Once upon a time, when I was many years younger and many pounds lighter, I had some talent for track and loved the sport.  One of my minor heroes in life has been an Englishman named Roger Bannister. When Roger was young, he was severely burned in a fire. Doctors told his parents that he would probably never walk again. Not only did he walk but he also began to run. Not only did he run, but also he became a world-class runner in college. Bannister competed  during an era when running a mile in under four-minutes was a dream that seemed impossible. In fact, doctors and scientists believed that the human body was not capable of such speed over that distance and believed that anyone who actually broke the mark would suffer irreparable damage to his body. Fortunately, Bannister did not “follow the science” in the matter.

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister did what most believed was impossible. He ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.   Within three years, sixteen other individuals had broken the four-minute barrier. So what happened? Did mankind suddenly make a spontaneous, evolutionary jump? No, a change in perception made the difference. When one man broke the barrier, others suddenly believed that they could do so as well. Through the centuries, psychological barriers have proven to be more formidable that physical barriers.

Jesus said, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours^” (Mk. 11:2-24).

Often, we believe that great changes are made when large numbers of people begin to act or think in certain ways. But every movement has been given impetus by one person who did what others  believed they could not do. God is looking for those individuals, men and women, who will step out and do what others have believed to be impossible. When they do, other believers will follow.

There have been seasons in the church when miracles were the norm.  Certainly in the first century church, the gifts of the Spirit propelled the church into great seasons of revival.  Some of the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14 were, of course, prophecy, healings, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, words of knowledge, etc.  On top  of that, dreams and visions seem to have been standard fare in the church.

There have been others seasons when God healed in amazing sways through revivalists in the 1800’s and 1900’s in England and America.  Each time a season of the miraculous sprang up, atheists and agnostics along with “educated and dignified” believers were quick to write off such happenings as foolishness, superstition, and emotionalism.  The Pharisees in the first century did the same and even went as far as to credit the devil with the miracles, instead of God.

Over the last 300 years, the American and European church has, for the most part, denied the miraculous intervention of God and called those who claimed to heal and prophecy frauds and con men.

However, In the past 50 years, a new generation of believers has embraced the supernatural once again and claims healings, prophecies, tongues, miracles, dreams, visions, and even the raising of the dead.  Of course, orthodox believers and intellectuals in the church still deny the reality of such things other than as a deception from the enemy.

But, I am convinced that  in the heart of every believer is a secret longing to see God do now what he did throughout the scriptures.  We long to see the glory of God demonstrated in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Many believers long to see it, but are afraid to believe because the paragons of their faith  have told them that God no longer works in those ways.

I believe God wants an army of spiritual Roger Bannisters who will believe that God is the same today as he has always been and, as he was always willing to display his power on behalf of his people, he still is.  I know that in many churches, if just one they knew were too break the miracle barrier, others would believe it possible and soon would break the barrier with him or her

Of course, there is risk in standing up for the supernatural move of God.  You might be distrusted.  You might be ridiculed.  You might be strongly encouraged not to “mislead the faithful” with such ideas.  On the other hand, you might just break the four minute barrier and open the door to an amazing move of God in your own circle  of influence.

For those of us who want to believe God for miracles, the challenge is typically not whether we believe he can do such things, but that he will.  I met a man a couple of years ago that had moved away to become part of a church where a great number of miracles were reported on a regular basis.  After being there a year or two, he moved back to our area.  I asked him how the experience had changed him.  He said the real change for him was that he now expected God to move in miraculous ways, rather than just hoping he would.

If we need that transformation in our own lives, we don’t have to move away but we may need to take some trips to actually see men and women “breaking the four minute mile” so that our own barriers of unbelief can be shattered.

In the track world, a four minute mile is no longer considered impossible, but is simply a measure of any “decent runner.”  Wouldn’t it be amazing, if the church no longer considered the miraculous move of God to be impossible, but simply considered it to the the measure of any “decent church?”

The story of David illustrates the principle. As y of course, ou recall, Israel and Philistia had gone to war. Each army encamped along the hillsides on either side of a valley. Each day, a nine foot “giant” named Goliath would come out to challenge the army of Israel calling for someone to step out and face him man to man. Every day for forty days, Goliath issued the challenge. Not one man would take him up on his dare. Clearly, the entire army of Israel believed that defeating Goliath was impossible.

Then one afternoon, David was sent by his father Jessie to check on his brothers and to see how the battle was going. David witnessed Goliath’s taunts and offered to face the giant himself. He offered because he believed that God makes all things possible. Although the experienced soldiers in the army of Israel tried to convince David that he could not win against such an imposing figure, David ignored them and the rest is history. David charged Goliath was a sling and dropped the giant with one stone. He then proceeded to take Goliath’s own sword and cut off his head for good measure. Suddenly, the entire Israeli army that had shown no taste for battle for forty days charged the Philistine army and won a great victory. When one man, by faith, broke a spiritual barrier others had considered impossible, they suddenly had faith for their own victory.

Later, David gathered a number of men around him that were referred to as David’s mighty men. These thirty or so men accomplished great, almost impossible deeds on their own including one of them killing a large Egyptian about the size of Goliath (See 2 Sam. 23, 1 Chron.11-12). I suspect that David’s faith and his willingness to do what others would not do inspired those who followed him.

