Acting in faith can raise many questions.
In part one we saw that a person of faith lives in the tension of two realities. One is the visible reality of our circumstances, the other is the invisible reality of God, his promises, and the answers to prayer that he assures us we can treat as already being certain even though we cannot see them. As a result, to the extent possible, people of faith live by what the Word of God says, not what their visible circumstances say. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And that faith focuses particularly on God’s Word.
We look now at the application of this principle.
Acting in faith
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
The person of faith believes God’s Word describes an unseen reality that will prevail over our temporary circumstances.
And the person of faith knows God wants him or her to start acting like it (2 Corinthians 5:7), wisely and appropriately. That is where the tension between the unseen spiritual reality and the circumstances we see can get complicated and perhaps awkward. That is where even wise Christians might disagree about how to live by faith. How much are you supposed to start acting as though the coming reality is already here?
Paul makes plans, acting in faith
Here is a small example. The apostle Paul wrote a letter to a friend named Philemon. Near the end of the letter, Paul said, “Prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you” (Philemon 1:22). He did not say that to Philemon just to make arrangements; Paul was expressing his faith by his words of faith. His coming was not certain in the natural—he was sitting in a Roman prison!—but he was acting as though his coming were certain.
Some people call words of faith a faith confession, or a faith declaration. The idea has been taken to extremes, and been derided as thinking we can “name it and claim it,” but the principle of speaking and acting in faith, properly understood and applied, is thoroughly biblical.
Serious questions
The example in Philemon is safe and non-threatening. Where this principle gets complicated and debatable is when persons with serious physical ailments believe God will heal them.
They have two realities: the current symptoms, which are real, and a faith reality in which the symptoms are gone. Should the person with faith talk as though they are already healed? Should a person who currently has cancer symptoms say they do not have cancer?
Or to the degree possible should they act as though they are already healed? You can read stories of people who have acted in faith but then been crushed by current reality, such as someone in a wheelchair who tries to get up and walk—and falls flat on his face.
Two guidelines
To put it mildly, situations like that are disturbing, and they make it even harder to know how to live by faith in the middle of the tension between two realities. I think two safeguards are essential.
1. We must not test God
When Satan tempted Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple and trust that God’s angels would get him safely to the ground, as Psalm 91:11–12 promises, Jesus responded by saying he would be testing God if he did that (Matthew 4:5–7).
We must not do anything in which we are trying to coerce God to act in the way we desire, whether in physical healing, financial provision, or in the answering of any other prayer. We can ask passionately, we can have faith, we can express that faith, but we can never force God to do anything. If it was only Abram’s idea to change his name to Abraham, that action of faith would not have put God under any obligation. Only God can obligate God, when he freely makes promises and freely wills to fulfill what he has written.
2. The greater the risks, the more certain we must be that God has told us to believe him and express that faith in some outward action.
For instance, when Moses instructed the people of Israel to enter the Promised Land and battle the evil nations now inhabiting Canaan, he was sending them on a suicide mission if God did not fight with them. But God made it unmistakably clear to Moses that this was what he wanted them to do. Scripture says God spoke face-to-face with Moses.
If a pastor of a church of 100 people says that by faith they should construct a building that will cost 100 million dollars, that will raise eyebrows. And rightly so. How certain is the pastor that God has promised to underwrite that project? With that much money at stake, he and the leaders must be reasonably certain they are following God’s direction, not their own dreams.
Takeaway
The challenges of properly applying the principles of faith should not dissuade us from trying to be a wise person of faith in God’s Word. When Jesus told us, “Have faith in God,” he meant it (Mark 11:22).
He meant it when he said, “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22, KJV).
He meant it when he said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23–24, ESV) Again, notice the imperative, “believe.”
And that faith should focus particularly on God’s Word.
No matter what our circumstances say, the Word of God, properly understood and prayerfully applied, will prove true if we have faith.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
