Faith without fear may be dead
“I’m just not sure I have the faith it takes to get through this.”
“I just know I don’t have as much faith as I should.”
These thoughts, and many like them, course through our minds as we wrestle with our sense of inadequacy as children of God. I am convinced that we wrestle with this sense of inadequacy because way too often, we try to generate from our soul, what can only come from God Himself.
Faith is not the mental agreement with a religious system or doctrine. Nor is it our resolve to carry out a mindset or a mission. It is a way of seeing that comes from listening instead of thinking.
I also see, far too often, that people think that the fact that they experience fear means that they do not “have enough faith”. What if that is not true?
I know the Bible tells us that faith without works is dead. I also think that faith without fear may be dead. If not dead, at least it is not really faith. Often the lack of fear is because we can see or reason the solution to, or we can rescue ourselves from our circumstances. What happens when we can’t see, but believe anyway?
Let me put it this way. Which demonstrates more faith; jumping off a curb, or jumping off a cliff. The first requires no faith at all because the risk (or fear factor) is minimal. Jumping off a curb allows you to still catch yourself, to rely on your own capabilities. Where is the fear (or faith) in that.
Jump off a cliff. (Don’t really go do this OK?, it’s an illustration…) You are now without the ability to catch yourself. Your resources are of no help. Only God can help you now. The fear factor increases the faith required to act.
Sometimes real faith means feeling the reality of the fear, but trusting and acting anyway. Trusting because you have a way of seeing that came from hearing and not from thinking.
Faith comes by hearing
Several Years ago, I was in a car wreck. It was my fault. I turned too quickly, the car behind me had little warning, and almost no opportunity to stop. Behind me I heard screeching tires and felt a powerful impact. No one was hurt seriously. Bruises and scrapes, and a few days of sore muscles.
For months afterward, every time I heard screeching tires I startled, and braced for an impact. My nervous system seemed to have a mind of it’s own. I reacted without consciously choosing to do so.
This response was the substance of something unseen.
Here is what I have come to know. Faith comes by hearing.
If you are someone who knows the Bible, you may recognize that this phrase comes from the New Testament. The book of Romans in particular. You might even know that the next verse says, “…and hearing comes by the Word of Christ.”
But I think the first part can stand alone. Faith comes by hearing.
I heard screeching tires and my heart deeply received…for months, my faith, my deep, deep belief, was in the sound I heard, and in an event that was no longer happening. Everything about me responded as if the event was still real, present and active.
I have a friend, who for years heard these words. “You are stupid”
She heard.
The words had power over her, her heart had received, and she believed. She did not have to see herself acting stupid. Her faith was the substance of something she initially did not see. The more she believed, the more she DID see. Her grades in school, her life choices… became the experience of what she believed, and she believed because she had heard.
Faith comes by hearing. Coose carefully who and what you listen to. Listen to those things that you want to experience as real, present and active in your life.
Asking – The key to answered prayer
Matthew 7:7-11
- Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
My parents divorced when I was three years old. I lived with my mom and step-dad, but spent Friday nights and Saturdays with my dad when I was a kid. The contrast was significant. My mom had a dynamic conversion experience shortly after the divorce, so on that end of my life I was exposed to church, Bible stories, and the kind of sheltering guaranteed to make any home-school mom proud. My dad was in a rock band called “The Mystics.” They played clubs and college parties, drank too much beer, smoked pot, and got into fights. I must say my dad made some effort to behave during my weekend visits, but the contrast was still pretty clear. The first rock album my dad ever bought me was “Dream Weaver” by Gary Wright. My mom made me give it back because it was demonic. My dad thought it actually had a good chance of getting by her because it was somewhat spiritual. I remember one time bringing home some KISS photos torn from a rock magazine, hidden in a notebook in my backpack. My mom couldn’t sleep that night. She prayed and asked God what was up and he told her where to find the pictures. She found them and burned them. God talks to my mom. She’s amazing and I am who and what I am in large part due to the investment she has made in my life. I’m just saying things were very different at dad’s house than at mom’s.
My dad and I took a road trip to Iowa in his yellow Road Runner one time to visit my Aunt Barbara and Uncle John. It was fast, but I’m not sure how fast. The speedometer was broken. We listened to KISS, Journey, and Van Halen the entire trip. Beth, Wheel In The Sky, and Runnin’ With The Devil are guilty pleasures for me to this day. That dates me doesn’t it?
Weekends with my dad during that season of life were fun. He took me to Forest Park to ride the rides. We ate at greasy spoon diners where my dad knew all the waitresses. He flirted with them and they flirted with me. It was cool. We would always stop in to see Grandma and Grandpa Smith. Once, on Grandpa’s birthday, I remember my dad gave him a carton of cigs. It was cool. The Kreamy Kream was a nearby burger joint. We would stop in and have a root beer. He always had quarters for the pinball machine and I always got to play.
