Philip Yancey continues to be one of my favorite authors for his insights into scripture and his ability to put flesh and bones on Biblical truths that sometime seem abstract or are simply overlooked.  In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Yancey gives a chapter to the resurrection and makes some interesting observations that in all honesty I had missed.

We who read the Gospels from the other side of Easter, who have the day printed on our calendars, forget how hard it was for the disciples to believe…Author Frederick Buechner is struck by the unglamorous quality of Jesus’ appearances after resurrection Sunday.  There were no angels in the sky singing choruses, no kings from afar bearing gifts.  Jesus showed up in the most ordinary circumstances:  a private dinner, two men walking along a road, a woman weeping in a garden, some fishermen working a lake. (P.214).

Yancey goes on to point out that as far as we know Jesus made no post-resurrection appearances to unbelievers but only to those who had already believed.  He then says, “The resurrection is the epicenter of belief. It is, says C.H. Dodd, ‘not a belief that grew up within the church; it is the belief around which the church itself grew up.’” (P.217).

It’s true.  Paul said that if there were no resurrection then we are fools to be pitied for living our lives for Jesus. So why did Jesus not march into the Sanhedrin or up Pilot’s steps Sunday afternoon?  Why did he not appear in the temple courts and show the thousands of unbelievers there the holes in his hands and the gash in his side?  Although angels appeared at the tomb, they only appeared to a few and then were gone with no angelic voices trumpeting the risen Lord.   Why leave the world guessing instead of offering irrefutable proof his resurrection and his deity?  Why does God so often seem to tantalize us with evidence of his existence but not irrefutable proof?  Why was Jesus so resistant to giving the Pharisees the irrefutable signs they so often asked for and why did he call them wicked for doing so?

Jesus probably summed it up when Thomas saw the irrefutable evidence of Christ’s scars and believed.  As Thomas came to faith Jesus said I’m glad you have finally believed but, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  Evidence appeals to logic  which rests in the mind and believes that all its questions have been answered.  Faith, on the other hand, rests in the heart and can live with some unanswered questions.  God has always been more interested in our hearts than in our heads.

The truth is that nothing rests on absolute, irrefutable evidence. Even if we think science has proven something beyond a shadow of a doubt we cannot prove with absolute certainty that something else is not there that has not yet been considered. We can’t prove with absolute certainty that our system of logic does not contain some minute flaw that leads us astray.   We cannot even prove with absolute certainty that the scientists who have “proven” their theory are not merely figments of our imagination or part of some eternal dream like The Matrix.  Everything requires a measure of faith and a willingness to believe something for which we might not have all the answers. When we demand that God make total sense to us or that every mystery in the Bible be explained before we believe,  our problem is not a problem of evidence but of a heart that refuses to let God sit on the throne rather than self.

Faith, indeed, is the currency of heaven. Faith believes on the basis of sufficient evidence rather than overwhelming evidence.  Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, some hearts won’t believe.  The Pharisees saw miracle after miracle – even the raising of the dead – and would not believe.  Faith believes in the nature of God even when what we see doesn’t compute.  When we pray with all of our hearts and a loved one dies out of time, faith does not require answers before it continues to believe that God is good. When we pray with all of our hearts and a marriage dies anyway, faith does not demand God’s explanation to continue to believe that God is love.  When we have seen others healed and other marriages saved, then we are confronted by the mystery of why our marriage wasn’t saved or our loved one wasn’t healed.  The power of faith is not that it has all the answers but that it continues to believe in the goodness and faithfulness of God in the face of mystery and disappointment.

That is the heart that God values and that is the currency of heaven.  Faith does not measure God by what he has not done for us but by all that he has done for us.  When we wonder what God is like in the face of personal disappointment, we simply look at Jesus who told Phillip that if we have seen Jesus then we have seen the Father.  Jesus didn’t heal every sick person in Jerusalem but would we say that Jesus was not loving?  Jesus did not set every slave free but would we say he is not merciful? Jesus didn’t raise every dead person but would we say he was indifferent?  Then why would we say that about God?  There are mysteries that faith cannot answer but what it can answer is “what is the heart of God towards people?”  The cross surely answers that.

When we doubt, Jesus will probably not send kings with gifts or angelic choruses but will show himself to us in plain and ordinary ways.  It we will be open to him that will be enough.  Have faith today without having all the answers and be blessed.

Why do some things seem to tumble into place as soon as we pray and others take months or decades or a lifetime?  Is it our intensity in prayer, our faith for God to move mountains, or our personal intimacy with God that makes the difference? At times, each of those elements may factor in.  But often, the same person with the same intensity, the same faith, and the same intimacy finds that some prayers seem to be answered quickly while others take time – sometimes a great deal of time.

Dutch Sheets, in his book Intercessory Prayer (a great read ), suggests one possibility for your consideration.  He speculates that prayer releases the power of the Holy Spirit into situations and that some simply take more power to accomplish than others. I know I could object immediately to that notion since God has all power and he dispenses that power as he chooses. But God only acts in concert with his people on a great number of spiritual playing fields. There are many things God wants to do but holds back until his people pray so that we are “partnering with him” in the work of the kingdom.

I don’t think there is just one answer to our questions about prayer but I think we should consider the possibility that strongholds exist in spiritual realms like walled cities standing against siege weapons.  Some walls are higher and thicker than others.  Some are made of timber like forts on the frontier. Others are made of dirt piled high and others of great stones. Think of prayers as spiritual catapults where we continue to hurl stones at the wall of the enemy where he has established a stronghold in a person’s life, in generations of a family, or in a community.

As we press in and pray, is it possible that we are firing shots at the wall and must continue to bombard the enemy’s stronghold until the wall cracks, then begins to crumble, and then finally collapses sending the enemy scattering into the night? We don’t always know how high or thick the wall is or how long it has been in place when we begin to pray.  We don’t know how skilled and experienced those are who man the walls for the enemy.

Another way to think of this is that prayer is like an energy weapon. We carry power generated by the Holy Spirit. He is responsible for the energy that powers our weapons. But we are responsible to track down the enemy, point, and shoot.  As we point our faith toward a situation and pull the trigger of prayer, the Holy Spirit releases energy into the situation that our heart and prayers are focused on.

So, when we pray, we are assaulting enemy strongholds and when we and the others praying with us have released the power of the Holy Spirit into that situation long enough with faith and fervor, the wall must eventually fall and when it does…we will see the kingdom established quickly in that place and the enemy in wild retreat.  Undoubtedly, many things related to prayer are still a mystery.  However,  we do know that the one in us is greater than the one that is behind the wall.  We do know that the power that overcame hell and raised Jesus from the dead is at work within us.

So, in those moments when you are weary and you wonder if you should continue to pray because you have seen no change – pray again.  Perhaps, the wall is already beginning to crack and crumble.  Perhaps, the next volley will see its collapse and hearts will be opened, bodies healed, and cities transformed.  Remember, Jesus told us that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.  In Christ, we have the enemy surrounded. Victory is assured. Just keep firing away in the faith that we are more than conquerors in Christ – every time.  Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up (Lk.18:1).