Abraham: Faith Under Seige FAITH is a many splendored thing! Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. ISBN 0-937580-86-4 Set up and printed 1985 Published by LeSEA Publishing Company P. O. Box 12 South Bend, Indiana 46624 Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved under international Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the Publisher. CONTENTS 1 What is Faith?.....................................................7 2 Faith Hears........................................................11 3 Faith Acts...........................................................15 4 Faith Challenges the Unknown......................17 5 Faith Has No Generation Gaps.......................21 6 Faith Defeats the Enemy..................................25 7 Faith Refuses to Be Bought..............................29 8 Faith Is Giving Others First Choice................33 9 Faith Staggers Not............................................39 10 Faith Rears a Son to Believe..........................43 11 Faith Is Total Love..........................................45 12 Faith Is Intercession........................................53 13 Faith Finds a Godly Bride for a Son.............57 14 Faith Executes His Last Will.........................61 Other books by Lester Sumrall: LeSEA Publishing Co. • Dominion Is Yours • Genesis, Crucible of the Universe • Paul, Man of the Millennia • The Total Man•The Human Body • The Human Soul •The Human Spirit • The Will—The Potent Force Of The Universe • The Battle Of The Ages • Imagination Nelson Publishing Co. • Demons The Answer Book • Grief, You Can Conquer It • Hostility • My Story To His Glory • 60 Things God Said About Sex • Supernatural Principalities & Powers • The Cup Of Life • The Names Of God • The Reality Of Angels • Where Was God When Pagan Religions Began? • Jerusalem, Where Empires Die—Will America Die At Jerusalem? Harrison House • Faith To Change The World • Gifts & Ministries of the Holy Spirit • Jihad—The Holy War • Unprovoked Murder • Victory & Dominion Over Fear • 101 Questions & Answers On Demon Power 1 What is Faith? 1 In Hebrews 10:38 it says, "Now the just shall live by faith..." That is speaking about the justified, the ones who are just as if they had never sinned, the born- again ones. The Bible says that the believer, the justified, does not live by natural means; he has a secret power called "faith." The just live by faith. They make decisions by faith. They do things that others do not quite understand because they live in a dimension beyond natural dimensions; they live by faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we cannot please God without faith. You and I should seek faith in order to please God. Faith is not to benefit ourselves altogether, but to please God. What then is faith? It is a knowledge of God. The amount of your faith is in direct relationship to your experience and knowledge of God. 8 Abraham: Faith Under Seige If I took a little three-year-old child and stood her on top of a high counter and said, "Honey, jump to me," she would look down at me and say, "No." Then if her mother came and stood there and said, "Baby, jump to Mama," the child would say, "One and two," close her eyes, and into the air she would go with her arms out. I could protest, "Well, why didn't you jump to me? I'm stronger than your mama?" But the child would respond, "I don't know you." Many of us have not jumped when God said, "Jump," because we did not know God. Rather than asking God for faith, we should seek to have a knowledge of God. This is not seeking for faith, it is faith. The knowledge of faith can change your life completely. There has been too much mysticism about faith. It does work. However, God cannot bless ignorance. If you want to get hold of the power of God, seek to learn about God since by knowing God, you will have faith. Faith under siege! I want to tell you about a man who actually started a new dispensation. There have only been seven, and a man who started a new dispensation by himself was Abraham. It was the Dispensation of Promise. He conceived and gave birth to a new race of people, called Christians. God used him and he What is Faith? 9 brought into being the body of Christ. We are a new breed of people that has nothing to do with the bloodstream. One of the main things I want to point out to you is this—that faith is a life and not an incident in your life. We may want it to be an incident, we may want it to be a high point, but that is not what faith is. There were dynamic movements of faith in the life of this man Abraham. He was not born great—he grew great. Faith is not easy. Many people really want black magic. They want the power to say, "You die, and you live, and you die, and you live." That is not what faith is all about! You say, "But some of these men that have faith get a lot of people healed." Well, two things—first, it could be a gift—one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit functioning through them. But on the other hand, if a man has been in a closet with God for many hours and he just says, "Lord, do something," God is so close to him that it is easy for God to say, "Certainly I'll do that." If you are going to walk in carnality and walk with the world, then you say, "Hey, God, do something," God will say, "What did you say?" You're so far from Him He cannot understand you. Intimacy with God is the divine relationship with faith; it 10 Abraham: Faith Under Seige is not an easy life—but it is an exciting life. It is not something that just happens to you.