Decision making is by Faith!

 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not

 waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of

 the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. . . . Their loyalty is

 divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything

 they do." James 1:6, 8 (NLT)

 "Faith is a verb. It's active and not passive. It's something you do."

 After God gives you a dream, the next step for building your faith is

 decision: God challenges you to do something about your dream.

 Nothing is going to happen to that dream until you wake up and put it

 into action. You've got to make the decision: "I'm going to go for

 it!" For every ten dreamers in the world, there is only one decision

 maker. A lot of people have dreams but they never get to Step Two—

 making the decision to trust God and follow their dream.

 James says, "But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all.

 Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown

 about by the wind. If you are like that, unable to make up your mind

 and undecided in all you do, you must not think that you will receive

 anything from the Lord." (James 1:6-7 TEV)

 Faith is a verb. It's active and not passive. It's something you do.

 Decision making is a faith-building activity. You use your muscles of

 faith.

 Faithful decision making requires two things:

 1. You must decide to invest your time, money, reputation, and energy.

 You lay it on the line; you take the plunge. You say, "God, you've

 told me to do this and I'm going to be faithful to do it!"

 2. You have to let go of security. You cannot move in faith and hold

 onto the past at the same time. You have to move forward. God told

 Abraham that he was going to make him the father of a great nation,

 and that meant Abraham had to leave his home for an unknown

 destination. Moses had to let go of his position in Pharaoh's kingdom

 in order to do God's will. Nehemiah gave up a secure job in order to

 go build a wall around Jerusalem. In other words, if you want to walk

 on water, you've got to get out of the boat.

 A great illustration of God's plan is a trapeze artist. They swing out

 holding onto a trapeze bar, and then they let go in order to grab hold

 of another trapeze bar that swings then to the other side. But, at one

 point, they're not holding on to any bar. They're suspended in air for

 a split second.

 Have you ever been there in a career, where you're leaving one job for

 another and nothing's in between? You're 180 feet above the ground

 with no net below and holding onto nothing.

 But if you don't let go and grab onto the vision God wants you to

 have, you swing back. Only you don't swing all the way back; instead,

 you swing back lower and lower until you're finally stopped, hanging

 there in the air. And there's only one way out: down!

 That's why God brings you to a point of decision, so your faith will

 build as you swing toward the dream God has given you.