Erwin McManus divides faith itself into two dimensions. The first-dimension gets involved whenever we step out into any new area of trust in God outside our own experience, but the challenge facing us is clearly in the realm of possibilities. God is asking us to do something that He has done in the lives of others; we just have yet to experience it in our own lives. This typically involves a response in us of "We've never done it this way before." Most of life's challenges are tests of first-dimension faith -- trusting God with our relationships, our finances, our careers, and making decisions based on His character in these areas of our lives. The texture of this dimension of faith has everything to do with trusting in God's character and God's testing of ours. That is why we really cannot speak of faith without speaking of obedience.
Many times faith gets confused with emotion or desire. Faith is then measured by how strongly we feel or believe something will happen. The assumption here being that if our faith is great enough, then we'll get whatever we ask for. In fact, we're often told that if our prayers don't result in an affirmative response then it is because we didn't have enough faith. Yet the more consistent characteristic of those who follow God is that their faith is an expression of trust in God. The need is not to work up our faith in God, but rather to deepen our confidence in Him. The promise of Jesus that if we ask anything in His name, He will do it, is fueled not by how strongly we believe in something, but by how well we represent God's purpose and intention. If a prayer's ultimate intent is to fulfill God's will, then we can move with confidence, even if God doesn't answer a specific prayer in the way we would expect. The more closely we reflect God's heart in our prayers, the more often our requests will match His response.
Jesus said, "If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains." He was not saying that we need to cultivate more and more faith, but rather that it takes very little faith to accomplish great things. In most cases, first-dimension faith is about obeying what God has already spoken. It is about building our lives and moving forward with confidence fueled by commitment to God's truth. At the same time the focus of our prayers should shift away from trying to get God to do what we ask or even asking God to show us what He wants us to do. But instead, we should be like the early disciples in Acts, and ask God to give us the courage to do what we already know.
In Hebrews 11, a chapter full of men and women described as people who lived by faith, we find the common characteristic shared by all is that God spoke to them, called them on a journey, told them what they must do, and then they did it. Abraham has been our greatest example for millennia. "By faith Abraham, when called by God to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going" [v. 8]. Notice that the dynamic here is exactly the same as it was with Jonathan. There were both certainty and uncertainty. What Abraham knew was that God called him to go to a place, and so he obeyed and went. Jonathan was called to be a warrior of God against Philistine oppression. The nuances of how it would work out remained undisclosed. It seems a bit ridiculous to our modern sophistication to begin a journey when we don't even know the destination ... you would think we could at least expect God to reveal that much. But for Abraham, He chose not to. He called him to a journey that took him into the realm of uncertainty. Similarly, He called Israel to a battle they didn't know how they could win. And this has been the pattern of God's interaction with His people throughout recorded history. He calls us out of comfort into uncertainty. Faith is all about character, trusting in the character of God, being certain in who God is and then following Him into the unknown.
This relationship between clarity and uncertainty is further demonstrated in the life of Gideon. God called the "lowliest clan in Manasseh and the least in that clan" to deliver Israel from the hands of the Midianites [see Judges 6-7]. Yet God chose to greet him with an angel who said to him, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." He then called him to go in his own strength and save Israel out of Midian's hands with only the promise that God would be with him. As you might remember, Gideon didn't much consider himself to be a "mighty warrior" and he remained unconvinced. Twice Gideon placed his infamous fleece before the Lord, asking God for a sign that He would be with him. And each time God graciously responded. Then at last, when Gideon was finally committed to go, he gathered an army of 32,000 men to go with him to war. God, of course, intervened telling Gideon the victory would be far too easy for him with those numbers ... remember that God's ultimate purpose in our lives is to demonstrate His glory [and not ours] ... and that the army must be dramatically reduced in size. Two winnowing processes occurred and afterwards a more sporting army of 300 remained. In the heavenly economy, this was more the uncertainty that God had in mind.
