Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, January 21st. Today we conclude Dr. Stanley's series by exploring how to develop and live consistently with unshakable faith. What does it take to shake your faith? Bad news about your health?
Bad news about your finances? Disappointment about some plan that you'd had that you just knew was going to work out the way you wanted it to work out? Persecution? Prolonged suffering?
I mean, it just goes on for weeks and months and years and you don't see any way out and no hope of any change? Does that shake your faith and rattle your faith between you and God? Does it cause you to ask, Lord, if you're God, where are you? Why do you let these things happen? Or maybe it's natural calamity that shakes your faith. Why would God allow earthquakes and tornadoes and hurricanes and floods and demolish all of this property and kill all these people?
Where is this loving God? Do those things cause your faith to sort of rattle and shake a little bit? Are you able to see those things and interpret them in the light of what God says about Himself and His Word?
Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message. And the title of this message is Unshakable Faith. Let's first of all talk about what we mean by unshakable faith and because sometimes I think we have a misconception when we talk about a strong, unwavering, unshakable faith. What do we mean by an unshakable faith?
Well, what we mean is this. We're talking about a quality of faith that is not intimidated by difficulty, hardship and threats. Not intimidated by it. It is not ruffled by it. It is not moved by it. It is firm, fixed. It is steadfast. It is indomitable.
And it does not change because adverse winds blow one way or the other. And this is the quality of faith that Daniel had. Unruffled by the circumstances that surrounded him. Unwavering, steadfast.
Let me tell you what it does not mean. When we talk about unshakable faith, we're not talking about a faith that will preserve me and protect me from all types of difficulty. Because where is faith born? Where is it strengthened?
Where is it tested? How do we know that you and I have unshakable faith? Listen, I only know that my faith is unshakable when God allows and sins against me enough storms and enough heartaches and enough burdens and enough persecutions and enough beatings that no matter what, I am unshaken in my relationship to Him. So when we talk about unshakable faith, we're talking about faith that is tried and tested.
Let me go one step further. When we think about unshakable faith and the quality of it that is certainly true here in the life of Daniel, that does not mean that I won't have moments of doubt. Unshakable faith does not mean that there won't be moments when Satan will fire one fiery dart after the other to say, if there's a God, where is He now? If your God loves you, why doesn't He do something about your mess? If God loves you, why doesn't He change this? If God loves you, why didn't He let that happen?
If God really loves you, how do you explain this? And those thoughts do come through our mind and we do think those things, but here's what unshakable faith does. Unshakable faith hears it and sees it and lets it go. Unshakable faith does not grasp the doubt, does not hold to the doubt, does not tolerate the doubt, but just lets it go right on by. Unshakable faith knows better than to grasp a fiery dart of doubt from Satan, but rather focuses attention and sets its focus upon Almighty God who is the one who makes it possible for us to survive in the midst of those difficulties. Unshakable faith does not guarantee that everything is going to go my way. But there's another aspect of this which I call here the key to an unshakable faith. The development of it over a period of time being taught and watching it demonstrated in other people's lives as Daniel certainly did in the life of Jeremiah and being tested ourselves, all of that is part of it. But what is it about Daniel that gave him this unshakable faith? He came to the acid test in his life when, by the law of the Medes and the Persians, if he worshiped his God. And you see, Daniel could have said, hey, for 30 days, I don't have to go up and pray for 30 days. God knows I love him. Why should I sacrifice my life over something so ridiculous as me not bowing down to pray for 30 days? That's the difference between the way godly men and women think and the way the world thinks. You know why Daniel couldn't have done that?
I'll tell you why. Because as a kid, he wasn't in the habit of compromising his conviction. Back when he was tested with the food from the king's table, he didn't compromise then, so he's not compromising now as an older man.
So now what is he going to do? Here's the key to unshakable faith. The key to unshakable faith is, listen, the key to unshakable faith is an intimate relationship with God.
The key to unshakable faith is an intimate relationship with God. It isn't just enough to obey him and to trust him, but rather building an intimate relationship with him. Now what do I mean by an intimate relationship with him? Intimacy speaks of closeness, nearness, dearness, oneness, openness, honesty, transparency. You see, intimacy speaks of knowing. In the Old Testament, the word for the intimate relationship that husbands and wives have with each other physically, it speaks of a husband knowing his wife.
It is the most intimate kind of relationship. What is it that is the key to an unshakable faith but an intimate relationship with God? And for those of us now in the days of the New Testament and following, an intimate relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ.
A sense of oneness with him, a desire to know him, seeking after him, to draw near to him and to be close to him, to be a companion with him, and to be known by him and to be open to him and transparent before him and to want to spend time with him and to desire him above everything else. That is the real key and the ultimate key to an unshakable faith. And while unshakable faith involves obedience and while it involves trusting God in difficult times and development, it all rests upon my intimate relationship with him, knowing him. You see, knowing him is the foundation of my trusting him and trusting him is the foundation of my obedience. I obey him because I trust him and I trust him because I know him and I know him as a result of developing an intimate relationship with him. And you see, most of us are satisfied with getting something from him, either protection, time of trouble, or having some need met. But a man or woman who has an intimate relationship with God is contented in growing in their understanding, growing in their knowledge, growing in their wonderment of who is this God whom I serve who is living on the inside.
So let me ask you a question. Is God sort of distant to you? When you think about him, is he sort of up yonder somewhere? Is he up in heaven?
You're down here. Do you feel estranged from God when circumstances don't go to suit you? When you get disappointed, do you deep down inside want to say, well, God, what happened?
Think about this. This tenth verse is the key to all of Daniel's life and his unshakable faith. Look at this, chapter six, verse ten. Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house, now in his roof, chamber.
