faith - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, November 10th. As our series on walking by faith moves forward, we look at Abraham, the Old Testament patriarch, who chose to believe God could do the impossible. When you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you immediately entered into a life of faith. That is, you entered into a sense of confident assurance that the God of the Bible is God and that not only is He who He says He is, but He will do everything He promised to do. Now, the only problem is that most of us did not and probably no one really understood all of that when they first trusted Jesus Christ as their savior. So what really happens is God puts us in the school of faith. He places us there to learn the most basic principles of Scripture and to learn how to live for Him and to learn how to live in a world that is in opposition to Him. When we talk about faith, we're talking about just that. And that is a confident assurance that the God of the Bible is God and that He will do exactly what He promises to do. How do we live that kind of life in a world in which we have to live?

Well, we have to learn how to do it. How do we learn to walk the walk of faith? How do we learn to live the life of faith? Well, what I want to do in this message is I want to talk about this whole idea of faith again. I want to talk about the requirements for learning to walk by faith, because it isn't something you automatically know.

It's something you learn by trial and error, by study and stumbling, and by faltering and falling and getting up and moving on again. But I think there are some principles that you and I can learn that will help us. And so I want you to turn, if you will, to Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord said, Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land, which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you.

And the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham went forth as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Now Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

And Abraham took Sarah his wife and Lot his nephew and all their possessions, which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and thus they came to the land of Canaan. Now with that in mind, and we will continue part of his life here, what I'd like to give you is I'd like to give you five requirements for learning to walk by faith. What is the first lesson in the school of faith I must learn if I'm going to learn to walk and to live by faith? The first lesson is this, I must learn to listen to God. That is absolutely basic in all of our walk with God. If I don't know, if I can't hear him, if I can't identify his voice, if I can't hear him, if I can't know that God is speaking to me, how will I know where to go, how will I know what to do, how will I know how long, when, how, what? You see, the truth is that God intends to give us direction for our life. Does he not say, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, he shall direct our path, but even if he directs my path, if I'm not listening, I'm going to miss what he has to say. So basic to learning to live by faith and to walk the walk of faith, to live the Christian life as God would have us to, basic to that is learning to listen to God. Now, here's this man who is in a family and a nation of absolute pure idolatry, and what happens?

God reaches down and speaks to Abraham and reveals himself to him. Now, remember this carefully. All of us walk according to the light that we've seen. At least we should.

That's what we can do. And so what happens when someone has a little bit of light, they don't know too much about what to do next. So here's what God does. He gives us a little bit of light. And if I listen to him and do what he says, he'll give me more light and more light and more light and more light until you and I are able to walk and know that we are listening to God and that he is directing our light. Now, here's the key.

And this is a very important thing. Watch this. If God gives me a little bit of an instruction, a little bit of understanding about himself, about his will for my life, how do I get more? I get more by doing exactly what he said.

If I want more, I'll do exactly what he said. So that our light increases and as our light increases and our obedience, it becomes consistent. God begins to speak to us so clearly in so many ways. Now, if, for example, God speaks, let's face it, there are times when we don't always understand when we first become a Christian that God is trying to say something to us. And so God in his very keen divine sensitivity to our ignorance and to our lack of experience is very, very patient with us in helping us to understand what to do next. That's why the Word of God is so very important.

We're not like Abraham out there in the middle of nowhere, living in a pagan society, no Bible, no tracts, no pastors, no teachers. But here he was out there in the middle of all of this. And what was God saying to him? God was speaking to him and helping him to understand that he was God.

So that's why he identifies himself. I am the Lord God Almighty who brought you out of the air of the Chaldees. In the 15th chapter, it's interesting if you'll notice here.

Look at that 15th chapter for a moment. And in this conversation, when he had told him he would be his shield and his great reward, here's what he said to him. In verse five, he took him outside and said, Now look up toward the heavens.

Count the stars if you're able to count them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. Then he believed in him, the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. That is, when you and I trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal savior and the Bible says that God reckons that unto us as righteousness.

Here's what that means. That means when you trust that Jesus Christ is your personal savior, God put to your account in heaven what? He put to your account in heaven the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Which means that in that moment we become a child of God. We become holy and sealed forever as a child of the living God. Now, of course, Abraham did not know anything about Jesus Christ. And so what happens is that as God begins to reveal to him his ways and his will, he gives him some awesome hints. He says in you, that is out of your loins, that is out of your body. I'm going to bless all the nations of the earth.

Now, of course, he didn't understand all that was meant by that. But here was a prophecy of this, a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah who would come through his family line, his genealogical line. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of his 12 sons, Judah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. You can trace in Luke and Matthew all the way back to Adam and back to Abraham here. The genealogical line of the Son of God. So Abraham learned to listen to God.