My favorite thing was listening to music together. We listened to The Zoo and Q102. My dad knew everything about rock – the bands, the players, the singers, the writers – everything. A song would come on the radio and I would ask, “Who is this, Dad?” He would answer “The Allman Brothers” or “The Rolling Stones”. It’s cool to have a dad that knows everything. He was a big fan of the Beatles. He had all their albums and we listened to them at his apartment all the time. He would make me unlabeled recordings on cassette tapes to take home. God never told mom about them, I guess. My dad hated disco.
I remember riding around in my dad’s sky blue conversion van (he sold his Road Runner and bought a van to haul equipment for The Mystics) and listening to the radio. My favorite band was ZZ Top. I liked Tush, La Grange, Cheap Sunglasses, and Jesus Just Left Chicago. I always wanted to change radio stations to see if ZZ Top might be playing on another station. I was afraid to ask though. Sitting there next to my dad, I would stare at the radio, and try to gather my courage to ask if we could change the station. Looking back, this seems silly. My dad was very happy to comply with my request. I think my interest in music made him happy. There was absolutely no reason to hesitate or fear. Isn’t that strange? I didn’t ask because I completely misunderstood his heart.
I think I have the same tendencies when it comes to prayer. I sometimes find myself hesitant to approach God with boldness and ask for something. I think in some ways God is a lot like my dad. The stuff I’m interested in delights him. He always has a quarter for the pinball machine. I can always have root beer. Changing the radio station is no big deal. It’s not that God never says “no.” He does a lot because I ask for stupid stuff so often. It’s just his heart is to say “yes.” There’s never any reason to hesitate or be afraid. Ask. It’s ok.
Romans 8:31-32
- What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all– how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
The issue here is one of understanding God’s heart. Faith, however sincere, that is not aimed at an accessible God with a generous heart is faith misaimed. God is accessible. God is generous. He’s responsive. He’s looking for opportunities to say “yes” to us. If the god we believe in isn’t like that, then the god we believe in isn’t the true God, as he really is. God has revealed himself to us, primarily in the incarnation. When we see Jesus in the gospels, we have the clearest possible view of God, because Jesus is God in the flesh.
John 14:9-11
- Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father. This is what Jesus is asking us to believe. In the gospels, how accessible is Jesus? How loving? How generous? How powerful? That is what God is like. In looking at Jesus, we find out exactly what kind of person God is. It is faith in this reality that leads to answered prayer. Receiving from God requires faith in God as he is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Watch Jesus tie the two ideas together as the passage continues.
John 14:11-14
- Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Is it possible we have presuppositions about God that are incorrect, and these misguided ideas are a hindrance to effective faith? Do we see God as distant, punitive, and unresponsive? Then our faith is in a god that doesn’t exist. No wonder it seems ineffective. Faith is only powerful because its object is powerful. Faith in a distant, punitive, and unresponsive god is faith in the wind. There is no substance to it.I hesitated to ask my dad to change the radio station because I misunderstood his heart. Prayer is sometimes less than it could be in my life for the same reason.
Why doesn’t everyone who asks receive healing?
Have you ever wondered why many who ask for healing don’t receive it? This is a common question and I’ve heard it voiced in a variety of ways. Very often this question is more than simply theological or conceptual. Many times a great deal of disappointment and hurt lies underneath.
We often don’t have answers to the “why?” question. Even when we do, while faced with particular and personal instances of suffering and disappointment, those answers are sometimes unhelpful. Answers to why questions are generally informational. God’s answer to human need and suffering is rarely informational, but rather incarnational. God enters into our suffering. He is with us in it. He carries it. This reality and experience is what is needed when faced with particular and personal loss or grief.
As I have personally wrestled with this issue, there are a few theological realities which I have found to be helpful. I share these today hoping they might also be helpful to others.
1) There is a difference between my position and my condition. What Christ has provided (my position) must be appropriated by faith in order to impact my experience (my condition). For example: The land of Israel was theirs positionally long before it was theirs conditionally. It was their inheritance long before it was their possession. To lay hold of their possession, they had to enter in and possess it by faith. An entire generation failed to do so, according to Hebrews 4, because of disobedience and unbelief. I believe Jesus has fully provided for all healing through his atoning work. The healing of sickness is part of our Kingdom inheritance inaugurated in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Many of us believe this, acknowledge this, affirm this, but few have learned to enter in and possess it. It belongs to us positionally, but we have yet to appropriate it experientially in a manner that affects our condition. I believe God is today stirring up his people to contend for and lay hold of more of the inheritance that is ours in Christ. My hope and expectation is that as we learn to contend for this we will begin to experience increasing victory in this area.