He had windows open toward Jerusalem. Now he already knows what the document says. He continued, listen to that. He continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God as he had been doing previously, since he was a kid, since he had been in Babylon. Now, somebody says, and I want you to listen carefully because I want to make a point here.
Not to be critical, but I want to make a point. Somebody says, well, now wait a minute. This kneeling business, you don't have to kneel to pray, correct? I can stand up and pray, right? I can ride the work and pray.
We all do, I hope. But I want to remind you of something. Daniel didn't kneel and pray because he thought kneeling was going to get him heard. Daniel knelt to pray three times a day because of his reverence for a holy God.
Let me ask you a question. What would happen if Jesus were to walk in this door right through here? If Jesus Christ were to walk in this place in His glory, every single one of us would drop our head flat to the floor in the presence of the glory of God.
I'm going to remind you of something. Every time you pray, you pray in the presence of a glorious God whose glory is as bright and as eternal and as shining today as it was in the beginning, because there's no beginning and no ending with Him. Daniel got on his knees.
He could have stood up and walked around the room. God knew where Jerusalem was. He didn't have to open the window and kneel pointing in that direction, except that his reverence for holy God was such that he would not even consider the possibility of compromising his habit of talking to the Father. Listen, here's a man who had an intimate relationship with God.
How do I know that? The Bible says that he knew Him. How do I know he knew Him? Well, I don't have time to get into all this except when you read his prayer in the ninth chapter of Daniel, you know he's a man who knew God. And listen, the more you know Him, the more you're going to reverence Him.
The Bible says that he knelt and prayed three times a day as was his custom to do so. That's what he'd already been doing. Now here's what I want you to see.
You listening? When Daniel faced the lion's den, Daniel didn't have to change a thing. Usually what happens when we face a crisis, we think, what am I going to do? Daniel didn't even have to ask that question. You know what Daniel did? He just did what he'd always been doing. What did Daniel always been doing? Real simple.
Daniel had always been doing the same thing. What was he doing? By faith. Day by day.
A step at a time. Trusting God. Obeying God. Relying upon God. Discovering God. Knowing God. So when the calamity of the lion's den comes, what does Daniel do?
He just does what he's been doing. Trusting God. Obeying God. Walking with God. Fellowshipping with God. What does Daniel do? Oh, God help me.
We're facing a crisis. Unshakeable faith is built upon what? Is built upon obedience to God. And that obedience is built upon an intimate relationship with Him. And that relationship is the result of knowing Him. And if I know Him, listen, I don't have to know everything about Him.
I just need to know how He operates, how He works, how He thinks. Unshakeable faith does not reside in the heart of anyone who is too busy to pray, too busy to spend time alone with God, too busy to spend time alone in His Word. Because in the ninth chapter of the Bible says, He went to the prophecies of Jeremiah and He gave attention to them. Now think for just a moment. Let's be honest. You see, I don't really care what you think about me. I do care about what you think about God. Now listen, when is the last time you gave full concentrated attention to Him? No television, no radio, no nothing, no disturbance, you and God. Do you get on your knees once a day?
Or have you found yourself having just sort of drifted into, well, I'm just going to trust God and I can talk to God and I can just do my thing and God understands? Have you become so irreverent and thoughtless of this holy, holy, holy God about which the Bible says the angels who are on the throne are crying out day and night, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And here we go running around like little Nebuchadnezzes doing our thing thinking, look what I've accomplished, look what I've achieved, and what did God give him? A good dose of insanity.
You know what? I believe we bring a lot of our own turmoil and adversity upon ourselves because God has to send it to bust our pride. He has to send it to strip us down from our arrogance and our very important schedules that are so important we don't even have time to talk to God who is holy, holy, holy, holy, holy.
Think about this. If around the throne of God there's a whole host of angels and the only thing they are saying day and night is holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory and honor and praise, who in the world am I to talk about me and to be so busy? And so important that at least once a day I can't reverence myself before holy God and acknowledge, oh God, I am nothing apart from You. I need Your wisdom, Your strength, Your knowledge, Your understanding, the truth.
Our arrogance and our pride is destroying us. And here's the man who had unshakable faith because he had a deep intimate relationship with His heavenly Father. And every single one of us can have the same, but you have to want Him, Him not great faith, Him not great achievements, Him not things, just Him. Father, we know that Your forgiveness has passed our understanding and we think about who You are and not just Your greatness, but Your person.
We think about Your love and goodness and mercy and kindness toward us and how not by our conscious thinking, but by our unconscious actions, we must appear awfully prideful, arrogant, self-sufficient, all great barriers to unshakable faith, etching our minds and hearts that all the knowledge in the world put together is not equal to the value of the knowledge of who You are and what You like and Your ways. And Lord, we want the kind of faith that pleases You, that honors You most, that's unshakable faith, that is not driven by the winds, tossed here and yonder, not intimidated by difficult circumstances and not frightened by anything, but is focused and fixed and steadfast upon You, our heavenly Father. And now I pray for someone who's struggling in their faith, you going through a situation that is almost unbearable and you're wondering where God is, I want to tell you, my friend, He's where He's always been, right there, available to help you. But you see, you have to be willing to obey Him. Are you willing to do what God is telling you to do in your present circumstance? If you are, He will sustain you through it, no matter what. And Father, we simply want to bless Your name and to acknowledge Your holiness, humble ourselves before You and give ourselves to You again today afresh and anew to say, Lord, here am I, send me and let our going forth honor the name of Jehovah God, the name of Jesus Christ, the living Lord and the Holy Spirit who indwells us is our prayer in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of Unshakable 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.