He learned it in a very difficult fashion. Now, he didn't always listen, for example, if you'll notice and look, if you will, back in the 12th chapter. And if you'll recall that he the Bible says in verse seven, eight, that he moved on to this place toward the Negev and there was a famine in the land. Now, what he would normally have done, what you and I would think he would do is when he hits this famine, he would have stopped and listened to God. Now, watch this carefully.

I want to mention a couple of things here that you cannot afford to miss. Usually you would think, well, he's been listening to God and God's been giving him instruction. He gets to the Negev and there's a famine in the land. So what does he do? He makes a choice. He makes a decision. Instead of building an altar and saying, you've led me all the way from the Earl of the Chaldees over here.

You've protected me and provided for me. Now, what shall I do? He heads south to Egypt. When he gets down there, he makes a terrible mistake. He makes a mistake that lasts for the rest of his life.

I won't tell you what that is at this moment, but that's exactly what happens. What does he do? Instead of doing the wise thing of listening to God. Listen, God brought him all the way this far, taken care of him, protected him, provided for him. And now he comes to a famine and instead of listening to God, he makes a choice.

He's going down there where it seems that he can be helped and find exactly what he needs to have to supply his needs. Now, with that in mind, I want to leave you hanging there on purpose. With that in mind, let's think about how in the world do you and I learn to listen to God. So I want to give you several things.

Jot them down. Number one. Well, first of all, what's the first step in learning to walk by faith? Number one, we must learn to do what? Learn to listen to God.

All right. I want to give you several steps in learning how to listen to God. And here's step number one. First of all, I must learn to meditate upon the Word of God, applying the truth to my life and observing the results. Meditating upon the Word of God is reading it, praying over it, thinking about it, asking questions. What are you saying to me, God? What are you trying to say through this word to me? Applying that to my life and then observing the results. You see, and if you leave off the last part, it's not going to do any good. I need to observe the results. Here's what God said. Here's what I did.

Here's what happened. So if I want to learn how to listen to God, I'm going to be in the Scriptures reading the Word of God. What is He saying? What is He saying to me? Is He bringing up something in my life I need to get rid of? Is He giving me a sense of direction?

Is He showing me something about Himself? Is He want to encourage me in this passage? All the kind of things that God may want to say. First of all, I meditate upon the Word of God.

I apply it to my heart and then I observe the results. The second step in learning to listen is this. And that is making a deliberate time to be quiet and listen to God. If you just read the Scriptures and get up and move on.

If you just, listen, if you allow others and the devil to fill your life every waking moment, I'm telling you, you'll never learn to listen to God. It takes time. The third step, very important step here. The very important step here is to record. That is, make some note. And this is why I suggest you make some note in your Bible of something that God has spoken to your heart about.

Put a date down by it, put two or three words. Maybe it's where you were or maybe something specifically that God has said. And what you're doing is, you know what you're doing? You're building an altar. That is, you are making a note of something God spoke to you about.

That is, something about that passage you just can't get away from. God gave you a sense of direction. He gave you a warning. So very important that you and I record, what is God saying to me? What did He say to me in this particular area here?

Another very important thing I think here is this. And that is, we must learn to discipline ourselves to hear the inner voice of the Holy Spirit. If I'm going to learn to listen to God, I must discipline myself to hear the inner voice of the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit's living on the inside of every believer. Why did God send him? Because He knew that you and I could not live the Christian life apart from the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. Of all the things the Spirit of God does in our life, what He does, listen, He enables us in all the areas of our life that we ourselves cannot function in apart from His help. One of those is He gives us discernment to be able to listen and to be able to identify.

So what happens? The Spirit of God living on the inside of you will help you and enable you to identify what in that passage God is saying. Or as you sit or as you kneel or lie before the Lord and listen to Him, God's Spirit will speak to your spirit by impressing you very strongly in some areas. So when I say you must discipline yourself, here's what I mean. When God sends you that message, discipline says, I don't want to stop. I like the way I'm going.

This is what I want to do. But I've done this enough to know that when I get up here, I'm going to fall off the cliff in some fashion. So when we talk about listening to the inner voice of the Spirit, that's what I'm talking about. That is, God wants to speak to you, desires to speak to you, has equipped you to hear Him.

How did you do that? When He saved you, He gave you a new spirit. When He saved you, the Holy Spirit came inside to live on the inside of you.

So what does He do? The Spirit of God is the one who, listen, who receives the message and listen, interprets to your spirit what God is saying. God wants to speak, desires to speak. You can learn to listen to God. Very important, you and I learn how to listen to Him. And then I could add something to that and say, listen, if you want to learn to listen to God, anticipate. Expect God to speak to you. Expect God to speak to you. You say, well, He just speaks to preachers and missionaries.

