Faith

I was privileged to be asked to facilitate an Alpha course session on Faith. I include this here trusting that it will provide some clarity about faith to someone. You will note that I included references to the Alpha course youth series videos that contain African testimonies.

Life is full of questions. What, why, who and how? We, as humans, ask questions about the meaning of life.

In this session, we are going to be looking at (a) what is faith, (b) why we search for it and (c) who we should believe in.

Every human being believes in something. Faith is what you believe. For Christians it’s believing in God’s goodness and choosing to rely on Him.

The search for the purpose of life, has puzzled people for thousands of years. The reason it has puzzled people is that we tend to start with a focus on ourselves, i.e. what should I do with my life? Why am I here? We all do this, but it’s the wrong place to look. We need to begin with God. He is the One Who created you, and only He knows why you were created (The 'Who').

The reality is that we were created by God for God. It is only in God that we can discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.[extracts from The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren]

In this world, trust isn’t easy. But trust and faith go hand in hand. Trust in God requires faith – in order to Trust in Him, you first need to believe that He exists! Believe, and understanding follows, as God reveals Himself to you over time.

As a result, faith is something that can grow deeper, especially as we pray and ask God for more faith.

I will now illustrate this principle by way of some practical examples of degrees of faith.

1) Use a pistol close to the target and further away from the target to highlight the points of the first requiring no faith and the latter requiring some faith, and then , using an audience member holding the target above their head, requiring more faith that I will not shoot them instead of the target!

2) Also, use the tightrope example, with it being on the floor requiring no faith, but the higher it is off the ground, the more faith is required to walk it.

I will now relate my static line jump experience in detail (required BIG faith).

Highlights: Trust in the equipment and training convinced me it was safe to jump, but when I was standing on the wing I started to doubt! Then I decided I was going to go ‘ALL IN’ and I jumped! Either I would survive, or I would die.

My parachute did not open and I thought I heard God speaking to me when I heard a voice shouting “Flare!”. I thought, “I don’t need a flare now, I need a parachute that opens!”

It turns out that it was not God speaking to me but my instructor shouting at me through the speaker box on my chest. So, I did the ‘flare; maneuver with my arms and the parachute drawstrings, and the parachute opened.

The glide down was an amazing experience, just as a leap of faith can open up amazing experiences to you. I almost hit a tree before I landed, but life and faith are like that – it’s not always only plain sailing.

I know I jumped, even though I don’t have evidence because my brother-in-law filmed the wrong person coming down!

Being ‘all-in’ is like being pregnant. I am sure that nobody here has heard about being ‘half-pregnant’? Either you are pregnant or you are not! Belief in God is an all-in thing. We can’t half believe in God. Either we believe in Him and choose to trust him with our lives, or we don’t.

Most bible translations for the definition of faith include the word Hope.

Hope is our reason for doing something (The 'Why'). It is the prize at the end of the race, or the certificate at the end of the course, which is the reason you are all here, so that you can then get employment and become better versions of yourselves.

Show the Alpha video from 2:29 to 3:27 about Christianity being more than just believing in God, but also about becoming new people, children of God.

Then skip forward to 7:02 to 11:20 about evidence, confidence, how we receive faith and relationship.

Allow time in groups to discuss the question about how they feel about Christianity describing faith as being a relationship with God.

How do we experience relationship?

Go through the practical example of asking someone to show a happy face, a sad face, and an angry face. Also, show how not to appropriately respond to someone’s body language, for example, if someone offers you a handshake, you don’t turn around and ignore them, or if someone comes in for a hug, you don’t put up your fists in a gesture indicating wanting to fight. This is how we know we are connecting with people – their expressions inform us what they are feeling in relation to us. Relationship is a two-way street, that requires both parties doing something. It doesn’t grow on its own. It requires effort from both sides.

In the video clip they mentioned Revelation 3:20 as Jesus knocking on our door. I will come in = His promise. Show the extract from the Film Series of Alpha about the painting and the important point of the door handle being on the inside of our heart and only we can open it as our free choice.

In the video they mention that faith comes from hearing the Word of God, or from reading scripture. I have experienced that, because we are fickle beings that don’t trust easily, faith grows over time as we establish trust in God.

I will now relate my MRI experience in overcoming claustrophobia by reciting the fruits of the spirit while in that really confined space for about 15 to 20 minutes, lying perfectly still and not having to use the panic button, and then having the confidence of my faith to trust Him to heal my compressed nerve in my spine specialists said operating might not heal/was dangerous, after our small group members laid hands on me and prayed for my healing.

Continue the Alpha video from 11:20 to 17:40

Allow time in groups to discuss the question (where are you in your relationship with God: the pool scene).

The one lady in an earlier video clip said “I think it’s more like a relationship when you actually bother, otherwise I don’t like calling it a relationship”.

God created us as relational beings, that is, we seek relationship. He created Eve from Adam’s rib, for companionship (and other things like procreation – giggle/wink).

He sent Jesus to earth to show us how to live our lives, and also how we should relate to our Father, our creator. He illustrated this for us in how He lived.

Jesus died for our sins so that we can be reconciled in relationship to God our Father.

Our sinfulness separated us from experiencing full relationship with Him, and so he carried the punishment for our sins and rose again from the dead, and in doing so he conquered both death and sin’s power over us.

This is God’s gift to us. Believing in Him and accepting His gift gives us access to His Grace, which is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.

Don’t reject God’s gift to us like Ben did with Jason’s gift of an ice cream cone in the video. Also, don’t ignore or abuse it.

God is only as far away from us as we make Him. As we step out in faith, He equips and uses us. He is always with us. Trust in this. You can rely on Him.

I now share how the Holy Spirit enabled me to pray for people on the Holy Spirit day despite my reservations about possibly not being equipped or capable of it – He put words in my mouth that I don’t recall now, but that the ladies I prayed for found reassuring and helpful! One lady even approached me for prayer, so I didn't have to approach her.

Continue with the Alpha video from 17:40 to 21:15.

Per John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

The invitation and gift are open to all people. You are not excluded. Accept His gift.