Believing is Seeing

Believing is Seeing

“And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” (Acts 3:16)

A man hung a cable across the wide expanse of a large waterfall.  He was able to walk across and back without falling into the depths below.  Next he walked back and forth pushing a wheelbarrow.  To everyone’s surprise he was able to achieve this without any difficulty at all.  The watching people burst into applause.  The story reveals that a five-year-old boy was standing nearby.  The man looked at the boy and asked “Boy, I’m going to push this wheelbarrow back across the rope.  Do you believe that I can do it?”

“Oh, yes!” said the boy with confidence.

“You mean that you have that type of faith in me?  You really believe that I can do it?”

“Oh, yes, I really do!” responded the little boy.

“Okay, son, jump in the wheelbarrow and let me push you across.”

Now that was a different story.  The boy refused to get into the wheelbarrow.  We also believe that God can do some tremendous miracles until He asks us to get inside the wheelbarrow as He crosses danger zones. It is during these times that we must trust Him to push us to the other side.

This is much like the Bible account of Jesus telling his close friends, “Let us go over unto the other side...”  (Luke 8:22).  As they were sailing on the lake a great storm came and the disciples were so afraid that they woke Jesus up saying, “Master, we perish.”  Jesus rebuked the storm and it became calm.  He asked them, “Where is your faith?”  Before we can understand where our faith is, we must first understand what faith is.

What is Faith?

The word “faith” is found twice in the Old Testament and two hundred and forty five times in the New Testament. 

The Biblical definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1.  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  This chapter gives many examples of Biblical faith put into practice by people mentioned throughout the Bible.  In fact, Hebrews 11 is commonly referred to as the “Faith Chapter”, and the characters mentioned in this chapter are sometimes recognized as part of “Faith’s Hall of Fame.”  In each example given, faith shaped the way that they looked at their future.

This encourages us to realize that we can be sure of what we hope for, and convinced of what we cannot see.  We do not walk by sight, we walk by faith.  (2 Corinthians 5:7)

The Bible makes it clear that the just shall live by faith.  (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38)

There are those that say, like doubting Thomas, “I’ll never believe it until I see it.”  However, we will never see it until we believe it!  God desires for us to believe and have faith, which is the evidence of things not seen. 

Many say, “Seeing is believing!”  According to the Word of God believing is seeing.   Faith does not have to see before it believes.  It counts the things done that it asks from God.  Through this type of faith we receive all of our needs in life, both physical and spiritual. 

L. Oswald Sanders said, “Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present, and the invisible as seen.”

Did you know that faith has eyes?  “...Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  (Hebrews 11:1) 

Men of Faith

q  Noah built the ark before he ever saw the rains.  It had never rained on the earth before.  He built the boat in the middle of dry land.  He acted on something he couldn’t see.  As a result his family was saved and all others lost.

q  Abraham believed he would be a father way before his wife ever got pregnant at an old age.  This was after he had left his homeland, not even knowing where he was going.    He just trusted the one who said for him to go.

q  It was by faith that the children of God walked through the Red Sea.  When the Egyptians tried it; they drowned.  Moses had the people of God sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the death angel would not touch them.  This was by faith. 

Faith is confidence or the trust that we have that something is going to happen.  It is a life-shaping attitude toward God as the supplier of all our needs. 

One day, Jesus came to his disciples walking on the water.  Peter requested that the Lord ask him to come and walk on the water also.  Jesus said, “Come” and Peter took the step of faith, and started walking on the water.  What a tremendous miracle!  But when Peter saw that the wind was “boisterous”, he became afraid and started to sink.  Jesus pulled him up out of the water and said, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

Abraham is an excellent example of faith.  In Romans 4 we find that he was never weak in faith.  He did not waver through unbelief and did not consider his old age or his wife.  He was strong in faith, and was fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.  Sometimes we may not realize how, why, when, or where God will do it, but we can be fully persuaded that God will do what He has promised.  Abraham is considered to be the “Father of Faith.”  Abraham was even called “Father” before he ever became a father.  When things looked hopeless, he believed anyway.  He decided not to live on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but what he saw God would do.  Therefore, he was made a father of many people.  “...You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!”

“Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say,  ‘It’s hopeless.  This one hundred-year-old body could never father a child.’  Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up.  He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions.  He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good what he had said.”  (The Message, Eugene Peterson)

Every Christian must have faith in God.  The writer of Hebrews states,  “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  (Hebrews 11:6)

“Faith is like a toothbrush.  Every man should have one and use it regularly, but he shouldn’t try to use someone else’s.”  (J. G. Stipe)

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Our faith is in Jesus Christ...

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”  (Hebrews 12:2)