A Fellowship of Believers

A Verse For When… Stepping Out in Faith Feels Scary

Have you ever received an instruction or mission from God? You could just tell, without a doubt, that He was speaking to you and directing you to do a specific thing? It may have been a small thing. Maybe He was prompting you to give a $5 bill to the homeless person you encountered on a street corner. Or maybe He was telling you to invite a friend to church or Bible study. 

Sometimes, though, God tells us to do bigger things. He plants seeds in our hearts that are the beginnings of long term projects and missions to set out on. God has placed seeds of this kind in my heart many different times throughout my life. Sometimes I’ve been faithful to see them through, while other times I’ve faltered. One time in particular that sticks in my mind was when I really heard God telling me to set out on an entrepreneurial venture. So I did! I sprang into action. I educated myself about the undertaking ahead of me, filed paperwork in the proper places and recruited people to help me with various startup tasks and procedures that helped me move forward. I felt the hand of God on me as I labored! In a variety of ways, things just “happened” to work out in impressive and beautiful ways. It felt like the wind of the Spirit was at my back.

But then, I arrived at a fork in the road. I came to a specific point of needing to raise money before I could move any further, and I simply wasn’t interested in doing that. I didn’t want to ask people for money, I didn’t feel like I was a natural saleswoman, and I generally disliked the feeling of needing to depend on others. Lots of “I” in there, as you can see… Ultimately, when I came up against this challenge, I stopped. I literally went no further, and still today, the project remains exactly where it was 10 years ago when I arrived at this confrontation of sorts that I was unwilling to challenge and overcome.

Who was this confrontation between? My, myself and I. My rational mind squared up against my intuitive mind, and reason and logic prevailed. Why would people want to give me money? Did I really want to end up getting stuck fundraising regularly? How would the financials actually work out? And so on, and so on. Bottom line, I finally arrived at a crossroads where I needed to step out in faith that God would provide, and I chose to stay stuck in the fear of my flesh. So the dream God planted in my heart and touched with His favor in undeniable ways was halted by my human nature. 

Of course, I wasn’t really processing all of that in the moment. I was convincing myself, with human reason and logic, that I was making the right choice. Only now, years later, am I able to look back and see through the Holy Spirit’s insight exactly what was going on—the battle that was raging. The battle between the Spirit and my flesh. This verse opened my eyes:

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? -Galatians 3:3

I had started by means of the Spirit and then tried to finish by means of the flesh. I got to a point where I had no choice but to step out in faith and trust God to provide, and my human nature stopped me from going any further. My mind convinced me to stay safely in the realm of the rational. 

Is there something God has called you to do that will absolutely require His power to accomplish? Take a lesson from my past struggle. Start in the Spirit, and then go ahead and move forward to finish in the Spirit, too! It will definitely not be easy. Why? Because you’ll arrive at a place where you have to actually trust God. You’ll come to the end of your own human capabilities, which means you’ll have to step out into the unknown and act—perhaps before being able to see the whole picture. 

I heard Christine Caine once say that faith is predicated on trust, not understanding. She asked, Can you trust God even when you can’t trace Him? Finishing a God-ordained mission will probably involve you standing at a crossroads and making a conscious decision to move forward in the Spirit even though it would be much more comfortable to strive and reason in the flesh. You won’t understand everything fully! That’s where the faith will come in. 

So go ahead and pre-decide right now that you’ll start AND finish in the Spirit. When you’re tempted to switch over into flesh mode, read Galatians 3:3. (And if you’re feeling feisty, ask yourself, are you so foolish?) God’s miraculous power can begin to show when we come to the end of ourselves. Don’t try to finish by yourself the work God started in you. Start in the Spirit; finish in the Spirit.