When Faith Backfires...

Michael, Thank you much for such rich and enlightening post. I looked up the word \"know\" in the NT and it's the greek \"ginosko\". This word also means exactly what you pointed. Is not only to recognize Him but to truly and fully get to have full intimacy with Him and His ways. It is not just about going to church on Sunday, but much more. Going to church is only a small fraction of having full intimacy with Him. And this is the only way we have garanteed directions for our path!! Best to all! Rodrigo

Great advice --- but --- edgy!!!! For those who get it right it will be quite a revelation I bet...

Greetings, Thank you.... Rodrigo has a great point, relationship with Jesus should not be an \"event\" ie... church, study group, choir practice or even 'a' prayer meeting. It's a lifestyle, woven though EVERYthing we do, say and THINK. The Lord has been desiring us to come close and listen to the whispers. When we ignor those He speaks louder. When we continue on our own path He will increase, getting our attention till we turn. He will have His way, it is a done deal. He ALREADY won....it is finished. How it goes with us is how we position ourselves IN relationship with Him. He wants to be our friend... He offers friendship to us... WOW, God wants to tell us secrets of hidden things... get close... listen. steady gaze... Darla \\o/

Michael, great post. I think you prove the fallacy of positive thinking apart from a relationship with God. I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book, \"Outliers.\" It is a great read, really looking at other factors that contribute to success beyond hard work, a positive outlook, or in a nutshell, the self-made man. He indicates that circumstances, and the time of one's birth make a big difference. Without knowing it, I believe he has written a book which expounds on Acts 17:26, \"from one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.\" This is one of my all-time favorite verses. Being at the right place at the right time. This really speaks to the sovereignty of God in our lives. God certainly knew before the foundation of the world that the financial markets would do what they are now doing and He planned that we would be born for such a time as this. At these great inflection points in history, new opportunities open up, the way business and the economy works changes dramatically. We are in the middle of a massive shift. While it's tough out there, at the same time, God birthed us at for just this time. Blessings, Dennis

I know from bitter experience in other areas of my life that some Christians that you turn to for advice tickle your ears and say yes you can have what you want if only you keep on believing and pray long and hard enough to make what you want happen. Then when what you want does not happen you are left wondering what is wrong with you that it did not happen. Trouble is you have to be very strong in order to handle not only all the issues that arise because of the initial problem but the succeeding waves of additional problems that appear as time goes on and the situation gets more and more tangled. One thing leads to another and life can become so unbearable so you scream out to God to get you unstuck. In my case the escape plan included the one thing that I tried so hard to avoid many years earlier. Now I have escaped I look back and wonder at the very high price that I paid in a variety of ways because I believed that it was possible for there to be a positive outcome. What I wanted seemed good to me and to my advisors at the time. I could have followed the majority of the escape plan many years earlier without having to pay the high price that I eventually did. However at the time it seemed to be an inappropriate course of action for a Christian. In other words having faith in something happening is only a good idea if you have faith in the right thing at the right time. You can only know what to have faith in by maintaining a close relationship with God. The hard bit can be asked God what he wants in a situation and having peace that even if this is something that you cannot see as being good at the time that it could well be in the end. Hard as in the book I read last week someone's first wife died of cancer but if she had lived then he would not have been able to court a second wife a process which included him being healed of a so-called incurable mental health problem. Susan

Susan, I'm sorry about your bad experience. About your comment: \"You can only know what to have faith in by maintaining a close relationship with God\". In my experience, many of the problems experienced in today's Chritianity are caused because of our weak and not complete definition of the word \"faith\". Our only definition of the word is what we pull out of the book of Hebrews, 11:1. This, in my opinion, gives us a very Helenistic defintion of the word. I belive we should go to the original OT and find out what The Father ment with the true \"faith\" statement. Turns out that the first definition of the word translated Faith is \"faithfulness\" (Emunah in OT Hebrew, and Pistis NT Greek). This goes in line with the original statement of this post which about seeking intimacy with the Father. This is done by being \"faithfull\" to His commandments and His ways, and not only \"believing\" hard that something is going to happen, as it is sometimes taught in the Church. By being faithfull to Him, we achieve His directions. It is critical that the Church understands this mindset which is well understood in the Jewish culture. Best to all!

michael, I really liked your article on faith. It spoke to me so much. I read an article recently entitled \"The Agony of Faith.\" Here is a portion of it. The rest can be read at Kingdom BibleStudies.com by Bill and Elaine Cook. The New Testament speaks of “the fight of faith� which in the Greek is ‘agone’, translated as ‘agony.’ The agony of faith is not the agony of our willpower. We do not stand up against sin and Satan, temptation and spiritual powers in the strength of our willpower, but ‘faith.’ Faith sees the unseen that Jesus Christ is Lord and has put away sin by His blood and has stripped all demon powers of all their authority. HE IS LORD. That is the statement of the finished work. Ours is the agony of standing in the appearance of things and we fight against that appearance, knowing that it is not ultimate reality. The ultimate reality is Jesus is Lord in this situation. In that, that which is not seen becomes that which is seen, and that which is seen is swallowed up by the unseen. II Cor. 10: 4-6 ....the weapons of our warfare... Lois

