The Flow of Faith

How Faith in God Works and Grows

Mark Furlong

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Copyright © November 2013 by Mark Furlong. All Rights Reserved

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Flow: What a Great Idea

The Percentages Can Dramatically Increase

Jesus Came to Restore Flow

The Light Yoke

Stepping into God’s Flow

The Faith

Chapter 2

God’s Pipeline: Faith

This is How God Set Things Up

Faith is God’s Pipeline

Faith Has Many Expressions

Chapter 3

The What, Where, and How of Faith

Faith Is

All Human Beings Have the Ability to Believe

Faith Comes From God

Faith in God, Faith from God

God’s Word Produces God’s Faith in Our Hearts and Minds.

How Do You Get Strong Faith?

Chapter 4

How Faith Flows and Grows

There is a Process and a Pattern

How Does God Prune Us?

Chapter 5

The Fluidity of Faith

Little Faith

Fluid Faith

A Seed of God’s Faith

Hearing God’s Word

Chapter 6

The Face of Faith

Jesus Really Does Understand Us

Jesus Has All the Faith You Will Ever Need

Water Walking

Faith is not Presumption

Primary Focus

Faith in God’s Presence

Faith From the Face

How to Stay Focused on an Invisible Jesus

Chapter 7

Various Expressions of Faith

Faith comes from Jesus, out of relationship with Him, and faith has many, many expressions.

Victory and Suffering

The Emphasis of Scripture

Principles and Relationship

If you stay close to Jesus, He will give you all the grace and faith you need to do His will.

Chapter 8

What to Do with God’s Promises

Relational Faith

Four Realizations

Six Steps

Chapter 9

What to Do When God is Silent

It Happens to Everyone

Why This Happens

What To Do When God Is Silent

Chapter 10

So How Do I Hear God?

Why the Confusion?

Look Up

Look In

Look Around

How to Decide

Chapter 11

Results Producing Faith

General Faith is Great

Faith Lessons from James

Faith Based on Your Calling

Chapter 12

The Power Prayers of Faith

Ups and Downs of Faith

Worship

Praise

Thanksgiving

Praying Scripture

Bonus Excerpt

Your Free Gift

About the Author

Other Books by Mark Furlong

Introduction

Every person, Christian or not, realizes that faith is vitally important to living a great life, doing great work, and leaving a great legacy. People of faith are typically people of vision and when you combine the two, powerful things happen.

Especially for the Christian life, faith plays a major role. It is no accident that Christianity is often called “The Faith.” Faith is one of the Big Three virtues, along with love and hope, from which all the other virtues flow. From first to last, God encourages Christ-followers to live by faith. Hebrews 11:6 goes so far as to say that, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.”

Even though I have heard countless sermons, read many books, and given many teachings myself on the subject of faith, it has taken me years to work out an understanding I can actually use. I am not claiming to have the final word on faith; far from it. As in all major themes and categories, God continues to take me on an ever deepening cycle of understanding during various times and seasons.

Despite wonderful testimonies of how their faith practices have brought amazing results in their lives and the lives of those who followed their teachings, I could not get the practices of well-known Bible teachers to consistently work for me. It seemed like every now and then I would see some success but then it would stop. Sometimes it would not work at all for me, leaving me feeling confused and condemned, and I wanted to sincerely follow God and live by faith.

As I studied Scripture and endeavored to live by faith myself, it seemed to me so much of what I had read and heard left really big holes in their faith teachings. They would emphasize certain aspects of Scripture while minimizing or ignoring others. I felt I was falling through some of those gaping holes wondering where God was and why wasn’t this working?

If you have had similar experiences, then this book could be of real help to you. As I’ve been presenting these ideas, many have told me it has really helped them in their faith journey. As one long-time Bible studying engineer told me, “It helped me connect the dots.”

You see faith has a flow to it. The faith God wants us to live by comes from God Himself and that means there is a continual flow from Him to us. It is not a static, done once and for all kind of thing; it is alive and responsive. Biblical faith is both something God is developing in us as well as the means by which He transports His life and resources to us.

We all long for a greater ease to the pressures of life. Jesus told us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He said He came so that we could have life abundantly, life overflowing, and that all of this was possible when we learned to live by faith in Him.

Thus, if you realize faith is a big God emphasis but you’ve been confused about how it works, I invite you to join me for a few hours to learn more about The Flow of Faith.

Chapter 1

Flow: What a Great Idea

Flow is a great word. Excuse me for starting out a book with a definition but right away I want us to be on the same page as to what flow means (from Dictionary.com):

1. To move along in a stream: The river flowed slowly to the sea.

2. To circulate: blood flowing through one’s veins.

3. To stream or well forth: Warmth flows from the sun.

4. To issue or proceed from a source: Orders flowed from the office.

5. To menstruate.

When looking at the definitions, 4 of the 5 top definitions are completely positive and the 5th is necessary; that’s a pretty good percentage for anything on planet earth.

Flow speaks of movement, sometimes very powerful movement, without a lot of or any struggle. There is a good measure of “ease” in the mix. Even when there is a season of flooding or places of rapid decent, a river quietly and powerfully moves incredible amounts of water without a lot of effort. A river doesn’t strain and sweat; it flows. Some athletes or dancers move so smoothly that it seems effortless; they don’t run or spin or jump; they flow. Famed cognitive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “cheeks-sent-me-high”) has done a great deal of research and writing on the subject of flow in regards to work and productivity. He says that when people are in a state of work flow, there is a good measure of ease to it, ability to focus, concentrate, enjoyment, high productivity, and time goes by quickly. Work becomes very enjoyable, invigorating, and produces excellent results. That is flow.

Flow is something we all long for. We long to see significant results through our lives without it being heavy and hard. We desire peace and power that comes naturally. We want living a great life to be a natural occurrence; not something forced or faked. We want to live and work in a way where our talents are maximized, where there is a high level of enjoyment, and where time flies. We want relationships which are meaningful and enjoyable, not wearisome and in constant conflict.

We want flow, and this desire is from God.

The Percentages Can Dramatically Increase

I am not going to tell you that you will live 100% of this life in a constant flow of powerful ease because there are just too many factors involved for anyone to constantly, always live this way. The Bible talks about spiritual battles, temptation, hard work, sin, disease, struggle, and death. We live in a fallen world with a very real spiritual enemy, and we carry sin and sin-influenced patterns in our souls and bodies. Thankfully, at some point, God will end all of that and in eternity we will live all the time in the flow of God. Unfortunately, in this day and age, I know of no one who lives all the time in the flow of God’s life.

However, you can significantly increase your flow percentage. God’s best, which will be fully realized in the next age (it really will), is that you live in the flow of His life, love, wisdom, and power. Throughout Scripture, God constantly encourages us that if we will cling to Him, trust Him, and follow His instructions, His blessings will not just come to us, they will “overtake us.” (Deuteronomy 28) That means no matter how far and fast we go, God’s blessings will not just be following after us, they will saturate and even start leading us. We will be blessed in every conceivable fashion and the very life that He Himself has will flow into us and then out of us. God’s desires for us are way beyond what we could ever think up.

In the first chapters of Genesis, God breathes His very life, His Spirit, His nature into man. He places him in a perfect, beautiful garden, which he is instructed to develop and manage, without exhausting work but in the invigorating flow of enjoyable, meaningful, purposeful work. God Himself is a creator, doing continual meaningful work, and He created us in His image to do the same. God made us to be creative and productive and to find great joy in it.

God placed a river in that garden. “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it separated into four headwaters.” (Gen. 2:10) Revelation 22 and Ezekiel 47 tell us there is a river that flows from the very throne of God that brings life and healing. It’s actually called “The River of Life.”

We see that God’s breath flowed into man. Out of a relationship with the Creator, empowered by the very life and nature of God, man was designed to work, build, develop, and expand God’s paradise in the flow of God’s grace God made us to live in the flow of both meaningful work and meaningful relationships, and God set up the world so that His river would water the garden and flow towards the four corners of the earth, expanding the garden throughout the earth.

When sin entered the world, the flow got severely damaged. God said to Eve that because of her lack of trust in Him and her rebellion towards Him that she and Adam had opened the door for the whole death process. Now giving birth, one of the greatest privileges that could be given to any human, would be much more painful and now her husband would rule over her. (Men ruling over women was a curse, a result of sin; not God’s original plan.) God also told Adam that now, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life…By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” (Genesis 3:17b, 19)

Can I say sin sucks? Sin blocked flow. Sin sucked the life out of us, from the inside out. It sucked the quality of life that God desired to give right out of our world and left a largely hollow shell of what could have been. Even with the incredible beauty we see in our fallen world; it pales in comparison to what it will be when God restores all things. Sin twists, perverts, darkens, depresses, destroys, and empties as it separates us from the one and only source of true and eternal life: God Himself.

Jesus Came to Restore Flow

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39a)

Jesus said He came to make the abundant, God-life available to all people. He came to make the spiritual connection to God so wide open that the very Spirit of God would be able to flow into us, through us, and out of us. And not just a little bit but as a strong stream (some translations say “river”) connected to the river of life flowing from God’s own throne. The very same Spirit that united with the Word to create the universe, the same Spirit that empowered Jesus to share God’s healing and liberating life, and the very same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, would now have on-going, welcoming access to us.

When the flow of God is on the inside, then there is the true possibility of living in God’s flow on the outside.

Jesus was the perfect example of living in the flow of God or the flow of the Spirit. Despite unimaginable pressure, His life was characterized by love, joy, and peace. Jesus knew He only had 3½ years of public ministry to complete His history changing mission. He faced constant spiritual attack from Satan and his crew. They knew if they could bring Jesus down, God’s plans would not be fulfilled, so Jesus got the worst of hell’s attacks. He felt the constant pressure of a very powerful but corrupt religious system that was blocking many people from coming to God. He had crowds of people pressing Him, begging Him to come and help them. He walked past broken, sick, poverty-stricken people every day crying out for His touch. Then he had a group of dedicated but very immature disciples He was training. Everything would rise or fall with them after He left and even up to the time of the cross they were arguing about who was the greatest or the most dedicated and then they all deserted Him when it got tough.

Talk about pressure; talk about stress and breakdown opportunities. Yet, when Jesus said, “My peace I give to you” (John 16:33) and “My joy may be in you” (John 15:11), His followers were excited. What Jesus had was so noticeable and powerful, that to have what He had was a very desirable possibility. I’m sure you’ve been around people who had such a high degree of some trait that it was noticeable and desirable. Whether it was positivity, intelligence, joy, people skills, or determined faith, in your mind you’ve thought, “I wouldn’t mind having what they have.” Imagine the qualities that continually flowed out of a sinless man, filled to overflow with the life-giving Spirit of God.

Jesus lived in the greatest pressure cooker of all time. All of God’s purposes and plans were dependent on Him fulfilling His world-changing, eternity changing role. Yet, despite all of that incredible spiritual, emotional, cultural, and physical pressure Jesus lived in the flow of God, the flow of the Holy Spirit. He never freaked out. He never said, “Oh no, what are we going to do now?” He lived perfectly in the life and flow of God, and Jesus said, “We could have that too!” He said we could have streams of life-giving water flowing in us.

The Light Yoke

One of my favorite songs is What a Wonderful World as sung by Louie Armstrong. The lyrics go like this:

I see trees of green…red roses, too

I see em bloom…for me and for you

And I think to myself…what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue…clouds of white

Bright blessed days…dark sacred nights

And I think to myself…what a wonderful world

The colors of a rainbow—so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces….of people going by

I see friends shaking hands—sayin how do you do

They’re really sayin…I love you

It goes on for a few more stanzas and produces a wonderful effect, both through melody and words, of helping us focus on the beauty and goodness that is in our world. It is very true; there are some wonderful aspects of our world, and we need to see them, be grateful for them, and take them in every day. Our good God gave them to us to enjoy.

However, we also know that at times life can be really hard, sometimes really hard. Every one of us experiences pain; sometimes to the very core of our being. We live under regular stress and pressures with a lot of uncertainty. We all face fears, doubts, criticism, skeptics, swindlers, thieves, brats, and bullies. Since the time of Cain and Abel, our world has never been free of hatred, murder, and war. As beautiful as the world can be, it can also be very harsh, ugly, and heavy.

That’s why Jesus’ words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30) resonate so deeply in our hearts. Since the fall, life is often an exhausting struggle because of the power of sin in us and around us and our separation from the only true source of eternal life. We long for this “soul rest” Jesus speaks of.

Jesus came to change the status quo. He modeled the kingdom of God life and taught us how we could have it, too. He said if we were spiritually, emotionally, and mentally tired; if we would come to Him, He would give us rest. If we would take off the yoke of the world’s systems and put on His yoke, we would find it easy and light, especially compared to what we’ve been living under.

Jesus said in humility and gentleness He would teach us so we could find rest for our souls. He said, “Learn from me,” then we would find the rest of the soul, the flow, we all desire.

Stepping into God’s Flow

What is Jesus teaching us about how to find rest for our souls, for living in God’s flow? It really is about faith. The flow of faith leads to the flow of God’s life.

In John 7, Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me” would have “streams of living water flowing within.”

1 John 5:3-5 says, “This is love for God; to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

God’s commands, Jesus’ teachings, are not burdensome; they are not heavy when you are born of God, love God, and believe. If you try to live out Jesus’ teachings in your own strength, you will find it exhausting. The standards Jesus teaches are the highest of any ever given. Jesus not only addressed outward behavior, but He got to issues of the heart and mind. From Jesus’ standards, sin was not just doing harm to another, but it was sinful to keep thinking about it. It was not just adultery to physically engage with another’s wife; it was adultery to mentally dwell on it. His command was to love God with ALL our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and then to actually love other people as much as we love ourselves. Who can do that? Who can meet Jesus’ standards?

The question is, how can the most challenging of all teachings and commandments be light, easy, and actually give our souls rest? That only happens when we learn to live from the grace, life, and power that God Himself gives. It starts with being justified as a gift, by faith in Jesus. That alone removes all the tormenting power of a guilty conscience, takes away fear of death, and gives us complete certainty that we will spend eternity with God and not in Hell. God then wants us to learn that just as we are saved by faith so we are to learn to live by faith. Only then can we find energizing rest, enduring peace, and on-going joy in Jesus.

At the end of Hebrews 3 and at the beginning of Chapter 4, God tells us that even though Israel had experienced incredible miracles during the Exodus, most of them never entered the Promised Land, also referred to as God’s rest. In the New Covenant, God has not given us a physical Promised Land but He has given us a life (spiritual land or territory) based on His promises. The writer of Hebrews says that Israel was not able to enter the Promised Land “because of their unbelief” (3:19) and “Now we who have believed enter that rest….” (4:3)

God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, the God who cannot lie had consistently and repeatedly told Israel that He had a land prepared for them which flowed with milk and honey. God said it was Israel’s inheritance; it was theirs for the taking. It was His expressed will that they should conquer it and live in it. That is what He wanted for them, and He was going to work powerfully to make sure they got it.

Yet, all but two of that Exodus generation experienced God’s Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb entered into and lived in God’s promised, expressed will. There was just one root sin that kept Exodus Israel out, and there is one root virtue that brings us in: authentic faith in God as expressed in His words. Unbelief blocked Exodus Israel from experiencing the Promised Land; faith in God allowed Joshua, Caleb, and us to live in the flow of God’s rest, the flow of His power, and experience the land of promises He has freely given us.

The Faith

Christianity is often referred to as “The Faith.” When someone turns away from Jesus, it is said, “they have turned from the faith or lost their faith.” Why: because faith in God or faith in something or someone else is what determines our direction. God Himself has created us in His image and designed us to live from Him and for Him by faith in Him. Love, faith, and hope are the big three, with love being the greatest of all virtues, but faith is right there with it and without faith we can never love the way God says to love. We can only love as God says and live the life God planned by receiving from the God who planned it. The way we connect, the way we receive, God’s pipeline is authentic faith in Him.

Faith which expresses itself in obedience is how we experience Holy Spirit given streams of living water. Faith in God makes possible the experience of God’s streams, which lift off the crushing weight of the world’s yokes. Faith in God makes possible connection to the streams of living water, which gives us on-going love, peace, and joy because it is not based on external circumstances but on the unchanging and inexhaustible life of God Himself.

God never gets tired, He never runs out of anything good, and God’s river flows from His very throne every single second of every single day. It carries His life, refreshing, healing, wisdom, love, and power wherever it goes. God’s river is flowing right now; it is flowing this very second, and it is flowing in your direction.

The way you receive it is by faith in its various expressions. And just like God’s river, even the faith by which we connect and receive has a flow to it. Biblical faith produces rest but when rightly understood also has a peace and rest of its own. When faith in God is strong, there is a sense of great peace and internal rest. In the following chapters, we will look at the flow of faith that leads to the flow of God’s life.

Faith is how God transports what He has to us, and that is what we’ll look at next.

Chapter 2

God’s Pipeline: Faith

Just the other day, our doorbell rang. When I went to the door, I saw a woman wearing her work uniform in company colors with the company logo above her shirt pocket, and she was holding a package. Janet had ordered something from a particular company, and this woman was delivering it. This type of transaction happens millions of times every day, and we think nothing of it. It’s normal; it is how our economy works.

Transport is defined this way, “To carry, move, or convey from one place to another.” Transport and its cousin, transportation, are foundational to life. Energy, goods, nourishment, ideas, words, and blessings are moved from one place to another to meet a need or fulfill a desire or both.

It is also how God’s kingdom operates. God is our ultimate source, He has no lack in any area, and His heavenly warehouses are always stocked with anything we could possibly need. If there was somehow any lack of something, God could simply create more by thinking and saying it.

In the first book of this series The Divine Design, I made the case that God’s #1 desire and priority for us is to share His life and love with us. This perfect, love-filled, life Creator made us to love us, fill us, and flow through us. He will eventually complete His plans to fill all things with His own nature. (Ephesians 4:10-11) God designed us to live from Him and for Him. God made us to live from a direct, receiving and giving relationship with Jesus, who is the Vine of God’s life. In other words, God wants to transport what He has to us in the right way and in the right time.

The substance God uses to transport life and blessing to us are His Word, His Spirit, and then His creation. In this book, we are going to focus on the transport system: the pipeline God uses to move what He has to us. When the pipeline is clear, then receiving is not hard as long as God is actually sending the resources right then. If the pipeline gets blocked or severed, however, then even if God is sending the “oil” of His answer it will not get to us.

This is How God Set Things Up

At the end of John’s Gospel is written, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31) Jesus did many more miracles than John recorded, but John said he wrote about these specific events to help people believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He then tells us that believing would give people real, God-given life.

Notice that the simple act of believing that Jesus is who God said He is gives us eternal life. It is not praying, not keeping the commandments, not fasting, not doing good works, or giving sacrificially; none of those practices alone give God’s life. It is very possible to do all of those things and never receive the life of God. Only one step does that: faith in Christ. Believing did what nothing else could do. Simply receiving God’s message about Jesus into our hearts and minds caused a divine connection and impartation of the life of God into our spirit, our core. It is how God works and how His kingdom works. Prayer, keeping the commandments, fasting, etc., when done as an expression of faith become means to life. Those practices by themselves do not connect us to God’s river; only faith in its various forms does that.

Faith is how we connect with God. Faith is the pipeline through which God transports His life and resources to us.

There is no way around it: God likes faith. He set up His kingdom so that it operates by faith. It is a central component to all that God does and how He designed us to live.

Here is a very brief list of the emphasis and results of biblical faith found in Scripture:

- All things become possible. Mark 9:23

- We please God. Hebrews 11:6

- We receive what we pray for. Mark 11:24, Matthew 17:22

- We are saved from sin and judgment. Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16

- We receive God’s promises. Hebrews 6:12

- We overcome the world. 1 John 5:4

- God’s word profits us or produces in us and for us. Hebrews 4:2

- In Hebrews 11 alone, the phrase “by faith” is used at least 22 times covering every major life scenario

Any time Jesus found faith in people, He got excited. In Matthew 8, a Roman centurion came to Jesus asking Him to heal his servant. When Jesus said He would come and do it, the centurion told Jesus that He did not need to come in person; He just needed Jesus to speak the word, and it would happen. The centurion said when he gave an order, his reports did it. He knew Jesus had such authority so if Jesus just commanded it to happen, it would. In verse 10, various translations use the following words: Jesus was, “Amazed, marveled, surprised, astonished, or taken aback.” How would you like it to be forever written of you that your faith amazed and astonished the Son of God? In response to this man’s faith, Jesus said, “You’ve got it. Go home. Your servant is healed.” (My paraphrase) When the centurion got home, he found his servant healed and discovered it happened at the exact time Jesus spoke that word.

