Walking By Faith

By Andrew Wommack

Related Materials •  Free MP3 download •  Online TV broadcast •  CD album

One year at our annual Charis Bible College Expand Your Vision Weekend, as I was worshiping the Lord, I just knew in my heart that the Lord had entered the room. I didn't feel it, I just knew it. I knew He had walked into the auditorium through the left front doors and right up in front of the stage. He stood there next to me for a moment, then He turned and started down the middle aisle and toward the back of the room.

I know the Lord promised He would always be with us and, in fact, lives within us. But there was a tangible manifestation of His presence. Very simply put, I believe what we call the anointing is just a manifestation of what is already true in the spirit realm. The Lord is always with us, but His presence isn't always tangibly manifest. This time it was.

The presence of the Lord was so real, I opened my eyes to look and see if I could see Him. Within moments, people began to drop to their knees and worship the Lord in the same sequence that I had sensed Him walking through the room. People were rejoicing and sobbing out loud. It was a powerful time of being in the manifest presence of the Lord.

But here is the thing that was so special to me: I didn't physically see or feel anything extraordinary. I didn't need to. I knew it by faith. By the Spirit, I knew what was happening before I opened my eyes and saw any confirmation of the Lord moving through the meeting and touching people. I was just as satisfied to know these things by the Spirit as if I had been physically overwhelmed and pinned to the floor under the power of the Holy Spirit.

As the meeting continued, there were many people touched by the manifest presence of the Lord. It was one of those times that people want to build three tabernacles and just camp there (Matt. 17:4). Although I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, I've come to the place where faith when God's presence is not manifest is just as real as the special times when feeling confirms what faith believes.

That night I ministered from Luke 24 where the two disciples of Jesus were walking to Emmaus. As they walked along the road, the resurrected Jesus joined them, but they didn't recognize Him.

The scripture says,

"And it came to pass, that, while they communed [together] and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him."(Luke 24:15-16)

These were Jesus' disciples, and yet they didn't know Him. How could that be? How could you not recognize a person you had lived with for over three years? Mark's account of this same instance gives us the answer. Mark condenses this whole encounter into one verse and says,

"After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country". (Mark 16:12)

The reason Jesus' disciples didn't recognize Him was because He was in another form. This doesn't mean He looked like another person and had different physical features. That same day, just minutes after this encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to His disciples in Jerusalem and showed them the print of the nails in His hands and feet (Luke 24:39). This was the same Jesus they had intimately known before. He bore the marks of crucifixion in His resurrected body. But they didn't know Him because He was no longer in a physical body. He was in a spiritual, glorified body. They were looking with physical eyes that could only see physical things, and Jesus was in a spiritual body that could only be fully recognized with spiritual eyesight.

Here is an amazing truth: Spiritual things can only be perceived by our spirits. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:6,

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit".

What Jesus was saying was, flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit. You cannot perceive the spirit through the senses of the flesh. They are totally different worlds, or realms, of reality.

The Apostle Paul made this same point in 1 Corinthians 2:14 where he said, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned".

The physical senses can't discern spiritual things. This isn't speaking only of understanding spiritual truths with our minds; this also applies to seeing spiritual realities with our eyes or feeling spiritual things with our emotions. Of course there are exceptions where God opened physical eyes to enable people to see angels and even heaven, but normally the only way to access the spirit realm is through our spirits by faith.

Although special times of the manifest presence of the Lord do occur when we can feel in the natural what is always true in the spiritual, this is the exception rather than the rule. We are not to be more excited when we feel something than when we are just walking by faith in the promises of God. That’s a radical statement!

The Lord began to teach me this very early in my walk with Him. On March 23, 1968, the Lord manifested Himself to me in a tangible way. For four months, I was physically aware of the Lord's love and presence with me in a way that took virtually no faith. I could feel it. It was awesome. But then that physical sensation left. Shortly thereafter, I was drafted and found myself in Vietnam. The absence of Christian fellowship and everything I was used to made my desperation for the Lord's love and presence even more acute. I could truthfully say that I was desperate for God in the worst sense of the word.

Then one day, I woke up and felt like God was totally gone. I had no sense of His presence. Hopelessness and a fear came over me that I had never known. I remember someone coming into my bunker, and I hid under a stack of clothes. I was so afraid, I just couldn't face anyone. I felt exactly like Ephesians 2:12 says, "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."

