How God Builds Your Faith

4 Pentecost, Proper 8

June 28, 2009

Rev. Ken Wratten at St. Stephen’s, San Jose

Six Phases of Faith

Part 1: How God Builds Faith

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David was tracked = down by Saul; finally died, and David became king. A woman has had a bleeding disorder for twelve years. Finally, her faith heals her. When you are in the midst of these kinds of problems, faith is hard work. How does God help us = grow in faith? We might think that= we just pray for it and God gives us faith.&n= bsp; Maybe faith pops into our consciousness, and from that point on we h= ave Full Strength Faith. Well, that is= NOT what life has shown me to be the case. Faith isn’t a gift; it is a spiritual muscle that grows strong with exercise. Faith is a process, involving spec= ific steps; in fact, I want to discuss with you today and for the next few weeks six st= eps that always happen when God is working on us to build our faith.

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Jesus said in Matt= hew 9:29 "According to your faith, it will be done to you." That is really the key to this gre= at adventure of growing in faith. It happens according to your faith. Jesus says that you get to choose how much God blesses your life. You believe and he will bless.

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In Mark 9:23 Jesus= says "Everything is possible for the person who has faith." That promise is great reason to he= lp make my faith grow. When you don't understand God's Six Phases for Building= Faith, and building your character to be like Christ, you will get discouraged, re= sentful, worried, fearful about the future, or depressed. Most of all, you can't co-operate = with what God is doing. When you understand the six phases that God takes you through, and takes you through them over and over again, then you can say "Oh, I'm in stage four right now" or stage six. You c= an understand what's going on and not get discouraged when times are tough. If you understand it, you can reco= gnize it when it is happening, and you can co-operate with it.

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How does God build faith? Phase 1. God always starts with a dream, a dream about yours= elf, about what He wants you to do, about how He's going to use you to make an impact on the world.

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There are lots of = examples of this in the Bible.

&= nbsp; God gave Noah the dream to build an arc.

&= nbsp; God gave Abraham the dream to be the father of a great nation.

&= nbsp; God gave Joseph the dream to be a leader who would save his people.<= /span>

&= nbsp; God gave Nehemiah the dream to build the great wall around Jerusalem.

&= nbsp; God gave David the dream to build the temple in Jerusalem.

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And there is a sure way to know when a dream is from God and not from yourself.

Ephesians 3:20 "God is able to do far more than we would dare to ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes."

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A dream from God w= ill be so big that you know you can't do it on your own. If you could do it on your own, yo= u wouldn't need faith. That dream you have, that idea, that concept that would really = help some other people -- It is probably coming from God.

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Phase 2. You Decide to Act -- to do something about your dream.

A lot of people ha= ve dreams but they never go to Phase Two – they never make the decision = to go for it. James says "You must believe and not doubt because a double minded man is unstable in all he does." Making the decision to act is an activity that builds faith. <= o:p>

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During this phase = -- two things need to happen:

1) You need to dec= ide to invest something:.

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; a) = Time

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; b) = Money

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; c) = Reputation

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; d) = Energy

You lay something important to you on the line; and you let God know that you are committing = to your decision.

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2) You need to let go of security. This lets God know you are relying on Him.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

God said to Abraha= m, "I'm going to make you the father of a great nation." He had to leave his home for an un= known land. &n= bsp;

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Moses had to let g= o of the career path he was on, to step into the Pharaoh's position when he died. He let go of that in or= der to do God's plan. Nehemiah gave = up a secure job as cup bearer to the Persian king, in order to go and build a wa= ll around Jerusalem.

God gives you a dream and you make the decision to act. Next;=

Phase 3. Expect Delays. God will not fulfi= ll your dream immediately. You h= ave probably already noticed this phase.

In Habbakuk: God s= ays, "These things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled." God makes us wait, know= ing how much we all HATE waiting – for anything, and particularly for God= . You're ready but God isn't. Every be= liever in history has had to go through this wait.

Noah waited 120 ye= ars from the time he started building the arc until it began to rain. Abraham was told he would be the f= ather of a great nation, but didn't have a child until he was 99. God told Moses he would lead his p= eople out of 400 years of slavery and then made him wait in the desert 40 years before it happened. God had D= avid anointed as king and then he waited for years until David actually got to be king. You and I go through th= ese same waiting periods.

