Men of Faith vs. Faithful Men
Men of faith are
not always faithful men. And the vice versa is also true. A man of faith has
great trust in the person of Jesus. He believes without wavering doubt that
what God said will come to pass. A faithful man is one who delivers/ acts on
what he believes. There are faithful men but faithful for the wrong causes and
reasons. There is such a thing as a faithful sinner. He will deliver his
iniquity on time and in the best executable manner. Take Paul, the apostle for
example. He persecuted followers of Christ faithfully. He was devoted,
dedicated and diligent in his pursuit albeit the wrong direction.
A man of faith
is a man with a vision. A faithful man is a man with direction. If you have a
vision without direction, you will see the Promised Land at a distance but you
will never really get there. If you have direction without vision, you may just
be moving at 100miles and hour in the wrong route. Faith shows us where to go.
Being faithful gets us there.
Jesus Christ is
the epitome of the man of faith who is faithful at the same time. When Lazarus,
one of Jesus’ good friends, died, Jesus wept. Lazarus’ sisters were broken. If
only Jesus was here a bit earlier, he could prevent their brother from dying.
But alas! Our God is the author of time. Even four days late he is still on
time. So he has a mind to raise his friend from the dead. Jesus asks the people
to roll away the stone covering the tomb so that he can perform the miracles.
He then asks Lazarus to walk out of the grave and we have the dead man walking
again. Lazarus lives! Nothing is impossible with God.
Why doesn’t Jesus
just throw a lightning bolt to burst the tombstone open? He asks the people to
roll it. Why? Couldn’t he just move it? I mean he was God wasn’t he? Yes he
could. But he asks men to do a task that will open a door for him to do
something great if not greater! The task is not beyond God’s reach. It is just
within man’s jurisdiction. It is one thing to believe when Jesus says your
brother will live again. But if he asks you to roll away the stone, you may
never see your brother if you do not do it, even if he rises from the dead. He
will be trapped behind a stone you didn’t roll away. Rolling the stone is
within your jurisdiction. Otherwise, your faith will be dead (no pun intended).
Lazarus rose
from the dead because of the power of Christ. But he left the grave because of
the faithfulness of the men that Christ instructed. Men of faith need to put
their faith to the act. Do it. It is one thing to have faith that God has led
you to the right Christ-like relationship dear gentleman. But you have to take
the step and ask the lady out. Prayer and fasting will not roll that stone for
you; obedience will.
The priests in
the Bible during the time of Joshua were instructed by God to step into the
waters of the Jordan and the waters would part. This was during the season when
the Jordan floods. I can imagine it must have been scary to do so! But they
did. The waters parted. Do we not believe the same God will make things work
when we men of faith dip our feet in the Jordans of today? We want God to part
the waters and then we will step in not the other way round. Or we step in with
one foot to determine if God is serious. Let me ask you a question. Imagine you
visited your mother and she sent you to get some flour in the nearby shop. She
gave you 500sh for flour. You buy the flour at 300sh and bring back her change
i.e. 200sh. A few minutes later, you find her on the phone talking to the
shopkeeper. You ask her what’s going on. She says she was just checking with
the shopkeeper to confirm that the price is 300sh and that you didn’t steal
from her. How would you feel? Terrible right? She’s your own blood. How can she
not trust you on something so small? It’s what we do to God every time we put
one foot in the water and not go fully by faith. We treat him the same way that
mother treated his son. How does it feel? Terrible of course! And he asks the
same question we would ask our mother. You are my child, my blood; trust me on
this small issue. And believe me it is small. The things God asked men of old
to do if he asked of us today we’d go bonkers.
Abram woke up
one fine morning and God told him, “Go to where I will show you.” Wow, so much
for direction! Where do I start, Ngong Road or Mombasa Road? But he went. Would
we go or would we be more concerned in explaining to people what we’re doing?
Noah was told build an ark. Mind you, it had never rained in all history by then.
The only water that fell from the sky at that time was from the top bunker of a
brother who wet his bed. Yet Noah built the massive ship. Would you build God
an ark even if he availed all the materials for free? You say, maybe in my
basement where nobody can see it. Be faithful men as well and put your faith to
action.
Our God is an
awesome God! For me, I believe that means we should have an awesome lifestyle.
An awesome lifestyle not of Gucci and Prada but of experiences that baffle men
to want to know this God. Of intimate adventures in the presence of a Holy God.
Of healing relationships and practical faith. That people may see and nothing
in this world could top it. That no Guinness World record could explain. That
no scientist, celebrity or politician could fathom. The love of a God who
desires men of faith to be faithful men.
James 2:17 (NIV) In the same way, faith
by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.