Believe In Order to See

January 28

Believe in Order to See

"Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel; but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul" (Ps. 106:12-15).

We read of Moses, that "he endured, as seeing him who is invisible." Exactly the opposite was true of the children of Israel in this record. They endured only when the circumstances were favorable; they were largely governed by the things that appealed to their senses, in place of resting in the invisible and eternal God.
In the present day there are those who live intermittent Christian lives because they have become occupied with the outward, and center in circumstances, in place of centering in God. God wants us more and more to see Him in everything, and to call nothing small if it bears us His message.

Here we read of the children of Israel, "Then they believed his words." They did not believe till after they saw--when they saw Him work, then they believed. They really doubted God when they came to the Red Sea; but when God opened the way and led them across and they saw Pharaoh and his host drowned--"then they believed."

They led an up and down life because of this kind of faith; it was a faith that depended upon circumstances. This is not the kind of faith God wants us to have.

The world says "seeing is believing," but God wants us to believe in order to see. The Psalmist said, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."
Do you believe God only when the circumstances are favorable, or do you believe no matter what the circumstances may be?
--C. H. P.

********

The writer of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. When we look for pragmatic or empirical evidence of what we believe it is not faith, it is sight walking. This is what the children of Israel did and it is what far too many Christians are doing today. When our countenance shifts with our circumstances, it is not faith. When our heart moves with the matter of our moments, it is not faith. When fear and trepidation overtakes in the midst of the darkness, it is not faith.

True faith sees the fact, but bears the power to bend facts. Faith acknowledges circumstances, but fixes the heart to simply disagree with the circumstances. Faith is aware of the danger, but understands you are kept under the shadow of the almighty. Faith reaches out into the spiritual realm when it seems that there is nothing there but air and pulls back miracles. Faith steps out on the water to do the impossible. Faith is not daunted by delay or deterred by darkness.

It is time to stop allowing your circumstances to be the force that dictates our movement. This is not the time for sight walking, this is the time to step over the boundaries of impossibility accomplish the impossible. It is time to apply a radical faith the refuses to be shaken by the size of your problem. It is time to start speaking of those things that are not as though they are.

You have been believing the enemy's lies for far too long. It is time to execute your kingdom authority and speak to the circumstances in your life and declare that which God has willed for you to be done. Start walking in what you believe before you see what you believe. Instead of seeing to believe, believe so that you can see.

Dr, Rick Wallace

You need to purpose in your heart that you are not going to stagger at the promises of God, but that you are going to dare to walk into the realm of impossibility with an expectation that is so radical that it shakes up the world. Start believing God for your healing. Start believing God for that successful business endeavor that the enemy has been telling you is not possible. Start believing God for that spouse that you have been praying for; not the watered down version, but the fully loaded version. The one that loves you beyond himself and past his feelings. Believe God that your barren womb will open up and you will bear children. Believe God that the cancer that has metastasized is destroyed. Believe that every curse, scheme and machination is canceled, right now.

Make this moment the moment that you rise up and live in a radical faith that changes not just your life, but the world around you. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Lie Still and Trust

Lie Still and Trust

"I had fainted unless…!(Ps. 27:13).

"FAINT NOT!"

How great is the temptation at this point! How the soul sinks, the heart grows sick, and the faith staggers under the keen trials and testings which come into our lives in times of special bereavement and suffering.

"I cannot bear up any longer, I am fainting under this providence. What shall I do? God tells me not to faint. But what can one do when he is fainting?"

What do you do when you are about to faint physically? You cannot do anything. You cease from your own doings. In your faintness, you fall upon the shoulder of some strong loved one. You lean hard. You rest. You lie still and trust.

It is so when we are tempted to faint under affliction. God's message to us is not, "Be strong and of good courage," for He knows our strength and courage have fled away. But it is that sweet word, "Be still, and know that I am God."

Hudson Taylor was so feeble in the closing months of his life that he wrote a dear friend: "I am so weak I cannot write; I cannot read my Bible; I cannot even pray. I can only lie still in God's arms like a little child, and trust."

This wondrous man of God with all his spiritual power came to a place of physical suffering and weakness where he could only lie still and trust.

And that is all God asks of you, His dear child, when you grow faint in the fierce fires of affliction. Do not try to be strong. Just be still and know that He is God, and will sustain you, and bring you through.

***

David said, "I would have fainted". This means he didn't faint. His soul called on him to faint, but the command "faint not" would not allow him to faint. His understanding that there was something better ahead would not allow him to lay down in the middle of the journey. He refused to faint.

When one is weary from the battle, how does he restrain from fainting? When there is no energy left in him, what keeps Him from letting go? Faith! David said, "I would have fainted if I had not believed..." It is faith that sustains the weary soul when in and of itself, it would have fainted. Faith believes the promises of God and validates the hope of a brighter tomorrow. When the soul grows weary, faith is all that we have left. At that moment when giving up seems the only course of action, we must simply lay our faith on top of our weariness and trust God to do the rest. It is in the moment of weariness that God's command to be of good courage is transformed into His imploration to "be still".

Dr. Rick Wallace

Be still and trust God. Besides faith, what more must be added to the weariness to resist fainting. Simply be still. You simply provide the faith and God will do the rest.

This faith that kept David from fainting was not centered on the afterlife. Many Christians have become fatalist, believing that life here on earth is doomed to defeat and the victory does not come until heaven. Yet, David said, "I would have fainted unless I believed that I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living." David believed that he would see the goodness of God while living. God has promised you victory in every situation here on earth. Keep believing and faint not.~ Dr. Rick Wallace