The concept of faith
I’ve talked a lot about the relocation from the natural to the spiritual realm, and the need to start to perceive things the way that God perceives them (i.e. impossibility thinking).
What I have not mentioned to this point is faith – with good reason! The word “faith” has also become one of those throw-away words in the Christian vernacular that has been used so much that it has lost its true meaning.
There are a bunch of scriptures that comes to mind when we think of faith, and it is generally thought of a belief and confidence in God to do something. I don’t disagree with that definition per se; however, I think that this is an incredible over-simplification of what faith is.
Hebrews 11:1 1NOW 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].
This scripture gives us a good starting point, because it really makes it clear that faith is a big concept.
Firstly, faith is more than just belief in what God can do. I would suggest that faith is more about “enlightened perception” – seeing things the way that God sees them.
It goes a step beyond this though. I propose that faith actually brings together several important concepts:
- The fact that God is actually capable of doing the impossible, and He is ready to do so;
- The fact that God’s character is such that He only does the impossible;
- The fact that our “situations” are not coincidental – that God’s purpose for our lives is so comprehensive that it can be defined on a minute by minute basis;
- The fact that we have the capacity to understand God’s purpose on that “minute by minute” basis – we are not puppets, nor is it God’s intention that we live our lives in the dark.
- The fact that God has a desire to be involved in our day-to-day situations – He has not only defined the purpose, but wants to be involved in bringing it to fruition – and furthermore that we have confidence in the fact that He will become involved;
Just go back over that list a few times to “soak” in those principles for a couple of minutes, rather than simply agreeing with them (or disagreeing!). Part of the problem is that we tend to give mental assent to these things sometimes, rather than actually “leaning hard” on the truth of them.
I’m inclined to apply the principle of “Archam’s Razor” – the simplest explanation tends to be the right one. In this case, maybe we should question whether we truly have faith! If that’s the case, it might be useful to attack these points and get things back on the rails.
Points 1 and 2 have been beaten to death in the previous parts of the manifesto, so I’ll leave them for the moment – only to say that it’s worth reminding ourselves that God is challenging us to recognise these parts of His character as we bang on with the other points.
The comprehensive purpose
If we were to be entirely honest, one of the issues that we experience from time to time is a sense of frustration with life, and what I mean by that is we sometimes sit back and ask ourselves questions like:
- “What am I making of my life?
- “What’s the point of me even being here?
- “Why aren’t I further ahead than I am?”
- “Why can’t I change this or that situation?”
I said two things above - that our situations are not coincidental, and that God has a comprehensive minute by minute purpose for our lives. And for this reason, I propose another principle – that faith and purpose are inextricably linked.
How can I say this? Check out Hebrews 11, where Paul talks about all the different heroes and heroines in the Old Testament, and how their faith made them commit to the purpose that God had communicated to them.
We do have a choice in this though – it’s not like God just says “Here’s the purpose for you and that’s what’s going to happen regardless of your attitude”.
2 Timothy 2:20-21 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honourable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use]. So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honourable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work.
Sometimes the exposure of our desires, and what we want from this whole deal, is going to be a bit confronting.
Hebrews 4:12 For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart
Later on in this document I talk about the fact that we sometimes view God as being in charge of the “Fun Police” – a perception that we are called to a life of misery, arduous work and poverty. In other words, we think that God doesn’t want us to have fun! You’d be happy to know that nothing is further from the truth!
What I address in that section (just in case you don’t want to go jumping to it now) is the fact that there is a level of incredible joy associated with finding our place in God and stepping forward in the purpose He has for us. But before God can take us down that path, He sometimes has to do a bit of “exploratory surgery” to expose to and confront us with what we’re really thinking and desiring.
Sure, we can talk the talk, and put on the right persona for the occasion, but it’s the desires and attitudes that are prowling in our hearts that determine whether or not we are “faithful” – that is, whether we are prepared to see things the way that God sees them rather than the way we see them because (a) that’s the only way we can or (b) that’s how we want to see them.
