El andar de la fe

The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Therefore, go around the world teaching and preaching the gospel to all creatures, to the end of the earth. En Contacto, the biblical teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Today on En Contacto, The Path of Faith. This message is titled, The Path of Faith. If I asked you, do you walk by faith or by sight? What would you say? Do you walk by the will, purpose, and plan of God for your life, or do you just wait for things to work? God wants us to walk by trusting in Him for everything. There will be, for example, of all the biblical characters, only after the Lord Jesus, perhaps, one of the most important people in the Bible. Because there are 14 biblical chapters about this man Abraham. And when we read the word of God, we begin to see all those chapters and everything he did. And we consider the fact that he was the father of the Jewish race. So he is a very important character in the Holy Scriptures. And he came from a pagan society. And seeing where he came from and what he did, one says, there is hope for me. Yes, there is hope. Because not only did he come from a pagan society, but he was probably an idolater. One might ask, why did God choose someone like that? God chooses according to His wisdom, not according to our perspective. And God reaches him and speaks to him.

And if we go to chapter 12 of Genesis, listen to what it says. I will curse those who bless you and those who curse you, and all the families of the earth will be blessed in you. Imagine hearing that from God, having been an idolater. And God revealed to Abraham in a very special way. So when he saw what God told him, what he wished he did, he says that God asks him to leave his land. And I think that what God did in Abraham's life, He wishes to do the same in the lives of all of us. It is true that God wishes that we walk by faith. We walk by faith or by sight. The majority has to do with believing. So the first requirement to walk by faith is to be willing to listen to God. If we do not listen to Him, we will not follow Him. And that is exactly what Abraham did. He listened to God. Imagine this, that God had apparently not spoken to anyone in those hundreds of years since Noah. And then he speaks to Abraham and tells him that a great nation will be made of him. God chose to speak to Abraham and he listened to God. So in order to walk by faith, trusting in God, first you have to learn to listen to God. If I do not listen to Him, I will form my own opinions, I will make my own resolutions, decisions, and the truth is that often the decisions will be wrong. So for all of us who say we are believers and say we follow Christ, we must ask ourselves, have I learned to listen to God? When I wake up in the morning, what is the first thing I think of? Do I plan the day or have I already planned it?

Do I stop to listen to Him? Lord, does my heart speak today? What is on my mind? What is your plan? My plan is this because I work in such a place, but what is your plan? Listening to God is a basic lesson that we must learn as His followers. In fact, if we do not learn to listen to Him, we will not follow Him. learn to listen to Him, we make bad decisions, wrong decisions that are costly and very painful. God has will, purpose, and plan for our life, and He is willing to speak to us today as He did in the days of Abraham. Someone will say, but that was thousands of years ago. Remember what Jesus said. He said that He would send the Holy Spirit who would be with and over us. And the Holy Spirit speaks to us today as God spoke directly to Abraham centuries ago. So there is no excuse for not listening to God, because He speaks to us today as He would at that time. He only speaks to us from within, because the Holy Spirit is a gift from God to guide and direct us in life. God always has something to say to His children, and listening to Him is the first of all the activities that we should consider. I want to be quiet to say, Lord, what do you have to say to me? And that is what Abraham did. And while he was listening to God, let us see what he said to him in Genesis 12, from verse 1. But Jehovah had said to Abraham, he changed his name, Go away from your land, and from your kin, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make great your name, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you, and I will curse, and all the families of the earth will be blessed in you. How is it possible that he believed that? Since he had come to worship idols, God saw in him the opportunity to use him to change the whole world. He listened to God. Otherwise, he would not have moved. Look, when God says that He will do something, He will do it. God did not say, if this, that, and the other said, I will do this. Well, if that is true, we must ask ourselves, did Abraham believe what God said? The reason I know he believed is because the Bible says, And Abraham went away, as Jehovah said, and Lot went with him. And Abraham was seventy-five years old when he came out of Aram.

To listen to God with a docile ear is essential to live a pleasant life with God. And if we do not listen to Him, we lose. So, for a pleasant life with God, the first step is to listen to Him, and Abraham listened to Him. The second step is to trust in God. Because what God said to him seemed totally absurd, humanly speaking. It means to get up, to leave my family, I am seventy-five years old, to leave my family, to leave everything, and to go in the direction that you will show me as I go. He listened and trusted in God. Remember that he did not come from a fearful family of God, but the Lord spoke clearly to him. Abraham was willing to listen to Him and was able to discern His voice. Otherwise, he would not have gone. But he decided to listen to God. Now, to listen to God, our heart must be clean and pure. Otherwise, the first thing we will do is doubt. The second thing will be to give Him all the reasons why we will not do what He has asked us to do. Listen to God. He will continue to trust in God. If Abraham had not trusted in God, he would have stayed where he was. He would have said, I must be dreaming, to make a great nation, to give myself a great name, and you, Lord, will curse those who curse me. Lord, it is not possible. He listened to God and trusted in Him. Then I ask you, has God told you something so strong and so clear that you have doubted that it was possible for God to tell you? What would God have to tell you today to convince you of something He has never thought of doing? Because to give our lives to the Lord, we must be receptive to what God has to tell us. And I think many times in my life, when I was praying and the Lord was telling me something, and I would say, I don't think that is true. What else, Lord? And this is what God does. He stops us until we are willing to listen to the last thing.

