The way to ascend into the supernatural faith of God (Part 2)
What is faith? Faith is being sure of something we can’t see. Hebrews 11:1 is the official definition: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
By John David Hicks
Few people will buy a car sight unseen. Human beings find it difficult to visualize what is not there. We want to kick the tires, see the shiny paint, and smell the new upholstery before we’ll sign on the dotted line.
This is “sense knowledge”—what you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. It’s useful for buying a car, but useless to determining your faith as the Bible defines it: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3).
“Sense knowledge” is dependent on what is visible. Paul asks the Galatians, “Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” Galatians 3:2-3 NRSV). There’s a huge difference between having a sense-based faith, what I call sensible-faith, and a Spirit-based faith, or Bible-faith.
You are saved and mature and grow by faith. It is foolish to think you can begin the Christian life by Bible-faith and then move on to spiritual maturity with sensible-faith—faith in your physical abilities.
Bible-faith is based on the covenant promises of the Word of God. “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith” (Romans 3:27).
There are two ways men try to approach God. The first is human effort, through the physical senses, through your own understanding and reasoning. The second is by Bible-faith that is grounded in the spiritual realm not the physical. “The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him” (John 4:23 RSV). If God is Spirit, should you not worship Him in spirit and in truth?
Sensible-faith damages the church. It’s made the church lukewarm with little power to carry out the Great Commission to save, heal, and deliver people from the bondage of sin. The church has become comfortable, with little need for God’s intervention or power. “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless” (Revelation 3:15-17 The Message).
The Bible warns against this form of godliness because it denies the power of the gospel. Paul warns, “Have nothing to do with them” (2 Timothy 3:5). God will not bless a lukewarm church because “the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Corinthians 4:20).
Throughout history, revival has occurred in days of moral darkness, despair, and indifference in the church. It begins in the hearts of one or two Christians who cry out to God in desperation. They admit the need for revival and, further, their lack of ability to supply that need. They see not only their world and community as depraved and needy, but also themselves as depraved and needy for the continual redemption of God’s Holy Spirit (Matthew 5:3).
In a real revival the Word of God is proclaimed in righteousness, holiness, and redemption and in most cases through good preaching. The result of revival is the unconditional outpouring of God’s grace, which brings repentance in the people of God; sanctification; conversion of unbelievers; the destruction of “idols” wherever they occur; and restitution for wrongs committed. There is a return to God in worship and praise with joy and gladness. People stop looking to themselves as the way to obtain true joy, and give themselves over to a God who transforms them by the renewing of their minds.
In times of spiritual awakening a supernatural manifestation of God’s Spirit is always present. Yet the biggest hindrance to revival comes from a lukewarm church. Revival can threaten church leaders who desire control, who are satisfied with the status quo. That’s why Peter cried out: “It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).
I know of four churches that were once strong, but now are in maintenance mode. They felt desperate in their plight as the bills came in and the budget tightened. As the money faded, so did some of the people. It is not difficult to understand the discouragement they faced.
Each of these churches wanted to cancel their upcoming revivals. The invited evangelist told them he would come for a simple love offering. The real issue was did they want revival and were they willing to take the step of faith. They were challenged with the story of Peter and Jesus needing money to pay their “temple tax.” Jesus told Peter to “go fishing” and to take the coin out of the fish’s mouth and pay the tax.
Jesus promised, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19). What is the key to the kingdom? Faith. Faith is being convinced that God will keep His Word. It is difficult to look past all of the obstacles—finances, attendance, time, discouragement, commitment—and see what God has in store for those who are willing to take a step of faith.
Two of the four churches took the “risk” of faith—Bible-faith—to keep the revival they had scheduled. Not surprisingly, more than enough money came in for the revival. New members were added to the church and giving more than doubled; all bills were paid in full. One of the churches added a full-time youth pastor.
The other two churches had sensible-faith or lip service faith. They would not take the step of real faith to “sow the seed.” Like Israel they looked at the “giants” in the land, so they canceled the revival. These two churches went deeper into decline. One church closed the following year, and the pastor of the other church resigned.
The language of the senses is: “I can’t see it or feel it, so it must not be true. I will look like a fool. I don’t have the ability, the strength, or the money. I don’t have the education or aptitude. It’s impossible.”
