Into The Next Dimension
Isaiah 11: 1-10
There is an old story about a man with raggedy clothes who has had a rough time of it in the world and was looking for a place that cared. He didn’t belong to a church but had heard that a church was where God loved people and taught people to love each other. So when he saw a bunch of people filing into a nearby church he decided to check it out. The sign outside said, ‘All are welcome.’ So he went inside. He found a seat. Everyone was very dressed up. But no one acknowledged him. He sat through the service, which talked about salvation. He sang. But when the service ended, he noticed that everyone filed out of the pew away from him. No one spoke to him and when he got to the minister he received some gentle advice: ‘friend, I can see that you are looking for a church – and I’m glad – but I want you to go home and ask God, in your prayers, if this is really the right church for you.” The man left and returned the following week. This time he did his best to dress a little nicer, but he could not dress nearly as nice as others. The same thing happened. The minister, seeing him, had one of his deacons greet him this time and suggest, again, that he should ask God if this was really the right church for him. After several more trips, played out in the same predictable fashion, the minister finally walked up to the man after the service and asked him forthrightly, “Friend, I thought you were going to ask God if this was really the right church for you.” And the man said, “I did, pastor. But the funny thing is, God said he couldn’t tell me. He said he’s never been inside your church before.”
The punch line is this: churches almost always talk a good game, but too often fail to deliver. Churches talk a lot about having open hearts and open doors and promise to help people establish a relationship with a loving God – but never fulfill that promise because either they have no relationship with God, or the people have lost their quest to reach the next dimension in their relationship with God. Every human should aspire to get to the next dimension in everything we do and the next dimension is only a decision away.
Several years ago, a movie came out called "The gods must be crazy." The story is about a village man living with others like him somewhere in an isolated, remote area just living life and minding his own business. Then, one day a bottle drops from the sky.
Not knowing how that happened, he leaves his village on a mission. He has to go to what he knows as the edge of the world so he can return this "thing" to the crazy gods who dropped it. As he travels to what he thinks is the edge of the world where the gods reside, he meets some interesting but strange people along the way. He tries with sincerity and frustration to explain to them what he needs to do. But, of course, they don't understand the urgency of returning this bottle to the crazy gods who dropped it.
The point is that we all have our own definitions of reality. We usually assume our view is "reality," without remembering that our reality is based upon the way our ethnic, economic, political, or "tribal" background has rendered our peculiar way of seeing reality. In other words, we all think about the world from "our" point of view.
If you lived when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, your view of the world would have been deeply affected by the events of that time. The view of the world, for all of us, since September 11 has been changed. Even more so for the people who lived in New York and witnessed the tragedies themselves.
After hurricane Katrina, there was a different level of understanding of about the frailty of life. Imagine the sadness of those who could no longer recognize their schools and homes, and churches.
Who we are, our cognition, our thinking and our behavior are determined by where we have been and what we have seen.
We meet the prophet Isaiah who calls people to return to a way to see the world as God would want us to see it. This prophecy of Isaiah was composed at a time in which the dynasty of King David, the son of Jesse, has been reduced to a mere stump. The people of Israel are cowering in fear of the Assyrians, who are as cruel to God's people as the Egyptians had been. In the middle of the frightening and violent time, God promises to launch a new political initiative.
Isaiah ecstatically speaks of a time when a shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse, as he prophesies a new beginning for Israel. Out of an old, dead stump, new life sprouts. Metaphor is piled on top of metaphor as the prophet struggles to bring to speech the newness that breaks forth. "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them."
We hear Isaiah's vivid description of God's new world and we say, flatly, it is not real. Everyone knows that in the real world, a lamb in a wolf's lair is lunch. Reason and reality assure us that a little child cannot lead a wolf or a lion by a leash without being a dead child.
So, we listen and we want to hear these words but we want to be reasonable. We want to live in the real world and face facts. We listen but what reality do we hear?
That is part of the reason why we keep getting what we have always had. What we have to wrap our minds around is that unless our thoughts transcend what we currently see, we can never appreciate what God wants for us.
The time that we have been living in is about physical existence. What I mean by that is how we operate is a function of 3 properties. Up/down, left/right, and front/back. Moving down is the same as moving up a negative amount. If we were to assign a name to this dimension, classical physics would call it the 3rd dimension.
