BEGINNINGS!!

Abraham was the father of faith.  He is the foundation that we have been given.  He stepped out on nothing and didn't receive the promise but he saw it afar off (the promise that God would make of him a great nation).  What he received was the beginning of it.  He saw it come to pass in the birth of his son.

Sometimes beginnings are difficult when you have gone through a process and you have not passed this way before.  I once asked God to throw me in the furnace and burn away all the crap on the inside.  When I told a friend this she said " I want God to be gently lead and guide me gradually and I thought wow why go gently just get it over with" Now I know exactly what she was talking about having come through the fire and the flood and whatever you name it I have come through it in the past 6 years.  Be careful what you ask for:  

Being pressed and stretched and pummeled into shape is not easy and it takes the help of God who is doing the process to keep you in that fire cause trust me you want to jump out at every opportunity especially when you don't know or understand what’s going on.  As one who has been there done that I can now say that I appreciate it on this side because I couldn't while I was in it.  I called it the ninth rung of hell. 

I mention Abraham because he received a beginning and not the actual promise.  I believe that when you go through the process and when you come out on the other side you receive just that a beginning. a clean slate, the freedom to run and a foundation that is firm and secure.

Now faith is intrinsic in that beginning, if Abraham didn't have the faith to step out I wonder where he would be.  If Noah didn't have the faith to build that Ark (and by doing so he condemned the world to destruction) where would we be.  I heard it said that God would have found someone else but I wonder because if we believe the premise that we are made for a specific purpose and we all have a specific assignment on this earth......hmmm that’s another topic.

The beginning is FAITH & CONFIDENCE it’s as simple and complex as that.  FAITH & CONFIDENCE that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do.  FAITH & CONFIDENCE where you can see nothing in front of you but you trust and believe the God who has brought you through so much.  You recognise that you are strong, healthy, confident and grateful, that you came through the darkness and someone finally turned the lights on and you can think clearly and you can FUNCTION at a new level.

FAITH & CONFIDENCE people that is what is needed to begin again.  Look at your own lives and think about the times when you have begun again or started something and all it took was a little bit of faith, confidence & courage.  Sure fear is there it’s always there but you have to step past it.  I read a book by Bruce Wilkinson called The Dream Giver and it was about a person who was afraid to leave his comfort zone but once he was given the big dream by the dream giver he stepped out past the fear and kept going.

So take that first step to begin again.  To pursue the dream, vision or that thing that has been burning in your heart for so long.  All it takes it a little Faith and a first step. 

So STEP and have a little faith that he will catch you and be your constant companion.

Remember "Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen"

To begin again have FAITH & CONFIDENCE!  

STEP OUT!!!!