Time after time when Jesus saw faith, He responded with power. Many times He said, “Be it done to you according to your faith.” Jesus loves authentic faith.

Why Does God Emphasize Faith so Much?

1. Faith is how God Himself works and how He set up His kingdom to operate. Some people say God does not need faith because He knows what He decrees will happen, so that is not really faith. I see it differently. God thinks something, speaks it, believing it will happen, and the power of the Word, the Spirit, through His belief creates. In my opinion, this is how God does things and that is one reason He Himself acts through people’s faith in our world and why He is constantly working to develop faith in us.

There is no doubt that Jesus, God in a human body, lived by faith and looked for faith in others. After Jesus cursed a fig tree and it quickly died, He told His followers that it happened because He believed it would and that they, too, could speak words and pray prayers that would move mountains if they believed (Mark 11, Matthew 17). Jesus is called the “author and perfecter of faith” in Hebrews 12. Faith is described as both a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12).

If the fruit of and the gift of faith come from God, that means He must have it. That means it is one of the traits found in Him. God has faith, operates by faith, and imparts faith to people. I’m not going to belabor the point, but it seems to me we will be using faith in eternity, too. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are constantly working to help us grow in faith and win the faith battle. With such an emphasis on faith development, it makes sense to me that we will be using faith in the next life as well. We will not need faith to believe God exists, but we will use it to further His kingdom. (I know this is a big topic, and there are various opinions on it, but there is absolutely no doubt faith is a God emphasis.)

2. God has designed us so that faith is the gateway to our souls. When we believe something to be true, it enters our souls and has an impact. If we reject something as being false, we block it from entering our hearts and minds, and it has little to no impact. A person can hear that God loves them thousands of times and it changes nothing in their life if they ignore it or reject it. However, once a person perceives those words as true, it begins changing them. A person can say the words, “Jesus, you died for my sins, please come into my life.” If they sincerely pray that in faith, a miracle happens in their heart; however, if they say those words because everyone else does or they are forced to, it does nothing. Faith in God makes all the difference.

3. Faith in someone shows you trust them. Every good relationship is built on trust, and God wants us to have a great relationship with Him. By the way, God demonstrates great trust in us, even with our weaknesses. He entrusts us with great gifts, care for others, and the greatest mission of all time.

4. It shows how much we honor Him when we believe what He says. It particularly honors Him and touches His heart when we believe Him despite contrary views and appearances. I know how much I appreciate it when someone believes what I say, even if there is no immediate evidence that what I’m saying is true. Even from a human perspective, I want to prove their faith in me is appreciated. How much more must it touch our heavenly Father’s heart when His kids say, “I believe YOU even though all kinds of other voices are telling me I shouldn’t.”

Ok, faith is a biggie. Even though you have most likely heard talks or read books about it before, maybe even many times before, here are a few reasons why you should hear about it again. First of all, I have been following Christ for over 30 years and have probably studied the subject of faith more and heard about it more than most. Nevertheless, I know I need to be regularly reminded of it, and there are continually deeper aspects of it that I need to learn and internalize. Can we ever stop hearing about love? I know I keep learning year after year how to receive and give love and will continue to do so the rest of my life and probably into the next (God is love. Can I ever get to know every aspect of God and His love, even in eternity? Just throwing that out there.) Paul said the big three are faith, hope, and love. We can never let the focus of faith get far away from us.

Second, just like vision, faith leaks. Every leader knows vision has to be repeated over and over again on a continual basis because we live in a world that drains vision out of people. The spirit of this world constantly tries to pull us down or push us away from God and His calling. It is the same with Biblical faith. At the heart of sin is doubting God and we have an enemy who is regularly continuing his initial assault on God’s truth and character with various versions of “Did God say” and “God is holding out on you” (Genesis 3:1, 3:4-5). Furthermore, the sin deposits we all still have in our lives, at the core, doubt God. We regularly have to deal with both Satan and sin.

When you look at the lives of the disciples, sometimes they did incredible works through faith in Jesus. Other times, they failed at things they had already previously done and Jesus said it was because of their lack of faith. (Matthew 17) Faith is not the type of thing that once received automatically stays at that level. It is an on-going process that can ebb and flow depending on the condition of our souls at that time. Our tanks have to be regularly filled with God’s truth in order to experience God’s truth, and truth and Biblical faith are very much related.

Third, we also need regular fresh looks at faith because the topic is so foundational, so broad and vast, with many expressions and aspects, we sometimes get confused. When confusion, wrong understanding, or incomplete understanding happen, the faith pipeline can get ruptured, damaged, or blocked. When that happens, we either miss out on much of what God desires to give or we miss out and feel condemned because we feel our faith is not strong enough or big enough. We then battle thoughts like, “if only I believed more, my prayer would be answered; why can’t I believe more?” or “I doubt so much; there is no way God is pleased with me or likes me” or “I prayed and believed, and it did not happen; this stuff does not work.” Faith in God will regularly be challenged and since authentic faith is so important, it is essential to understand how it works in conjunction with Jesus, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.

Faith is God’s Pipeline

In Mark 6 are found some of the most incredible words in Scripture. Jesus had been travelling from city to city preaching the good news and healing the sick in incredible ways. He had recently healed a paralytic, a man with leprosy, a woman with an incurable bleeding issue, and many, many more. It was happening everywhere He went. Then Jesus goes to his hometown, and it was pretty much a bust. “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.”(Mark 6:5-6)

Those words are both enlightening and shocking. The Scripture says Jesus “could not do any miracles there.” It does not say, He decided not to do any at that time, or it was not God’s will to heal anyone right then; instead it says the Son of God “could not” do any. What, the Son of God “could not”? Why couldn’t He? The Bible clearly says He could not because of THEIR lack of faith. Earlier in this chapter, we talked about a man that amazed Jesus with his faith. Now we see Jesus amazed at their lack of it.

Even though God in the flesh was standing right before them and wanting to heal and help them, He could not because of their response. Did you realize God Almighty has given us the authority to open the door or barricade the door to Him in our lives? The Scripture does not say they did not receive from Jesus because they had too much sin in their lives or that they didn’t do enough good works or give enough money or love their families enough. The Bible says they could not receive what Jesus really desired to give because of their unbelief.

Is unbelief always the reason we don’t receive what we desire from God? No. Just like any wise and loving parent, God does not always give the kids what they ask for or when they ask for it. God can say “no” or “later.” He really does love us and knows what is best for us, while weaving it all together to run a universe. Furthermore, in far too many instances, the problem is not God’s unwillingness to answer with a blessing, it is the person’s heart response to Him that blocks His blessing. How many times have we read in Scripture God baring His heart to us with words like, “If you will just trust Me, cling to Me, and follow Me, I will pour My blessings upon you. I WANT to pour my life, love, and abundance into you!” (Entire book of Deuteronomy, the entire New Testament and more)

Faith Has Many Expressions

There is no doubt about it: faith is the main pipeline, the main means of transport God uses to move what He has to us. What is often misunderstood, however, is that faith has many, many expressions. This is very important to realize because using one or two faith expressions will not always bring results. We will get into this in much more detail in Chapter 6 but let me give you one example of what I mean now.

Praise is one of the most powerful expressions of Biblical faith. In my earlier years as a Christian, there were several best-sellers on the subject and many were teaching on the power of praising God. Let me encourage you, praise is powerful and should be used regularly as both a means of worship and a faith-building, oppression destroying weapon. In my own life, praising God has been one of the greatest faith builders and discouragement destroyers I’ve experienced but thinking that praise is the solution for every problem is not reality.

I used to battle low-grade depression on a very regular basis. It was not the type of depression that would leave me sitting in a dark room for days at a time, but the type that could make me feel hopeless and despondent for hours at a time. I had the ability to drain the life out of a situation and drag down people who were around me with very few words. You’ve been around people like that; without a word, sometimes, they lower the joy level in a room significantly if you don’t take internal steps to block it.

I learned that if I let the clouds of depression settle in on my mind, I would have a hard time getting out of that fog and darkness. It would take hours or, occasionally, even days - to feel normal again. However, if as soon as I recognized those feelings I started to praise God, then within minutes the cloud would either dissipate or I would have the ability to walk out of it. Even though it was emotionally difficult to praise God when I was feeling down, if I stuck with it for just a few tough minutes, I could get free of that darkness pretty quickly. This happened again and again, until one day it didn’t work. I felt the depression coming on, started to praise God expecting it to be defeated, but it didn’t go away. Even though I kept praising God as best I could, the depression still settled in on me.

Along with the depression came the “doubt” battle. Thoughts of, “What’s going on? Does God’s word really work? What do I do now?” came strong and heavy.

Ephesians 4:15 says God wants us to “grow up in all aspects” in Jesus. Part of that growth is learning about all of God’s tools, following God as a person (not just as a methodology), and persevering in faith. In this instance, God was showing me that although praise was a great and powerful tool, it was not the cure all for every situation. Jesus is the answer, not one particular tool, method, or faith-expression. In this case, God had me intercede for others even though I didn’t feel like it and as I prayed for others, the cloud of heaviness lifted. In this instance, and in many others, like Job when I sincerely prayed for others I was liberated.

Over the years, depression has steadily lost its influence in my life. Like everyone, I have times where feelings of sadness or hopelessness knock on the door of my soul or occasionally try to violently bash their way in but my overall joy level has steadily and significantly increased and I can usually get free from the despair pretty quickly.

The point is: God wants us to primarily have faith in Him, dependence on Him, and not on any one particular method or expression of faith alone. There are many, many ways that faith is expressed and all of them have their place. A carpenter does not just use a hammer and screwdriver to do his work, he uses all the necessary tools. Having the right tools and knowing how to use them is one of the things that separate a craftsman from a novice. God wants us to grow up, develop, and learn to use all the tools He has given us. All the tools or expressions of faith are always intended to work out a living relationship with Jesus, the author, developer, and finisher of our faith.

To cooperate with God, it helps to understand the flow of faith; what it is, from where it comes, and how it works. That’s next.

Chapter 3

The What, Where, and How of Faith

We all know the name Albert Einstein. He is rightfully considered to be one of the most brilliant people in world history. Even though Einstein was dealing with vast and complex subjects, he felt that simplicity was essential. That is why he said:

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

Einstein practiced what he preached. He was able to take some of the biggest, universal concepts and make them much more understandable with a few simple letters: e =mc2. The ability to take bigger ideas and make them simple and understandable is one of the most important skills any teacher/communicator can develop. “When the solution is simple, God is answering” is what Jesus did better than anyone else. Jesus’ teachings are simple enough for a child to grasp but deep enough that they keep revealing ever deepening, life-giving insights year after year.

I am no Einstein and even though faith is not physics (there probably is a physics side to it but that is for someone else to talk about), like physics, when it can be explained simply it can be understood and applied. In this chapter, I’m going to give you my understanding of those three fundamental questions regarding faith: What is faith, from where does faith come, and how do we get it?

Faith Is

Dictionary.com gives this definition for believe (I went to the word “believe” because 4 of the 5 definitions of faith started with the word belief):

Believe: to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.

This is not too far off from the clearest biblical definition of faith given in Scripture found in Hebrews 11::1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (NIV)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (NASB)

“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” (NLT)

Let’s break faith down into these clear concepts:

1. Faith is in something or someone that is either unseen or not absolutely provable (at this time).

2. Faith is a confidence, assurance, or conviction in the reliability of something or someone.

In other words, faith is the confidence and assurance that something is true even though we can’t yet see it or have absolute visible proof that it is true.

All Human Beings Have the Ability to Believe

In what theologians call “common grace,” God has put a measure of His nature, grace, and abilities in all people. Whether someone is a Christ-follower or not, God has given everyone the ability to think, feel, and make decisions. Everyone has the ability to believe in things, and they exercise that ability every single day. Open minded, sincere truth seekers look for evidence regarding their beliefs and adjust their beliefs to the evidence; but all people exercise faith daily or they could not function in this world.

When you decide to sit in a chair, it is based on a belief that the chair will hold you. You do not know for sure until you do it (and on occasion a chair collapses under a person’s weight), but you exercise your faith in chairs many times a day. When you brush your teeth, it is based on the belief that it promotes dental health. When you drive in traffic, you are trusting that people driving next to you and coming from the opposite direction will follow the rules of the road (or you would never get in a car and drive anywhere). Think about how much faith you place in imperfect, often distracted people driving heavy vehicles at fairly high speeds. What you eat, what you listen to, how you see yourself, how you see others, and how you see the world are all based on beliefs, and God has given you that ability.

What we believe to be true is the most important factor in how we behave. No person can consistently act in a way contrary to how they see themselves. None of us can consistently act in a way contrary to how we see the world as well. How we see the world is based on our beliefs.

Every day people develop ideas regarding things that do not yet exist. They do research, develop plans, and take actions to create something that is, at that moment, in time unseen. From new buildings, to new medications, to music, paintings, organizations, movements, or relationships every day human beings exercise the God-given ability to “see” the unseen and have assurance it can become reality. Faith is an essential part of God’s design. We must have it and use it to fully live, and God has given this ability to all of us.

Faith Comes From God

The faith of “common grace” is woven into our souls by God. Basic human faith comes from God.

Then there is another type of faith that comes only when the Holy Spirit imparts it. It is another level or dimension of belief: faith in the God of the Bible and faith from the God of the Bible.

It starts with “saving faith/grace” that is given as a gift. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” I don’t want to get into a predestination/free will argument here; I simply want us to see that God is the One who gives us salvation as a gift received by faith and not our own efforts. Even the faith to believe the message of Jesus is a gift from God.

In this divine tension, God gives us the ability to choose to accept Jesus or reject Him but also does His work to give us the saving faith that comes from Him. For lack of a better phrase, we will simply call it Biblical or Christian faith because the faith God gives goes beyond simply the ability to receive Jesus as the only way to right standing with God. Biblical faith continues to grow as a fruit and at times God continues to give extra gifts of faith for certain ministries and works. (We will get into that more in just a bit.)

The ability to believe is God’s design for all people. However, the ability to receive Jesus and grow in Jesus is given as another work of God Himself in the heart and mind as a direct impartation of the Holy Spirit.

Faith in God, Faith from God

In Mark 11:22 Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” Some scholars say it can also be translated as “have God’s faith.” I think both can be accurate; God always wants us to have faith in Him and in time more and more of His faith grows inside us along with specific times where He gives us His faith for specific situations.

Faith always has an object: it is in something or someone. Jesus is encouraging us to place our trust, faith, and belief in the God of the Bible. Scripture emphasizes the reality that faith in God also means faith in the words He has said. The more we focus on God and His words and open our souls to receive Him and His words, the more we grow and receive more of the faith of God. The Bible makes this very clear in Romans 10:17:

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (NASB)

“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (NIV)

“Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news—the Good News about Christ.” NLT

The greatest, most solid source of faith in God and faith from God are His Words. God gives us all kinds of external evidence of His reality through what He has created. Creation itself teaches us many lessons about the invisible God (Romans 1) and testifies to His existence, which builds faith. However, the God imparted faith that saves us from sin, makes us new creations, and opens up to us all of God’s promises is always connected to His words.

The context of this Romans 10 passage relates directly to salvation. Paul is exhorting believers to share the message because it is by believing the word about Jesus that gives people new life (vs. 6-10). This is for everyone who will call on God based on His message; there will be no exceptions, no one disappointed. (vs. 11-14) Yet, how will they call on God if they never hear His message? How can they believe if the good news is not shared? How will they hear without a messenger? (vs. 14-15) They won’t be saved if they don’t believe. They can’t believe if they don’t hear the words, and they won’t hear the words if no one tells them. Sonow that you are believers go and tell them so they can have it, too.

The power of this truth is vitally important. Just as God designed us to believe and designed us to connect with Him and live from Him and for Him by faith; so God has set things up so that His word is the #1 faith producer in our hearts.

God’s Word Produces God’s Faith in Our Hearts and Minds.

In one of Jesus’ most famous parables, The Parable of the Sower, Jesus says this. (Please take careful note of the word/faith connection.)

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” (Luke 8:11-12)

Jesus was super clear on the fact that God’s word was God’s seed. When God’s seed was planted in the right soil, it would grow and produce godly character and works. It is God’s seed that produces God’s life and God’s seed is His word. The way words are received is by believing them to be true but also hearing God’s words with an open heart actually produces faith in God which leads to receiving more of His words, more faith, and more words and all of that leads us to receiving more of God’s life.

The devil also understands this. He realizes if he can be successful in taking away the word from a person’s heart, faith in God disappears, and then there is no salvation, no life of God is received.

Faith in God and faith from God is how we receive the life, blessing, and promises of God.

Faith comes from opening up and really listening and really receiving God’s words as true.

Satan’s main tactic is to steal the word from our hearts and minds because if he can do that, he is able to shut down the faith in God flow and open us up to the faith in his words of deception flow. Whoever’s words we put our faith in opens us up to receive what they have to give. That is why from the very beginning, the devil, the serpent, attacked God’s words. “Did God really say?” and once he got them doubting God’s goodness and truthfulness then he could hit them with “God is wrong. God is lying. You will not die if you eat that fruit.” He uses the same tactics today.

If Satan can steal God’s words from your mind and heart, he wins. If you hold on to, receive, and treasure God’s words as truth in your heart and mind, you will win. This is the main spiritual battle we all face. This is where the devil puts forth his greatest efforts. He wants people to doubt, ignore, and/or reject God’s words because they carry His life.

At the root of every spiritual battle you face is this reality: who are you going to believe? Faith is the pipeline. Faith is the connector. Faith determines the course of your life.

How Do You Get Strong Faith?

Here are five ways:

1. Externals. Look at the beauty of the world around you. It quietly “shouts” the reality of a Creator.

2. Remember the good things God has already done in your life.

3. Hang around other people of faith. Sometimes faith rubs off.

4. Face your doubts (don’t pretend you don’t have them; we all do) and work through them. Working through doubts is an absolutely essential part of growing in faith. God is not afraid of questions, and He gives us more than enough reasons to believe.

5. Most importantly, open your soul wide to God and His words. Consciously receive them as truth (even if you don’t fully understand them yet), embrace them, study them, meditate on them, pray them, discuss them, and do your best to act on them. Remember, God’s words are expressions of who He is. He never says something inconsistent with His perfect nature. He cannot lie. His words are His seed and carry His life in them (and that includes faith). The more His words become flesh in you, the more you will think, talk, and act like Jesus. And Jesus always had more than enough faith.

Chapter 4

How Faith Flows and Grows

From time to time, I will catch an episode of The World’s Strongest Man competitions. Like me, many men and women enjoy strength related activities. Ever since I was a skinny teenager trying to get bigger and stronger for football, I’ve made strength training a regular part of my life and am glad I’ve done so. After decades of gym activity, it is very clear that there is a very small percentage, the far right end of the bell curve, who have the genetics for freakish muscle development. The people who make it to the World’s Strongest Man competitions are at the very far right end of that strength curve, able to lift weight the average person could never dream of doing. It would not matter how long an average person trained, they would never come close to these elite lifters.

Nevertheless, the same principles apply to all people. Results will be very different, again based on genetics, but the principles of strength improvement are the same for everyone. Stress the muscle, let it rest long enough to recover, then stress it again, let it recover, etc. If the muscle does not get enough stress, it will not adapt and get stronger. On the other side, if not enough time is given to allow the muscle to recover and build back up, then strength will not increase either. There is a process and a pattern that must be followed to get stronger. It is the same with faith growth and flow. Understanding the process gives you both peace of mind and greater confidence when things get challenging.

There is a Process and a Pattern

We have talked about the fact that biblical faith comes from God. Jesus is both the author and the developer of faith. He has enough faith for any situation you face. Consequently, as in the development of all virtues, the closer you get to Jesus, the more naturally your faith will increase.

Learning to stay focused on Jesus is probably the most important priority for the development of any positive in our lives as well as then living out God’s purposes. Jesus is the life, Jesus is the Vine, and He is the Alpha, the Omega, and everything in-between.

