Faith!

Faith!

NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Hebrews 11:1 AMPC

The world teaches us to trust our senses, because they are the basis of what we can prove. In the human courts of law, we call witnesses to events; we do not rely on third party accounts or hearsay. All that we look at for the basis of judgment has to come from people who heard, saw or tasted it. The world does not know any other way it can process that which is laid before it. The Word of God however calls us to a different standard, and a new way of thinking. God asks me to never rely totally on what my senses are telling me, as they could deceive me. This is a hard message for the natural man to take, because he has always been taught to trust his senses. 

God is saying to me: I gave you the senses, but I am not limited by them. I can choose to work outside the senses to prove that I am God. The man who will see this side of God is the man who is ready to walk with God on that level, which is faith. God is not asking me to deny my senses completely, but that I do not allow them to rule how I think, see things or respond to them. He wants me to take Him as the most important person in my life and that what he says is my utmost priority. My senses may be saying something contrary but I would have settled it in my heart that no matter what I see or feel or hear, who God is and what he has told me is of utmost importance.

That then raises a very important point: do I know this God then? Is my knowledge of him all about what other people say about him or what I have personally experienced? Walking with God demands a new and fresh perspective. God will make it clear that he needs me to see him at work, even when the reality around me is saying something very different. He would want me to hear him, even when there is so much noise around me. Imagine Elijah seeing the wind, fire and earthquake, yet nothing moved him until he heard that still small voice. That is how God wants me to respond: be unmoved by the drama, but seek that still small voice that changes the reality around me. 

Faith in God opens doors that nothing else can. Faith leads me to new heights, new grounds and new earthly and eternal realities. Faith is the title deed to that which you do not yet hold in your hands, which is quite unusual. I lay claim and receive that which I have not yet physically laid my hand on. My entire life becomes a reality of that which I believe I will receive, not only that which I hold now. My life becomes a story in conviction and assurance that I am not defined by what I hold, but by who I know. If I live only by what I can see, hear or hold, I will be living a limited life, but if I will see, hear and feel as God desires, then I can live the life God called me into. So, can what I hold be defined as faith or self-promotion? God's time of favour is here.