I believe, God is looking for “Davids” and “spiritual Roger Bannisters” in every generation who, by faith, will do what Jesus did and even greater things. When one does, others will suddenly have the faith and a whole generation will follow. We should ask God to make us that person for our family, our church, our fellowship and the kingdom of God. Faith is about breaking psychological barriers that reason against what God says is true and possible. Jesus walked on water by faith. He stilled storms by faith. He healed the sick raised the dead in the same way. He asks us to believe that through him we can shatter barriers. When by faith and tenacity one believer breaks the barrier, others will quickly follow. So what is your four-minute mile? What spiritual barrier will you overcome so that others will follow? Ask God to show you.

We have been exploring the Book of Joshua to discover keys to obtaining the promises that God has laid aside for us in Christ.  One of the most famous episodes in the life of Joshua and in the entire Bible is the fall of Jericho.  We want to consider that section of scripture now as we look at obtaining our promises. As a reminder, God lead Israel out of Egypt with his powerful hand.  The Israelites did nothing other than believe enough to leave their captivity behind. Egypt is always a “type” of bondage or captivity in scripture.  It is a picture of Jesus leading us out of our bondage to sin.  Our salvation comes to us freely through the sacrifice of Jesus. We simply need to believe and receive.

For Israel, the first part was obtaining salvation and freedom from slavery.  The second part was taking hold of the promises that God had set aside for them in Canaan.  To obtain the promises of a land flowing with “milk and honey,” Israel would have to cross the Jordon at flood stage and face their enemies in battle, clearing out the land one battle at a time.  Of course, God would go ahead of them and fight for them but they had to partner with God in obtaining these promises and engage the enemy with him. They had to wield a sword, summon faith, get sweaty and dirty, and risk their own safety each time they took new ground. There may be any number of promises for which we will need to contend in the Spirit and war against the enemy in order to obtain a breakthrough for healing, relationships, the salvation of a loved on, or for the future of a nation.  Many of the promises in scripture are not just handed to us.

The first thing we need to be aware of is that Jericho stood in the way of Israel’s conquest.  It was an impressive, walled city that housed several thousand people at the time of Joshua.  Archeologists tells us that it had an outer wall that was about 15 feet high and an inner wall six feet thick and about 45 feet high above the surrounding plain. Inside the city was a fresh spring and the harvest was nearly over.  Those inside the city could have withstood a very long siege.  However, the siege would last only seven days.

The truth is that Israel could not have taken Jericho in their own strength.  They had no military technology or experience for facing walled cities and actually had little experience in battle of any kind.  In the face of that, God gave them a strategy that seemed ridiculous to the wise and experienced in warfare.  God instructed Joshua to have the priests to take up the ark of the covenant and to march around the city one time each day for six days with seven priests marching before the ark blowing on trumpets. An armed guard marched ahead of the priests and behind the priests but were silent along with all the people of Israel. They did that for six days.  On the seventh day, Israel arose at daybreak. The priests carried the ark again with seven priests marching ahead of the ark and blowing trumpets but on the seventh day they marched around the city seven times. On the seventh lap, when the priests blew the trumpets the people shouted and the walls of the city collapsed. Joshua and the fighting men swarmed into the city and destroyed it.

Neither Joshua nor any of his commanders would have ever plotted out that strategy to take Jericho.  Except for faith in God, the whole enterprise would have seemed foolish and futile up to the last moment. It might have even been embarrassing as they walked around the city each day silently while those within Jericho most likely stood on the walls and jeered at them.

Many of the promises of God are fulfilled through unusual, unorthodox, unexpected, and seemingly foolish ways. Otherwise, we would assume the promise came through our own strength and wisdom or simply by coincidence. Paul tells is that God chooses the foolish, weak, and the lowly things and people in this world through whom to accomplish his will so that he gets the glory (1 Cor. 1:27).  When we are seeking a promise or needing a breakthrough in our lives, it is best to ask God how he wants us to pray or what our part should be in the breakthrough.  There were times when God told his people to fight.  Other times, he told them to worship.  Other times, he told them to watch.  Other times, he gave them seemingly foolish things to do that seemed like a waste of time. Why march around the city for six days instead of taking it in one?

We often think promises are not being fulfilled in our lives because God is withholding.  We forget that there is demonic resistance that stands against the promises.  Sometimes that resistance is significant. Much of what God would ask us to do is aimed at breaking down walls in the unseen realm. Jericho had been a center for idol worship for centuries before the days of Joshua.  God told Moses and then Joshua that he would give them every place they set their feet for conquest.  I believe that each day the ark was carried around the city with priests blowing trumpets was a prophetic declaration of victory over the demonic powers of Jericho and each day the unseen walls were weakened by that declaration.  What may have seemed foolish and a waste of time was essential.

