Life has been a bit topsy turvey. Hubby David had a heart attack and a couple of stents put in and a month off... now getting back into normal life. Also our little church has finally found a new pastor, a young and zealous evangelist who will I am sure renew us all and awaken us to our true calling to reach the lost. Yeah!
But I have also been chewing on Bill Johnson's writings on faith. And wondering... Do we pray out of duty (this is what we do...) or need (they need our prayers...) or faith - being 'anchored in the unseen' and taking hold of the provisions of his grace and refusing to 'let go until he bless' us? I heard a woman pray in church, and she was giving thanks for some family member who had been ill and now was out of danger. She said 'We prayed because it was our duty, but you came and you saved him.' Hmmm. When we do it 'out of duty' or out of need, is there faith in there? Probably... but faith in what? If "faith is the substance of what we hope for.... and the evidence of what is yet unseen - what 'substance' was taken hold of?
I think sometimes our 'I guess we better pray' kind of prayers are taking hold of the substance of God's care, his love, his ability to do something IN GENERAL. It is the mustard seed faith. But what if we had a real sense of that 'substance' available for that need? What if we 'saw' and 'felt' it in our spirit and even had inner 'evidence' of what we do not yet have? Can we? Is it possible? Yes it is. The great 'faith chapter' of Hebrews 11 is all about people who took hold of something unseen and it was so real to them that they could hold onto it regardless... Visionaries, dreamers are like that. But is that 'normal faith'? Actually, I think it is. Because we are not people who have just physical sight, but we have spiritual eyes that can see into the unseen. We can hear what is not of this earth (yet is here on this earth). It is all about cultivating our ability to see, hear and tap into the 'life from above' that is here among us now. There is another realm. We live in it, we breathe it, sleep in it... and yet are often so tuned out to it that we are unaware.
I guess it could be like the amazing world of living microbe thingies... unseen, yet very real. The evidence of them is known and recognised - but we need microscopes to see them. The things all on and in our bodies, our beds, our floors, our lawns.... An amazing unseen reality. I want that kind of faith in the unseen - for the situations that that seem not to change. Those that bring heart-ache and longing. Open my eyes Lord! Open my ears more and more. Let me be 'anchored in the unseen' so that my prayers and my declarations bring them into reality here and now, for my friends, family and the burdens on my heart.
