AS YOUR FAITH DEMANDS

One thing of late that I have REALLY learnt and there is emphasis on really, because when it comes to the things of God, we are often learning the same lessons over and over again. No matter how much you think you’ve grasped something, there is the reality of learning it deeper each time and more so than the last time. I’ve recently had to learn on an even deeper level, that much of the success and failures we record in our life are determined by our faith.

I was studying the book of Matthew a few months ago and something that struck me more than it ever had was the importance and focus that Jesus places on “Our” faith in the working of miracles.

In Matthew 8 vs. 5-13 we see the Centurion show great faith in Jesus’ ability to heal his servant simply by the words of his mouth. What is even more interesting was how impressed and astonished Jesus was with this show of faith. Jesus ultimately delivered healing to the centurion with these words; “Go back then; Let this be done for you, as your faith demands”.

Reading a little further down in Chapter 9 of the book of Matthew, Jesus heals a Paralytic, the woman with the Issue of blood and two blind men. To the paralytic we see  in vs. 2 that the bible says “Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the Paralytic “Take comfort my child, your sins are forgiven” and then in vs. 6 Jesus said to the man “…Get up, pick up your bed and go home”. With the woman with the Issue of blood who just believed that if only she could touch the hem of his garments she would be healed, Jesus said to her in vs. 22 “Courage, my daughter your faith has saved you” And the bible says and from that moment the woman was saved.

One thing that becomes crystal clear reading just these 2 chapters is that there is a link between our faith and our results. There is the sinking understanding that God will always place a demand on our faith to make things happen for us. With God, it wasn’t just enough for these people to say they had faith, Jesus expected or demanded that they turned that faith into actions.

With the Centurion, it was the step of walking back home believing that his daughter would be raised to life. With the paralytic it was taking the step of picking up his stretcher and attempting to walk even though he was paralyzed. The woman with the issue of blood, for her it was hustling through the crowd to touch His garment. With the two blind men it was act of persistently pursuing Jesus about town shouting “Son of David, have pity on us” (vs. 27). Whether the act of faith came before the profession of faith or the other way round, there was action backing up the profession

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For balance sake though it is important to know that profession of faith is just as important as taking steps of faith. Jesus doesn’t take it any less seriously.

In Matthew 9:28 Jesus asked the two blind men if they believed He could heal them? Jesus wasn’t asking because He wasn’t sure He could, or because He didn’t know that they believed. He was asking them because He needed them to open their mouths and profess it even though they had already showed by their actions that they had faith. It really puts in perspective the premium Jesus placed on words of faith,

2000 years later the rules haven’t changed even a little bit. It is not enough for us to think we have faith, we need to talk in line with that faith and then we have to walk in line with the faith we’ve professed. It’s a whole end to end process. No stone left unturned in our faith journey. This is soo important because faith is the currency of exchange for everything we receive from God here on earth, from the day we give our lives to Christ till the day we die.

We must all learn as Christians to persistently pray in faith, speaking the word of God to situations, being unwavering about what we say we believe and then walk in line with that faith. It is not good enough to speak and not walk or walk in faith and not speak.  Anyone can claim they have faith and not walk in line with that faith. It is also very possible to walk the faith walk and yet lack the courage to boldly declare that what we are believing God is a done deal. That is a contradictory journey and that’s not faithful enough. Our faith needs to grow strong enough to drown out every doubt and unbelief. When we combine speaking in faith with walking in faith, God becomes our only option because we would have put our all into what we are believing God for and that is exactly what He would have us do.

No second guessing. No games. Just pure faithing it the whole way through.