Triumphant Faith Series

Triumphant: - having won a battle or contest; victorious. Feeling or expressing jubilation after having won a victory or mastered a difficulty. Triumphant faith is a actually a transition from faith to joy, from faith to praise.

However Triumphant Faith is different - Triumphant faith is the result of going from tested faith – putting faith into action – living by faith – to expressing Joy. Triumphant faith is not instant faith; sometimes it takes a long time, but it always wins in the long run. Triumphant Faith is not having won the battle yet, it is not yet been victorious yet in the midst of the battle, storm, struggle, or war you can YET PRAISE GOD because you know without a shadow of doubt that you will win, because you understand that all thing work for good to them who are the called according to His purpose.

The Transition to Triumphant Faith Habakkuk 3 is the prophet’s prayer of faith. This prayer concludes the Book of Habakkuk.

PRAYER: -

SCRIPTURE: - Habakkuk 3:1-19.

OPENING:- Habakkuk is a picture of a man of God who was struggling with human emotions and frustration at God for allowing evil to dominate what was supposed to be a righteous nation. However, he determined to accept God’s will and live by faith through the circumstances God would send in punishment for apostasy. He asked God to revive His work among the people. He recognized that God’s purposes in world events center on the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Habakkuk opened his prayer by confessing his human fear of the coming events Habakkuk 3:2 says “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy”. Yet he did not charge God with injustice even though he struggled to understand the purposes of God.

Habakkuk started out by questioning God’s justice. Now he is blown away at the invincible, unstoppable, awesome justice of God, and so chapter 3 is a prayer, in faith, asking God to remember mercy, and save his people as he punishes their enemies. He is now convinced that God will repay Babylon; he now has triumphant faith; so, he prays for deliverance for God’s people.

The question is now how did Habakkuk get from a place of confusion and worry and fear to a place of triumphant faith where in the midst of trials and tribulation, when nothing around him has changed, yet he is able to have confidence and joy? The people were still mocking God, violence still filled the streets, and the Babylonians were still going to attack Jerusalem and take them into captivity.

Outwardly, everything was still as messed up as it was at the very beginning when he questioned God. Nothing visible changed, but something changed inside of Habakkuk. He transitioned from questioning God to rejoicing and praising God despite what was going on. How did that happen? How did Habakkuk go from Tested Faith to eventually Triumphant Faith.

TEXT:- At the end of chapter 2, God’s revelation is done and there is a break before chapter 3 we do not know for sure how much time has passed. However; Habakkuk is silenced - he is literally awe struck at the awesome justice of God - He has literally blown Habakkuk mind. Once Habakkuk finally regains his voice, we get to his response.

In verses 3–15, his praise takes the form of celebrating the justice and power of God as a divine warrior who goes out and fights on behalf of his people. He rules over nature. God marches toward the enemy of His people like an unstoppable army approaches battle (verse 6). He has his horses and chariot of salvation (verse 8). He is the divine warrior, with bow and arrows and spear (verses 9, 11). He threshes the nations (verse 12) meaning he will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. Habakkuk realizes He is the same God in Moses’s day, Joshua’s day, and David’s day and He is the same in his day and WATCH THIS He is the same today – Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever”.

Then in this grandiose vision of God as the divine warrior, there’s the turn of mercy for his people in verse 13 says “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah”.

God revealed his justice in chapter 2, and now, acknowledging that, and renewed in his faith, Habakkuk is pleading for mercy, for salvation verses 13 and 18.

The vision of God as the divine warrior, fighting for his people, against their enemies culminates in verse 15 “You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters”; Habakkuk then finishes with what some commentators states is one of the most beautiful and powerful affirmations of faith in all the Bible (along with perhaps Job 19:25 and Romans 8:31–39 and 2 Timothy 1:12) in verses 16–19.