Raw Faith (part 3): Be trained in faith
As I mentioned in the beginning of the year, we have entered a season of faith which is going to last for years.
One of the most important aspects of the new season will be our faith. This is the reason why I did announce through a post that we have entered a season of faith. The post can be found here: A season of Faith.
At the end of the ‘persistent widow’ parable, Jesus asks a critical question: ‘However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8).
If Jesus asks such a pertinent question, it also means that upon His return (ref. Matthew 24:30-31), faith may become a rare occurrence due to the severe distress that will be imposed on Christians as mentioned in Matthew 24:7-25.
Since God said that the ‘just shall live by faith’ (Habakkuk 2:4), we can also conclude that a Christian cannot live without faith. This explains why, during the upcoming global warfare period, satan will attack faith to destroy the life of the church.
In Ephesians 6:16, Paul tells us to take up the shield of faith with which we can extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. Without the shield of faith, a soldier is bound to be exposed.
Here is the thing:
Back in the days, soldiers had to be trained on how to carry and keep a shield for battles. Consequently, I believe that many of you have been called by God to be heroes for great exploits in this new season. However, before reaching the various stages of your call, you will need to be trained in faith so that on the days of battles you will be able to carry and to keep the shield of faith.
In 1 Samuel 17, a giant named Goliath challenged the army of Israel to a duel that would determine the course of Israel. The entire army of Israel could not find a suitable warrior to fight Goliath...until a young man named David volunteered to fight him. When David met King Saul before fighting Goliath, he told him how he had already fought against a lion and a bear. Those experiences trained his faith to handle the challenge offered by Goliath. It is the same thing with us, before we engage in key moments of life battles, God will train our faith through certain situations. After completion of a training, our faith will be strengthened to handle the serious battles.
Many do not have the right sized faith to fight the satanic giants because they refuse all forms of training from God. Between the time that David was anointed to the time he beat Goliath, he (David) had the opportunity to experience faith training while being a shepherd.
Between the time that God calls you and the moment you will face the determining battles, there will be moments of training. You can either obey God and accept those training or you can also disobey by refusing to undergo those training.
Many of the acts that God wants us to do are a response to future challenges. For example, I believe that God had prepared training activities for many Christian decades ago to handle the current global challenges. Whether those targeted Christians accepted or refused the training, it is another subject altogether...
We have now entered a period where the enemies of the Church are real giants , a time where the Christian heroes will need the suitable faith to fight them.
If you are one of those heroes, will you stand up and embrace the training that God wants to give you before engaging the giants?