He said, God does not say, I will do the second, third, fourth, fifth, if we have not decided to obey the first. And I think that one of the reasons why we do not fulfill the purpose and the will of God for our life is because we cannot process the idea that perhaps God asks us for something that we would not expect to happen. But I can see in the past, I argued with God about several things and I thought, I must be dreaming. You would not say that, Lord. I remember when I left my last church, I was only there 11 months, and I thought, my God, this is a dream, it cannot be true. I will tell you what happened, God stopped me. Nothing was going well for me, nothing of what I was saying, until I said, well, I do not like the idea, I think it is absurd, I have only been here 11 months, and you would not call me to another place so soon. But he stopped me until I was willing to say, all right, Lord. And I think that often when things do not work in our life, God stops us because we do not remember to do the last thing he tried to tell us. And Abraham left as Jehovah told him. And look, we will return to this, and Lot went with him, and Abraham was 75 years old. He took his wife, Lot, etc. I ask you, do you trust God so much that when he asks you for something, instead of arguing, you decide to do it? I will tell you how to measure your spiritual growth. How long does it take for God to tell you to do something until you do it? That is a good indicator of how committed you are. And I think that one of the reasons why people live outside of God's will is because they are not willing to take the first step. God tells you something, and people talk to him, and they tell me this all the time. Well, God does not talk to me. Of course he does. Maybe you do not listen, but God does talk to you. God does not have favorites. He loves us all. But sometimes he asks us for something that does not seem to make sense. If I want to follow the Lord, I must be willing to listen to him, and willing to trust him even if I do not understand him.

Ask yourself, has God told you something that you did not understand? That you did not want to do it, but in your heart you knew that you had to do it? Or when you look at your past, do you think, I know that God spoke to me, but I could not do it? And I have noticed this. If we trust God and we do not make mistakes, even if we genuinely make a mistake, God has the best ways to correct it. God knows our heart. He knows that we are willing to do what he asks of us, and he knows better than us that some of his requests are very difficult. But I ask, are you listening? And likewise, trust that whatever God tells you to do, you must do it. Listen to what happened. And Abraham went as Jehovah told him, and he went with him, and Abraham was 75 years old when he left. So he could have said, well sir, if you had told me when I was 40 years old, I could have done it. But I am ready to retire, and you tell me to take my family, and I will move. But Abraham took his wife Sarah, and the children of his brother, and all his possessions that they had earned, and the people that they had acquired in Aram, and they left to go to the land of Canaan, and they arrived at the land of Canaan. And part of the time they had to travel in the desert area, so God did not give them an easy journey. Abraham listened. God said, I want you to do this. And he did what God told him to do.

He took his family, and he went through that land to the place of Sikhen, to the land of Moreh, and the Canaanites were then in the land. So God sent him to a hostile territory. But he did what God ordered him to do. The question is, am I willing to listen to God? Am I willing to trust in Him, even if I don't understand what, why, when, or how? Because when we don't trust in God, we ask this. Why do you ask me to do this, Lord? How will it work? How can I, how? Or we have many questions. Our life must be such that when God speaks, we respond, perhaps, or I will think, it is probable, I don't, but yes, Lord. Because if I trust in God, I will always trust that He will give me precise and true direction, according to what He wants me to do. I have to trust in God, and when I thought about what God told Abraham to do, it was a very difficult task. To collect his possessions, all the people who worked with him, so that he would have prospered to a certain extent, he would be in the Arabian desert with all his possessions. Look, we talk about possessions, he did have some, but he listened to God, he trusted in God, and what did he do? He packed. If he had waited, the devil would have wreaked havoc on him. But God spoke to him, he knew that God had spoken to him, he had faith in that, and God said to him, this is what I want you to do, and he went and obeyed God. So I ask you, when did God tell you to do something that you did not like, that you had not planned, that seemed to have a high price, and that would be disastrous in your life, or was it something you did not want to do?

When did God ask you to do something, and it became very difficult for you to say yes, to have listened to God, to have trusted, would you have obeyed? And we are where we are as a result of our obedience or disobedience. And when I think about how much of the Bible is involved in the word obedience, and what happens is that, as parents, one of the first lessons we focus on is teaching our children to what? To obey us, because it is better for us. And while we teach them to obey us, sometimes we live disobedient to God, we wonder why our children grow as they grow, and do what they do, they just imitate us. Obedience is essential to be the kind of people that God wants us to be, and thus fulfill his will in our life. And we can give them reasons not to be obedient, but none will be acceptable to God. So Abraham listened to God, trusted God, obeyed him, and moved. It was not easy for him to do that at his age and with everything he had. Besides, it was a dangerous region, and there were the Canaanites, and they were enemies, and they went on for years and years and years. So Abraham had many reasons not to obey God. But if God makes a promise, there is no need to worry about the results. So everything is summarized in this. Am I listening to God or not? Am I willing to trust God or not? Am I willing to obey him or not? The decision is ours, and look, it is a decision that we make every day. Every day we face situations and circumstances in life that require us to make the right decision. In other words, they require us to obey God. They require us to listen to God. At no point, on any day in our life, do we have to live self-centered, without listening to God, doing what seems most natural to us. God has a purpose, a will, and a plan for our life, wherever we are. The question is, do you walk in obedience to God? Maybe you say, well, a long time ago...