You may be praying for the fulfillment of a promise in your life.  God is faithful and his promises are sure, but we must sometimes contend for those promises with prayer, with declarations, and with faith.  We should also ask God how to pray for that promise. We should ask if we should be taking any action or waiting on his timing and we should be willing to look foolish, at times, if he directs to so something that makes no earthly sense. God has made promises to his people. He did not make those promises so that he could withhold them.  But, in battle we grow strong and we grow closer to him.  Those things are probably more important than promise we are seeking … but keep seeking.  If you do, the day will come when the walls will crumble and you will have your promise,

We have been looking at the Book of Joshua to find keys for obtaining the promises of God in our own lives.  The Promise Land of Canaan has always been a “type” of salvation and the promises of God that are stored up for his people.  God had promised Israel the land of Canaan in his covenant with Abraham as he promised the land not only to Abraham but to his descendants.  The promises were sure, but had to be obtained by faith and at times through warfare.  Victory was assured…but only by faith and faithfulness to Jehovah.

We need to remember that salvation comes to us through no works of our own but only through faith in Jesus.  Promises, however, are often conditional.  As children of God, we will receive what we need no matter what, but we will have to put in effort for what we want or desire beyond the basics of our spiritual lives.  There are times we have to contend for promises, persist in prayer, take steps of faith, and so forth.  Because of that, I want us to continue to look for keys to obtaining promises that God for us.

In chapters 3 & 4, we are told of the actual crossing of the Jordan.  If you have seen the Jordan River today, it does not look like a formidable barrier for an army or a nation to cross. Much of it has been depleted by irrigation and increased population. However, at the time of Joshua, we are told that the Jordan could be over a mile wide at the time of harvest, which is the time that God chose to send his people across.  It could also be ten to twelve feet deep in places so it was a very formidable barrier at the time.  Once again, without the intervention of God, Israel could not enter the Promised Land. He could have chosen an easier time of the year, but a miracle here would give them faith for the battles ahead. On the morning of the invasion, the Israelites were told that the priests, carrying the ark of the covenant, would lead them across the river.  They were to stay 1000 yards behind the ark and God would show them amazing things (Josh.3:5).

Remember, the entire nation of Israel was crossing.  That would be some two million people including women and children, old and young, plus livestock. This would be an impossibility without the supernatural intervention of God.  They were to keep their distance so that all could spread out and see the ark, which represented the presence of God.  Keeping your eyes on God is essential for receiving your promise.  The writer of Hebrews instructs us to fix our eyes of Jesus. Our focus must be on him more than the promise.  He is the source of blessing and power and he directs our steps. Going our own way or running head of God will not get us to where we need to be. God must lead and we must follow.  He picks the place for us to cross the Jordan and he leads the way.

We are told that as the priests who were carrying the ark, stepped in to the river, God stopped the flow of the river some fifteen miles upstream.  How he stopped the river we don’t know, but as the water flowed on south, the people were able to cross over on dry land just as they had crossed the Red Sea with Moses. When God provides a way, he provides a clear way.  If it is not clear, it may not be the way or the time he is showing you.  The priests stood in the middle of the riverbed as God’s people passed over down stream from the ark so that God continued to stand between his people and destruction.

When Israel had finished crossing over the Jordan, God instructed Israel to provide a man from each tribe to hoist a large stone from the riverbed and take it across to stack up as a historical marker to remind the generations of what God had done there.

Remembranceis a very significant thing in the kingdom of God and a key to receiving his promises.  Countless times in scripture, the mighty works of God that he had done for his people are recounted.  Stones are piled up, altars of remembrance are erected, and the story of deliverance from Egypt is recounted every Passover.  As David prepared to face Goliath, he recalled that God had already delivered him from a lion and a bear and he expected no less with the Philistine. Testimony of what God has done is important because each of those testimonies sets a precedent for what he is willing to do again.

We need to remember what God has already done for us. Journals, index cards, testimonies, even Facebook are places where we can recount the faithfulness and goodness of God in our lives.  Too many believers focus on one yet unanswered prayer and forget all the other prayers and blessings God has answered and directed their way.  In doing so, their faith fails for the one prayer that has not yet come to pass.  If God has been good and faithful in the past, why would we expect him to be any different in our present or in our future.  He is unchanging.

Let me encourage you to establish some process for remembrance. It doesn’t have to be a pile of stones as a reminder of what God has already done for you out of his goodness but some kind of record that you can review and that can be passed on to your children, builds faith and endurance for those promises that seem long in coming. Remember to remember.

In Part 1 of this study, we found that faith, obedience and a willingness to battle the enemy would be requirements for securing the promises of God in our own lives.  In Chapter 2, we find that intentionality and strategy are often needed to enter into everything that God has for us.  The chapter begins, “Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim. ‘Go, look over the Land,’ he said, ‘especially Jericho.’”

We need to remember that the last time Israel sent spies into the land, the outcome was less than spectacular. Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan and ten came back convinced that the tribes were too powerful for them to overcome.  These unfaithful reports won the day and caused Israel to wander in the wilderness for forty years due to their unbelief. I am certain that Joshua sent proven men of faith this time and he sent them secretly. The text could mean that the people of Jericho would be unaware of the spies, but it may also mean that the Israelites were unaware that spies had been sent. This secrecy may have been to insure that Joshua would hear the report first so that no seed of unbelief would be sown even unintentionally.

