Reasoning Faith

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[Genesis 21:12]} Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
Hebrews 11:17-19

This passage is found in the famous “hall of faith” section of Hebrews chapter 11. This is where the writer of Hebrews recounts all the many acts of faith done by those in the old covenant. The phrase “by faith” is used 22 times in this chapter. And it all points to the reality that they acted by faith even though they didn’t see the completion or fullness of the promise given to them. How much more should we, who now know the fullness of the promise in the new covenant through Jesus, act in faith? Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Yet, what I find so striking about this passage is the combination of faith and reasoning that we see from Abraham in his decision to do something that seems crazy. Sometimes people of faith, and faith itself, get pitted against reasoning…as if you can either choose faith or reason but not both.

But what we find in Abraham is a different kind of reasoning that is empowered by faith. Abraham was asked by God to do something that seems crazy. But context is everything. First of all, the crazy thing he was asked to do wasn’t to sacrifice his son. In the pagan world, it was very common to offer children as sacrifices to the gods. This was sort of standard practice for pagans. This was culturally “normal” for Abraham’s day. And before we get too judgmental, we need to remember that even in all of our modern advancements we live in a society that has legalized the murder of babies in the womb by their own mother.

The crazy part was that all the promises that God had given Abraham all rested on Isaac. Not only was God asking Abraham to do something that felt more like a pagan practice, but he was asking Abraham to give up all the promises that God made in favor of obedience to God. God was asking Abraham to choose the Promise Maker over the actual promises themselves. God continues to ask this of us today.

But notice Abraham’s reasoning. This wasn’t haphazard fideism or irrationally blind faith. Just as Abraham’s faith was grounded in the nature of God, so was his reasoning. He reasoned that God can raise the dead. In other words, his reasoning factored in the miraculous power of God and the goodness of God. So his obedience was both an act of faith and an act of reasoning.

Is it irrational to give your life in order to spread the gospel in closed countries knowing that you might be killed? It might seem that way to some. But if your reasoning factors in a God who is good, a God who sacrificed everything for you, a God who is powerful and loving, a God who longs to see others come to know the truth of Jesus, then it’s reasonable to give your life for such a God.

When God is factored into our reasoning, suddenly the impossible looks possible, the irrational becomes rational. As we see from Abraham, a life of faith is not just having God factored into our beliefs but having God factored into our reasoning. This is the God who can raise the dead to life, give sight to the blind, and heal impossibly broken hearts.

Draw Near

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:19-25

The writer of Hebrews lays out the proper response to the good news of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Most Holy Place was the inner most room of the Temple. The priests would sacrifice animals on the bronze altar in the courtyard. Then they would wash with water in the wash basin. After that they would enter the Holy Place where the lamps on the lamp stands needed to be trimmed, the bread of Presence had to be replaced, and the altar of incense had to be kept burning. This was their daily work as priests.

But once a year the high priest, and only the high priest, would go into the Most Holy Place where the ark of the covenant rested between two cherubim. He had to do an elaborate set of cleansing rituals before he went past the inner curtain and entered the Most Holy Place because the very Presence of God was there. If he entered in an unworthy or unholy way, he would drop dead in God’s Presence.

But when Jesus give up His body and spirit on the cross, that inner curtain separating God and humanity was torn from top to bottom. Jesus became the once and for all sacrifice that allows us to approach God confidently with a cleansed conscience. Faith in Jesus is what allows us to receive the cleansing that comes from the blood of Christ and the water that flowed from His side. Because of Him, we can approach God with confidence.

So our proper response to this great news is that we draw near to God. We live with an awareness of the reality that God is already near to us. The Kingdom of God is “at hand.” It’s within reach. We only have to draw near to God with our hearts and minds to experience His Presence.

And we respond to this great news by holding unswervingly to the hope that we profess. Our hope is this: that we’ve been saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus and not by our own works. Our hope is that even though we make mistakes, God calls us a new creation and sees us as clothed in Christ, unblemished and washed clean. Our hope is that Christ now dwells in us through His Spirit, and that we will eternally dwell with Him when this life is over.

