Romans 4:21, (speaking of Abraham) “And being fully persuaded that what He (God) had promised, He was able also to perform”.
When God speaks, the journey to strong faith, being fully persuaded begins. Abraham must have had times, on his journey, when he wrestled with unbelief, which sought to grip him and rob him of God’s promise – that he and Sarah would conceive a child together in old age, in whom would be divine destiny and purpose. Sarah laughed to herself when she considered that she was past child bearing age. Abraham doubted with the passage of time and tried to “help God out” by conceiving a child with Hagar, Sarah’s maid, and the birth of Ishmael resulted. But Ishmael was not the child God had promised, and Ishmael had to go. The “Isaac” child cannot live peaceably in the same household as “Ishmael”. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Isaac represented divine purpose, Ishmael represented permission. Permission occupies valuable ground intended for God’s purpose.
The journey to strong faith is not the absence of doubt, it is a God-given belief that overcomes doubt. When I receive revelation from the Holy Spirit, my responsibility is to apply it to my life. If all I do is talk about it, share or apply it to others, that Holy Ghost revelation just becomes information or knowledge to me, and I become the sounding brass and tinkling symbol of 1 Corinthians 13.
Romans 4: 20-22 reveals the hand of God has worked in Abraham’s life to bring him to strong faith now: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness”.
The next two verses declare that this “imputed righteousness” was not written just for Abraham, but for us also who believe in Christ Jesus: “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead.”
Each of us has circumstances that challenge our believing and would rob us of the imputation, that God wants to give us.
God said it, that settles it!
If my heart is not Christ controlled, I won’t be “fully persuaded” and I am robbed of God’s peace. Abraham came to the place when he was fully persuaded that he “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief”, (v. 20). He had stopped considering the circumstances (v. 19), of his and Sarah’s aged bodies and was believing for what God had promised.
Only when we meet the impossible will we find the resources of God!
If we consider our circumstances in unbelief, we will have a “fit of the staggers”. When we are fully persuaded we consider the greatness of our God amid the circumstances, then all the benefits of that position in Christ are released in our lives, evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit, (Galatians 5). The Lord enables us to stand firm and not stagger until the promise of His word comes to pass in impartation.
Impute precedes impart. They are different stages of our journey. At the end of our journey the royal exchange has taken place in many forms: unbelief and doubt replaced by strong faith, strife replaced by peace, resisting God replaced by yielding, my weakness replaced by His strength, rags replaced by Christ’s royal robe of righteousness and the fulfilment of God’s promise, His Word.
Birth settles destiny! What God begins, He finishes! Fully persuaded!