Jesus, the faith developer, definitely takes us through a process. The specifics may be different because Jesus knows how to work with each of us on a one-on-one basis but like strength training, the process and principles will be the same for all of us. Here are some of the main phases God takes us through as He perfects our faith:

1. Saving Faith.

Psychologists tell us that adults typically follow a certain pattern in the reception of new ideas. When adults hear a new idea that is not an extension of their already existing beliefs they:

- First have low receptivity, are very skeptical, or often completely reject it.

- If they hear more about it, get more information, or have supportive life experiences then they start to open up to it a little but do not welcome it into their belief box.

- If life circumstances keep providing pressure along with more information and more testimonials, they open their minds more. They start strongly considering its truth and validity.

- If the process continues, at some point, they are very likely to say, “Yes, I believe that” and start acting on it.

If someone is brought up with that belief through childhood, they typically receive the words of authorities around them as true (especially if they are lived out in a positive manner). However, even then at some point, especially in the teenage and young adult years, they will go through a process of re-evaluating certain beliefs and may go through the same process of initial rejection and gradual reception.

Major events can greatly speed up or shut down the process, depending on how powerfully positive or negative it was. When Jesus heals people from a major illness that can easily accelerate the reception of God’s word. Several accounts I’ve read of the China revival over the last generation say that miraculous healings are the main means of evangelism there. It often jumps people from a -5 to a +5 in a few moments. On the other side, if someone goes through a major injustice or horrible experience with a church leader that can push them back or close them down to faith quickly.

At this point in time in the United States, most people go through a pretty gradual process in coming to Christ. In almost 40 years of following Jesus, I have personally only met one person who the very first time He heard the Gospel believed it, received it, and followed through year after year. Almost all of us go through this process of progressively becoming convinced as God works on our hearts and brings us to the point of new birth. Even with the “one-time” friend, God was working in His heart ahead of time to prepare Him to receive the message. Just as a baby requires a pregnancy period and just as the soil must be properly prepared for the seed, so our hearts and minds are prepared by God to receive the Gospel and place our faith in Jesus.

Once we have received Jesus and are born again and made new Creations then God continues to work on growing us in character, gifting, love, and faith. Here are the next steps that most often happen:

2. Honeymoon Faith or Immediate Doubt.

It may seem odd that I put both of these together, but most often, they both happen pretty quickly.

For some, once they receive Jesus, the entire world just seems brighter and happier instantly. They have had such a powerful encounter with God that they are filled with joy, peace, love, and faith. They believe God can do anything and very often, their prayers are answered quickly and in pretty incredible ways. New jobs, great grades on a test, relationship restored, freedom from addiction, or physical healing occur in short-measure. They get fresh insight from the Bible every time they read it. They experience powerful positive emotions when they pray or worship God at church. It is the honeymoon time; it is a spiritual high. I have seen it often.

Just as often, though, I have seen some people go through an immediate time of doubt and attack. Very often, the morning after receiving Jesus, people wake up with feelings and thoughts of doubt. “Is Jesus really the only way to God?” “I don’t feel any different today than I’ve been feeling. Did anything really happen? Was this just some psychological, emotional trick? What did I do?”

Along with those thoughts, it is not unusual for all hell to break loose: loved ones freak out and put pressure on them to go back to who they really are, financial setback, lose a job or get demoted, illness, gossip, or all types of things going wrong.

You see both of these cases in the ministry of Jesus. For example, the man who was tormented by incredible demonic influence after being set free by Jesus was immediately in his right mind, filled with love and joy, and was sent by Jesus as an evangelist back in his hometown to do public ministry.

However, when Jesus healed a man who was born blind (John 9), he was immediately put through the ringer by the religious and social leaders of the day. However, because he would not renounce Jesus, he was then excommunicated and ostracized from the only world he knew. This happened right away, and Jesus did not step in and stop them from attacking him. Jesus came to him later and affirmed his faith and his decision to believe in Him.

Jesus taught about both situations in his parable of the sower. He talks about people receiving the word with joy and also how the thief comes immediately to try to steal the word from our hearts, especially with lots of pressure. If he can drive faith in God’s word out of our hearts, he shuts down the salvation process and opens us up to his influence and leadership. We will believe someone’s words.

No matter which experience you have first, in a relatively short time, you will experience both. The “honeymoon” believer will experience the doubts and the attacks and the “immediate doubt” Christian will experience the blessing and the joy.

Although we obviously prefer the blessing and joy experience, both sides are necessary for growth. Remember, for a muscle to grow stronger it needs the stress, the challenge, the discomfort , and the challenge process along with rest, recovery, and relief. Muscles need both and so does your faith. In various ways and in various stages, this will be the pattern and process as long as you live. Whether you want it to be that way or not, that is how it works.

You see, God does want you to have abiding love, joy, and peace, but He does not want it to be dependent on external circumstances. He is building eternal wealth in you and for that to happen you need the right balance of stress and rest; and God knows exactly how much you need of both.

3. Stronger, Deeper, Enduring Faith.

As you experience the blessings of God and then come through the first round of doubts and challenges, you will experience a greater and more solid faith forming in your soul.

As mentioned previously, the best ways to strengthen faith are:

- Get God’s word inside you through study, meditation, prayer, discussion, and action. God’s word is the material that produces solid faith in our souls.

- Talk and interact with other people of faith.

- Remind yourself of what God has already done in your life.

- Look at creation and realize the God who did that can certainly get you through your challenges.

- Meditate on the cross because it stands in the center of history as to how much God loves you. There is no doubt Jesus was crucified on that cross, and there is no doubt it shows how far God will go to demonstrate His love and His faithfulness towards you.

As you do these things and make it through the first round of challenges, your faith roots grow deeper and your experience tree grows stronger. You start seeing some clear answers to prayer, your character grows, your ministry impacts more people, and you are getting more confident in this invisible God’s reality and faithfulness.

4. Pruned Faith.

In John 15:1-2, Jesus told us that He is the true vine, His Father is the gardener, and that “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” Years ago, I head one well known Bible teacher say, “Whether you bear fruit or don’t, either way you are going to get cut.” At the right time, in the right way, God is going to prune you to remove unfruitful branches in your life and to make the fruitful parts even better.

When I used to play football, I noticed something about my mindset and how well I played. If I got in a “tough” mind-set, realizing that smashing into people and getting smashed into was going to involve some pain when hits happened, it was not bad most of the time. One game, and one game only, I decided to try to have the mindset of “This is just fun. Play hard but have a good time.” The first hits of the game were awful. I felt like I was getting crushed, even though they were not harder than before. I never played again with a “let’s just be happy and have fun” mindset when playing football. For me, I had to get into a tough, get ready for some pain, mindset and I played much better.

Jesus is getting us ready for what must happen. Pruning is rarely fun, but it is absolutely necessary for on-going growth in faith and all areas of our walk with God.

How Does God Prune Us?

First of all, God prunes us through the insight and conviction of the Word and the Spirit. Hebrews 4:12 says that God’s word is like a sharp two-edged sword that “penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” When we interact with God in His Word, He will point out areas He wants us to get rid of. Whether it’s in regard to thoughts, words, or actions if we turn from them and turn to God’s promise, pruning takes place. Greater fruitfulness will be the result.

Then God uses circumstances: often circumstances that we are not thrilled about. We pray and the prayer is not answered as we like. We lose a big contract, are demoted, or lose a job. In ministry, the group or service we started or that was once doing well, dries up or dies. Sometimes, even our devotional practices don’t bring any life or joy anymore. We’re spending time with God in devotions but now it’s dry and boring.

It is probably because of the fall and the influence of sin in all of our lives but every pastor, coach, and HR person knows that pain is a powerful motivator. Pure love is the #1 motivator but in this world, pain is right behind it and many times surpasses it. All successful ministry or business is about solving a problem, getting rid of what is causing people pain. God knows this very well so either through simply letting our actions produce consequences or through the attacks of the enemy, He highlights areas that need to be cut off if we are going to grow stronger.

When the discomfort gets strong enough, we are much more willing to let go of established and comfortable or familiar beliefs and practices. We are then open to learn new forms of prayer or new ways to interact with our spouse or taking a different career path. When the pain is severe enough, people will do just about anything to get rid of it. God’s goal is not to see how much pain we can endure, but He lets us reap what we’ve sown and that is often painful.

God can use any of the aforementioned faith builders to prune us as well so be open to what He’s trying to teach you, get rid of in your life, and what He’s wanting to ad. The quicker you get it, the quicker that phase will be over.

5. Foundational Shifts in Faith.

The Bible is crystal clear: the person of Jesus Christ is the only foundation we are to build our lives on; there is no other. (1 Corinthians 3:12) In any building, good foundation work is essential for a good building. Foundations are dug and laid first, then the structure is built on top of it.

Ephesians 2 says that in God’s household, His building, that it is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (vs. 20-21) In other words, the teaching of the apostles and prophets about Jesus is the foundation of all of our beliefs.

Over the years, I along with many, many others, have done a lot of study and prayer regarding the most important foundational truths about Jesus and the kingdom. No matter which ones have been decided upon and then taught, this I know for a fact: at some point our understanding of those foundational beliefs will be deepened, destroyed, and greatly expanded. Yes, I used the word destroyed in the list, too, because that is necessary from time to time. When foundations are seriously worked on, there is always a degree of upheaval, mess, and confusion. Let me give you a few examples of spiritual foundation shift:

- You fast and pray, based on Scripture, and have a great certainty the person you are praying for will live, but they don’t. You have obeyed Scripture, prayed believing, and they died anyway. Foundational Shift.

- You and your parents have prayed your whole life that God will put you together with God’s perfect mate for you. You date, are convinced this is the one, get married, and then the marriage is a disaster. Foundational Shift.

- You spend a lot of time in prayer, get biblical counsel, and have the full backing of your spouse to start a new business, take a new job, or start a new ministry. You give it all you’ve got, putting your faith in God that it will work because it is His will, but it crashes and burns. Foundational Shift.

- You hear or read someone’s interpretation of Scripture that you have never before seen that way. It is presented based on sound hermeneutical principles, in-line with the major themes of Scripture, yet you’ve never seen it that way before. Topics could be the reality and power of the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God, how much God loves you, the importance of your work in God’s kingdom, or many others. New insights on major themes can cause a foundational shift in your life and faith. Foundational Shift.

This is often the most painful of the faith building process. It challenges you at the very core of your being. You trusted God, acted based on a solid understanding of Scripture, and did it with the best attitude you could with all the faith you had, and it failed. Or you have sincerely studied Scripture, tried to live by its directives, and suddenly you see you have missed a major part of it or have been interpreting it in a very limited or even skewed manner. How could this happen? Why does God allow this? Why does He take us through it?

In order to build bigger in your life, He has to rework your foundation. A building can be no larger or stronger than its foundation and neither can God’s work in your life. No matter how well you were taught and no matter how you have endeavored to build solidly on God’s word, I guarantee you, you do not have the full picture. God’s truths are simple but eternally deep. NO ONE has it all right. We all see part of the picture. The godly people who have taught you are doing their best, but they can only teach what they see (and it’s not complete.) Thus, just like a child is able to learn more complicated subjects at a deeper level based on their growth, so we, too, are only able to learn so much at a time.

Because so much in God has to do with spiritual sight or revelation; from time to time God has to shake up or tear apart even a foundational belief in order to expand it and deepen it. Jesus once made a blind man walk through town with spit-moistened mud on his eyes to get healed. Do you know how stupid it would look to stagger though a crowded part of town with mud packed on your eyes? In almost all other instances, Jesus healed blind people by speaking to their condition and sometimes touching them, too, but this time He made a blind-man take these faith steps for healing. Sometimes, Jesus does such things to blow apart our limited understanding of Him and how He works. The blind man was healed by doing what Jesus said, and I guarantee you he had a fresh understanding of how God works and how faith works. From time to time, God will do the same with you. The “normal” way God acts, or the ways you’ve seen Him work before, or your understanding of His Word, will have spit and mud applied to bring you to a place of fresh insight and a bigger, deeper foundation.

So when those times come, when it just doesn’t work the way it used to or the way you’ve always been taught, dig deeper into Scripture and into God. Don’t give up on God, which is what some do. God is taking you through this season of confusion, uncertainty, or even darkness in order to bring you into something even stronger and more powerful. It might be for a while you have no idea what happened and you just say, “God, I don’t get it, but I trust you.” That might be what He’s after: trusting Him even when it didn’t work like it should. For instance, when God asks you to do something that really stretches you, like the blind man with mud-spit on his eyes, when God tells us to give the first 1/10 of what we have to Him, even when we cannot afford it. God is redoing a part of your foundation so He can build even more on it or as John 15 says, “more fruitful.”

6. The Rest of Faith.

When a person has come through for you time and time again; it is pretty easy to trust them, especially when it looked bad for a while, like they weren’t going to make it happen, and then they did. When a person who has proven themselves over and over again tells you they are going to do something, you have confidence they will do it. You are not fretting, you are not constantly calling and reminding them, you’re not worried and anxious; you have the rest of faith.

Jesus lived this perfectly. One time, He prayed out loud and said, “Father, thank you that you hear me and that you always hear me, but I’m praying this for these people’s sake so their faith will be strengthened.” Jesus had absolutely no doubt that His Father would come through for Him, so He lived in the rest of faith. He wasn’t stressed, anxious, or irritable despite unbelievable pressure. He lived in perfect peace, in the flow of faith, and the result was a life of power.

Once you have gone through several rounds of stress and rest, a greater confidence settles in your soul. That particular part of your promised land has been conquered, and you are now living in it. You still have to watch for enemies from time to time, but it is not a constant battle. God told Joshua, “Every place your foot treads, I have given it to you.” The Israelites could not just read about the Promised Land or hear about it; they had to walk on it and fight for it. Once they walked in the promises and drove out the enemies, it was theirs. They had rest.

It will be the same with you. You will have great confidence about certain areas of your life; your faith will be rock solid and proven. It is now your land, and you can enjoy it.

But on a regular basis, God will stretch you again and say, “Now let’s learn how to believe for this or let’s learn how to drive out this enemy or you’re ready to learn to take more responsibility.” There will come some more stress and rest sessions, but they will be just right, and God will be with you the entire way. Even those seasons where you don’t feel His presence, He is with you and teaching you to live by the truth of His word. Those lessons will expand your borders and strengthen your faith.

Remember: nothing is impossible with God or with the one who believes.

Chapter 5

The Fluidity of Faith

In Matthew 17, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him to a high mountain where they had an incredible God encounter. Before their very eyes, Jesus was “transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” (v.2) If that wasn’t enough, now Moses and Elijah show and are conversing with Jesus as they look on. Spontaneous Peter has to say something, so he tells Jesus they will build 3 shelters, one for each of them. While these words are still coming out of Peter’s mouth, “A bright cloud enveloped them and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’” (v. 5)

What an amazing experience! Jesus lights up like the sun and Moses and Elijah (prophets and heroes of all the Jewish believers) show up and are talking with Jesus. Even though just six days earlier Peter had gotten the God-given revelation that Jesus was actually “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16:16) he still did not come close to grasping how far beyond He was than the greatest of the prophets. So the Father Himself comes down and says, “I want you to get this. Moses and Elijah were great prophets, but Jesus is My Son. He is God in the flesh, not a prophet. I love Him supremely; my greatest delight is in Him, now listen to everything He says as his words will be the most important words you will ever hear, even beyond the Law and the Prophets.” (My interpretation.)

The three disciples hit the dirt and when they finally look up only Jesus is there, and the mountain looks like it did before. God had pulled back the curtain for a few moments and let them see what it was really like in the spiritual realm, the eternal realm, and how Jesus’ very nature was pure light. That is what was inside the body they saw; that is what the spiritual world saw all the time whenever He was present.

On their way down the mountain, Jesus explains more and tells them not to mention this to anyone until after He had been raised from the dead (which they did not understand at all) and then talks briefly about how John the Baptist had been the fulfillment of the prophesy that Elijah must come before the Messiah.

Little Faith

Keeping what had just happened in mind, Jesus and the three came down the mountain and find a noisy crowd. A desperate man comes and kneels down before Jesus telling him his son has suffered greatly his entire life with terrible seizures. He goes on to tell Jesus he had brought his son for healing to the disciples “but they could not heal him.” (v.14-16)

Jesus responds by saying, “O unbelieving and perverse generation how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” (v. 17) Jesus then rebukes a demon, and the boy was healed.

The disciples then ask Jesus why they could not drive the demon out because they had already done it successfully before when Jesus sent them out on mission trips without Him (Matthew 10) and probably other times when Jesus was there (Jesus was, after all, training them to continue on His mission). Consequently, they did not understand if they did it before, why didn’t it work this time?

Jesus says something very enlightening, particularly about faith: “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, 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.” (v. 20-21)

For Jesus, having no sin (which springs from unbelief in God’s words and nature), having that pure light, God’s power nature believing that anything was possible, was natural to Him. He understood perfectly that there was no sickness, deformity, demon, or problem that was too difficult for God. From that pure light, pure power nature, what was lack to a God who created the universe? He knew in His core that nothing was impossible for God.

But people, all people, are stained to the core with sin, and sin thrives in unbelief of God’s words. That is why Jesus so often referred to people, even his own disciples, as “You of little faith.” By our sin nature, we have little faith, especially compared to God.

Even with the disciples who were with Jesus all the time and seeing mind-boggling miracles all the time and with them flowing with God’s power and being used by Him to do miracles themselves, our faith level does not stay the same. Our faith level is fluid.

Fluid Faith

Certain areas of our lives, as Christ-followers, we seldom battle anymore; areas that have been established in faith. After a short-time, most of us no longer wonder if we are really forgiven, saved, and have eternal life. From time to time it may pop up, but it is generally quickly defeated. Most of us are convinced of 1 John 1:9, that when we sin if we confess it to God, based on Jesus’ atonement, He will forgive us and cleanse us. Others are rock solid in their belief that if they honor God with the first 10% of their income, God will financially take care of them. However, we all have faith areas that are fluid, even if we’ve already seen God come through at times.

Scripture gives many expressions regarding the state of our faith at any particular time. From:

- Little faith to Great faith

- Weak in faith to strong in faith

- Low in faith to full of faith

- Faith that quits to faith that resists

- Wandering away to standing firm in faith

- Shrinking back to growing faith

- Wishy washy to stable and solid

- Lack of faith to excellence in faith

On and on it goes with these types of phrases found all through the New Testament. 1 Timothy 4:1 even says that “in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” Both Jesus and the Apostles understood the fluidity of faith, how it could weaken or be strengthened, abandoned or excelled in, depending on how we respond to God and life.

They understood that faith in God had to be continually fed and exercised in order to get strong, stay strong, and even grow stronger. That is why Paul wrote things like:

“We sent Timothy…to strengthen and encourage you in your faith.” (1 Thessalonians 3:2) and “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.” (1 Thessalonians 3:10). It is why Paul encouraged his most beloved son in the faith to “Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…” (1 Timothy 6:12)

These were churches where Paul himself had taught and modeled the Christian life, yet he realized they needed others to help strengthen and encourage them in their faith and that there was lack in their faith that could be supplied. He knew there was a faith fight where even Paul’s own and closest trainee needed encouragement to take hold of the eternal life God had provided.

Especially in newer areas of growth, it is very common for our faith level to go up and down, get stronger, then weaker, then stronger again. When the hardest challenges come, when it is most difficult to trust God or believe His promises are true, that is also when the greatest growth or the greatest regression takes place. What makes the difference? Again, it is one of focus.

Growing faith, strong faith, overcoming faith is a faith focused on Jesus. Some have stronger will power than others, some have more self-control and discipline, and those traits do help in the faith battle. However, the development of those traits and having the type of faith it takes to win spiritual battles comes from focusing on and trusting in Jesus. He is the author and perfector/finisher of our faith.

Even with the disciples, Jesus used wording that emphasizes getting God’s faith.

A Seed of God’s Faith

“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.” (Mt. 17:21)

I think the best interpretation of this passage is that Jesus is referring to the gift of God’s faith for specific situations. All godly faith is from God, but some is developed and grown, while some is imparted for a situation. Growing in faith, as a fruit, helps us be at a place of receiving the gift of faith when the time is right, but they are somewhat different.

