Process of Time As Related to Faith

Process of Time As Related to Faith

Text: Daniel 10:12-13

Introduction

Sometimes if not all the times, many of us (Christians) get confused about the use of faith. This is because we have read so many articles and books on faith and heard many evangelists and teachers speak on this word, faith and what everyone of them seems to be emphasizing is the word “now” as found in the book of Hebrews chapter 11.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)

This conjunction word, now, as written by the author of the King James Version of the bible is being emphasized by so many preachers which sometimes instead of clarifying the subject, faith, before believers confuse them the more after exercising what they thought they have exercised but the situation remains the same.

I remember when I was still in the school of the prophets, one of my friends took ill, after several sessions of prayer for him, his mother and fiancée asked if I know another powerful man of God that he could be taken to for prayers, and I said yes.

We took him to this man of God, and when he was attending to him, praying for him, he told him that he needs to exercise his faith because he ought to have been doing some things that time, and my friend replied him instantly that he is exercising his faith.

To the man, because my friend still requires assistance of people before he can stand on his feet and before he can walk, he was not exercising his faith.

This is likened to what many believers pass through in the world, when they are still using some supports before they get something done, some so called preachers of faith would tell them that they don’t have faith, they are not using their faith, because to them, faith is now, what they are doing ought to manifest instantly.

Sometimes when some believers hear this, they become miffed get confused, started asking themselves where they have gone wrong, what they have done wrong.

This process of time that I want to talk about as it is related to the word faith is the time lapse between when the prayer is answered and the time when what (or those things) we prayed for started manifesting.

Short Word on Faith

The word faith could be found 247 times in the King James Version of the bible. The Hebrew word defined as faith in the Old Testament is two and another two words can be found defined as faith in the New Testament.

In Deuteronomy 32:20, the word defined as faith is “אמוּן”, 'êmûn (pronounced as ay-moon') which means trustworthiness, truth. The second word defined as faith is “אמנה אמוּנה”, 'ĕmûnâh 'ĕmûnâh (phonetically it has this spelling, em-oo-naw', em-oo-naw') and it means firmness, security, truth, steady, stability as found in Habakkuk 2:4.

“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” (Hab 2:4)

From the above translation of the word used as faith by prophet Habakkuk, we shall see that the author is saying that the just shall live by his steadiness in the law of the Lord. Habakkuk was writing to the people after the nation has been plundered and led captive and he was telling them the word of the Lord that those who are “צדּיק”, tsaddı̂yq (pronounced as tsad-deek') which means just, lawful or righteous person shall live, continue to exist, châyâh, “חיה”, (pronounced as khaw-yaw' (which means restore, recover, quicken, be whole)) as they maintain their stability, their firmness in Yahweh but not in any other god.

This is true for us, believers, in Jesus Christ too, that we shall only continue to make impact in the world, be restored, quickened, be made whole when we are stable in our reliance on the Lord Jesus, when we maintain our firmness in Yahweh. It must not be said of us as it was being said of the children of Israel that they were children in whom there was no truth (faith).

“And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.” (Deu 32:20)

In the New Testament however, this Greek word, “ὀλιγόπιστος”, oligopistos (pronounced as ol-ig-op'-is-tos) is used when Jesus was talking to people of their little faith. The word, oligopistos, means lacking confidence, little faith as Jesus has said. The second word is the word found associated with faith and growing faith in the New Testament and it is “πίστις”, pistis, (pronounced as pis'-tis) which means credence, conviction, reliance, assurance, belief (believe), fidelity.

Believe could be found 143 times in the King James Version of the bible.

The Hebrew word written as believe in Old Testament is “אמן”, 'âman, (pronounced as aw-man') which means firm, trust, assurance. In the New Testament however, believe is “πιστεύω”, pisteuō, (pist-yoo'-o as it is phonetically spelt) which means entrust, trust.

While belief is mentioned one time in the entire King James Bible, and the place where belief is used in the bible is second Thessalonians 2:13 and it has the same meaning as faith above, it is called pistis, which means assurance, fidelity, moral conviction of religious truth.

As we could see that the word faith and believe are related which means trust, truth, reliance, firmness on something, and the thing or person required to be firmly rested upon is God through Jesus Christ.

Having seen some things about the word faith, I will want us to note some things about the word “now” as stated by the author of the book of Hebrew as we look at what happened to prophet Daniel millennia back in the tenth chapter of his book.

1. He Was Touched: Daniel was touched by the events of things, and as his attitude was, he took the burden upon himself and went to Yahweh in prayers. However, because he wants answers to what he was discussing with God, he added fasting to his prayers.

