Pastor's Bible Study Chad Thompson

We can learn a great deal about victorious faith from both Joshua and Rahab. We learn that to live out a victorious faith, you must have a personal encounter with God (Jesus) and you must submit to His commands. When you do, you can experience a work of God that has no human explanation, like Joshua and Rahab in the victory and salvation God gave in the battle of Jericho.

Moses life of faith can be divided into three 40 year periods: 40 years of training in Egypt, 40 years of training in the desert, and 40 years of doing what he was trained to do in the previous 80 years. All along the way he had a faith that was tested and tried. He had to learn to war by faith.
 
If we’re going to follow in the footsteps of Moses, waiting, watching, walking, and warring in faith, then we should make the same decisions he made:  1) We must refuse to go with the flow of a sinful society. 2) We must leave the familiar to venture into the foreign.  3) We must swallow our pride and be willing to do the unusual.
 

Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph each had faith even unto the end of their days. But the thing the author of Hebrews zeros in on that they utilized their faith to extend a blessing to their children. Every parent has a God-given responsibility to bless their children. From the word “blessing” we get our word eulogy—“to speak well of.” There three lessons we can learn from these men of faith about blessing by faith.

1) The blessing is a spiritual tool giving hope to your children for the future
2) The blessing is another way of you worshipping God
3) The blessing is a means of interlocking the past with the future 

Abraham's faith was tested and tested and tested. Some tests he passed. Some tests he failed. But what we do see over time is a growing and strengthening and purifying of his faith. It is as if Abraham were enrolled in a school of faith. One of things that all students in any school have in common is tests. All students are tested to see where they are academically. Our walk with God by faith is a School of Faith. And in the School of Faith we, like Abraham, must have occasional tests, or we will never know where we are spiritually. 

Sarah's faith began in unbelief but it ended with her experiencing what was humanly impossible, i.e. God's possible, when after 25 years of waiting she gave birth to the promised son, Isaac. There are many lessons we can learn from Sarah about faith. One of the most important is that faith must be personal. Abraham had great faith, but Sarah needed her own faith. This principle is true for us. We may have people in our lives who have great faith but their faith won't substitute for our faith. Another lesson to learn is that often when we have to wait in faith we end up seeing our faith grow to new levels.

Abraham was a man of great faith. God called Abraham to follow Him and come to a land that God would give to Abraham. . Abraham didn’t know where exactly God was calling him to, but he had faith to follow. And since he didn’t know where he was going, you could say he had faith to wander with God. 

In our text we see five principles for those who live by faith:
1) We are invited to live by faith.
2) We obey when we live by faith.
3) We sojourn when we live by faith.
4) We reject the world when we live by faith.
5) We see with spiritual eyes when we live by faith.