Because we are familiar with how to operate in the 3rd dimension, most people have difficulty in making an adjustment to a new way. What Isaiah is dealing with is a shifting in his mind to another dimension. That dimension is called the 4th dimension. This dimension, rather than being fractural, is linear. Whereas the 3rd dimension deals with matter (what is), the 4th dimension deals with movement (what will be).
The 4th dimension is about time! Isaiah had to be crazy! Crazy because what he is talking about does not make sense. How could a wolf live with the lamb? How could a leopard live with the goat? Not possible. Right? We understand that this prophecy of Isaiah was a prediction, a fore telling of the deliverance of the Church by Jesus Christ through salvation. Deeper than that for us, is the idea that what it looks like now to us is not how God sees it. Essentially, Isaiah makes what we all need to make is a dimensional shift for matter to movement.
Once you make the mind, then you will be able to live in the fruit of it. Remember, your reality is painted by how you see things. Isaiah’s declaration was the difference between truth and fact.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Why God Became Man - PART 1
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ
Philippians 2:5-11
The word incarnation does not appear in the Bible. It is derived from the Latin in and caro (flesh), meaning clothed in flesh, the act of assuming flesh. Its only use in theology is in reference to that gracious, voluntary act of the Son of God in which He assumed a human body. In Christian doctrine the Incarnation, briefly stated, is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became a man. It is one of the greatest events to occur in the history of the universe. It is without parallel.
The Apostle Paul wrote, ''And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh . . . " (I Timothy 3:16). Confessedly, by common consent the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is outside the range of human natural comprehension and apprehension. It can be made known only by Divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, and to those only who are illumined by the Holy Spirit. It is a truth of the greatest magnitude that God in the Person of His Son should identify Himself completely with the human race. And yet He did, for reasons He set forth clearly in His Word.
Before we examine those reasons, we need to distinguish between the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth of our Lord, two truths sometimes confused by students of Scripture. The Incarnation of the Son of God is the fact of God becoming Man; the Virgin Birth is the method by which God the Son became Man.
These two truths, while distinct and different, are closely related to each other and stand in support of each other. If Jesus Christ was not virgin born, then He was not God in the flesh and was therefore only a man possessing the same sinful nature that every fallen child of Adam possesses. The fact of the Incarnation lies in the ever-existing One putting aside His eternal glory to become a man. The method of the Incarnation is the manner by which He chose to come, namely, the miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin.
A noteworthy passage pertinent to the Divine purpose in the Incarnation is recorded in the Gospel according to John-- ''And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory. the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth'' (John 1 :14).
John 1:14 cannot be fully appreciated apart from verse one: ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word became flesh." He who was one with the Father from all eternity became Man, taking upon Him a human body. He ''was with God'' (vs. 1); He ''became flesh" (vs. 14). He “was with God”' (vs. 1); He ''dwelt among us'' (vs. 14). What happened was God went from the infinite position of eternal Godhood to the finite limitations of manhood!
Paul gives another significant passage on the Incarnation in his Galatian Epistle: ''But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons'' (Galatians 4:4, 5). In these verses Paul establishes the fact of the Incarnation-- " God sent forth His Son, made of a woman."
God sending His Son presupposes that God had a Son. Christ was the Son in His eternal relationship with the Father, not because He was born of Mary. Since a son shares the nature of his father, so our Lord shares the Godhead coequally with His Father. Yes, "God sent forth His Son," from His throne on high, from His position of heavenly glory. God did not send one forth who, in His birth, became His Son, but He sent One who, through all eternity, was His Son. Centuries before Christ was born, the Prophet Isaiah wrote of Him, ''For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given . . . '' (Isaiah 9:6). The Son was given in eternity past before we knew Him. His human birth was merely the method of coming to us.
Again, Paul records the following noteworthy statement in the Epistle to the Philippians: ''Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also bath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father'' (Philippians 2:5-1 1).
Before His Incarnation Jesus Christ was ''in the form of God'' (vs. 6). From the beginning He had the nature of God, He existed (or subsisted) as God, and that essential Deity which He once was could never cease to be. If He seems Divine, it is only because He is Divine. He is God.