Sometimes the faith we have is fragile and a lack of faith most often insures victory for the enemy.  An essential principle here is that we should be careful to surround ourselves with people of faith when we seek to secure a promise from God.  Cynics, doubters, and unbelievers can undermine our faith and, consequently, rob us of our promise. Someone once suggested that Jesus told some of those he healed to tell no one because the doubt of those they told might undermine the faith of the one who had received healing, so his healing might be lost. I’m confident that Joshua did not send the spies to determine if Jericho could be taken, but rather to determine the best way it could be taken. Sometimes we wonder if God will keep a promise rather than wondering how he will keep it. One perspective questions God’s faithfulness while the other affirms it.  The difference is significant.

An essential principle for all warfare is that a wise person should know the enemy he or she is about to face.  Paul told the church at Corinth, “I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:10-11). He tells us in Ephesians that we are to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the devils schemes (Eph.6:11). Satan is strategic concerning his attempts to undermine our faith, keep is from being effective, or lead us away from God.  We should be strategic as well in our battles against him.  In other words, we should know how to engage in spiritual warfare because our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers in heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:11-12).

Too many of us live our spiritual lives haphazardly.  We tend to react to spiritual challenges rather than being proactive and preparing for what the enemy will certainly send our way sooner or later. We wait for the crisis to come and then try to build our faith in the midst of that crisis rather than having established a foundation of faith for the storms that will inevitably come.  At other times, we quickly repent of all our sins that we have not been dealing with to that point. When we do, we may be going through the motions of repentance in a last ditch effort to win God’s favor without godly sorrow truly being in our hearts.  These are reactive ways to face the enemy rather than strategic ways. These ways are less than effective.

A wise general not only knows the enemy and his strategies but also knows his own strength and weaknesses. Satan is a predator.  He will always attack our weakness rather than our strength. He will always attack the stragglers rather than those firmly in the herd. We should know and acknowledge our vulnerabilities so that we can strengthen our defenses around our weakness through prayer, time in the Word, and accountability with others.  We should steer clear of places where temptation will be amplified.  A man struggling with alcoholism should not attend a party where everyone will be drinking.  A man who struggles with lust should be very careful about what he watches or reads and the beaches or swimming pools he frequents. A wise man builds walls and guard rails around his vulnerable zones.

In order to be strategic, we must take stock of ourselves, our strengths, our weaknesses, our resources, and the known tactics of the enemy before we wake up one morning to find ourselves in his crosshairs.  Many of the promises of God will require an invasion of enemy territory to remove the barriers that the enemy has erected that stand between you and the blessings the Father has for you. Preparation before the battle is essential.

In addition, what the two spies discovered was that those in Jericho were full of fear. They found an unlikely ally whose heart God had prepared for that very moment.  Another principal for securing the promises of God is that we should be open to unexpected vessels that God has placed in our path to help us on our way.  In this case, the prostitute Rehab became a key element inthe victory of Israel because her testimony confirmed that God had already prepared the way for Israel’s victory.

The “faith boosters” the Lord supplies are also helpful as we move to secure the promises of God.  Sometimes those boosters are progress we are beginning to see after months of prayer. It may be a prophetic word assuring you of God’s involvement or a scripture that the Holy Spirit highlights as you spend time in the Word.  Receive those things as encouragement from the Lord as you press in for your promise. God wants you to secure his promises. Jesus died that you might receive them. Be strategic, intentional, and prepared as you remove the enemy from your path.

I am reading through the Book of Joshua once again and I think it is one of those books that deserves several blogs. Joshua is one of those rare characters in scripture about whom no faults or failures are recorded.  He was the aide-de-camp of Moses from the day they left Egypt to the death of Israel’s great leader and prophet forty years later.   In that position, he had assisted Moses in all of his duties.  In all probability, he became a confidant of Moses and had heard his heart, his hopes, and his frustrations on many occasions. He also heard about Jehovah and personally experienced him many times at the tent of meeting where Joshua personally spent a great amount of time.  He and his brother Caleb were the only two spies out of twelve who had initially been sent to survey Canaan. Joshua and Caleb brought back a good report and a recommendation to take the Promised Land immediately. The other ten spies confirmed God’s description of the land as rich and fertile but had no faith that they could defeat the tribes they saw living there.   Because of their faithless report, Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years.  The Book of Joshua describes the days when God’s people finally entered Canaan to claim the land their parents had never entered because of unbelief.

The Book of Joshua is a blueprint for claiming the promises of God. The land of Canaan contained the future and the promises that God had made this little nation going back to the patriarch Abraham. The promises, like most in scripture, were conditional. Three things would be required to obtain the promises – faith, obedience, and warfare. The land had everything they needed to prosper as a nation, but it was also filled with pagan tribes who had no intention of giving up their claims to the land.  Some of these tribes were formidable with the likes of Goliath roaming the countryside.

I do find it remarkable that a generation of faith grew up out of a generation of fear.  The parents of the men and women who were now prepared to cross the Jordan River had fallen into fear, grumbling, and idolatry at every turn. Yet, out of that unpromising seedbed, God had raised up a generation of belief.  The faithful voice of Joshua had to be part of that.

