"Certainty Of The Unseen"

“Certainty of the Unseen”

Hebrews 11:1 says this; “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” We’ll all have to agree that it takes a certain amount of faith to “be sure of something that we do NOT see.” Now, regardless of whether those “invisible” things are good or evil, we tend to be skeptical of that which we can’t see and even more skeptical when we can neither hear, taste, touch or smell them. Yet we are forced to acknowledge many invisible forces: for instance, we can’t see gravity but we know it’s there. I couldn’t see this virus that gave me the cold that I now have—if I could, I would have most certainly avoided it. So we have to come to the elementary conclusion that we live in a world that includes both a visible dimension and an invisible dimension.

I doubt I’ll ever forget my first memorable encounter with something invisible. I was just a small boy of course, we were sitting in the den watching television when the lamp beside the couch suddenly went out. The bulb had blown so my mama took the shade off, screwed out the blown bulb and went to get another bulb from the cabinet. Before she left, she told me not to mess with the lamp while she was gone because it could shock me. Of course, my curiosity was instantly aroused, and like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to the disassembled fixture. I remember gazing into the socket where the bulb screwed in and no matter how closely I looked, I saw nothing indicative of any kind of danger. Surely mama was just being overly cautious as usual. Me, I liked to live on the edge—and besides, if this lamp could shock me in any way, I thought for sure I would see a glow or at least a little spark. So, just to prove to myself that the lamp was indeed harmless, I carefully stuck my index finger into this “vortex of death” –nothing happened. Well what do you know, I was right. I felt pretty proud of myself. That is until my finger touched the metal side of the socket….. Once that happened it was like the lamp came to life and reached out and grabbed me! I couldn’t let go, it was like some powerful force was trying to suck me into that little hole while simultaneously sending painful jolts of electricity throughout my entire body. Once I broke loose, I stood there for a moment stunned at what had just happened. Needless to say, I instantly became a believer in things I couldn’t see.

What about you? Are you truly a believer in things that you don’t currently have the ability to see? I’m reminded of the story of Elisha. It seems that, by the Spirit of God, he was telling the king of Israel the strategic battle secrets of the king of Aram. So when he found out about it, the king of Aram sent “a powerful force” to capture this troublesome prophet. (2 Kings 6:14-18)

I. “Those who are WITH us are more than those who are WITH them.”

A. The careful wording of this passage seems to indicate that Elisha was referring to God’s angels on their side and the evil angels on the enemy’s side.

1. One person plus God is always the majority.

B. We need to ask God to help us to “See” or be aware of those forces—both good and evil coexist with us every day.

1. Illustration: On the outskirts of a remote South African village, Lucas Sibana was walking along a narrow trail which winded alongside a creek just like he had done every day for years. But on this particular day he was not alone. You see, he was being stalked—not by a lion or tiger, but by a huge python… Within a few seconds this enormous snake had wrapped itself around him and began constricting. Sibana was trapped. He didn’t know how he would escape. He decided the only way to get free and save himself was to bite it as hard as he could just below the head. He bit, he kicked and he punched the snake until it released him. Then he killed it with a stick, took it home and skinned it. His family had it for supper. (We have to be aware of our surroundings—even in the spiritual realms)

2. As I was researching for this sermon, I found something that I thought to be very interesting. Based on a few fairly recent Gallup polls, around 92% of Americans believe in God.... and yet only an average of 70% believe in the devil. (that’s the way he likes it!)