Indeed without faith, it is impossible to please God or give Him pleasure. I have recently realized that it is most unlikely that one will do the will of God or obey God without faith. As a result, one is consistently displeasing God and is very unaware of it even with all the best intentions in the world.
Obedience is key to pleasing God and following His counsel requires faith because He usually requires us to do things that appear impossible and/or unreasonable. The natural mind can hardly comprehend some of the things that God requires us to do. They just seem incapable of producing the obvious result that would appear to be the solution to the problem. It is so easy to discountenance the voice which is actually speaking the will of God and turn to the voice of reason.
Clearly, at that point, God cannot be happy. Imagine that someone turns to you for counsel, you speak to them in all honesty and sincerity and then they turn around and do something else. How pleased would you be particularly if it happens over and over again? It is most unlikely that the person will give you pleasure. The message that is transmitted is that the person does not trust your sense of judgment and/or capacity to guide them wisely.
Please come with me to 11 Chronicles 20: 15-27, where God gave the children of Judah victory over three major enemies who gathered against them. Interestingly, Israel did not have to fight; the enemies destroyed themselves. Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah cried to God for help because they were afraid and God’s response is quoted below but please how does anybody work with this? He tells you to go out battle ready, position yourselves against the enemy then He says He will give you the victory.
11 Chronicles’ 20: 15b-17 saying “Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march out against them… but you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord’s victory. He is with you”.
How does He do that? No details, doesn’t even tell you how and when He intends to intervene to give you the victory. Meanwhile you are up against three strong nations that have come against you. This is God’s method. You have to have known enough about Him to know that He shall neither leave you nor forsake you. That even if you lose the first few rounds, He shall give you the victory ultimately. Even Jehoshaphat knew the people needed to be encouraged hence his words of encouragement in verse 20b
“believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in the prophets and you will succeed.”
Their obedience must have pleased God. We are either going to believe this God or leave Him; and we can’t leave Him for He alone has the word of life. We just have to train ourselves to trust Him which can only come from meditating on His word. We have to work at trusting Him. You have to do this yourself. No one can do it for you.
We have been too long at this level of our walk with God. It is time to come up higher for of a truth, the just shall live by faith.
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