I was talking with a good friend a few months ago about the spiritual gift of healing. He was sharing some pretty amazing stories, and I was feeling defensive because I’ve prayed for people before and it “didn’t work.” I asked him “what about when it doesn’t work?” His words have stuck with me, “There are many reasons why prayer sometimes does not produce the results we want, but the Bible is full of promises and examples and commands about praying in faith and seeing miraculous results…so I’m going to focus on that.” I replied, “How often does it work for you?” “About 75% of the time….but instead of getting derailed on the other 25%, I’m going to trust in God for the 75%.”
In my personal quest to know God, follow Him, and become like Him, it’s clear that all of my times of greatest learning & growth were triggered by calculated decisions to throw caution to the wind and step-out in faith to where I KNEW God was leading. There have also been plenty of times when I THOUGHT I KNEW, stepped-out in faith according to that supposed knowing, and was unpleasantly surprised. Those experiences have been forks in the road of my past…sometimes my faith was strengthened as I learned more about the distinction between God’s voice and my own…His desire and my own. Other times I furrowed my brow, blamed God for not performing, and withdrew into more controlled & cautious places. There is a healthy, mature type of caution that avoids recklessness….but fear-based caution is one of our enemy’s most potent weapons in keeping us at arm’s length from our Heavenly Father. God always responds to faith.
I think that one of the biggest reasons for the apparent spiritual apathy & impotence of the American Church today is lack of faith. It’s also at the root of why many Christians say things like “why doesn’t God do miracles anymore like in Bible times?” Well, actually He does…but He insists on partnering with faith. Not faith in the sense of intellectual agreement with the historical facts & moral truths of the Bible, and trying your best to live by them. That’s Kindergarten faith. Grown-up faith is a conviction of trust that God is real & personal, and that His way is best for my life. Faith is the antithesis of fear, and in the Old Testament there was a powerful euphemism for faith: Fear of God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Proverbs 9:10).
The opposite of fear of God is fear of man.
Alex Rettman, Pastor of Youth & Young Adults at Bridgetown Church in Portland, says this: “What the fear of man can do in your life is to make looking respectable, responsible, and financially wise more important than being obedient to God…The fear of man is an over-rating of people in your life and an under-rating of God. Fear of man is actually a hallmark trait of the Pharisees. They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God…and this is why they couldn’t see Him as the Messiah.”
The Pharisees are known as “the hypocrites” of the New Testament. This wasn’t because they sometimes lost their temper or said harsh words or sought the places of honor…those were only symptoms, and we all do these things on occasion. Scripture says that God looks past our facades straight into our hearts; He alone can see our deepest desires & dreams. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was rooted in a deep-seated fear of man, or in other words “love of the world,” which stood in direct opposition to what God was doing around them. Any time we find ourselves resisting what God is trying to do, we’re acting just like them…and it pinches the hose of God’s power that He wants to flow into us. All of us struggle with fear/lack of faith, and God is constantly, eagerly waiting for us to take the first steps so that He can catch us when we fall. He can be trusted!!!
In order to experience the “abundant life” that Jesus promises, answers to prayer, miraculous healings, prophetic words & visions, and all the other stuff God wants to do through us, we have to turn away from the false beliefs we have learned and walk toward Him in faith. His goal for us is not to fill our lives with material blessings and comfortable circumstances that will make us happy. That’s not God, that’s the American dream…and in terms of the Kingdom of God, it’s actually a narcissistic nightmare that blinds our eyes to the true wealth that Jesus offers us to be victorious in the midst of a broken world. When we surrender our fears to the Almighty, according to the relationship we have with Him in Jesus, we are free to step-out in faith and receive what He is waiting to give us.
SCRIPTURES…
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39)
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:1-2, 6)
“Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4-5)
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
“Everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)
“Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:18-21)
“Jesus left there and went to his hometown…and they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. (Mark 6:1-6)
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” (James 5: 14-18)
