President's Report: An Uncommon Faith

By David Jamieson

UCC President

There’s a story found in Joshua 10:7-13 that is incredible. Joshua was in the midst of a great battle. The sun was going down, and he knew that if he couldn’t totally defeat the enemy’s army, they would rise up later and cause even more problems for Israel.

So, he boldly asked God to stop the sun from going down, something that had never been done before. Miraculously the sun remained visible for a prolonged period of time—it did “not go down.”

God answered his prayer, and in effect said, “Joshua, if you’re bold enough to ask it, I’m bold enough to do it.”

Joshua’s uncommon faith brought a smile to God’s face. As a result, God interrupted the course of the entire universe because of one man’s uncommon faith.

Do you believe that this actually happened? Do you have uncommon faith in the God of the Bible?

Uncommon faith is above and beyond faith. It gives you a boldness and a confidence to believe the extraordinary and step into the unknown. You actually believe that God can do anything. You see, average faith says, “God, help me to survive the current economic times.” Uncommon faith says, “God, I believe You will not only help me, but rather you will prosper me in the midst of everything that is happening around me.”

Uncommon faith believes that our God will not only lead us out of any crisis we may be facing, but that He will bring us out better off than we were before.

So Joshua moved forward in faith to take the land, and we are to move forward in faith as well. Our churches are not to be content to sit back and do business as usual. We cannot rest on past victories or be paralyzed by past defeats.

We are to move forward in uncommon faith personally and corporately as the body of Christ.

But how does that happen? There are three quick principles found

in this story.

I. We need to be persistent in prayer. (v:7)

Our churches will only move forward in uncommon faith when they recognize the need for persistent prayer and send up their petitions to

God. In fact, over and over again God has promised His blessings to those who will seek His face.

II. We need to believe the Word of God. (v:8)

It was not simply a matter of prayer. Following his petition, Joshua believed in and placed uncommon faith in the Word of God. He avoided the pitfall of attempting to win the battle in his own strength — by spending time in and believing in the Word of God. Victory for believers only comes when we depend on God in prayer and believe in the Word of God with all of our hearts.

III. We need to move forward in faith and act upon the Word of God. (v:9)

Verse 9 says “After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise.” Joshua not only prayed, not only believed in the Word of God with all of His heart, he also acted upon the Word of God and moved forward with uncommon faith. God intervened because the people of God followed His plan and acted upon the Word of God.

My friends, if God is for us, who can stand against us? I believe that the God who fought for Israel will enable us to face all that comes our way as well.

David Jamieson

President, Upper Columbia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

I wanted to share what happened at our recent executive committee in my President's Report with you, along with how God continues to bless in our Conference. We prepared the report as a pdf that will allow you to share it with your church, school, or friends easily. You can view my report by going to news.uccsda.org/president1223.