FAITH IS NOT SENSIBLE NOR REASONABLE

                                      FAITH IS NEITHER SENSIBLE NOR REASONABLE
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INTRODUCTION:
One of the interesting topics of all times is the present subject for our discussion, “what faith is and what faith is not’’. As a matter of truth is one virtue which ungodly is seen practicing alongside with the righteous together.   You might be very surprised at this statement, and ask the question “does the people outside of Christ practice faith”? The answer is a resounding yes. We have learned from the Bible that there were people in the Old Testament who served God with faith or through faith before they were converted.  A very example was our father Abraham who was called ‘’the father of faith”.

WHAT FAITH IS IN THE FIRST PLACE:
Faith is according to the Bible “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Heb. 11:1. If faith is a substance, then it is worth practicing because it is a substance, something tangible though not yet seen. Faith goes after something and hopes to get it. Faith does not go without hope, otherwise it would become hopeless. Hope is the sister of faith, and they go hand in hand. Wherever faith is goes, she must go with her sister hope, and that thing hoped for must be achieved.

They are a wonderful combination which never fails. Faith does not believe or thing of failure.
Faith is the powerful intuition which makes one able to believe the word of God or God himself. There is a force in faith which convinces somebody to go ahead in the   word of God or to go ahead to believe what someone says. At times faith tells you to believe in the project you have embarked upon, saying there is success waiting for you at the end.  You may be the only one seeing this success, and others will be seeing failure. Faith then continues to encourage you to continue. It has happened severally with people. This faith is not seen with the literal eye/s.

Many times faith hates a mind that always believes in failure or one who does not see with the inner eyes. For example, do you not believe that Noah received mockery by his people, friends and families at the time he was building the Ark? Some people might have asked him saying, “Noah, what are you doing, where are you going with this thing”?

“Noah, are you sure you have not lost your mind, who did you say spoke to you, where is water? Since the beginning of the world from our fore fathers, have you ever heard of a rain falling down from above before? How do you think that rain will fall down from heaven, is there any storehouse of rain above this sky”? Even at his back there would be murmurings against him. Some would say “this man is becoming very stupid. Others would say Old age is telling on the man, and he doesn’t know what he is doing again, let him go and rest, if he doesn’t know what to do”. Yes, at that time Noah would have been over four hundred years and because the Bible said he built the Ark for 120 years. Imagine the number of years involved, in fact Noah was very old then. But faith kept him going.

Noah, even though he had seen God with his eyes, yet he went ahead with faith in building the Ark to the saving of his soul.  While he believed God, this is faith. Some might have asked him to employ them to help him so that at the end of the day he would pay them. Apostle Peter called him “a preacher of righteousness” 2 Pt.2:5, which indicate that he preached to his world about the destruction which God told him about, but they did not listen to him.  Only him and his family believed God and were saved. If it was a matter of claim in word only, who would believe that   Noah and his family were the only righteous people in the world?

Such claim would be discarded with a wave of the hand. Today many people even my family members are laughing at me blogging, but I will continue believing that one day I will smile. Let’s take another example of what faith is.

Although the Bible continues to define faith, it says “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness” Gen. 15:6. Again it says “faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God” Acts. 13:15. Let’s say it this way, “Abraham had faith on the word of God and he counted it as righteousness to him”.  Actually, what both Abraham and Noah heard was the word of God and the word produced what they had as faith. What of those who after hearing had no faith in God’s word? When God spoke to Abraham, he told him to leave his kindred, his country and his father’s house” Gen. 12:1-2.  Who would accept this kind of command if not a man of faith? And the Bible did not record any questioning at all from Abraham to God.

Not only did God tell him to leave his father’s house, a man of seventy five years at that time Gen.12:4. He collected all that he had with his wife and left to no known destination. To the wise men of this world, this was pure foolishness. How could a man of this age move without actually knowing where he was going with his wife and all his servants?  But what the people of the world call foolishness is what God calls faith.

A man of seventy five years and God promised him that his children would be as the sand on the sea shore, is this reasonable at all? But Abraham believed what an ordinary human being would laugh at. Do you remember that at a time Sarah nearly missed her blessing because she doubted God?   On a particular day in which the three personalities of God came to them in the form of Angels, after entertaining them, the Lord asked Abraham saying “where is Sarah thy wife”? Abraham answered, “in the tent door” and the Lord said “I will surely return to thee according to the time of life and Sarah thy wife shall have a son” Gen. 18:10.

Sarah in the tent began to laugh at the Lord’s word. She didn’t know that the Lord is a silent listener to every conversation, and that he sees and hears what you murmur in your secret place. He asked Abraham “why is Sarah laughing”? Sarah replied “I didn’t laugh” the Lord said, no you laughed, is anything too hard for the Lord”? Gen 18:14.