The word of God is our provision, when Satan, through Jezebel Spirit, pretend to steal our prophetic authority to claim what God already gave us economically, politically and spiritually in Jesus. Revelations 6: 6 says oil and wine, which is our spiritual and economical provision, won't be stealed or affected by this judgement. We just need to believe and use our sword (Jesus Word) in the spirit to war against Satan and his dark kingdom so we may receive the fullness of grace to conquer and prevail in the middle of the spiritual warfare. The oil which is the anointing to break the yogues and the wine which is the joy of the Spirit as a result of our victory in fasting and prayer in Jesus. May God bless you abundantly with his oil and wine in for his glory! In Jesus Love, Emilio

GOD NEVER WANTS US TO THINK NEGATIVELY! Faith is the basis of everything we do as a CHRISTIAN! In all ways acknowledge HIM! I can not agree here at all that faith can sink us! It means that ALL THINGS DO NOT work together for good! I think GOD is preparing us for JESUS return. We as Christians need to be tougher and stronger and RELY ON JESUS! I have lived and worked overseas where life and death is a constant struggle. Here we live in such richness that we can not comprehend real poverty and survival. The premise that faith can sink us means that GOD has withdrawn all his blessing! Success or Failure is not simply a condition of our capacity to employ a sense of positive thinking. It is only by GOD's will and by his favor we sink or swim! I have not worked in 7 months and my life has been tough! But I thank GOD everyday for my life and his blessings. He has provided food and shelter. And in HIS time he will provide a job. Yes I have felt great despair and been depressed and I get tired of the misery, but GOD has reminded me that HE is there and I have not been abandoned. JESUS is my lifeline! I remember this verse of a song my mother taught me as child. It is what we all must remember \"MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS THAT JESUS BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS!\" Blessings in this time of Thanksgiving Arnold Talbott

Dear Arnold... Tom Walker, the second person to post today, warned that some folks might misunderstand my comment. Allow me to clarify what I meant when I said faith could sink you. I will use a simple example. If you are washed overboard in a raging sea. You need a life jacket. If someone throws you an anchor but convinces you beforehand to trust in that anchor, to believe it has powers that it really doesn't, to believe that it actually floats when it doesn't, and you hold on to it, you will sink. Period. Of course, if God said it would float and carry you to shore and you believed God against all reason or common sense, it would carry you to shore. But that would be having faith in God and in what He said - not in the anchor itself. My point is that a lot of people have faith in something that God didn't originate and they sink. Try walking on water today and you will see what I mean. Unless Jesus bids you, you'd be wiser to find another way to cross the body of water. Well placed faith in God always carries a reward. I hope this helps my brother.

When we lean on our own understanding we can easily misunderstand what the Lord is doing in our various situations, a prime biblical example is Job as he was totally clueless, as were his friends, to understand that he was undergoing a severe test of faith at the time. Gerald Chester has some great points to make on the GFC as it is now known in his monthly Gleanings. http://www.strategieswork.com/publications/gleanings/2008/2008-12.htm

Sometimes a positive attitude is fear wearing a mask. A few years ago I was having trouble facing a problem that needed facing. But I am a faith person and I didn't believe in agreeing with the problem. The Lord showed me David and Goliath in a new way. I had asked Him to show me the difference between Faith and denial. He said that Faith was faith based or trust based, and denial was fear based. He showed me how David, unlike the army of Isreal, ran and faced Goliath and took him out. Then the Lord said to me \"Denial is denying something exists, faith is denying it the right to remain.\" Sometimes we need to face things in order to get God's strategies to take it out or get through. Lately He has said a new thing to me; \"You can admit something is wrong without agreeing with the Devil.\" He is now showing me how. Tamara

Dear Michael ... Your last point in your comment above frames up the conversation. Considering Rom 14:23 'For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.' Luke 14:26-35 '“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.' The first scripture tells us that stepping out apart from a preceding word from God, has us in a sinful place. The second (there is so much in here) encourages us to 'sound decision making' as you refer to them, before the journey starts, and during the journey. I personally do not like the words positive and negative when applied to our thinking processes. They terms do not convey the right message, and it becomes to easy to dismiss someone who has a valid viewpoint for you. If God places a thought in me that is opposed to what I am setting out to do is that negative? Another point to consider here, is I have seen many people set out on a journey with God in business, with their faith in God, only to transpose that faith onto their business as it became more successful, losing sight of the reality that God is the source, and not their business. I have only recently come across your blog Michael, but enjoy it very much. Hope this helps

Thanks to all of you for great input on this one. Welcome Peter and Tamara and Darla to the blog. I believe I recognize the other names and as always, appreciate the input. Your input helps me! Blessings, Michael