But faith says: “I have God’s wisdom” (James 1:5). “I have God’s strength, His resources” (Philippians 4:13, 19). “I have God’s ability to do the impossible” (Matthew 17:20).
Sensible-faith is an easy and attractive substitute for true faith. Sensible-faith believes God’s Word, acknowledges that it is true and desirable, but also believes that it cannot truly be possessed.
Bible-faith goes beyond believing something is true and desirable. Bible-faith knows what I have prayed for is mine. Real Bible-faith leads to action. Bible-faith does not stop with sensible-faith, but goes from the mind into the heart by the desire of the will that puts this belief into action. Bible-faith in action is illustrated in Luke 5:5. Peter said, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” (NKJV).
Imagine that it’s April 14 and you have procrastinated saving for your taxes. You stayed up all night fishing and caught nothing. You’re exhausted, hungry, your back is aching, you can barely keep your eyes open, and you have bad breath. You see your good friend Jesus coming to meet your boat as you row in from the long night. He tells you to go back out and try again. Would you have gone back out? In order for the disciples to receive the benefits of faith, they had to go against what they felt like doing and turn their boat around.
Thomas had a problem with sensible-faith. He would not believe in Jesus’ resurrection until he felt Jesus’ wounds and saw Him with his own eyes. Jesus told him that he was faithless (John 20:27). Jesus then commanded Thomas to believe without feeling and seeing.
You also must choose to believe without seeing and feeling. Jesus blessed “those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (John 20:29 NRSV). That’s how Bible-faith gets into your spirit, your heart.
Biblical faith demands that we go beyond what we know from our senses to see what we cannot see in the physical dimension happening in the spiritual dimension. Bible-faith is certain even though the evidence can’t be seen. This evidence is in your heart, in your spirit, not in the physical. This faith is now, in the present, not in the future. Bible-faith takes the unrealities of hope and brings them into reality. Bible-faith is sure that what it asked for it will receive. Bible-faith is not hope that you will get something in the future. It is the assurance now of things hoped for. Bible-faith removes uncertainty and brings the hope of the future into the present.
The church wonders why people who come through church doors are not electrified and empowered. The question remains, are we practicing in our churches a biblical faith or a sensible-faith? In order to have people come to know Christ they must be attracted to something bigger than themselves. Until Christians become uncomfortable and sense their need for a continued infilling with the Holy Spirit, unbelievers will not sense their need. Sensible-faith does not lead people to Christ, but rather to a form of Christ created in our own minds. Giving up what feels comfortable, taking a step of faith, and relinquishing control of what might happen is when the real blessing of biblical faith begins and we begin to see revival in the church.
The Holiness revival that swept America in the 1800s was a Bible-faith revival. Holiness of heart is foundational to faith. The preaching and teaching centered on the sanctified, Spirit-filled life. Preachers proclaimed that holiness was available like salvation, on the basis of faith alone. But holiness is more than a surrendered life—it is walking in the Holy Spirit and the beginning of intimate fellowship. Because faith comes from hearing, we must hear what both the Word of God and the Spirit of God are saying. You must walk in intimate fellowship so that you can hear the voice of the Spirit and know that what you pray for is not just God’s general will as revealed in Scripture, but also His specific will for that time, place, and person. Boldness in your relationship produces confidence in faith.
Our heritage of faith comes from 19th century Holiness revivals and Holiness writers. The Methodist church became the largest Protestant denomination at that time. But the revival touched all churches. The key to the revival was faith in the promises of the Word of God. But this Bible-faith had to be expressed by confession or testimony. Only then could a person enter into the promised experience of holiness.
One historian quotes from one of the leading books of that day, Faith and Its Effects, by Phoebe Palmer: “There are laws which govern God’s ‘moral universe’ just as there are laws that govern the physical universe. This structure of moral or spiritual cause and effect is revealed primarily in the Bible…. If one understands these laws and acts in accordance with them, it is certain that the designated means will achieve the desired ends…. Faith’s effects must of necessity follow, because the principles by which the kingdom of grace is governed are unchangeable.”
This revival taught that the “laws of faith” are principles by which the Christian meets the conditions of God’s covenant promises, and God responds. Christians understood the necessity of believing without any other evidence than the Word of God. They proclaimed that when God’s conditions were met, God would do His part, with or without any emotional witness to the senses. Holiness must be accepted by faith before there was any conscious change or witness of the Spirit. Faith’s authority comes from the Word of God and man’s confession.
