Faith

Last night, my Bible study group met again after taking a break during the Christmas holidays. We watched the video for week 6 of 'Discerning the Voice of God' by Priscilla Shirer. Priscilla said something that caught my attention. She said that deliverance comes only from being obedient to God's voice, it is that plain and simple! She also said that when we delay obedience, we are actually delaying God's power and supernatural results.

I came home and thought some more about what I'd just heard. I couldn't help but link obedience to faith --- to obey God requires one to have much faith. My thoughts turned to what God has been telling hubby and me these past few months --- to step out in obedience into something with a lot of unknowns. It quickly occured to me that what God is really asking us to do is to step out in faith as He asks us to obey His voice and follow His direction.

So for my devotions this morning, I decided to look up verses from the Bible that talked about faith. Here are a few that are meaningful to me:

Luke 17:6 (NIV) --- "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."

John 14:12 (NIV) --- "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

I Corinthians 2:5 (NIV) --- "...so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

I Corinthians 16:13 (NIV) --- "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong."

Ephesians 6:16 (NIV) --- "...take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) --- "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV) --- "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."

Hebrews 11:7 (NIV) --- "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."

Hebrews 11:8-10 (NIV) --- "By faith Abraham, when called 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. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."