Our response to this great news is to spur one another on toward love and good deeds as we continue to meet together as the church. We respond to this great grace by meeting together as the Body of Christ, the church, and encouraging each other to continue in the faith. We lay down our pride and admit that we can’t live this life of faith in isolation. We admit our need for one another. We admit that we not only need Christ in me but we need Christ in you to help strengthen me on this journey of faith.

All of these things–the drawing near to God, the living in hope, the love and good deeds, the encouraging each other, the meeting together as the church–are the proper response to the good news of the gospel. This is what gratitude for our rescue looks like.

Unbelievable Unbelief

So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:7-8, 12-13

In God’s Kingdom, unbelief causes us not to be able to enter in. For that first generation of Israelites, unbelief caused them not to be able to enter the Promised Land. So they wandered in the desert until a new generation emerged. Speaking of this unbelieving generation of Israelites, the writer of Hebrews says, “So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19).

How do we get to this place of unbelief?

First, sin begins to lie to us about ourselves and about God. Sin either makes us feel shame and guilt–which makes us want to separate ourselves from God–or begins to make us feel like God is holding out on us. In the end, sin, if not repented of quickly, begins to erode our trust in God. Our doubts begin to creep in and God no longer seems trustworthy. This is “sin’s deceitfulness.”

This then leads to a hardening of our hearts. Thick walls of doubts and deception begin to form around our hearts as a means to protect it. If we are in relationship with someone (a spouse for instance) and they don’t seem trustworthy anymore, then we build defensive walls around our hearts in order not to get hurt. We do the same with God.

These walls–this hardening of the heart–form a stronghold in our feeling and thinking. Strongholds are fortifications of intricate lies that have been woven together. We are lied to by the enemy and told that these strongholds will keep hurt out. But what they keep out are things like faith, trust, hope and experiencing the love of the Father.

People say, “I just can’t feel God anymore” and they make the statement as if it is some indictment against God…as if He somehow distanced Himself from them. But this confession is a self-indictment about the self-protective walls we’ve allowed to surround and harden our hearts.

Unbelief is sin. Unbelief is rebellion. Unbelief is a choice. Often, it is the by-product of a hundred little choices. And it is very different than uncertainty. A life of faith is full of uncertainties. But a life of faith is also full of trust, full of hope, full of love for God, full of intimacy with God. Unbelief separates us from God.

Just as unbelief kept the Israelites from entering the Promised Land, it keeps us from entering God’s Presence. Unbelief keeps us from experiencing and encountering the Holy Spirit. Unbelief keeps us from entering into the gifts of the Spirit. I know because I lived in that specific unbelief for years.

We, as the American Church, have to stop celebrating unbelief as if it is a natural and inevitable part of following Jesus. It’s not! Uncertainty is a natural and inevitable part of the faith journey, but unbelief is not. Not distinguishing between the two is harmful to the process of discipleship.

Compared to our Christian brothers and sisters on the continents of South America, Asia, and Africa, North American Christians are steeped in the sin of unbelief. And the first step to ridding ourselves of sin is repentance. The proper response to our unbelief is not to accept it as “normal” but to repent of it and renounce it in Jesus’ name.

Paradox of Faith

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:11-12

Paul encourages Timothy not to spend all of his time pursuing material wealth. Instead, Paul wants Timothy (and the rest of us) to pursue the riches of the Spirit. Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness are things we must go after. They are things we must pursue and fight for. This is what it looks like to “take hold” of the eternal life that we have in Christ.

Yet, righteousness is also something we’ve been given. Godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness are also fruits of the Spirit. They are not only things we pursue but things that are birthed within us by the Spirit. And this is the mystery and the tension of the Christian life. This is the paradox of faith–the place where God’s work in us and our participation with God meet together.

It’s like when Paul said of his own ministry, “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me”(Colossians 1:29). It is the Holy Spirit working within us, yet we must cooperate with Him. God already made us righteous in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), and yet we must pursue righteousness and godliness. We are already new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-18), and yet we must “put on” the new self and “put off” the old self (Ephesians 4:22-24). The Father pours His love into our heart through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), and yet we must pursue love. We were saved by grace through faith in Jesus which is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8), and yet we must pursue greater measures of faith in our own life (2 Timothy 2:22).

