Many
people think faith is acting like something is so when it really isn't so, and
if we do that long enough, then it will become so. But that's not it at all.
Faith is real.
By Andrew Wommeck.
Hebrews 11:1 says,
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen."
Faith
is substance. This is saying that faith is real. It is the evidence of things
not seen. Notice it didn't say "things that don't exist." They do
exist. They just aren't seen.
Even
in the natural world, we've come to realize that there are things that do exist
that we can't see. We can't see television signals, but they do exist. In fact,
wherever you are right now, there are television signals right there with you.
If you say "No there aren't" just because you can't see or hear them,
that doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means you aren't very smart. They
do exist, they are just unseen. They are unseen realities.
A
television set can make unseen signals visible. When we see the images is not
when they became real. They were already there. A television set doesn't
generate images. The set just receives the signal and converts it into sights
and sounds that we can perceive. But the television signals were already there,
before we tuned them in.
Probably
every person reading this letter has watched television when suddenly the
picture went blank. What did you do? I bet you didn't call the television
station and complain about them stopping their broadcast. The first thing you
did was check and see if everything was working on your television set. Was the
electricity on? Was it plugged in? Did a tube go out or did some circuit melt?
You checked your receiver to see what was wrong with it. You trust that the
station broadcasts 24/7. You don't question that until you eliminate all the
possible problems with your set.
Likewise,
God is real and does exist. He just can't be seen. He is broadcasting all His
power and blessings 24/7. It's never God's transmitter that is broken. It's
always our receiver that is the problem. If we ask God for something and we
don't see it manifest instantly, most people question why God hasn't answered
that prayer yet. They assume that because they haven't seen or heard anything,
nothing has happened. That's all wrong. We need to have more faith in God than
we have in a television station.
There
is a very good illustration of this truth in 2 Kings 6. Elisha, the prophet of
God, was revealing the Syrian's battle plans to the king of Israel. Every time
the king of Syria tried to ambush the king of Israel, Elisha would warn the
king of Israel, and he would ambush the Syrian's ambush. This happened so often
that the king of Syria finally asked his servants to reveal who the traitor
was. He knew that the king of Israel could not be maneuvering like he was
without inside information.
When
one of the king of Syria's servants said that Elisha, the prophet of God, was
revealing the words that the king of Syria said in his bed chamber to the king
of Israel, the king of Syria sent his armies to capture Elisha.
Second Kings 6:15 says,
"And
when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an
host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said
unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?"
When
Elisha's servant saw the Syrian troops, he panicked. He knew why they were
there. They had discovered Elisha was the one telling the king of Syria's
battle plans to the king of Israel. They were in big trouble. Look at the
response of Elisha to this situation in 2 Kings 6:16: "And he answered,
Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.".
People
who don't believe anything exists beyond their five senses would say Elisha was
lying. He was confessing something was so when it really wasn't so, hoping that
it would become so. But that's not the way it was at all. Elisha spoke the
truth. There were more with him than was with the Syrian army. It's just that
Elisha's forces were in the unseen reality.
The
key to understanding this is to recognize there is another realm of reality
beyond this physical world. Those who are limited to only their five senses
will always struggle with this. They think Elisha was lying, and indeed, he
would have been lying if all that exists is this physical world. You could count
the Syrian troops by the thousands, and there was only Elisha and his servant.
But Elisha wasn't lying because there was another world of reality. If you
looked at the whole picture, the physical and spiritual world, then Elisha was
right on. In the spiritual realm, there were many more horses and chariots of
fire around Elisha than there were Syrian troops.
According to 2 Kings 6:17,
"Elisha
prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And he
LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."
Gehazi's
physical eyes were already wide open. God was opening his spiritual eyes. He
was able to see with his heart into the spiritual world. And when the spiritual
world was taken into consideration, then Elisha's statement was perfectly true.
