Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Recently, I was deeply stirred while listening to Canada missionary Dwight Huffman’s message and its two simple points: What do you see, and what do you believe? Dwight demonstrated how our physical eyes can deceive us as he told us the story of a church in Melfort, Saskatchewan. With only six adult members left after years of effort to establish a church, the small group contacted Dwight about shutting down and giving up. But when they prayed and asked God to intervene instead, He did!
In answer to their prayer, Melfort native Todd Goudy felt called to return to his hometown to pastor the Melfort church. Today the church has outgrown its facilities, sold them for $150,000, and purchased a Nazarene church facility much larger and newer than their previous building for $90,000, leaving them $60,000 left over. God has grown His church from six faithful souls to well over a hundred, and all of this in about two years’ time.
Right now your eyes are telling you something. They are telling you to give up, that there is no hope, there is no use, and that the odds are stacked against you. What do you see? Do you see impossibilities? Do you see challenges and obstacles? Do you see your own limitations or the frailty of your own trust in God to intervene? What do you see?
I challenge you now to ask yourself , “What do I believe?” What do you believe about God and His ability to intervene? As we continue on this incredible journey of faith we first need to know what faith is and what faith does.
The word “faith” in Hebrews 11:1 could also be translated assurance, persuasion, belief, or conviction. When we pray we are called to pray with faith or to pray with conviction and assurance that the thing we are praying for will come to pass; not because of our praying but because of God’s intervention. Faith is the oxygen that breathes life into our praying. Without faith our prayers are like wounded ducks shot from the sky and falling lifeless to the ground. Faith is simply believing that God can and will intervene.
As you continue on this 28 day pilgrimage, you have been challenged to identify some things you are asking God to provide. As you devote yourself to prayer today – pray with faith or with assurance and confidence that the thing you are praying for will come to pass. Pray with conviction and wrap this verse around your mind all day long. Do not entertain doubts that God will not come through. Doubt chokes and strangles faith which makes our prayers ineffective. Pray with persuasion that God is going to bring your petitions to reality.
Hebrews 11:1 reads that faith is the assurance…. that does not make sense. According to the way we just defined the word “faith” it would read “assurance is the assurance.” We just established the fact that the word “faith” means assurance and confidence. The word “assurance” in this passage has two insightful meanings: it means substance or actual existence. Stay with me here. When we pray with faith, which is our assurance, we should pray as if the thing we are praying for is actually in existence or real substance. That means we are to pray and see with our spiritual eyes what our physical eyes may not be able to behold at the moment. It goes back to the question, what do you see and what do you believe? When we are really praying with genuine faith, we have a concrete confidence that what we are asking the Father for will come to pass if we are praying according to His will (I John 5:14-15.) We will get into God’s will and prayer later on.
You might not behold the substance of your prayers yet with your physical eyes but what do you see with your eyes of faith? Can you see your request coming to pass? Many years ago God birthed in me the idea for a book to be titled Behold the Faithfulness of God. I prayed, wrote, rewrote, and edited while praying even more for God to put that book into print. I prayed in faith and could actually see myself holding the book in my hand and the book sitting on bookshelves. Now, mind you I did not see the details of the cover of the book but I did see that book with my spiritual eyes. In my spirit that book was substance and actually in existence for years in the spiritual realm. I waited for years before God intervened, provided a way for the book to be published and in December of 2008 I held that answer to prayer in my hand for the first time. We printed 5,000 copies of it. Even today I still have multiple copies of this book in boxes sitting in my garage.
What is it you see in your spirit but have not tasted in the physical realm? Ask the Lord in faith, believing that it will come to pass in actual existence. This is the essence of really trusting and obeying. We are not through, though. What are we praying for? What are we believing God for? What are we assured of and what is the substance and evidence of our faith?
These are vital questions in the quest to trust and obey. I would draw your attention to the word “things” in our Hebrews passage. What things? These are the tangible and specific things we are praying for. A new job. Healing of arthritis, kidney disease, brain tumors, and for healthy deliveries of infant children. Things like provision for bills, transportation, the success of businesses, provision for lost retirement money in the stock market, and even some of the desires of our hearts. What specific things are you praying for?
One other word I would like to focus on in our passage is the word “hope.” Hope is what prayer offered in faith provides, it gives hope, and “hope” defined means expected. I fully expect that God will bless our church and I fully expect that God is going to grow this little church that most people have never heard of. I fully expect that many of you this day are coming to a new understanding about faith and prayer, making you eager to pray with renewed enthusiasm. When we say amen and rise from our praying, we should get up and go about the rest of the day expecting and being assured that God will intervene. He might not do it right this moment, in this very hour, but if we have asked God with right motives and according to His will, we can expect answers to those things we have seen and petitioned the Lord for by faith. We can expect to witness, to hold, and to testify about God’s answers to prayer. May we all pray with fresh faith and the firm conviction that God does and will answer prayer because He is always faithful.
Steps to Trust and Obey:
1. What things do you need to ask God for in faith? Be specific and ask according to what we discovered about faith in Hebrews 11:1.
2. What do you see right now? What do you believe God will do?
Take some time to ask the Lord to enable you to believe Him for greater things over the next few weeks.
3. Read Heb 11:1 slowly, thinking about what you see with your eyes and what you believe in your heart.
4. Take some time to pray with as much faith as you can muster and be determined to rise and go about your day with hope and expectation.
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