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Faith...

The subject of faith has always been intriguing to me. As a little boy in church I would hear of these great men of faith, and how that without faith it is impossible to please God, and the demonstrations of great faith, and how that not many miracles were done by Jesus in His home town because of their lack of faith, etc., etc.

The problem for me is that I still really didn’t know what this faith was! Every time the question was asked the answer was this quoted scripture from Hebrews chapter 11; Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Of course for some this might be sufficient, but for me the question still remained… what is FAITH?

Now, some twenty or thirty years later, I think that I am able to understand a little more fully this concept of faith. A man of God gave this definition to me a few years ago; Faith is Spiritual understanding. Wow! Now that makes sense to me. It is seeing, perceiving, understanding what God has done in the heavens! I believe the centurion in Matthew chapter 8 saw, understood, or perceived that if Jesus just spoke the word his servant would be healed. He knew Jesus had the authority to heal without even having to touch him!

The evidence that is ferreted out in a court case is shown to the jurors. It is something they need to see to be confident of righteous judgment. Just like the confident juror, the centurion saw the effect of Jesus words before He spoke them! He knew his servant would be healed!

Recently in conversation we discussed times of feeling confident and times of feeling inadequate. During those inadequate times we don’t accomplish anything. But during the confident times we seem to do mighty exploits. It is really a question of what we see, or perceive at those times.

The scripture says, “have faith in God”. This word speaks of confidence, or assurance in God. We can have it! We must have it! The things God has for us to do require that assurance. Like the blind man that Jesus healed we need to have the scales removed from our spiritual eyes be able to see clearly and effectively navigate through the kingdom of God!

If faith is seeing… and Romans 12 says that God has dealt to every man the measure of faith…we must each have a piece of the picture. Let’s humbly bring our individual pieces together and see more clearly the integrity of the wholeness of GOD!

I encourage you to do the things necessary to strengthen your faith. To clarify your spiritual vision… An admonition is given in the book of Jude verse 20; “ But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost..” The Spirit of God will reveal the things of God to you! As you see them you will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform His will everywhere you go!