Tag Archives: walk by faith not by sight

October 17, 2018 · 5:03 AM

Faith’s Eyes

As Christians, one of the hardest things for any of us to do is to walk by faith and not by sight. I’ve read that 90% of all information we send to the brain is visual. So it’s only natural for our brain to trust what we see instead of what we don’t. I loved the scene from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where he has to take a leap of faith off the cliff. He looks down and sees a huge drop that will kill him, but he steps off anyway. He drops about a foot and a hidden ledge catches him. More often than not, that’s how God Call’s us to live.

Abraham in the Bible is a person who believed what God said. His eyes were sending information to his brain that was contrary to what God was telling him. No one could get pregnant at Sarah’s age. In fact, Sarah laughed when she heard that she was going to conceive. It was impossible from their perspective, but they didn’t let that keep them from acting in faith. Less than a year later, Isaac was born. He was a constant reminder to them that God is able to do what He promises no matter what our eyes tell us.

Romans 4:18 says, “Against all odds, when it looked hopeless, Abraham believed the promise and expected God to fulfill it” (TPT). Abraham was human just like us, but he chose which information to believe. I don’t know what impossibility hopeless odds you’re looking at today, but if God promised something other than what you see, choose to believe His Word. You may have to be like the man who told Jesus in Mark 9, “Lord I believe, but help my unbelief.” Learning To look through faith’s eyes is never easy, but it is the only way for believers. Trust God more than what you see.

Photo by Usukhbayar Gankhuyag on Unsplash

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October 17, 2014 · 6:13 AM

10 Scriptures On Faith

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1. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1 NLT)

2. So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself). (Romans 10:17 AMP)

3. For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.” (Romans 1:17 GNB)

4. But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. (Hebrews 11:6 AMP)

5. (for we walk by faith, not by sight); (2 Corinthians 5:7 ASV)

6. So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead). (James 2:17 AMP)

7. Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power. (1 Corinthians 2:5 GNB)

8. Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible. ” (Matthew 17:20 NLT)

9. For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands. (Romans 3:28 GNB)

10. At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One. (Ephesians 6:16 GNB)

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April 10, 2014 · 7:49 AM

Replacing Trust

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How many times does God ask us to do something and then we see if it’s feasible before trying to do it? We try to get all our ducks in a row before “stepping out in faith.” It’s not really faith if we set everything up ahead of time to ensure our success. We trust in the things we see and know versus the unseen. We end up doing it in our own strength instead of His strength. We then wonder where our reward is for such an act of faith. The truth is we have our reward because we did it in on our own instead of trusting in Him.

In the last chapter of II Samuel, God was upset with Israel. David sent his army commanders out to do a census so he would know how many warriors he had. His officer replied, “May your God multiply people by the hundreds right before the eyes of my master the king, but why on earth would you do a thing like this?” He resisted David because he knew what David was doing and it wasn’t right. After years of serving God, walking with Him and talking with Him, David was still tempted to walk by sight.

David reiterated his command and sent the men out. In verse 10, it says, “But when it was all done, David was overwhelmed with guilt because he had counted the people, replacing trust with statistics.” The man, who once was indignant because an entire army was afraid of a giant defying his God, was now in the shoes of the army. He forgot that holy fire that he once had that wasn’t afraid of anything that came against God’s people. As he got older, he trusted God less and relied on what he knew instead. He forgot that God won his battles, not his numbers.

I think of my child who is willing to jump off of anything when I’m around. He trusts that I’ll catch him. As he gets older, he’ll try to push me away while he jumps off of things. He’ll get bumps and bruises and finally he’ll quit taking those leaps. His fear of gravity will overtake his trust in me. We do the same thing to God. We take leaps of faith early on in our walk with Him. We’re amazed when He catches us. Then we start trying to act independently of Him. We try to do acts of faith without Him. We fail and our pride gets bruised. We ask God where He was and why He didn’t catch us when we were doing things for Him. We then quit acting in faith all together. We end up only doing things for God where we are guaranteed success.

God asks us to trust Him completely. He asks us to trust a Him blindly. When we take those leaps, there is a time when we are free falling. Our stomach is in our throat. Our adrenalin is rushing. We are wondering if God will catch us because our destiny is not in our hands. That’s where God wants us to live. That’s where He wants our faith. He doesn’t want us to trust in statistics, numbers, things we can see or our own strength. He wants us to trust in Him alone. If He calls you to do something, don’t trust in what you see or try to make things work. Take the step of faith and have that child like trust that your Father will catch you.

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February 26, 2014 · 7:39 AM

Believing Is Seeing

I was recently asked the question, “Do you believe what you see or do you see what you believe?” I know you may have to read that again to catch it. It took me a minute. When I see a wall, I believe what I see so I don’t walk into it. It’s usually strong enough that I can’t walk through it. When I see an impossible situation, I have to be careful not to use my physical eyes to look at it because it’s actually spiritual. When the doctors say it’s a 99% chance that something is cancerous, I use my spiritual eyes to see what I believe. They just gave God one percent to work with. I’ve seen Him do more with less.

Each of us have a choice in how we see things. We can choose to look at physical situations like that and believe what we see or we can see what we believe. I have to constantly check myself and ask God, “Am I looking at this situation through the right eyes? How do you see this?” I want to make sure I’m on God’s side and that I see what He does. I want to make sure that if there is a chance for Him to act, I give it to Him. The last thing I want to do is act on what I see because I believe it. Does God believe it?

In Joshua 9, the Israelites were going through the Promised Land and fighting against every city. They were moving in and kicking the others out as God commanded. God spoke to Joshua and gave him battle strategies. Joshua would consult Him for everything. When the other army out numbered him, he chose to see what he believed and it led to victory each time. The people of nearby Gibeon heard what the Israelites were doing and wanted to make peace in order to live. They knew that the Israelites were not making treaties with anyone so they decided to trick them.

They sent a convoy of people with stale bread, old wine and worn out clothes. They asked for peace and the Israelites asked, “How do we know you aren’t from around here?” They pointed to the bread, wine and clothes and said they were all fresh and new when they left. Verse 14 says, “The men of Israel looked them over and accepted the evidence. But they didn’t ask God about it.” They looked with their physical eyes and believed what they saw. Had they asked God, they would have seen what it really was. They would have seen what they believed and acted accordingly.

What situation are you faced with today? What eyes have you been looking at it with? I want to encourage you to pray and ask God to open your spiritual eyes to see it as He does. Ask Him to help you see what you believe rather than to believe what you see. There is no situation that is impossible for God. There’s nothing you are going to face today that He can’t make a way out of. There’s no report that can be given to you that He can’t refute or change. It’s all in how you choose to see it. So I now ask you, “Do you believe what you see or do you see what you believe?”

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