Windows to the Heart of People of Faith

By Chris Anianwu

The people who wrote their names in gold in the sight of God were people of faith. Those ordinary people changed their world by believing God in the face of incredible odds. Each of them passed through unimaginable circumstances but because they held unto God, He moved in their favor.

To prove God as they did or to excel their exploits in the field of faith, it is important for us to peep into their mindset when they were in the eyes of the storms of life. The problem is that if we fail to walk in faith, we miss God. On the other hand, if we fail to learn from people of faith, we stand to lose.

A close look at what people of faith said or did when they were in the battlefield will help anybody who wants to travel far with God. A good understanding of how they were feeling and proper appropriation to our circumstances will give us the much needed victory. If they succeeded with few examples to guide them, we can do better. The ball is in our court.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456615703

Book preview

faith.

CHAPTER ONE

THE WIDOWS

Words are windows through which we go into the heart; actions are entrances into the mind and trying situations are the factors that separate the grains from the chaff. Embedded in these are myriads of tiny holes and cracks we can navigate to reach the intents of the heart.

Often we underestimate the power of our words. We tend to forget that the power of life or death lies in the tongue, Proverbs 18:21. It is critical that we understand this because our words expose the person inside our body if you know what I mean. This insight can help us control our words and actions as we walk with God and interact with other people. Whatever we are going to change in our words or actions must start by some fundamental changes in our mindset. Such changes do not come by mere wishes. They come by quality decisions we take in our walk with God.

When Esau said, Look, I am about to die, so what is this birthright to me? he despised his birthright and followed through by giving it away under oath for a plate of food. When Shechem opened his mouth too wide is Genesis 34: 11-12, he set himself up for destruction which did not take time to come. Moreover, when Cain asked God whether he was his brother’s keeper, he condemned himself for that is exactly what he was, Gen. 4:10. On the other hand, when Mary said, Be it to me according to your words, she got enormous favor that was not easily bestowed, Luke 1:8. All these people and more exposed by their words the type of people they were. They did not need to think seriously before they said whatever they said for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. They were speaking who they were. We speak what we are and we become what we speak. Until we understand the spiritual implications of the last statement, we will continue to talk ourselves into trouble.

A trip into a person’s mind is a journey we make with trepidation - all the way. It is only in fictions that one can bulldoze ones way through a person’s train of thought but even at that, one should watch it. As it is, the two ways to people’s mind are through their words and through their actions. With these we shall try and figure out what went on and what goes on in the minds of people of faith. Even the smallest insight in this direction can change our perception hugely. The aim is to help us cross the finish line with minimal bruises and in flying colors as we travel in this journey called faith vis-à-vis, our spiritual pilgrimage.

Faith and faithfulness are fundamental ingredients in our walk with God. If we fail to handle them with care, we may lose steam and collapse along the way. However, to presume that one would not fall once or twice may spell complete disaster yet it should not be an excuse for some to ‘crash out of the race’ on purpose.

We want to snake our way into the hearts of people of faith and see how they felt in the heat of battle. A tiny picture of their mindset at such times can help us edge closer to our goal in our walk with God to prove Him the more and maybe, write our names in gold as most of the great men and women we shall talk about did.

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Why God should push his children to the point of tears and near hopelessness is beyond me. Why He would allow them get into situations that force them to ask disturbing questions is still beyond many Bible scholars. We can suggest some reasons why it happened and still happens:

• It may be that God wants to know how much they can trust Him;

• He may be out to know the intents of their heart;

• Or He may do it for reasons best known to Him.

The truth is that we may never know it all until we get there. Who would tell Job that God’s signature was on all that he went through? Who would have convinced Joseph that God was signatory to what happened to him? Nobody would have convinced Hannah that God shut her womb. We can go on and on but the great news is that all these people and more came out of their problems in flying colors. The big question is, how.

I used to wonder why God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but rejected Cain’s. Before that happened, we were not told that Cain offended in any way. However, Genesis 4:7 says, If you do well, will you not be accepted? This implies among other things that God knew things about Cain we did not know. He also knows things about certain situations we may never know. Yes, He knows things about some people that we may never conceive unless we were told. In some cases even if we were told, we could not comprehend them. Therefore, God’s judgment is right and final because he weighs every aspect of a case before He passes judgment. The best we can do is judge with imperfect knowledge and incomplete information. That more often than not renders our judgment null and void.

For people of faith, on the surface, we see them as ordinary as any of us. What makes the difference is when a mighty wind blows. It never fails to tickle me as to what goes on in their mind at those critical times when every indicator showed that they had failed; when everyone knew that there was no way out; when, to many minds, the answer to the situation was a mighty negative. Yet these people kept matching on as if they already knew the end from the beginning.

You may be making an eternal mark for yourself and for children unborn in this race when you stand for the Lord in time of trouble. Yeah, the world may not know it but when books are opened and another book is opened (Rev: 20:12), you will surprise yourself. The fact that the world does not understand the great risk or sacrifice you made or you are making for the Lord is only natural for even if she was told, she could never comprehend it. It is way beyond everything she can imagine.

There are a few things in this small piece that may challenge what you knew. Chew them over before you condemn them. Do not be in a hurry to defend God. He can always defend Himself and the writer is not an atheist after all. If God fails to defend Himself, one may be right to assume that He is not there, but testimonies around the world say that He shows up at least, for His own. The good thing is that we do not have the privilege to command Him around. When we do not fully understand what is going on, our best bet is to keep calm. If we wish to talk, let us simply enquire. Yeah, some religions spread by brute force but the gospel of Jesus Christ makes its round on the wheels of love and peace. This puzzles the juggernauts out of their wits. Why Saul of Tarsus who hated the Church with every nerve in his system later became one of the greatest advocates of the same is still a mystery. So were many of us.

