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CRC - Bible school - Assignment - OTS, VC & CHB 2 - 2017 (FAITH (In…

- - - - synonyms: folly, foolhardiness, stupidity, idiocy, imbecility, silliness, inanity, lunacy, madness, rashness, recklessness, imprudence, injudiciousness, lack of caution/foresight/sense, irrationality, illogicality, irresponsibility, thoughtlessness, indiscretion; More
        
        antonyms: wisdom, sense
- - - - faith seeks to obey the Word of God because it trusts the God Who gave it.
      - when God makes a promise in His Word real to the individual heart of a believer, the person of faith will act on it even if it seems foolish. In fact, it probably will seem foolish to the natural eyes. This is where it becomes vital to hear what God is actually saying individually and not to hear simply what we want God to say. If God has made a promise real in our hearts then we know God will follow through and we can stand confidently in the face of opposition because we "know" God has spoken to us in that area. We may not be able to explain to family or friends how we know - and they may think we are crazy - but we know God has spoken to us. And that is enough. An example of this would be a person who leaves a well-paying job to start a new church. From a human perspective this is a very foolish and risky thing to do and finances may be tight to non-existent, but if the person knows in faith it is what God has called him to do, he can launch out knowing that God's arms are under him and he will accomplish the will of God.
      - Presumption is trying to force God to do our will. Jesus was tempted to presumption when Satan told Him to jump off the pinnacle of the temple [Luke 4:1-13]. Satan even had Scripture to back him up. He was challenging Jesus to believe and act on the Word of God! How unScriptural would it be for Jesus to ignore what the Bible plainly said. Jesus didn't have to "prove" Scripture or defend His faith. Jesus knew that that Scripture wasn’t God’s will for His life at that time. For everything there is a time and a season. To have done something foolish and expected God to protect Him would have been the sin of presumption.
      - Presumption is attempting to manipulate God. It relies on the some principles as witchcraft. Witchcraft believes that it can manipulate the supernatural [angels, demons, spirits, etc] through the use of words [spells], rituals or potions. It is trying to control the spirit realm for personal or selfish purposes. Notice I did not say that when Christians fall into the sin of presumption they are practicing witchcraft. But what they are unconsciously doing is using the same principles that witchcraft is based on. Principles that a] are abhorrent to God and b] do not work. God will not be manipulated by our presumption of His love and grace.
      - Some people have refused to take vital medicine or refused necessary operations claiming God would heal them. They have placed their lives [and in some cases the lives of their children] in danger. They have thought they were operating in faith. In fact, if they did not have a personal, direct Word of God, they were operating in presumption.
      - My father, a former pastor, has told of a lady who he had to several times drive to emergency at a hospital because she stopped taking vital medicine in the belief that God had healed her. No one can doubt her sincerity. She was willing to risk her life on her belief. She knew and believed God's general will of healing, what she did not have, based on the results, was God specific word to her that He had healed her. She desperately wanted to be healed. Perhaps unconsciously she thought if she "proved" her faith by not taking her medicine, God would be forced to honour His Word and heal her. This is exactly the same temptation to presumption that Jesus faced on the top of the temple. God responds to faith, not to presumption.
        Faith hears from God, presumption tells Him what to do [and usually when to do it.]
      - Faith is a work of God, presumption is a work of man. Faith comes by hearing/studying the Word of God and having the Holy Spirit quicken it to our hearts.
        For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. Eph. 2:8-
      - We shouldn’t try humanistic/physiological tricks to work it up. We will only end up with presumption. The fact that we are willing to honestly lay it all before God is itself an act of faith. And in faith we leave it in His hands.
  - - - You misunderstand a word from God.
        
        if I raise my child right, they will become a Christian. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Well, this is a proverb, not a promise. It talks about the way things usually work out. Not the way it always works out.
        
        if I have faith, my whole family will eventually be saved. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” This is a misunderstanding of the context of the verse. He’s not saying that if he believes his whole household will be saved or will eventually be saved.
      - You claim a promise that has conditions, but you don’t meet them.
        
        You read the last part of Matthew 6:14 – “your heavenly Father will forgive you,”
        
        There’s a condition. It says, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” You won’t receive the blessing of forgiveness, unless you meet the condition of forgiving others.
      - You trust in your own plan to fulfill God’s promise.
        
        Genesis 16 tells the story of Sarah and Abraham who come up with a plan to get their promised son through Hagar the servant. But this wasn’t God’s will; this wasn’t God’s plan. And it caused many problems.
        
        When you act on your own to fulfill God’s plan you end up further from the blessing (not closer). And it makes a mess of things.
      - You take a general promise and make it rigidly apply to you.
        
        You take God’s general will, and say it has to happen to you in a certain way or time.
        
        Psalm 91 talks about the one “who dwells in the shelter of the Almighty” – and it says some pretty amazing things:
        10 – “no evil (harm) shall be allowed to befall you.”
        14 – “I will deliver him, I will protect him.”
        15 – “I will rescue him.”
        16 – “with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
        
        No, this Psalm talks about the way God works in general. God loves to deliver his own and bless them. But this doesn’t always happen, just as the righteous don’t always have long lives in this world.
        
        Now, if you get a specific word from God by the Spirit that says, he’s ready to deliver you or to keep it from coming to you in the first place, this allows you to have something specific to stand on, to pray in bold faith.
    - - 1) We have a word from God as a foundation to stand on. 2) We have firm trust in God and God’s word to us. And 3) we have appropriate action. And then God comes through for us and we receive the blessings.
        But when we 1) have no word from God to stand on, 2) we have misplaced trust, and 3) we will have wrong actions; not in accord with God’s will. And we receive nothing from God. And we will likely look foolish and cause others to scoff or stumble.
    - - And the key here is to discern God’s will. Here are some things that will help guard us from presuming upon God.
      - Know God’s word. Know what God’s will and promises are, what the context and scope of each promise is, and any conditions that apply.
      - Know God’s voice. Now this isn’t always easy. But you can get to know what God’s voice is like. It’s clear, pure and different than you. And of course, always check any such word against the word of God which is our standard.
      - Only claim general promises in a general way. We can only stand in faith on as much as we have from God. “God what is your will?” “How do you want me to pray?” And then you can pray with bold faith. Daniel 3:17-18. The three young men were about to be thrown into the fiery furnace. ‘God can do it, but even if he doesn’t we are fine with that.’ God loves to deliver the righteous, but he doesn’t always.
      - Ask others for discernment. Ask other Christians, ‘Do I have something from God here?’ Let them see if it rings true to them. This is one of the ways we can help each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord.
      - 1 John 5:14-15
        “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
        He’s talking about firm faith or as he says, “confidence” toward God. And he makes the point that our faith comes to fruition if “we ask . . . according to his (God’s) will.” That’s when we receive what “we have asked of him.”
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