(MORE TO COME)
God’s desire to “buy in”
We tend to think of God as a “macro” level Manager – like a CEO of a large corporation that watches the balance sheet and keeps an eye on the big picture – without any real awareness or care for the people tucked away in their office cubicles.
We attribute a level of disinterestedness to God – and nothing could be further from the truth.
Luke 12:24 Observe and consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn; and [yet] God feeds them. Of how much more worth are you than the birds!
Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
Proverbs 5:21 NKJV) For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He ponders all his paths
Three blind mice
We don’t like to think of ourselves as being blind. We like to think that we can see what’s going on around us and respond accordingly, if one for the sake of self-preservation.
In reality, without the Holy Spirit guiding us, our body/mind/spirit ensemble is a variation on the children’s rhyme about the three blind mice – blind in spirit, blind in mind and blind in body (in this specific order).
- We lack spiritual sight because we are not allowing God to show us, by His Spirit, what’s going on around us and what He intends to do.
- We are mentally blind because we allow our emotions to be guided by our own natural beliefs, and the biggest indicator of mental blindness stemming from spiritual blindness is fear.
- Our physical blindness is not so much about the need for a guide dog and a white cane – it’s more about relying on what we can see with our own eyes. If we can see it, then it’s real – yet we cannot begin to see all that needs to be seen just using our natural eyes – we can perceive so little with our natural eyes that we might as well be totally blind.
Matthew 6:22-23 Your eyes are like a window for your body. When they are good, you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. If the light inside you is dark, you surely are in the dark.
“Starting Faith”
I said earlier that our spirit is switched on 24x7, but “active” does not mean “perceptive”.
I mentioned above that being faithful is a three-part exercise in seeing things the way that God sees them, understanding the purpose that God has in the situation, and having a level of confidence in God’s intention to get involved (as we give Him space to do so).
The encouraging thing is that there is at least some faith in all of us – if we totally lacked the ability to see things the way that God sees them, then we would never have turned to God in the first place.
The bible talks about having faith the size of a mustard seed – a tiny seed about 1mm across and virtually weightless – so small in fact that it’s hard to pick up with your fingers. Mustard is an annual plant that grows so fast that it is the type of seed that most farmers would not deliberately sow in their fields - a single mustard plant may grow to about 4 meters (15 feet) high in just weeks & sprout many leafy branches that overshadow other slower growing plants.
I refer to this small amount of faith as “starting faith” – the faith that we all have. The amazing thing is that even this small amount of faith can really make a difference. The disciples were talking to Jesus one day, and wanted to have bigger, more effective faith. Look at what Jesus says.
Luke 17:5-6 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" He (Jesus) replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
Interestingly, Jesus talks about this again after the disciples could not drive a demon from a boy. Jesus explains to the disciples why they had failed…
Matthew 17:20 He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
Jesus then goes to say that the demon that He cast out could only be dealt with through prayer and fasting – time spent with God, and time spent focussed on “relocating”. Starting faith is great, but we’ve go to take some action to “plant” that seed firmly. And that’s where the Spirit comes to our assistance…
Faith and the Spirit
This scripture is going to make a regular appearance, but I’m going to keep reprinting it anyway:
2 Peter 1:5-8 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),
And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety), and in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
It’s verse 9 that follows the “fruits” verses that I want to highlight:
For whoever lacks these qualities is blind, [spiritually] shortsighted, seeing only what is near to him, and has become oblivious [to the fact] that he was cleansed from his old sins.
So, winding this passage of scripture back a bit, we are blind if we don’t have faith – we will lack God’s perception of situations, we will fail to understand God’s purposes, and we will lack confidence that God actually intends to get engaged in the situation.
And because faith is a quality or fruit of the Spirit, we will be “blind mice” if we don’t allow the Spirit to truly be with us and working through us on a consistent basis.
Taking it just one step further – if we choose not to relocate into the spiritual realm that we’ve been talking about, we are making a positive choice to be blind…or to put it the way the bible puts it, we are being “wilfully blind” (Eph. 4:18).
(MORE TO COME)
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