The Home That Faith Built

“What we take by faith according to Mark 11:24 is, at first non-existent to the five natural senses…It’s only by our sixth sense, faith, that we can see, take and hold on to the blessings God offers to us until they are fully manifested. To consult our natural senses for evidence that our prayer has been granted is as ridiculous as trying to see with our ears or to hear with our eyes.” (F.F. Bosworth – Christ the Healer)

Born-again children of God are meant to be imitators of their Father (Ephesians 5:1), Who calls “the things that be not as being” (Romans 4:17 – YLT), or “as if they already existed”. (AMP) Stepping away from the “tyranny” of our physical senses is a continual challenge. From natural birth, after all, we have relied on our five senses to navigate through life. But our entrance into life with God through our belief and trust in Jesus introduces us to the realm of faith; in fact, the requirement of faith. And we discover that “the fresh and new has come”! (2 Corinthians 5:17). A brand new way to walk through life.

Faith is the currency of God’s kingdom; the God-established circumvention of the natural man’s five senses. From the moment we are born-again (John 3:3) we begin to recognize our new citizenship (Ephesians 2:19; Philippians 3:20) with its new Bill of Rights.

The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself, out of the control and dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Colossians 1:13)

With this new placement we are to become faith practitioners. In fact, faith is the necessary ingredient when we are believing for something that seems contrary to what our five natural senses tell us. Faith determines both where to look and where not to look (Romans 4:19). Once we see our faith request manifested faith for that particular blessing is no longer necessary.

Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Paul speaks of the limitations of the “natural man” who relies solely on his senses:

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:14 – NIV)

Unless and until God’s Word is your only source of reality, your natural senses will add their input in shaping your life responses. Reliance on our physical senses very often results in the wavering and hesitating and doubting that diminishes or nullifies both faith (James 1:6) and our Father’s covenant blessings (Hebrews 10:28). Over and over again Jesus taught us the appropriate attitude of faith:

• Believe God hears you when you pray (John 11:41, 1 John 5:14-15)
• Believe you have received it when you ask (Mark 11:22-24)
• Do not permit your physical senses to compromise your faith (Mark 5:36)
• Faith is such a powerful force that even “small”faith will get the job done (Luke 17:6)

It is a brand new world! A brand new way of looking at and understanding the world through life in the Spirit. We walk by faith and not by sight or appearance (2 Corinthians 5:7); faith perceived as real fact what is not revealed to the senses (Hebrews 11:1)

We are to be encouragers of each other in this. We look to God’s Word to discover who we are meant to be, and what our lives are meant to look like. The life, the home, the family that faith builds is a powerful testimony to the world. Always stand on, trust in, and rely on our Father’s Word. It supersedes and overcomes any other force.

“I Have Given Them Your Word”

“God’s way of doing everything is by making promises and then by fulfilling them wherever they produce faith” (F.F. Bosworth)

The most significant, life-changing question a person of faith must ask is, “Have I made a non-negotiable determination about the Truth and complete reliability of God’s Word?” There is ‘no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting)” (James 1:6) among the “fully persuaded” ! (Romans 4:21 – KJV)

How do we step away from our learned reliance upon our physical senses? How do we enter into all that God has planned for us? (Ephesians 2:10) The only way to override earthbound sensibilities is to look steadfastly at the Word of God. Consider not the problem (Romans 4:19). Consider the answer (Hebrews 3:1). God teaches us about the effectiveness of the continuous gaze:

…Meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success. (Joshua 1:8) {Emphasis mine}

My son, attend to My words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh (Proverbs 4:20-22) {Emphasis mine}

We who are in Christ have transferred citizenship from one kingdom to another:

{The Father} has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Colossians 1:13)

And the way that we advance in that citizenship is solely upon reliance on the Word (Matthew 4:4). It is how God established His kingdom. He has given us the instructions on how to successfully navigate through this life – how to be continuous over-comers (1 John 4:4) – more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). We are made aware that we are no longer “of the world” – we now belong to another kingdom whose operating principle is the Word of God. As the Lord Jesus was about to return to the Father – sacrificing His life for our benefit – He revealed what He thought was of significant importance:

I have given and delivered to them Your Word (message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world {do not belong to the world}, just as I am not of the world. (John 17:14) {Emphasis mine}

God’s Word is as a mirror to us (2 Corinthians 3:18). We look to it to see and understand who we are meant to be:

…A new creature altogether – the old {previous moral and spiritual condition} has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

And this new creature is forgiven (Ephesians 1:7), healed (1 Peter 2:24), set free (John 8:31-32), approved and acceptable and in right standing with God (2 Corinthians 5:21) – in fact, greatly loved by God (Colossians 3:12, 1 Thessalonians 1:4).

