What Faith Is Not
Faith is not active denial. Some confuse these two very different dynamics.
Denial is a refusal to accept something simply because it is undesirable. There is a place for resisting. We are called to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. That is an appropriate application of resistance.
Faith is rooted in hope, which produces faith in the unseen because of a desire to see God’s glory on display. Faith is grounded in knowing Jesus and having confidence in His character and nature.
Jesus walked in active faith when He declared I see the Father working and I work, I hear the Father speaking, and I speak. Jesus knew that as long as He stayed in step with His Father, whatever the Father was up to would be manifested here on earth. Jesus walked according to the Spirit. He did not walk according to the flesh.
There’s no evidence of Jesus panicking, getting upset with worry, or engaging in drama over what could be seen. Jesus was too busy watching what His Father was doing and then seeking to bring that into the reality of the moment.
Someone might ask, since Jesus miraculously fed multitudes twice, why didn’t He just perform a miracle to end hunger for the destitute in Israel at that time? Obviously, He didn’t see the Father carrying that out.
Since Jesus healed several blind men, why not heal every blind Israelite in that time? Again, the answer would be the same. The answer does not indicate an unwillingness on the part of the Father to heal and to deliver or provide.
It could very well demonstrate that other believers would be given the privilege to partner with Him at a later point in someone’s life. If Jesus had ended all the things that were ailing people while He walked the earth, the church would not have had an opportunity to demonstrate His presence after His ascension.
The peace Jesus walked in wasn’t a result of denial. It was a result of knowing the Father and knowing that in the unseen realm, there is a reality that is even more powerful and real than that which is seen. Denial cannot produce lasting results and produce health in one’s soul.
Pretending is another thing that cannot produce fruit. Just because a person sees someone else act in step with the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that doing something the same thing the same way they saw another do it is on par with partnering with the Holy Spirit as a Person who is available to them through a relationship with Jesus. It requires being in step with the Holy Spirit, not a method. The supernatural is not a science. It is birthed from a place of relationship with the Father by grace through faith in Jesus and being baptized in the Holy Spirit, which is as much a part of the gospel as the message of salvation itself.
I do not wish to function in what faith is not. I find walking according to the Spirit is a much better way of doing things. It produces a confidence in Jesus.
