Topic: Remain Undaunted
Text: Hebrews 11
Key verse: By faith, these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions,
Faith is not just what you do, but who you are. You are called a man or woman of faith not just because of all the success stories in your life, but also because of who you have remained in the midst of adverse situations.
The stories of our worthy ambassadors revolve around the stand they took personally to see their desired objectives come to pass in their life time.
Sometimes, their acts of faith were aimed at obtaining freedom for God\’s people from oppression, a freedom that was not necessarily for their personal gain but for the whole kingdom. They simply got tired of bondage, slavery, denial and lack; and they acknowledged that their wits could not carry them anymore, neither their human strength so they turned to God with a heart that believed in the omnipotence of God over their present reality.
To overthrow a kingdom required more than wishful thinking and talking tough, it required being groomed by God in the secret place in the art of warfare, strategy and wisdom. David\’s path to the throne is a clear example of what the life of a man of faith looks like. Yes, he had a promise and an anointing upon his life but he had to develop diverse competencies in the school of faith. Several events in his life left him heart broken but those where the tools that God used to prepare his heart to carry the burden for leadership.
When you can\’t take criticisms, insults and disappointment, and you are not able to suffer any little inconvenience in life, because yours is always a perfect world, then it is hard to see your life have an enduring impact for the kingdom.
God picks weak people and makes them strong in him for exploits, he also takes strong people and breaks them till they become malleable in his hands before he can trust them with kingdom power, graces and ability.
Your biblical IQ, is not all that God requires to overturn kingdoms, your heart must be right. Trials, temptations, hurt and pain are the instruments that prove your heart and reveals whether you will remain Undaunted or bail out, when it matters the most. Daniel had no definite promise that he would survive if he refused to eat the King\’s sumptuous diet, but he knew the law of Moses and decided to continue to obey it whether anyone was watching or not.
The prayer life of Daniel was who he was in secret and in public, and when he was tested, he didn’t have to rationalize and explain away the risk , he just stepped out to defend his faith. Faith does not only deliver what you want, faith defends what you believe until you get it. Not everyone got what they wanted, but they all professed what they had heard and believed the Father promise. They all died in faith.
Their faith was rewarded not because of what they achieved or acquired but also because of what they stood for. The people who died for choosing to live righteous were equally counted as men and women of faith.
Is your faith being tested in your marriage? Are you faced with a choice to take a short cut to the throne? Maybe the wilderness experience is the icing on the cake before the kingdom will be given to you? How will your story end? Your decisions and daily disciplines will reveal the faith growing in your heart and ultimately the testimony that you leave behind in the diary of men and women of faith. Brace up now, your faith must be tested, not in the bible school, but in the school of life. The test will crush your pride, lusts and wean you of childish behavior, the syllabus in this school is determined by the Potter, who formed you in your mother’s womb.
Living by faith is being raised to become a son of God.
Roses & Thorns