He ''thought it not robbery to be equal with God'' (vs. 6). The eternal Son did not consider it a thing to be seized unlawfully to be equal with the Father. Equality with God was not something He retained by force or by farce. He possessed it in eternity past and no power could take it from Him. But in the Incarnation He laid aside, not His possession of Deity, but His position in and expression of the heavenly glory.
One of the purposes of the Philippian epistle was to check the rising tide of dissension and strife growing out of Christians thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Being a general letter, it exposes no false doctrines but does enunciate our Lord Jesus Christ as the believer's pattern in humiliation, self-denial, and loving service for others. This is evident in the seven downward steps of the Saviour's renunciation of Himself.
(1) ''He made Himself of no reputation." God emptied Himself! He did not lose His Deity when He became Man, for God is immutable and therefore cannot cease to be God. He always was God the Son; He continued to be God the Son in His earthly sojourn as Man; He is God the Son in heaven today as He will remain throughout eternity. He is ''Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
(2) ''He took upon Him the form of a servant.'' His was a voluntary act of amazing grace, the almighty Sovereign stooping to become earth's lowly Servant. Instead of expressing Himself as one deserving to be served, He revealed Himself as one desiring to serve others. He did not boast His eternal glory and right to be ministered to, but instead evinced His humility and desire to minister. ''The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many'' (Matthew 20:28).
(3) "He was made in the likeness of men." This phrase expresses the full reality of His humanity. He participated in the same flesh and blood as man (Hebrews 2:14). Although He entered into a new state of being, His becoming Man did not exclude His possession of Deity, for He was and is today a Person who is both God and Man, Divine and human, perfect in His Deity and perfect in His humanity.
(4) ''And being found in fashion as a man." When He came into the world, Christ associated with His contemporaries and did not hold Himself aloof. Thus He manifested to all that He was a real Man. One obvious distinction marked our Lord's humanity; His perfection and sinlessness. As a Man He was made under the law, yet He never violated the law. As a Man He was tempted in all three points in which we are tempted (I John 2:16), yet His temptation was apart from any thought, word, or act of sin.
(5) "He humbled Himself." The world has never witnessed a more genuine act of self-humbling. So completely did our Lord humble Himself that He surrendered His will to the will of His Father in heaven. His desire was to do the will of the Father, therefore He could testify, "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29). It was humiliation for the eternal Son of God to become flesh in a stable, and then to dwell in a humble home in subjection to a human parent. God was ''sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin'' (Romans 8:30). Only eternity will reveal the depth of meaning for Him and for us found in those words, " He humbled Himself."
(6) "He became obedient unto death." Remarkable indeed! Here the God-man dies. Did He die as God, or did He die as Man? He died as the God-Man. The first Adam's obedience would have been unto life, but because he disobeyed unto death, the last Adam must now obey unto death in order that He might deliver the first Adam's posterity ''out of death into life'' (John 5:24 R.V.). ''For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). To subject Himself to the cruel death of a criminal on the cross was a necessary part of God's plan of salvation for men, and to such a death our Lord voluntarily submitted. Implicit obedience!
(7) '' . . . even the death of the cross." Our Lord died as no other person died or ever will die. Other men had died on crosses, but this Man, the eternal Son of God, voluntarily and willingly died the kind of death meted out to criminals, even the death upon a cross. His own countrymen considered crucifixion the worst kind of disgrace. In their law it was written, "For he that is hanged is accursed of God'' (Deuteronomy 21:23; cf. Galatians 3:13). Not only did our Lord die, but He died bearing the burden of the worst of criminals and the guiltiest of sinners. Down He came from heaven's glory to earth's sin and shame through His Incarnation.
Philippians 2:5-11
The word incarnation does not appear in the Bible. It is derived from the Latin in and caro (flesh), meaning clothed in flesh, the act of assuming flesh. Its only use in theology is in reference to that gracious, voluntary act of the Son of God in which He assumed a human body. In Christian doctrine the Incarnation, briefly stated, is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became a man. It is one of the greatest events to occur in the history of the universe. It is without parallel.
The Apostle Paul wrote, ''And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh . . . " (I Timothy 3:16). Confessedly, by common consent the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is outside the range of human natural comprehension and apprehension. It can be made known only by Divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, and to those only who are illumined by the Holy Spirit. It is a truth of the greatest magnitude that God in the Person of His Son should identify Himself completely with the human race. And yet He did, for reasons He set forth clearly in His Word.
