What is Biblical Faith?

What is it to have faith, exactly? The Bible tells us that faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

It’s believing that God is going to do what He says He will do, even before you have seen the evidence of it.

Faith is not some magic saying of words or believing for what you want to happen. It is listening for the Lord’s voice, praying what He says to pray, and patiently waiting to see the result, knowing that you have no power to bring that thing to pass.

So many people see God as a Heavenly Genie who is at our command. Wrong! We are His to command. The key to answered prayer is to find out His will, and then jump on board with Him.
The Lord Jesus talks to me a lot in word-pictures. As I’m writing this, the Holy Spirit showed me a man trying to pull a mile-long train in his own strength. What God wants the man to do is put down the rope, climb aboard, and enjoy the ride, while God provides the forward movement.

Lord Jesus, forgive us when we have tried to pull the train. May we instead let You take us where You want to go.

P.S. After I wrote this post I went to Google Images, typed in “man pulling train” and this was the first picture that popped up!

Please join my blog so we can travel the tracks together.

Difficult Decisions

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I recently spoke with a young woman whose husband had a serious illness. He sought out a well-known specialist who told him he could be a candidate to participate in a blind study of a new medication that could possibly hold a cure. There would be no charge for the participation in the study which normally would be extremely expensive. All experiments conducted on animals so far had proved successful.

The husband wanted to do the trial, but his wife wanted no part of it. As I spoke to her, the Lord whispered, “Have no mind in the matter.” (I understood that to mean that we were not to tell God what to do; we were to present the problem to Him so that He could do what He wanted according to His way and timing.)

I asked her, “Have you prayed about what decision to make?”

“No. I flat-out don’t want him to take the chance. What if it doesn’t work? What if he’s one that only gets the placebo drugs in the control group?”

The Holy Spirit urged me again. “Would you be willing to ask God for His wisdom as to what you should do? God tells us in James that if we lack wisdom, we should ask Him and He will give it liberally. He does caution us in this same passage however, that once He gives His wisdom, we must not waver in doubt or we will be as unsettled as a wave tossed on the sea.”

Reluctantly, she agreed.

As we prayed, the Lord nudged me again to pray that we would have no mind in the matter. That we would open ourselves to the Lord’s will and wisdom that is beyond our own; to let Him take charge of the situation. To take our hands off, give Him our fears, and let him direct our thoughts so that this husband and wife could come into agreement with God’s will, whatever that might be.

On the way home, I continued to pray about the situation, wondering how it would all turn out.
Speaking with her the next week, I asked how our project was coming.

“Oh, we decided even if he wasn’t helped, he might be helping someone else.” She looked at her watch. “In fact he’s in for his first injection right about now.”

God’s ways never cease to amaze me.

God's Undercover Work

I never cease to be amazed at our loving heavenly Father. On August 3, 2013 I posted an update to my 9/11 story in God’s Little Miracle Book II.

On August 21, I received an e-mail from a lady I didn’t know. She told me she was a daughter of my childhood friend Grant, the man who was the pilot on the United flight on 9/11. I wrote about him in God’s Little Miracle Book II.

She said, “Tomorrow it will have been six weeks,” (since her father died.) “I was having a difficult night, and praying for some type of connection. I Google imaged my father and your book came up. I instantly downloaded the book to my Kindle.

“I am Grant Besley’s daughter. Although I have heard the 9/11 story from him, it was wonderful to read in detail and imagine him telling me again . . . he was a great storyteller.

“Tonight, your book became MY God’s little miracle in a deeply felt prayer that was nearly instantly answered after writing a letter to my Dad.

“Oddly, the intent of my late night was actually to download the Kindle version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, but per my usual mode, I was distracted (Guided by the hand of God) to writing the letter, then the Google search, then my prayer answered!

“He (Dad) once sent me a card with the message “There are no coincidences . . . only God working undercover!”

Truly, our God does hear, answer, and work undercover!

 

Forty years ago, we had a small prayer group at church that met every Tuesday. God blessed us each time we met with miraculous healings and obvious answered prayers; far beyond anything we had ever seen before. Our numbers increased each week as people discovered a personal relationship with the living Lord Jesus.

At one of these meetings, Carol, one of the members, announced her husband’s company had transferred them to Colorado from here in Kansas City. We had become a very close-knit group and everyone grieved to see her go.

Suddenly, in my mind’s eye I saw a huge map of the United States. Jesus came up from the southwest with a large bushel basket of dry leaves and dumped them right on Kansas City. He then bent down, cupped His hands, and blew on the leaves. The pile immediately caught fire and blew little embers all over the map which ignited each place they fell.

Our sadness turned to joy as we realized the Lord had prepared us in this little prayer group to love and care for one another with His love and power. Carol and her family were being sent on a mission to go out and start new revival fires in His name.

Within two weeks, another shared her family would soon move out of state. Others followed until about half the group had scattered throughout the United States. Eventually, Jesus scattered others as far as Australia.

When the Holy Spirit gives a prophecy, it often has an immediate fulfillment, but a long-term meaning also.

Now forty years later, everywhere I go people speak of the need for a sweeping, earth-changing revival. Others cry out about the challenges they face in their personal lives.

Will you join us in praying for lives to be supernaturally changed; for God to give people a new heart and heal them from the inside out? For Him to release people from wasted lives, seeminglys incurable diseases, and life-ruining bondages?

That’s what Jesus came to do. He left His Holy Spirit with us to complete the work He began. Will you let Him use you in whatever way He chooses? He is waiting to hear your response.