In his foreword to The Beauty of Holiness, Timothy L. Smith wrote: “Phoebe Palmer…exercised continuous influence over Methodist preachers and their wives and over the outstanding leaders in America’s largest Protestant denomination for twenty-five years…. She also became one of the nation’s best-known religious writers and one of Methodism’s most powerful public speakers.”
It’s estimated that Palmer led more than 25,000 people to the Lord. This “female Charles Finney” inspired a lay movement that swept the nation. She influenced B. T. Roberts, founder of the Free Methodist Church;Hannah Whitall Smith; A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance; and evangelist D. L. Moody, who followed her revival practices. In the fall of 1857 when word of her revivals spread to New York City, a prayer meeting for businessmen was launched and turned into a nationwide revival known as the “year of miracles.”
Palmer taught that (1) Faith and holiness go hand and hand. Faith makes you holy, and confession enables you to retain it. (2) Sanctifying faith kindles revival. God cannot work where unbelief prevails. Faith involves full surrender and total trust in God.
(3) Speak your faith. Palmer counseled a friend, “Do not forget that believing with the heart, and confessing with the mouth, stand closely connected…. Your heart has believed, but your lips have not fully, freely and habitually made confession. And thus your part of the work has been left in part unfulfilled…. You became ‘cautious in professing the blessing,’ and have ‘ceased to comply with the condition’ laid down by God.”
(4) Have a Bible-based faith. Palmer lived way before the new-age cults and the positive confession of the “name it and claim it” teaching of our day. She believed what church leaders of her time preached. She proclaimed that faith open doors when used in its proper context based on the promises of the Word of God. She counseled, “Do not look for physical evidence or manifestations, but look to the Bible.” She believed in “naked faith in a naked promise.”
(5) Faith is spiritual warfare. A Christian must do battle with the spiritual forces of darkness and overcome. (6) Faith must exercise its authority. Faith must be put into practice in word and deed. Prayer without faith is powerless.
In the revival George D. Watson wrote Love Abounding: “Any faith that does not grow and that does not mature to the degree of confession is a lie and a cheat and a fraud. God never has, from the days of Abel until this hour, taken the trouble to pay any attention to faith that did not express itself…. Why? Because your faith is not perfect until faith comes out of your mouth.”
In White Robes, Watson exhorted: “An inner faith and an audible confession are the two wings of religious life…. Faith in the heart is the condition by which we obtain the fact of God’s blessing, and confession with the mouth is the condition by which we obtain the experience or emotion of God’s blessing.”
At the same time Samuel Logan Brengle of the Salvation Army wrote in Helps to Holiness that the battle of faith is with the devil: “It is a fight of faith in which the soul takes hold of the promise of God, and holds on to it, and believes it, and declares it to be true in spite of the devil’s lies, in spite of all circumstances and feelings to the contrary, and in which it obeys God, whether God seems to be fulfilling the promise or not. When a soul gets to the point where he will do this, and will hold fast the profession of his faith without wavering, he will soon get out of the fogs and mists and twilight of doubt and uncertainty into the broad day of perfect assurance.”You must stand on the promises of God against the devil’s lies, circumstances, and feelings.
Hannah Whitall Smith’s book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life became legendary. She defines happiness as “inward rest and outward victory.” Faith is “the conquering law of the universe” that comes from abiding in Christ.
Smith’s teaching covered five basic themes: (1) Detach yourself from the world and abandon yourself to God. Like a boat trying to sail out into the ocean while still tied to the shore, you must cut loose or detach yourself from all that would hold you back from God. As you abandon yourself to God, you live “a life of overcoming faith.”
(2) Be grateful for God’s goodness. If you only understood that God is good, you would be set free. Like a loving mother caring for her child, your “interests will be safe in His hands…. He cannot fail to do His duty by us, and, since He is unselfish, He must necessarily consider our interests before His own. When once we are assured of this, there can be nothing left to fear…abiding peace is to be found in the goodness and unselfishness of God.”
(3) Be satisfied in God alone. “God is enough”—He is all that is needed. “Better and sweeter than health, or friends, or money, or fame, or prosperity, is the adorable will of God…. God is, must be our answer to every question and every cry of need…if there is not lack in Him, then He of Himself and in Himself is enough…. God is enough for time. God is enough for eternity. God is enough!”
