Walking by Faith

There comes a point in our Christian growth when God calls us to walk by faith. Walking by faith has two key components - having faith and surrendering. This means that our walk by faith may have a couple of different stages to it (Note: there is no set path from stage to stage, however).

Baby Stage (Low Faith, Low Surrender) - In this baby stage, we do not really trust God, nor have we surrendered ourselves to Him in a significant way. We are walking by faith in name only. This is the typical starting point for most of us. The key indicators of being in this stage is that our life matters a great deal to us and we do not think God can or will take care of us.

There is a second group in this category of low faith and low surrender, but they are not babies in the faith at all. This group consists of people who have such a negative emotional picture of themselves and the Lord that they cannot trust Him or surrender themselves to Him in a significant way. Typically, they are well aware of their struggles and really want things to be different. However, they are in the ICU Stage (Low Faith, Low Surrender) where much healing needs to happen before they can walk by faith.

Self-Sufficient Stage (High Faith, Low Surrender) - When we believe in the goodness of God, but we are not yet ready to lay down our self-will to Him, we are in the self-sufficient stage. It is possible for us to have been Christians for a long time and to be well-regarded by others, and yet still be in this stage. This is especially true if we are very talented or have a lot of worldly wisdom. Because our hearts are so deceitful, it is also possible to live in this stage and not even be aware of it. The key indicators are that we still consider our lives to be important and we still think too highly of ourselves. It is a place of great, albeit subtle, pride.

Wounded Stage (Low Faith, High Surrender) - Frequently, people who have been wounded in the past are willing to surrender themselves to the Lord, but do not have any expectation of receiving anything good from Him. They are willing to pay the cost to follow Jesus, but they walk by faith in not being blessed instead of in being blessed. Because they simply cannot face the disappointment of being let down once again, it is easier to just not expect anything. The key indicators of someone in this stage are unresolved abuse, rejection and authority issues.

Faithful Stage (High Faith, High Surrender) - The person in this stage has embraced the paradox of losing their life to gain it. He or she places no importance on their life anymore - they do not love it even to death. They exist only to serve the Lord. At the same time, this person has discovered the tremendous love that the Father has for them. As a result, they gladly trust Him and have no fear of what may happen.

Notice this, though, what may happen may not be pleasant. The person in the faithful stage is no longer personally invested in how their life turns out. Their life is fully surrendered to God and they have released any claim they may have had on what God does with it. Instead, their satisfaction and success in life is found in the love of the Father - and this allows them to have great faith that whatever the Father does with them is good.

Also keep in mind that the stages presented here are not distinct categories. There are gradients to faith and surrender. Rarely will we find ourselves exactly in one category or another. However, we can begin to see what our dominant tendencies are and ask the Lord to work specifically on those areas so that we can mature in our walk with Him.

Conclusion - The way we grow in being able to walk by faith is simple: The more we know the Father and His love for us, the better we can surrender, the more faith we can have, and the more healing we will experience. So, we don't exert ourselves to generate more faith or greater surrender by ourselves. Instead, we make it our goal to press in to know the Father. As we do that, all the rest gets taken care of.