"Steps of Faith" by Nancy Dufresne
There are steps that faith takes to receive from God and to become a partaker of what we possess.
First, faith hears from God. That’s the only basis for faith – knowing what God said to you.
Second, faith meditates on the Word. That’s how you build in you what God says to you. That’s how you turn the impossible to the possible in your own thinking. Meditation is part of the renewing of the mind, to think like God thinks.
Third, faith acts on the Word. Confessing the Word is part of acting on the Word. Standing on the Word in the face of opposition and being unswayed by circumstances is a part of acting on the Word. Faith praises, which is also acting on the Word.
If we aren’t careful, we can get rutted in only one step of faith and not make all the steps necessary to receive what God has provided for us. Some think, “I have a list of confessions I make – my part’s done!” They think that once they have confessed the Word over their need, that is all there is to do, so they sit back and wait for God to do the rest. Some sit back and wait for money to show up. They are waiting for someone to hand them money. If it doesn’t show up, they keep waiting. Then much time passes and nothing has changed. All the while, they think they’re in faith, so they keep waiting, and nothing keeps happening. But faith is a work. Faith is an act. Faith is an action we take.
Confession is important. Faith does confess the Word, but there are other steps that faith takes. Faith is an act! And confessing the Word is not the totality of faith. Actions must be joined to our confession.
At one point, God spoke to me that we are to believe Him for: (1) divine ideas, (2) open doors of financial opportunities, and (3) lost funds restored in multiplied fashion. These first two things, especially, are actions we take, not only confessions we make.
Years ago, I heard the testimony of a single mother who was attending the services of a guest minister at her church. When they received an offering for him, the Spirit of God directed her to give him $1,000. She didn’t have the money, but she put an envelope in the offering and wrote on it that she was pledging to send the money to the minister within 30 days.
Afterwards, she didn’t go home and just confess that she would have the money. She began to act. The first action she made was to seek God on what she was to do – what further action she was to take. She had heard from God to give the money, but now she needed to hear further.
Just because we have heard one instruction from God doesn’t mean that we have heard all we need to know about that. This woman made a pledge at the leading of the Spirit, but she didn’t just sit and try to confess the money in. She went home and began to seek God about her part. She had made the pledge, but what did she need to do further? As she was seeking God, He reminded her of barrettes she had decorated as gifts for her friends and family at Christmas. She was impressed to make more to sell, so she did.
She asked her friend who owned a boutique if she could set up a table in her store and sell them the next weekend, and her friend agreed. The following Saturday she had her table set up in the boutique. Within 30 minutes, a woman walked up to her table and picked up each of the 25 barrettes one at a time and inspected them thoroughly.
She asked the single mom, “Did you make these?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she answered.
“I’ll take 50,000 of them!” She was a buyer for a nationwide luxury department store.
Now this single mom not only had her $1,000 to meet her pledge, but she also had a new business. God gave her a divine idea, and when she implemented it, an open door of financial opportunity was opened to her. God not only gave her seed to sow, but also bread to eat. In blessing someone else, her own need was supplied.
I want you to see that she didn’t just camp on one step of faith – just sitting at home confessing the Word. She took time to seek God so that she knew what actions to take.
Some are trying to confess in money without seeking God – they think that God will only work by someone handing them the money they need. Don’t limit God to one avenue of meeting your need. God is vast, and He has vast ways of meeting your need.
Confession is good and it’s right – I’m not belittling confession. But some just park themselves on confession and never act further. Faith is an act! Confession is an act, but many times, we need to take further action than confessing. Seek God for divine ideas and open doors of financial opportunities. What more do we need to do?
Faith will SEEK GOD at every step along the way to receive wisdom of what needs to be done. Hearing one thing from God about a situation is not always enough to arrive at fulfillment.
Just because we may know what belongs to us in Christ doesn’t dismiss us from the need to seek God. No, we don’t need to seek Him for things that already belong to us in Christ, but we may need to seek Him for wisdom to know what to do so that we can partake of what belongs to us in Christ. Sometimes we may need to make changes or adjust something. Sometimes we need greater knowledge. We may need to seek God on how to carry out our part.
Many act and keep acting without seeking God first and then just get worn out. Seek God, then act and keep acting. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently SEEK Him.
Matthew 7:7 & 8 (AMPC) instructs us, “Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.”
Ask, seek, knock – this is the action faith will take. We aren’t doing that to get God to give us what He already made ours, but for greater wisdom in how to cooperate with what He made ours.
When faced with a need, don’t just look for relief – look to use your faith. If we bypass the opportunities to practice using our faith, we end up robbing ourselves of having strong faith – and that’s dangerous – for one day we will need a miracle, and that’s going to call for faith. Let’s take every opportunity we can to develop our faith.
Everything that God said He’s given you is still yours, but it won’t come to pass automatically. If there are things God has said to you that still haven’t come to pass, sometimes it’s because you haven’t gotten it big enough in you through meditation to ACT on it.
What is your current faith project? What do you actively have your faith on? Believing is ACTING on the Word. Confession is a part, but it is not the totality of believing – faith is an act!