I hear a lot of Christians say they believe but then they back out of that belief when it goes up against "science" or what we see all around us. A.W. Tozer says in his book "Man: The Dwelling Place of God." The Church today is suffering from the secularization of the sacred. We can no longer accept the world's values or the world's attitude of faith because we dim the glory of God in our thinking. To look at faith from the world's vantage point is to cheapen it at it's core. Tozer goes on to say "By accepting the world's values thinking its thoughts and adopting its ways we have dimmed the glory that shines overhead. We have not been able to bring earth to the judgment of heaven so we have brought heaven to the judgment of earth. Pity us, Lord, for we know not what we do.
Faith is just believing! REALLY believing, and not mere words that have been construed to make something happen. I get frustrated with a manmade "remedy" of how to spark a faith reaction in me. Words that are prompted from some worldly thought by someone that mean nothing. It is the unscriptural promotion of such actions that has watered down our faith in the first place. JUST BELIEVE. That is all God is asking us to do because if we try to do some manmade concoction to make it happen it enters something of us into the equation, which is really no equation at all. In Matthew 17:20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” C'mon now? A mountain into the sea? That is what it says and we have to do some serious manmade reasoning to change it don't we? Then why change it. Just believe what Jesus says.
Here is a story of a miraculous thing that happened in Cana, you know where Jesus turned the water into wine. Read the following verses and see if God shows you something. John 4:46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die. 48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” 49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.
51 While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. 52 He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea. Here is how we explain these verses and this instance of faith and results away. In our modern day way of reading scripture and doing church it would go like this. "I heard a preacher one time say what happened here was Jesus was testing this person's faith and because they approached Him in a certain way that is how the healing worked. The reasoning is tainted because the reasoning has our "spin" on it. WRONG!! This "story" as we like to call them is true because it is Jesus' words, not ours. Base level; Jesus healed the officials son. End of story.
The more of our own reasoning that we enter in to the "reality" of this experience, the more we muddy the water. Here is how we should look at it; Jesus said the boy would be healed and live and "the boy was healed and he lived." And that is the truth. When we read the above verses we need to remember "This actually happened" and then live in that belief. Don't add anyone elses spin on the whole thing, just believe it happened and also believe Jesus was resurrected and He is alive today and working through the Holy Spirit, who resides in our lives. Never cherry pick what you choose to believe from God's "Holy Word." Believe it all, because it is all true and perfect. Did you get that? PERFECT!
Something to keep in mind is "there is more to this Word to help us in other areas of our lives too." I don't want to miss anything from this perfect Word of Almighty God and I for sure want to get to know the one, Jesus, who is the Word. Then I will be able to respond to everything I meet up with on a daily basis. I call this living an unfiltered life and believe me, it is difficult, but possible. JUST BELIEVE. I was so indoctinated to believe Jesus and the Word of God with "conditions" but that indoctrination doesn't apply to me anymore. Those conditions actually weaken my faith and weaken the power of God in my faith walk. Like Apollo Creed said at the end of the first Rocky movie "Aint gonna be no rematch!" I am done with the worldly filter of God's Word and I praise God for "waking me up." It is my desire to be a vessel that truly believes and follows God's Word, even though I am just a sinner saved by His grace. Oh by the way, there are those who want to mess with the effect of God's grace and judge the world, so don't listen to them. Listen to God. Just sayin!!
Today's Message,
David Warren
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