The first chapter of Joshua reveals keys for claiming our promises in Christ.  I know that many of us have been taught that all things come to us by grace and as a gift of God so that our efforts have nothing to do with what we receive. That is absolutely true regarding our salvation.  Eternal life has come to us through the blood of Christ and his sacrifice and rests on no works or righteousness of our own.  However, our reward in heaven, beyond salvation, depends to a great extent on our efforts.  We are to lay up treasure in heaven.  It is not laid up for us as if we are trust fund babies.  We must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness before “all these things” will be given to us. We must run the race to win and we must put on the armor of God if we are to have victories, and so forth.

Israel had been given the land and the assurance of victory in their battles, but they had to cross the Jordan at flood stage and still fight to obtain the promises. In doing so they would grow in character and faith and would build a relationship with God through the process. I believe we must do the same to experience many of the benefits and promises that are ours today in Christ.

At the outset, God told Joshua, “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses” (Josh. 1:2-3). The phrase, “set your foot,” means to “march.”  It is not a promise that God would give them every place they visited or went sightseeing. It is a promise that God would give them victory everywhere they engaged the enemy. It has the flavor of intentional warfare engaged in to take territory.  Jesus echoed this thought when he said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Mt.11:12). To gain the promises of God, we will have to be intentional and forceful in the face of the enemy.

In chapter one alone, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous three times.  He does so on the basis that God would go with them.  He tells Joshua, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Josh.1:5). If God is with us and we are operating in his will, who can stand against us?  Because Israel had waivered in the past, God emphasizes that they must be strong and courageous…not because they are amazing warriors, but because they believe by faith that God will fight with them and for them.  To the degree we believe that God is with is and for us, we can face the enemy and every crisis with courage.

God goes on to instruct Joshua in the need for obedience.  He says, “ Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go” (Josh 1:7). This is about alignment.  God is with us, when we are with him.  If we stay aligned with the Father, then he is free to bless us and give us success.  If we are misaligned with the Father in parts of our life, to bless us would reward and reinforce the sin in our lives, which would then increase and lead to disaster. God is a good father who will always point us toward life and blessing, not a permissive father who lets us go our own way.

At the end of chapter one, Israel prepares to cross the Jordon and engage the enemy. Joshua prepares his leaders by remind them of God’s promises and their part in obtaining the promises.  The last words of his leaders were, “Only be strong and courageous.”  So, four times in once chapter we are admonished to be strong and courageous when we face the enemy because God is with us and will be faithful to give us victory if we are marching with him.  Too many of us today still doubt the love and provision of God when life or the enemy rises up against us.  Too many of us have pockets of our lives misaligned with God’s will and then count him faithless when life doesn’t go our way.  Obtaining the promises we have for peace, provision, success, healing and so forth require something from us today just as it was required of Israel in the days of Joshua  – faith, obedience and warfare.  More in my next blog.

In Acts 12, King Herod launched a season of persecution against the church.  He rounded up several of the leaders and James, the brother of John, was put to death. In the same sweep of church leaders, Peter was also arrested and placed in prison under heavy Roman guard. During the night, an angel awoke him and led him out of the prison and on to the streets. Peter thought he was having a vision or a dream but eventually decided that he actually had been delivered from his captives.  Once on the streets, the angel disappeared and Peter hurried to the house of John Mark’s mother where other believers were gathered in prayer on his behalf.  The story then takes a humorous turn as well as revealing something about us as believers.

The text says, “Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.’ When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’ ‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, ‘It must be his angel.’ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. (Acts 12:11-17).

The scene turns humorous when Peter, desperately wanting to get off the streets, knocked on the door and was left standing in the street as the servant girl ran to tell everyone that Peter was there.  It becomes a revealing scene when those praying for Peter’s release didn’t believe that he could possibly be at the door. How often do we pray with words of faith but without a heart of faith to match our words?  Undoubtedly, this little gathering of believers had verbalized some powerful prayers on Peter’s behalf.  Yet, when their prayer was supernaturally answered, they told the girl who had reported it that she must be of her mind.

One of the things I am learning to do is to check my faith for a prayer before I offer the prayer.  The good news is that God answered the prayer of those early believers in spite of their apparent lack of faith for what they were asking.  This falls in the category of aspirational beliefs rather than actual beliefs.  I aspire to have strong faith, so I say all the right words, but in actuality I don’t anticipate a powerful response from God.  I know that is my condition when I am skeptical about a report that my prayer was answered or when I am totally shocked to see God answer it.  In reality, many of us would honestly have to say when we pray, “Lord. I believe, help my unbelief.”  Again, God is good and often answers our less-than-faith-filled prayers anyway, but the goal is to pray with great confidence.

When I remember to do so, I find it helpful to rehearse in my mind all the times and ways that God has been faithful before.  I find it helpful to remind myself of his unchanging character and his faithfulness to his word.  I find it helpful to declare his promises related to what I am asking for and to remind myself that in Jesus all those promises are “yes” and “amen.” I also find it helpful to ask for the Spirit to give me a greater gift of faith for that moment and the moments to come.  At times, the Spirit may prompt me to repent of unbelief or to command a spirit of unbelief and doubt to be silent and leave. By going through that process, I am more able to align my heart with God’s word and so have more confidence in the outcome of my request. Then I can pray with more faith and, perhaps, even believe that the stranger knocking on the door is Peter.

