Adventure of Faith

8/2/1997

This thing of living by faith in the Kingdom of God it’s the air we breathe, it’s the water we drink, and it’s the food we eat. Living by faith is the place where nourishment and the miraculous filling and flowing of life, I don’t just mean events, but I mean the miraculous filling and flowing of life through our hearts and minds that that is the place where faith happens. The possibilities of being bored or miserable or any number of other things exist in that place where we are not living by faith and obedience, putting into practice His Word. But we all know we can go through a bunch of rituals and do a bunch of routine expected things of us that are seemingly obedient and still find no life in them.

To tie in a knot some of the things that were said, a person that is living by faith is looking towards the Father of Lights, is looking at an open Heaven and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Glory of God that is trusting and believing for miracles in the lives around him. He or she sees the flaws in their own life or in the lives around them and they see and believe God for miracles and pray in faith and love in faith and put into practice His Word in their own life and they obey out of faith, out of believing that He is worthy to be obeyed and loved. But out of this faith, there won’t be dull moments. There won’t be boredom and all the wrestling of heart and mind.

Faith is sort of a blinding thing. It’s a blinding light where all of a sudden, your only son Isaac, as in Abraham’s case, faith has blinded him to his deep love for Isaac. Somehow or another he has seen past the superficial realm and something that could be tragically difficult, he is blinded almost to the difficulty of it because he is in love with God and his faith is so deep. That’s the process of having the life of God flowing through you and flowing out of you to others is living by faith, by totally believing God to do a miracle in your own heart and mind and emotions, and seeing in other people - “Hey, this is another resting place for the Glory of God. There’s a flaw, there’s another possibility for the Glory of God to be manifest. There is a personality quirk or an entrenched sin of selfishness or temper... There’s another opportunity for the Glory of God to manifest itself. I’m really going to trust God for that. I’m going to input, too. I’m not just disappearing in a corner and asking God blindly. I know I have to be obedient to speak and to act and to do and to humble myself.” But basically life is an adventure when you live by faith, and it is a boring mess when you live in disobedience or unbelief. It will be, because God isn’t going to reward selfishness, pride, worldliness, unbelief - He’s not going to reward those things, and He’s the Giver of Peace, of Life, of Joy, of Satisfaction.

As we live by an obedient faith but always looking to Him to manifest Himself in spectacular ways, believing that He is who He is. He does give sight to the blind and raise the dead. He is still the same Jesus. That’s why we are following Him. He is spectacular. We see that and we are always looking for ways that He can manifest Himself. Ways that we can show Him off, if you will. And when you live that way, the joy of God and the peace of God and the satisfaction of God flows into your heart, and when you don’t live that way and you are pent up in selfishness and pride and other junk and nonsense, then that faith gets choked out, and He intentionally makes us miserable to show us where the road is and where the road isn’t.

As I try to discipline my own heart and mind every day with the numerous battles that come up against all that I’ve just said, I really desire to try to put this into practice, to battle against all the opportunities for unbelief or bitterness or fear or hurt or pride and to look to Him, not out of my own strength but out of my weakness in believing that He can change my heart and life and believing that for everyone I know, everyone I meet, everyone I haven’t met, that His Glory would fill the earth as the waters can cover the earth, so also can God’s Glory fill the earth. We want to see Him manifested as King of all the kings and the Lord of all the lords and really believe that from the heart, and thank Him that He makes you miserable when you are not living in faith but in unbelief. Thank Him for that. It’s a gift from Him so that we don’t stray from the path of perfection, the path of wild anticipation that Jesus is going to do something great inside of me and also around me.