Faith is Freedom!
About three weeks ago the Lord spoke to my heart about sowing some money toward a particular event. I forgot about it and within an hour and a half the Lord quietly spoke to my heart again. I called Courtney into our bedroom and told her what I had heard and asked her how she felt about it (I am continually learning there is nothing stronger than unity and agreement in marriage). Courtney was in complete agreement. She took $300 and left the house to be a blessing where the Lord had directed us. About 10 minutes after Courtney had left, I received an alert on my phone. Now, usually I have to open up an email to see our PayPal account, but somehow the preview was turned on and I looked down at my phone this is what I read.
“PayPal – $3,000.00 has been deposited into your account.”
10 minutes! God is so faithful!!! My eyes were filled with tears as I thanked Him for being such a blessing to us. I called Courtney and told her, and we rejoiced. I messaged those who had put that into our account and said, “You’re not going to believe this…” Then I realized they were totally going to believe it, because of our relationship; I know they hear from the Lord. I’m not exactly sure when they had decided to bless us or when the Lord had spoken to them about sowing into us that evening, BUT the Lord always knows what we’re going to do. Harvest doesn’t always come when we may think it will or should, but the Lord is always faithful to His Word.
I shared this testimony with our pastor the next morning and he rejoiced with us. I mean like he had been the one to receive it! We were talking about how faithful and good the Lord is and how He knows what we will do. My pastor started to tell me about a teaching in regard to Abraham being tested with sacrificing Isaac. The minister was going through the text and as Abraham got to the point of obedience in not holding back his son from the Lord, God provided the ram instead. The minister said something along the lines of, “what I want to know; where was the ram three days ago?” The Lord knows what we need and goes before us.
One key factor is: Abraham ‘SAID’, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” Genesis 22:8 (NKJV).
Abraham was so secure of who God was, that he believed even if he had to go through with it, that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham had become so covenant minded and was so utterly aware of God’s faithfulness to His covenant, that he would do whatever God instructed. He had a relationship with the heavenly Father and was convinced of His righteousness, goodness, and faithfulness. As I look back over my life and reflect on how good God has been to us it makes it easier to live by faith. I believe Abraham’s life is a great example of how we grow in our relationship with our God and how our faith increases as we continue to live by it. 17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” -Hebrews 11:17-18 (NLT).
The last half of 2019 we stepped out by faith by the leading of the Lord. I’ve shared before that we had some moments, but we purposed to stay in faith with what the Lord had spoken to us about Colorado, Legacy Church, and CJM. The first 6 months of 2020 we have purposed in our hearts to make sure we weren’t holding on to any Isaac’s in our lives. In other words, are there anything’s that are taking God’s rightful place in our lives? I know I have had to make some adjustments as to have full confidence in believing God. This is something that will never change if we are to live by faith, but it is completely worth it and it Glorifies our God!
I’ll leave you with this:
Abraham made adjustments to live according to faith. When we make adjustments in order to live a life of faith, it keeps us in freedom. It’s like driving a car according to the law. A driver must make minor adjustments in obedience to traffic laws to enjoy the freedom of driving without fear of getting pulled over and suffering traffic tickets. This is like living by faith according to the Word. We don’t live according to how we feel or what we think, we make adjustments by faith in obedience to God’s Word and we live in the freedoms Jesus paid for. If we deny God’s Word in any area it hinders our faith and our confidence to receive. Making adjustments in obedience to His Word is freedom!
-Chris Jacobs