So how do we overcome fear, anxiety and insecurity?  As I mentioned in Part 1, we are surrounded by fear and those who promote it.  Each day we hear that the polar caps are melting, Iran is developing nukes, and another great depression is just around the corner. We hear about super bugs , identity theft, terrorist cells, China, North Korea, giant asteroids, and a million other things that threaten our safety and security according to every news broadcast and talk show.  Some of those threats are real.  Some are only perceived.  The truth is that I can hardly affect any of those sources of fear. They are out of my control and the real truth about each of those circumstances seems unknowable. The realization of that only increases the fear of many because so much we cannot control could affect us. What I need is to have someone in my life who cares for me deeply and who is bigger, more powerful, and more resourced than any of those issues.

The truth is that every follower of Jesus already has that person in his/her life.  The answer to fear, however, is not the fact of that reality but a genuine belief that it is true for us personally.  That is faith and faith unlocks the resources of heaven.  Faith makes heaven’s peace accessible to us.  Since the answer to anxiety is peace and since peace comes by faith, how then, do we grow in that faith?

First of all, we must believe that God exists. If there is no God, then we are certainly on our own in a dangerous and random universe.  However, if you are a follower of Jesus, you should have already crossed that bridge. The next step, then,  is to believe that God is more than willing to be intimately involved in your life. The key to peace in a world of threats is to believe that God is willing to be involved in your life as much as he was in the lives of Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, and Paul. We tend to think that God did great things for his extraordinary people back then, but is not so willing to be involved in our lives because we are ordinary people and really not all that spiritual.

What we forget is that God got involved in the lives of his extraordinary people long before they were any of that. Abraham put Sarah at risk twice because he didn’t believe God could protect him from minor kings through whose land he was passing.  Moses resisted God’s call to greatness at the burning bush episode so much that God became angry.  David was just a red-faced kid tending sheep when he was anointed to be king.  Jacob was a cheater and deceiver when God renamed him Israel.  Rahab was a idolatrous hooker when God called her to be a woman of faith.  Mary Magdalene had seven demons before becoming a notable figure in the little group that followed Jesus around and the twelve were made up of uneducated fishermen, crooked tax collectors, and political terrorists. One gave up Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and they all ran off into the night when Jesus was arrested.

My point is that God got very involved in each of the lives of these unremarkable people before they ever became remarkable. If you have responded to the gospel, then God has already demonstrated his personal involvement in your life. So much so that he lives within you. So get over the idea that he is not willing to be there for you, because he already has been.

Secondly, we need biblical expectations of God’s involvement in our lives. I have talked to many believers who have taken offense at God because they feel he betrayed them at some point in their past.  They felt betrayed because something bad happened to them as a child or as an adult – sickness, death, divorce, abuse, etc. They believed that God had promised to keep bad things from happening to them because they were Christians and so he broke his promise when tragedy hit. Therefore, they don’t expect him to be there for them when the next tragedy strikes.   They still feel as if they are on their own in a very dangerous world.

Some preacher or well meaning evangelist may have told them that once you come to Jesus all your troubles are over, but the Bible never says that.  God never says he will keep you from trouble. What he does say is that he will join you in the midst of your trouble and walk you through it.

Paul declared, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor.1:3-4).  Notice that the promise is not that God will keep us from trouble but that he will comfort us in our troubles so we can comfort other believers in their troubles. In John 16:33, Jesus said that in this world, we will have trouble. In the 23rd Psalm David wrote that we may well have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  He said that God prepares a table for him…but,  in the midst of his enemies.  David faced death on many occasions and was often surrounded by his enemies.  His faith was that God would sustain him as he went through those trials rather than believing that God would keep him from the trials.  Every person of faith in the Bible went through hard times and faced personal tragedies,  but found God in a greater way through those hard times.  Our offense with God is often misplaced.

Thirdly, we must focus on what God has done for us rather than on what we believe he has not done. When David was about to face Goliath, he recounted how God had delivered him from the lion and the bear in the past and so he concluded that God would not fail him in the coming challenge. The scriptures are full of commands to remember what God had done. The command is not a fascination with history but the idea is that whatever God has done in the past, he is willing to do again. Having faith for that is a key to overcoming anxiety.

The next objection is always, “Yes, but…..God didn’t save my marriage or my child died anyway or he didn’t keep my father from molesting me…”  Those are serious and tragic events.  They are part of the trouble we will have in this world.  Where there is free will,there is also the ability to hurt others. According to Isaiah 61, Jesus came to heal broken hearts, set captives free, rebuild ruined lives, etc.  God knows damage has been done. It is the cost of sin in a fallen world, but the promise is that God will take what the enemy has damaged or destroyed and rebuild, restore, and heal.  That knowledge certainty brings peace even in the face of ruin.

Again…I think the big fear is that we are ultimately alone in a hostile world.  Ask the Lord to take you on a tour of your past and show you the evidence of his hand and his grace even in the midst of tragedy and ask him to even show you the grace he extended that you turned down because you were hurt or angry.  If you are a follower of Jesus, know that he has been following you as well. Perhaps, he has been standing in the shadows at times but he has been there to catch you, stand you up again,and to deflect the arrows of the enemy more times than you can know. Ask for a revelation of that truth and a gift of faith.  Ask for the peace of Jesus Christ that surpasses understanding.

