Seeing, Faith and Moving Forward

I have found in my journey with God that it isn’t always clear whether he wants me to move forward or camp. Why doesn’t He make it just as easy for me as it was for the Israelites?

Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tent, the people of Israel continued their travels; and they camped wherever the cloud stopped. At the order of God, the people of Israel traveled; at the order of God they camped.

Numbers 9:17-18:

He gave them a cloud and fire, those were very clear and definite signs. The cloud appeared during the day and fire was lit at night, both rested right on top of the tabernacle in plain sight for all to see. There was close to a million people in the desert keeping watch for His movement. I’m sure His movement couldn’t have been missed when there were so many eyes paying attention to him. But, Hebrews 11:1 and 6 give us a clear reason why he doesn’t use a cloud or fire today. It doesn’t take faith to follow a cloud or pillar of fire, it takes vision. He was trying to teach the Israelites how to follow him through seeing his movement, but for us, faith is the requirement.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1:

Faith is conviction of things not seen, which would be hard to obtain if we are using our eyesight to follow a cloud or pillar of fire. We have assurance according to Proverbs 16:9 that the Lord will establish the steps of of our plan. Steps require action. It’s pretty hard to have God establish our steps when we are standing still and waiting for a sign.

Walking forward in faith means that we need to believe that He exists and hope in the plans that He has for us. Walking forward in faith is understanding that we don’t need signs of His direction as much as we need to believe that He is with us and that the steps He has for us are safe, protected, good and secure. When we see our feet moving it is a movement that has been triggered by our brain, so how can it be a step that is directed by God? How do we know that the steps we take forward are His and not our own? Because scripture says He directs our steps. Is it that simple? I believe it is. If we have a heart for the Lord and have committed and surrendered our lives to Him as our King, then we can also rest assured that His word is true. If His word is true, then according to Proverbs 16:9 He will direct our steps and that is a promise we can stand on.

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps

Proverbs 16:9

Where our decisions get a little cloudy in our walk is when we start to waiver in our trust and belief in God. If we stand assured in our belief, then we can also stand assured of his directing our steps. However, if we aren’t secure in our belief then our steps become a little more shaky. But this is not God’s fault. He has made His position pretty clear. Without faith, it’s impossible to please him, so faith is a requirement. But this requirement also brings assurance of those things we hope for. Hope is an expectation of a positive outcome in those things we DON’T see. So, then it seems we should be more assured of those plans we can’t see than those we can. Because God has assured us that if we have faith, that our hope is secure and our reward is coming. Contrarily then, those plans that don’t require hope because every step is clearly planned may not be as secure because we are using our eyes to walk it out and not our faith.

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

Another important consideration: The first generation of Israelites that Moses led out of Egypt relied upon their vision to move forward yet most of them did not make it out of the desert alive. God gave us a gift in Jesus that they did not have. If we want to make it out of the desert alive, then it would be smart to follow Jesus.