That's not the point. Today, you can say, I am obedient to God as far as I can today. I have listened to him. I have tried to obey him. So where am I? I am as a result of being obedient to God. That is the kind of life He wants us to live. Most people do not think that God has a will for their life, that He has a purpose for their life. They do not think about any of that. They only think about where they will find a job, how much money they can earn, what their plans are, where they want to go on vacation, when they can own this, that, and the other. That is not God's will. God's will is, Lord, what do you want me to do in my life today? God is willing to speak to us every day of our life if we are willing to ask Him. Because, look, God knows that we do not know what to do without Him. Look at the society we live in. We live in a society that is extremely uncertain. People make all kinds of plans for the future. Number one, I am going to be obedient. I am going to listen to God and I am going to obey Him, whatever the cost. That is a decision that never fails. A wise decision, but I must take it. Abraham obeyed God, he listened to him, and it's interesting what happens. The Bible says that he did just what God told him to do. And Jehovah appeared to Abraham and said to him, To your descendants of this land, build there an altar. Who had appeared to him? Then he went from there to a mountain in the east of Bethel, set up his tent, and built there an altar to Jehovah,

and invoked the name of Jehovah. Now, what is the fourth step? Not only to listen to God, trust in Him, and obey Him, but what else? To worship God. It's very important that we stay in contact with God, that we listen to Him, that we worship Him. And to worship God means to have a life given to His will, committed to Him. I don't understand it all, but I'm committed to God. So Abraham did what he knew. God had guided him, protected him on his journey, and he didn't lack anything. And what did he do when he got to a certain point? He knew it was time to worship God. And when he built an altar to worship God, this is what he did. Not only did he speak to the Father and listen to Him, but he nailed a stake in that land. Lord, you have brought me here. I have listened to you, you have kept your word. I place a stake here, and of course, that land became the land of Israel. So ask yourself, examining your heart very well, am I living according to the will of God for my life? Perhaps you think, I should have made other decisions in the past. Well, think about this. Abraham, and I'm glad he's in the Bible, made bad decisions. But God did not stop blessing him and did not put him aside. Look, before God created anything in this life, he already knew that his children would make mistakes. They would sin against him. They would disobey him. Because living where we live, we make mistakes. There are moments of weakness, moments of failure,

and God forgives us and continues to push us. Abraham did the same. But he began where God began with him, listening to God. And that is something that we can all do every day, listen to God. Believe what he says, obey what he says, and then be grateful that we walk in his will that day. Un día a la vez, mi Cristo, dice el himno. Un día a la vez, mi Cristo, un día a la vez vivimos nuestra vida. No solo un día a la vez, sino una hora a la vez. A veces planeamos un día y Dios lo torna en una situación inesperada e imprevista. Eso es Dios dándonos guía y dirección. Entonces, que lo adoremos, lo obedezcamos, lo escuchemos, y andemos en su voluntad y su camino, es su plan para nosotros. Mire, su plan para Abraham, quien vino de una familia idólatra, su plan en verdad fue maravilloso. Pero él hubiera muerto en Harán de no haber hecho lo que Dios le dijo que hiciera. La pregunta es, ¿está usted escuchándolo? ¿Confiando en Dios? ¿Obedeciéndolo? ¿Está adorando a Dios con gratitud mientras que sigue escuchándolo? ¿Confiando y obedeciéndolo? Ese fue el mensaje de Abraham, el mensaje de Dios para todos, cada día. Ninguno de nosotros puede decir, no puedo hacer eso. Sí puede. La vida plena es la de quien escucha a Dios, confía en Dios, lo obedece y le agradece. Esa es la mejor vida, y todos sin excepción podemos vivirla. Amén. Amén. May each day of ours be well spent and well used in having followed your footsteps, Lord, and in walking according to your will and in your path.

You know that today there is someone who has not yet accepted you as his Savior, and perhaps this may seem like a double discourse to him. How can you believe in a God who has not seen? Help him to know that by being willing to pray to you alone, then you will hear and you will be known in such a way that they do not doubt that you listen to their prayer. And their prayer begins by asking you for forgiveness for their sins, for their lack of faith, for ignoring you, and then surrendering to you with a simple faith, and then seeing you act in their life. I ask you that the Spirit speak to us strongly and clearly. Listening to you is very important. Trusting you is very important. Obeying you is very important. And praising you and worshiping you is very important. We love you and praise you, Father, for having loved us. Thank you for giving us this simple example of Abraham. Record it in our mind and heart. May it be part of our lifestyle, in the name of Jesus. Amen.