It felt like God had died or at the very least deserted me. For three days I did everything I knew to do to try and regain God';s presence. I fasted and prayed and studied the Word constantly. Nothing seemed to make any difference. Then on the morning of the third day, I woke up and found myself kneeling beside my cot praying. Nothing special was happening, but the simple presence of the Lord was back. Or maybe it was simply that the fear and hopelessness was gone. Whatever it was, I had my normal peace back.

I know according to the Scriptures that the Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us, so I believe that this was only my perception that the Lord left me. However, this taught me a wonderful lesson. I discovered that I had taken for granted the everyday peace that the abiding presence of the Lord produces. I believe the Lord was tired of me begging for some special emotional experience. He was wanting me to start walking by faith instead of feeling. So, He removed my awareness of His presence and let me feel what hell (the total absence of God) must feel like. It had a profound impact on me.

I quit asking for some epiphany and just started thanking God for what I had. I got into the Word of God and began to believe that the Lord was with me and loved me, not because of what I felt, but because He told me so in His Word. I began the transition from feelings to faith, carnality to spirituality, immaturity to maturity. This is how I was relating to the Lord that night at our CBC Expand Your Vision Weekend.

I perceived the presence and ministry of the Lord apart from feelings. It was just a revelation from the Lord that I accepted by faith. When the manifestations confirmed what I knew by faith, I wasn't more certain of His presence than I was before physical confirmation came. I wasn't dependent on some physical experience. I had the everyday love, joy, and peace that I walk in, but I had faith that let me know God's presence and love was with me in an infinitely greater way than anything I could feel or see.

I've had some awesome encounters with the Lord, and doubtless, I will have more. But regardless of what wonderful experiences you or I have with Him, they are limited. We've only scratched the surface or touched the tip of the iceberg of God's great love and awesomeness. What we have inside is infinitely more powerful and wonderful than we can grasp, and it's always that way. You may not always perceive God's presence and peace with you, but it is. Even in the times when circumstances are yelling at you and affecting your emotions, God's glory is right there inside of you, giving you love, joy, peace, and all the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23.

You won't always feel God's presence. That may come as a shock or disappointment to you, but that's the way it is. And if you are believing, unrealistically, for a constant tangible manifestation of His love and presence, you are out of step with God and setting yourself up for disappointment. That's not the way He is. The Lord loves to work in subtle ways that only faith perceives.

Look at the way Jesus came to earth. He didn't come in some grandiose style. He came humbly, as a child born to poor parents. His birth wasn't announced to Caesar or Herod the king. It was heralded to lowly shepherds. Even Jesus' physical body wasn't exceptional. Isaiah 53:2 says "he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."

When people looked at Jesus' physical body, it took faith to believe that He was God. He wasn't beautiful. He was natural. He wasn't extraordinary. And when Jesus rose from the dead, He never showed Himself to a single person who wasn't already one of His disciples. We would think He missed a great opportunity. Thousands had seen Him crucified just three days before. All He would have had to do was walk down the streets of Jerusalem or into Pilate's judgment hall, and people would have been forced to bow their knees and acknowledge Him as the Christ. But that's not the nature of God. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please him."

Our God is a God of faith, and it takes faith to please Him. He could make a bird come sit on your shoulder and tell you He loves you every minute of every day. He could write your name with instructions on every cloud that passes over. He could have angels come visit you every morning and night to affirm to you that what He says in His Word is true. But that's not faith, and that's not God. Second Corinthians 5:7 says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

We don't just walk by faith until we get the sight we really desired. We walk by faith, period. When sight comes, we praise God and keep walking by faith.

The things I've tried to share with you in this article are profound. Not everyone will realize the importance of them. But faith is as far superior to feelings as true love is to lust. There really is no comparison. Yet lust seems to be more common and easier to come by than true love. Likewise, dependence on our feelings is more common among Christians than faith. We know what God said in His Word, but we don't feel it, and therefore, we don't believe it. That's all wrong. Faith comes before feelings and always trumps feelings. Faith will produce feelings, not every time, but sometimes, and we need to enjoy them when they come. But being controlled by feelings is a BIG hindrance to true faith. We need to get to the place where God's Word is proof enough without emotional confirmation.

I've made an audio teaching on this from Luke 24 entitled "Walking by Faith." In this teaching, I share about this experience at the Expand Your Vision Weekend and my Vietnam story I shared in this article. I go into a lot of detail on this subject that I think could really make a big difference in your life. There is much more to this than I was able to convey in this article.

Be Still I've Got it From Here!