History is not in the past as we were made to believe. We are creating history as seconds mature into minutes. Everything we do as an individual or a nation goes down in history. We often repeat the atrocities of the past when we refuse to listen and learn from the wisdom of history because history speaks. Oh, it does. Every ardent student of history rarely commits any heinous crime because he or she knows that there a pay day. As we all know, whatever goes around comes around. If it does not happen immediately, don’t ever assume that it is over because it must come.

Besides containing true stories of people that once walked the earth, the Bible is God’s instruction to humanity. It is the perfect law that sets people free as it speaks to us through real people and true events. Since creation, God loved to relate to and with human beings.

Our walk with God is a walk of faith but faith is not always as easy as it sounds. Indeed, right from its definition, some of us started stumbling – ‘Faith is the evidence of things not seen …’ That’s a jigsaw puzzle, isn’t it? My good friend would ask, ‘How can it be evidence when you haven’t seen it?’ But that is the beauty of faith. It strides through darkness with light no ordinary eye can see.

In the journey of faith, there are mountains to climb, rivers to cross and canyons to navigate. For these reasons and more anyone that wants to make it should be equipped with some tiny pieces of information that helped people that made it to the finish line. We can get such information from men and women that have walked that path before us. As we listen to their voices and weigh their actions, we will be better equipped to do battle.

CHAPTER TWO

A PEEP INTO THE HEART OF SOME PEOPLE OF FAITH

We shall concentrate on people like Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Job and a few others to drive home a few points. A great example for our generation is the young man Joseph, but to penetrate his inner core is a little difficult. He did not say many things when he was in the ring of fire. He went through the situations that took him to his destiny with few words. Thus, he revealed so little that can allow us entry into that great empire, but the little he said and did opened some tiny windows through which we can see into his mind:

• His response to his master’s wife to disobey God showed us something about his spiritual level in the ugly situation he found himself, Gen. 39:7-10.

• His interpretation of the Baker’s and the King’s cupbearer’s dreams gave credence to the first point, Gen 40: 7-23. Despite his condition he remain faithful to God.

• Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream was the climax of one who waited for God’s time. We know that one of the hardest things to do is to wait for God’s time. If you have not been there, you may not understand the last phrase.

• Joseph’s word’s after he revealed himself to his brethren spoke volumes about him and about his new perception of God. We are talking about where he said that God took him to Egypt for a higher purpose. In effect, he was saying that his brothers did not send him to Egypt, God did. From that stand point, he could see God’s big picture as opposed to his ‘judgment’ if he had the privilege to judge from the time he was sold or when he was thrown into the dungeon.

• What he told his brother’s after the death of their father tells us that he had forgiven them from his heart of heart.

• The last but not the least was his prophecy that God would take Israel back to their home – to the land He promised their father Abraham. That exceeded everything he said. Notwithstanding everything Joseph went through, he hung unto the promise God made their father Abraham without faltering.

The same can be said about Abraham. The things he said and did give us some clues as to how he felt as a man of faith in those times when he was at the lowest point in his life:

• The first time God appeared to Abraham, he did not express any personal views. He simply said Here I am, and he followed God not knowing where he was going or how the journey would end. That was faith.

• The second time God went calling, He went with more mouth watering promises. Again, Abraham accepted the promises with yes and amen.

• Before God called again, Abraham had waited for a long time but God had not given him the ultimate promise. Sure, God blessed him mightily with wealth but if he was going to be the father of many nations; if he was going to posses the land of Canaan, he should have an heir to the land. At that time in history, a father without an heir was considered worthless. This view still lurks in the hearts of some people even among some Christians - in this jet age. This point can help us understand the dire situation Abraham found himself in when God took ages and ages to send the promised child. At the third visit Abraham opened up.

• When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, the long awaited heir, Abraham did not protest or question God. He simply left with the child to do as God had commanded him. That told God that Abraham had come of age in Him. At that point, Abraham knew the Lord he was serving. It was n longer a feeling, a thought or a presumption.

In the subsequent chapters, we will say a few things on some of the points we raised above and more but even at this point, we should know that the people of faith stood out in the crowd because they neither went with the crowd nor moved in sync with common sense. Common sense may sound nice but it does not always hold the ultimate fact. Common sense is so common that it is not even the first step to the truth. One and only one thing decided the course people of faith would take: What does God say? To them, general opinions did not stand and what the experts said did not exist. Whatever they perceived God was saying became their command - logic, the laws, theories, hypotheses and great ideas of the great could wait. This helped them prove God in such personal ways that even though they are decades dead, what they proved about God still resonate with us today.

Let me quickly add that what the enemies that were fighting to decimate Joseph’s dream did not know was that by sucking him into the dungeon where he could never have a chance to attain his dreams, they simply placed him a step away from it. I hope somebody understands this. From that vintage point, Joseph did not have to fight or work for it. Therefore, when the devil begins to toss you to and fro like a football in the heat of a game, all you need do is live the life and remain focused. However, you must know that it needs great effort from you because it may not be a smooth ride. When the apostle Paul and his mates were in the ship that was storm-tossed for many days, they did not see the sun nor did they have some food. Before they were saved, the ship had to fall apart and everyone had to swim for dear life.

On the other hand, God’s dealing with you may be a direct hit ‘below the belt’ – right from the Lord. That sounds strange, doesn’t