Do You Struggle Knowing What Kind Of Faith You Have?

It’s interesting how people’s real beliefs about who Jesus said he was has a direct correlation on the kind of ministry Jesus can do with us. It’s amazing that our faith, or lack there of, affects how Jesus ministers in our lives and when we minister to others who confess that they believe in Jesus as well.

In the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jesus goes to his home town of Nazareth and starts teaching in the various synagogues. The people who remembered Jesus as a boy got offended because they had a certain perspective about who Jesus was compared with who he said he was. His confession while preaching was from Isaiah 61 in which he states, “The Lord has anointed me,” which was scripture about the coming Messiah. This did one not sit well with these people. After all, Jesus grew up like the rest of them so how could he be this anointed one. At least that’s how they thought. Look at what Mark’s gospel shows about their refusal to see Jesus as having the authority to deliver or heal people.

Mark 6:4-6                                                                                                                                                                                                   Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” [5] And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

Whether we like it or not our confidence or the lack of it affects how Jesus either moves in our lives or can’t. Scripture says that God does not move irregardless of our faith but because of it. Most people feel uncomfortable about having to be responsible for whether God moves supernaturally in their lives and yet that truth is weaved throughout scripture. The book of Hebrews says it well concerning our need to walk in faith if we are to please God and pleasing him is vitally important if we are asking him for a miracles.

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

I can remember going to a Kathryn Kuhlman meeting in LA in the early 70s. She was used in a great way to bring the focus on God’s desire to heal. She had a strange way about her and yet she had great faith and encouraged others to rise in their own faith with her as she prayed for the healing power of the Holy Spirit to come upon people. Out of approximately 5,000 people in attendance, it appeared that only a small number of people got healed in these meetings. I remember seeing people in wheel chairs and with crushes leaving with downcast spirits because they did not get healed. I felt so sorry for those people who had to go home sick and without their healing. Truthfully, I struggled with why God did not move in a greater way and with more people. Did they not all come to be healed by Jesus?

It’s hard to reconcile with people’s suffering and whether their hunger to get well translated into not having faith or was it just fear that kept them from being healed? It seems many lack personal faith and are relying on a special person or meeting to grant them healing. Since God requires faith from us, his supernatural engagement seems hindered unless we cooperate with our faith. The requirement of faith is God’s way of drawing us closer to him and his purpose in the earth. Although he desires to help all those who are broken, He limits the when and where based on our trust and belief.

There seems to be a problem most of us have with separating what is faith is from what our feelings tell us. Often, we seem to define our feelings as spiritual and being generated by our faith when a strong emotion overtakes us. Take, for instance, when we are engaged in a modern worship service. When the music is moving us we gauge our worship time to how we feel and yet that can be very misleading. Whether experiencing good worship or praying for the sick, our emotions aren’t bad but we must not equate them as purely spiritual.  I can testify that when I have prayed for sick in the past and healing takes place, I didn’t FEEL any particular strong emotion.  Likewise, when I really got emotional while praying for the sick healing didn’t seem to be manifest.

What truly convinces us about who Jesus is can be a hard thing to identify. Is it the faith we have in him or just wishful thinking? It doesn’t matter what other people think about Jesus, it only matters what we think about him because that affects how we relate to him and what we can expect from him. Jesus was ready to go to the cross so he challenged his closest disciples to consider who they thought he was because that was the foundation of their true faith, not just what they felt emotionally. Even the eleven faithful disciples who walked with Jesus for 3 1/2 years often thought they were in faith when in fact they were running on emotions. Their abandonment of Jesus at the the end proved that.

Matthew 16:13-15                                                                                                                                                                                     When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”                                 [15] He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 

I believe a part of our relationship with Jesus is emotional. Our emotions are a God given gift but they can’t be what we rely on to justify our trust in him. It is our reliance on him that substantiates whether we have strong or weak faith. Jesus said if we love him we would keep his commandment, not if we just had strong emotions. 

John 14:15                                                                                                                                                                                                                  “If you love me you will keep my commandment”.

If we are followers of Jesus we should regularly review if we are walking in faith or emotion because we often shift back and forth. Unfortunately, it seems that while we live in our earthly body we will struggle with this problem but questioning our walk regularly will help us walk the walk that we confess about Jesus.

How strong is your faith?

Questions:

1) Have you gotten a handle on whether you are walking by faith or emotions? A good rule of thumb is to have close brothers and sisters around you to give you feedback about that very issue.

2) Have you become lazy in your faith? The surest way to know is to evaluate if what you are doing for God stretches you or not.

Loving God with all my heart, mind and soul,

Pastor Dale