WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?
“But He said, ‘The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.’” Luke 18:27
Sometimes people ask me if it is okay to buy something, to do something, or maybe to build something. There are many things that can impact you in the area of faith, but just two areas of thinking are what I want to deal with in this letter.
This story in Luke, if you read from verse 18, has to do with a wealthy young man wanting to grow in God, and he asks Jesus about it. Jesus’ answer back to him is to give all of his wealth away to the poor. That one statement stopped the young man cold, because he had many riches. Two universal and undefiable laws were being addressed by Jesus here. The first law was the one of giving and receiving. The second was the law of faith.
Man discovers the laws of nature and the universe by impartation (the Word and the Spirit), or by observation. Example: “Move this here, and watch what happens over there”. Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion describes that, “An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force”. Do you think that this law of motion has a biblical precedent? It does. In Luke 6:38, Jesus describes this law of motion in a greater way.
“Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Newton’s law describes the motion of heavenly bodies, and other forces of nature. God’s law of motion includes all that and more. Jesus knew that all giving must produce a return in at least an equal amount. But Jesus also told us that the spiritual law of giving and receiving is not equal. It is not an equally reciprocal spiritual force. Jesus said,
“by your standard of measure”.
This is what we can define as God’s law of return. Whatever percentage of what you have given out of all that you have, God will in that proportion of His wealth, He will give the same percentage out of Himself. Many miracles recorded in the Bible are of this very law of God.
In Luke 21:1-4, Jesus observed this spiritual law of God in action.
“And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said,
‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”’
We are not told what became of her, but in 1 Kings, we are told what became of another widow. The rich young man, all the Jews listening, and His own disciples, knew this scripture. 1 Kings 17:10-16.
“…and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
“But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
“Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. “For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.'” So, she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.”
Notice that Elijah asked her to do the same thing as Jesus asked the rich young man. Give Me everything you have. This is not a stick-up, but an invitation to supernatural increase. Elijah said, “do not fear”. Fear paralyzes people into not moving in one direction or another. They can’t believe God out of fear, they can’t sow a seed out of fear, they cannot grow into their potential because of fear.
And what became of this widow woman? During a three-year drought that Elijah prophesied, she was the only house in the city that was provided for. Her, her son, and her household.
The undefiable law of giving and receiving would have meant that the rich young man would have gotten even wealthier. The poor widow that Jesus saw would have received miracle provision, just as the other widow and her son did not perish, but rather ate well.
The second law, the law of faith, is implicitly in the first law just described. If I tell you this worked before, and you believe me and the scriptures, then you’ll be able to act on your faith. Fear of loss will cause you to begin to doubt, and paralyze you from acting in faith. On the other hand, your faith will give you confidence to give, and that action will develop in you even more faith!
All of a sudden now, you will have faith filled expectation of receiving a blessing from God. Don’t try to figure it all out. God’s blessings have a way of getting to you from a myriad of sources and directions that you have never thought of!
Even though Jesus’ disciples and the rich man knew these events in the scriptures, they had not as of yet tested them, to the degree that Jesus was telling them to act on. Think of it; Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, He said to cast their nets again and the nets became full, He calmed the sea with a word. Every test develops your faith into greater faith! Acting in faith is never a failure, it’s a steppingstone to having mountain moving faith.
Every victory that you are praying for and asking God for, is going to require you to receive those victories, by some act (of faith) on your part. Your acts of receiving from God will look and feel like foolishness to the natural mind.
James 2:17, 26, “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself…For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
I challenge you to experiment with your faith, and to test your faith. Here is a simple example of what I have done to grow my faith. Over two decades ago, a pastor came to preach in our church, and the Spirit said to me to give him my tie, my favorite tie, that had cost me a great sum in those days. I gave him the tie as an act of my faith. Since then, I have had hundreds of ties, and I am still giving them away. Then I tried giving away my suits, my good expensive suits, and I am still giving them away. Faith with works – works!
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I am praying for you daily! Shalom!
Pastor David Gonzalez
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