1 Samuel 14

Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few."

(1Sa 14:6)

Nothing restrains the Lord. We say we believe that, but how many of us live like we believe that? How many of us look at the faith of Jonathan here and say, “I would do that”? (I’m not saying we should kill uncircumcised people, or anyone for that matter.) Most of us are afraid to even share the gospel with someone! We all have faith on some level or another, faith in the grace of God to save, faith in His faithfulness on our behalf. Yet, I know that my faith in that regard is much different than the faith Jonathan exercised here.

Jesus told His disciples that if they had “faith the size of a mustard seed” they could move a mountain. That’s the kind of faith Jonathan has here. It seems that the Lord just put this idea on his heart or into his mind, and he just decided to go for it. God hadn’t commanded him to do it; it was just something that Jonathan believed God could do if He wanted to. He says, “What do we have to lose”? If God doesn’t want us to do it, then its okay, we will be alright… If he does then a mighty victory has been won. He was making himself available to the Lord in a very real way.

The book of 1^st Corinthians makes mention of the “gift of faith”. It seems to me that this gift is a miraculous endowment of faith that is temporary, given to do a certain great work for the Lord. Throughout history we have seen men accomplish incredible things when God “granted” this gift for a season of their ministry. It was “acts of faith” that sparked many of the revivals we have seen throughout history, even the revival that brought about the movement our church is a part of. Some people refer to these acts of faith as VENTURES IN FAITH. In Webster’s 1828 dictionary, he says this about a VENTURE – it is the risking of something upon an event which cannot be foreseen with tolerable certainty. Risk, chance, uncertainty… things we typically don’t like. It seems though, that they are things that God often uses. Not “foolish” risks, ones that are uncalled for… but Spirit Prompted risks… times when we think, as outside of “conventional wisdom” as it may seem, God is just calling us to go for it.

Maybe the Lord is putting something on your heart… maybe it is something big, something some may call impossible. (Not superhero things like flying… don’t try that kind of stuff… spiritual things.)Maybe he is giving you the faith to do it… maybe you just need to step out and give it a shot. I’ll never forget what one of my Bible College teachers told me about “ventures of faith”. He said, “It’s a whole lot easier to change the direction of a moving car than one that’s standing still”. Take a step of faith; what do you have to lose?