Finally, we must be willing to live with mystery at times when things didn’t work out the way we prayed or the way we desperately wanted.  The cross is ultimately the answer because it declares that God is good and that God is love. We must choose that view of
God at times when we can’t understand why something has or hasn’t happened.  At those times, we  must choose to believe that the God who died for me still cares for me – not for people in general, but for me.  Then make his promise that “I will never leave you or forsake you” your answer to every fear the devil sends you way.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

A spirit of fear is one of the most pernicious spirits in the demonic realm.  We have all heard the axiom that fear is the opposite of faith and if faith produces peace, this fear produces inner turmoil.  Fear, phobias, and anxiety are almost epidemic in America – even among believers.  In a country where we should feel more secure than any other place in the world, our people are full of fear.

Fear is a natural response to danger and often is quite appropriate.  If you are walking through a West Texas field or canyon and hear a distinct rattle, fear is a very appropriate response. It stops you in your tracks, heightens every sense, and usually produces the good judgment to back up slowly.

But fear that becomes a resident in your life is not appropriate.  It robs you of peace, confidence, and a future because you fear moving into the future. It may make you timid and prompt you to stay in the shadows or it may make you an aggressive controller who only feels safe when you are in charge and telling everyone around you what to do. It is the source of worry that Jesus counsels against in Matthew 6.  It robs us of joy, of relationships, and eventually our health.  We often give into it, medicate it, and excuse it because we don’t know what else to do.

The phrase “Don’t be afraid” or “Fear not” is sprinkled throughout the scriptures. If fear were not so prevalent in the human race, God would not have said it so often.  Our first look at fear came immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden.  They covered themselves and hid.  They were clearly afraid because they were suddenly aware of their nakedness and clearly believed at some level that the love and care of their father had been suddenly removed.  They feared punishment and the prospect of becoming orphans in a dangerous world.

Our current epidemic of fear is based on the same assumptions.  Somewhere in our lives, we had an experience that left us believing that either there is no God and we are on our own in a dangerous world or that God exists, but he is angry or detached, or powerless and we are still on our own in a world that wants to hurt us.   The spirit of fear and an orphan spirit always work together.  One whispers that no one cares for us or is looking out for us and the other prompts us to worry, seek control, and live with a generalized fear (anxiety) that disaster and loss is always in the pipeline.

God speaks to that over and over and the cure is simply faith that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). When Moses encountered God at the burning bush, Moses was afraid to return to Egypt. He made every excuse possible for his unwillingness to obey God’s call. God’s consistent answer was that He would go with Moses. God’s presence would ensure his protection and provision. He promised the same to Israel and he promises the same to us.  There are hundreds of such promises in the Bible. The question is whether we will believe them.

Anxiety gets down to what we truly believe about God. Do we believe that he exists? Do we believe that he is good and that he cares about us?  Do we believe that he is willing to involve himself in our lives as our daily bread?  Do we believe he is powerful so that he cam provide our every need and overcome the enemy’s attacks in our life?

We could list all kinds of reasons that we might find it hard to overcome our human experiences and trust God when we have never met anyone else who would not eventually let us down.  But the truth is that we must come to believe God if we are going to live without fear.  That is where a spirit of fear operates.  He whispers that God can’t be trusted.  He whispers that God was there for us in the past but we can’t count on him in the future.  He whispers that God is there for other believers but not for us because we are too defective, too perverse, and too unbelieving.  He simply whispers that, like others, when we need God the most, he won’t be there for us. Not only that but he pervades the airwaves.  The news and the talk shows are full of fear that we are always on the edge of extinction and catastrophe.  When we watch or listen to the pundits, we absorb the fear from our environment. We feel as if the problem is so big or so pervasive that even God can’t deliver us.

So…how do we come to believe God…not just at an intellectual level but in our hearts as well?  How do come to believe that he exists, he loves us, he wants to be actively involved in every second of our lives, and that he is an all-powerful Father who wants the best for us? How do we come to believe that when we have experienced trauma, loss, and betrayal in this life more than once and wonder where was this powerful, loving God when I lost my spouse or my child or contracted MS? I will share some thoughts on all of that in my next blog.

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed  (Jn.4:46-53).

This is a familiar story from the Gospel of John.  Jesus had grown up in Nazareth as the son of a carpenter.  Nazareth and was less than 20 miles from the Sea of Galilee and less than four miles from Cana. He performed hundreds of miracles in the region of Galilee, the northern province of Israel in which the Sea of Galilee rests.  Many of those were in Capernaum, a small city on the northwest shore of Galilee. Two notable miracles were seen in Cana. The story above describes the second notable miracle in Cana where Jesus had earlier turned water into wine.