(4) Be positive, not negative in your conversation. Smith advocated speaking the promises of the Bible out loud as a means of overcoming doubt and coming to the assurance of faith. Faith that is expressed by your mouth will register in your heart, and then God will enable you to walk in it, she said. Following the deaths of three of her children and her husband’s two nervous breakdowns, Smith testified: “When doubts come, meet them, not with arguments, but with assertions of faith…. Go at once and confess your faith, in the strongest language possible, somewhere or to someone…. But we must not say it with our lips only, and then by our actions deny our words. We must say it with our whole being, with thought, word and action.”
(5) The inner voice of God must be in harmony with Scripture. “It is not enough to have a leading; we must find out the source of that leading before we give ourselves up to follow it.” When your senses and emotions are contrary to faith, the Bible must prevail.
In the Bible-faith revival, the truth of the Word of God set people free. As they claimed the promised blessings, the Holy Spirit flowed in revival.
You will not see a genuine revival without holiness. “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). Holiness demands that a person be set apart from sin for God.
Paul describes this holiness in Titus 2:11-15, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.”
When you compromise with sin, you will struggle with your relationship with God. Yet, holiness is not about your performance and keeping rules. It’s about an undivided heart that seeks God’s face and a passion to please God and do His will.
Prayer and repentance is both the cause and the result of a revival of holiness. Again, no revival has ever come without desperate prayer and repentance of sin. Any attempt to access the power of God apart from real relationship with God and man will not have lasting results. Thus, real revival will not replace the need for small-group Bible studies, recovery groups, prayer meetings, children’s and youth ministries, and a good Sunday morning worship service. Without these ministries of daily church life, you will end up with a room full of strangers in search of their place in the body of Christ.
Out of this Bible-faith Holiness revival came the faith-cure revival of healing that affected countless lives. These revivalists taught that the same Bible-faith that saves and sanctifies you can heal you. The renowned Andrew Murray, a Reformed pastor, got sick and for two years had lost his voice and reportedly had finished his career as a preacher. He went to see a Methodist preacher by the name of William Boardman.Out of the Holiness revival Boardman had written The Great Physician (Jehovah Rophi). The spirit, soul, and body are transformed by Bible-faith, he said. Healing was in the atonement and a part of Christ’s finished work. Christ is waiting for the believer’s faith to claim it.
Boardman prayed for Murray, who was healed and wrote Divine Healing, which is still in print today.
A. B. Simpson, who founded the Christian and Missionary Alliance, emphasized the “full gospel,” a fourfold gospel of presenting Jesus Christ as “Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King.” The gospel is for the whole person—spirit, soul, and body. Simpson was a pioneer of street preaching; ministry to ethnic groups; Sunday evening evangelistic services; weekly healing services and a healing home; and coffeehouse ministry.
Faith unlocks our inheritance, Simpson declared. He cited 3 John 2: “I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (NASB). He declared that wealth was a sacred trust to be used for God’s glory, not for your prosperity. And physical healing was in the atonement of Christ. Simpson was still a young man when his heart and nerves failed and he lived with weakness and pain. His doctor did not think he had long to live. He did not believe in healing, but he heard a Methodist preacher teach on it. “It drove me to my Bible,” he said. “I am so glad I did not go to man. At God’s feet alone, with my Bible open, and with no one to help or guide me, I became convinced that this was part of Christ’s glorious Gospel for a sinful and suffering world, for all who would believe and receive His word. That was enough.”
A. W. Tozer describes in his book on Simpson what happened next. God’s power came upon him. He then raised his hands toward heaven and pledged to God to take Christ as his healer. God healed him and he testified to it in church the next day. He then climbed a 3,000-foot mountain in God’s strength. For the rest of his life A. B. Simpson preached and wrote about the “full gospel.”
At that time A. J Gordon, the prominent Baptist preacher, was touched by the Holiness revival and wrote The Ministry of Healing: Miracles of Cure in All Ages. Gordon traced the history of healing through the centuries. He said that the cross took not only our sins but also our diseases, that God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. Jesus took our sickness and pain; He bore them that we might not bear them; “by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Gordon had a Bible-faith healing ministry of his own.
The Presbyterian R. L. Stanton testified to sanctification and wrote Parallelism: Illustrated in the Healing of Body and Soul. “The atonement of Christ lays a foundation equally for deliverance from sin and for deliverance from disease by the exercise of faith.” This scholar goes on to prove from Scripture that healing is for today. He too had a Bible-faith healing ministry.
