I recently had an encounter with the Lord in the middle of the night, and he asked me this question: “Are you living by faith?”
I’ve walked with the Lord for 47 years, so I think that means I’m living by faith. But when the Lord asks me a question, it makes me rethink how I’m actually living. Am I doing anything that represents an invasion of another kingdom? Am I keeping my faith in the fire?
I wanted to process this with you and bring you in on the journey I’ve been on since the Lord spoke to me.
A Life of Faith
In a nutshell:
— The Lord recently asked me, “Are you living by faith?”
— I began to think about all the good things I’m doing in my life (and that’s the right way to live), but I wonder if I have replaced God with good.
— Usually when we think of obedience, we think of obedience to the law: “Am I keeping the rules?” But in Romans 1:5, Paul makes the statement that we received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.
— As radical believers, we don’t only need to stop being disobedient, we also need to be obedient to faith.
— We need new challenges in our faith so that whatever we began by faith, we don’t move it from being a God-thing to being a good thing.
— Oftentimes the Lord asks me to do something in faith, as a prophetic act. The power is not in the act but in the faith that is attached to the act. (Physical obedience brings spiritual release.)
— In Matthew 17, Jesus told his disciples that they couldn’t cast out a demon because of the littleness of their faith. The word littleness in this passage is the Greek word oligos, which means “briefly.”
— Jesus is not referring to the amount of faith the disciples had but instead is speaking to how briefly they held onto their faith. You have to keep the faith!
— I feel like there are things in our lives that we’ve given up faith for, and we just do the “good” thing instead of the “God” thing.
— I want to challenge you with the same question that God asked me: Are you living by faith? Is there extreme faith happening somewhere in your life? Are you believing God for the impossible? Have you stretched yourself in some place?
Keep the Faith
My prayer for you today is that you would find a new place with God, that you’d get back to your first love and your first faith and that God would awaken each of us to radical faith.
I want to remind you that faith is the catalyst to the impossible, the prognosis of the probable and the potential in the powerful. When circumstances are dire and the people become downcast, faith seeps through the pores of the pious and pounds a pillar of possibility into the heart of the hopeless.
Doubt can delay it; naysayers can derail it, but persistent hope inevitably dictates the day—the undoable feat, the unknowable task and unimaginable miracle. Men may cut you down, resist your purpose and undermine your progress, but a faith-filled person is always the last one standing in the ring and the first one kneeling in obscurity.
I challenge you today to ask yourself, “Am I living by faith?” Spend some time with the Lord, and ask Him to show you areas of your heart that need an injection of faith and hope. I pray that He shows you what it looks like to live with your faith in the fire and see His kingdom come to earth. {eoa}
For the original article, visit krisvallotton.com.
Kris Vallotton is an author, international speaker, culture leader and, most of all, a spiritual father to this generation. As the senior associate leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California, and co-founder of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry and Moral Revolution, Vallotton has helped thousands of believers over the last 20 years realize their identity as sons and daughters of God.
