Through biblical examples Tony Loeffler encourages us in our faith

Tony Loeffler

In Radical Faith, part 2, we ended with the scripture about the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal and left us with the question, "Why don't we exercise this kind of authority?" I also said, "We are not radical enough. We have become too civilized in our faith. Our faith is too sterile and we are too afraid." Now lets continue on with our story of Elijah.

And so, Elijah said, "If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing." Elijah first throws out a proposition, if the Lord is God, follow Him, if Baal is, follow him.

Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire-he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good."

The people now say, that is a great idea. Of course it was. They had four hundred and fifty to one odds but were they in for the surprise of their life.

"Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Then Elijah said to all the people "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed."

"He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood." "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time.

What is with Elijah? Has he gone mad or something? He must be nuts! Isn't it hard enough just to get a fire to start and now he is building a trench in which he is going to put some water in it and on his offering as well. This is really radical faith in action.

Elijah had just seen four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal jumping around and yelling trying to get their altar to burn and he is going to put water on his offering. How radical! Today, somewhere along the faith journey many have lost the edge and become too civilized for this kind of radical faith and as a consequence, they pay the price.

"The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench". So, not only did he pour water on the altar but filled the trench. People must have been wondering in amazement, wow, is this guy for real or what? This is crazy, how can he possibly win this contest?

"At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD - he is God! The LORD -he is God!"

This was a serious and hot fire. And as you follow the story line, they end up seizing all the prophets of Baal and killing them. What would you have done in this situation? Would you have gotten the first four jars of water or the second four or the third? Elijah had radical faith! We are just not radical enough in our faith today. Now, let's look at one more story.

Before we do this, let me just add that you must have Godly humility when you do things like Elijah or Gideon whom we will now look at. I hope you see this in the stories or otherwise you might become part of the burnt rock. You want to be a humble servant while you operate in the authority you have been given through Jesus Christ.

Let's look at Gideon in the book of Judges, 6:36-40. This is another very interesting story, and recently I went through a similar experience, which I will share with you in part 4 of Radical Faith.

Remember, we can't put God into some kind of a box and say this is the way God will work or will not work. Yes, there are some principles and guidelines that are reliable, but God is God and His ways are not like our ways. So often, we catch ourselves trying to limit God and we only experience more frustration in the process.

I'm hoping that through the revelation of God's Word about how radical our faith should be and by my sharing my personal experience, that some will process this information and apply it to day-to-day situations and become world changers. Instead of having wood, altars and rock like Elijah, you might have something different where you can apply radical faith. The process will be different for each of us but you will be encouraged as you see the Lord work through this kind of faith. Begin to use it and you will rejoice as you see all that the Lord does because of radical faith.

Now, let's move on to Gideon in the book of Judges, 6:36-40.

"Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised - look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said."

God has spoken things to many of His people. He has spoken to you about your job, your family, your health issues, your children and many more things that only you would know. And you are the only one holding back the exciting things that the Lord wants to do in and through you as you live by radical faith. Do you have the courage and humility to say to the Lord, "If you are directing me to do such and such, could you just do this Lord so that I will certainly know?" That is what Gideon did.

Some of us are afraid to take this step. Some feel that we are stepping on some kind of holy ground with our shoes on if we interact with God in this way. And it keeps us out of that mysterious and powerful side of radical faith that God wants to cultivate in his people. Remember, we are part of a family who in the past lived radical faith. It is not civilized. There is nothing civilized about some of these wonderful stories of faith related in Scripture. As I already stated, there was nothing civilized about the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth dying on a cross for the forgiveness of our sin.

Somewhere on the cross of Calvary, our answers to all human suffering can be found. For, we know that it was here where the ultimate of all suffering took place. Why?Because it was God incarnate who was suffering and the difference between He and us is that He could have stopped it and didn't. This was a radical love given by the Father who said He gave His only son out of love for us. So somewhere hidden in all the pain of life is love. I don't totally understand this and I am no expert. I live by a radical faith that tells me that on some level, all human suffering was, is and must be love driven. I just can't see the end of it here on this Earth, perhaps it will all become clear on the other side.

So by faith, and radical faith to boot, I believe that all human suffering is somehow driven by love. It is so hard, if not impossible to see and equally hard to understand. There is nothing civilized about it. This is radical faith from beginning to the end.

Ok, let's get back to Gideon, he says if I put this wool fleece down and the fleece has dew on it and the ground is wet, I will know you will save Israel and the Lord did it. The Lord never said to Gideon, don't test me and make sure you don't try me.

"And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew-a bowlful of water." So Gideon had his answer. But Gideon is a lot like you and I or we are a lot like Gideon, however you want to look at it.

Look at what Gideon does next. Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew."

And God did so that night for it was dry only on the fleece and the ground was wet with dew. Notice that God wasn't insulted with Gideon's second request. God wasn't angry. He was loving and kind and generous and He still wants to encourage our faith today, especially radical faith.