WHAT DOES FAITH LOOK LIKE?
Acts 14:9 “Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, Stand up on your feet!. At that the man jumped up and began to walk.”
Faith is perhaps one, if not the, most important element necessary to grow in the Christian walk.
Goerge Muller once said: the beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without it we can never make God happy.
AW Tozer said, faith is the vitamin that makes all we take from the bible digestable
We are saved by faith We walk by faith We are of the household of faith
Faith is the key that unlocks the supernatural realm of our natural existence. Where we stand this morning in our walk with Christ is a direct result of the location and depth of our faith. It’s a journey-I feel sorry for Moses..he spent 40 yrs wandering in the desert eating nothing but bread off the ground and an occasional bird and everyday a million people would come up to him and ask, are we there yet?
Romans 12:3 tells us that each of us has been given a measure of faith…..what we do with it and how we use it is up to us.
Without faith it is impossible to please God and you and I won’t be happy either. We cannot compare ourselves and our faith with that of our brother or sister. Comparing will only lead to division.
3 little kids were talking….one said my brother takes horseback riding lessons. Another said well my sister takes gymnastics. The 3rd one, not wanting to be outdone said, well that’s nothing, my sister takes antibiotics!
2 things are true about faith people…
People with faith feel good about themselves…they know that they are the way they are because made them that way and God doesn’t make mistakes (fearfully & wonderfully made) For most people, it’s not what they are that holds them back. It’s what they think their not.
2 cows were grazing in the pasture when they saw a milk truck pass. On the side of the truck were the words, “Pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, vitamin A added” One cow sighed to the other,”Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn’t it?”
People with faith feel like good things are going to happen!
Man took a cruise and after the 2nd day he noticed this woman staring at him. Finally he went over to her and said, Maam, do I know you? She said, , Im just taken back by how much you look like my 3rd husband. He said, “your 3rd husband?” Yes, she said. He said, How many times have you been married? She said twice!
Cheer up tomorrow is another day and it’s going to be different!
Fear is the exact opposite of faith…it believes the worst
Faith believes that the absolute best will happen in every situation
So what does faith look like?
In our text we see a man crippled in his feet since birth. He had never taken a step forward, never ran barefoot through the grass, never felt the heat from the hot beach sand running through his toes. He was just sitting where he had been placed.
Many times the reason that we have no faith is because we are still sitting in the place where God put us long ago. God requires legs on your faith, legs on your praise, legs on your prayer life so that you move on and on to higher levels. As Pastor Chapman once said, we need to get up on our feet, move out of our seat and into the street!
Many folks are afraid to share the Gospel. One man said, Our preacher tells us to go out and witness to others weekly. Nothing strikes fear in me more than sharing my faith with a complete stranger. Why, it’s gotten so bad, I’ve enrolled in a Witness Relocation program!
In NY City its gotten so bad that if you want to talk to a Jehovahs Witness you need to go knock on their door!
This man listened to Paul as he spoke and when Paul fastened his eyes upon this crippled man, everything else went out of focus except for what he perceived in this mans eyes. Faith gets your attention!
Paul saw expectancy and enthusiasm.
Paul saw the man running in his spirit
Paul saw a man that was leaping up and down on the inside
Faith looks like unbridled enthusiasm.
Peter, in Luke 5 was asked by Jesus to “launch out into the deep for a catch”. In other words, go out beyond the boundarie4s that you have accepted for yourself and experience mine. Expand your perimeter, your comfort zone, and start to think and live out of the box. When we limit ourselves, we limit God. Faith knows that what we see is not all there is. What we are is not all we will be. Where we are is not where we will end up.
Faith looks like unlimited potential.
A little further on in Luke 5, the Lord was teaching Pharisees and teachers of the law from all over Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem. The bible says that “the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick” Some men had gathered with their paralyzed friend and they were trying to get him to Jesus but the crowd was simply overwhelming. Many would give up hear and catch him next time he comes to town….but not these guys. They looked for another opening and decided to go up on the roof and drop him into the Lords lap. The scripture says, “When Jesus saw their faith, he looked at the paralytic and said your sins are forgiven.
It appears to me that this man was in such bondage about his past that he couldn’t receive his present and therefore the faith of his friends brought about a miracle for him.
Faith looks like unwavering resourcefulness.
In Mark 5 there was a woman who had been ill for 12 years and exhausted every human resource available to get well. All she received back was a negative report. In fact, instead of getting better, she got worse! When she heard about Jesus, she went after him(though it was against Jewish law for her to be seen in public) because she thought, if I can get close enough to touch him, I will be better. She was willing to risk it all!
Faithfulness is the willingness to take risks that require faith in order to produce fruit.
Faith looks like unquenchable desire
You might say that faith looks a lot like a “hail Mary” pass with no time remaining
on the clock.
Faith is dead to doubt, dumb to discouragement, and blind to impossibilities.
It knows nothing but success in God
Faith is not believing that God can, it is knowing that God will!
Hebrews 11:1 says that:
Faith is the substance(that which stands by you/alongside) the committed, unrelenting, unflinching confidence or companion of things hoped for,
And the evidence(revelation,illumination) of things that are not visible to the natural eye.
The size of the man is more important than the size of the problem.
Greater is He that is in me than the problem that is coming against me.
Faith takes action….
Hebrews 11:33 tells us that faith subdued, faith worked, faith obtained and faith even stopped the mouth of lions
What does faith look like?
When you find Jesus, you find the author(creator) and the finisher(completer) of your faith. Christ in you…the hope of glory!