2) Faith and Unbelief operate both corporately and individually. Jesus himself was limited in what he could do in Nazareth (Matt 13:57-58). This limitation wasn’t due to the unbelief of one individual. There was, in that community, an atmosphere of unbelief which limited his ability to meet the needs of individuals. I believe the secularism and materialism of our culture, combined with the widespread unbelief of the church in our culture concerning the miraculous, has served to create an atmosphere of unbelief which stands as an obstacle. In the West, when we hear about something supernatural, our gut instinct is often that there must be a natural explanation. In other parts of the world, when they witness something natural, their first instinct is that there must be a supernatural explanation. Is it any wonder that it is easier to expereience that which truly is supernatural in those cultures?
3) Sickness is often only a symptom of a deeper root problem. Contemporary medical wisdom tells us that 80% or more of illness is psychosomatic. This means that a great deal of sickness has its root in problems of the soul. It is possible in some cases that we experience limited success in ministering physical healing because we have yet to deal with the underlying, fears, un-forgiveness, bitterness, stress, etc. that lie at the root of the illnesses we face.
4) We have not because we ask not. Very simply, it appears that healing is something we receive by asking. I know when John Wimber (founder of the Vineyard) began to contend for God’s healing power, he prayed for more than 250 people before he saw his first miracle. He prayed for 200+ more before he saw his second. As he began to contend, to ask – consistently, proactively, and faithfully – he began to see more and more people healed. I think sometimes we fail to see breakthrough because particular disappointments and losses discourage us and we simply back away from the issue. The giants are just too big. As Bill Johnson teaches, we easily get our focus on what hasn’t happened and enter into discouragement and unbelief instead of focusing on what God has done and is doing with thankfulness and moving forward in obedience and faith.
5) We are in a war. Satan is actively engaged in warfare against God’s purposes in our lives. He opposes and hinders at every turn. In Daniel 10 we see a specific example of how an unseen spiritual battle delayed Daniel’s answer to prayer.
I’m sure much more could and should be said. This isn’t at all intended to be an exhaustive answer to a complex dilemma. I do not know which of the above factors (if any) have specific relevance to your situation. I’m simply sharing some of the thoughts that have been personally challenging to me as I’ve wrestled through this same issue. I hope these ideas might serve simply as a starting place for you to pursue all the inheritance that God has provided you in Christ.
The Word of the Lord – Hearing God more clearly
There’s a scripture that I often quote from Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I’ve heard a variety of teachings about this verse. One being that our faith grows as we read our Bible, the “word of God”. And while that’s true, this is not what that scripture is talking about.
The first part of this phrase is present tense. “Faith comes by hearing.” It comes by hearing, not having heard. Faith doesn’t come through knowledge. Rather, it’s a moment, an exact experience of tuning into God’s voice and hearing his will for an immediate situation.
It goes like this: You’re in a situation, and you need some God’s guidance, so you pray. As you’re praying, you have this thought. Hmm, that would apply. So, you act upon that thought and it truly was the best solution. That’s hearing God! That’s faith that comes from hearing God’s voice guide you.
The second part of this phrase “hearing by the word of God” is also quite interesting. Way too often we just substitute in our minds “Bible” for the “word of God”. Yet, I don’t think that was the writer’s intention. When the writer of Hebrews wrote this, he didn’t have a Bible. But what about the Old Testament, maybe that was his “word of God”. Back in Genesis 15:1, the “word of the Lord” came to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Yet, there was no Old Testament or Bible or any written word from God.
The “word of the Lord” is a specific moment of “hearing God”. It’s his voice that often comes to us as a thought, an idea, a memory, maybe even a vision or dream. Sure, the Bible is still essential for us to learn and know what God’s voice sounds like, and everything we “hear” from God needs to be filtered through the Bible. But that should not keep us from “listening” for those specific divine instructions that help us make decisions for our life and for what God has called us to.
The most incredible heavenly power that we can tap into is the voice of God speaking to us. He is constantly wooing and drawing and leading us. When we can “hear” the “word of the Lord” for a certain situation or decision, and we can believe it, then the supernatural power of God is released into our situation. We have agreed with God by believing him. Prayers are answered. Faith is activated. Heaven moves.
This week, I encourage you to really listen. Tune into God through worship, through prayer, through fasting and dedication. Read scripture to help you tune in your spiritual ears. And then listen. Pray a very simple prayer, “Lord, do you have anything to say to me?”
Then, be ready. He’s got a lot to say.
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