I remember a time when I went to my prayer room to spend time alone with my Father, and a strong sense of the enemy entered the atmosphere. This presence that wasn’t supposed to be there was interrupting my time. At that moment, I also sensed that my Father was not happy with what was transpiring.

Now, some may find my experience unusual, but I am undeterred by such thoughts. I know what I experienced. In the moment of my Father’s disapproval, I boldly declared, “Devil, if I were you, I would flee from here because you’ve made my Father angry.”

Immediately, the atmosphere was clear, and I continued with my fellowship time. It was sweet and powerful, and answers to prayer came out of that time.

It is the place of an intimate, active relationship where strong faith happens.  For instance, we read:

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac, your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

Interestingly, this is speaking of the greatest challenge Abraham ever had to face in his life.  Abraham needed a strong faith to press through this challenge.  We see how this describes the faith Abraham had, but we need to inquire about where such a faith sprang forth from.

Abraham had been in fellowship with God, and much of that fellowship centered around the promise of Isaac as the promised child. Destiny and the future hinged on this boy, and yet this very strange request from God came to Abraham. Abraham knew how to hear God because Abraham was in a real relationship with God.

We discover that Abraham could follow through in obedience to God with this request because he had faith rooted in a certain type of reasoning based on what he had come to know about God.

Abraham concluded that God could raise Isaac up, even from the dead.  Abraham was so convinced that God would keep His word of promise to him that he could follow through with whatever God asked of him, even if it looked like it might bring an end to the promise he had received from God.  It was not so much merely resurrection itself that Abraham believed.  It was that God would bring about a resurrection in order to keep His word of promise.

Abraham’s faith was grounded in who God is to him.  Abraham knew God, and as a result, Abraham was able to bring forth an obedience to God that exceeded the rational of most people.  Abraham walked in a strong faith because he had a strong relationship with God and had come to know God on a deep level. Abraham’s relationship with God was not based on ideas about God that he could not argue against.  Abraham was truly convinced of the things God had revealed to Abraham about Himself.  For this reason, when something that would not make sense in the natural came up, Abraham was still able to push forward in a strong faith, knowing God would be true to who He was, and all would come out according to the first promise that was made.

Knowing God personally beyond a mere cerebral approach matters.  Merely knowing things about Him based on what others have said does not empower strong faith.  Knowing Him based on Him intimately revealing Himself is what it takes to have strong faith.  This is His invitation to taste and see that He is good and to spend time with Him with the purpose of getting to know Him even better.

If you desire a strong faith, then I would encourage you to invest in the call to taste and see that He is good and make spending time with Him your highest priority in this life.  This world needs to see a strong faith alive in the church, and it begins with each of us as believers.