This dynamic is not an either/or but a both/and. It is God’s activity, and it is our response to God’s activity. It is His work in us, and it is our cooperation with His work in us. It is His grace, and it is our obedience. The paradox of faith is all of this working together. This is what it looks like to fight the good fight of faith and take hold of the eternal life that we’ve been given in Christ.

Total Recall

Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.
1 Timothy 1:18-19

Paul wrote to Timothy as his spiritual son knowing the prophetic words that had been spoken over Timothy’s life. In order for Timothy to fight the good fight and continue in the faith through hardship, he would have to remember the words spoken over his life.

Sometimes prophetic words–words from the Lord about who we are and who we are becoming–come to us through our alone time with God. Sometimes God speaks to us through a highlighted passage of scripture that the Holy Spirit illuminates. Sometimes God speaks to us in our prayer time, calling us into our future through His still, small voice. And sometimes prophetic words come to us through other people who speak a word from the Lord about our lives.

Life can come at us in a way that makes us forget what God has said about us, our identity, and our future. The Israelites were continually getting into trouble because they forgot–forgot what God said, what God did and who they were called to be. Paul needed Timothy to remember the prophetic words spoken about his life so that he would have the confidence to move forward in faith. Remembering what God says about us emboldens us to break through what everyone else is saying about us.

So, if you get a word from the Lord, either through other people or through your alone time with Him, write it down. Keep a journal. And make it a practice to go back and read through them, remembering the words that God has spoken to you and about you. This is essential in fighting the good fight of faith. This is essential is avoiding a shipwreck of faith.

Ignorance and Unbelief

Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:13-14

The apostle Paul gives us a short, two-sentence description of his own testimony. He was once a bunch of things that were outside of God’s design for his life, but then he was shown mercy. God interrupted his life with mercy, grace, faith and love; Paul has never been the same. This is true for so many of us who follow Jesus.

Notice that he lists two things that kept him from fully embracing the gospel of Jesus in his former life: 1) ignorance, and 2) unbelief. These two have the same effect but are very different in terms of what is happening in our hearts.

The first, ignorance, in the Greek is the word “to know” with a negative prefix attached to it. So it literally just means “not knowing.” Sometimes we don’t believe something because we’ve never been taught it. We’ve never had someone take the time to explain it to us. We didn’t lack faith, we just lacked understanding. This is why teaching about the Kingdom of God in all its facets is so important. A huge portion of Jesus’s own ministry was teaching. He knew He had to help people embrace the truth with their minds so that they could embrace the truth with their lives. Hosea 4:6 says, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”

When we don’t embrace the truth of the gospel or a truth of the Kingdom because of a lack of knowledge, I believe God has patience for that. He woos us and invites us into understanding. He sends opportunities to learn and grow. He sends people to challenge us with new ideas even if they are hard for us to embrace at first.

The second, however, is very different. The word translated as unbelief in the Greek is simply the word “faith” with a negative prefix attached. Literally it means “no faith, no belief.” It is one thing to be unaware of a truth; it’s another to be aware of it and simply reject it because of unbelief. This is when we allow doubt to dominate our thinking rather than faith. Doubt and skepticism are cheep imitations for real spiritual discernment. Over and over again in the scriptures we discover that God does not look kindly upon unbelief.

Unbelief is often equated with a hardness of heart in scripture (Mark 16:14; Hebrews 3:15-19). Unbelief is not an issue of the mind but an issue of our heart posture. It’s less about not agreeing with the right arguments and more about being unwilling to trust. Hebrews 3:12 says, “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”

Unbelief is often the result of a wound of the heart that never proper healed and instead calcified to protect itself. This calcification, this hardness of heart, then becomes unbelief. Unbelief and a hard heart don’t get softened from convincing theological arguments. Instead, unbelief must be surrendered so that God can do the softening. In other words, it is not a surrender of the mind but a surrender of the will that allows faith to emerge through the hard ground of unbelief.