Sarah after hearing what the Lord said to her husband Abraham in the room, she looked at her body and it was dry enough to think of conception at her age, may be around 89 years.  She began to think about the possibility of somebody of this age to enjoy sex, how much more to conceive a pregnancy? This might be in her mind and after this consideration, she burst out into laughter. She might ask in her mind, “where was this man when I was 30, 40, 50 even 60? Coming now at 89 to tell me about bearing a son”. However, God said to Moses “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” Ex.33:19.

He actually had mercy upon Sarah and gave her a son according to his word. We believe he overlooked Sarah’s unbelief in that aspect and fulfilled his word to Abraham. Abraham believed whatever came out from the mouth of the Lord. On many occasions God would mind his business and use the one he made covenant with in judging others, especially Adam and Eve as example.
Do you remember that before God converted Abraham, he was an unbeliever, and he obeyed the Lord as an unbeliever before he left his father’s house?

It was in obedience to the word of God that he was actually converted to become the friend of God. This is true because he informed prophet Joshua about Abraham’s state of faith when he called him out. Read it from Joshua. And Joshua said to all the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham. And the father of Nachor and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac” Josh. 24:2-4.

This record is in agreement that Abraham was an idolater when God called him. It was God’s calling and his obedience that converted him. Now we are not mistaken for saying earlier, “that faith as a virtue could be operated alongside the saints and the ungodly sometimes”. In this sense faith does not discriminate, anyone who meets its standard, it will follow him or her from any angle.  Faith therefore is not limited to the saints alone or to the people of God, no. That is why Abraham remains the father of faith because he operated faith as an unbeliever as well as a believer in God. The book of Roman 4 supports it, asking first, “what did Abraham our father see”?, saying that Abraham believed God before his circumcision and he was counted as a righteous man, as well as when he was circumcised, so he operated on both sides and became the father of faith. When Apostle Paul asked the question, “what did our father Abraham see” it means that faith sees.

NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT FAITH IS NOT:
Faith is not reasonable nor sensible.  Are you in doubt?  When God blessed Abraham with Isaac, he later told him to go and use his only begotten son which was Isaac to sacrifice to him. By this time Isaac was about sixteen or seventeen years and God told Abraham to use his son for sacrifice. Again Abraham did not inform his wife about this sacrifice.  He moved with few of his servants and Isaac in the company. If faith is reasonable, wouldn’t he have informed his wife about this particular sacrifice?  Or is there any reason or is it reasonable for a man at 117 years to believe that he could sacrifice his 17 year old son and still believe that God could bring him alive after killing him for sacrifice?  I mean what is the reason to have this kind of belief? Faith is not reasonable but believes what others call foolishness.

Reason would have made Abraham to tell God that he was not serious. How could he prevent a man from getting a son when he was young, at least he would have made him to give birth to four, five or six children and demand for one of them.  Now that he could only give him ones son, yet he was still demanding the only son. What kind of lord are you? But Abraham did not stagger in faith in asking these questions.  So reason would normally reject this request from God.

That’s why we said faith is not reasonable nor sensible. It would only take a man who acts like Abraham to be called a man of faith. One who will not reason whatever God says, but moves and does what he hears from God just like that. And God would not approve a sensible man or a reasonable man as his friend. We must understand that God does not want us to use our number six in our relationship with him. If we employ reason in our dealings with him, he will not be found going with us. He wants to deal with those whose reasons look so foolish.

Again if Abraham had informed Sarah about this sacrifice, God’s purpose for mankind would have failed, because nothing would make Sarah to agree with him this time around.  And because he didn’t tell Sarah, his faith was approved by God at last.  For God told him “now I know that you fearest God, in not withholding thy only son from me” Gen.22:12.  Now let’s discuss about the word “now I know that thou fearest God”. Someone asked this question saying “does it mean that God didn’t know that Abraham feared him greatly, except when he proved him for the last time”?. The word “now I know” in the old King James Version actually is a translation error.

What the author had in mind is “I have proved you beyond any reasonable doubt that you fear and respect God”. God is Omniscient, he knew that Abraham would not fail even before the world was created. He only used Abraham as a model to everyone living or past, what his programs are or how it would take place.  The statement of now I know is that every man who shall read the account of Abraham should not think he could do even more than him.

Even today some people are saying what Jesus did for humanity, that they could do the same thing. The Bible recorded that Abraham did not stagger in unbelief, but walked strong in faith.  Faith is not weak, faith is not fearful. Faith does not see failure but success always. Faith does not think of any impossibility, but sees more possibilities, to be continued.