“Don’t define truth by what you see!”I recall Coach Al Hollingsworth saying those words a few months back when he brought Vertical Leap to my city. Those words are essentially what faith is all about: having the courage to believe in the invisible and the intangible in the midst of the overwhelming visibility and tangibility of our circumstances.
In recent months, those words have been the anthem of my waking life and, to the best of my abilities, made every effort to march to its beat (I’m still learning how, day by day). It is not easy – especially for someone who has been conditioned to walk by sight and to gauge reality by emotions and circumstances.
As a human being, I have been given a plethora of physical senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, temperature, pain to name a few. These physical senses are designed to help me perceive things physical in nature. They enable me to define my physical reality. However, for those who believe in God and have a faith-based relationship with Him, another set of senses overrides the physical ones.
Man is more than just flesh and blood – he is a spirit being, made in the image of God who is also a spirit being. To perceive the things of the spirit, we have been given spiritual senses to live by. Spiritual senses that help define our truth in line with God’s truth. This is where faith comes in.
“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” [Hebrews 11:1]
The tough part about faith? You don’t perceive what’s coming to you using your physical senses. Tough because most – if not all – of us have been trained from birth to rely on what we see, hear and touch to determine reality. To see is to believe after all. Faith, on the other hand, requires more. Faith is taking a step out of the boat and believing you can walk on water. Faith is turning the laws of physics upside down and commanding a mountain to throw itself into the bottom of the ocean. Faith is believing first, seeing second.
It is absolutely essential for professing Christians, who believe in the invisible God, to have faith - to live in it, walk in it, breathe in, sleep with it. We have to be sold out to the fact that when we are called out to tread on water, we won't sink; that when we are called to uproot mountains, they will obey; and that when we believe, what we prayed for and believe in will come to pass. Otherwise, all will be meaningless and useless because without faith, it is impossible to please God.
As I continue to live out my life in Christ, as I work out my salvation with fear and trembling, I find it more necessary to believe what the Word of God says. I find that the more I believe what He says in His Word, the more my faith increases -- or more appropriately, the more He increases my faith. The more He increases my faith, the less I rely on my physical senses for guidance and direction.
It is now the Holy Spirit that guides me past the capabilities – and limitations – of my physical senses, as He shows me that I can see more, be more and do more when walking in faith, using my spiritual senses. The worlds says to see is to believe. The Spirit says believing is seeing. This is the essence of a faith driven life.
My goal? To let God show me how to live not only a purpose driven life, but a faith driven one as well.
It is now the Holy Spirit that guides me past the capabilities – and limitations – of my physical senses, as He shows me that I can see more, be more and do more when walking in faith, using my spiritual senses. The worlds says to see is to believe. The Spirit says believing is seeing. This is the essence of a faith driven life.
My goal? To let God show me how to live not only a purpose driven life, but a faith driven one as well.
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