Faith-Hope-Love

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:3

Paul praised the Thessalonians for essentially three things: 1) their work, 2) their labor, and 3) their endurance. But what is so interesting is what produced each of these: faith, hope and love. It’s not the only time Paul would write about how these three fit together (1 Corinthians 13:13).

In Christ, we will work hard for the gospel. Work is from the Lord and is a good thing. But our work doesn’t come from a place of striving. It comes from faith. James wrote about how work and faith go together when he said, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds”(James 2:18). In other words, real faith produces action. Real faith will work.

Then Paul mentions that the Thessalonians’ labor was prompted by love. The word translated “labor” in the Greek is the word kopos. It means “laborious toil involving weariness and fatigue.” We have here the image of a woman in labor, fatigued by the process of delivery. Ultimately, it is the unconditional love the mother has for her baby that gives her the strength to labor. Love is capable of doing what seems impossible. Love will labor through just about anything.

Finally, Paul mentions their endurance inspired by hope. When a marathon runner hits the wall in the middle of the race, it is the hope of the finish line that gives them the endurance to keep going. Hopelessness saps all our energy and steals our ability to press through hardship. But hope is energizing. Hope keeps a person going long after they should have given up. Hope sustains us and gives us endurance.

Faith, hope, and love: the essential trinity of character formation–the superfood fruits of the Spirit. Faith, hope, and love produce people who can work hard, labor through difficulty, and have endurance for the long haul.

Faith for Healing

To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 1:29

Paul describes his ministry as “strenuously contending,” or some translations say “laboring,” “striving,” or “struggling.” The root word in the Greek here is agonizomai, where we get the English word agonize. It’s the same word Paul uses in his letters to Timothy when he talks about fighting the good fight.

But Paul doesn’t strive or contend with his own power. Instead, he contends with the energy of Christ that works so powerfully in him. This verse is a great example of how ministry is a co-laboring with Christ. There is a synergism here that requires the power of Jesus and our continual contending. It’s a both/and situation, not an either/or. Both component parts are necessary.

Understanding this truth is helpful when trying to understand why we must contend for healings in healing prayer. Too many people misunderstand God’s sovereignty and assume, “If God is going to heal, He will. If not, He won’t.” This simplistic understanding of God’s sovereignty doesn’t account for our participation in being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.

We co-labor with Christ to bring about His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Yes, it is the power of God that heals, but it is most often the power of God through us. Just as God’s primary way to share the gospel is through us, His Body, the same is true for physical healing. Just as Jesus sent out the disciples in Matthew 10:8 to heal the sick, He sends us.

Yet, we will soon discover our faith go through a process–a journey of sorts. We begin with the question of whether Jesus can heal the thing we need healed. We usually believe Jesus can heal, generally speaking, but we’re not sure He heals the thing we need healed. Does God even heal this sort of thing? We’re just like the father who brought his demonized boy to Jesus and said, “if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us”(Mark 9:22). Jesus replied, “If you can? Everything is possible for one who believes”(Mark 9:23).

When our faith grows and we begin to believe Jesus can heal, we’re still not sure he is willing to heal. “Maybe it’s not God’s will to heal this,” we wonder to ourselves. Maybe he’s not willing. We approach Jesus the same way the man with leprosy did who said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean”(Mark 1:40). Notice Jesus’s response. Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Jesus was indignant that anyone would ever assume He wouldn’t be willing. He’s always willing to heal. It is in the very nature of God to heal. One of God’s names in the Old Testament is “the Lord who heals you”(Exodus 15:26).

When we become convinced that Jesus can heal and is willing to heal, we realize that the problem is not on His end of the equation. If healing requires a co-laboring with God, it begins to dawn on us that healing often occurs when God’s power flows through us. The problem isn’t God’s power but the through us part. The woman who had been bleeding for 12 years understood this. Notice what she thought to herself, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed”(Mark 5:28). It wasn’t about if Jesus could heal her or if he was willing. She knew Jesus was willing and able. It was about what she was going to do to contend for her healing. “If I…”

What if I were to tell you that Jesus is healing autism around the country? Notice the process our minds go through. Can Jesus heal autism? Is that something He heals? Yes. But do you think Jesus is willing to heal autism? Yes. Below are some video testimonies of Jesus doing just that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzzfIMmNmzc&feature=youtu.be

https://www.facebook.com/bethel.church.redding/videos/659320897854957/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

Everything A Loss

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…
Philippians 3:4-9

I relate to Paul in this passage in so many ways. In seminary, I learned a lot. I met some of my best friends and met some of the greatest teachers. Some of those teachers have been life long models for me of Christ-likeness.