Before we examine those reasons, we need to distinguish between the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth of our Lord, two truths sometimes confused by students of Scripture. The Incarnation of the Son of God is the fact of God becoming Man; the Virgin Birth is the method by which God the Son became Man.
These two truths, while distinct and different, are closely related to each other and stand in support of each other. If Jesus Christ was not virgin born, then He was not God in the flesh and was therefore only a man possessing the same sinful nature that every fallen child of Adam possesses. The fact of the Incarnation lies in the ever-existing One putting aside His eternal glory to become a man. The method of the Incarnation is the manner by which He chose to come, namely, the miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin.
A noteworthy passage pertinent to the Divine purpose in the Incarnation is recorded in the Gospel according to John-- ''And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory. the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth'' (John 1 :14).
John 1:14 cannot be fully appreciated apart from verse one: ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word became flesh." He who was one with the Father from all eternity became Man, taking upon Him a human body. He ''was with God'' (vs. 1); He ''became flesh" (vs. 14). He “was with God”' (vs. 1); He ''dwelt among us'' (vs. 14). What happened was God went from the infinite position of eternal Godhood to the finite limitations of manhood!
Paul gives another significant passage on the Incarnation in his Galatian Epistle: ''But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons'' (Galatians 4:4, 5). In these verses Paul establishes the fact of the Incarnation-- " God sent forth His Son, made of a woman."
God sending His Son presupposes that God had a Son. Christ was the Son in His eternal relationship with the Father, not because He was born of Mary. Since a son shares the nature of his father, so our Lord shares the Godhead coequally with His Father. Yes, "God sent forth His Son," from His throne on high, from His position of heavenly glory. God did not send one forth who, in His birth, became His Son, but He sent One who, through all eternity, was His Son. Centuries before Christ was born, the Prophet Isaiah wrote of Him, ''For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given . . . '' (Isaiah 9:6). The Son was given in eternity past before we knew Him. His human birth was merely the method of coming to us.
Again, Paul records the following noteworthy statement in the Epistle to the Philippians: ''Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also bath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father'' (Philippians 2:5-1 1).
Before His Incarnation Jesus Christ was ''in the form of God'' (vs. 6). From the beginning He had the nature of God, He existed (or subsisted) as God, and that essential Deity which He once was could never cease to be. If He seems Divine, it is only because He is Divine. He is God.
He ''thought it not robbery to be equal with God'' (vs. 6). The eternal Son did not consider it a thing to be seized unlawfully to be equal with the Father. Equality with God was not something He retained by force or by farce. He possessed it in eternity past and no power could take it from Him. But in the Incarnation He laid aside, not His possession of Deity, but His position in and expression of the heavenly glory.
One of the purposes of the Philippian epistle was to check the rising tide of dissension and strife growing out of Christians thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Being a general letter, it exposes no false doctrines but does enunciate our Lord Jesus Christ as the believer's pattern in humiliation, self-denial, and loving service for others. This is evident in the seven downward steps of the Saviour's renunciation of Himself.
(1) ''He made Himself of no reputation." God emptied Himself! He did not lose His Deity when He became Man, for God is immutable and therefore cannot cease to be God. He always was God the Son; He continued to be God the Son in His earthly sojourn as Man; He is God the Son in heaven today as He will remain throughout eternity. He is ''Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
(2) ''He took upon Him the form of a servant.'' His was a voluntary act of amazing grace, the almighty Sovereign stooping to become earth's lowly Servant. Instead of expressing Himself as one deserving to be served, He revealed Himself as one desiring to serve others. He did not boast His eternal glory and right to be ministered to, but instead evinced His humility and desire to minister. ''The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many'' (Matthew 20:28).
(3) "He was made in the likeness of men." This phrase expresses the full reality of His humanity. He participated in the same flesh and blood as man (Hebrews 2:14). Although He entered into a new state of being, His becoming Man did not exclude His possession of Deity, for He was and is today a Person who is both God and Man, Divine and human, perfect in His Deity and perfect in His humanity.
(4) ''And being found in fashion as a man." When He came into the world, Christ associated with His contemporaries and did not hold Himself aloof. Thus He manifested to all that He was a real Man. One obvious distinction marked our Lord's humanity; His perfection and sinlessness. As a Man He was made under the law, yet He never violated the law. As a Man He was tempted in all three points in which we are tempted (I John 2:16), yet His temptation was apart from any thought, word, or act of sin.
