Text: Hebrews 11:17 KJV
Further Reading: Genesis 22:8-11
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.
Hebrews 11:17
MESSAGE
We have spoken about God’s testing of a man He would trust in our previous lesson. Today we want to look at what makes men do for God what seems unreasonable.
How do men become radical in their trust in God? What sort of persuasion do they have to stake their all on God. And why you must also become a man or woman of radical faith.
Let us first begin with this simple statement:
“But without faith, it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
By application, anyone who wants to do God’s will must have an active faith in His wisdom and omnipotence. There must be a persuasion that is beyond the human intelligence and understanding that God is able to keep not only His promise but like the three Hebrew young men said, even if He did not, we will still not compromise our faith and confidence in Him.
Faith does not only get what is believed for but faith trust in the sovereignty of God in the face of death. You consider the many noble martyrs who sealed their testimony of the Lordship of Christ with their blood. They are men who loved not their lives unto the death.
What we have today in the Christian circle is what I call cheap faith advertisement that can not stand the face of persecution. You have most likely heard of the faith to reverse an unpleasant situation, that kind is but a simple faith. What about the faith to go through the valley of the shadow of death without querying the wisdom of God? Such is the radical faith.
Scripture spoke about Abraham as a man not weak in faith while he waited for the promised Son. But the testing of Abraham to give up his Isaac showed us how radical his faith in God was. What was Abraham’s persuasion?
Such was the faith of Abraham. In His mind, God was able to take every single piece of ashes and smoke and form Isaac back from them after he has finished the sacrifice. That is the height of trust in God. The faith that says, I know God is able to give me back my Isaac even when I have offered him on the altar.
Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Hebrews 11:19
God honours such faith, He would never deny His faithful children. It is a kind of faith that commands great blessings from God. Men who have come to this level of faith have done that at the cost of absolute surrender.
Will you today lay your all down before the Almighty God? Will you commit your all to Him in life or death? Will you trust Him even if it is unreasonable to man? Will you rather die than deny Him? This must be done prayerfully, but grace is also available if you want to come into the life of radical faith in God.
REFLECTION
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:27
Moses through faith gave up all that could be His inheritance in Egypt. He saw the invisible inheritance that God had for Him rather than the perishable riches of sin in Egypt
PRAYER
Father, Please bring me to point of radical faith, trust, and confidence in you.