1 Corinthians 12:9 says one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is “faith.” 1 Corinthians 13:2 talks about having the “faith to move mountains” as a special ability from God; implying not everyone has this. When Jesus says a person can tell a mountain to move and it will, that is not typical Christian faith. I understand this to be a unique faith God gives at certain times to those who are focused on Him and doing His will.

None of us, even sincere, mature Christians can go around telling crippled people to stand up and walk or saying to blind eyes “open” unless God gives a special faith; a gift of faith that He Himself has. We simply do not have that type of faith in ourselves, even as believers.

Jesus calls it “faith as small as a mustard seed.” He used the mustard seed illustration earlier when he taught the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed that started small but grew large. In this instance, Jesus was saying all you need is a mustard seed dose of God’s faith to move a mountain. One clear word from God, accompanied by the assurance God gives, is all a person needs to see miraculous things happen. Words become incredibly powerful and prayers do as well.

To interpret Scripture, it is important to see how Jesus’ Apostle’s actually practiced the words and ideas Jesus presented. There are a couple of references in the early chapters of Acts where people experienced miraculous healings en masse, sometimes just Peter’s shadow healed people (Acts 5). That was a major revival time with the stream of God’s Spirit pouring directly on this area as the New Testament church was being birthed and established. This did not continue year after year, but for a season. Even then, if God did not just sovereignly heal someone, the apostles would wait on a clear word from God or an impartation of faith to facilitate a miraculous healing

In Acts 3, the Apostles walked past a crippled man every day until one day God’s word and faith came to Peter. Then Peter commanded the man to get up and walk and he did. That man was there all the time and Peter did not heal him until God gave Him the word and the faith to do so. In Acts 9, a godly woman named Dorcas had died. When Peter was brought to the home, he went in, prayed and then turned and told her to get up and she did. Could Peter do this whenever he wanted, wherever he wanted? The answer is no; he could only do this when God gave him the faith to do it. In Acts 14, Paul was speaking when he saw a crippled man and verse 9 says, “Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed.” Paul then told him to stand up and walk, and he did. Again, God gave the man and Paul faith for this to happen, and then it did.

All it takes is a mustard seed of God’s faith to move mountains.

Hearing God’s Word

We do not know when God will give this type of faith. God does give it to some people more than others. Jesus had given the Apostles authority to heal the sick and cast out demons; but they still needed that direct flow from God in order to do this work. Direct, on-going relationship with God is always the source of the life of God, but it needs to be cultivated, maintained, and grown.

If the disciples had been doing so (and I suspect given Jesus’ response that they had been slacking off), then they would have been able to heal the boy. That is why Jesus responded with a love-filled rebuke. He had just come from the mountain of transfiguration where Peter, James, and John saw the light of His glory, a place where absolutely nothing good is impossible and then coming down to his guys who had gotten their focus off of what God could do and had empowered them to do for that situation.

Faith is not static; it is often fluid.

Keeping your relationship with Jesus growing, open, and receptive is what it takes to grow in faith and receive those gifts of faith when they are needed.

Chapter 6

The Face of Faith

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “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.” Here is the “good news, bad news” way most people take this verse.

Good news: “I do believe God exists, and I can believe He rewards me if I really seek him. I can do that, so that means I can please God and also receive His rewards.”

Bad news: “I often battle thoughts of doubt that God will really come through on His promises (His rewards) and on some days I even wonder if Godactually exists. That means God is not pleased with me, and I’m sunk.”

The good news thought process gives us hope and encouragement, but the bad news progression leaves us feeling condemned and heading down the hopelessness path.

During the rest of this chapter, I want to give you some really encouraging news about the heart and mind location of maximum faith and how to get there.

Jesus Really Does Understand Us

One of the important things that happened when God became a man was that He experienced first- hand what it was like to live as a human being in this fallen world. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin.” Jesus understands perfectly the doubts, fears, as well as the ups and downs all humans face. He knows our potential much better than we do, and He also understands that because of sin dwelling in our bodies and the fact that our hearts and minds are in renovation and renewal mode, that learning to live by faith and grow in faith will take time. He knows that as God’s creations, we have the ability to believe and grow very strong in our believing. He knows what He has gotten Himself into when He took you and me on as His own people and His own special renovation projects.

He has made a 100% commitment to finish what He has started in you. (Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:28-30) He knows exactly the resources, encouragement, challenges, and support you need to grow strong in faith, and He is actively involved in empowering and coaching you through the process. Romans 8:2 says He does not condemn you. As a matter of fact it says, “There is, therefore, now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God will lovingly convict you of sin, so you can deal with it but because Jesus fully took God’s judgment and wrath, there is room for zero condemning in your life. Anytime you feel a guilt that leaves you feeling hopeless, that is never from God; that is the voice of the enemy.

Jesus Has All the Faith You Will Ever Need

The Gospel moves us from an “I centered life” to a “God centered life.” We no longer try to make ourselves right with God by our efforts. Instead, we focus on what God has made possible and make Him the center of our lives. This is such a smart thing to do.

If you are the center of your life, then you can only become and do what you can pull off in your very limited human strength and ability. When you make God the center of your life, then you tap into God’s wisdom, love, power, and resources. It’s the difference between a hamster- powered generator and a nuclear powered one. There is really no comparison.

Hebrews 12:1-3 tells us how God intends this faith thing to work in our lives. Hebrews 11 is called the “faith” chapter because all 40 verses talk about various expressions and results of biblical faith. As we move into Chapter 12, we read these words, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

There are so many powerful truths packed into those sentences but for now I want to concentrate on one particular phrase. The writer of Hebrews was addressing a group of Jewish believers who were going through some very difficult times because of their faith in Christ. Some were imprisoned, others lost their homes and possessions, and all were facing social pressures to turn back to the Law and a “normal” life. Just like anyone of us going through extreme difficulties, the temptation came to turn away from Jesus.. Therefore, again and again the writer of Hebrews communicates to them how much more exalted Jesus is than Moses, the New Testament is far superior to the Old Covenant, and how faith is the way even Old Testament figures pleased God. He then gives them and us the single greatest piece of advice in the Bible as to how to have strong faith “let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

Water Walking

Just as God’s life and love are received from God, so too, God’s kind of faith is only received from Him. Jesus is called the “author” of our faith. An author is the originator of the story: and please understand Jesus is writing a faith story of your life. He is also called the “perfecter” of our faith: He is the One who is lovingly and brilliantly developing and perfecting your faith. He is the originator of true faith, He lived by faith perfectly, and He has more than enough faith for you. Jesus has all the faith you will ever need and more, and He is willing to share it with you.

The key to strong faith is not to look within and say, “My faith is strong. I have enough faith” but it is to look at Jesus: who He is, His faithfulness, His love, His power, and His example. As you focus deeply on Him, God’s faith will rise up inside you. This is the faith that overcomes the world, moves mountains, endures hardship, and pleases God.

The battle all of us face is focusing on our circumstances more than focusing on Jesus. Throughout Scripture, whenever anyone focused more on external circumstances than on God, trouble would soon follow. Perhaps the most classic example of this truth is found in Matthew 14 when Jesus walked on water.

The story goes like this: Jesus had just finished teaching a large crowd of people for several days. He had then multiplied a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish enough to feed tens of thousands of people with 12 baskets left over. He then sent his disciples, on a boat, ahead of him to the next place they were going to visit while He dismissed the crowd. In the middle of the night, the disciples see Jesus walking on the very water they are floating upon. They get scared and freaked out (who wouldn’t?) and start yelling “It’s a ghost.”

Jesus calms them down, at least a little, by saying, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (14:27)

Peter then says, “if that’s really you, Jesus, tell me to come on the water.”

Jesus says, “Come.”

Peter gets out of the boat and he, too, starts walking on the water toward Jesus.

“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” (14:28-31)

As with Hebrews 12, there are so many great insights in this passage, but I want to focus on the one we’re currently looking at: I want to focus on Jesus.

There is absolutely no way Peter would have ever attempted to walk on water unless He saw Jesus on the water. Based on what Jesus had been teaching them, Peter asks Jesus to let him do it, too. The fact that Peter would even ask to do it not only says a lot about Peter but also what Jesus had been telling them. Jesus was constantly working at stretching their “what is possible” thinking.

Jesus did not get upset with Peter when he asked Jesus to tell him to come. Jesus didn’t respond with “Who do you think you are, Peter? Don’t you know I’m the Son of God and only I can do these things? You arrogant little man! Just for that, you will never live out the plan of God.” Jesus did not do that in any shape or fashion. Jesus was constantly encouraging and challenging people to believe God for more, not less, and so when Peter asked Jesus immediately responded and said, “Sure, come on.” Jesus liked it that Peter asked.

Faith is not Presumption

On the other hand, Peter did not presume upon God and say, “Well, Jesus is doing it so that means I can do it, too,” even though Jesus did say believers would do the same works He did and even greater ones (John 14:12). He waited for the word of God for that situation to come from Jesus’ mouth. If something is not clearly stated in Scripture as being applicable for all believers at all times, then you need to get a living word from Jesus to do extraordinary or dangerous things. Many people have gotten into big trouble by presuming upon God.

Years ago, I heard Bible teacher Bob Mumford tell the story of a young man who went hiking in one of the western United States parks. There had been warnings of bear attacks and when someone asked the young man if he was taking a gun, he said, “No. God will take care of me.” Days later they found his body, killed by a bear. How could God let them happen? After all, he was acting on God’s word (many Scriptures talk about God’s protection), but God did not intervene to stop the bear attack. It’s important to realize that God gave us a brain to use and unless God gives you an incredibly strong, proven word to do something very dangerous, don’t presume upon Him acting to back up your actions. Presumption is not faith. Real faith, especially faith for miracles, comes most often from a living word from the mouth of God for that situation.

Also notice that Jesus himself said that the reason Peter could walk on the water was faith in Jesus and the reason he began to sink was when his faith shrunk. “You of little faith; why did you doubt?” (v. 31) This is the incredible power that is unleashed when our faith is in God and from God: the impossible can become possible. A normal human being can heal the sick, blind eyes can open, the deaf can hear, cancers dissolve, broken limbs get restored, food can be multiplied, and even walking on water can occur.

Primary Focus

The most important faith related insight of this story is that faith is at its strongest when we stay focused on Jesus. As long as Peter was concentrating primarily on Jesus, with the water, wind, and waves in the background, he was able to walk in the supernatural. He got in trouble, however, and began to sink when he started paying more attention to the wind and waves than Jesus. I am certainly not condemning him. If I would have had the guts to get out of the boat, I’m sure I would have done the same thing. Walking on water is humanly impossible; yet, Peter was doing it as long as He kept His eyes on Jesus more than the circumstances. This is true for every single one of us. Even if Jesus does not call you to walk on water, He constantly calls you to do things you cannot do in your own strength. Just living the Christian life is impossible without Jesus’ power so doing the great work He has planned for you is impossible with just your natural abilities and resources. You will always need God’s power and grace to do God’s will.

Biblical faith does not ignore the reality of our circumstances; it just places them in the background to Jesus. Jesus knew He was walking on water in a storm. He did not say “The storm does not exist, the water does not exist, the problem is an illusion, if I just ignore it, then it will go away” and neither did Peter. Biblical faith faces the reality of the problem but intentionally places it in the background and puts Jesus as the main focus.

You do this all the time in the physical aspects of your life. Your main focus is, for example, on the cars in front of you, but you are also aware of what is going on around you through peripheral vision. You can be in a group of people and focusing your attention on the person you are interacting with while at the same time, seeing people behind that person.

Jesus did not tell us to ignore the mountain. Jesus said to speak to the mountain and to do that means you admit the mountain is there. In Romans 4, great insight is given as to how Abraham received the child of promise, Isaac, even though he and Sarah were both well beyond child bearing years. Verses 19-21 tell us “Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb, yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.” Abraham faced the reality of his condition head on but placed his primary focus on God’s ability and faithfulness to do what He had promised.

This takes some practice and conscious choices. To learn to face your challenges, but place Jesus in the forefront, does not happen automatically. Even with Peter, who was with Jesus all the time and saw Jesus constantly do miracles, it was hard to place a storm in the background, but that is what you must learn to do to live in the flow of God’s life and power and experience the fullness of His promises. And you can do it. That is why Abraham’s story and this story are in Scripture. These were people, like you and me, but they learned to focus on Jesus’ and God’s power more than their bodies or the storms.

Faith in God’s Presence

Scripture tells us that seeing Jesus transforms us. 1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Right now, we are children of God but only when Jesus returns will we become the fullness of who God created us to be. The major force in that amazing transformation will be “seeing him as he is.” No human has a full, comprehensive understanding of all aspects of Jesus. Furthermore, no human has seen Him with their physical eyes. One day, whether it is with our physical, spiritual, or both, sight we will see Jesus exactly as He really is. So great is the power of seeing Him that doing so will transform us into His image so that we shall be like Him.

2 Corinthians 3:20-21 tells us that the Holy Spirit transforms us into Jesus’ image as we “behold, see, or look at” Him. The context of this passage makes it clear that Paul is talking about seeing God spiritually, with the eyes of our heart and in our minds, and that spiritual seeing has the power to progressively transform our souls. Seeing Jesus is transformative. It is faith building. It is life-changing when done with an open and hungry heart.

Looking in the face of Jesus is faith building. God has no doubt about what He can do. He knows that nothing is impossible for Him. We, on the other hand, are coming out of a mind-set and life training that tells us all kinds of things are not possible, even the most bold and daring among us, but Jesus has a faith that helps us believe .When we are able to look into the face and eyes of Jesus, seeing even some of His greatness and power, it becomes so much easier to believe.

You have certainly had times where looking into someone’s face has had a powerful impact in your life. Especially in times where your soul is wide open, this is true. On the negative side, you’ve just gotten a bad medical report and fear grips your heart, but the doctor looks you in the eye and with confidence says, “There are some really good options for you.” Fear and worry drops significantly because an authority has told you there is real hope. Furthermore, on the positive side, you have just had a major accomplishment and your spouse looks at you with eyes of celebration and healthy pride, which lifts your spirit even higher. In the face, in that place of greatest human connection, come expressions and words that impact us in an almost magical way.

Galatians 5:4 says that “faith works by love.” That means our faith is strongest when motivated and guided by love for God and others. It also works in relation to us realizing, accepting, and believing how much God loves us. The more we realize how much God loves us, the easier it is to love others and the easier it is to believe the rest of God’s words. That is why a major part of Paul’s Ephesians 3 prayer is that we should be rooted and grounded in love, which makes it possible to comprehend the many dimensions of God’s love, resulting in us being “filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)

In that ever increasing cycle of greater and deeper, life-changing revelation, the more we realize or comprehend the many aspects of God’s unending love; the more we are actually filled up with God. And Paul said it’s not just a little bit of “filling” or “flow”; it is being filled all the way up to the fullness of God. When we’re filled up with God, faith is included.

Faith From the Face

Faith increases and flows in the presence of God’s love. Going back to Abraham, Romans 4:17 says, “(as it is written), ‘A father of many nations have I made you, in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” Being in the presence of a God who gives life to the dead and has the power to create things that do not yet exist by the power of His words, takes our faith way beyond what we would ever have in ourselves. Like Abraham and like Peter, faith soars in the presence of a holy, powerful, love saturated God. That faith and love is expressed and received best in the face of Jesus.

Revelation 1: 14b describes the ascended Jesus whose “eyes were like blazing fire.” When Jesus looks at you, His eyes are on fire with love for you, passion for purpose, and confidence in the fulfillment of His plans for you. God’s love for you is not the love of “I have to love him because he’s my kid; but I really don’t like him.” NO! It’s the pure, perfect, “I loved you enough to suffer and die for you love.”

When you can look into those eyes of perfect love, into that face of joy and confidence, then God’s kind of faith rises up in you and you can walk on water, start a new ministry, run a business, heal the sick, preach God’s message, create new technology, or anything else God is calling you to do.

The strongest faith comes from the face of Jesus and because of His redemptive work and through the eyes of our hearts, we really can see Him and hear Him. Yes it takes practice and yes you will make mistakes but if you are focused on Him and taking faith steps, He will not let you sink to the floor of the sea. When Peter began to sink, Jesus did not say, “Too bad for you. You’ve just blown God’s plan for your life and now I’ll give your spot to someone else.”

Instead, Jesus took hold of him and pulled him up and into the boat. As he pulled him up from sinking down into the water, Jesus looked at him, not with looks of condemnation or disgust, but with those burning eyes of love and faith and said, “Where is your faith?” Peter locked eyes with Jesus in the midst of that storm again, looked again into the eyes of total confidence and love. I would not be surprised at all if Jesus was smiling at Peter as he asked him that question. I don’t believe for a second that Jesus was mad at him or disappointed in him. I think he was proud of him, and Peter saw that in his face as Jesus grabbed on to him and asked him the question that would become a faith launcher for Peter.

Don’t you know Peter learned a lesson that day he never forgot? When Peter began his apostolic ministry after the resurrection, and he felt the Spirit’s quickening to go to a crippled man and command him to rise and walk, Peter did it with confidence knowing the One who was leading him to do the impossible was the One who walked on water and showed Peter he could, too, if he kept his focus on what God could do. As long as he focused on the face of Jesus, the pipeline of faith stayed wide open, and God’s faith and power could flow into him in amazing ways.

It would not surprise me if for the rest of his life, when Peter would wrestle with doubt or fear that he would remember back to the time he walked on water and how faith was strong in the face of perfect love, in the face of Jesus. He knew that if he kept his focus on the face of Jesus, he would have the faith he needed to do whatever God called him to do.

How to Stay Focused on an Invisible Jesus

To live by faith and to focus on an invisible Jesus requires practice and training. All human beings have, to varying degrees, the ability to see the unseen. God has designed us so that we can imagine, we can picture scenarios in our minds, we can recall past events, and we can believe even if we do not see it yet. All people can do this.

In order to learn to live by faith in God and to see the invisible, Jesus is taking those abilities to God and allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through them in what Ephesians calls “The eyes of the heart. This is not physical sight rather it is ‘inner sight.’” At the end of Chapter 4, I talked about 5 ways to strengthen your faith, with the last and most important one being “open your soul to God and His word.” Here are a few ways to open your soul and see with spiritual sight:

1. Quiet your mind and settle your heart on the reality that God is with you right here and right now. Saying short prayers like “Thank you Father that you are here with me right now. Holy Spirit, I acknowledge you and ask you to open my eyes to see Jesus. Jesus, thank you that you love me more than I can imagine. I am in the presence of perfect love right now. Jesus, I receive your love and I love you…”

Practicing prayer times like that throughout the day helps you become more aware and sensitive to God’s reality, love, and presence.

2. Take a passage of Scripture and pray it back to God. If it’s a promise to claim, then claim it. If it’s a sin to confess, then confess it. If it’s something to praise God for, then praise Him. As you do so, ask God to deepen those words in your soul and to open the eyes of your heart to see Him and that truth more clearly. Then notice what type of internal knowing or mental picture the Holy Spirit gives you.

Words are often pictures and images. The word “lake” produces some type of mental picture in your mind, not the letters l-a-k-e. Through an author’s words, you can sometimes see the situation they are describing in your mind; like you are there. As you meditate or pray God’s words with a focus on God (not just doing the Christian duty of some spiritual exercise), the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of your heart and mind to see more of God and see Him more clearly.

I’ve found this to most often be a combination of sensing God in my emotions and soul, as well as pictures, ideas, or images in my mind, my imagination. (God can give literal dreams and visions but for most of us those are rare. I would encourage you to be open to any way God wants to communicate with you but don’t tell Him how He should do it. If He decides to give you a vision, send an angel, or appear before you that is His decision but don’t think if you never get that, something is wrong with you. Most of us don’t get that kind of God encounter but what God does give us is more than enough for our walk with Him and what He calls us to do.)

3. Sing songs of worship and adoration to God. God has given us music to help us experience realities that words alone may not release. Heaven is filled with music. One time when the prophet Elisha needed a word from God, he had a musician come and play worship music (2 Kings 3:15-20). As the musician played, Elisha received God’s word. In Acts 13, as the leaders of the church of Antioch were fasting and ministering to the Lord, God’s clear word came regarding Paul and Barnabas’ apostolic calling.

4. Combine any of the above with fasting, and it can become even more powerful and clear.

The Holy Spirit wants to enlighten the eyes of your heart. He desires to reveal and glorify Jesus, so He will work in your mind and emotions to help you “see” and “focus” on Him.

