We’ve been looking at doing great feats for God and how having radical faith in every arena of society is what will transform revival into awakening. This has led us to examine the scriptures on how much risk we should take in endeavors for God by evaluating where we are in our faith. Romans 12:3 tells us to “think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” Therefore, I offered some questions to help us evaluate how much risk we should take. 

Steps of Faith, not Leaps of Faith

I want to take a moment and lay out some basics on how to exercise our faith to bring about huge kingdom transformations.  This is particularly relevant in executing vision, working within institutions, and fleshing out big projects. 

Size Things Up

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

Luke 14:28-31

If you plan on excelling at practical faith, then you must size up your situation.  You need to evaluate what you are up against, and fully understand what victory looks like. What size is the giant you plan to take out?  How big is your goal?  Where is the finish line? 

Jesus certainly wasn’t against evaluation. The context of this passage of scripture listed above is counting the cost of following Christ, but the principle still applies to the rest of life: we must size up the situation. 

What mountain are you speaking to?  Where do you want it to land? How will you know the mountain has been moved? Too many believers have vague ideas on what they are  attempting to accomplish. You can’t focus your faith on a goal if the target is unclear.  Size things up and get specific in terms of results. 

Speak to the Mountain

Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:22-24

Say what you’re going to do.  Speak out the results you’re expecting. Command the thing to move.  Command the blessing to come. Align your words with your intentions and goals. Quit being double-minded and guide your life through your words. 

Take Faith Steps 

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 2:17

If you want to be successful, then you must also break your bigger goals into smaller goals.  Faith produces works. The NIV says faith must be accompanied by action. You must take ownership of the end result. You must take action. 

The Holy Spirit communicates to us to take a step and then gives us the next possible steps. If there is a first step, there must be a second. If there’s a second step, there’s a process.  Faith produces work that must be conducted one step at a time.  God fills us with faith and vision, then we step toward our dreams, decisions, and destiny. 

Movement toward our larger goal must be broken down into actionable steps. The Bible has a lot to say about taking steps of faith.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Psalm 119:105

The reason God’s word is a lamp for our feet is because it shows us the next step to take.  It’s not the spotlight that illuminates the entire road. God highlights our path one step at a time. 

Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.

Habakkuk 2:2

Write Down the Vision

This passage tells us about the process of implementation of God’s plan for our life and the fleshing out of vision.  It tells us as we receive revelation and vision from God, then we must first write it down. Writing down the vision gives us clarity.  This clarity highlights the path we should take. It shows us where to run. Also, as we write out the vision we evaluate and size up each step in the process. 

Writing gives us clarity in what we actually desire. It focuses what God is speaking to us, and this focus produces a workable strategy.

Implement the Vision in Steps

Vision is fulfilled by executing the smaller steps within the process. Habakkuk says the herald must run with it.  How does one run?  Walking is taking steps slowly.  Running is taking steps quickly. How can one implement the steps of vision quickly?  They can run if they have a strategy. This gives them a map of where they are running. 

We see again that revelation must be implemented by taking steps.  For more scriptures about this, see Psalm 37:23, Psalm 85:13, Proverbs 2:7, Proverbs 6:22, Isaiah 2:5. 

Don’t Make Leaps of Faith

Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to make leaps of faith.  The Bible is clear we walk by faith and we make steps of faith.  The devil is the one who pushes us into making irrational leaps of faith. 

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Matthew 4:5-7

It’s the kingdom of darkness that brings you to the peak of the temple and says to jump. The devil will even give you a scripture to confess while you’re falling. He brings you to a current height of personal success, then screams, “Jump!”  “Risk it all!” “This is what God wants!”

I want to be clear— there are times that God calls us to walk away from it all and lay it all down at the feet of Jesus. Sometimes, we calculate that the reward in the age to come is greater than the pleasures of this life, and we pour our life out at the feet of Jesus.  However, I want to make it very  clear that it’s the demonic that tempts you to be needlessly reckless.  Recklessness is not effective stewardship of the total sum of resources of which we’ve been placed in charge. Stewardship is not contrary to faith, but works in conjunctions with faith. 

When we take steps of faith, then the Father sees that we are using our talents and abilities. He observes that we are stewarding what resources He has given and the faith He has seeded within us. During this process, the Holy Spirit is crafting an entire life that moves towards God’s plan.  He’s creating a life of worship. 

Steps of Faith Produces A Life of Worship

A life of worship executes the smaller goals (the steps of faith) faithfully.  The stewardship of our calling is execution of the small goals and tasks that He has placed before us. 

Too many Christians assume that it is solely God’s responsibility to bring about our destiny, but God gave us this life and we must take responsibility for it.  Too many believers are waiting on God to do everything.  A dream without a goal is only a wish, and wishes don’t come true.  God will part the Red Sea for you if you’re willing to walk to the shore. Even then, the crossing of the Red Sea was only a step toward the larger goal of settling the Promise Land. 

As we write the vision, in accordance to Habakkuk, we see a potential strategy beginning to emerge. We must continue to mine the strategy from the core of the vision.   The goals, the plans, and the strategies are locked within the revelation and we must unlock them.  As the strategy is fleshed out on paper, then we must begin.  We must make the first step. Then a second, and then a third. We are required to embrace the process. As we continually and faithfully work this process by making steps of faith, then natural efforts, spurred on by faith, begin to take on a life in and of themselves.  The Holy Spirit breaths on our natural efforts and turns them into supernatural realities.  As Zechariah 4:10 says, “Who dares despise the day of small things…” 

You are a champion made to accomplish and do great endeavors for the glory of God.  Don’t look at what you don’t have.  Don’t feel as if you have no advantages. Get a revelation, then make a step.