BELIEVE PAST WHAT YOU CAN SEE

Faith sees.  You know that don't you?  Faith peers through the visible veil into the true what is yet possible to become portion of our very practical lives.

Faith is not a game of Guessmanship where the one whose best guesses come true wins.  Faith brings about.  It creates.  It is a non-fleshly dynamic that believes when it can't understand.  Thus the trial of such an important factor that is to be a strength in our walk.

When I was preaching in the mid-70s in Quincy, Illinois, I was at an ideal church where Mary and I were really fortunate to be a part of God's work.  My biggest prayer was that God would help me reach the whole world.

Memorial Drive in Tulsa called in 1977 as they were looking for a new guy.  What an honor; but of course my response was no but thank you.  I continued my prayer to reach the whole world and during one of those prayers....it hit me...it hit me really hard.  What if I was saying no to His yes prayer?

So I called back to Tulsa, flew in for an interview and the very first words from my mouth were, I can't possibly move here.  I love it in Quincy.  Against my deepest emotions we packed up the U-Haul and cried our way to Oklahoma.  Miserable, discouraged, going against ourselves, we arrived.

I wept for six months.  I missed home.  But I knew something; something beyond reason, beyond the visible.  God would respond to my prayer from here. And He did.  And....He does.

It says of Abraham, known as the Father of Faith, that he went out not knowing where he was going.  Really?  That's leadership?  That's a man whom one can have strong confidence?  Yes.  And yes.  An then yes, again.

Our problem is that we want to walk by sight and yet label it faith.  And, that doesn't work.  We are called to walk by faith and not by sight.  The church is stuck, very stuck, because it generally functions in its patterns and programs by the human calculation. There is little fire, if any.

Faith isn't easy.  It is risky.  It appears to be most foolish.  And, it often goes against the grain of the very people we are trying to lead.  Just read about Moses trying to lead God's people according to God's direction.  It was a holy fiasco.

We are called; not to the useless and the boring.  No, we are called to the fantastic which can only come about because someone(s) of faith can envision God's accomplishments for His people while the followers might sneer and jeer.

Dare to light the torch of faith.  Keep it burning by the fuel of the Holy Spirit.  Believe past what you can see.  And...get ready to be wowed.