Be a giant of faith

Do you want to be a person who has faith? Would you like a belief that can move mountains? Would you like to partake of a faith that can bring the dead back to life, a faith like David who could kill a giant? There may be many giants in your life that you want to destroy. This is the case with most Christians, including me. Do you want to become a giant of faith? You can, but you cannot do it alone!

Often times, Christians who have completed the 1st1. Read the chapter of Hebrews that you would consider yourself extremely lucky if you were to match just one of these people from biblical history. God would also be satisfied with you then. This view is due to the fact that most Christians believe that this passage should guide us to be like them and to emulate them. However, this is not their objective and not even the Old Testament stands for this thrust. After listing all men and women named as representative of their faith, the author continues with the words: «That is why we too, who are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, want to lay off all burdens and the sin that so easily ensnares us . We want to run with perseverance in the race that lies ahead of us and look to him who precedes our faith and completes it, to Jesus »(Hebrews 12,1-2 ZB). Did you notice anything about these words? Those giants of the faith are called witnesses, but what kind of witnesses were they? We find the answer to this in Jesus' statement, which we can read in the Gospel of John: "My Father works until this day, and I also work" (John 5,17). Jesus asserted that God is his Father. "That is why the Jews tried even more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father and made himself equal to God" (John 5,18). Realizing that he was not believed, he tells them that he has four witnesses who prove that he is the Son of God.

Jesus names four witnesses

Jesus admits that his own testimony alone is not credible: "If I testify of myself, my testimony is not true" (John 5,31). If even Jesus cannot testify about himself, who can? How do we know he's telling the truth? How do we know he is the Messiah? How do we know that with his life, death, and resurrection he can bring us salvation? Well, he tells us where to turn our gaze in this regard. Like a public prosecutor who calls witnesses to verify an allegation or allegation, Jesus names John the Baptist as his first witness: “It is someone else who testifies of me; and I know the testimony he gives of me is true. You sent to John and he bore witness to the truth »(John 5,32-33). He testified to Jesus by saying: "Behold, this is the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world!" (Johannes 1,29).
A second testimony are the works that Jesus did through his Father: «But I have a greater testimony than that of John; for the works that the Father gave me to complete, these very works that I do, testify to me that the Father sent me »(John 5,36).

However, some Jews did not believe John or Jesus' teachings and miracles. That is why Jesus cited a third witness: "The Father who sent me testified of me" (John 5,37). When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan, God said: “This is my dear Son, in whom I am well pleased; you should hear that! »(Matthew 17,5).

Some of his listeners were not at the river that day and therefore had not heard the words of God. If you had listened to Jesus that day, you might have been skeptical of Jesus' teachings and miracles, or you would not have heard the voice of God at the Jordan, but in no case would you have been able to withdraw from the last witness. Finally, Jesus presents them with the ultimate witness available to them. Who was this witness?

Hear the words of Jesus: "You search the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them - and it is they who bear witness about me" (John 5,39 Eg). Yes, the scriptures bear witness to who Jesus is. What writings are we talking about here? At the time when Jesus spoke these words, they were those of the Old Testament. How did they bear witness to him? Jesus is never explicitly mentioned there. As already stated at the beginning, the events and protagonists in John mentioned there bear witness to him. They are his witnesses. All people in the Old Testament who walked by faith were a shadow of things to come: "Who are a shadow of things to come, but the body itself is of Christ" (Colossians 2,17 Eberfeld Bible).

David and Goliath

What does all of this have to do with you as a future giant of faith? Well everything! Let us turn to the story of David and Goliath, the story in which a shepherd boy is so strong in faith that he manages to bring a giant to the ground with a single stone (1. Book of Samuel 17). Many of us are reading this story and are wondering why we don't have David's faith. We believe they were recorded to teach us how to become like David so that we too could equally believe in God and conquer the giants in our lives.

In this story, however, David is not representative of us personally. So we shouldn't see each other in his place. As a harbinger of the future, he testified to Jesus like the other witnesses named in the Letter to the Hebrews. Representative for us are the armies of Israel, which fearfully shrank back from Goliath. Let me explain how I see this. David was a shepherd, but in Psalm 23 he proclaims: "The Lord is my Shepherd". Jesus spoke of himself: "I am the good shepherd" (John 10,11). David came from Bethlehem, where Jesus was born (1. Sam 17,12). David was supposed to go to the battlefield at the behest of his father Jesse (verse 20) and Jesus said he had been sent by his father.
King Saul had promised to give his daughter to the man who could kill Goliath (1. Sam 17,25). Jesus will marry his church when he comes again. Goliath had mocked the armies of Israel for 40 days (verse 16) and also for 40 days Jesus had fasted and been tempted by the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4,1-11). David turned to Goliath and said: "This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I will kill you and cut off your head" (verse 46 ZB).

In turn, Jesus became im 1. The Book of Moses prophesies that he will crush the head of the serpent, the devil (1. Mose 3,15). As soon as Goliath was dead, the armies of Israel routed the Philistines and killed many of them. However, the battle had already been won with Goliat's death.

Do you have faith?

Jesus said: “In the world you are afraid; but be of good cheer, I have conquered the world »(John 16,33). The truth is that it is not we who have the faith to meet the giant who opposes us, but the faith of Jesus. He has faith for us. He has already defeated the giants for us. It is only up to us to put to flight what is left of the enemy. We have no faith of our own accord. It is Jesus: "We want to look to him who precedes our faith and perfects it" (Hebrews 12,2 Eg).

Paul puts it this way: “For by the law I died to the law, that I might live to God. I am crucified with Christ. I live, but now not I, but Christ lives in me. For what I now live in the flesh I live in faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me »(Galatians 2,19 - 20).
So how do you become a giant of faith? By living in Christ and he in you: "In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you" (John 14,20).

The giants of faith mentioned in the Letter to the Hebrews were witnesses and harbingers of Jesus Christ, who preceded and perfected our faith. Without Christ we can do nothing! It wasn't David who killed Goliath. It was Jesus Christ himself! We humans do not have faith to the extent of a mustard seed that can move mountains. When Jesus said: "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree: Pull yourself out and transplant yourself into the sea, and he would obey you" (Luke 17,6). He meant ironically: You have no faith at all!

Dear reader, your actions and achievements do not make you a giant of faith. Nor will you become one by asking God intensely to increase your faith. That will be of no use to you because you are already a giant of faith in Christ and through his faith you will overcome everything through him and in him! He has already preceded and perfected your faith. Forward! Down with the goliath!

by Takalani Musekwa