Do this on a regular basis and at certain times this, too, seems to happen in cycles. You will get clearer glimpses of Jesus. Over time, you will notice the ability to see, hear, and interact with Him regularly. You will learn to recognize how He speaks to you and how He shows Himself to you.

Of course, God can and does use people and nature to show us aspects of Himself, and these are very valid and sometimes very powerful as well. It is not just word and prayer times, and it is not just people and nature. God uses all of them.

Therefore, when the storms of life come, and they will, come to God in prayer and intentionally set your inner focus on Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to come and open your spiritual eyes, read Scripture with attentiveness to God, and notice what insights, mental pictures, or God-emotions you get. Then, throughout the day, keep fellowshipping with God going through short prayers of thanksgiving, worship, proclamation of truth, etc. As you do this, you will keep your focus on Jesus, and He will give you all the faith you need.

Faith Comes From the Face of Jesus

Chapter 7

Various Expressions of Faith

In December of 1981, Dodie Osteen (mother of Joel Osteen) was diagnosed with liver cancer, told there was no cure, and sent home to die. Her husband John prayed for her, cursing the cancer, and commanding it to die. Dodie then began quoting healing Scriptures throughout the day and in the night as well. To make a long story short, God healed her of this medically incurable illness, and she is still alive and seems to be doing well over 30 years later. (You can read her full account in her short book Healed of Cancer.) She prayed and stood in faith based mainly on the principles Jesus taught in Mark 11:22-24 to speak to the mountain and pray believing you have already received, and it will be given you. She and many others have received tremendous, sometimes miraculous, answers to prayer using this expression of faith.

Yet, years later, as told by her son Joel, Dodie had another health issue. She still practiced Mark 11:22-24 and related principles, but this time God did not heal her just through prayer. He healed her through surgery. Why did God heal her of liver cancer purely through His direct work but healed her of her other malady through surgery?

John Osteen, Joel’s father, along with Dodie founded Lakewood Church and under their leadership it grew from 0 to 8,000 (up to 15,000 depending on the source) at the time of John’s passing in January of 1999. Lakewood Church was one of the first racially diverse churches in the Houston area and had ministries reaching all around the world. John saw God do many great miracles through his ministry over the years. Under Joel’s leadership, the church has grown to be the largest in the United States with over 40,000 attending weekend services there. Yet, John himself had kidney failure, had to be on dialysis, and despite “standing in faith” for his healing, died from cardiac arrest.

What should we make of this? I certainly do not have all the answers. God cannot be put in a box, but their story is not unique. I know of many wonderful Christians who have seen great prayer results by praying, believing they have received, then standing strong in faith by confessing Scripture and speaking to the mountain. This definitely happens.

However, I have also seen and know first-hand of several strong Christians who did the Mark 11:22-24 approach the very best they could. Several of them were seasoned pastors and Bible teachers who had seen this method work before. Unfortunately, they did not receive the answers they were believing in. Some had financial failures despite believing God for resources, others had failed marriages, and some even died at a fairly early age despite believing they had received and speaking to the mountain of disease. Again, these were people who had seen this approach work many times in their own lives and taught it as THE main way to receive what you needed from God, and it has worked for many, many people over the years, so why did God heal Dodie Osteen of liver cancer by practicing Mark 11:22-24 but not some of these other people when they did the exact same thing and had seen it work other times? Why did God not heal Dodie Osteen of her other malady directly? Why did she have to have surgery? What is going on here?

Let me submit to you this idea: it is consistent with what I’ve been saying throughout this book.

Faith comes from Jesus, out of relationship with Him, and faith has many, many expressions.

The term I like to use for this kind of faith is “relational faith.” That means that although there are faith principles and practices, they are best used when guided out of relationship with the person, Jesus Christ. You see, just like love, there are so many different, multi-faceted aspects to faith.

I did a Google search for the phrase, “how many songs have been written about love?” Ask.com gave the same answer, but I’m quoting Wiki.answers here:

“This question is impossible to answer because love is one of the most common themes in music. Thus, there are millions of songs about love: losing love, finding love, missing a loved one, wishing for love, searching for love, being grateful for love, etc.”

Jesus said the entire law and prophets could be summed up in just two commandments: Love God with all you are and love your neighbor as yourself. Those words are clear, simple, and easy to remember. Yet, try defining love. The 1500 pages of the Bible are, to a great degree, about those two subjects: what loving God and people looks like. Millions of songs have been written about love, and it is still the #1 topic of top-sellers today.

I don’t know if faith has millions of expressions, maybe it does, but in Hebrews 11 alone (the faith chapter), over 50 are given and 22 or so use the exact phrase “by faith.” “By faith,”

- “we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command…” (v.2)

- “Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain…” (v.3)

- “he was commended…” (v 3)

- “he still speaks, even though he is dead…” (v 3)

- “Enoch was taken from this life…” (v 4)

Victory and Suffering

And so it continues throughout the entire chapter. Faith was always and is still always about “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (v1), but there are many ways to express this faith in God. Sometimes faith in God leads to incredible miracles and other times faith in God leads to sacrifice and suffering. Hebrews 11:33-35a gives a short list of some of the amazing victorious things faith in God produced like “conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of flames, escaped the edge of the sword, weaknesses were turned to strength, became powerful in battle, routed armies, and received their dead back to life again.” This is exciting stuff and the things we all long to see in our own lives. Along with the previous verses, there are so many descriptions of great, powerful, victorious expressions of faith; and this is just a partial list.

However, notice I said verses 33-35a, because look where the author takes us in 35b. Without even taking a breath, he continues with “tortured, refused to be released, jeers, flogging, chained, prison, stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword, destitute, persecuted, mistreated, wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.” True, living faith in God also expressed itself in enduring and suffering.

Both faith that leads to victory and faith that endures suffering can be authentic and God pleasing. Verse 39 says, “These were ALL commended for their faith…” Both the people who saw great answers to prayer and amazing miracles and those who faced severe hardship and loss were commended by God for their faith: ALL of them.

At least in the United States it seems most bible teachers focus on one side of the faith coin; not both. From my experience, even though they may mention both sides, many emphasize either the victory side or the suffering side. For some, only seeing a great healing, job promotion, or success is seen as true faith. I once heard a nationally known Bible teacher tell a group of people in wheelchairs that Jesus had done all He was going to do to heal them; they just needed to exercise faith and every single one of them could walk and if they didn’t walk it was because of their unbelief. I heard another say the reason the early church suffered was because they didn’t know their authority in Christ. If they knew who they were in Christ, they could have been spared persecution and suffering. And while I’m on a roll, another said just recently that Christians need to be the absolute best in their profession. If they were not the best in their field, it was because of a lack of faith or lack of dedication. Teachings like that have left a trail of condemned, stressed out, or arrogant Christians behind them. Can faith in God help us excel? Of course it can. Can faith in God produce amazing healings? Yes, it happens all the time. Does God give believers in Jesus authority over the devil? Yes, we do not need to fear him. However, that is one side of faith, and the way those above have taught is way out of context with the rest of Scripture.

Others give lip service to faith and God’s blessings but limit God’s power to heal, grant success, or provide financially. They teach much more about the suffering, coping, and enduring side of faith. On this side, I have heard nationally known Bible teachers say that the time of miracles passed away with the apostles so don’t expect healing miracles today. Others say the world belongs to the devil so all we can really expect is hardship and persecution. Others teach people mainly how to cope and endure because that’s all we can really expect in this life. Jesus said, “In this world, you will have tribulation” are their favorite words. Does God heal every Christian this side of heaven? No, He does not. Will Christians face hardship and persecution? Yes, we will. Will we have tribulations in this world? Yes, we will experience many kinds of challenges and hardships. Is that the Bible’s emphasis? No, it is not.

The Emphasis of Scripture

There is no doubt that the desire of God’s heart is to bless us and fill us with the greatest quality of life possible. From Genesis 1 and ending in Revelation 22, the goal of God is to share His abundant, authentic, love-filled, joyful, peaceful, eternal life with all His children. In eternity, there is no sorrow, pain, or suffering; all of that is gone. Even in this life, Jesus came to make more and more of the life of God available to us while still living in this age, which is still strongly influenced by sin and Satan. He is the one who taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” God wants more and more of heaven to impact our lives here on earth.

Jesus is the highest demonstration and model of what God and life under God’s authority are like in human form. Jesus never made anyone sick; He healed them. Jesus did not condemn sinners; He offered forgiveness. Jesus did not oppress people; He liberated them. Jesus said all of this oppression, sickness, and despair were the work of sin and Satan. 1 John 3:8 says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and we all know Jesus came to free us from the crushing weight of sin.

If God wants to pour life and blessing into believers, then why don’t we always experience it? Let me give you 5 reasons:

1. Our responses matter. God does not cram His blessings down our throats and He does not force us to believe in Him or follow His directives. If we don’t do what He says, we can’t expect to receive His blessings.

2. There is a devil who wants to kill, steal, and destroy. Though defeated, he still has great power in the lives of those who disobey or don’t follow Jesus.

3. Sin is still around. Sin has stained our world to the core. God’s beautiful world can also be brutal. See how much mercy a hungry animal has on a baby or a pedophile has on a small child. Though we are new creations in Christ, our souls, minds, and bodies still have to deal with sin (which always leads to some type of death).

4. We are all growing in faith. It is by faith that we receive but also faith grows and develops through stress and hardship. The end result of our walk with God will be amazingly good but even for those who are trusting God, the in-between process can be very difficult. Everyone goes through tough stuff at different points. If we realize this is an opportunity for faith to grow, then we approach it far differently than with thoughts like “If God loves me, why is this happening to me?” or “God loves other people more than me.”

5. God knows exactly what we need to fulfill His unique purposes and which process we need to grow in Christlikeness. One of the funnier portions of Scripture is after the resurrection, Jesus tells Peter that when he’s older, people will force him to go where he does not want to go (indicating he would die for Christ). Peter looks around and sees John standing there and says to Jesus “What about him?” This is just so human. Peter is thinking, and therefore, says, “If I have to go through this, He will, too, right? If I have to face this John should, too.” Jesus says to Peter, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” (John 20: 18-23). In other words, we can learn from others, but Jesus’ plan for each of us will be unique and up to Him. Our part is to follow Him wherever He leads.

There is no doubt about it: some people go through tougher times than others. At least for now, the persecution Christians face in the west is mostly limited to social rejection, lawsuits, or losing a job type of things. Though difficult, those are pretty minor compared to some parts of the world where believers are imprisoned, not allowed to work, or killed for their faith. Why I was born here and not there is God’s decision. I do know He will give us the grace we need to do what He put us here to do if we cling to Him and allow Him to do His faith growing work in us.

Principles and Relationship

Throughout this book, and this is always a focus I believe is central to the Christian life, I’ve been encouraging you to put your faith in Jesus, look regularly in His face, and receive the faith and life that relationship produces. Jesus is the Vine, and God wants us to keep developing and deepening our relationship with Him and follow Him, not formulas, each day.

That is why there are so many valid and varied expressions of faith. In some situations, Jesus will lead you to pray one time, believe you’ve received, and then thank Him it is done. At some point, that answer to prayer will become visible. In one instance, He may have you give everything in your wallet to a total stranger; other times, He will lead you to give nothing. In some situations, He will have you pray day and night for someone and other times you will be led to mention them to God once in prayer.

There are so many expressions of faith given in Scripture that pleased God and produced what God wanted to happen. There is not just one, not even just a few. The New Testament says we now have constant access to the very throne of God and that we can come boldly to Him. Jesus said we can hear His voice and that the Spirit would lead us. It is meant to be living, relational, and growing.

Growth means change. It means development. It means going from one level of glory and faith to the next. Yes, God put in place laws and principles that help bring order and stability to our lives, but these are meant to be learned and practiced in relationship with a living God. You cannot live the abundant life on principles alone because “the Life” is found in a person, not a principle.

One of the most liberating faith ideas is this:

If you stay close to Jesus, He will give you all the grace and faith you need to do His will.

You do not need to produce faith; it will grow strong as you focus on Him. If God wants you to speak to the mountain, He will give you the faith for it. If He wants you to endure suffering; He will give you the grace and faith for it. If He wants you to start a new business, move to a new city, do missions, teach children, or anything else if you will stay focused on Jesus, He will give you the faith you need, and you will live more and more in flow and rest that faith produces.

How do we know when to believe for great victories and when to yield or endure? That is what we’ll look at next, as well as how to respond to God’s written promises.

Chapter 8

What to Do with God’s Promises

In this chapter, I want to build on what we talked about in the last section regarding the need for various expressions of faith built on a living relationship with Jesus. However, here I want to drill down deeper, specifically about God’s promises. God’s expressed will is found to a great degree in the promises He has given us as found in Scripture but how to use those promises is sometimes misunderstood, so that is what we’ll talk about now.

Some people teach that when you have a problem just find a Scripture that deals with that problem or situation, claim it for yourself, receive it by faith, and then at the right time God will do what He has promised. There are some outstanding testimonies of people doing that and seeing dramatic answers to their faith. Yet, others have done the exact same thing and not seen the answers they were “claiming.” Typically, they are then given answers like “Your faith was not strong enough; there must be some sin in your life,” or on the other side of the fence, “You can never know what God’s will is; God is sovereign.” What makes it confusing is that it could be any of those things or none of them.

Proverbs 16:7 says that when our ways please God, He makes even our enemies to be at peace with us. Jesus, on the other hand, said He did not come to bring peace but a sword and if we really follow Him, all kinds of people, sometimes even our loved ones, would hate us and despise us (Matthew 10:34-36). Then He said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (John 14:27) Psalm 103:3 says that God heals us of all our diseases. Paul told Timothy to drink wine because of his stomach trouble and his many other ailments. Deuteronomy 8:18 says God gives us power to create wealth as a sign of His covenant with us. Paul wrote that many times he was poor and hungry. Bear with me as I carry on this theme a little further.

2 Peter 1:3-4 tell us that through God’s promises we are partakers of the divine nature. Mark 4, 1 Peter 1:22-23, Romans 10:6-8, Romans 1:16-17 plus many other Scriptures make clear that God’s word carries His power. 2 Corinthians 1:20 says that all God’s promises to us are “Yes” in Christ Jesus. All the promises are “Yes” in Christ; that means God will give us all the promises if we are united with Christ, right? God never lies. His words are true. God willingly gave us His promises. They are “Yes” for all believers so find it and claim it seems a good approach so how should we interact with God in His promises? Should we be able to “claim” them or do we need to get a fresh leading from Jesus in every single situation? Will God speak to us about every decision we need to make or does He leave some of them up to us? This is what I’ve learned so far.

There are some promises we can claim always; there are some you do not need God’s direct leading in order to receive. Others are conditional, and others we need clear direction and faith from God. I know this may sound confusing so far but stick with me and I think you will shortly see what I’m talking about.

Relational Faith

A few years ago, two well-known business and leadership experts named Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey came up with a leadership phrase/program they called Situational Leadership. I’m not sure if they were the first ones to realize this concept, but they were able to make it well-known and accepted in the business world. Their main premise was this: different situations require different leadership approaches. Most of the time, a collaborative approach is best but sometimes someone just needs to take charge and give commands (battle, crisis situation). Sometimes communication & persuasion are required and other times listening and coming to group consensus is best.

In much the same way that is what I believe relational faith is all about. As we talked about last chapter, relational faith realizes there are different expressions of faith needed in various circumstances, and God is the One who knows best which approach we should take. In John 5:19 Jesus said He ONLY did what the Father showed Him. Sometimes Jesus healed everyone, sometimes He healed one, and other times He walked past all of the sick. On a couple of occasions, He multiplied food and fed thousands of people. On other days, He walked past groups of hungry people. Historians tell us there was a great deal of poverty and oppression in Judea/Palestine during the time of Christ. One time, He spit, made mud, put it on the eyes of a blind man, and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam and he would be healed. Most of the time, He spoke words of healing or laid His hands on the sick, and they would get better. A few times, He raised the dead; most of the time He did not. After teaching and healing in one city, the people there begged Him to stay (because there were still plenty of hurting people He had not yet touched).

Jesus said, “No. I need to move on to other cities.”

“But Jesus, there are still lots of hurting people here, don’t you care?”

Jesus said, “I do, but there are other God-ordained priorities and plans right now.”

What if you were one of the ones who could not make it, and Jesus had moved on? Does God not love you? The Bible says He loves all of us, but He also has the ability to work all things to good, even those hurting, waiting times.

Let’s talk about what to do with those promises, Ok?

1. You can claim some promises as being applicable all the time. 1 John 1:9 says that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Does God do that every time we confess our sins to Him or just sometimes? Do we need a special leading from God to confess when we mess up and receive His cleansing and forgiveness? No. It works all the time and every time, right? The entire Gospel is based on the fact that God will always forgive, cleanse, and give eternal life to anyone who puts their trust in Jesus alone to make them right with God. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said He would never leave us or forsake us, especially when we are following Him in His mission. Is He always with us or does He leave us sometimes? He is always with us, even when we don’t sense His presence.

So which promises can we always claim? (This is really, really important so don’t skim over the next sentence).

You can always claim the Biblical promises for which there is no counter Scripture.

That means without any special leading, you can always receive by faith the stated promise if there is no Scripture that presents the other side of that truth. For example, in the New Testament there are no Scriptures that say God will ever leave a believer. There are Scriptures that say we may face persecution. There are no Scriptures that say God will ever stop loving us. There are Scriptures that say in this world you will have tribulation. That means you can always “receive by faith” the promise that God will always be with you as a Christ-follower and that God will always forgive you if you confess your sins to Him. That does not mean you can always “receive by faith” that your enemies will always be at peace with you or that you will never have problems, injustice, or tribulations again.

2. Some promises need Holy Spirit imparted enlightenment and faith to be manifested in our lives and circumstances. On one occasion, the apostle’s Peter and Paul both spoke to a crippled man, and he immediately got up and walked. Jesus did say those who believe would do the same works He did and even greater works (John 14:12). However, as a believer, can you go up to any wheelchair bound person and in faith and assurance tell them to get up and walk in the name of Jesus? Go ahead and try. If God isn’t giving you His faith to do that, it will not work even though Jesus specifically said that believers would “lay hands on the sick and they would recover.” However, if God gives you the faith and you respond, God can still do those things today and still does. There are people who receive miraculous healings all around the world, every single day. God does it all the time; but not in every situation.

I think this is how it works best. I’ll break it down in 4 realizations and 6 simple steps.

Four Realizations

These four are pretty much review, but repetition is key to learning and these points are appropriate for what we’re talking about, so here goes.

1. Realize God knows best what should happen, when, and how. He really is smarter than us and understands what, when, and how His promises should come to pass in our lives.

2. Realize God has all the faith you or anyone else will ever need. Isn’t that great to know? Yes, God wants to keep developing your faith, but He has all the faith you will ever need, so go to Him when your faith feels weak or small; He has plenty.

3. Realize God is working to develop and stretch your faith; which means at different times He will challenge you with something bigger or different than before. When Jesus told Peter to come to Him when He was walking on water, that was a really BIG stretch. He told His disciples to go out and do the same things Jesus Himself was doing, another BIG stretch. He told His followers that their words could move mountains, if they believed…S…T…R…E…T…C…H! He was constantly trying to stretch minds and hearts to see what was possible for God and for those who would believe Him.

4. Realize He wants your faith to be in Him, not in one particular method. Most of us, me included, like proven, doable steps. The Bible does give those in many instances. God’s principles are eternal; unchanging, but His methodology will change on a regular basis. We get into trouble when we confuse principles and methods; and it has happened a lot throughout church history. Because God wants us to have an on-going relationship and trust in Him, at times, He will challenge us to trust Him in ways we are not accustomed to. When Israel came out of Egypt, they learned to trust that God would feed them with manna from heaven 6 days per week. When they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land, the manna stopped, and they learned to trust God to meet their physical needs through crops produced in the land. Always trust God but adjust to different faith challenges and new methods.

Six Steps

1. Surrender and Stretch. Seek God with a balance: “Not my will but yours be done” and “All things are possible with God and to those who believe in God.” Surrender and Stretch. Surrendering, yielding, submitting to God and saying, “Your will be done” is one of the smartest things you can ever do. It can be hard; especially if there is something you really, really want but if you really believe God loves you and is much smarter than you, then surrendering is your best move.