(5) "He humbled Himself." The world has never witnessed a more genuine act of self-humbling. So completely did our Lord humble Himself that He surrendered His will to the will of His Father in heaven. His desire was to do the will of the Father, therefore He could testify, "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29). It was humiliation for the eternal Son of God to become flesh in a stable, and then to dwell in a humble home in subjection to a human parent. God was ''sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin'' (Romans 8:30). Only eternity will reveal the depth of meaning for Him and for us found in those words, " He humbled Himself."
(6) "He became obedient unto death." Remarkable indeed! Here the God-man dies. Did He die as God, or did He die as Man? He died as the God-Man. The first Adam's obedience would have been unto life, but because he disobeyed unto death, the last Adam must now obey unto death in order that He might deliver the first Adam's posterity ''out of death into life'' (John 5:24 R.V.). ''For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). To subject Himself to the cruel death of a criminal on the cross was a necessary part of God's plan of salvation for men, and to such a death our Lord voluntarily submitted. Implicit obedience!
(7) '' . . . even the death of the cross." Our Lord died as no other person died or ever will die. Other men had died on crosses, but this Man, the eternal Son of God, voluntarily and willingly died the kind of death meted out to criminals, even the death upon a cross. His own countrymen considered crucifixion the worst kind of disgrace. In their law it was written, "For he that is hanged is accursed of God'' (Deuteronomy 21:23; cf. Galatians 3:13). Not only did our Lord die, but He died bearing the burden of the worst of criminals and the guiltiest of sinners. Down He came from heaven's glory to earth's sin and shame through His Incarnation.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Focused Faith
Focused Faith
Luke 1:18-20 and Isaiah 43:18-20
Unbelief has proven to be the most damaging strike against the people of God. We talk a lot about breakthrough, new beginnings, destiny, and getting into our promised land or promised place. And when we fall short, we even talk about how to increase our faith to get it to the point where we can acquire what it is we want, need, and expect from God. When the truth seems to be that it’s not our need for more faith, but it is the need for our faith to mature. That maturity gives us the ability to focus our faith. The concept of focused faith is similar to the effectiveness of a laser beam. It’s narrow, precise, and specific.
There are 2 significant things that hinder our faith.
First - Past Pains
It is our past pain that keeps us from believing what God promises us today.
Second – Past Successes
Because God has done so much for us before, we fill un-entitled to more.
The problem with these 2 things is that unbelief cannot enter your thoughts without impairing you joy.
Our text in Luke provides for us the story of the prophetic announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. Further scrutiny of the text reveals that the holder of this immature faith is Zachariah. According to Luke, Zachariah was:
• A priest (v.5) (learned man, fully versed in scripture)
• A believer (v.6)
• A pray-er (v.13)
What we see is a classic example of a person who ought to know better than to doubt God. This man was married to Abraham’s niece. He has the benefit of a great source of knowledge about what God had done in the past. Not just from his own requirement to know the truths, commandments, and oracles of God, but because he is a part of the family to whom the bible calls the Father of faith! Yet this man struggles with believing God.
– V13-
*If you are going to pray and NOT believe, why pray?
• The "scar of the old wounds" of infertility, created this inclination to disbelieve.
• The disciples on the road to Emmaus couldn't believe the resurrection because it was too good to be true.
• Sometimes we prefer the safety of doubt over the risk of disappointment.
Unbelief will cause you to pass off God’s answer to your prayer as coincidence as opposed to promise. I heard a story of a church that had a man (Bob) who had cancer come up to the altar for prayer for healing. The church prayed, the man was healed, and a year later the church members were telling talking about the time when they thought Bob had cancer.
• Zachariah was unable to celebrate because he was too caught up in the impossibility of the promise.
Unbelief cannot enter your thoughts without impairing you joy.
His fault was that he looked at the difficulty. "I am an old man, and my wife is well stricken in years." And while he looked at the difficulty he offered a suggestion /a remedy; he wanted a sign. "Whereby shall I know this?" It was not enough for him that God had said so; he wanted some collateral evidence to guarantee the truth of the word of the Lord.
You having problems, you having shortcomings, you having any of those things do not disqualify you from God’s promises in your life but there are consequences.
