The Power of Radical Faith

“…Daughter, your faith has made you well…” (Mark 5:34)

I have said on multitudinous occasions that God meets us at the level of our expectations. What this means is that He will perform for us beyond what we believe. On more than one occasion, the healing that Jesus provided was accompanied with a lucid and profound statement – “according to your faith.” He was saying that it is your faith that sets the power of God in motion on your behalf. Radical and audacious faith has the power to incite the forces of the universe to move on your behalf. We can witness this in the book of Joshua, when he commands the sun to stand still.

We can also see the negative side of this in the book of numbers:

“Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you.’” (Num. 14:25, NKJV)

We know that this particular statement was tied to negative consequence, so we can understand that faith is what we believe in our hearts – good or bad. Negative beliefs lead to negative results. This is why it is vital that we do not receive the negative report of the enemy with validity and weight. We must not listen to the sweet nothings of negativity that the enemy attempts to whisper into our ear. We must take the Lord at His word and take a position of radical faith that dares to believe God beyond the visible circumstance.

The woman that Jesus healed with the issues of blood had a faith so audacious that it caused her to risk her life. Simply being in public with her condition could have cost her life, but she believed that healing was near. She believed that the answer to the enigmatic health issues that had plagued her for twelve years was within her grasp. It was on the day that she stepped out in unquestionable faith that God met her at her level of expectancy.

Dr. Rick Wallace 

What are you expecting from God? Are you expecting the supernatural? Are you expecting healing – spiritual, emotional, and physical? Are you expecting him to bless your home and your business? Or maybe, you are simply hoping that he will give you surviving grace. Too many believers are living only to survive. They have been buried under a sea of doubt and despair. Many have been told that hoping for something exceptional and great in their lives is unspiritual. Listen, God wants to show Himself strong on your behalf (2 Chron. 16:9) as he waits to be gracious to you. The Word declares that nothing shall be impossible to the one who believes. The question simply becomes: What are you believing for yourself?

Raise your level of expectancy. I promise you that you are not putting God on the spot. He wants you to expect the impossible. God is glorified by performing the impossible in the lives of those that trust Him. You only need to come to a knowledge of His total capacity to provide all that you need. It is time to engage Him at a higher level. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace 

Check out some additional resources by Dr. Rick Wallace 

1. The Invisible Father: Reversing the Curse of a Fatherless Generation - Dr. Wallace examines the destructive force of absentee fatherhood in America from a biblical Perspective

2. Renewing Your Mind: The Dynamics of Christian Transformation - Dr. Wallace discusses the power of your thought process to completely transform your life

3. Elevation through Revelation - This book was written to encourage and inspire you as you travel through life.

4. When Your House is Not a Home - Dr. Wallace engages the enigmatic issues that face marriage in America -- from a biblical perspective.

5. The Power of Healing Affirmations -- This short book goes straight to the matter of how you word and thought affect healing in your life. (A must read)

Blogs

1. 100 Men of Purpose -- Encouraging and teaching men to rise up in their God ordained design

2. Master Fitness 21 -- This site focuses on believers living healthy lives spiritually and physically

3. Anointed Inspirations -- A little something to get your day going.

4. Christian Impact -- The revelations of God that reveal the call and ability of believers to impact the world around them.

Engaging the Darkness

Night of Pure Faith

"Lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him" (Gen. 15:12).

The sun at last went down, and the swift, eastern night cast its heavy veil over the scene. Worn out with the mental conflict, the watchings, and the exertions of the day, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and in that sleep is soul was oppressed with a dense and dreadful darkness, such as almost stifled him, and lay like a nightmare upon his heart. Do you understand something of the horror of that darkness? When some terrible sorrow which seems so hard to reconcile with perfect love, crushes down upon the soul, wringing from it all its peaceful rest in the pitifulness of God, and launching it on a sea unlit by a ray of hope; when unkindness, and cruelty maltreat the trusting heart, till it begins to doubt whether there be a God overhead who can see and still permit--these know something of the "horror of great darkness." It is thus that human life is made up; rightness and gloom; shadow and sun; long tracks of cloud, succeeded by brilliant glints of light, and amid all Divine justice is working out its own schemes, affecting others equally with the individual soul which seems the subject of special discipline. O ye who are filled with the horror of great darkness because of God's dealings with mankind, learn to trust that infallible wisdom, which is co-assessor with immutable justice; and know that He who passed through the horror of the darkness of Calvary, with the cry of forsakenness, is ready to bear you company through the valley of the shadow of death till you see the sun shining upon its further side. Let us, by our Forerunner, send forward our anchor, Hope, within the veil that parts us from the unseen; where it will grapple in ground and will not yield, but hold until the day dawns, and we follow it into the haven guaranteed to us by God's immutable counsel. --F. B. Meyer

The disciples thought that that angry sea separated them from Jesus. Nay, some of them thought worse than that; they thought that the trouble that had come upon them was a sign that Jesus had forgotten all about them, and did not care for them. Oh, dear friend, that is when troubles have a sting, when the devil whispers, "God has forgotten you; God has forsaken you"; when your unbelieving heart cries as Gideon cried, "If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?" The evil has come upon you to bring the Lord nearer to you. The evil has not come upon you to separate you from Jesus, but to make you cling to Him more faithfully, more tenaciously, more simply.  --F. S. Webster, M.A.

Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness. Oh, for faith that brings the triumph When defeat seems strangely near! Oh, for faith that brings the triumph Into victory's ringing cheer-- Faith triumphant; knowing not defeat or fear. --Herbert Booth

How often are we compelled to circumvent the darkness? How frequently do we look for  the path by which the brightness of the sun illuminates every step. Far too often, the Christian believer assumes that there is no profitability in the darkness. There is an assumption made that the darkness has come to rob us of what is precious with the Lord. As with all that God allows into our lives, the darkness has great purpose in the development of faith and trust in the Lord. You see, the darkness requires faith, its demands it. The darkness empties self, and demands that we believe if we are to overcome. The darkness shakes us free of independence and sets ablaze a hope that can only be satisfied by a supernaturally radical God. This darkness sets ablaze the hearts yearning to be in the midst of a special movement by God.

The Bible assures us that God dwells in the Darkness. When the darkness settles over your life and it seems that you are facing it alone, remember that God is there and is waiting on you to call out to Him in the midst of the storm as Peter did. He is compassionately stretching out His hand to pull you through. The darkness in not an indicator that God has forgotten, it is often God’s way of drawing us near. There is nothing like the darkness to incline us to prayer and supplication. There is no greater force than the darkness to intensify our yearnings to experience God’s presence and power. The darkness has of way focusing our vision and recentering our hope.

Oh, when the darkness settles overhead and the ability to see what lies before us is withdrawn, how passionate is our cry to the father to sense His protection. When “the valley of the shadow of death” is our residence, how inexorable are our cries to God to move on our behalf. When the vicissitudes of life roll in and life makes no sense, how implacable are our strivings to have God make sense of our mess. No, the darkness does not mean separation, but represents the opportunity for intimate fellowship with our creator.

The enemy has promulgated a lie that says darkness equals God’s absence; however, the infallible Word of God assures me that my God dwells in the darkness. He is still powerful in the darkness, He still hears in the darkness. He still answers prayer in the darkness. He still works miracles in the darkness. He still executes the impossible in the darkness, and at the right moment He will transform your dark moment into a phosphorescent light that shines bright for all to see. You will get the victory and He will get the glory.

I encourage you to engage the darkness that befalls you with a confidence that believes God is standing with you. He has promised to go with you, to fight for you, to protect you, to elevate you, to heal you, to restore you. Spend your time in darkness seeking the only one that is capable of of bringing light and while the darkness still lingers, know that something special is being wrought out in the darkness. God is moving in the darkness setting the stage for your coronation. Breakthroughs are built in the empty corners of darkness. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Developing Faith

THE FORMATION OF FAITH:

*Hearing the Word initiates faith!

*Speaking the Word ACTIVATES faith!

*Doing the Word DEMONSTRATES FAITH! (Sun Stand Still, Steven Furtick)





The aforementioned statement was posted on my Facebook page and I decided I want to briefly clarify what this post is about. The Christian life stands on the basis of faith. We are brought into right standing with God and grafted into the Royal Family of God through faith in Christ. Faith, however, moves beyond the moment of salvation and becomes the catalyst for the Christian way of life. The Christian way of life is executed through faith in God to empower you to carry out all that is required of you in His divine plan.

The Bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. The question that this post addresses is one that has come to me in many ways from many sources over the past 6 months. Why are Christians living lives that are plagued with defeat and despair. The answer is a misunderstanding of faith and its application to the Christian walk.

Some believe faith is a magic wand that you wave over all of your problems and cause them to disappear; while others have stifled faith and limited it with their limited perspicacity of God’s omnipotence and goodness. Genuine and authentic Christian faith is founded upon the faithfulness of God towards His people; it considers God’s promises, His power to carry out what He has promised and his will to do so. Authentic faith is not based on the believer, but on what or whom he or she believes.

What I posted was not a definition of faith, but the biblical formula for the formation and the perpetuation the faith driven Christian life. We will visit each principle briefly as they all will be developed in full as we move forward.