How many times have you personally experienced or witnessed someone else wanting something so badly, you or they did whatever it took to get it and then it ended up being a mess? There have been so many people who married someone despite the fact that they were not a devoted Christian or had a totally different vision for life. A hurtful marriage or painful divorce are often the result of their self-will.

Does that mean you can never ask God for what you want? Jesus told us it’s ok to ask and even encouraged us to do so. Several times when sick people were brought to Him, Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?” He didn’t say, “What do you think God wants here?” Instead, He asked them what they wanted. God likes it when we ask, He tells us to ask, and He loves to give good gifts to His children.

What we’re talking about here is when you’re not exactly sure if this is God’s will or not or if there is a good chance what you want is not according to God’s will. In this case, it is ok to say, “God this is what I would like, but I’m surrendering to what you say.” Remember, Jesus asked the Father THREE times in the garden of Gethsemane if the cup of the cross could be taken away. Paul also said he asked 3 times if the thorn in the flesh could be taken away, and they asked until God told both of them no. They both then accepted it and surrendered to it.

However, while surrendering, remind yourself that with God nothing is impossible because sometimes God wants to give you a word or promise that is far greater than you would have come up with on your own. You may be asking to have the ability to communicate better, and God may say to you, “I’m going to put you in positions of leadership to communicate to hundreds and then thousands.” Or you may be praying for 10 new clients this month and God may say, “Believe for 20.” Jesus is both the author and perfector or developer of our faith and that means He is growing it and stretching it.

2. Spend focused time with God. With this surrender and stretch mind-set, spend time with God: reading, studying, or meditating on Scripture. Ask Him to guide you as you do this. Worship, pray, confess sins, & whatever else seems right as you seek Him.

One of the best examples of how to do this comes from George Meuller from the 19th century. He was famous for incredible faith and seeing amazing answers to prayer as he took care of orphans while preaching the Gospel.

Meuller said when He needed an answer from God he would open his Bible and prayerfully, meditatively begin to read. As he read, he would try to listen to God through the Bible. He would keep praying, reading, and listening in his heart until he felt like God highlighted a Scripture in his soul or gave him a clear promise for that situation. Meuller said sometimes it took a few minutes and sometimes it took hours, but he would not act until he had that Spirit inspired promise.

3. Consciously receive what you believe God is showing you or giving you. Jesus wants you to flow with Him, so He will give you the word and the faith you need if you are surrendered and receptive. Your part is to receive it and say “Yes, Lord. I receive that, I stand on it, I step into it.”

At some point, you did this with the Gospel. You heard it and then consciously made a decision to receive Jesus as your leader and sin-forgiver. In Galatians 3, Paul told us the way we received the Holy Spirit (hearing by faith, not by works) is the same way God does miracles in our lives.

I sometimes picture it like a ball being thrown to me; I can either put out my hands and catch it/receive it or not put up my hands and watch it sail on by me (a few times, I was not paying attention, and God just hit me with it). God’s word carries His power, His word is His seed, but I have to receive it or using 2 Corinthians 1:20 terminology, say “Yes” and “Amen” to it.

John 1:12 says, “As many as received Him He gave power/authority to become sons of God.”

This part is very important, so make sure you consciously say “yes” to the word and promise God sends your way.

4. Act on what God has given you, trusting Him to do it at the right time. True faith will express itself with the appropriate actions. If you believe the Bible is God’s word and carries great wisdom and power, you will faithfully interact with it. If you believe God really does love you, you will grow in your love for Him. If you believe giving is key to growth and increase, you will give, sometimes sacrificially.

For most people, this is where the rubber meets the road. Jesus said that it was the person who acted on His words, not the one who just listened to them, whose home withstood the flood. None of us acts out his/her faith perfectly, but the more you take action based on what God has spoken to you, the more you will grow and eventually see results.

5. Stand. Do what you can to keep your faith strong: confessions, pictures, praise, etc. Paul told us in Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, stand.” Part of receiving what God wants to give is putting on God’s armor and standing our ground in faith. This seems to be an important part of our growth. These are faith lessons God wants us to learn because standing and waiting in faith is more common than getting quick results. Hebrews 6:12 tells us it is “through faith and patience that we receive our inheritance.” Abraham is praised and held up as an example in both Romans 4 and Hebrews 11 for continuing to believe in God’s faithfulness to His word for a really long period of time.

Standing in faith is definitely something God wants us to learn. A few Biblical ways to do it are:

- Remind yourself of God’s faithfulness to you in the past

- Remember God’s faithfulness to others

- Remind yourself that God cannot lie

- Tell yourself standing is part of the process

- When you feel discouraged, go ahead and tell God, but then go back to reminding yourself of His power and faithfulness if God doesn’t give you a specific touch right then

- Sometimes singing praises to God helps drive back doubt and despair

- Saying God’s promises out loud, using them as a sword against the darkness is a powerful tool (Ephesians 6:17)

Just realize that most of the time there will be a “standing in faith” and waiting time before the promise is made manifest.

6. Stay open. Hebrews 5 tells us that we learn to discern through practice. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for practicing hearing and responding to God. The very word “practice” means there will be mistakes and failures, but God is good with this. He could have designed things so we would get it right 100% every time, but He didn’t. He knows we are growing and learning, and this process is part of His plan. Even with the person described as having a good heart, being good soil, in the parable of the sower (Mark 4), there is a growth process. There is no substitute for practice. Write down what you believe God has spoken to you. Receive it, act on it, and do your best to stand until one of three things happens:

One: Your answer comes.

Two: It simply does not happen, and there is no doubt it did not happen.

Three: In some form or fashion, God shows you that you heard wrong.

If it happens then rejoice but don’t get stuck on that one faith expression. Will God lead you to use it again? He most likely will but always be open. God may do it that way or He may do it another way. Remember, God loves it when we express faith in Him, but the means and method will often vary.

If it does not happen or you discover you heard wrong, don’t beat yourself up or give up on God. Realize God still loves you and that He understands we will sometimes get it wrong, even with good intentions. Learn from it and keep going.

When it does not happen the way we thought it would or believing for it to happen, we can either learn or let our faith get damaged; those are really the only options. God cannot lie. His word is true, but our understanding of it and how God works are constantly being expanded and refined. We are going “from glory to glory.” We are not already in “maximum glory” yet.

Through practice, and there is no substitute for practice, you will increase the percentages of hearing God better and knowing which aspect of faith to exercise. I know of NO One who gets it right all the time, even those with decades of devoted practice, but you can up the percentages. You can better learn to realize when it is God speaking to you and when it is something else.

What do you do when you surrendered/stretching seek God and get no guidance? We’ll talk about that and God’s Sovereign Seasons next.

Chapter 9

What to Do When God is Silent

A few months ago, I heard author/speaker Simon Sinek give a short talk about our human need for connection. During his presentation he said, “Next week in Las Vegas 25,000 bloggers will meet for a convention. These are people who make many connections and often their living on-line, so why don’t they just meet on-line? Why are they making the journey to Las Vegas? It is because humans need connection; we need flesh and blood, face to face connection, not just electronic or computer connection.” (My paraphrase)

I agree. People want and need interaction with other people. As great as technology is for staying connected to people, news, and information we will always need more than that to be healthy and fully human. As a matter of fact, being put in isolation is one of humanities toughest penalties for those who break the law.

Without regular human contact, people get really weird. Sure we’re all somewhat weird anyway but when put in total isolation it is not uncommon for people to develop all kinds of mental and emotional problems. If babies don’t have any human connection, they don’t develop as they should. When people are rejected, shunned, or cut off from positive relationships they almost always become very mistrustful, paranoid, or aggressively anti-social. We all need positive, love-motivated connection to be healthy and whole.

As I’ve been saying throughout this book; this is especially true of our need for connection with our Heavenly Father. Faith grows strong in the presence, in the face, of the One who loves us enough to suffer and die for us. Faith is solid when we get clear guidance from the One who knows all things and has promised to fulfill His good plans for us but what do we do when we seek God and we don’t hear anything? If the Christian life is 100% dependent on living in connection with Him, how should we respond when either He is not talking or we are not able to hear? That’s what we’re going to cover in the next few pages.

It Happens to Everyone

One of the biggest challenges any of us faces is when we are struggling or are being defeated by something, and we don’t open up and get the help we need. It is very common, when going through a problem with sin, especially sexual temptation, to admit it. Thoughts like “You’re the only one who has this problem” or “What will people think of you if you admit this” or “People of strong faith never feel this way” pushes us towards hopelessness, excuses, or guilt and condemnation.

So let me put your mind at ease, EVERYONE GOES THROUGH TIMES WHERE GOD SEEMS DISTANT AND SILENT. There are no exceptions; it is universal. From the most dedicated prayer warriors to those who are so busy they barely pray, everyone goes through times of feeling isolated, disconnected, or even abandoned by God.

I know, this a good news/bad news scenario. Good news because you realize you’re not the only one and bad news that there are times when you will not sense God’s love and presence or get clear directives from Him.

I guess I was not so consciously aware of this fact until several years ago I knew sincere Christians talked about it, and I guess I had experienced it to a degree, but in my case, if I felt God was far away, I could almost always just meditate on Scripture and there would be some insight, fresh reminder, or word of encouragement that would benefit me in some recognizable way but then a few years ago, I went through the hardest time of my life spiritually and emotionally. At the time I needed God the most, He seemed far away and like He really didn’t care.

During that time, I started reading Richard Foster’s excellent book entitled Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. In the book, Foster writes about 21 different types of prayer. I had heard of all of them, in some form or fashion, except for prayer type #2. Here is what Foster called it, The Prayer of the Forsaken. That is exactly how I felt: forsaken and abandoned by God and here I read it is common enough that Foster even gives it a name.

On the first page of that chapter Foster writes, “Times of seeming desertion and absence and abandonment appear to be universal among those who have walked this path of faith before us. We might just as well get used to the idea that sooner or later, we, too, will know what it means to feel forsaken by God.”

Psalm 22:2 “I call all day, my God, but you never answer.”

Psalm 42:9 “Why have you forgotten me?”

Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and even Jesus Himself went through it.

Why This Happens

Foster quotes St John of the Cross who says this happens:

1. To strip us of dependence on exterior results

2. To strip us of dependence on interior results

In other words, God allows us to be stripped of results, for a time, to strengthen our faith in the long run. Foster says it like this, “Through all of this, paradoxically, God is purifying our faith by threatening to destroy it.” Those are not the most comforting of words, but God only does this a few times in our lives. Pruning happens regularly, but at this level, it has only happened once to me in 40 years of following Christ.

There are at least a couple of reasons God strips us of results in order to strengthen our relationship with Him and strengthen our faith in the long run. This can be difficult to grasp. I know it was for me, but we live in a world that is pretty much ‘results’ driven. You get approval in school based on your grade results. You get picked for a team based on the results you bring because of your ability to help the team perform better. You get accepted to a university based on your school performance and then you get a job based on the results you have already produced and what the employer estimates you will bring to the company. We live in a results based world.

We even initially come to Christ based on the positive results believing in Him will produce (forgiveness, peace, joy, eternal life, etc.) and God is good with that. Jesus Himself said He came so that we could experience the results He brings: eternal life, healing, hope, faith, power, etc. There is nothing at all wrong with desiring the very things God Himself wants us to have, and He wants us to share His life.

However, as I’ve been saying, the strongest faith comes from God Himself. The deeper our relationship with Him, the more naturally His faith will become a part of us. To share even more of Himself with us and to eventually release even more and greater real riches to us, at certain points on our journey, God must take us through the painful process of withdrawing His sensed presence and stripping us of a pure “results” mentality. When nothing is working, internally or externally, then you are either going to draw closer to God or you will withdraw from Him. This can certainly happen during those “foundational shift” times I talked about in Chapter 4.

God wants you to learn to love Him and trust Him, even when no positive results are visible. Going through this process will be either the greatest long-term faith builder in your life or the biggest faith destroyer . That is why I’m giving an entire chapter to this topic. If you realize what is going on, then you can have at least a measure of peace and your faith can actually grow stronger but if you don’t get it; it will seem like “this Christianity stuff is all made up. If God is real, he doesn’t care,” or “This is worse than living as a sinner…I’m going back to Egypt.”

Some do not totally give up their faith in Christ, but they do give up taking new steps of faith, taking new land, and believing Jesus for God-sized works. They settle into playing it safe because letting hopes rise and taking risks ended up failing and now God is not even around. In their view, it hurts too much and the pain isn’t worth it, so they settle into living a life of Christian mediocrity. Going to heaven, touching a few lives, serving a little, but no longer taking God-inspired risks becomes their norm.

What To Do When God Is Silent

As we finish up this section, let me give you four recommendations of what to do when you are not hearing anything from God or sensing His presence:

1. Prayerfully think through the different main categories of your life and ask yourself, “Am I being faithful to do what I know to do?” One of God’s big principles is: increase comes after being faithful. Why would God give you further direction if you’re not doing what He’s already shown you? That would give you even more information to have to manage and implement, which would just increase the level of stress in your life. Many, many times this step alone breaks things open and soon fresh insights and empowering come.

2. If you are doing what God has already shown you the best you can right now and it’s still dead, then prayerfully think through the sins you are struggling with. Everyone battles sin every day of their lives, so I’m not talking about the ones you do every now and then or give in to but quickly repent and walk away from. I’m talking about the ones that have settled into regular patterns or strongholds. Sin is awful. It does nothing but deaden our conscience, dull our spiritual senses, and lead us on a death path. Sometimes, taking the steps to get serious about it and getting free from it opens up the channels to God’s presence again. James 5 tells us to confess our sins to one another so that we may be healed. If you’re not able to get free on your own, please find others: a counselor, a trusted believer, your small group leader, etc. to confess your sin to and to stand with you until you start to beat it. Many times, that step releases the flow of the Spirit again.

3. If you’ve done those two things and it’s still dead, try other approaches to connecting with God. We are all creatures of habit but even the best of habits can become a rut or a limiting factor in growth. Read books or listen to talks on different ways of praying, using Scripture, managing your life, etc. God does hold back the sense of His presence in order to open us up to new approaches. I’ve found using another translation of the Bible can help bring freshness to my walk with God or adding physical motions when I pray or saying prayers out loud or praying more regularly with others or joining a group filled with non-Christians or… you get what I’m saying.

4. If none of that works, then remind yourself of what is probably going on and do your best to trust. Isaiah 50:10 says, “Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” Here is a person that is doing the right things: respects God and obeys God’s message through His servant but is going through a time of darkness. This person sees “no light” of God’s face, is hearing nothing, and does not know which way to go. Please notice, God knows this person is going through this and does not provide any other guidance but to “Trust in the name of the Lord and rely on God.” During this time, you might open your heart to Him, even though you don’t feel Him, and say prayers like, “Father, I don’t feel anything right now. I’m not even sure right now that you even exist, but I trust you. The cross shows me how much you love me, even though I feel none of it. Please do your work in me and bring me through this as quickly as possible. Even though I don’t know what to do and I don’t feel you at all, I trust you and rely upon you.”

Then do the best you can with what you do know to do. At some point, the darkness will lift, and the lights will come back on. God will not leave you like that longer than He needs to.

Before we finish this section, let me share one more important point when it comes to God’s silence and it is this: No matter how deep your relationship with God is, He is not going to directly tell you everything to do and will not give you specific, direct guidance on every decision you make. It is true that Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19) and I believe we need to live that way as well but also realize God is wanting you to grow up in Christ, and He is training you to rule and reign with Him in eternity. That means God wants you to learn to think biblically and to make good decisions.

When my boys were small, Janet and I gave them many more directives than when they were older. As a matter of fact, the older they got, the less we told them what to do and how to do it. We were raising them to be Christ-following adults, not grown children who could not manage their own lives. When they ask us for our input, we still give it to them, but they are now living their own lives and making their own decisions because they are now young adults.

To a great degree, God is doing the same with us. It is somewhat different because God actually lives inside us by the presence of the Holy Spirit; nevertheless, He wants us to mature as people and part of that maturation is taking responsibility for our lives and making decisions.

That means once God has given you a clear word on what He wants you to do, He may not give you another clear word on how to do it. He may very well leave that up to you because He wants you to grow and mature. I once heard a nationally known Bible teacher say that they had not gotten a clear directive word from God in two years. She said she was regularly led by the inward nudges of the Holy Spirit, but God had not given her another clear word of direction in the last two years, so she just kept doing what God had already made clear to her to the best of her ability. She continues to write books, holds conferences, does charity work, and leads her ministry the best she can. I, for one, think that is pretty typical.

The Christian life is Jesus-centered, Jesus-focused, and Jesus-empowered. Faith comes from looking into the face of Jesus and hearing His words. I’ve given you bits and pieces so far but now let’s get real specific about how to hear God or get guidance from God.

Chapter 10

So How Do I Hear God?

Wouldn’t it be great if anytime you were not sure what to do, you could just pray, ask God, and He would immediately and clearly tell you exactly what to do? “Hey God, what stock should I invest in?” “Father, what career path should I take?” “Jesus, what is the answer to this test question?” “Holy Spirit, tell me the person I’m supposed to marry.” Wouldn’t it be great if every time we asked God questions like that He would clearly give us the answers we seek? You bet it would. Unfortunately, that is not how it works.

I have heard enough speakers over the years to know that some make it sound like God constantly tells them exactly what to do. One speaker told about how God told him to purchase a section of land and how soon after that he was able to sell it for a huge profit. Another told of how God told him to build an addition on his church building, even though they did not have the money in their account. He did, and the money came in. Still another was given a specific word about how God would open doors for their ministry in amazing ways and how they would soon be known all across the country, and it happened just like God said. These speakers then tell us, “God will tell you exactly what you should do if you will just listen to Him.”

If you’ve read this far, you know I believe God speaks to us and that cultivating a living relationship with the living God is the most important step in building a strong faith pipeline but what I hate is that people like the ones I just mentioned do not tell you about the times they thought they heard God, and it was completely wrong. The person I mentioned who bought and sold land later lost a lot of money on another deal he thought God told him to make. The pastor who built an addition on his church building later told the congregation God told them to build a much bigger addition to their building. They did lots of fundraising meetings, showed developed plans, had lots of faith stories, but the money never came in to do that addition. Then God told them to buy another building, which another group ended up buying. God sure was changing His mind a lot or was wrong a lot, wasn’t he? And the man who quickly got a nation- wide audience later said God told him to start a TV ministry. He was soon off the air and in big financial trouble.

I could go on and on with stories like this: God speaking to people and great things happening, which these speakers always tell but also “God speaking” and things going terribly wrong, which they rarely tell. Here’s the honest truth: God does clearly speak to people but people also regularly think God has spoken to them when He has not.

Why the Confusion?

Since the fall, communication between people has been difficult. When sin entered man’s soul, it darkened his spiritual sight and dulled and placed a great deal of static in our ability to hear what others are trying to say. Sin not only brought a spiritual separation and blockage with God, it also brought a separation and blockage in our own souls. Researchers tell us that the part of our brain that feels is separate from the part that uses logic and words. That is why we sometimes say, “I know what I’m feeling, but I’m having trouble saying it.” There is a separation, even in our own brains.

If we are not even sure what we’re thinking, feeling, or trying to say all the time; how much more difficult is it to really hear and understand what another person is trying to say to us? I love Janet, and she loves me, but still even after decades of marriage we do not always understand each other. Over the years, it has gotten much better, but she is an extravert, I am an introvert, she is obviously female, I am male, she comes from a family that was very open and direct, I come from a family that rarely talked about feelings, and we’re supposed to communicate and understand what each other is saying.

How much trouble is in organizations because of trouble in communication? In just about any setting, whether it is church, a group, a business, a school, or a government, the biggest problem is almost always a communication problem.

Now throw in the reality that we do not physically see or hear God with our natural senses, and it’s easy to understand how people could get confused  if the thoughts or impressions they get are from God or not. It is a fact that most people who are hearing voices in their heads on a regular basis, and many are convinced it is God talking to them, have severe mental problems. We once had a woman in our church who, for lack of a better expression, went bonkers. I won’t go into all the details but when we finally got her to the psych ward, and she spit in the face of the doctor and urinated on the floor, the doctor told us most of the people in that place regularly heard voices and most of them were sure it was God and that they were either Jesus Christ or Moses.

