When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Mark 2:5 NKJV
I existed as a Christian for years misunderstanding the totality of faith. For me, I functioned with this thought: “As long as I BELIEVE right, God will move in my life”. That is not scripturally true, or should I say, that is not scripturally the WHOLE truth. Wherever “faith” is found, what corroborates it as active faith is a corresponding action that demonstrates that indeed, it is faith. The classic illustration is the “chair”. I can believe it will sustain my weight. I can be convinced beyond any argument or challenge for it to be adequate. However, that chair is of no use to that belief until we ACT on that faith and SIT in the chair. This is why Paul used the phrase, “We WALK by faith, not by sight”. Faith is strictly intellectual assent to a possibility. It is a committed action upon that possibility. This is what Jesus affirms when the account above states that, “Jesus SAW their faith”. Apparently, faith is something you can see.
How many times have I thought (or even said), “Sure, God is able. He can do anything.”; but never acted upon that confidence? Until I choose to ACT on those things I believe, there will be a blockage to supernatural activity being demonstrated in my life. For example, I can believe God is a healing God, but until I actually pray for the sick or lay hands on the sick, that faith is dormant.
I was reading in the midst of this pandemic and ran across a story that for me underscored this truth profoundly and in a most challenging way. Lord William Craven, a Christian, was a nobleman who was living in London when plague ravaged the city in the late sixteenth century. In order to escape the spreading pestilence Craven determined to leave the city for his country home, as many of his social standing did. He ordered his coach and baggage made ready. But as he was walking down one of the halls of his home about to enter his carriage, he overheard one of his servants say to another, ‘I suppose by my lord’s quitting London to avoid the plague that his God lives in the country and not in town.’ It was a straightforward and apparently innocent remark. But it struck Lord Craven so deeply that he canceled his journey, saying, ‘My God lives everywhere and can preserve me in town as well as in the country. I will stay where I am.’ So he stayed in London. He helped the plague victims, and he did not catch the disease himself. From the account, it appears that Psalm 91:3-10, became alive and supernaturally powerful when Lord Craven ACTED in faith.
But here is the conundrum. Discerning between faith, foolishness, and presumption. I have said for years that a person doesn’t check their brain out at the door of the Church. Yet, I am constantly challenged as I read and meditate through the Scriptures in these days the number of times (see Hebrews 11) that God asks us to obey Him and suspend some sense of rationality. I must confess, this pandemic has revealed some things in me and if I may be so bold to suggest, the Church at large, that we all might need to be strengthened. Whatever “measure” of faith we may have (Romans 12:3), it appears that we might need it enlarged for the future (Luke 17:5).
And so today I am reminded of several things that I need to establish my heart…
1. I must renew my confidence that as a child of God, I have certain “rights” that I can appropriate with full assurance…
2. If I never ACT on what I hear and know to be true, faith will never be activated to release supernatural power…
3. I must take caution and carefully discern moments that solicit me to walk contrary to God’s Word…
4. I will remember that obedience is simple, disobedience is complicated…
The faith journey continues…
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