No, He doesn't. God speaks to anyone who is listening. When somebody says, well, God's never spoken to me. How long have you been a Christian? Well, I've been a Christian about 20 years. God's never spoken to you?

No. You know what I know already? I know that one time back there, God spoke and they ignored Him and ignored Him and ignored Him. So now they can't even identify the voice of God.

Very important. Step number one in walking by faith is what? Learning to do what? To listen to God. Step number two is learning to obey God. If I am going to walk the walk of faith, then I must learn to be obedient to God.

Because the truth is the life of faith is a life of obedience. And the truth is also that if I really and truly trust Him, I'm going to obey Him. And if I obey, listen, I will only obey the person I trust. If I really trust Him, I'm going to be obedient to Him. And my obedience is evidence of my trust. This is why oftentimes God will send us through great difficulty and hardship in life. And what happens? We just move on through that and in that and on past that.

Why? Because we trusted God. We knew this is what He said do. He chose to be obedient to Him and He brought us through it. And what that does is it just builds your faith. Every act of obedience, if you will observe carefully, what God was doing was simply build your faith. Now listen to what happens to Abraham here because he certainly obeyed God.

Back to this 12th chapter, listen to what it says. Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and tells him what to do. Verse 4 says, so he got up and went.

So Abraham left. And so if you move on over, each time what you'll follow all through these chapters, when God says here's what I want you to do, here's what he does, even to the point of sacrificing his son. But does he always do that?

No, he does not. He doesn't always do what God tells him to do. Because he did not listen. Because he did not obey the Lord God. Because in his desire to do it his way and to arrange his circumstances, which he thought was best, what does he do? The Bible says that he heads down into Egypt. Now going to Egypt was a tragic mistake for him. And if you'll notice, for example, in verse 12.

Well, let's go back to 11. It came about when he came near to Egypt that he said to his wife, see now, I know that you're a beautiful woman. And it will come about when the Egyptians see you that they will say, this is his wife and they will kill me, but they'll let you live.

Please say that you're my sister so that it may go well with me because of you and that I may live on account of you. It came about when Abraham came into Egypt. The Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

You have to give him this. He is a pretty smart fellow. And Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken in the Pharaoh's household. Therefore, he treated Abraham well for her sake. Now watch this carefully. I'm going to mention a couple of things you cannot afford to forget.

Now watch this. Therefore, in Pharaoh's house, he treated Abram well for her sake and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants. And female donkeys and camels. But the Lord struck Pharaoh in his house with a great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, what's this you've done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she's my sister so that I took her for my wife? Now, then, here is your wife.

Take her and go. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him. And they ask, go to him away with his wife and all that belong to him. You say, well, no, wait a minute.

Hold it. Well, he did lie about his wife. Yeah, we understand that. At least it preserved his life.

Yeah, we understand. Besides that, look at this. This man walked away more wealthy with far more riches than he did when he went down. Then he went down that disobedience to God. How can you explain that he went down there with disobedience to God and God blessed him anyway? Well, you've only heard part of the story.

Now listen. He got something in Egypt. He never got over. He got something in Egypt that caused him problems all the rest of his life. He got something in Egypt that not only caused him problems but has caused the world's problems ever since. Because what he got down there was Hagar, an Egyptian woman. What happens?

He got more than he bargained for. Listen. Whenever you and I do not listen to God and we head toward Egypt, Egypt may look good. It may look like the solution to our problems. It may look like here's how we're going to get our needs met.

And you know what happens? When you get in Egypt, having not listened to God and disobey God, it may look real good for a season. But ultimately, it won't be that way. Now you remember, going to Egypt was a tragic mistake of Abraham. So what we have to do is remember two things here. First of all, if I'm going to walk the walk of faith, I must learn to listen to God and I must learn to do what? I must learn to obey God. The third thing I must learn is I must learn to depend upon God.

Is that not what the life of faith is all about? It's learning to trust Him. If I trust Him, I will depend upon Him. I will rely upon Him. I will look to Him to meet my needs.

I will look to Him to do for me and to be to me what I need. If I'm not trusting Him and not listening to Him, I'm not going to do that. The Christian life is just that simple.

You said it doesn't sound very simple. Well, it's simple in a way, and that is I obey Him and not obey Him. If I trust Him, I will obey Him. If I don't trust Him, I'm not going to obey Him, and I'm not going to depend upon Him. I'm going to do it my way, and my way is ultimately going to end up into a great disappointment in my life. Thank you for listening to The Requirements of Faith. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.