A Natural Response to Faith
Acts 9:11
"And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,"
Faith is not always easy to obey. The request of faith is quite often hard to follow. In fact, the request of faith quite often is difficult to understand; however, the results of obeying the request of faith always brings blessing and miracles.
In the verse above, God asked Ananias to go find Saul and help disciple him. This command of God took a great amount of faith to obey. However, you find that Ananias' response to faith was a natural response. His first response was to doubt the request and then to fear obeying the request. You must place yourself in his shoes to understand how you would have responded. Saul was known for his persecution of Christians. It was not uncommon for Saul to not only persecute Christians, but to have them killed. When God told Ananias to go and help disciple Saul, this took a great amount of faith. However, though it was difficult to obey the request of faith, Ananias obeyed, and his obedience resulted in Saul becoming one of the greatest apostles whom God used. Ananias' obedience to faith allowed him to have a part in the life of one of the greatest apostles of Christ.
When God asks you to step out by faith, it is natural for doubt to step in and try to get you to disobey faith's command. You must realize that you are not a bad Christian just because you have some doubt about whether you should step out by faith. When Jesus asked Peter to step out of the boat and come to Him, you know that he battled with doubt about whether he should obey the command of faith. When God called Gideon, doubt showed up and tried to get him not to obey God's command of faith. Doubt is a natural response to faith's command, but you must not allow doubt to stop you from obeying God's command of faith.
Furthermore, fear also steps in with doubt when faith has commanded you to do something. Again, it is natural to fear whether you should obey faith's command because fear is the companion of doubt. Whenever doubt is present, you will always find fear. However, we must realize that fear is the substance that tries to drive faith away. That is why several times in the Scriptures God had to tell His children to "fear not." Fear is the enemy of faith.
The only way to drive doubt and fear away is to obey God. That is why God says in Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." God knows that the only way you will obey faith's commands is to trust Him, even when you don't understand why faith is commanding you to do something.
Imagine what would have happened had Ananias not obeyed faith's command. If he would not have obeyed faith's command we would not have an Apostle Paul. Likewise, when you don't obey faith's command, you are hurting future generations and robbing yourself of God's blessings. Christian, you may not always understand why God wants you to step out by faith, but you must silence the voices of doubt and fear and simply obey the voice of God. Yes, it takes trust to obey God, but when you trust God and step out by faith, you will find that doubt and fear will run away, and that God's blessings will be present in your life. You will only see the miracles of God in your life when you obey faith's command.