Zachariah‘s chastisement did not invalidate the promise. The Lord did not say, "Well, Zacharias, because you don't believe it, your wife, Elizabeth, won’t have a son."
Luke’s text shows us the past pain, but the Isaiah text deals with the past successes.
We have a hunger for nostalgia. It is demonstrated by the popularity of "oldies" music, collectors of coins, etc. And while nostalgia can be a great thing sometimes those memories rob us of the opportunity for current success.
• There is danger in a faith that stops expecting anything from God, and remembers only what he did in the past.
• Illustration: Andre Crouch's song, "Take Me Back," expresses a longing for how things used to be in our spiritual lives.
What we need to remembers is that:
• God's new blessings will transcend the past.
• God's new thing is unexpected and unprecedented.
• God promises water in the desert, but the desert remains.
When we have a proper perspective, it's easier to live our faith.
Luke 1:18-20 and Isaiah 43:18-20
Unbelief has proven to be the most damaging strike against the people of God. We talk a lot about breakthrough, new beginnings, destiny, and getting into our promised land or promised place. And when we fall short, we even talk about how to increase our faith to get it to the point where we can acquire what it is we want, need, and expect from God. When the truth seems to be that it’s not our need for more faith, but it is the need for our faith to mature. That maturity gives us the ability to focus our faith. The concept of focused faith is similar to the effectiveness of a laser beam. It’s narrow, precise, and specific.
There are 2 significant things that hinder our faith.
First - Past Pains
It is our past pain that keeps us from believing what God promises us today.
Second – Past Successes
Because God has done so much for us before, we fill un-entitled to more.
The problem with these 2 things is that unbelief cannot enter your thoughts without impairing you joy.
Our text in Luke provides for us the story of the prophetic announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. Further scrutiny of the text reveals that the holder of this immature faith is Zachariah. According to Luke, Zachariah was:
• A priest (v.5) (learned man, fully versed in scripture)
• A believer (v.6)
• A pray-er (v.13)
What we see is a classic example of a person who ought to know better than to doubt God. This man was married to Abraham’s niece. He has the benefit of a great source of knowledge about what God had done in the past. Not just from his own requirement to know the truths, commandments, and oracles of God, but because he is a part of the family to whom the bible calls the Father of faith! Yet this man struggles with believing God.
– V13-
*If you are going to pray and NOT believe, why pray?
• The "scar of the old wounds" of infertility, created this inclination to disbelieve.
• The disciples on the road to Emmaus couldn't believe the resurrection because it was too good to be true.
• Sometimes we prefer the safety of doubt over the risk of disappointment.
Unbelief will cause you to pass off God’s answer to your prayer as coincidence as opposed to promise. I heard a story of a church that had a man (Bob) who had cancer come up to the altar for prayer for healing. The church prayed, the man was healed, and a year later the church members were telling talking about the time when they thought Bob had cancer.
• Zachariah was unable to celebrate because he was too caught up in the impossibility of the promise.
Unbelief cannot enter your thoughts without impairing you joy.
His fault was that he looked at the difficulty. "I am an old man, and my wife is well stricken in years." And while he looked at the difficulty he offered a suggestion /a remedy; he wanted a sign. "Whereby shall I know this?" It was not enough for him that God had said so; he wanted some collateral evidence to guarantee the truth of the word of the Lord.
You having problems, you having shortcomings, you having any of those things do not disqualify you from God’s promises in your life but there are consequences.
Zachariah‘s chastisement did not invalidate the promise. The Lord did not say, "Well, Zacharias, because you don't believe it, your wife, Elizabeth, won’t have a son."
Luke’s text shows us the past pain, but the Isaiah text deals with the past successes.
We have a hunger for nostalgia. It is demonstrated by the popularity of "oldies" music, collectors of coins, etc. And while nostalgia can be a great thing sometimes those memories rob us of the opportunity for current success.
• There is danger in a faith that stops expecting anything from God, and remembers only what he did in the past.
• Illustration: Andre Crouch's song, "Take Me Back," expresses a longing for how things used to be in our spiritual lives.
What we need to remembers is that:
• God's new blessings will transcend the past.
• God's new thing is unexpected and unprecedented.
• God promises water in the desert, but the desert remains.
When we have a proper perspective, it's easier to live our faith.
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