R. A. Torrey, the superintendent of Moody Bible Institute and a close associate of D. L. Moody, taught Bible-based faith and proclaimed being filled with the Holy Spirit and healing. His books on healing are still in print.
“I can give you a prescription that will bring revival,” Torrey declared. His “prescription” included three basic requirements:
First, let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God. If this is not done, the rest will come to nothing.
Second, let them bind themselves together to pray for revival until God opens the window of heaven and comes down.
Third, let them put themselves at the disposal of God for His use as He sees fit in winning others to Christ.
Torrey said, “I have given this prescription around the world, and in no instance has it failed. It cannot fail.”
Look at that first condition again: “Let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God.” But this is what Christians are so reluctant to do! “Getting right with God” means not only being sure of your fellowship with God, but also having a clear conscience before men. Read Ephesians 4:25-26. Most of the time it is our relationship with others that hinders our relationship with God (1 John 2:9-10). Not holding a grudge against anyone, forgiving “seventy times seven” as Jesus said. It means always telling the truth. It means not taking advantage of others. It means not stealing the good name of another by gossip. It means to use your words to build up, not to tear down (James 3:10). It means you won’t grieve the Holy Spirit with bitterness, wrath, or malice. It means you will “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Remember Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” If you love Jesus, you will keep His commandments (John 14:15).
“Getting thoroughly right with God,” Torrey says, demands ruthless examination of ourselves and honest confession of sin, both to God and to any person you have sinned against. Only then will “our heart not condemn us.” Only then will we have “confidence toward God.” Only then will we know that “whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”
Lastly, Torrey asks, how greatly do you want revival? Do we truly believe God’s Word that if we humble ourselves, and pray, and seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways, we will hear from heaven, and God will forgive our sin and heal our land?
Torrey knew from experience that few Christians will pay the price of
self-denial involved in this prayer. But it doesn’t take many. “Let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God themselves.” Would you dare to be one of these Christians? Maybe in your church or town there are some others like yourself. Would you come together to pray for revival until God opens the windows of heaven and blessing, power, and conviction come down? Would you be available for God’s service? To be used as He sees fit in winning others to Christ?
Bible-faith and confession were foundational to the Holiness revival and the Healing revival that followed. One historian in the reprinting of Phoebe Palmer’s book Faith and Its Effects gave this testimony of her:
“The declarations of Scripture were as truly the Word of the Lord to her soul, as though they were proclaimed from the holy mount in the voice of thunder, or blazoned across the vault of heaven in characters of flame. She now saw into the simplicity of faith in a manner that astonished and humbled her soul; she was astonished she had not before perceived it, and humbled because she had been so slow of heart to believe God. The perceptions of faith and its effect that then took possession of her mind were these: faith is taking God at His word—relying unwaveringly upon His truth.”
Palmer goes on to say that in the past she required feeling before faith, instead of claiming the truth of the Word of God and exercising faith by confession or testimony.
You had to have Bible-faith to become a Christian. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you were forgiven, born again, made God’s child, and delivered from God’s wrath on sin. Other than the Bible, you don’t have a legal document that guarantees your salvation or sanctification. Your faith is based on the Word of God. Its promises are your title-deed or contract that guarantees your inheritance. The only way you can prove you are saved or Spirit-filled is by Scripture and the witness of the Holy Spirit. It is the “certainty of what you do not see.”
This assurance comes from conviction or persuasion from God’s Word and the witness of the Holy Spirit. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
The evidence is in your heart. “Out of your heart,” said Jesus, flows your corresponding actions (Luke 6:45). This is Bible-faith, a faith that brings revival when acted on.
Bible-faith is a conviction, a persuasion in your spirit that something is true. It is not something you can explain, yet the certainty in your spirit grasps you, so you can now take the risk of faith. Out of this “risk of faith” a revival of righteousness, holiness, and redemption flows. The result of Bible-faith is a revelation of truth that will transcend reason. Bible-faith will usher you into the presence of God and connect you with the will of God. Bible-faith is born out of relationship and intimacy. Bible-faith pleases God. Bible-faith takes authority. Bible-faith can pray for healings and miracles. Bible-faith accomplishes the impossible.
(In the next newsletter: Step Ladders of Faith)