Faith is God' s gift to man through which we are able know that God loves us and has a plan for our lives and that He will reveal this plan to us and direct us to accomplish His plan. God has revealed to me that His perfect will for all of us is too restore His kingdom on earth. In this perfect plan all creation that has fallen into the grip of Satan will be saved. God restores His kingdom by removing Satan from earth and reconciling his iniquity (or twisting of God' s word). This reconciling of iniquity is the same as destroying all the works of Satan. God sent Jesus to earth to perform this mission. And He has called us all to participate in Jesus' s mission in different ways that He has equipped us to perform and carry out. Tactically speaking, in God' s permissive will, He permits us to make choices and experience the consequences of these choices all of which He has pre-ordained. This is God' s way of training us on the job. He gives us faith to know that even if our choices lead to unpleasant consequences, He still loves us and we know through faith that everything will work out for our own good. Thus, through faith, we are able to use our imagination to focus on a certain path to follow and to believe it is the right path for us. Operating in faith, Abraham believed God would would still carry out His promise to bless him through Isaac even if he killed him in accordance with God' s command. Abraham may have believed that God would resurrect Isaac. But we know the rest of the story that God did not resurrect Isaac. Instead, He sent an angel to stay Abraham' s hand from killing Isaac and God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead of Isaac. Abraham learned that God works in mysterious ways that he did not expect. This story excites and gives spiritual substance to the measure of faith that God has given to me. David Thompson

thanks Michael for your posts!

Thank you Jorge!

Michael, With out a doubt,this is the best words of wisdom I have heard all year! Jim

Michael, Great post. I heard a sermon last Sunday and the pastor/teacher talked about single-mindness toward Jesus. I think that is what Paul was saying when he said \"I love God more than life itself.\" More than anything this world has to offer. We are definite in for some tough times, as Christians, and we had better keep our eyes and focus on Him, and not our circumstances, economy, or what is going on here on earth, ie Peter when he was walking on the water and started looking at the waves and not at Jesus. I recommend everyone listen to the sermon at www.thevillagechurch.net and click on the Nov. 30th sermon. Blessings Kern

I was asked the other day...WHY do you believe in God? Not the normal questions I've heard before, but WHY-do you believe in God...it took me by surprise. I'd like to see what others would have said to a person that asked such a question. Please slide yourself in the shoes of the person who just recieved that question right out of the blue, no way of knowing, and give your off the cuff, unrehearsed response. I think youmay find it a bit different to answer than usual reponses about being a Christian, etc. Thanks, God Bless

Hi Jack I have been asked that question a number of times. Off the cuff, my answer has always been the same. \"I just do!\" Regards Peter

On why I believe in God When I was a child, I was very moved by hearing the words to the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, especially the words, \"Though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see.\" These words caused me to wonder if these words were true and if so, why? As a child when I heard I could not do something, I wanted to know why. So I wanted to know if I was a sinful man and what that meant and if it was possible to see God and to know him. I think such thoughts are not unusual for children who are raised in a secure peaceful family life as mine was. As I look back I now realize it was the Holy Spirit that was putting the desire in my heart to know and see God. This I know is always the case with all human beings even though it could happen at any time in a person' s life. During my mother' s prenancy with my two younger sisters, I wondered about how life comes into being and I wondered about death and why people died. I did not feel comfortable asking my parents about the these things. But I found some answers in the words of church hymns and choruses, in words of sermons and later on in the words of the Bible. Mostly from these sources I began to hear the truth about the existence of God and His attributes and His relationship with mankind. As I heard the truth there was much static and confusion in the imaginations of my mind and heart that were trying to block this truth. During this time, the Holy Spirit prompted me to read God' s words in Jeremiah that said,\"If you seek the Lord with all your heart, you will find him.\" At that time I began to seek the Lord with all my heart amid all the distractions that were filling my heart and mind at the time. Well, I can now testify that this word of God is faithful and true. Eventually, after many years of searching and doubting and searching and believing, I began to hear the Lord God speaking into my mind and heart. First it was as a still small voice that got louder and clearer over the years until I knew for sure that it was indeed the Lord speaking to me. Now I hear his voice daily directing my steps. I now realize He has all along been directing my steps even though I was unable to always hear it Since that time when I hear people say they don' t believe in God, I just smile and chuckle to my self knowing for sure from my experience that God will not leave such a person in such a state of unbelief. Eventually the Holy Spirit of our Lord will break through their unbelief and give them a beliving heart and mind. I have heard so many testimonies of this happening to people that I know for sure this will happen to all human beings for the Bible is very clear in 1Timothy 2:4 that it is God' s will that all mankind will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And I know that God' s will, whether permissive or perfect, is always done. With my five senses, I am able to perceive the handiwork of God in nature for His creation delares His handiwork. Unless God specifically calls me to give this witness to someone, I do not seek to convince anyone of the reality of God through rational reasoning because I know that the knowledge of God and His Son Jesus is imparted only by direct revelation from God the Father just as Jesus told Peter when he delared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. At that time Jesus charged his apostles to tell no man that he was the Christ (Messiah). It seems at that time, God chose to keep the knowledge of Jesus as Messiah and the coming of His kingdom to earth a secret, a mystery. But I see that now, for such a time as this, that God is now revealing this mystery to all mankind. This fulfills Jesus' s prophecy that everything hidden will be revealed. In His Majesty' s Secret Service, David Thompson

Faith, we do not always receive what we were promised. Hebrews 11: 36. � Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated - of whom the world was not worthy - wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. verse 39 And all of these, thought commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised…. Kern