Training Faith // Crazy Faith (Part 13) – Pastor Tim Ross – Transformation Church

Introduction: Why is Training so Important to God?

• Test (in Hebrew): To venture; to put someone to the test; to give experience, train, to conduct a test, make an attempt
  • EX.) Hebrews 11:17-19: By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
    • God tested Abraham on his faith.
• When God is asking you to step out in faith, He’s asking you to make an attempt. God’s training you to become the person you never thought you could be (and couldn’t be) without Him. With God, all things are possible.

Why Would God Test Us?

• To give us experience
  • God sends us certain tests to give us experiences we wouldn’t normally have without the tests.
    • God wants us to have our own experiences with Him instead of us living off of the testimony of our parents, friends, etc. You cannot have this in the absence of experience.

• To train us

• To anchor us
  • If you’re going to be someone who operates perpetually in Crazy Faith, you have to be anchored in your faith. You have to have weight in that faith that no matter what happens, it will never knock you off your course/purpose because you have enough experience that has weighed you down in the things God has called you to do.

Three Steps to Pass Your Test:

1. Be ready to take your test

• EX.) Genesis 22:1-3: Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
  • Abraham was prepared to take his test from God.
  • God was so patient with Abraham, He waited patiently for 25+ years (in relationship with Abraham) before asking him to reciprocate. God used the first 25 years to develop His relationship with Abraham.
  • God’s first test happened 25 years after Abraham began his journey with God, and that test was circumcision. The second test happened 16 years after that, which was the sacrifice of Isaac.
• Abraham was ready to take his second test because he already had experience passing other tests (e.g. circumcision).
  • If you’re not ready to take your test, you’ll retake it.

2. Take your test

• Genesis 22:4-10: On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
  • Abraham did what God told him to do.
  • These verses show that the test is for Isaac as much as it is for Abraham. Isaac had enough faith in Abraham, his father, as well as God to not question them and actually participate in being sacrificed.
  • The dual participation and faith of Abraham and Isaac shadows what God the Father and His Son (Jesus Christ) did in the New Testament.

3. Pass your test

• Genesis 22:11-12: But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
  • Abraham passed the test and God saved him.
  • Crazy faith only happens when you pass training faith.
  • When you’re ready to give up anything that would get in the way of doing what God has called you to do, that’s when you know you’ve been trained to do what God has called you to do.
  • Hebrews 11:19 and James 2:21-23 shows that God will call you a friend, like Abraham, if you get trained
    •  Hebrews 11:19: Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
    • James 2:21-23: Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.
  • God will never test you in an area He knows you cannot pass.
  • Don’t just talk about faith, be about it because your greatest miracle is on the other side of this test.

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