Follow By Faith

What are you doing for the Lord today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and into the future for the sake of His call? What are you doing that will have a ripple effect for eternal value? Set your mind on Christ and His Kingdom. Put Him into your entire range of view and focus on Him and His plan instead of yours.

Are you so faithful to the Lord that you don’t care what those in the world think of you? The things of this world are temporary and fleeting. Only human souls and what we do for them out of the kindness, love, and compassion God gave have any value. The sacrifices you make here will lay up treasures in heaven for eternity. A part of that treasure is the souls you bring with you.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

It is for Christ that you live, which is the true meaning of life, to follow His plan and purposes. With this understanding, you must work by your faith in Him. Then, move forward to do His will by that faith and not by sight. Faith in Jesus is more important than any other thing. Build your life on this foundation to serve the Lord by faith.

Don’t worry about what others may say or do when you step out in your faith in Jesus. What He has told you to do, you must do. You must die to this world’s desires and to man’s influence that you may fully fulfill the will of your heavenly Father. When you stand firm in your faith in Jesus, no one can sway you from His path.

Then Jesus told His disciples If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:24-26

The Spirit of the Lord will guide your steps. No one else knows the will of the Father for you. Only God Himself knows the path He has laid before you. Therefore, seek to walk by faith and die in this life that you may live in the next. Those who lived by faith in the past faced much opposition, but they forged forward because they believed in and trusted the Lord. God commended them for their faith. “Of whom the world was not worthy.”

That’s you when you stand upon God’s promises with unshakeable faith. Moving forward in Christ, you know He will accomplish everything He has called you to do. It is not what you see or how others may appear to be prospering that is important, but that you continue to do God’s will by faith.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Hebrews 11:32-34, 38

It takes faith to conquer fear. Trust in God, who is unseen, and have confidence in a future unknown to you. Faith that He already knows the outcome and the great things you will accomplish by His power. Those things that He has planned out ahead of time. Remember, God’s plans are perfect. Why would you want to follow anyone else or go any other way?

Faith is jumping out of an airplane with no parachute when the Lord says, “I will catch you, trust me!” Not looking with human eyes of understanding, but looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. He will guide you. God may have you do things that others will scoff at or even warn you not to go. But to a faithful servant, if God says to go, you must go.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

Do not get wrapped up in the comforts and good things of this world. Things that make us comfortable and easily make us lazy and unwilling to move from those places of stagnation. All those niceties of this world will fade away. You can not take anything with you into eternity except what you do for Jesus.

But work for the sake of righteousness, for the sake of Christ. Work for things with lasting value and a heavenly price tag, just like the man who found a pearl of great value and sold everything to buy it. Give up everything on this earth so that you may have everything in heaven, including the praise from the Father.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46

He has given you a purpose, don’t ignore it. If it is to lead, then lead, to teach, then teach, to help, then help, give, then give, or to encourage, then encourage. Whatever it may be, do it heartily for the Lord. Whatever the Spirit instructs you to do, do it, and don’t listen to the naysayers, the worriers, or the faithless. They have no idea what gifts you have, the ways you need to use them, or the change you will make in another person’s life when you use them faithfully.

God will make way for the message to go out. He will straighten your path so that opportunities will present themselves. He will give you the strength to climb to the top of the mountain of faith, conquering the devil’s plans. Then, on that day that you stand before the Lord in Glory, your reward will be excellent and glorious! He will richly reward you for your faithful obedience to His calling.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4