The Bible says Jesus’ sheep hear His voice (John 10:27) and that faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17) and that we are transformed by “beholding or seeing God” (2 Corinthians 3:18-21), and that those who are led by the Holy Spirit are the sons of God (Romans 8:14), so how do we hear and see God without losing our minds and how do we know when it is God speaking or someone else? Let me give you three ways to improve your “hearing God” percentages.

What I’m about to tell you I have taught for years. As I studied and prayed about this topic one day, it came to me that there are three main ways God gives us to recognize His voice and follow His leading. Just this year, I read Dallas Willard’s excellent book Hearing God, and he covered the same three points, with slightly different wording. In that book, Willard referenced and quoted the book, The Secret of Guidance by Frederick Meyer, which indicated that God guides us with “the three lights.” I had never read either of these books until recently, so it was even another confirmation that what I’m about to tell you is well proven, not just in my life but in the lives of many others. It is simple and easy to remember and it goes like this:

Look up, look in, and look around.

Look Up

When I say “look up” I’m referring to three things.

1. Your priorities are centered on God and His purposes. Only when God is first in our lives does anything else have the chance of being in right order. God designed us to live from Him and for Him and that means He is our primary focus and primary source. Jesus clearly said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

2. You are studying God’s written word, the Bible. The Scriptures are God’s direct and inspired words. With all the millions of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and impressions we get in our lifetime we need a clear standard by which to judge what we hear and see. The Bible is that standard. It will be pretty much impossible to judge correctly if you do not know those words well.

3. You are learning to live a life of prayer and service. As important as Scripture is, if all you do is study, without prayer and service, it is possible to get prideful and “puffed up.” ( 1 Corinthians 13) If you will develop a lifestyle of prayer and service, it will turn the word into love, humility, and growing faith.

When those three are solid, you are looking up and ready to receive on-going guidance.

Look In

It makes sense that the most common and consistent way God would guide us is through internal means: our thoughts, impressions, and emotions. Jesus now lives inside us by the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Word (Ephesians 3:17, Galatians 2:20, John 16:24, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Peter 1:20-22.) That means He will most often communicate with us on the inside. God will use thoughts, impressions, and emotions to speak to us. Here are a few examples:

When Janet and I were praying about if God really wanted us to move to Germany as missionaries or not, suddenly a clear though popped up in my mind: Genesis 12. I opened up the Bible to that passage (not knowing what it would say) and I read “Now the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.” Those words came alive in my heart, and even though I felt fear about moving to another country, I also had faith that this is what God wanted us to do. Janet felt the same thing, so we did it. In that instance, there was a clear thought, Scripture, emotional connection, and Janet’s confirmation. To do something that major, you need guidance that strong.

In some instances, you will have a strong internal impression or nudge to do something without a clear thought. You will just “feel” like you should go talk to that person, give money, pray for a situation right now, or get involved with a project. That impression, nudge, intuition, or feeling can be a valid way God is speaking to you. My wife, Janet, is one of the best I know at this. Quite often she feels like she should encourage someone, call them, tell them something, or even give them money, and it ends up being just what that person needed right then.

Taking this a step further, sometimes a very strong emotion, almost like a command, will rise up in your soul. The Bible says in several places that Jesus felt compassion for people and then He healed them or taught them or both. The word used for compassion in those passages means a deep, almost painful feeling. We might use the expression “being hit in the gut.” Jesus felt so much for these suffering people, and that was part of God’s leading in what to do next.

One of the questions I use to help people discover their purpose and calling is, “When you look at the world, what really gets to you? What makes you mad or sad or glad when you see it?” That is not the only indicator of God’s calling, but it is a good one. When you are focused on living from and for God, then strong emotional impulses can be God speaking to you.

Look Around

What signals is God giving you through your circumstances in the outer world? Whereas I think if God is speaking to you, He will always use Look Up and Look In, there are instances where He tells us to do things with no external sign. For example, when God told the Israelites to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land, it was during the one time of year that the Jordan River would flood. Naturally speaking, it was the absolute worst time to cross it. If they had waited for external circumstances to be right, they would have missed God’s will and missed out on another spectacular, faith-building miracle as God held back the Jordan, and they crossed on dry ground.

It is not uncommon for God to speak to us in our inner man/woman to do something when circumstances are not right. Far too often, people wait for everything to be right before they decide to take a step of faith and that time never comes. Some say, “If God wants me to do it, then I’ve asked Him to confirm it by having an absolute stranger tell me God wants me to do it, the dog learns to answer the phone, and an angel appears and tells me.” When that does not happen, they say, “I guess God really doesn’t want me to do it.” If you live that way, you will miss out on most of what God wants to do in you and through you.

Having said all that, God does use externals to speak to us. He can use people to confirm something we have been wondering about. A sermon, something someone shares in your small group, or something someone prays over you can give you greater assurance that you’re on the right track.

Someone might call you and invite you to be involved with a ministry or a start-up or a school board. God could be in that call. You might lose a job or get a new job offer; that could be God’s guidance as well. Maybe your spouse tells you that you should really consider doing that or changing behavior or stop doing what you’re doing. All of those things and more can be God talking to you, or they might not be.

How to Decide

To know how God speaks to you, you are going to have to experiment; you will have to try things out. Hebrews 5 says we mature and learn to discern by practice. God realizes this, and He does not get mad at you when you are sincerely trying to follow Him.

A good thing to do is keep a journal or notebook. Write down what you think God is telling you to do or has a strong possibility of being God’s guidance. Write down thoughts, feelings, impressions, and mental pictures that could be from Him. As wisely as you can, test them out. Say to the person you have gotten words for, “When I was sitting there these words popped in my mind, and I think they could be for you. Can I share them with you and see if they mean anything to you?” If they are right, then that is a confirmation you’re hearing from God, and He is talking to you that way. The same goes with the other forms of possible guidance. Say, “God, I think this is you, but I realize I’m fallible, and I’m learning. I’m going to take this step and see what happens.”

Now the bigger the action, the more important it is, the more strong indicators you need; especially when just starting out. To move to another country as a missionary, you need strong confirmation. To tell a sick person God is going to heal them, you better have a long and solid track record of being right about such things. If you feel like God wants you to empty your bank account and give it to a ministry or someone in great need or put it all in a new business, you need strong confirmation from several sources that this is the way to go.

Several times in the book of Proverbs we are told to get good counsel before going to war or making a major decision. If your internal leading is strong enough and/or there are enough other strong external indicators, you may do it even if wise people are advising you against it; However, again you need strong support internally and some externally to go against the counsel of wise people.

Most importantly, get the counsel of your spouse. The biggest mistakes I’ve made have been when I was sure God had spoken to me, but Janet didn’t feel good about it. I went ahead and did it anyway, and it crashed. God puts husband and wife together to complement each other’s gifts and talents; He wants us to function as a team, so a good rule of thumb is not to do something if both spouses do not feel good about it. I’m not known as an arrogant man but in reality, I acted that way in the past because I was so sure I had heard from God and Janet had not. Don’t make my mistake.

Those leaders I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter had experienced God’s leading in some exciting and successful ways. Yet, because we are all fallible, learning, and do not always “hear” clearly, they made some big mistakes. You will make mistakes, too. Don’t freak out about it. Don’t say, “I can never hear God,” and don’t stop learning. Just be honest and teachable. Admit it when you mess up and learn from it. You will never be perfect hearing God in this life, but you can really up your percentages and that can be enough to be powerfully used by God and see many of His promises come to pass.

The greatest faith results come when we get specific and focused. God’s grace in our lives is greatest at that point, and our faith will be strongest. That is what we’ll look at next.

Chapter 11

Results Producing Faith

Over the past few years, I’ve been learning a great deal about entrepreneurship. I agree with people like Seth Godin, James Altucher, Jonathan Field, and Chris Guillibeau that learning how to start and run a business, even if it’s just for supplemental income, is going to be increasingly important for all of us. I am not a long-time business man. I come from a pure ministry background, but the data regarding employment and income trends is pretty startling. The number of larger companies that are increasing the number of people they hire is very small. More and more companies are going to be hiring freelancers because they do not have to give them medical or retirement benefits and can still get quality work done. There are many other reasons I believe we’ll all need to improve entrepreneurial skills, but the point is I would encourage you to embrace this emerging trend. ( You can do this; this is how the world always worked up until the industrial revolution and it is happening again but with many more options than ever before).

What does this have to do with results producing faith? It’s this: entrepreneurial coaches and experts always teach business people, especially those just starting out, to find a specific niche. To stand out in a world with so many business options, you have to get specific about the group of people you are going to serve (known as your tribe) and the distinct service or benefit you will provide. If you do that you can become great at serving your tribe (a very Christian concept) and this group will gladly compensate you for those services (also a Biblical concept). What I particularly love about this idea is that it lets the entrepreneur really focus on doing what they are gifted to do and rather than have a “crush the competition” attitude of many business leaders, there is room for everyone, and we can collaborate rather than crush others.

As we’ve already discussed there are many expressions of faith. In reality you can stick a lot of different adjectives in front of the word “faith” and it works: “relational faith, active faith, mountain-moving faith”; you get the picture. In this chapter, I want to give you one more and though this word is not used in Scripture, the concept is, and it is the one we just addressed: specific faith. When your faith gets specific, the results generally increase.

General Faith is Great

Before we discuss specific faith, let’s talk about its cousin: general faith. General faith goes like this:

- “I believe the Bible is God’s word and will impact my life.”

- “I believe Jesus is the Son of God, and life is found in a relationship with Him.”

- “I believe that if I sow to the Spirit, I will reap from the Spirit.”

- “I believe that as I pray, God will do a transforming work in my life and in the world.”

Those are all great beliefs, and there are many, many more. Believing those things can produce powerful results in your life and in the lives of those you are praying for and serving. Trusting that God will do what He said He would do if you believe those things produces many, many great results.

Specific faith, on the other hand, says:

“I am believing God to do this specific thing: heal this person, cause this project to succeed, bring in $10,000, give me confidence, etc. In other words, it zeroes in on a specific result that you are convinced is God’s will, and you are uniting with God through your faith to manifest it in this world.

Jesus said to “speak to the mountain.” That means you have to identify what the mountain is and then speak words of faith to that mountain (problem, barrier, illness). There are times when it is not enough to say, “God, I know you love me so just do whatever you want.” Remember, God is actively working to develop your faith because it is an essential element of how His kingdom works.

There are definitely times when God requires specific faith to see the results both we and God desire to see. In describing the faith of Abraham Romans 4:18 says, “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations.” This passage, along with many others, make it very clear that Abraham needed to exercise specific faith in order for God’s promise to be fulfilled. Even though God had promised Abraham He would make him a father of many nations, Abraham still needed to cooperate with God by believing in order for it to happen.

Faith Lessons from James

James 1:2-4 tells us to “consider it all joy” when “you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” and to “let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” There is that word “result” again, continuing to believe in even challenging times, is called “the testing of your faith.” When we continue to believe during difficult times, that produces endurance and if we keep believing (enduring faith) it will have a perfect result of making us perfect, complete, and lacking nothing. Realizing this fact makes it much easier for us to stay positive, in faith, or to “consider it all joy.”

As James continues this train of thought, he writes if we lack wisdom go ahead and ask God for it, and He’ll give it to you. That means God will give you the insight you need to know how to deal with your challenges if you will ask Him. . To encourage us even more to do so he tells us God “gives to all generously, and without reproach, and it will be given to him. (v. 5) God is portrayed as being very generous in sharing His wisdom, and He will do it without reproach, without finding fault, without any type of put down. Except for those very rare times when God is intentionally being silent, in some form or fashion, God will send wisdom your way and do so generously if you ask him.

James is encouraging us in the strongest of terms, when your faith is being challenged, stay positive, realize the good result it will produce if you keep on believing, and go ahead and ask God for His wisdom on what you should be doing. God will do this “But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his way.” (vs. 7-8) This makes it crystal clear that to receive some things from God requires us to ask in faith and stay in faith in order to receive the result we desire and that God generously desires to give.

I am sure you’ve seen film footage, maybe you’ve even experienced it, of a helicopter rescue in stormy seas. It takes incredible courage and skill on the part of the pilot and rescuer to get to a small raft or boat that is being tossed around by the storm. It is very difficult to hit a moving object, especially one that has no pattern to it. James says that is what we’re like when we don’t keep our hearts and minds in the place of confidence in God’s faithfulness and ability to do what He says. God is helicoptering in our answer but cannot help us if we do not look up and cooperate with the rescue team. It is almost impossible for a rescuer to rescue someone who ignores them, runs away from them, or will not reach out to them. James says doubt turns us away from the Rescuer, the answer God is sending our way. Faith is the pipeline by which God sends His wisdom, love, power, and resources our way.

When you read James’ words, how do feel? Mixed emotions? “Yes, faith challenges will have an incredible result in my life. God wants to give me wisdom. I just need to believe!” Or, “I always have thoughts and feelings of doubt. That means I’ll never receive anything from God.” If you’re having those thoughts, you are pretty normal. Most of us go through that thought process and then experience the feelings that follow those thoughts. Let me encourage you again with what I’ve been saying throughout this book:

Jesus has more than enough faith, and He is glad to share it with you.

The secret to strong faith is not to look within, we are all so limited, but to look at Him. It is in the face of Jesus, as seen in His Word and the impartation of the Holy Spirit, that your faith grows strong. If you ever have feelings of doubt, it does not mean that you have now blown it and you will never receive from God. Everyone one of us has doubts along the way. Doubt is the nature of sin, and we all have sin in areas of our souls, and Romans 7 says, even in our bodies. You cannot be alive without having thoughts of doubt along the way.

So how do you interpret James? Face your doubts, do what you need to do to work through them, and make a decision to believe what God says is true. Then hold onto that solid decision by looking into the face of the Son of God and at the right time your answer will come.

Again, it is part of the faith building process to work through your doubts. Sometimes getting insights from others, answers from those who have studied and practiced their faith for years, really helps. I know in my own life, even though I have been a dedicated Bible student for decades, I still read the works of others because I know God does not directly give me all of His wisdom and perspective. He gives me part and someone else part, and we learn from each other. Just make sure the people you are learning from are solid in the basics and you realize they, too, are fallible people who have part of the picture.

When foundational shifts happen (chapter 4), then God uses our doubts to open our eyes to other ways of seeing things. Since so much of faith is based on the revelation of God’s word, new dimensions and ultimately stronger faith will result so don’t throw in the towel if you’re battling doubts. Doubting is part of the process of growing in strong faith. Work through it, settle it, and then stand in that fresh faith; the faith that will produce results.

Faith Based on Your Calling

Have you ever heard a sermon on David and Goliath? If so, the conclusion typically goes like this: “David is the only one out of the entire army that had the faith and courage to take on Goliath. Why didn’t David’s brothers or Jonathan or any of the other more experienced warriors take on Goliath, rather than hiding in fear? It’s because they did not have the faith David had. If you will put your faith in God, you, too, can defeat the giants of life that are trying to defeat you.”

I agree with most of those statements. If we have a living faith in God, we can eventually defeat the enemies that stand between us and God’s promised will. What I disagree with is that anyone else in that army could have done what David did at that time. Yes, God could have worked through anyone to defeat Goliath; it was not David’s superior ability that gave him the victory over such a powerful foe and it would not have been anyone else’s superior ability either. The main point of the story is that God gave the victory through someone that exercised faith in Him. Yet, here is the piece that is often left out and also causes many Christians guilt in their journey: David was specifically called and empowered by God to do this and that played a big role in the strength of his faith to defeat Goliath.

All of us will have areas of life, work, or ministry in which it is easier for us to exercise strong faith than others. Some of this has to do with our life experience, our personality, or our level of spiritual maturity, but a great deal has to do with God’s calling on our life.

God’s Calling and Grace Lead to the Flow of Faith

The Bible does a great job of including the hope of the ideal with the level-headed thinking of reality. In Romans 12:3 Paul tells each of us “not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” He then writes about the church being like a body where each part has different functions. God is the one who decides which part we will play and what functions we will have and obviously no single individual has all of God’s gifts and talents. We all have a portion of God’s talents, and it is in line with the “measure of faith” that comes with it.

God will give you the faith you need to do what He has called you to do if you stay focused on Jesus.

In Romans 12:6, Paul continues this train of thought by saying, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to (in agreement with) the proportion of his faith:….” The spiritual gifts each one of us receives is based purely on God’s choice and grace (God knows what He created us to do and gifted us accordingly.) Particularly prophesy, but it is true for all the various gifts, is exercised by faith of which each person has a proportion.

Whether God has called, gifted, and graced you to prophesy, serve, teach, exhort, give, lead, show mercy, or serve in any other way; it will flow through faith and if you stay connected to Jesus, God will give you the faith you need to fulfill your service. Not everyone could have gone out to defeat Goliath because only David was called and gifted by God and given the faith to do it at that point in time. God had called David to be the new King of Israel and this was the launching point for that calling. No one else could have done what Moses did because God had called, gifted, graced, and given Moses the faith to do it. It wasn’t that Joshua and Caleb were worse than Moses; it was that Moses was the one God had gifted to lead Israel out and give them God’s Law.

This goes in line with the whole idea of specific faith. Sometimes specific faith is required to see the results both God and you want; it is part of God’s process and training but if you will stay close to Jesus, learn to listen to His voice, and follow His leading, He will give you the specific faith you need to live His plans and fulfill His calling.

Some people have great faith that when they speak, people will come to Christ. Others have great confidence that when they pray for someone, they will be healed. Still others have faith that when they make decisions for a team or an organization, it will be the right one. On and on it goes; each one of us is a part of Christ’s body, and God gives us the needed grace and faith we need to serve others well as we stay close and connected to Jesus.

On the other hand, if you try to do something God has not graced you to do, you’re going to have trouble. It might seem like a great gift or ministry to have but if it’s not God’s plan for you, it will wear you out, believing will be really hard, and the results will be minimal or short-lived. It is much, much better to recognize and welcome God’s grace on your life (and He has graced you wonderfully to do certain things), and serve in those areas. Be assured, though the enemy will attack at certain times with fear and doubt, Jesus will give you the faith you need to flow in God’s power, and the results will be right.

Let’s finish this book now with four of the strongest prayer practices for building and maintaining strong faith.

Chapter 12

The Power Prayers of Faith

Earlier in this book, I told you about the time God gave Janet and me a clear word to move to Germany as missionaries. When that living word came, it started an internal process in us that went something like this: “Yes, Lord, thank you for clarity and that you believe in us” excitement. That was immediately followed with feelings of fear, “Wow, You want us to move to another country where we do not know anyone and do not even speak the language?” Mental pictures of scenes from movies involving ominous trains and the concentration camps of the Third Reich popped in my head. Plus, the Iron Curtain was still up at that time, and the communist Russian alliance was just a couple of hours away, and they were still pretty aggressive at the time. What if they decided to come on over and take Germany?

Those thoughts were followed with prayers of “God, we are here to serve you no matter what. Good times or bad, we are here to do your will.” As we once more submitted our lives to God, then again came His peace and faith that this is what He wanted us to do.

After getting confirmation from our ministry organization, we quickly raised what money we could in just a few months (in those days we did little planning, we just acted) and by the end of May of 1980, we landed in Munich, Germany. Thinking back on it years later (and it took us years to realize this), this took tremendous faith by our parents as well. We did not know anyone in Germany, and we could not even tell them where we would be staying or how to contact us (this was well before the time of cell phones). As a parent, that would be tough on me now.

I am by no means recommending that anyone else do what we did. Today, I would recommend someone prepare more before taking such a major step; but God had mercy on us as we took action on His directive. We had done absolutely no research. We had made no trips ahead of time. Instead, we just landed and said, “We’re here to reach and disciple Germans.”

Even something as basic as finding a place to live ended up being far different than we had expected. We thought it would be like the United States where we would see “for rent” signs in apartment complexes. We would then check out a few and get a simple apartment to live in. Unfortunately, there were no signs: anywhere. The Munich population was growing quickly, and there was actually a housing shortage. Germans were having a hard time finding places to live, let alone two young foreigners who spoke but a few words of German.