The background is important here because in Mark 6 we are told that Jesus had returned to Nazareth after performing a number of miracles in Jerusalem and other towns in the region.  Even though they had heard about his miracles, we are told that he could do none in Nazareth because of their unbelief.  Familiarity was their problem.  They had watched Jesus grow up in the shop of his father Joseph and could not see him as a prophet or the Messiah, but only as the carpenter’s son. In their minds he could never be more than that.  Sometimes we need to get away from our old friends and family for us to take on our new identity in Christ because their inability to see us as a different person sometimes gets in the way of our ability to see ourselves as a different person.

In contrast, John tells us about a royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum and near death some 16 miles from Cana. Jesus had already performed miracles in Capernaum so we can assume that when the official’s son became gravely ill, hearing that Jesus was back in Galilee, he  went after Jesus.  Perhaps, he went on horseback or walked, but his mission was to find Jesus and take him back to Capernaum to heal his son.

After finding Jesus and pleading with him to return to Capernaum to heal his son. Jesus simply told him “You may go.  Your son will live.”  The remarkable statement in John is, “The man took Jesus at his word and departed.” That is the core of faith.  Faith is taking God as Father, Son, or Spirit at his word and acting on it. Too many of us, myself included, tend to analyze the words of Jesus and then add our own “except when” or “except for me.”  We tend to add footnotes that add qualifications to his words or his promises when he simply wants us to take him at his word.  The minute we qualify his statement or add a disclaimer, the enemy has won.

I’m not saying that we should not be honest about our struggles to believe. Most of us believe Jesus totally in some areas of our lives but in other areas we are the man who cried out, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” Perhaps, the dividing line is defined by those promises on which we take action and those on which we want to give it some more thought. The royal official didn’t continue to coax Jesus to come with him. When Jesus told him his son would live, he headed home.  The remaining question seemed to be whether Jesus was given a revelation as a prophet that his son would eventually overcome his illness or whether Jesus had the power and authority to direct healing from a distance. When the official heard that the fever left his son at the same time Jesus had declared that he would live, the question was answered.  Surely Jesus was more than a prophet because even the great prophets of the Old Testament had to be present for healing to occur.

What promises do we say we believe but hesitate to take action on?  Which promises do we believe for others, but not ourselves?  What promises do we say we believe but then add qualifiers for when the promise might be true?  Those are the questions we need to ask ourselves so we can address those areas of our lives for which we need more faith.   Then we can mediate more on the promise, pray for a greater gift of faith from the Holy Spirit, listen to the testimony of others, and choose to take action on the promise even while a small cloud of uncertainty may still hover above our heads. Our goal is to bring our requests to Jesus, take Jesus at his word when we receive a promise, and then depart believing that it is done. That is the faith that moves mountains.

Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you (Jn.17:18-20).

I don’t know about you, but this verse bothers me.  Jesus seems to be saying that the smallest amount of faith can move mountains and if we are not moving mountains then our faith is truly microscopic. Rarely do I feel that I am moving mountains, so a bit of condemnation creeps up when I look at this scripture as the standard.  The question then becomes whether or not I am understanding this passage correctly.

Without letting myself off the hook for microscopic faith, there is another way to understand this passage.  The word that is translated “little faith” typically means a small amount or lack, but it can also be translated as “a short amount of time” or as “brief.” In the context, Jesus may have been telling his disciples that they didn’t sustain their faith long enough.  When the demon didn’t come out right away, they quit.  Persistence or perseverance is part of faith.  In an instant society, we want it now and are prone to give up if something doesn’t happen quickly. I think we can fall prey to that mindset when it comes to prayer, commanding a demon, or declaring healing. Sometimes, in order to move a mountain, we must persist or endure. The mountain may be moved a shovel full at a time instead of all at once.

James highlights this truth when he says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (Ja. 1:2-4). Sometimes we think that spiritual maturity and great faith always produce the overnight miracles of healing, provision, breakthrough, and so for. Yet James is clear that the quality of endurance is part of spiritual maturity.

In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul exhorts them to “contend for the faith” against ongoing opposition.  That text has the flavor of contending, wrestling, and engaging in conflict.

In his “sermon on the mount,” Jesus taught us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt.7:7-8). The verbs in this passage are “present progressive.”  They could be translated as keep asking, keep knocking, and keep seeking.  After you have kept on, your prayers will be answered.

Our faith then is not always measured by the immediate miracle.  Sometimes it is measured by a belief that God is hearing my prayers and storing them up until the movement when they will be answered in a powerful way. Persistence can be the measure of my faith. Even in the context of deliverance, such as the one in which the disciples of Jesus could not cast out the spirit, we may need to go after that spirit more than once, believing that the power and authority that God has given us weakens the devil’s stronghold each time we command and each time we declare the word of God over it. At some point, when we have persevered, the walls of that stronghold will crack and the enemy will flee. We may think that the walls of Jericho came down all at once, but they came down after seven days of establishing authority in the spiritual realm by marching around the city.

Often, the enemy wins by just holding on long enough for us to give up. In those moments, our faith was sufficient in one sense but too brief for the stronghold to fall. We did not endure. Paul’s life and ministry was defined by endurance. He described it with the following words.  “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor.4:8-9). Basically, he said that they kept getting knocked down, but always got up and pressed ahead.  Their faith was in the final victory if they kept going.

Whatever you have been asking for, keep contending. Our faith is enough if it is not too brief.