What does it really mean to step forward in faith? By Lizzie Ducking: In the Christian world, the words step forward in faith are used quite often, but have you ever stepped forward in faith and nothing happened? I do and the reason is that I did what I wanted to do and expected God to bring the desired expectation, which he didn’t.
Taking a step of faith really means doing what God said to do without knowing the outcome. It is simply obeying the voice of God without having any idea what will happen.
Abraham took a step of faith when God told him to leave his relatives and go to the land He told him to go. He left without knowing where he was going. He did not leave before listening to the Lord; this is taking a step forward in faith.
When we say that we are taking a step of faith without first listening to God, this is doing what we want to do and it is called pride. God will resist us.
We are supposed to follow the Lord, which means that He is before us and not us before Him. When we put our will above Him, we will never achieve an expected result.
To say that we are taking a step of faith sounds good and makes us think that we are righteous, but we must examine our hearts and ask ourselves: is this what God said to do? If we haven’t heard him say to do it, then we shouldn’t do anything except wait on him.
Taking a step of faith without first listening to God is actually taking a step of faith because we are doing what we want to do. He is able to tell us what he wants us to do, so why not wait for instructions from him?
When an army went out against David and the men with him and took their wives, children, and possessions, David inquired of the Lord and asked him to pursue them. The Lord answered and said: Pursue because you will surely recover everything. David did not pursue this army because he was a just man and it seemed right. He did not take a step of faith before receiving a word from God and because he waited on Him, he succeeded.
Taking a step of faith is good, but we have to know that it is God’s will to do so. We don’t have to know exactly what we’re going to do or where we’re going; only God is leading us.
We might want to do something and in our natural eyes, everything is fine but God does not change. We will still have to wait for Him to tell us to do it or not to do it. As I write this article, there is something I would like to do, I can only see good in it, but I have not received a word from the Lord telling me to do it. I have introduced it to him but haven’t heard back from him yet so I know I shouldn’t do it now. If He says to do it, I will gladly obey Him, but if His answer is no, I will still praise Him because He is right and He has another plan for me.
Some people think that if they haven’t heard from God in a certain period of time, then it’s okay to continue. Do not be disappointed; remember that Saul lost his Kingdom for not waiting for Samuel, the man of God who was going to make the sacrifice. Samuel was late in coming to King Saul, he had a crisis on his hands, and because Samuel was late, Saul offered the sacrifice, which cost him the Kingdom.
The lesson to be learned from that is simply because it seems like the right thing to do; It is not without the word of God. We could suffer dire consequences for stepping out in faith when God hasn’t told us to.
