Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
When the Lord revealed the Father’s heart to me in 2003, He also spoke to me concerning the necessity of giving up control in my life in order for me to live a life of faith. He told me, “You cannot walk in faith and be in control.” Up until that time, I never considered myself a very controlling person, nevertheless, God did and since that time He has shown me that a spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1:7) was influencing me. When we operate in fear we become controlling as a protection mechanism. Fear is the counterfeit faith and it is always built on a lie. God offered me an exchange, my fearful and controlling heart for His heart of courage and faith.
The way He is accomplishing this in my life is not always comfortable. In the beginning He kept putting me in situations where I would fail and look foolish if He did not show up, many times He did not appear to show up and when He did it was never in the way I expected. Regardless, I had to humble myself each time I felt the fear of failure or the fear of men’s faces rise up in my heart. It was an emptying process and over a period of time I felt less and less need to control indicating that the spirit of fear was losing its grip and true faith was beginning to rise in my heart.
There is much written in the Bible about faith, in fact faith is so important that the Holy Spirit actually defined faith for us. Even so, faith can seem mysterious and illusive and many times we mistakenly think we have faith when it is really hope, which is also very important for us. The worse deception is to think we are in faith when we are really being presumptuous. I do not make any claim to having a special revelation on faith, but after the Lord spoke to me about being controlling I asked Him to help me better understand and operate in faith. This is some of what He showed me that has been key for my walk of faith.
And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.” Mark 11:22
In this verse and some other places “IN” is better translated “OF”. “Have faith OF God”. Jesus is the author and finisher OF faith (Heb. 12:2). Paul said He lived by the faith OF the Son of God (Gal. 2:20). Paul also speaks concerning the faith OFthe working of God (Col. 2:12). Peter, after the healing of the lame man who lay at the temple gate called Beautiful, says that it was all done in Jesus’ Name, through faith in His name, faith which comes THROUGH Him that gave the man the perfect soundness of health and healing (Acts 3:16). It is His faith operating in us. The old saying, “God is not looking for your ability, but your availability” is about faith.
“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. 25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.” Mark 11:23-25
There are things that hinder His faith in us. Doubt in our heart hinders faith from operating. Doubt is the reason Peter began to sink after he had briefly walked on the water (Matt. 14:31). When we take our eyes off the author and finisher of faith doubt rises and we sink.
Faith works in the context of love (Gal. 5:6). The lack of Christ-like character may be the greatest hindrance to the operation of faith. I never really understood why Jesus mentions forgiveness in the same context of praying to move a mountain. It is because of un-forgiveness, hatred, bitterness, anger, unrighteous judgment or anything that is contrary to the Spirit of Christ and the love of God will hinder the operation of faith. In fact anything, even things that may not be sinful in nature, that have too much of a place in our hearts will hinder faith. I believe that both doubt and unbelief are the fruits of things in our heart that are contrary to the Spirit of Christ and love of God (Matt. 17:17).
Many Blessings, BW