This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Six Principles to Fortify Faith.
C.H. Spurgeon said, “Little faith will bring your soul to Heaven, but great faith will bring Heaven to your soul.”
Abraham’s name is revered by Jews and Christians alike. He is “the father of all those who believe.” (See Romans 4:11.) Most of Hebrews 11, which speaks of champions of faith, is given to Abraham.
It is our chief duty to believe God. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him…” (Hebrews 11:6a). The supreme evil and the source of all other sins is unbelief.
“And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:8-9).
Abraham was a pagan idolater when God first spoke to him. He was living in Ur of the Chaldees, 75 years old, settled in his land, with a business and kinfolk—yet he left it all to go to a country he had never seen, marching under sealed orders. In Canaan, Abraham and Sarah were strangers away from home, and pilgrims headed home. (See Hebrews 11:13.)
So are we.
There are six principles in Abraham’s story that will help you have that dynamic faith that will bring Heaven to your soul.
First, the voice principle. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.” (Hebrews 11:8a). He was called—you must hear God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
Do you have the confidence to say, “God, this is your will”?
Abraham heard God’s voice in a supernatural way. (See Genesis 12:7.) That is not the norm for us today. Does that mean we are less? No. It means we are more. “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…” (Hebrews 1:1-2a).
How does God speak by His Son?
It is honoring to God to believe Him and live in confidence.
Second is the venture principle. Are you living by what you already know from the Bible? Why should God give you more light when you are not obeying the revealed Word? Abraham heard, and he obeyed. You have to be willing, when God speaks, to obey, whether or not it makes sense.
A faith problem is probably actually an obedience problem.
Third is the value principle. “…He waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Abraham wouldn’t put the tent-pegs down too deep because his motto was, “This world is not my home.”
The reason many of us don’t have faith is because our priorities are wrong. We think faith is some way to get our will done in Heaven, when it is really God’s way to get Heaven’s will done on earth. (See Matthew 6:10.)
“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4a)? Do you think God will give faith to His enemies? Abraham was not a friend of the world.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
You need the mind of Christ to know the will of God. But if this world is shaping you, do you wonder why you don’t understand God’s will? It starts with friendship with the world, then love of the world, then confirmation to the world, then condemnation with the world.
If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Abraham was a man to whom this world meant very little. Jesus clarifies what this means in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Fourth is the vision principle. Keep your faith focused! “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10, KJV). The operative phrase is he looked.
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1).
Abraham’s vision enabled him to see the invisible. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
There is a world that is more real than this world, and the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 could see the invisible.
Fifth is the vigilance principle. The devil will war against your faith. God gave Abraham a promise, but for a time, he and Sarah took their eyes off the Lord, and they did some terrible things. God put his faith to a test and Abraham failed at first.
God will test your faith. Be vigilant: your faith will come under attack. There are going to be problems in your life. A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted.
Last is the victory principle. God made Abraham’s name great. From Abraham came the Jewish nation, the prophets, the Bible, and Jesus Christ—all by faith.
There is no way you will live in victory apart from faith.
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).
If you put these six principles into practice, your faith will bloom. The life of faith begins with a step of faith, and that step is to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
