Faith First

Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" So they removed the stone.... (John 11:40-41)

I want to personalize the lessons that I am finding in this story so that they will have the effect in my own life of causing me to believe in Jesus the way He wanted His friends to believe in Him then.

Yesterday I explored the idea of obstacles that prevent us from believing. In this story it was the stone in front of the grave that represented the unbelief that was the main obstacle Jesus was seeking to surmount so that God's glory, the truth about His goodness and how He feels about sinners, might become evident and have compelling power to attract souls to Himself.

The underlying issue more important than any other in this battle between good and evil is the issue of what we believe about whether God really thinks about us. Does He really care or is He just interested in getting compliance to His arbitrary regulations and demands? Satan has generally convinced most of us that the latter is the case, but over the past few years I have been discovering that for my heart to really trust God, to come into the kind of belief that John talks about all throughout his gospel, I must revise my gut-level perceptions of God to see the truth about His fairness, His kindness, His compassion and His caring love for me personally.

There are any number of obstacles that prevent my heart from embracing these truths about God, inhibitors that need to be removed just like this stone was blocking Jesus from revealing the truth about God more fully in this story. When Martha, confused by her feelings, objected to the idea of removing the stone because she felt that it would only add to her pain to have the stench of her dead brother's rotting corpse come into the open reminding her of her loss, Jesus gently chided her that she needed to refocus her attention on what was more important. It was not the seemingly impossible problem of Lazarus being hopelessly dead that was the real problem here; it was the unwillingness of people to believe in the goodness of God, to believe that God genuinely cared about them no matter what circumstances might seem to indicate. Jesus reminded her that the stone was not really the biggest obstacle but the unbelief that she was still experiencing that needed to be set aside. When the unbelief was dealt with the stone would be incidental.

How did Jesus propose for Martha to roll away her unbelief rock? He told her to remember the words He had spoken to her. It is the promises of God that are the most powerful weapons against resistance of unbelief. When the suggestions of doubt and unbelief surround our hearts with darkness like a suffocating mist, it is then that it is most vital to immerse our minds and imagination and hearts in the Word of God and the promises that He has provided to inspire faith in the midst of our situation.

Rain and snow fall from the sky and don't return until they have watered the ground. Then the ground causes the plants to sprout and grow, and they produce seeds for the farmer and food for people to eat. In the same way, my words leave my mouth, and they don't come back without results. My words make the things happen that I want to happen. They succeed in doing what I send them to do.

(Isa 55:10-11 ERV)

I noticed another important lesson in these words of Jesus to Martha. So often we want to base our faith on miracles, on demonstrations of power, on revelations of glory, on the emotional reactions we have to spectacular displays of what we think is the supernatural presence of God. We feel confident that if we could just have more signs from heaven that our faith could then be firm and confident and secure.

People have had this mistaken idea likely ever since sin entered the world. But in reality it is just another example of the backwards thinking that is produced by the effects of sin on our brains. Jesus states in this verse that it is the belief in His word that needs to come first, not the display of the glory of God. If you believe you will see... Like most people my heart is sure that if I could just see the glory of God first then it would be easy to believe. But I am learning that the kind of belief that relies on displays of power or supernatural interventions is a very fickle faith. In addition, because the enemy of God also has supernatural abilities and is intent on using it to deceive, it sets me up to be easily deceived into thinking I have faith in God when in fact I am being led toward destruction without realizing it.

This is why it is so vital to learn the lesson of basing our faith on the promises and the instructions and revelations of the established Word of God in the Scriptures rather than on impressions or supposed revelations from inspiring preachers or teachers. Jesus demonstrated this clearly during His temptations in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry. This world is full of counterfeits designed to draw us away from the saving truth about God that can transform us into His image and prepare us to live with Him for eternity. The real truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ – the good news about God – is so rare that it is nearly impossible to learn correctly from those professing religion. I am finding that the more I search the Scriptures prayerfully seeking to discern the real truth about its message the more I see the distortions in what is claimed to be the gospel message from other sources.

Jesus told Martha that if she would believe she would then see God's glory. There is a distinct sequence laid out here. In Martha's mind she found it very difficult in her grief and her assumed perceptions of reality to imagine what Jesus wanted to do in her circumstances. She was under so much pressure from those around her and from her own intense feelings to believe negative assumptions about God that are so common in this world that Jesus had to urge her to stretch far out of her comfort zone and trust His heart even if she could not perceive His plans for her. Martha did not have to believe and understand fully how Jesus intended to relate to her pain, but she did need to choose to take hold of His word spoken to her and invest at least a little faith in His care for her in order to release the permission necessary for Him to intervene supernaturally in her situation.

Faith in the goodness of God's heart must precede revelations of God's glory if it is to make a saving difference in our lives. It is dangerous to wait for supernatural revelations of glory before we are willing to trust the heart of God. This is one of the schemes of the enemy to keep us diverted from the true kind of faith that will save our souls. For miracles to accomplish what God intends for them to, faith in God's heart needs to come first.

But this is not a self-generated, artificial kind of mental gymnastics faith that is often confused for trust in His heart. Real faith is choosing to believe that God's heart is towards us even when our feelings insist otherwise. Saving faith is making our reason and conscience supersede our feelings and choosing to not allow our feelings to control our will and choices.

Martha's feelings were driving her to doubt the heart of Jesus, to feel that He didn't care for her as much as her reason and experience had led her to believe previously. Because of her natural interpretation of her circumstances reinforced by nearly everyone around her, that Jesus had failed them in their greatest time of crisis, her feelings felt very strong to doubt the goodness of God in the midst of her pain. But Jesus took this opportunity to remind her that feelings were not to be the determining factor for her faith; her faith must rest on the promises of God which cannot be defeated no matter how impossible circumstances may seem to appear. And if she was willing to make that investment of trust, the returns would be beyond her wildest hopes and dreams.

I want to learn that lesson too. I find myself daily facing the challenge to turn away from my feelings and choose to trust the heart of God, especially when it seems things are not going well. When it feels He is not listening to me I want to practice the lessons in these words of Jesus so that my own faith will strengthen and mature in spite of my feelings. I want to rely intentionally and intently on the promises of God when things look dark or hopeless. I want to overcome the temptation to allow my feelings to determine my relationship with God whether they are good or bad, and rather to depend on what He has said about our relationship. I want to re-prioritize the hierarchy of the processes of how I make decisions, not allowing my feelings to control my will but basing my choices on what God has said even when it sounds bizarre or impossible. I want my life to be shaped by the Word of God rather than the traditions of religion or culture or any other faulty foundation.

What I allow to surround me, the influences of the inputs that flood my thinking and imagination and stimulate my emotions have a great degree of influence on the direction of my faith and character. I find that when I allow the messages of the world through entertainment or negative friends or any number of other sources to occupy my attention that my faith begins to shrink very rapidly. The only safe way to keep my faith alive and growing is to keep putting myself back into the presence of Jesus and choosing to turn away or cut myself off from sources that contradict what He says about me and about God.

Father, help me to guard more carefully the channels to my mind and heart that erode my faith in Your heart. Keep reminding me of Your words of hope, of truth, of how You really view me. Fill my thoughts with the truth about Your goodness, Your fairness, Your passionate love and Your power to save.