Those
who see faith as an attempt to make something real which isn't real will always
struggle with those who see faith as simply making what is spiritually true a
physical truth. Those who limit truth to only the physical realm would have
called Elisha one of those "name it, claim it," "blab it, grab
it" cultists. But in saying such things, they condemn themselves. They
show they only consider what they can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel to be
reality. They are what the Bible calls "carnal."
When
Gehazi's eyes were opened, the Syrians didn't disappear. They were still there.
The physical truth was still true, but there was a greater spiritual truth that
emerged. True faith doesn't deny physical truth; it just refuses to let
physical truth dominate spiritual truth. True faith subdues physical truth to
the reality of spiritual truth.
Because
Elisha believed in the realities of the spiritual world, he raised his hand and
smote all the Syrians with blindness. Then he led the whole Syrian army captive
to the king of Israel. Praise the Lord! That's not bad for an old prophet whom
carnal people would say was all by himself.
Elisha
was not just speaking some wishful statement, hoping that it would become a
reality. He knew what was real in the spiritual world, and he controlled his
emotions and actions accordingly. There is no indication that Elisha saw the
horses and chariots of fire around him. He didn't need to. He believed it.
Those who operate in true faith don't need to see with their physical eyes.
Their faith is evidence enough.
There
was a woman at a campmeeting who had a huge goiter on her neck. She went
forward for prayer and knew that she knew she was healed. So, she got up in
front of the audience and gave a testimony of her goiter being healed. However,
the goiter was still visible. But the people praised God, thinking that the
healing would manifest itself shortly.
The
next year at the same campmeeting, the woman got up again and praised the Lord
for her healing, but there still wasn't any visible proof. This concerned a lot
of people, but they didn't say anything. Then the next year, the same thing
happened. This was too much for most of the people, and it caused the leaders
of the meeting to approach this woman and tell her she couldn't testify of this
healing again until the goiter was gone.
The
woman told the Lord that she knew He had healed her, and she didn't have to see
visible results to believe it. But for the sake of the unbelievers, she asked
the Lord to physically remove the growth. It disappeared and the woman showed
them what she already knew was true. You can get that strong in faith. Your
faith is substance and all the evidence you need. Faith is real.
I've
experienced this in my own life. When my youngest son, Peter, died on March 4,
2001, my wife and I spoke our faith and said, "The first report is not the
last report." We spoke resurrection life back into Peter's body, and then
we headed into town. It was one hour and fifteen minutes from the time we got
the call until we got to where Peter was. During that time, I was operating in
faith. I remembered prophecies that had not yet come to pass in Peter's life,
and therefore, I knew it wasn't time for Peter to die. I rejoiced by faith,
seeing Peter alive and well.
My
oldest son, Joshua, met me at the door and said, "Dad, five or ten minutes
after I called you, Peter just sat up." Thank You, Jesus! This is the
point: I didn't rejoice more once I saw Peter raised from the dead than I did
while I was still driving. During the drive, I knew Peter was alive, and I was
rejoicing with all my might. It was actually anticlimactic when I saw in the
physical what I had already seen in the spiritual. Don't get me wrong; I was
blessed and I rejoiced to see my son raised up after being dead for five hours.
But the physical reality wasn't more real to me than the spiritual reality of
faith.
This
is the way I live. I know it's not "normal," but I'm not getting
"normal" results either. I've been believing big, and there have been
big results from that believing. When we moved into our new offices, and when
we see the warehouse finished, that was, and will be, anticlimactic. I'm seeing
all these things in the spirit now. When they manifest physically, others will
be impressed, but I'm impressed now.
I'm
not believing for something that isn't real to become real. I've seen into the
spiritual realm by faith, and I'm simply making what I've seen in the spiritual
world manifest in the physical world. All of the things I'm seeing with my
physical eyes now, I have already seen in my heart. I saw it on the inside
before I saw it on the outside. This is a wonderful way to live. This is the
normal Christian life. This is walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
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