Walking by Faith

This last year God took me from my place of 'comfort in religion' and set me out in the 'wilderness' to teach me many valuable lessons. At the time I didn't understand why he would want to take us out of a church and put us out here without one, but we prayed and fasted for direction and God was clear, walk by faith. Just like when Abraham was told to go...go where? God had a plan for Abraham. Then there was Jonah who was sent to Ninevah. Ninevah? A pagan colony? There's no church there for Jonah to join. Jonah resisted, but God directed his steps to get him to where God wanted him to go. I also thought about Saul, who became Paul. God blinded him, healed his blindness, then asked him to preach, but he asked him to preach, Jesus! The very Messiah of those who Paul had persecuted.  I would imagine all these people wondered the same thing we did when God set us out in the wilderness, but God has been faithful.

I thought I knew what faith was, until He showed me that I had a very limited understanding of what faith really is. Did Peter know what real faith was before that day on the sea? When he jumped into the water, he had his lesson on faith. 

{Hebrews 11: 1} Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

If I know where the stepping stone is, if I can see it, I can step on it...but that wouldn't be faith. Faith is stepping out where there is no place to step, the invisible place. During this year of walking in the wilderness, God revealed many things to us and I will begin to share these things with all of you.

This part of our walkabout with God has been the most amazing adventure I have had in my relationship with God. As with any adventure there have been scary moments of walking on a tightrope and other moments of exhilaration like riding on a roller coaster. Yet, I will be praying about how to be careful with how I share this journey with you. Most likely you will feel some of those same feelings I felt as you read about the things he has taken us through. We have been through our own 'fiery furnace' like Shadrach and his brothers have. We have been in our own 'lion's den' like Daniel. We have been in Esther's position before a king who could 'take our lives'. We have 'walked on water' like Peter, been 'given sight' like he gave to Paul, and had 'revelations' like John. I say all these things as metaphors of course, for we have not literal been in these positions, so please don't misunderstand me and think I'm a lunatic.

The first part of my walkabout that I'm going to introduce to you is the place of being told, STOP! This big red stop sign was staring us in the face for a while as we pondered the direction God was taking us in. It wasn't God putting the stop sign before us, it was fear that did that. Many years of being told what God's will for our lives was, is what put this sign up. A preacher would tell us time and time again that he knew God's will and it was to be in his church. When God began telling us it was time to leave, we didn't understand. But we knew we had to obey and we were so deeply compelled to obey the voice of God over the voice of man who says he is 'the voice of God to the people'. Stop. Stop. Stop. Why? Why say stop, if God is saying go? So who was right to obey? A man or God? We chose to walk by faith and go as God was guiding us.

Part of this journey also involved being told we couldn't read about what other churches believed. We were told by a leader what he thought the churches believed and we were to believe him and not look into it ourselves. God was guiding us to discover what each of the churches believed and as we walked through our studies with God's Spirit as our Teacher, we discovered why so many 'leaders' resist their congregations from learning these things. They disagreed with each other..the leaders of these churches..and that part we knew, but what we didn't know specifically was which things were of such sharp division. 

As we furthered our studies we found that many other churches also disagreed with the teaching from where we were at before. So we went to God and asked which teaching was true. He has unraveled us from many man made teachings and false interpretations and it was been quite a journey.

What I would like to share with all of you is what we discovered about various teachings in multiple denominations of the Christian sects. What I will share with you will be what each denomination has to say about many particular topics and set them here so you can see the parallel and comparison of what they believe so you can decide for yourselves. I won't tell you what to believe, but I will share with you a variety of things to ponder and seek the Lord about. The results I share with you will be startling to some and to others it may not be any surprise at all. One thing is for certain, this journey I share with you takes a mature faith in Christ. If your beliefs are based on your religious forefather's interpretations and you have built your faith on those things, then you will discover what I discovered. My faith was not on Christ alone, Sola Christo. My faith was on interpretations and dictations of a religious forefather.

When God showed me how to get truly anchored in Christ, then looking at these various interpretations did not cause me to falter. I had no fear. I knew that my salvation was not contingent upon interpretations or education of theology. My salvation was on Christ alone. He holds us firm in him.

I hope you will join me this year for this exciting adventure. Happy New Year!

~Sis