As Gideon and his rag-tag band of 300 men prepared to face the Midianite army of 135,000 men, Gideon must have had the look of a desperate man sentenced to death when he calculated the odds arrayed against him. Nevertheless, in this case, God guaranteed victory. He even invited Gideon to eavesdrop on the Midianite camp if he was too afraid to proceed. And he did just that. Once again, God confirmed to Gideon the direction He wanted him to move in. Finally, Gideon was at last convinced that he was the warrior of God called to deliver his people. And then God was silent. He didn't tell Gideon what to do next or even, more specifically, how to do it. With 300 men v. an army of 135,000 you would think God would give a detailed battle plan for victory, but He didn't. What we find is that Gideon, certain of what God wanted done, moved forward in the strength that he had, just as he was commanded. So Gideon took his 300 warriors and turned them into musicians. They surrounded the Midianites and held torches in their left hands and blew trumpets held in their right hands. And for special effects, they smashed jars at the same time. The Midianites were terrified and turned against each other, which allowed Gideon to seize an easy victory. One of the wonders of uncertainty revealed in this story is that it provided an environment in which God invited creativity. The journey which can be described as one from comfort to uncertainty, is also intended to be an adventure from calling to creativity.
Remember that Jesus has commissioned each of us to go and make disciples of all nations. He came to seek and save that which was lost. And all of us have a calling to give our lives away for His sake. We can all at least move forward with this mandate on our lives. We see in John 13, that after Jesus told His disciples that all power had been placed under His authority, He tied a towel around His waist and washed His disciples' feet. He then instructed us to do the same. God Himself had come to serve us. We are now to go and serve the world. If everything else beyond this remains uncertain, be clear on this point: there is a calling on our lives. Serving others functions like a compass in the midst of a dense fog. The unique ways that God has designed us -- the talents, intelligence, gifts, personality, and passions that He has given us -- informs us as to how that service will be expressed. Don't look for Him to fill in all the blanks. Don't wait for Him to remove all the uncertainty. Realize that He just may actually INCREASE the uncertainty and leverage all the odds against us [as He did Gideon], just so that we will realize in the end, that it wasn't our gifts but His power through our gifts that fulfilled His purposes in our lives.
First-dimension faith is not only about trusting the character of God, but also about transforming our character. Most of this involves doing the right thing regardless of the circumstance or consequence. It is about having the faith that God will be with us when we do the right things. All too often we compromise our character to avoid unwanted consequences. We all must start here. And truthfully, much of seizing divine moments happens right here in this realm. Secondly, if we want to seize divine moments, we must realize that we are all on divine missions. Remember the words of Paul as he reminded Timothy of the invitation that Christ has given to us all, "Join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life -- not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace" [2 Tim. 1:8-9]. He also told us in Eph. 2:10 that all of us are "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." And lastly, James cuts right to the point when he writes, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" [4:17]. So clearly, if we're going to embark on journeys with God, we must choose to live lives of godliness. Don't forget that living a righteous life got the Son of God killed. Living a godly life can be a very dangerous undertaking. Yes, there is a mystery to a life of faith, but there is also a certain practicality. When we sacrifice our character, when we choose a path that lacks integrity, we are trying to take life into our own hands. It is a declaration that we do not trust the way of God. We are trying to control what we were never meant to control, and at the same time, we are relinquishing control over that for which we are responsible.
The adventure of faith begins with faithfulness. Being faithful is taking responsibility for the good we know to do. It's about treating even the small tasks before us as important and worthy of our best efforts. Faithfulness is God's kingdom pathway to greater opportunity, responsibility, and adventure. Jesus reminds us that whoever is faithful in the small things will be entrusted with more, which leads us to a significant truth -- faithfulness is a response to calling. And all of us have been called by God to be faithful. We are created to reflect His image and to fulfill His purpose. We are the living products of divine intentionality. Are we willing to live lives that honor God and reflect His character and then leave the outcomes to Him? Are we willing to live by faith and trust Him to be faithful? There will be days on this journey of faith when the outcome will be clear, and we will not like the implications! On those days, we must, like Jesus, declare, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" [Luke 22:42].
... To be continued ...
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