I want us to dive deep into the pool of faith, hopefully being instructed and encouraged to believe God - regardless of circumstances or other evidence that says not to.
Faith is not only critical in the Christian life, it is a crucial element in the human life. Faith and hope are essential for our all around well-being. The substance of faith, or the lack thereof, affects us mentally, emotionally, physically, as well as Spiritually. And if it is one thing that the devil wants to destroy in our life, it is our faith.
Our positive outlook on life, on circumstances, on prospects, and possibilities. Satan wants to destroy people’s faith. Your faith. My faith. He wants to tear away at the fabric of our faith, watching any and all hope that we do have completely unravel in our lives.
And with an enemy on the prowl, whose sole target for destruction is our faith, it is many times a great challenge to maintain any measure of positive outlook in our lives. Satan wants our present and our future to look as dismal as possible.
He wants our faith, our hope, and our belief. Not just on a Spiritual level, but on a natural level as well. He wants us to be hopeless, faithless, tormented, confused, despairing, and depressed. He wants us discouraged with life in general, and he doesn’t care how he accomplishes his agenda.
What we must always remember, though, is that faith develops through dilemmas and difficulties. We think that if we had no problems or trials, or at least no major ones, that we could have great faith. But one of the base realities of life is the fact that we will have problems. There will always be issues that arise to complicate our lives.
And though Satan may have a certain desire in those times, our all-knowing, all-caring, and all-able God has a plan and desire of His own. And where the devil comes to steal our faith, God comes to strengthen our faith. *Every problem has two possibilities: It can weaken and steal our faith, or it can build and strengthen our faith. Every problem, every issue, every difficulty, is a "fork in the road." We can go one of two ways. The side of fear, or the side of faith.
*We must constantly remind ourselves that when problems arise, or when situations don’t turn out like we want them to, we have come to the fork in the road. And we have a choice. Which side will we choose? I can tell you now, that the path of fear will lead to discouragement, depression, and ultimately to destruction. But the path of faith will lead us to development, dependance, and ultimately to deliverance!
And if you’re going to walk the path of faith, remember that faith is not proved and strenghtened in success, but by your struggle. It’s the struggle to get out of the cocoon that gives the butterfly strength to fly. And it is our struggles in life that are to work to strenghten our faith, and allow us to soar!
Faith is not needed where there are no negative elements. Faith is not needed in constant success and prosperity. Faith is needed when you are in the midst of struggles in your soul, where the natural thing, the easy thing, to do is to throw up our hands and quit! You don’t need faith when everything’s fine; you need it when everything seems to be failing!
We need faith when any or every part of our life seems to be falling apart! Because it is faith that gets you from the struggle to success, from the battle to the blessing. Faith is only needed in the midst of fiery trials, when we are under an attack of an endless array of the devilish darts of doubt. It is then we need the shield of faith to sustain us!
And here’s the thing about faith: You have to have faith in the very point of attack. You can’t be under an attack in your finances, and cling to a faith that God is the healer of sickness. *While He is a healer, that is not the exact area in which you need to possess faith. And so faith has to point to the area of the specific attack that you’re under. It has to be relevant to the particular "needy area" in your life in order for it to help get you through the struggle. And that’s very difficult when all of the natural circumstances points in a direction which is in contrast to faith. It is a challenge to maintain faith, when the natural thing to do is fear, worry, stress out, have a nervous breakdown, or to just quit.
And so what we need in those times is a faith-building element, which comes to perform the work of moving us out of fear and hoplessness, out of desperation, and transports us onto the highway of hope, and helps us begin traveling in the direction of faith. And the Bible says, in Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." And so what we need in trying times is a direct Word from God about our situation. We need to hear from God. If we hear from God, we don’t need to hear from anyone else. As long as I can hear from God!
Yet, isn’t that what we rely on sometimes? Don’t we depend on other people to believe it, too? Don’t we seek out people who will believe with us? *And there’s nothing wrong with that, for there’s even Biblical evidence that it’s okay to do that.
For instance, the sick of palsy couldn’t get to Jesus on His own, but he had four friends who carried him to Jesus. They cut a hole in the roof to get their friend to Jesus. And the Bible says, "When Jesus saw their faith..." He forgave and healed the sick man. So here we see the joining together of people’s faith.
*But what about other examples, like blind Bartimaeus? The Bible said that He called out for Jesus, and everybody around him told him to be quiet, that He was disturbing Jesus, and the parade of people. But when they tried to shut him up, he cried out all the more: "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me?" He believed, but no one else did. Yet,
Jesus healed his blinded eyes, and he went away seeing!
What about the woman who had the demon possessed daughter, and even Jesus acted like He wasn’t interested in her situation? Yet, she persisted, showed her faith, and Jesus ended up saying, "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee, even as thou wilt." Both of them, and many others, had faith, but they had no friend!
What about Peter, when the Lord bid him to come to Him on ther water? I don’t see where Peter turned around to the boat potato brothers and said, "What do you all think? Did it sound like He said ’Come’? I’m not quite sure. What do you think John?" John says, "I think we’re gonna die. I don’t want to die!" Thomas, says, "I can’t swim! I’m afraid to even float."
No, Peter didn’t ask anyone, because he had heard the Word of the Lord for his situation. And even in the midst of stormy weather, he stepped out on faith in the Word of God, and did the impossible - that which has only been done by one other person: Jesus Himself. He walked on water!
And though the Bible says that he walked on water, it could really say, "He walked out on the Word of God." Jesus gave him one word, and it provoked his faith to step over the side of a boat, in the midst of a raging storm, and walk on the water toward Jesus. *That is always the direction of faith. Faith will always push you, provoke you, and pull you in the direction of Jesus! You may believe a lot of things, but true faith, real faith, will always bring you toward Jesus, and it will cause you to get out of the boat of unbelief, and move in the direction of the Word of God!
What becomes a challenge for us, though, is those times when we have to stand alone in faith. When we seemingly have no one to stand with us, and agree with us, and who does not believe what we believe. But I have found out some-thing about faith: Deep-rooted faith does not always need a friend. Deep-rooted faith does not always require someone to stand beside it.
And it’s not a "pride-thing," but when you know that you know that you know, that you have heard from God, and you have direction, or assurance, then it really doesn’t matter whether anyone else believes it or not. You can move out based on your faith in God’s Word alone!
And I want to tell you that it is that kind of faith that God wants us to have. Look at Romans 3:3 for just a moment. It says, "For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?"
The NIV says, "What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?"
NASB - "If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?"
NLT - "True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they broke their promises, does that mean God will break his promises?"
It’s like it’s saying, "What if some didn’t trust God? Does that mean that God cannot be trusted?"
But I believe I like the way the Amplified Bible states it best. It says, "What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity to His Word?"
He is saying, "Don’t guage your faith by monitoring other people’s faith. You believe God, even if others don’t." *Listen. Please don’t miss this: This is not saying that it’s not necessary for ANYONE to have faith. But it is saying that it’s not necessary for EVERYONE to have faith!
And others’ faithlessness does not change God’s faithfulness, and His fidelity to His Word. Do you know what that means? God is committed to His Word. And if you will believe His Word, you will be a beneficiary of His faithfulness.
And that may mean having to have FAITH WITHOUT A FRIEND.