Psalms 46:1-10

 

There are times when the vicissitudes of life are rolling in like the tides of a tsunami; there are times when the dark clouds of depression have settled overhead; and there are those times when your house just does not seem like a home. In those times when the problem seems to be much larger than you. It is in this moment that God simply says, "BE STILL, I've got it from here!"

As Christians, we are not promised that there will not be botherations, complications, and enigmatic conundrums that are sometimes stiffling. We are not given a guarantee of effortless progression; on the contrary, we are told that without question, trials are going to come. In John 16:33, Jesus says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulations; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

The joy and peace does not come in the absence of struggle, but despite it.

Paul tells us that we are to "glory in our tribulations", and James admonishes us to "count it all Joy when we fall into vairous trials.' Each of these passages are written under the postulation that the trials are inevitable. There is no circumvention of the trials of this life. There is never a question as to if, just when.

The writer of Psalm 46 gets right to the point in verse one; "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." There is a wealth of doctrinal truth embedded in this one scripture.

First, we find that God is our refuge. This means he provides shelter from the dangers that surround us. He is our covering and comforter.

Next, we see that he is the source of our strength. It is in God that we live, move, and have our being. No matter how weak we may seem at any given moment of difficulty, we know that in God our weakness is the means by which God's strength is revealed and released. God shows up in the midst of our weaknesses and provides the strength necessary to emerge triumphantly.

The next couple of verses point to the fact that the writer is not willing to be moved by his circumstances. Though the enemy may be closing in, though the economy may be in decline, though relational situations are in flux, my unerstanding of who God is and who I am in Him, will not allow me to waver. I cannot be shaken by the outward circumstance because the inward man has been fed by the Spirit. The inward man (my spirit) is in constant communication with the Holy Spirit that resides within me and the Holy Spirit speaks to my spirit and says peace. 

Dr. Rick Wallace

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance all that we had been taught. So, when the burdens of life begin to press us down, there should be something in our spirit that reminds us that NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST US SHALL PROSPER, it should bring to our remembrance that WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS, it should remind us that GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE US NOR FORSAKE US. There should be something in our spirit that disagrees with our circumstances.

To close things out, the writer speaks God's admonishment, "Be still". Sometimes the battle has worn you down. Sometimes you look up and there is nothing left. No matter how hard you try, you can't press forward. By all accounts, it seems as if the enemy has finally won.

You try to pray, but the words don't flow forward with any fluency. You turn to friends, but you find them complaining too. You turn to mother, but mother is incapable of producing any relief. At this moment of coliginous despair, God steps in and simply says, "BE STILL, I've got it from here.  Dr. Rick Wallace

Trusting God In The Middle Of Your Mess

What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter (John 13:7).

All is not revealed in the beginning. There are moments when there seems to be no clear indication of what is taking place in your life. You are searching for some cohesive or distinct pattern that might be indicative of what God is doing in your situation. Through your limited perspicacity you strive to make sense of it all, but you falter underneath its weight. There is a reason that God commanded that we don't lean on our own understanding (Prov. 3:5, 6). His thought and ways are higher than ours (Isa. 55:8, 9).

It is not for us to figure out or rationalize God's movement in our lives; we are to simply trust Him. We too often attempt to orchestrate the the dynamics at work in our lives instead of trusting God and allowing His plan to unfold through the conduit of our faith. We press when we should pray. We strive when we should stand still. We worry when we should simply wait.

I'm am sure that Joseph had some questions as he struggled through his plight, being beaten and thrown in a pit by his brother; not to mention being enslaved and imprisoned. None of this resembled the vision that God had given Him, but Joseph had been taught by his father Jacob to trust God above all else.

God was maturing Jacob through his trouble. He was preparing him through his struggles. He was building character through the testings. Joseph could not understand. Honestly, he could not fathom what was about to take place in his life. When this all started he was a brash little teenage kid with a dream, but God was about to bust a move in his life that would set the course of history. By simply trusting God, Joseph was elevated.

I am sure that there were many cold nights out there in the wilderness as David kept his father's sheep. There had to be moments when David wondered how in the world do you get anointed to be king and then sent back out to watch the sheep. David didn't fully understand it, but God was training him to shepherd a different kind of sheep. God sent lions and bears to prepare David to face the giant opportunity that was soon to come. David didn't completely understand, but he trusted God anyway. Because of his faith, David become the greatest human king to live; even the humanity of Christ descended from Him.

