Many people
think faith is acting like something is so when it really isn't so, and
if we do that long enough, then it will become so. But that's not it at
all. Faith is real.
Hebrews 11:1 says,
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Faith is substance. This is saying that faith is real. It is the
evidence of things not seen. Notice it didn't say "things that don't
exist." They do exist. They just aren't seen.
Even in the natural world, we've come to realize that there are
things that do exist that we can't see. We can't see television signals,
but they do exist. In fact, wherever you are right now, there are
television signals right there with you. If you say "No there aren't"
just because you can't see or hear them, that doesn't mean they don't
exist. It just means you aren't very smart. They do exist, they are just
unseen. They are unseen realities.
A television set can make unseen signals visible. When we see the
images is not when they became real. They were already there. A
television set doesn't generate images. The set just receives the signal
and converts it into sights and sounds that we can perceive. But the
television signals were already there, before we tuned them in.
Probably every person reading this letter has watched television when
suddenly the picture went blank. What did you do? I bet you didn't call
the television station and complain about them stopping their
broadcast. The first thing you did was check and see if everything was
working on your television set. Was the electricity on? Was it plugged
in? Did a tube go out or did some circuit melt? You checked your
receiver to see what was wrong with it. You trust that the station
broadcasts 24/7. You don't question that until you eliminate all the
possible problems with your set.
Likewise, God is real and does exist. He just can't be seen. He is
broadcasting all His power and blessings 24/7. It's never God's
transmitter that is broken. It's always our receiver that is the
problem. If we ask God for something and we don't see it manifest
instantly, most people question why God hasn't answered that prayer yet.
They assume that because they haven't seen or heard anything, nothing
has happened. That's all wrong. We need to have more faith in God than
we have in a television station.
There is a very good illustration of this truth in 2 Kings 6. Elisha,
the prophet of God, was revealing the Syrian's battle plans to the king
of Israel. Every time the king of Syria tried to ambush the king of
Israel, Elisha would warn the king of Israel, and he would ambush the
Syrian's ambush. This happened so often that the king of Syria finally
asked his servants to reveal who the traitor was. He knew that the king
of Israel could not be maneuvering like he was without inside
information.
When one of the king of Syria's servants said that Elisha, the
prophet of God, was revealing the words that the king of Syria said in
his bed chamber to the king of Israel, the king of Syria sent his armies
to capture Elisha.
Second Kings 6:15 says,
"And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone
forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots.
And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?"
When Elisha's servant saw the Syrian troops, he panicked. He knew why
they were there. They had discovered Elisha was the one telling the
king of Syria's battle plans to the king of Israel. They were in big
trouble. Look at the response of Elisha to this situation in 2 Kings
6:16: "And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than
they that be with them.".
People who don't believe anything exists beyond their five senses
would say Elisha was lying. He was confessing something was so when it
really wasn't so, hoping that it would become so. But that's not the way
it was at all. Elisha spoke the truth. There were more with him than
was with the Syrian army. It's just that Elisha's forces were in the
unseen reality.
The key to understanding this is to recognize there is another realm
of reality beyond this physical world. Those who are limited to only
their five senses will always struggle with this. They think Elisha was
lying, and indeed, he would have been lying if all that exists is this
physical world. You could count the Syrian troops by the thousands, and
there was only Elisha and his servant. But Elisha wasn't lying because
there was another world of reality. If you looked at the whole picture,
the physical and spiritual world, then Elisha was right on. In the
spiritual realm, there were many more horses and chariots of fire around
Elisha than there were Syrian troops.
According to 2 Kings 6:17,
"Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that
he may see. And he LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw:
and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round
about Elisha."
Gehazi's physical eyes were already wide open. God was opening his
spiritual eyes. He was able to see with his heart into the spiritual
world. And when the spiritual world was taken into consideration, then
Elisha's statement was perfectly true.
Those who see faith as an attempt to make something real which isn't
real will always struggle with those who see faith as simply making what
is spiritually true a physical truth. Those who limit truth to only the
physical realm would have called Elisha one of those "name it, claim
it," "blab it, grab it" cultists. But in saying such things, they
condemn themselves. They show they only consider what they can see,
taste, hear, smell, and feel to be reality. They are what the Bible
calls "carnal."
