Cultivating Faith: Building Your Ark for the Next Season
If you’re an animal lover like me, then you have probably spent some time thinking about Noah’s Ark. It’s a favorite for Bible movies, attractions, and Sunday school crafts. It’s a crazy, weird, and wonderful story—featured in Genesis 5-9. Before we get to the animals and the flood and the rainbow, I want to highlight some key areas. Because for me, the power of the story is before Noah even begins to build the ark.
If you are unfamiliar with the story of Noah, take a moment to read through those chapters.
Pretty crazy right?
Now that we’re all on the same page, let me point some things out for you:
Noah had already been walking in crazy faith before he was called by God. He was 500 years old when he started having children (Genesis 5:32). Everyone else was dying off at 120 because of their wickedness (Genesis 6:3). That in itself, is crazy. And it wasn’t just crazy for our time. It was crazy for that time as well. Everyone before Noah began to have children from the ages of 65-200 (Genesis 5). Noah was 500 years old. I can’t even imagine!
Noah was the only person on the entire earth who was walking with God. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 6:9). If there were any other people walking with God, they would have been saved too. So the fact that Noah’s family was the only family saved means he was alone in his faith. An entire planet was against God, except for this family.
Noah believed in things he did not see or understand. Biblical scholars debate the existence of rain before the flood. The original earth and the Garden of Eden were watered by streams, rivers, and mist instead of by rain (Genesis 2: 5, 6, 10). After the fall of man, the Bible does not clarify. But Hebrews details that Noah operated in faith because he had not seen what God had spoken about: “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family” (Hebrews 11:7). Whether there was no rain before Noah’s time, or simply no massive floods, God told him about something that would happen that he had no context for, no experience with, and he believed anyways.
And those parts of the story are even before he starts building!
Let’s Talk About What You are Building
I want to connect this story to you right now. Are you even in a place where God can call you to crazy things? Are you walking in righteousness? Do the people around you find you blameless? Are you faithful? Are you asking the Holy Spirit for the gift of faith?
Walking with God is the first step to cultivating your faith.
When you really begin to walk with the Lord, you will discover a few things:
God has a plan for your life.
God wants to tell you about His plan for your life.
God wants you to fulfill His plan for your life.
Before God spoke to Noah, He knew He would save his family. Then, God told Noah the exact details of how to build the ark. And then, “Noah did everything just as God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22). Noah was given all the tools and information he needed to get the job done.
And the same applies to you. If God calls you to something, He will put the tools in your hands to do it. But you have to choose to actually do it. He’s not going to build your ark for you.
Faith Precedes the Miracle
In this season in life, I definitely feel like Noah. God has called me out on a limb to do something that is against my nature, my desire. He’s asked me to do things that are socially unacceptable, super awkward, and completely backward from what I would want to do. And I imagine He’ll ask the same of you at some point, whether in relationships or your career or in your life situation.
Sometimes, He will demote us in one area, to promote us in another. Sometimes, He will ask you to give everything away so that He can give you something better. Before you see the outcome. This means you have to step out in crazy faith, doing something the world will laugh at.
But it’s not faith if you know what will happen. And it’s not faith if you aren’t hoping just the same. You can’t have a miracle from the natural. It has to be supernaturally outside of what is normal and accepted.
And God only calls His friends to this adventure. He has an adventure planned for each one of us, but if you never step outside of your own boundaries for God, you’ll never get to see the view from up here.
Hebrews 11 is a great example of the power of faith. Verse 3 tells us that everything we experience and see was created by God out of unseen things, things that are not visible. It goes on to describe a mighty list of faithful warriors: Moses, Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rahab, and Noah—all who operated in God’s power. Faith can conquer kingdoms, command nature, and bring the dead back to life (verses 33-36).
Right Before the Rain
Can I just encourage you, friend? I’ve found that right before the breakthrough, right before the rain—there's the biggest attack on your faith. Before the rain comes down, there is thunder and lightning. The wind picks up. The house begins to shake.
