54 - The Twelve Movements - #4 A Man Grows in Faith
The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com). Contact Bryan Barley for coaching at bryan@vothcenter.com.
A man grows in faith:
He matures over a lifetime to live with a “heart” of certainty about God. He knows in his heart that God is always faithful to His promises and is always present in the man’s life
He grows in his faith starting with fear, which God gave us to:
recognize our need for help
hope for an outcome that “saves” me
speak our needs
face our powerlessness over life
express our hopes
By using fear as God intended it to be used (Episodes # 19 and Episode #20), we actually grow our faith, from an infancy to a maturity.
By using our fear to reach out to God with our feelings, needs, desire, longings and hope, we begin to develop a trust in God’s presence and action in our lives.
Fear can initiate this equation:
Fear Expresses Hope + Expression of Desire + Risk of Action = Outcomes that Develop Faith
A man needs to grow in:
dependence upon God
how God created us
how one is uniquely created
As a man (or woman) practices the equation, he finds that “infant” faith grows. In other words, infant faith begins to become “memories” of God’s presence in his life.
Through practice over time, a man (or woman) develops a more mature faith that we can call “certainty.”
Infant faith is Hope + Expression of Desire + Risk of Action = Outcomes that Develop Faith.
Maturing faith is having memory of God’s presence in the past.
Mature faith is certainty of God’s presence even in the most difficult times.
When we feed the roots of the heart (feelings, needs, desire, longings, and hope), we grow the fruits of:
living fully
loving deeply
leading well.
The roots of how God created us are expressed at birth. The APGAR (Episode #2 and Episode #3) speaks to how we come into life with rudimentary faith. We naturally reach for connection, safety, and fulfillment with a desire to grow.
Faith often requires stepping into uncertainty of what will happen. So many movies express this form of risk. For example in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), when Indiana steps off an edge and out onto what he hopes is an invisible bridge. He hopes but he cannot see what he is hoping for.
Psalm 8 speaks to this rudimentary faith when David says, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained strength.” (Psalm 8:2, NIV) The strength is how He created us, to “speak” the truths of the heart, and to reach with our “roots” to the one who will grow “fruits” of fulfillment in us.
A child comes into life expressing in rudimentary form what Hebrews 11:1 says the “ancients were commended for.” “Now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)
Life tragedies create doubt in how we are created as image-bearers of God and threatens to tear apart how we are born to seek fulfillment as God created us to do.
We spend so much of our lives hiding our fear that we can lose the benefit of fear.
Fear is the beginning of faith; it moves us to “cry out” rather than “hide out.”
This is basic logic is a reasonable conclusion that we work to run from.
Fear is in us to expose and grow us, rather than prompt us to hide and become more defensive and isolated.
Our faith grows when we respond to being in need by letting fear have a voice that expresses a desire for help in all of its forms (for growth, healing, learning, safety, development, etc.)
Erasmus said: “God is not elsewhere—bidden or unbidden, God is present.”
Faith leads to an assurance that our God is always present.
We meet our God through faith. We do not “see” God in an experiential way without faith:
Hope + expression of desire + risk of action = outcomes that develop faith.
When we defer hope, as in suppress it, we run from getting to experience God and the gifts that faith can bring.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12).
We become sick when we run away from how God created us.
We find life when we dare to develop faith.
Movement #4 is: A man grows in faith. He does so through fear, which allows him to express needs, face powerlessness, and express hope, and take action. This faith grows him in the courage to live fully, love deeply, and lead well, a life a that blesses others.
Dr. Chip Dodd
Voice of the Heart Center