Bible-Prayer-Europe Equipping Center
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Bible-Prayer-Europe Equipping Center
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Becoming a Man of God by Jay Powers © 2009
CHAPTER 4- FAITH I remember a couple of years ago, I learned a valuable lesson in faith. I had always been someone who liked to think he had things all figured out. If a spiritual question arose, I would ponder it until I figured it out. I was confident in my ability to reason and to think. But I was in trouble when I realized this: you can’t understand everything in this present life. The devil, sensing a moment of weakness, went back to the basics of my faith, something I thought I had a firm grip on, such as the existence of God. “Prove there is a God”, he would quip and then I would set out to do so. I thought, this is easy; it’s so obvious there’s a God. And I was partly right; in the Spirit—it’s to plain to see. There is a God and He loves us. But in the natural mind, you cannot prove God. You answer a question just in time to have another one raised. I struggled for months to figure out God. Then the God who my mind wasn’t sure existed (your flesh is stupid like that) showed up with this principle. In many passages in Scripture, the kingdom of God is referred to as “a mystery” (see Matthew 3:11 and Ephesians 5:32). Then I realized something: if God says some things are mysteries, then it is a sin to act otherwise. Don’t say to God “I don’t believe your Word. I will figure it out.” I realized that was just what I was doing. I had made an idol out of intellect. So I asked God what I needed to do to correct the situation and He said simply “Trust me.” Trust is a thing hard to come by to an intellectual. I had trusted Jesus to be my Savior years before, but that was about all I trusted. I realized that I had been only obeying the Scriptures I fully understood. The others I simply disregarded and went about figuring out the way I wanted to handle myself. I had forgotten Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding.” Ask yourself this question: do I trust God like that? I had to answer no. The transition from feeling and intellect to faith and trust hasn’t been easy. But after I trusted Him more fully, then things became clearer. Faith in Hebrews 11:1 is “substance” and evidence”, the tangible things I had sought from the beginning. We must live in the Spirit. Romans 8:13 states it clearly, “If you live after the flesh, you shall die.” There’s that word shall again. It’s not “maybe you’ll die.” I noticed while trying to figure everything out, I was dying inside, not physically, but the passion and purpose I had once known was dying. But when I let go and let God take control, that passion was energized more than ever before. God tells us in 1 Peter 5:7 to cast all our care (our anxiety, fears, and worries) upon Him. Are you tired? Are you hurting? Then simply close the book on fear. Cast off the demons of doubt and simply trust God. In the next chapter, we will get into how we can begin to walk free by simply realizing one little principle that changes everything. |
