12/08/08

For many Christians, faith has become a formula that is usually invoked to “claim” some particular “blessing” that will appeal to our comfort, pride, or status – bigger house, better car, more money. This formula usually doesn’t work for the average Joe who is not at the pinnacle of the “sowing” flow. So what is faith?

Faith is the settled assurance that what God has said He will do. There are no short cuts to faith. Faith requires the heavy lifting of consistent, diligent pressing in to God to get that assurance. Rees Howells called it “coming up to the promise”. Other old timers called it “praying through”. Whatever term we choose, we must gain the settled assurance that we have what we have petitioned God for. Then and only then is it ours, no matter when we see it come to pass. No one can do it for us. We must exercise our muscles ourselves if we want bigger muscles. We also must realize that to exercise faith muscles we will encounter faith requiring situations. God will never reduce His Word to the level of our experience. He will always work to bring our experience up to the level of His Word.

Lauran and I have been traveling around with the message of NEWFOUNDLAND  ABLAZE, PREPARE FOR REVIVAL, and WHY NOT TODAY - Not tomorrow or next year but WHY NOT TODAY. NOW. Many of us have all kinds of reasons why we can lend assent to tomorrow – church unity, strife and striving over who will be king, religion, etc. The list can be endless. However, I believe TODAY is the day of salvation. The four month mentality Jesus referred to must go. We must move beyond what we see in the natural. The disciples saw that the harvest was four months away because that’s how it looked and was. Yet Jesus challenged them by saying the harvest is at hand. The fields are ripe for harvest. What we see in the natural is probably correct. However the eyes of faith see differently. 

In this experience, as I was proclaiming Newfoundland Ablaze Today, I was wrapped in a thick blanket of the Presence of the Lord, in perfect peace and rest. In that cocoon of the Holy Spirit, I could see it happen, NOW. However, when I was faced with the sprit of unbelief and if I entertained it even for a moment, that thick blanket of His Presence would separate. I would then see myself standing in on a barren rock, devoid of all life, with a howling cold wind hitting me in the face. I was allowed to step in and out of this belief/unbelief realm several times. One brought life, one brought death.

These words came into my spirit:

I WILL NOT GIVE UP

I CANNOT GIVE UP

I WILL NOT GIVE IN

I WILL NOT GO BACK.

A great resolve and a settling came into me that the time is NOW.

Hebrews chapter 10 ends this way:

We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Hebrews chapter 11 starts:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. The stakes are high. There is no neutral ground. Will we press in to God in order to press on to see His purposes fulfilled? Or will we shrink back and watch a destiny fall to the ground?