Journey From Victim To Victor Series

God clearly gives victory to those who are truly faithful. We see a pattern emerge in the Old Testament, which continues through the New and should continue to the end. We have faith first, demonstrated by our actions. As we act in faith God does some kind of miracle that can only be attributed to Him. Someone witnesses God work because of the person's faith, and they come to believe and worship God. Then we worship the God that we have faith in even stronger than before.

For how many of us has worshipping God become dry and routine? If the music doesn't stimulate us, if the sermon doesn't grab our attention and give us something, we're kind of disappointed with the whole thing. How many of us spontaneously worship God in the middle of the day just because we think of Him?

Could it be that our worship has gone dry because our faith has gone dry? Can we even remember the last time we really stepped out in faith for God so that we could see him do something? You may only be given very few opportunities to do this and see God, so take advantage when you can.

Faith and true worship are the same thing if we believe what Paul says in Romans 12:1, "by the mercies of God present your bodies (physical) as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Notice which comes first in that passage? As you worship with physical sacrifice it becomes your spiritual worship. This is the pattern we see. Faith makes us act, and the results of acting in faith cause us to worship spiritually with praise and glory to God because see Him act.

The majority of the world doesn't know God, and some of that is because we are not showing Him to the world. We may not even know Him that well if we have not been walking with Him every day allowing him to give us opportunities to act in real faith and see Him, making Him more real to us than just an invisible Spirit that is waiting for us to die and go to heaven. Showing Him to the world is more than reading Bible verses, and being nice people.

Don't you want to experience God saving you from a fiery furnace or a den of Lions? Don't you want to see God miraculously provide because you give away more than you think you can afford? Wouldn't you like to be used to see a king or the president of Iran to come to faith in Jesus Christ?

These are just examples, but these kinds of things are what build faith - which is trust. It's hard to trust an invisible God that we have never seen do anything other than send Jesus 2000 years ago. It's difficult to worship from a place of utter awe and reverence when the last thing God did for us was what we read in a book.

Why has the Christian church become irrelevant and spiritually comatose for so long in the prosperous areas of the world? Could it be because we go through the motions of worshipping our idols, our church, our pastor, our music, our building, our sound equipment on Sunday mornings? Rather than every day putting ourselves in His presence, acting in real faith and seeing God move, being living sacrifices that are coming to life spiritually.