Fully Convinced?

One of the greatest examples of faith is exhibited in the life of Abraham. According to the Bible, "Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you....So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran." (Genesis 12:1, 4) Notice that Abram was seventy-five years old when the Lord called him. He did not have a Bible filled with God's Word that he could look to, to build his faith. (Romans 10:17) He only had the Word that God spoke to him. This in itself should challenge our faith to go beyond the faith that Abram exhibited because we have a greater revelation from God in His Word. Abram lived out the Word of the Lord for another twenty-four years before God spoke to him to bring forth His Word, "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless." (Genesis 17:1) Then finally a year later, God's promise to Abram, now Abraham, had manifested, "Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him." (Genesis 21:5) Abraham had to stretch his faith to the limits for twenty-five years believing that God's Word would come to past.  

The faith that Abraham exhibited was so impressive that he is spoken of throughout the New Testament. Romans tells us, "And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform." (Romans 4:19-21)  Noticed that Abraham was strengthened in faith. As a human being, Abraham did not have the faith he needed. God's supernatural power had to come upon him to give him the faith needed to strengthen him. God filled him with His faith (Romans 12:3) to help him wait for the son he was promised. After Abraham had received strengthening from God, he was persuaded, fully convinced and had the conviction to wait for the manifestation of what God had promised by His Word. 

God wants to do the same with us. He wants to use His power to blow apart our doubt and unbelief and to fil1 us with His faith to receive the miracles He has prepared for us. Like Abraham, when we are persuaded, or totally convinced, nothing can make us waver or doubt. Regardless of what people say, or what the circumstances may dictate, we know that nothing can change what God has spoken. (Psalm 89:34; Isaiah 40:8; Mark 13:31) Some people doubt that God's promises will come to pass because they are not fully convinced. It is the God kind of faith that brings the conviction needed to see His promises manifest. Remember, Jesus said, "...Have faith in God." (Mark 11:22) A more literal translation of this verse is, "Have God's faith" or "Have the God kind of faith." 

Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:7-11) We receive faith to believe as God believes by simply and humbly asking Him something like this, "Heavenly Father, I open my heart so You can fil1 it with Your own faith. Destroy in me a1l doubt, fear, unbelief, human reasoning, and arguments so that I may receive the miracles You promised me, as well as ministering your promises to others through the faith You have imparted into my life. I thank you and ask this in Jesus Name."  
 

James tells us that when we ask God for something, to, "ask in faith, with no doubting." Jesus tells us, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." (Mark 11:24) The key is "ask without doubt and believe that you receive."  God wants to give us explosive faith today to continue the ministry of Jesus on earth until He returns, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19) But we must be fully convinced that He is willing and able to work through us supernaturally to once again turn this world upside down for His glory.