Dr. Rick Wallace 

It is not for you to fully understand God's movement; full revelation does not require faith. God places us in situations in which the outcome seems uncertain, so that we are forced to exercise our faith. Faith is best seen in the darkness of uncertainty. Faith becomes expressively distinctive when pragmatic and empirical evidence is no longer present. Faith stands tall when men declare things impossible for you. Faith acknowledges your negative circumstances and then totally disagrees with them.

Yes, you are going through a difficult time, but God is working in the undercurrents of your struggle. He is about to do a "new thing" in your life (Isa. 43:19). He is about to shake up the world around you. You are being positioned for the spectacular. Just trust Him! ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

A Surrendered Heart

In an address given to ministers and workers after his ninetieth birthday, George Mueller spoke thus of himself: "I was converted in November, 1825, but I only came into the full surrender of the heart four years later, in July, 1829. The love of money was gone, the love of place was gone, the love of position was gone, the love of worldly pleasures and engagements was gone. God, God alone became my portion. I found my all in Him; I wanted nothing else. And by the grace of God this has remained, and has made me a happy man, an exceedingly happy man, and it led me to care only about the things of God. I ask affectionately, my beloved brethren, have you fully surrendered the heart to God, or is there this thing or that thing with which you are taken up irrespective of God?

I read a little of the Scriptures before, but preferred other books; but since that time the revelation He has made of Himself has become unspeakably blessed to me, and I can say from my heart, God is an infinitely lovely Being.

Oh, be not satisfied until in your own inmost soul you can say, "God is an infinitely lovely Being!"
--Selected

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

Stand Still

Stand Still
"Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord" (Exod. 14:13).

These words contain God's command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut upon the right hand and on the left. What is he now to do?

The Master's word to him is "stand still." It will be well for him if, at such times, he listens only to his Master's word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions. Despair whispers, "Lie down and die; give it all up." But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in His love and faithfulness.

Cowardice says, "Retreat; go back to the worldling's way of action; you cannot play the Christian's part; it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles."

But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it, if you are a child of God. His Divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course. What if for a while thou art called to stand still; yet this is but to renew thy strength for some greater advance in due time.

Precipitancy cries, "Do something; stir yourself; to stand still and wait is sheer idleness." We must be doing something at once--we must do it, so we think--instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something, but will do everything.

Presumption boasts, "If the sea be before you, march into it, and expect a miracle." But faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Precipitancy, but it hears God say, "Stand still," and immovable as a rock it stands.

"Stand still"--keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, "Go forward.'  --Spurgeon

***

"Stand Still", what a seemingly awkward command. In the same way that God commanded Moses at the Red Sea, He would , centuries later, command David..."Be still and know that I am God." There are those moments in which God has positioned us in a place of grooming and development, a place of testing and proving, and His command is not advance. His command is not engage the moment. His command is simply, "Stand Still".

Dr. Rick Wallace

Sometimes the moment can be so much bigger than you, and no matter how you view it, it becomes more and more and more overwhelming. Maybe you are standing at the Red Sea of your life, and there seems to be no place to cross. You can see the promises and blessings that await you on the other side, but there is no way to cross. Your natural proclivity will be to strive harder and press more inexorably toward your goal, but in many instances, God is saying "Be Still" I've got it from here.

There are those moments in which God simply wants you to believe. There are the moments when you are to go in and possess the promise, but there are other times when He simply wants you to "Be Still" and in the peace that comes from knowing that you serve an able God, wait. There are moments in which God desires to carry us across or to pave the way for us to simply step over.


Trust this, whenever God tells you to "stand still" something supernatural is about to take place. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Instant Obedience

Instant Obedience

"In the selfsame day, as God had said unto him" (Gen. 17:23).

Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Every time God calls us to any duty, He is offering to make a covenant with us; doing the duty is our part, and He will do His part in special blessing.

The only way we can obey is to obey "in the selfsame day," as Abraham did. To be sure, we often postpone a duty and then later on do it as fully as we can. It is better to do this than not to do it at all. But it is then, at the best, only a crippled, disfigured, half-way sort of duty-doing; and a postponed duty never can bring the full blessing that God intended, and that it would have brought if done at the earliest possible moment.



It is a pity to rob ourselves, along with robbing God and others, by procrastination. "In the selfsame day" is the Genesis way of saying, "Do it now."  --Messages for the Morning Watch

***
The scripture said that Abram did as God had asked the same day. He did not take time to mull over the answer. He did not delay his response of obedience to initiate the negotiation process. He did not ask why. He simply obeyed.

The sooner we learn that delayed obedience is not truly obedience and that it robs us of blessings and hinders the movement of God in our lives, the sooner we will begin to walk in the full power of all that God has promised.