We eventually did find a small three room apartment on the fifth floor of a pre- World War II building. By the way, it had no elevator so every time we went in or out, we had to go down and then up five flights of stairs. That certainly helped us stay in shape. We were so grateful to get a place to stay, but everything was slower and more difficult than we had anticipated.

The first year things went incredibly slow and in an entire year we were able to win only 2 people to Christ. The next year, we held a 3 week long outreach with teams from the United States and Great Britain and at the end of that time, we had grown to around 35 people, and the church was launched. It continued to grow the next 10 years we were there and under the leadership of the German pastors we gave the church to, it continues to grow a couple of decades later.

Ups and Downs of Faith

Obviously much more happened in those years than what I’m telling you here but along the way, especially during that the first year, we had our share of faith challenges. Remember at first we could not even find an apartment to live in and at the end of an entire year we had only seen 2 people put their faith in Jesus. Even though we believed God had told us to come and in the end it ended up working out really well, at the beginning and at various phases along the way we went through the ups and downs of faith and doubt.

Everyone who endeavors to stretch and do God’s will experiences the ups and downs of taking steps of faith. Faith is the confidence or assurance of things hoped for but not seen. You are hoping for it and at one level you are convinced it will happen. But then when things take longer than you think they should or don’t seem to be happening at all, doubt starts knocking on the door. And if it takes much longer than you thought or is much harder than you had anticipated, then doubt starts yelling and kicking at your faith door. At that point, you have to learn to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). Because God wants you to learn to live by faith, He will help you with the fight, but He will not do all the fighting for you. God wants you to learn to live by faith and defeat the demons of doubt.

As we come to the end of this book, I want to share with you the four prayer practices that have helped me the most in winning the faith battle. They are not the only ones because any type of prayer can help strengthen our faith, but these are the ones I’ve found the most effective most of the time. Though they are very much related, they are still different so I want to address each one of them separately.

Worship

The main thought behind the word “worship” in both Hebrew and Greek is the idea of bowing down. It is the recognition that God is God and we are not. He is the Creator, and we are the created. He is pure light, and we all carry varying degrees of darkness in us. He is omnipotent, all-knowing, all-powerful, and is perfect in every way. We are none of those things. Whereas no human being should be blindly obeyed and given absolute authority, God has that authority and is deserving of our absolute trust and obedience.

The beings of heaven which surround God’s throne and see Him more clearly and constantly than anyone else, have trouble doing anything else but worship Him. When we see a breath taking scene in nature: a mountain range, an ocean horizon, or a new-born baby for example, it is natural to have a sense of awe about what you see. You know you are in the presence of something bigger than you, maybe even holy. Imagine being in the presence of the One who is pure light: good, wise, loving, just, and kind to the core. The One who has the power to create and sustain an entire universe; yet, knows how many hairs you have on your head is your God. He is so much more magnificent and wonderful than the most moving and powerful scene of this life. The more you “see” God, the more natural it is to worship Him.

In the place of worshiping the living God, everything else seems small. Romans 4:17-21 tell us that “in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist,” Abraham got the faith to believe, despite humanly impossible circumstances. If God can create a universe, if God can give life to the dead, if God can call things or speak things into existence , well then nothing is impossible.

Worship, bowing down before the Creator of the Universe, gives us more of God’s perspective; if we’ll let it. In what seems like a human paradox, the more we yield our lives to Jesus, the more powerful, in a good sense, we become. In God’s kingdom, true humility opens up the gateways of God’s grace; and the faith which comes from God and grace are closely related. “By grace you are saved through faith” and “God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud” are kingdom principles that God set in place.

I regularly say, “The smartest thing any person can do is say ‘Yes’ to God.

God is smarter than you, more loving than you, more powerful than you; and He LOVES YOU! Worship clears your head and heart and helps you see more clearly as you step into God’s holy presence.

Romans 12:1 tells us that it is our “reasonable or rational service of worship to present our bodies as living and holy sacrifices to God.” God designed us to live from Him and for Him and dedicating our lives to Him and willingly submitting our lives to Him, to live lives of worship to Him is an essential step for connecting with the river that flows from His throne.

To get to the throne, the place of God’s authority, you have to be a worshiper. It is not that God is so insecure that He needs people constantly bowing down before Him and telling Him how great He is. It is rather, recognizing Him as God, as the only true life source, and the One who is greater than our largest imaginations that puts us in alignment with who He is and what He’s doing.

Bob Dylan wrote a top-selling song in the early 1980s entitled You’re Gonna Serve Somebody. The point of the song was that no matter how great and famous you are, you are going to serve someone. The reality is you will serve who you worship and you will also worship someone or something. Backward tribes may worship a pole or the sun, civilized people may worship money, fame, power, pleasure, or nature, but everyone worships someone or something. Everyone bows down to an idea, a perception, or even a person; but everyone bows down and worships.

Who or what you worship determines what you become. Money worshipers become materialistic and cruel. Pleasure worshipers become depraved and deceived. Jesus worshipers become more loving and faith filled.

When Janet and I felt fear and doubt about moving to another country the first thing we did was bow down and worship. We said, “God our lives are yours. We trust you and will follow you.” As we did that then God’s grace and faith flowed into our hearts. It will flow into yours as well.

Praise

Psalm 22:3 “Yet you are holy, O You who are enthroned upon (inhabit) the praises of Israel.”

Isaiah 61:3b “The oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.”

Psalm 149:6 “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand.”

There are more Hebrew and Greek words translated as “praise” in the Bible than there are words translated as “worship.” Most of the words for “praise” talk about giving God honor in a more celebratory, enthusiastic way. Worship focuses more on bowing down, and praise focuses more on standing up, and both are appropriate and faith building. Heaven is filled with a flow of both: worship to praise and praise back to worship.

The Scriptures you just read tell us that God actually inhabits or is enthroned (exercises His authority) in our praise of Him. Though God is with us all the time, when we praise Him it’s like using a magnifying glass in the sun: it intensifies the effects of its rays. When we praise God, the presence of God intensifies there.

Praise also gives us an internal lift. The Holy Spirit replaces a spirit of fainting or heaviness with a mantle of praise. When we praise God, it often acts as a weapon that drives spiritual enemies, especially, weariness, doubt, and unbelief away.

When you start verbally praising God, it is amazing how often spiritual oppression leaves and faith rises up. I told you my story about using praise to get free from depression in chapter 2, and it is still one of the greatest freedom and faith builders I know.

Several years ago, Janet met a woman who was one of the most joyful, upbeat people she had ever been around. When Janet commented on her joyful spirit, the woman told her that previously she had suffered for years under strong depression. Janet asked her what made the change and this human light bulb told her she praised her way out of it. When those negative feels would start to come, she would aggressively start verbally praising God. She said, as she stuck with it, her soul got an amazing makeover and joy, kindness, and happiness became her new normal. Especially when negative thoughts and emotions are swarming you, it can be very difficult to praise God but if you can take a step of faith and start doing it, it really is one of the greatest soul liberators I know. Taking a step in faith is met with God meeting you with more faith and release.

God told the Israelites to shout praises to God after they circled Jericho for 6 days. As they did that, God knocked the thick walls of that city to the ground. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Thyatira for setting a girl free from a demonic spirit. They were severely beaten and placed in stocks in the heart of the local prison. With bloody backs, their feet and hands locked in stocks, in the darkness of a Roman prison, vs. 25 tells us “But about midnight Paul and Silas were singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening.” They obviously did not feel like praising God, they were in physical pain in a literal prison, but they did it anyway. Not by accident an earthquake came, they were freed from their stocks, and ended up leading the jailor and his entire family to faith in Christ.

God comes down into our situation when we praise Him. Praising God in faith builds the pipeline for God’s presence and power to come.

Thanksgiving

Three of the shortest, but most powerful verses in the Bible go like this, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Philippians 4:6-7 gives us God’s most potent medicine for anxiety and worry when it says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

One of the very best ways to live a lifestyle of cultivating God’s presence is to train yourself to be thankful in all circumstances, keep rejoicing, and keep praying. Living this way is God’s design, and it is His clearly expressed will for each one of us. In the presence of God is always plenty of faith and it is very, very hard to doubt when you are thanking God for His love, His blessings, His word, for life, and for every situation in which you find yourself.

Philippians tells us that when we let God know our concerns through prayer and combine those prayers with thanksgiving, then God’s peace will come and actually guard our hearts and minds through our connection with Jesus. Thanksgiving is like a Spirit-filled bonding agent that makes our requests filled with faith. When you pray, “Father, I am really concerned that we don’t have enough money to pay our bills right now, but I thank you that you are faithful”, then God’s peace comes and drives away worry. If you just pray, “Father, I am really concerned that we don’t have enough money now, please help,” there is an entirely different effect in our souls. One builds faith, the other is still filled with concern and worry.

When you add praise and thanksgiving to your prayers, watch fear and doubt shrink, and faith and confidence rise up.

Praying Scripture

In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us that our battle is not so much physical as it is spiritual. In fact, we have a dark enemy who schemes and maneuvers to try and bring us down, so Paul then tells us to put on all of God’s armor so that we can stand in those evil days when the enemy attacks hard. Once you have put on all of God’s armor then “stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:10-13)

In the next segment of that chapter, He lists the main components of God’s armor and they include: truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, “which is the word of God.” He finishes that section with instructions to be on the alert and keep praying with all kinds of prayers. (Ephesians 6:14-18)

The largest defense armor in that list, the one that takes on the biggest and most powerful attacks is the shield of faith. Paul said that the shield of faith would actually “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Faith in God can douse and block every arrow the devil shoots at us. It is after all “God’s armor” and that is far stronger than anything the devil has. There is nothing the devil can bring your way that God’s shield cannot block.

The one offensive weapon we have is “the word of God”, the sword of the Spirit. If you can picture in your mind, whenever you speak God’s word in faith, it is like a sword hacking apart the chains of the devil or driving him out of a situation; it helps make it more real to you. When Jesus was faced with the devil’s temptations in the wilderness, the only weapon He used was the Word of God as directed by the Holy Spirit. After three blows with the word, the devil left him because that sword really hurts. (Matthew 4) Jesus did not ask God to make the devil stop; instead, He took God’s Spirit-inspired words and spoke them against the thoughts the enemy was sending his way. He blocked each one and destroyed it by saying to each temptation “It is written.” If Jesus used the Word to defeat spiritual attacks, what does that tell you?

When you feel doubt, if you will begin praying and asking the Holy Spirit to bring to mind the right Scriptures to use as a sword and then as they come to mind you begin to speak them, sing them, praise God for them and thank God they are true, it is really, really hard for doubt to hang around. Faith is stronger than fear and doubt; especially faith in God and from God. Faith rises up, and faith is how we overcome the world, receive from God, and please Him.

Bonus Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from the book The Divine Design: How to Experience God in Your Everday Life.

God’s #1 Purpose in Creating the Universe and You

Does it matter if you put your shirt on first or your pants? Probably not. Does it matter if you eat your chicken or your green beans first? That probably is not a big issue either. In some areas of life, the order in which we do things really does not matter. However, in other situations order makes a big difference. You need to put your socks on before you put on your shoes. It is the same with underwear and outerwear. You need to plug in a power tool before you try to use it and you need to line your fingers up correctly on the keypad before you start typing.

Regarding God’s purposes, although all of them are valuable and necessary; order is critical. I think it is very important that you know the #1 reason God created you and orient your life around that first or you’re going to miss out on a lot of what God has in store for you or you will get worn out because you are working in a way God never designed you to work.

Before I tell you what I think God’s #1 purpose in creating us is, let me give you a few common Christian answers.

1. To glorify God

2. To fulfill the great commandment

3. To fulfill the great commission

4. To impact the world through our calling

5. To worship

These are all really important and biblically supported purposes. God created you to do each and every one of those things, but none of them is the first reason God created you.

Here is what is wrong with any one of those being primary: They are all what you do for God and others and not first of all what God does for you.

Think about this for a minute. What was God’s situation like before He created the physical universe, which includes you and me? You and I were not there, nor were any other people, so the only way we can know what it was like is by what God has told us. Even though there is not as much information as I would like about that time (if there was such a thing), there is enough in Scripture to make some things clear.

God existed in perfection.

Psalm 16:11 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

Galatians 5:22-23 says the fruit of the Holy Spirit (God) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. These are called fruits of the Spirit because they exist in perfection in God Himself. 1 John 4:6 tells us that God is love. His very nature is love at the highest level.

Numerous other Scriptures tell us God never gets tired, He never lies, He never does anything evil, He is beyond genius in intellect, His power is unfathomable, and His very nature is pure light. In other words, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always existed in the highest quality of life there could ever be. It could not be any better; it was perfect.

If you would, please take a moment and think about some of the greatest experiences and memories of your life. Hopefully, you have had many but pick just a few. Now picture in your mind and feel in your emotions how great that was: a scene from nature, the birth of a child, a great success, falling in love, being born again, or being filled with God’s Spirit. Have you got it? Can you feel it? Now think about this: as great as that was, it pales in comparison to what God lives in each day. God lacks nothing to make Him happy because perfect joy is in His very nature. In Him is perfect love and joy, the very fullness of them. There are never ending pleasures with Him. The highest qualities of life exist in and with God in perfection; it simply cannot be better. That is God’s reality.

That is why the typical “Why we are here Christian answers” are secondary not primary.

Does God really need anyone giving Him glory? No, He doesn’t need it.

Does God really need us to do anything? He can speak words and create a universe.

Does He need our love or our worship? No. He is literally the guy who has everything.

So why did God create the universe? Why did He make plans for you and me and what is the #1 reason He created you? One of the most enlightening Scriptures on the subject is this:

Ephesians 4:10 “He who descended also ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things (universe.)” (NASB)

Ephesians 4:10 “He who descended also ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things (universe.)” (NIV)

God’s #1 Purpose is…

This passage tells us that the reason Jesus descended to earth, died on the cross, and then rose from the dead, ascending far above all powers, authorities, and the heavens themselves was that He might fill all things (NIV says, “the universe.”) To fill the universe with what? He set in motion the perfect plan …

To fill the universe with His life

The number #1 reason He created you is…

To fill you with His life: to share His life and love with you

You may be saying, “Wait. Didn’t Jesus come to earth, die on the cross, rise from the dead, and ascend to Heaven for our redemption to pay for our sins?”

Yes redemption, buying us back and totally paying for all of our sins and wrong doings, is a major aspect of God’s plan but what is the purpose of redemption? Why does God want to “pay off” all our spiritual and moral debt? It is not just so we can be spiritually debt free; it is so much more than that. God redeems us so we can deeply connect with Him and have the life He intends. Jesus’ message always included words about abundant life, life to the full, eternal, God-filled life.

The perfect God, who is motivated purely out of love, goodness, justice, and everything else that is found in true life, made the universe and us to fill us with that indescribable life.

Before Time Began this was God’s Plan

Before time began the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were having the best experience possible: joy, love, community, and peace at the highest level. Because God is love, and love gives, and because God is a Creator, and a Creator creates God decided to make a physical universe that He could fill with His incredible qualities. Excuse my weak attempt to describe how the Godhead plans and makes decisions but maybe it went something like this:

The Father said,

“I have an idea. Let’s share our life and glory. Let’s create a physical universe and then fill it with beauty. Let’s create a planet and put image bearers there that we can develop, fill, and train to share and spread this incredible quality of life and existence that we have. Jesus, Holy Spirit what do you think?”

Can you imagine the excitement of that planning meeting? The most brilliant mind ever, thought through cells, DNA, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, psychology, astronomy, planets, galaxies, stars, solar systems, etc. God thought through you, me, and every person who would ever live and made important plans for each and every one of us. In dimensions we cannot fathom, and brilliance we cannot grasp, God created it all. Astronomers tell us that the visible universe (as far as they can see with the most powerful telescopes), has more stars than the earth has grains of sand. Let that blow your mind.

Then when God spoke it into existence, He said, “It is good.” And when perfection says something is good; it is GOOD!

The prophet Isaiah saw and heard the heavenly host saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the earth is full of His glory.” (Isa. 6:3) The angels get it, they understand the plan: God wants to fill the earth with His very own glory.

I’m going to give you a few more Scriptures in a moment but please take a minute and let this truth sink in. I have been a Christ follower for almost 40 years and from the beginning, I’ve known God wants all of us to have eternal life and that He has purposes for us. However, just recently have I understood God’s priorities this way. And like every major insight or revelation, it is deepening my relationship with God and my love for Him. It will yours, too, if you let it sink in.

God did not create you first of all for what you can do for Him; He created you first of all for what He could do for you. He wants to share His life and love with you. He wants to fill you with His presence and His quality of life and then let you be a part of the very purpose and mission of God Himself.

Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that better than any plan you could ever come up with about your life? I can think of nothing better than to be able to have an unhindered, love saturated, life-giving relationship with the Perfect One who WANTS to share what He has with me, with you, with all of His creation.

We get to experience both God’s life and the meaning and fulfillment of sharing in His great mission. As important as mission is, and it is vitally important, it cannot come first. And for those of you who are focused and committed to God’s mission as a top priority, let me congratulate you. The world desperately needs the help, answers, love, hope, healing, and purpose that only God can give. It is a great privilege to be part of the very mission of God, and it will require great love and commitment, but you have to keep this order right or you will miss out on God’s best or you will eventually burn out or you will get hard on people who do not measure up to your particular standards. I have seen it happen far too often.

Keep the order right. First you need to receive the unconditional love and life that only God can give.

Realize He did not create you first of all to work for Him, worship Him, or glorify Him. He created you to love you.

Your Free Gift

As a way of saying thanks for your purchase; I'm offering a free 20 minute audio to you. It will give you the key principles God uses in fulfilling His purposes in your life. Go to www.TruVineMission.com, on the homepage you can download “The Principles of Purpose.”

About the Author

Mark Furlong has had the honor of being married to the greatest woman on the planet for over 30 years, has two wonderful sons, and absolutely loves helping people connect with God and live their full God-given purposes in life, work, and ministry. He writes, speaks, and coaches motivated but imperfect people on how to know and do their unique and incredible calling. He has been a church planting missionary, lead pastor, pastor of spiritual growth and formation, and now an author and entrepreneurial leadership coach.

Other Books by Mark Furlong

The Divine Design: How to Experience God in Your Everday Life

Powerful Personal Development in 12 Minutes a Day

Dream: How to Find a Dream Worth Following

The Divine Commitment: Partnering with God to Change Your Life

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Flow: What a Great Idea

The Percentages Can Dramatically Increase

Jesus Came to Restore Flow

The Light Yoke

Stepping into God’s Flow

The Faith

Chapter 2

God’s Pipeline: Faith

This is How God Set Things Up

Faith is God’s Pipeline

Faith Has Many Expressions

Chapter 3

The What, Where, and How of Faith

Faith Is

All Human Beings Have the Ability to Believe

Faith Comes From God

Faith in God, Faith from God

God’s Word Produces God’s Faith in Our Hearts and Minds.

How Do You Get Strong Faith?

Chapter 4

How Faith Flows and Grows

There is a Process and a Pattern

How Does God Prune Us?

Chapter 5

The Fluidity of Faith

Little Faith

Fluid Faith

A Seed of God’s Faith

Hearing God’s Word

Chapter 6

The Face of Faith

Jesus Really Does Understand Us

Jesus Has All the Faith You Will Ever Need

Water Walking

Faith is not Presumption

Primary Focus

Faith in God’s Presence

Faith From the Face

How to Stay Focused on an Invisible Jesus

Chapter 7

Various Expressions of Faith

Faith comes from Jesus, out of relationship with Him, and faith has many, many expressions.

Victory and Suffering

The Emphasis of Scripture

Principles and Relationship

If you stay close to Jesus, He will give you all the grace and faith you need to do His will.

Chapter 8

What to Do with God’s Promises

Relational Faith

Four Realizations

Six Steps

Chapter 9

What to Do When God is Silent

It Happens to Everyone

Why This Happens

What To Do When God Is Silent

Chapter 10

So How Do I Hear God?

Why the Confusion?

Look Up

Look In

Look Around

How to Decide

Chapter 11

Results Producing Faith

General Faith is Great

Faith Lessons from James

Faith Based on Your Calling

Chapter 12

The Power Prayers of Faith

Ups and Downs of Faith

Worship

Praise

Thanksgiving

Praying Scripture

Bonus Excerpt

Your Free Gift

About the Author

Other Books by Mark Furlong