1. Hearing Initiates Faith: Romans 10:17 is the clearest biblical expression of this truth in scripture, but it is by no means the only one. Repetitively in the Word we see situations where the hearing of God’s words and promises set the foundation for faith and propels the believer into the supernatural execution of God’s plan and will. So, each time that you hear the Word of God it provides a basis on which your beliefs are established
2. Speaking the Word Activates Faith: There are numerous examples of this principle being commanded and carried out in Scripture. One of the things I noticed in The Old Testament is on a number of occasions God either changed the name of a person that He was about to work through, i.e. Changing Abram’s name to Abraham or Jacob’s name to Israel and other times he commanded or influenced the naming of those that were anointed to do great things on His behalf. How does this apply? Names have great significance in helping to establish the identity of its bearer, and one way this was done is every time someone called out to this person, he heard the promise being spoken and every time he introduced himself he spoke the promise. In Joshua 1:8 God tells Joshua, “Do not let this book of the Law depart from your mouth…”; this is a call to speak the Word, promises, and mandates of God daily.
3. Doing the Word Demonstrates Faith: Faith is not truly faith until it has produced action. Your actions in any form are indicative of your faith. Faith without works or corresponding action is useless. Efficacy of faith is perpetuated in the Christian life as the believer walks boldly in that faith to accomplish the will of God despite the odds and obstacles that are laid out before him. Author and Pastor Steven Furtick says it like this, “Authentic faith doesn’t end in a positive mental state. It plays out in total obedience based on the sure Word of God.” One of the greatest examples of this in the Bible is the biblical account of the night Peter dared to step out in faith by stepping out onto the water. He first heard that all things are possible (through the teaching of Christ), he then spoke what he believed through his verbal request to Christ to allow him to come out to him (one does not make this request without believing that it is possible), next he takes action and literally steps out onto the water.

The points listed above are not, in any way, comprehensive. They were meant to provide a basic and general understanding as well as set the stage for future discussion and teaching.
Going back to the initial reason I set out to lay this out: Why are so many believers living defeated and ineffective lives? I believe a significant portion has to do with obedience, and I will deal with this in time; however there are many believers that are striving to live their lives for the glory of God and yet find themselves constantly defeated. A great portion of this is due to a faith that is stifled through distortion, intellectualism, scholasticism, rationalism, etc. Our effectiveness is limited to what we believe God is capable of doing in and through our lives. When we limit God to what we can explain and reasonably expect, we stifle His movement in our lives. Through our intellect and systems of rationale we rob ourselves of experiencing the omnipotence of God manifested and carried out in our lives.

Remember, what we truly believe will be reflected in our actions and our actions will never move beyond what we truly believe to be possible. One of the greatest reasons why very few experience the supernatural is that very few believe God for the supernatural. They may say they do, but there actions reflect something different. I believe that in combating sensationalism, cessationalist have boxed in the power of God to fit what they can rationally express or explain. In doing this, you have not literally limited God’s power, but you limited His movement in your life. Always remember that God meets you at your level of expectation.

Too many believers are ignoring Proverbs 3:5-6, which tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.  Too often we are attempting to fit God’s omnipotence into an intellectual box in which we can rationalize his movement. I am going to reveal something that many will refute, but until you understand this truth, you will never experience God’s power in your life in the way that He desires for you to. Faith is not faith until it enters into the realm of the impossible. What I mean by this is anything that you can rationalize and figure out within the scope of your limited perspicacity of God and humanity is by definition within your sight of reason and thereby not true faith. Remember, faith is the opposite of sight walking. Faith speaks those things that are not as though they were. Faith expects the impossible and the unexplainable. Faith causes your spirit to disagree with your circumstances. Faith causes you to press through the process in order to obtain the promise. Faith is deterred by delay or conquered by chaos. Faith simply says, “God said.”

The faith I speak of is not some magic wand to wave over problems and fears, but an audacious boldness that decides to take God at His Word despite the problems and fears. This boldness causes the believer to walk in a manner that expresses what he believes. Since he believes that it is God’s desire for him to walk on water, he steps out of the boat onto the stormy seas. The believer that bears audacious faith does not search for empirical or pragmatic evidence that what he believes is valid. He has decided to live a life that says if God has declared it in His Word than I believe it and I choose to walk in it. This faith that I elucidate to some and introduce to others does not consider your circumstances as the determining factor in the outcome of your destiny. The believer that possesses authentic faith has determined that the supernatural is within his grasp when he truly trusts the source or its origin, which is God.

In presenting this I want to be lucidly clear that authentic faith does not override the sovereign will of God, it executes it. You may be thinking that I am back peddling a bit, but that is far from the truth. I would not be honoring my responsibility to absolute truth without pointing out that there will be times that you will make a specific prayer and truly believe in God for it, and yet it does not come to pass. We have to remember that faith is always efficacious, even when it does not produce the desire result. Allow me to venture out a little deeper to explain. When I speak of experiencing the supernatural I am speaking of what many would call the miraculous. This is what you need to understand: Authentic and genuine faith that is audacious enough to believe God for the impossible always proves efficacious, even when the desired end is not accomplished. Sometimes, through your faith, you will experience the miracle and other times you will become the miracle.

There will be times in which you get exactly what you are seeking, financial breakthrough, reconciliation, physical healing, etc. This is experiencing the miracle. Then there will be those times in which your prayer will seem to go unanswered or the answer is no, yet God gives you the strength to endure the struggle with true Christian character and integrity. In doing this others will see your living testimony and be strengthened and encouraged by it. This is becoming the miracle. God has used you to accomplish His will in the lives of others. Either way God’s will was accomplished in a miraculous way. The experience produces elation whereas the becoming bears honor.
I pray that I have at least laid the foundation on which we will be able to build from this day forward.

May God bless and keep you,

Dr. Rick Wallace