Dr. Rick Wallace

So often we allow our rationale, fear, and trepidation to cause us to procrastinate in responding to God's call to move. Faith trusts God without reservation. Faith does not consider God's motives, it does not ponder the enigmatic ramifications of the command. Faith simply responds in obedience, not delayed obedience, but immediate, absolute obedience.

It is when our response to God's command is simply, yes, that we will experience unparalleled power and advancement in the Kingdom.

When God says move, move. You don't need to know why. You don't need to rationalize it to get a better understanding, as if you would know better than God what is best. To me, one of the greatest advantages to being a believer here on earth, is that through complete surrender to God, He does all the thinking. All I have to do is show up and do as I am told and the victory is eminent. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Support Rick Wallace Ministries

The Depth of Audacious Faith

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him..." (Job. 13:15)

In the midst of the most trying and devastating time of his life; while his friends falsely accused him, Job declared that even if God would take his life, he would trust him. I just want to take a minute to talk about this type of trust. I call this type of trust "audacious faith".

I see a lot of posts of self-proclaimed faith on different social-media sites and Facebook is no exception. The thing is that speaking about faith and living it is two totally different things. I am a preacher of faith. I understand the immense importance of faith in the life of the believer. When I began my ministry, one of my mentors told me to that when I preach faith I would have to live it. This year has been the darkest and most painful in my life. I have been attacked on every front. I have experienced loss in multitudinous ways. For the first time in my life, I literally thought I was going to break. I found myself facing the reality of walking in my words. No amount of reasoning could level out the rough places in my life.

There were times I wondered if God knew just how close I was to breaking. The truth is that He knew very well my state. The truth is that God was giving his testimony of my faith by placing me in a situation in which I had no choice but to use it. I was in a situation that extended beyond my intellectual prowess. I was being plagued by enigmatic conundrums that transcended my limited perspicacity of God's plan. What I did have was faith. I believed that God is God and that nothing is impossible with Him. I believed His promise that He would never leave me nor forsake me. I believed His promise that no weapon formed against me would prosper; no matter how it looked on the surface.

Although I could not understand why He was allowing the enemy to wreak immeasurable havoc in my life, I decided to trust Him with my life. I decided even if I lose my life, I will not relinquish my hope and trust in Him.  I do not dare compare my struggles this year with Job's devastation, but I know what it feels like to have darkness settle over my life with no sign of reprieve. I know the pain of loneliness while traveling though the darkness. I know the heartache of loss; however, I don't want you to feel sorry for me. In the midst of my darkness, God showed up and responded to my faith.

Audacious faith refuses to allow the circumstances in your life to dictate your state of mind. Audacious faith does not consider impossibility. Audacious faith does comprehend failure and acquiescence. Audacious faith is not shaken by the darkness. Audacious faith dares to trust God, even when it seems that God has chosen to destroy all that matters in your life.

I want to encourage you to learn to trust beyond your circumstance. Learn to stand beyond your pain. Learn to believe beyond your intellect and rationale. Learn to trust God with your life, even to the point of death; only then will you truly live. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace
http://focusedchristian.blogspot.com

Expand Your Expectations

But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [[e]who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. (1 Cor. 2:9, AMP)

The aforementioned scriptural passage centers in an extremely significant truth; our imaginations and expectations cannot ever exceed the power of God to perform the exceptional in our lives. In this passage the Apostle Paul vividly paints a portrait of a God that can do and has done far beyond our wildest imaginations on our behalf.  God has prepared great blessings on our behalf and He holds them in escrow for us to claim through the process of faith.

One of the problems that many believers are facing is the fact that they cannot seem to get out of survival mode. It seems that all so many of you want is to just get the bills paid, to just make it through another day, to just be able to cope with a person at the office that is trying your patience. Yes, we need to trust God to carry us through these moments, but we must also know that God desires to so much more in our lives. God is glorified in blessing and elevating His people. Contrary to popular belief, there is so much more to living the Christian life than simply surviving it to make to heaven.

The Christian life is one of victory and power. It is a life built on the foundation of faith that believes that God has created a plan specifically for your life and that He has empowered this plan through the anointing that has been placed on your life. We have to keep in mind that the life we live as believers we live because Christ paid the ultimate price on Calvary in order to provide it (Gal. 2:20), and He did not provide this life for us to live on the edge of defeat, simply happy to survive. Christ died to provide the ultimate victory (reconciliation with God) and all that accompanies it.