But there are so many things we were filled with in seminary, and it wasn’t the Holy Spirit. They taught us how to critique and doubt Scripture but not how to trust in it. They taught us how to deconstruct our faith but not how to rebuild it. They taught us to demythologize the miraculous stories of the Gospels, but they never taught us how to heal the sick, raise the dead, or cast out demons.

In other words, they taught us how to be a good Pharisee, a lot like Paul’s old life, but they didn’t teach us how to do ministry like Jesus and the disciples. They filled our mind with theology but didn’t fill our lives with the Holy Spirit. They imparted to us skepticism but never imparted the gifts of the Spirit. We became masters at reinterpreting passages of Scripture but not masters at submitting our lives to the word of God.

If anyone thinks they have reason to put confidence in their theological education, I have more. Indoctrinated by the third year; of the people who were moderate progressives; of the tribe of Emergents; a skeptic among skeptics. In regards to knowledge, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the Fundamentalists; as for righteousness based on cynicism, faultless.

Then I had a series of encounters with the Lord that changed everything. He showed me how my life, which I thought was full of healthy skepticism and cautious intellectualism, was really just full of unbelief. He showed me how toxic doubt had been in my life and how it had robbed me of a full life in Christ and had distanced me from the power of the Holy Spirit. He took me through a process of dismantling my resistance to Him. It took an overhaul of my heart and a renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2). And this process continues as He calls me into a bigger and bigger “Yes” with my life.

So now, whatever were gains to me in seminary I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…

Now I pursue something totally different. My desires have been changed by these intimate and profound encounters with the Lord. “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…”(Philippians 3:10).

Father, purge out of me anything that is not of You. Get rid of all doubt and hesitation. Get rid of slow obedience and replace it with quick obedience. Get rid of fear and replace it with faith and trust.

Believing

” You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”(Galatians 3:1)

The word “bewitched” here means “to cast an evil spell” on someone, to use words to put someone under a spell causing them to no longer think clearly. There had been false teachers who infiltrated the church in Galatia and began to teach them that in order to be a true follower of Christ they had to follow certain parts of the Law, including circumcision. The apostle Paul sets about to dismantle this false teaching.

He asks them, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”(Galatians 3:2-3)

Isn’t this what we do so often? We start our Christian life knowing “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast”(Ephesians 2:8-9). But no sooner do we take our first steps by faith does the temptation come to earn God’s love and prove our worth through religious activity.

Paul asks another question of the Galatians, “So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”(Galatians 3:5)

This is interesting on so many levels. It is clear from this that the church in Galatia was experiencing the Holy Spirit do miracles through them. By this time in the early church, miracles had gone beyond the first apostles (Acts 5:12), beyond the first deacons (Acts 8:6-7), and even beyond Paul’s ministry (Acts 14:9-10). Miracles were now happening through men and women believers who had no title or position whatsoever. This is evidence of the fulfillment of Mark 16:17-18:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues…they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

So there are two qualifications for a miracle to happen through you: 1) Do you have the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ? and 2) Do you believe? In other words, are you a believing believer or a believer who is filled with unbelief? Strict adherence to the Law is not one of the qualifications. Having some elevated title or position in the church is not one of the qualifications. God is simply looking for surrendered sons and daughters who actually believe Him.

This is still God’s desire for the church today. God wants to give us His Spirit and work miracles among us because we are a church full of people who live by faith. He’s looking for a group of people who actually believe. And if we totally surrender ourselves to Him in faith, we will discover that these signs will accompany us: In Jesus’s name we will drive out demons, speak in new tongues, place our hands on sick people to pray for them and watch as they get well.