February 6

A Triumphant Position

For by [faith] the elders obtained a good testimony.
—Hebrews 11:2

Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:1-13

The first manifestation of God’s plan was the cross of Calvary. You may refuse it; You may resist it; but God, who loves you “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3), has followed you through life and will follow you with His great grace, so that He may bring you to a knowledge of this great salvation.

God, in His own plan for your eternal good, may have brought something into your life that is distasteful, something that is causing you to feel desperate or to feel that your life is worthless. What does it mean? It means that the Spirit of God is showing you your own weakness so that you might cry out to Him, and when you do, He will show you the cross of redemption. Then God will give you faith to believe, for faith is the gift of God.

God, who has given us this faith, has a wonderful plan for our lives. Do you remember when God brought you to this place of salvation, how the faith He gave you brought a great desire to do something for Him, and then He showed you that wonderful open door? I was saved over sixty-seven years ago, and I have never lost the witness of the Spirit. If you will not allow your human nature to crush your faith and interfere with God’s plan in its wonderful divine setting, you will mount up like the eagles (Isa. 40:31). Oh, the wonderful effectiveness of God’s perfect plan working in us with the divine Trinity flowing through humanity, changing our very nature to the extent that we cannot disbelieve but must act faith, talk faith, and in faith sing praises to the Lord! There is no room for anything that is not faith, for we have passed beyond the natural plane into a new atmosphere where God encloses us.

Faith is an increasing position, always triumphant. It is not a place of poverty but of wealth. If you always live in fruitfulness, you will always have plenty. What does it say in our text? “The elders obtained a good testimony.” The man who lives in faith always has a good testimony. The Acts of the Apostles were written because the lives of the apostles bore the fruit of active faith. To them, faith was an everyday fact. If your life is in the divine order, you will not only have a living, active faith, but also a faith that builds up others.

What is the good of preaching without faith? God intends that we should live in this glorious sphere of the power of God so that we will always be in a position to tell people of the act that brought the fact. What is the good of praying for the sick without faith? You must believe that God will not deny Himself, for the Word of God cannot be denied. I believe this message is given in divine order so that you may no longer be in a place of doubt but will realize that “faith is the substance” (Heb. 11:1). Beloved, even with all the faith we have, we are not even so much as touching the hem of God’s plan for us. It is like going to the seashore and dipping your toe in the water, with the great vast ocean before you. God wants us to rise on the crest of the tide and not keep paddling along the shore. Oh, to be connected with that sublime power, so that human nature may know God and the glory of the manifestation of Christ!

The Word of God is eternal and cannot be broken. You cannot improve on the Word of God, for it is life, and it produces life. Listen! God has begotten you to “a living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3). You are born again of the Word that created worlds. If you dare to believe, such belief is powerful. God wants us to be powerful, a people of

faith, a purified people, a people who will launch out in God and dare to trust Him in glorious faith, which always takes us beyond what is commonplace to an abiding place in God.

Thought for today: You must act before you can see the fact.

Smith Wigglesworth Devotional: 365 Day Devotional
By Whitaker House

Smith Wigglesworth was a man who took God at his word, and God used his faith as a model for others. Explore these daily truths from Scripture and the writings of the Apostle of Faith, and you’ll quench your spiritual thirst, conquer defeating fears, be an effective soul winner, and see impossibilities turn into realities. 558 pages.

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More Daily Devotions for February 6

Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Morning & Evening by Charles Spurgeon