The scriptural passage says that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered to the heart of man, all that God has done and prepared for those that love Him. This doesn’t mean just your eye, ears or heart; it means that no one in the history of humanity has been witness to the extent of all that God has done on behalf of those whose hearts are turned toward Him. In essence, the greatest dreamer cannot fathom a fraction of what God has done for us.

Well, if God has done so much, why is it that so many believers live on the edge of defeat or worse? It is because they are in survival mode. They have bought into the lies of the enemy that say that lack is their lot in life.  They have boxed God in with their limited perspicacity instead of trusting Him to do exceedingly, abundantly and above all that they could ever imagine (Eph. 3:20). They have become captivated by life’s circumstances instead of apprehending the truth of divine omnipotence resident within them. It has become easy for them to believe the negative report of the enemy than it is to trust God to accomplish the supernatural.

When Joshua prayed that the sun stand still, he did not give consideration to the fact that nothing like that had ever been done before. He wasn’t concerned with putting God on the spot. He wasn’t fearful of the possibility of failure. God had promised him that he would be with him every step of the way and He would fight for him. Based on this promise, Joshua dared to ask for the impossible and expect nothing less than what he requested.

If you are to move from survival mode to live a life of a conqueror, you will have to expand your expectations of God and subsequently yourself. God wants to accomplish great things through you, but He will only meet you at your level of expectation. As long as all you expect is the bare minimum that is all you will get. There are some that don’t even expect the bare minimum; they have chosen to believe that a life of defeat is their lot. Victory is accomplished at the feet of God as you petition Him to perform the supernatural in your life. It is achieved as you dare to ignore the circumstances and take hold of the promises of God.

Trust me, there is nothing that you can ask God that will baffle Him or put Him on the spot. You are not going to put God in a position to be embarrassed because you’ve asked Him for something He can’t provide. God responds to radical faith; faith that has the audacity to expect the impossible. So, I encourage you to expand your expectations as far as God is concerned, He is capable of so much more that simply helping you to survive the moment. If you trust Him He will empower you to dominate the moment.

God Bless,

Dr. Rick Wallace

Beyond Reason

Audacious faith calls for you to be unreasonable. Reason robs you of accomplishing great things. Reason says, "it is impossible, no one has ever done it before." Reason says, they will laugh at you and call you crazy." Reason says, "play it safe, you don't want to fail in front of everyone." Reason says, " be realistic, the risk is too great."

The problem with reason is it can't grasp the infinite power of God to empower His people to accomplish the vision that He has placed within their hearts. Reason ignores the believer's access to the supernatural. Reason does not acknowledge the fact that the word "impossible" does not apply to the possessor of authentic and audacious faith. Reason cannot fathom the supernatural.

There is a reason we are told not to lean unto our own understanding; our limited perspicacity cannot fathom the remarkable things God will do for us and through us.

The "remarkable" is accomplished beyond the boundaries of reason. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Sit Still

"Ye shall not go out with haste" (Isa. 52:12).
I do not believe that we have begun to understand the marvelous power there is in stillness. We are in such a hurry--we must be doing--so that we are in danger of not giving God a chance to work. You may depend upon it, God never says to us, "Stand still," or "Sit still," or "Be still," unless He is going to do something.

This is our trouble in regard to our Christian life; we want to do something to be Christians when we need to let Him work in us. Do you know how still you have to be when your likeness is being taken?

***

Now God has one eternal purpose concerning us, and that is that we should be like His Son; and in order that this may be so, we must be passive. We hear so much about activity, may be we need to know what it is to be quiet. --Crumbs

***

Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!
Nor deem these days--these waiting days--as ill!
The One who loves thee best, who plans thy way,
Hath not forgotten thy great need today!
And, if He waits, 'tis sure He waits to prove
To thee, His tender child, His heart's deep love.

Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!
Thou longest much to know thy dear Lord's will!
While anxious thoughts would almost steal their way
Corrodingly within, because of His delay
Persuade thyself in simple faith to rest
That He, who knows and loves, will do the best.

Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!
Nor move one step, not even one, until
His way hath opened. Then, ah then, how sweet!
How glad thy heart, and then how swift thy feet
Thy inner being then, ah then, how strong!
And waiting days not counted then too long.

Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!
What higher service could'st thou for Him fill?
'Tis hard! ah yes! But choicest things must cost!
For lack of losing all how much is lost!
'Tis hard, 'tis true! But then--He giveth grace
To count the hardest spot the sweetest place.
--J. D. Smith