One of the hallmarks of modern evangelical Christian faith is how often it speaks of receiving. To be clear, Christianity does have a component of receiving. One of the names of God is Jehovah Jireh, which means God our provider. In the biggest moment in our lives, we receive salvation. Jesus tells us that if we keep asking and we abide, we will receive. Receiving is part of first-century Christianity, not just the modern version of it.
However, in between those expressions and events, something else is related to faith far more often. It is just not as appetizing to contemplate, and yet it directly affects how we as Christians receive. We see it easiest in Hebrews 11, where over and over in the "faith hall of fame" (as Hebrews 11 is often called), we see doers—and we can note the even more hard-core component of faith: trust manifesting as obedience.
Obedience is the hallmark of genuine faith.
Hebrews 11 doesn't separate the declaration part of faith ("I believe and confess with my mouth") from the action of the men and women of faith. It's all the same thing. That's because, much like us, faith is not one-dimensional.
We aren't just emotional creatures. We have reason, intentions, and will. We can claim, and even have feelings that we trust something, but our will shows we don't.
I have claimed to trust many people, but not so long ago, some members of my family went skydiving. I thought about that activity and realized I wouldn't jump out of a plane ever if any of the people I say I trusted handed me a used-looking parachute and said it was okay. Nope. The plane would land with me still on board.
Talk is cheap. When action met will and intent, faith in those people I said I trusted just wasn't up to the challenge.
As the God course developed, the expectation was that faith would become much easier to grow. My own faith did grow, but that part of faith that has to let go and just follow commands didn't get as easy as I thought it would. As a divorced person from decades ago who still scripturally considers himself bound, it didn't get easier to follow the Lord's words to be alone.
When called to things I just couldn't figure out how they would work, I tried a Jonah act, because all our lives we train ourselves to see natural cause and effect. Faith that genuinely changes your life doesn't come about by just knowing God is somewhere out there. Faith becomes real when you put yourself under the hand of a God who is present right where you live, and you bow in the moments of your own life, situations, and circumstances.
When we say, "Good God, he is real," it is not about the fact of God's existence; it is also about the realness of the impact on our lives and, in particular, how we live it. "Good God, he is real" is when we really hear his word, see where we have been wrong, confess his realness in that action, and obey. The receiving, so to speak, might be years or decades later.
Are you up for that kind of faith that Jesus talks about—abiding?
Probably the most favored verse you will see people claim as their number one verse is Jeremiah 29:11:
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
In all the times I've seen this passage quoted, except in the Bible, I have never seen the verse before it included:
Jer 29:10 For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
That's right. It's a promise for a people who had many years to come before they would see the promise fulfilled. The Jesus-time component is similar:
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
A vine abiding long enough to bear fruit doesn't reference overnight time frames. I am not saying all the promises we receive take decades, but rather very few are measured in days.
As we say often: the only difference between a prophecy and a promise is a met condition. The God course will prove to you how powerful God's predictions are, but if we really want to change the world through activating divine promises in our lives, then the condition of prolonged obedience in faith has to be met.
There are no "name it and claim it" in a few hours shortcuts. God is as faithful to the conditions in his promises as he is detailed in his prophecies. Through the cross, that does not mean sinless perfection, but it does mean a pattern—even if at times broken—of obeying God in the big and small things.