When you are practicing crazy faith for a long period of time, sometimes it’s easy to forget just how crazy your faith is. And wow, does the enemy like to remind you of the impossibility of it all in those moments!
This recently happened to me.
I’ve been praying into some really uncomfortable and downright crazy things. And God has been asking me to wait—while still going to war for those things every day in the Spirit. And the promises I have been waiting on for years have still not come. (I feel like I have been praying into these things for months straight now.) And He keeps telling me to wait for spring.
And I’m like, what about now?
But I keep waiting, and I keep waiting. And in this waiting, there is disappointment. There is fear. There is silence. It’s natural in seasons of waiting.
And in that silence, the enemy likes to shout.
Did God really promise you that?
If God said this, why hasn’t it happened yet? He must not have said it. You misheard.
Do you remember what you did last night? Now God won’t give you what He promised.
Everyone thinks you’re crazy. They’re going to talk about what you’re doing.
What you’re asking for is impossible.
“Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’”
3 Ways You Can Stand Firm
Don’t be alarmed when the enemy strikes your faith. It’s not a matter of if—but when. So when you are tested and when things seem to be going wrong, stand firm:
1. Surround yourself with other believers of crazy faith
It’s not enough to just surround yourself with other believers. Not everyone is cultivating faith or has the spiritual gift of faith. And we still love those people. (Some of those people are our family members!) But it just means that maybe you don’t rely on them for encouragement in these areas. Find people in your Church that have the fruit of faith. Share your journey with them. They will be more than happy to share the crazy things they are walking in and the ways God has come through in the past. There’s nothing more encouraging than being “crazy” with other believers who are right there with you.
2. Stay grounded in the Word of God
Don’t let the enemy speak for God. Ground yourself in the Word. God will remind you of what He has said. He wrote it down so you wouldn’t forget! And, through the Word of God, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit can be your constant companion. The easiest way for the Holy Spirit to speak to you in times of trouble is by bringing Scripture to mind. The more you study and memorize Scripture, the more equipped you will be in all seasons.
3. Write down God’s promises to you
The most encouraging thing I have ever experienced is a journal I’ve kept for the last ten years. I started writing to God in high school—about everything. Good, bad, ugly—it has been quite a journey. And the other day, in the midst of a storm, I pulled out this journal and was blown away at all the things that had come true that I had prayed into even as a young girl. I had just forgotten! Prophesies that were spoken over me in 2013 were completely here in 2022. God had already come through for me in so many ways. Why would He stop now?
So write down what God tells you. Date it. Return to it. You will look back and be shocked by all the ways God has shown up and continues to show up.
Resources to Keep Growing Your Faith
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is when Paul talks about being crazy for God:
“If we are ‘out of our mind,’ as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
I don’t mean to take this too much out of context—but as someone who does pretty strange things for God on the regular, I find it comforting. So many people call me crazy, and all I can say is, “If I’m crazy, it’s for God.” And it’s not just for God, it’s because Christ’s love compels me to not live for myself anymore. My flesh wants to be seen as “cool,” but my Spirit often makes me do things that others scoff at.
Most importantly, Jesus was also called crazy (Mark 3:21; John 10:20). So if it was good enough for Him, it’s good enough for me.
I hope that by studying Noah’s story, you feel a little more assured to keep pressing into your own crazy faith. The faith you cultivate today will be yours to reap in the next season.
Keep fighting the good fight and strengthen yourself with some helpful resources:
Check out one of my favorite messages on “Crazy Faith” by Michael Todd.
Study this devotional by Christine Caine, Resilient Hope.
Read this book by Tyler Staton, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools.
Peace with you,
Elise
ELISE LAKEY
Elise is a writer, artist, and photographer based out of Nashville, TN. She’s the founder of Garden Theology and seeks to help all gardeners-in-training come to their full purpose in God. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing in the dirt, snuggling her cats, or weaving tapestries.
