Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
As a young believer I heard Arthur Burt say many times, “Your believing rules you. You don’t rule your believing.” In those early days, I didn’t really get what he was saying, but the further I walk with the Lord the more I am getting it.
Abraham’s life sheds light on how “your believing rules you.” The defining statement for his life was, “Abraham believed God” (Rom. 4:3). In other words, he believed what God told him. Although Abraham did not have the written word of God as we do, he had the spoken word of God in the form of a promise. That promise was what he put his hope into and believed. He used that word as a guide to direct his life and it totally changed the course of his life.
Here are a few things gleaned from his life.
1. Beliefs release the transforming power of God. Because Abraham believed God’s promise he was transformed from being a man from Ur of Chaldea into the father of our faith and of nations. Believing releases the transforming power of God into our lives (Eph. 1:19) and it transformed Abram to Abraham.
2. Beliefs determine what is and isn’t possible. In spite of not having any children and no natural possibilities of having any, yet because he believed God was greater than natural biological laws, he and Sarah had a son and he became the father of many nations.
3. Beliefs are the filter through which our thoughts are interpreted and applied. If I believe God loves me and something bad happens in my life the thoughts about what is happening and why will ultimately be filtered by my believing that God loves me.
Like Abraham, I may have moments in my thinking that are wrong and consequently say or do some foolish things, which can be costly, but ultimately a real belief in His love will trump all wrong thinking. Because Abraham believed what God said about Ishmael he was enabled to let go of him and experience the fulfillment of God’s promise, which was Isaac (Gen. 17:18-27).
4. Beliefs reside in our heart. They’re not only intellectual facts or information. In other words, we believe what we believe because of what we’ve experienced. That’s why you can’t learn or be taught into new beliefs. We can learn about them and that is a good thing, however, if that is all we do then we have more knowledge, but no transformation. Abraham did not just have a theology about God, he had experiences with God. Abraham had a relationship with God. He was God’s friend (Jas. 2:3).
In our case, we can’t only read the Bible and intellectually understand the theology of God and think we really believe it. It is helpful, but in the end we have to personally experience Him to truly believe it with our heart. No one was ever saved by understanding salvation intellectually. It is with the heart we believe (Rom. 10:9).
How and where does the Bible fit into this? The Scriptures are the standard, guide and example of what should and should not be happening in our experience.
5. Beliefs about God and about our self are the essential core beliefs in our life. Do I believe God is good and faithful? Is He near me and do I have access into His presence? Does God personally love me? Who am I? Does my life make a difference? Does God approve and accept me? The way we answer these questions really does determine the course of our lives.
Many Blessings, BW