It is God’s Word alone that defines our life’s parameters now. But the love God has for us, all that Jesus has accompllshed for us, and the power and authority of the Word (Psalm 119:89), are entirely dependent upon our willingness to receive the blessing. To become intentional in making God’s Word your life’s standard and its expectation is God’s desire for all (2 Peter 3:9). That so many live unaware of His outreach is heartbreaking.

When we recognize that our Father God wants to bless us even more that we desire the blessing; when in coming to know Him we begin to understand “the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loves us: (Ephesians 2:4) – then trust in His intentions follows. And a great desire to seek Him through His Word.

The Power of Words – His and Ours

I have been re-reading a little book by Jerry Savelle entitled No Boundaries. I highly recommend it. It is one of those tools that renews our thinking concerning the correct ideals and attitudes that should be forming and transforming our daily outlook. God has given to us, through all that Jesus taught and accomplished on our behalf, a new set of credentials with which to operate in this life. We are called to live in the authority of His Word. That is transformational.

And yet, so often I meet brothers and sisters in Christ who accept a foundational premise that whatever happens in life is God’s will. He is, after all, God! He can and does do whatever He wants in a life. It is actually lazy theology, taking the responsibility entirely off of us and incorrectly placing it on God. But God has put much of the responsibility for receiving His blessings and benefits on us.

Scripture will quickly refute the idea that what happens to us is all up to God:

…According to your faith and trust and reliance {on the power invested in Me} be it done to you; (Matthew 9:29) {Emphasis mine}

And He {Jesus} was not able to do even one work of power there, except that He laid hands on a few sickly people {and} cured them. And He marveled because of their unbelief (their lack of faith in Him)…(Mark 6:5-6) {Emphasis mine}

Thus you are nullifying and making void and of no effect {the authority of} the Word of God through your tradition, which you {in turn} hand on (Mark 7:13)

…the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it… (Hebrews 4:2)

The Lord…not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance… (2 Peter 3:9) {and yet so many are not saved and do not know Him}

Through incorrect teaching, lack of understanding what God’s Word actually says, worldly attitudes creeping into the Body of Christ {that leaven Jesus spoke of (Matthew 16:11; Mark 8:15)}, and the ever-present lies of the enemy attempting to disprove and nullify the Word – a good portion of the Church are not experiencing the abundant life that Jesus came to give:

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows) (John 10:10)

Take, for example, the above Scripture. How many sons and daughters of God read that verse but still accept “less than” in their lives? Plagued with debt or ill health, fear, worry or concern, how do they register Jesus’ proclamation that He came so that they would “enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)”? We have limited God’s intentions toward men when we read the Word, but don’t expect (demand) that our lives reflect it’s Truth.

Our “work” as citizens of our Father’s Kingdom living here on earth is to rely on and walk in the authority of His Word – to live the Word on purpose; to accept God’s reality. The sacrifice of God’s Son to enable us to do just that should never be diminished or disregarded.

Charles Capps, a preacher who has written extensively on this Truth and who preaches the practice of speaking God’s Word into every situation writes:

“God released His faith in words. Man is created in the image of God, therefore man releases His faith in words (Ephesians 5:1). Words are the most powerful things in the universe today. {from God’s Creative Power Will Work For You}.

But what words are so many speaking? This is the key! (Proverbs 18:21; Matthew 12:37)

Capps heard this from the Holy Spirit:

“My people are void of speech. They hear the world and speak as the world speaks. By observing circumstances they have lost sight of My Word. They even speak that which the enemy says, and they destroy their own inheritance by corrupt communications of fear and unbelief. No word of Mine is void of power, only powerless when it is unspoken… I have told My people they can have what they say (Mark 11:23), but they are saying what they have.”