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Faith Moves Forward
(He10:32-39)
God is living.
His existence and person are living, and His promise is living.
He gives what He promises to those who persevere to the end (He10:36).
Faith is believing Him and putting hope in Him (He11:1), and
The life of this faith is hoping for and thus advancing towards the first resurrection (Php3:10-16).
While in the world people look for a leader who has,
In addition to character and good judgment, a driving force,
The Bible demands those with faith that moves forward, breaking through any obstacle for
The result of stagnation or regression is falling into destruction.
An impeding element to making advancement is
Falling into despair when facing an obstacle,
Though this depends on how one sees the situation ” with reason and sympathy.
The devil is a natural opponent of the faith that believes in the promise of God for
He attempted to be like God in heaven but was banished from there, falling into despair (Is14:12-15).
Deceived by him, Adam sinned and was banished from the Garden (Ge3:4-6), after which
The Garden became shielded by a flaming sword (Ge3:24), an invisible "wall, and
All men became destined to trip over the threshold of despair and fall because of sin (Ge4:7).
Nevertheless, the start signal for God's advancement went off when
He broke the chains of the slavery of Israel of 430 years and delivered them (Ex12:40-42):
The first obstacle ” the death of every firstborn ” broke through with the blood of lamb (the Passover) (Ex12:13);
The second obstacle ” death in the sea ” broke through with the staff of Moses (Ex13:17, 14:15-16).
Though there was only advancement in their course
Lead by the pillars of fire and clouds (Ex13:21-22; Nu33:1-49),
All but Joshua and Caleb who left Egypt fell in the desert and died (Nu13:30-33)
Without entering the Promised Land for
They thought rationally when they saw the obstacles.
The sanctuary was the forward operating base for Israel for
They remembered putting the ark before them and
Crossing the Jordan and destroying the city of Jericho (Jos3:14-16, 6:3-21).
Then, Jesus came and said, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19),
He would move forward to and beyond death and reveal the living God.
As such, His life was a course of advancement only:
Baptism ”> the Holy Spirit ”> the desert (fasting for 40 days) ”> confronting the devil ”> 3
years of public life ”> death on the cross.
Resisted the temptation of sympathy, a stumbling block that dissuaded His death (He16:23),
Jesus said as He died, "It is finished (Jn19:30), declaring that He:
1) Only looked forward to what lied ahead and broke through death head-on,
and gave glory to the living Father (Php2:6-11);
2) Condemned the devil, the obstructor (1Jn3:8); and
3) With His flesh tore down the wall of sin to bring out all men from Hades (Eph2:14; He10:20).
Thus, God raised Him up to appear before Him (He9:24) as
The founder and the perfecter of faith, the frontline commander (He12:2).
The Holy Spirit came to ignite faith to believers (Ac2:1-4; 1Co2:10-12) and
Lets them preach the name Yeshua in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
The man of the Spirit resists
Reason, logic and humanist sympathy (Mk9:23, 10:29-30).
Even if faced with danger from rivers, prison, beatings, bandits, fellow people,
In the country, at sea or from false believers,
He does not become deterred but instead continues to move forward (2Co11:23-27) for
He fears shrinking back and being destroyed (He10:36-39).
O Lord,
For in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay,
Let us who walk this desert-like life never say words such as retreating or stopping.
Rather, let us only move forward and make advancement in our faith!
Let none of us fall into the fire of hell! Amen.