When Gehazi's eyes were opened, the Syrians didn't disappear. They
were still there. The physical truth was still true, but there was a
greater spiritual truth that emerged. True faith doesn't deny
physical truth; it just refuses to let physical truth dominate spiritual
truth. True faith subdues physical truth to the reality of spiritual
truth.
Because Elisha believed in the realities of the spiritual world, he
raised his hand and smote all the Syrians with blindness. Then he led
the whole Syrian army captive to the king of Israel. Praise the Lord!
That's not bad for an old prophet whom carnal people would say was all
by himself.
Elisha was not just speaking some wishful statement, hoping that it
would become a reality. He knew what was real in the spiritual world,
and he controlled his emotions and actions accordingly. There is no indication that Elisha saw the horses and chariots of fire around him. He didn't need to. He believed it. Those who operate in true faith don't need to see with their physical eyes. Their faith is evidence enough.
There was a woman at a campmeeting who had a huge goiter on her neck.
She went forward for prayer and knew that she knew she was healed. So,
she got up in front of the audience and gave a testimony of her goiter
being healed. However, the goiter was still visible. But the people
praised God, thinking that the healing would manifest itself shortly.
The next year at the same campmeeting, the woman got up again and
praised the Lord for her healing, but there still wasn't any visible
proof. This concerned a lot of people, but they didn't say anything.
Then the next year, the same thing happened. This was too much for most
of the people, and it caused the leaders of the meeting to approach this
woman and tell her she couldn't testify of this healing again until the
goiter was gone.
The woman told the Lord that she knew He had healed her, and she
didn't have to see visible results to believe it. But for the sake of
the unbelievers, she asked the Lord to physically remove the growth. It
disappeared and the woman showed them what she already knew was true.
You can get that strong in faith. Your faith is substance and all the
evidence you need. Faith is real.
I've experienced this in my own life. When my youngest son, Peter,
died on March 4, 2001, my wife and I spoke our faith and said, "The
first report is not the last report." We spoke resurrection life back
into Peter's body, and then we headed into town. It was one hour and
fifteen minutes from the time we got the call until we got to where
Peter was. During that time, I was operating in faith. I remembered
prophecies that had not yet come to pass in Peter's life, and therefore,
I knew it wasn't time for Peter to die. I rejoiced by faith, seeing
Peter alive and well.
My oldest son, Joshua, met me at the door and said, "Dad, five or ten
minutes after I called you, Peter just sat up." Thank You, Jesus! This
is the point: I didn't rejoice more once I saw Peter raised from the
dead than I did while I was still driving. During the drive, I knew
Peter was alive, and I was rejoicing with all my might. It was actually
anticlimactic when I saw in the physical what I had already seen in the
spiritual. Don't get me wrong; I was blessed and I rejoiced to see my
son raised up after being dead for five hours. But the physical reality
wasn't more real to me than the spiritual reality of faith.
This is the way I live. I know it's not "normal," but I'm not getting
"normal" results either. I've been believing big, and there have been
big results from that believing. When we moved into our new offices, and
when we see the warehouse finished, that was, and will be,
anticlimactic. I'm seeing all these things in the spirit now. When they
manifest physically, others will be impressed, but I'm impressed now.
I'm not believing for something that isn't real to become real. I've
seen into the spiritual realm by faith, and I'm simply making what I've
seen in the spiritual world manifest in the physical world. All of the
things I'm seeing with my physical eyes now, I have already seen in my
heart. I saw it on the inside before I saw it on the outside. This is a
wonderful way to live. This is the normal Christian life. This is
walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
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Courtesy of Andrew Wommack : http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/reality_faith
Free, at last, it is finished. Life hath triumphed over death. Jesus reigns, bless the name of, God Almighty, free. at last.
Remember the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior on this day.
Happy Good Friday!!!
1Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.
2And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
3And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.
4Pilate
therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him
forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.
5Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!
6When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.
7The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
8When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
9And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
10Then
saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that
I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
11Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
12And
from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out,
saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever
maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
13When
Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat
down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in
the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
14And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
15But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
16Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
17And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
18Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
19And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20This
title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was
crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
21Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.
22Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
23Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
24They
said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for
it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which
saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did
cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
25Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
26When
Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he
loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
27Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
28After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
29Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
30When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
31The
Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should
not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was
an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
33But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
34But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
35And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
36For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
37And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
38And
after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away
the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
39And
there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night,
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
40Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
41Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
42There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
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