September 29, 2003 Monday
Living by His Faith (Habakkuk 2)

"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith." (vs. 4)

Faith....without it our life will never please God and with it our life is eternally saved from the wrath of God, but how do we identify genuine "faith"? Genuine faith is best defined and identified as it is manifested through the lives of those who truly possess it (Hebrews 11) rather than through words from those only claiming it. "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man SAY he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?" (James 2:14) As with every good thing that God has given to man by His grace so has satan attempted to deceive man with his false representations, even with his own brand of faith. The Lord said to Habakkuk, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." (vs. 2,3) In the midst of their callous rebellion towards Him, God graciously presented His people with an astonishing opportunity to live by His faith....He commanded Habakkuk to "write the vision" and then He commanded the people to "run" with it. Faith is allowing God's will to become engraved in your heart and passionately running with it by extending the most intense level of strength bound within the depths of your soul (even when you are unsure of where exactly He is taking you) until you have seen the vision of His will totally fulfilled in your life. Abraham is known as the father of the faith (see Galatians 3:7) because God commanded him in Genesis 12:1 saying, "Get thee out of thy country...unto a land that I will shew thee" and Hebrews 11:8 says of Abraham's response, "He went out, not knowing whither he went"....behold genuine faith manifested to the utmost! Have you stepped out for Jesus Christ in your life not knowing where exactly He was taking you? That is the type of faith God places in the hearts of those who recklessly abandon self and utterly fall in love with Him.

Sometimes we say, "I just haven't reached that level of faith yet" - and we never will. Do you realize that every act of faith exhibited in your life was made possible solely by God's grace? It's only by His grace that we are even granted the ability to place our faith in Him. "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him". Never lift yourself up by foolishly declaring "your faith"...."the just shall live by HIS faith."