We wait because waiting teaches us to trust in God. We learn tha= t God’s timing is perfect. And we lea= rn that a delay is not a denial. Many times God says "Not yet", or “Not in the way you think̶= 1;, and we think He is saying "No".&= nbsp;

Handling the Waiti= ng Rooms of life builds your faith. Once you start moving through the Delay period you come to Phase 4.<= o:p>

Phase 4. Expect Difficu= lty. Not only do you get to wait, you get to have problems while you wait.

Moses had one prob= lem after another. First there wa= s no water. Then there was no food= . Then he dealt with the people cons= tantly complaining. Then there were poisonous snakes. Moses was d= oing what God wanted, but he still had problems.

David was anointed king and then for the next few years he was hunted by Saul and was forced to hide in caves.

Joseph has a dream= of becoming a ruler. He was sold= into slavery. He was later thrown = into jail on false charges, and languished there for years.

When Moses died, Joshua was appointed the leader. Joshua led them into the Promised Land. The next verses in the Bible say, "Now there were giants in the land." Even in the Promised Land there we= re problems.

Why does God do th= is? I Peter says, "At the present= you may be temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials. This is no accident. It happens to prove your faith = which is infinitely more valuable than gold." So now you can see that when y= ou have difficulties, you are in very good company. And God is building your faith, and building your character.

Finally the difficulties become so bad that you reach your limit, you have tried everyt= hing.

Phase 5. Reach a Dead End. The situation goes from difficult to impossible. Even Paul went through dead ends. 2 Cor says,= "At that time we were completely overwhelmed.&= nbsp; The burden was more than we could bear. In fact, we told ourselves that th= is was the end. Yet now we believe t= hat we had this sense of impending disaster so that we might learn to trust not in ourselves but in God who can raise the dead.”

The disciples plan= ned to follow Jesus. They thought= He would be the Messiah. And the= n He was put on the cross and died. That was the dead end phase for the disciples.&= nbsp;

At this stage you start asking, "What's going on, God?&= nbsp; Did I miss your message? Or is it really something I just thought up?"

Then we finally re= ach phase six. If you are in a dead e= nd, you are exactly where God needs you to be.&nbs= p; God knows where you are. He knows every hair on your head. Dead ends are a part of God's plan. You will have lots of them in life. It means that you are in Phase 5.

When you feel your= self in the dead end zone, remember 2 Corinthians, when Paul said, "He has delivered us and will deliver us again." Psalm= 27 says, "I'm expecting the Lord to rescue me again so that once again I = will see His goodness to me." The psalmist knows that God will lead him to Phase 6.

Phase 6. Celebrate Deliverance

At the end of the growth process, God delivers. God does a miracle. God provides a solution. For Moses, God spli= t the Red Sea. For Abraham, he and = Sarah miraculously conceived a child. For Joseph, his dream came true and he found himself taken from imprisonment in= the dungeon, to being second in command in Egypt. In Jesus’ case, there was the resurrection.

The best response = to a dead end is to expect God to act. What are you expecting God to do in your life right now? The Bible says "According to = your faith it will be done unto you.”

St. Stephen’= s is a living example of these phases of faith. Think of the dreams of this community; to become a new important part of the South San Jose neighborhoo= d; to build a new church building; to start a strong Christian preschool and elementary school; to have a full time vicar; to become a parish; to grow i= n value to our neighborhood, diocese, SMUM, and the Sudan.

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We have experienced the delays, the difficulties, and the dead ends. We have also experienced t= he deliverances, and the experience of new dreams; Dreams that keep us growing= in faith.

Think about these six phases at work in your life;

Phase 1 -- What is the dream God has given you? If you don't have a dream, start p= raying, "God give me Your dream."

Phase 2 – You may have a dream from God, but you haven’t made a decision to go for it. You need to make the decision.

Phase 3 – How has your dream been delayed? If your prayer hasn't been answere= d, it's OK. You're in God's waiting room.&nbs= p; Wait for God to make His move in your life.

Phase 4 -- What difficulties have you faced waiting = for the dream to be fulfilled? Go= d knows exactly what you're going through. <= /span>God hasn’t forgotten you.

Phase 5 -- Have you come to the dead end yet? You might be there, ready to give up. You're where God needs yo= u to be. You're getting prepared f= or deliverance. God wants you to= hang on! Keep on believing!

Phase 6 -- Expect and trust God to deliver you. "According to your faith it w= ill be done to you.” "God is faithful.” But it doesn't happen overnight. You go through Dream, Decision, De= lay, Difficulty, Dead End. And then comes Deliverance.

May your awareness of these phases help you coorperate with God’s plan, and help your faith grow even stronger. A= men.