The Hand of God

WHAT A WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
God you have proven yourself so strong, so mighty, so able; how could I have ever doubted You, the Almighty God of Jacob, of Isaac and Abraham, how could I have allowed myself to carry such a burdened heart…and for what? Only to be delivered by Your righteous right hand. You have proven to me, once and for all that You are the God who reigns supreme and there is none above You! You are the same God who delivered John Newton on the rough seas of that dreadful voyage; You revealed Yourself to him like never before and he was changed forever. This day, You have also revealed Yourself to me and have changed my attitude from being nonchalantly complacent toward your miracle goodness, to an attitude of unspeakable gratitude for Your love that I am still trying to fathom as the days go by.

How could I have been so skeptical of Your ability? How is it that I can read in the Bible about Your ability to deliver nations into the hands of your people who trust in You, yet I flounder at the thought that You are not real or present enough to deliver me? I have gone very far on the faith of my mother; and You have used her many times to deliver me from the clutches of this world, but You are truly a jealous God, and You would have it that I run to no other than the God of my Eternal Salvation, the God of my Eternal Restitution, the God of my Eternal Communion. “Tis’ better roll down the shades and commune in solitude with the Lord, My Refuge, my Redeemer, a Love that surrounds, like Unbreakable Cords.”

You have shown me that though I must run this race of Faith independent of those who have Faith for me and with me, I am reassured that You have always been with me and will never leave me nor forsake me. And, like Jacob declared after seeing You in a dream, “Surly You have always been here, but I did not know.”

Last night, you asked me a question. You asked, “What good is anything if you can’t find happiness in your trials?” Joy is the seed, but happiness is one of its fruits.

The more I think about this question, the more I begin to understand Your implications: My attitude isn’t consistent with your Word in Romans 8:28 which says, “and I know that all things work together for good to them that love You, to them who are called according to Your purpose.” Apart from the obvious that all things work together for good, which should fuel my happiness, there are two words that should be the cords that tie my Faith to Your Everlasting Goodness: The words, “I Know.” It doesn’t say “I feel.” The word ‘know’ means to regard as true beyond doubt and to perceive as familiar. I asked myself, “How then, is it even possible to ‘know’ that all things work together for good?” It has been revealed to me these two things: Perceiving truth beyond a doubt and recollecting what is familiar. Achieving these are only possible through Faith.

Faith is anything but passive; we know that it must be active because Faith without works is dead. (James 2:20) Once we perceive or identify/recognize the truth (the Word of God) beyond doubt, we have to choose to live by it; once we do this, we will see the hand of God in every aspect that this truth is applied; upon making this truth a lifestyle, we encumber numerous accounts of what God has done based on our Faith, or in other words, the successful reputation of God has become real to us. Once we make it this far, we can reinforce the second aspect of our Faith by ‘knowing’ what is ‘familiar’. The reputation of God delivering us has become familiar in our lives, or in other words, our Faith in spite of our current trial has become certain because we saw God deliver us in the past. This is why we need to grab hold of Romans 1:17 that says, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith, as it is written, the just shall live by Faith.”

As we have just discovered, Faith is knowing, or perceiving truth beyond a doubt and reaffirming what is familiar. So really, Established Faith exists in two dimensions: The Spiritual Dimension where we must perceive truth beyond doubt, and The Natural Dimension where we reflect on actual events that took place in our lives that reinforce the successful reputation of God. This is how our Faith becomes familiar or certain. You can better understand Romans 1:17 if you read it like this:

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from Certainty to Certainty, as it is written, the just shall live by Certainty.” We must live with Certainty that God is always with us, and will always deliver us, no matter how hopeless the situation appears. Jeremiah 1:19 says, “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.””

We all have a measure of Faith or Certainty (Romans 12:3), and truthfully, I could no longer ride the coat tail of my mother’s measure. Even in this trail, my mother is facing trials of her own. Usually she would be more than available to help me through the down time of my situation, but it is as though God has divinely purposed and allowed a degree of separation between us so that we, or more directly I can ‘work out’ my own measure of Faith.

The concepts and principles to following God and living by Faith are so simple; yet, how can something so simple be equally as difficult to live? I guess Established Faith is the difference between being a comer and an over-comer, the difference between being a winner and a champion, the difference between knowing all the answers, and living the question.