It should be noted that it was not as if he prays without fasting the prayer would not be answered, for this is the disposition of some people to prayer, and this is why some people are not growing in prayer, this is why some people cannot pray well, because in their minds any prayer that is not associated with fasting is no prayer. This is a grave error and it should be stopped.

We shall recall that this same Daniel has been praying without adding fasting to his prayers before, and his prayers are being answered by God. However, in this case, because of the burden in his heart, he decides to include fasting, because he wants rapid answer to what he was asking from God.

2. God Heard And Answered: immediately he started his prayer, God heard his petition and his prayers were answered immediately. The answers to his prayers were given unto an angel to go and give him the answers to his prayers.

3. The Angel Was blocked: as the angel set out on his mission to Daniel’s place to give him replies to what was troubling his heart, what he was talking to God about, it was discovered that the prince of Persia, Satan, went and block his way, the prince of Persia prevented him from making further advancements to prophet Daniel that God has sent him to.

“Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.

“But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (Dan 10:12-13)

From the above bible verses we could see that immediately or the “now” that the prophet started communing with God, or perhaps as prophet Isaiah says, that “and it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” (Isa 65:24) God heard and answered him. But the reply, manifestation of the answer he did not see immediately as it does happen to many believers all over the world after prayers.

4. Human Like Us: He perhaps could have been thinking after the first day of prayer that what was it that has happened as many of us do think today. But this was not recorded in the scriptures as we know that assuming many of our thoughts are also being opened to others, they would have seen what is going on in our hearts.

“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” (Jas 5:17)

Greek word for passion is “ὁμοιοπαθής”, homoiopathēs, (pronounced as hom-oy-op-ath-ace') which means similarly affected. The saints of old are also affected as we are affected today, they are also troubled as we are being troubled, but they overcome those by their steadfastness, firmness and persistency.

5. He Continued to Pray: This man continued to pray though he has not received answers desired, though he knew that his prayers has ascended to throne of God and that God has answered but despite not receiving the manifestation desired, he was not perturbed, he kept on praying, he kept on knocking the door, he kept on talking to his father to remember his promise that whenever we call unto him he will hear and answer and show us great and mighty things which we did not know.

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jer. 33:3)

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

“For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Mat 7:7-8)

He knows as the heir of Abraham, that the promise of God answering him would not fail, thus he keeps on knocking the door of his father until the door was opened and what he was expecting appeared, manifested.

6. Special Revelation: something special was revealed in this documentation of the book of Daniel 10. The continual prayers of the prophet make Yahweh to reveal something to his Prophet and by extension the entire believers in the world. What was it that was revealed? What was revealed was contained in what the angel said to the prophet while talking to him of what necessitated the delay to the manifestation of his prayers.

“But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (Dan 10: 13)

What was revealed was that the angels could be withstood, hindered, prevented from making further advancements and progress in their journeys to their destinations.

The word “withstood” in this verse in Hebrew is a compound word which are “עמד”, ‛âmad, (pronounced aw-mad') and “נגד”, neged, (pronounced as neh'-ghed). These mean to stand, in front, opposite.

This shows that the prince of Persia, pâras, “פּרס”, (pronounced as paw-ras') an eastern country stands in front of the angel and was opposing it from taken further steps. This worrisome situation lingers on for close to three weeks before an intervention was raised by God for the angel.

I hope we know that what happened to this prophet does not happen in another world, another terrestrial world neither planet apart from this world that we are in, this shows that something akin to this could also happen to us, to our prayers, thus putting our actions of faith to question, making us to question our steps, making people to question our faith when what we have prayed for have not manifested.

7. “Now” And “Process of Time”: “Now” which is an article which could be defined as instantly, immediately, shows from the interaction of the dealings of prophet Daniel with God that God does answer prayers immediately, he has no reason to delay our prayers when we have asked him in accordance to his will. However, there could in some instances be time lapse between the time he has answered our prayers, our heart desires and petitions and the time those things started manifesting.

As we exercise our faiths in him, we should always bear this in mind that in some instances this could happen, and we would have to wait for a while before those things started manifesting. When something like this happens it neither means that we lack faith nor that we have not exercised our faith as it should be contrary to some people’s beliefs and utterances, for I perceived that assuming Daniel was living during our time, such would be said about what he was doing too.

Therefore, you and I need not be discouraged but we need to be strong in our trust, confidence and reliance on the Lord, knowing that “faithful is he that calleth you (us), who also will do it.” (1 Th 5:24)