There is some strong language in this verse. Assurance. Confirmation. Proof. Conviction. Reality. Fact. This verse is, more or less, defining faith the way God sees it and the way He has designed it to work. By definition, faith is all or nothing. It is total and complete. It leaves no room for doubting and wavering and hesitating. It is assurance. It is confirmation. It is proof. It is having conviction that something is reality, and perceiving in the spirit a fact before it can bee seen in the natural. Faith is certainty.
What if it's wrong? What if I'm certain of something that doesn't happen? What if I pray for my child to be healed, and she keeps coughing? What if I believe for someone to recover, but instead they pass away? Does faith really work?
When I was young, my mom and I took a lot of trips to West Virginia. Her parents lived there, and we would go a few times a year to visit. West Virginia is a beautiful state with the most amazing mountain landscape. I remember on one particular trip to my grandparents' house, I was looking out the back window of our car as we were waiving our goodbye's and heading home. I had recently learned a new verse in Sunday School that says, If you have faith and you believe, you can tell a mountain to move, and it will be moved (Matthew 17:20). So, I looked out the back window, and with all the faith in me, I prayed that the mountain I was looking at would be moved, just so I could see that this worked. I waited. I watched out the window until the road had wound around and the mountain was out of sight. The mountain never budged. Not even a little. I was at a loss to understand why it hadn't worked. I mean, I really believed the Bible. I really believed that what it says is true. And I had full faith that my mountain was going to crumble at any moment.
I think this was one of my first experiences of exercising my faith and feeling disappointed at the result. Since then I've had countless experiences of praying for something, believing for something, and seeing no obvious results. And every time, I was left with a hint of a doubt to preface my next prayer. It seems that, over time, every prayer for healing or prayer for God to work in a situation became clouded with a shadow of a doubt that whispers, 'This isn't going to work anyway.' Why? If faith really works, why didn't my mountain crumble? Why do people suffer? Why does anyone go unhealed?
Can I tell you a true story? About a month ago, I was driving down my road, on my way home from the grocery, and a fleeting glimpse of my childhood attempt to bring down the mountain flashed through my mind. Then God spoke something very simple to me. 'It was never my will to move that mountain.'
How odd. I had not been thinking about it. I had not been seeking an answer to my mountain riddle. Yet, He spoke to me directly about it. Plain and clear. Obviously, He has a few things He wants to teach me about faith and how it operates. That was the first thing that He made clear to me. My prayer must be in line with His will for it to be effective.
Now let me show you a second thing God showed me shortly after this 'mountain revelation' (LOL). Quite a while ago I bought a book called 'The Spirit of Faith' by Mark Hankins. I got about half way through it, but got distracted by something else and never finished reading it. One day, though, I sat down in my bedroom floor, and of all things, I picked up this book and started flipping through it. I came across something that made me stop and give a lot of thought to the impact of my faith on the outcome of what I am believing for. The following is taken directly from the book I just mentioned:
People often say, 'It's up to God. If God wants to do it, God can do anything. He is a sovereign God.' Apparently, Jesus didn't know that. If God can do anything anytime He wants to, why didn't Jesus do it right there in His own hometown?
Mark 6:5-6 - And He was not able to do even one work of power there, except that He laid His hands on a few sickly people and cured them. And He marveled because of the unbelief (their lack of faith in Him). And He went about...and continued teaching.
Unbelief is stifling the flow of God's presence and power in our church today.
The second thing God has lead me to understand: Our own unbelief limits what God can do in our circumstances.
There's one more thing I want to share with you before I finish. This afternoon, as I read back through the verse in Hebrews that I shared at the beginning, even today my response was, 'What if it doesn't work?' (Clearly I've still got some work to do in this area). But what God put on my heart in response was so simple, yet so powerful. 'If it doesn't work, believe it again.' If I don't see results today, believe I will see them tomorrow. If I don't see results tomorrow, believe I will see them the day after. I will never see what I am unwilling to believe for - believing with complete certainty, as Hebrews describes. Faith is ongoing, and must outlast the circumstances. I would rather die in belief, never having received what I was believing for, than to never receive what I had hoped for because I would not believe.
Sometimes it does seem like our prayers aren't accomplishing anything. It feels like our faith is pointless, like it just doesn't work. Still, I've seen so many instances where the complete opposite has proven to be true. I've seen amazing answers to prayers that I've prayed. I've seen God work wonders in situations and circumstances that seemed impenetrable. Because I've seen God work, I KNOW my prayers are heard. I know that faith works. But faith does not leave room for doubt. When we doubt, we tie God's hands, and keep Him from being able to work miracles on our behalf. Further, our faith must line up with God's word and God's will. It is important that we take time to seek Him and sit in His presence, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our prayers. That is when we are certain to pray according to the will of God. When I have prayed, in full faith, and in accordance with God's word and His will, I must continue to believe and wait on God, expecting to see an answer to my prayer at the exact moment, in God's perfect timing.
We are not often capable of understanding His plan, and we do not have the capacity to look ahead to see how circumstances will all work together for the good of His plan. We do, however, have the capacity to seek Him, to know Him and to trust Him, believing in full faith that He is a good God, that He alone is sovereign, and that He is capable of doing all things.
Jesus said to him, You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later on. (John 17:3)
We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are fitting into a plan for good to and for those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait and hope for and expect the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)
No comments:
Post a Comment