But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for him.
Hebrews 11:6
Hebrews 11:6 makes it crystal clear that without faith you won’t see God. This is because without faith, you do not please Him. The absence of faith results in the absence of the manifest presence of God. In other words, you may know He exists, but you won’t necessarily experience His existence in your day-to-day life. That’s why God urges us so often in Scripture to live our lives by faith.
The absence of faith results in the absence of the manifest presence of God.
He wants us to experience Him.
He desires to intervene in our situations.
He wants to reveal His power in our circumstances.
But it requires our faith to participate in the process of His providential hand. Remember, faith is acting like it is so even when it’s not so in order that it might be so simply because God said so. Faith is verifiable. You never have to guess if you have faith because it shows up in your walk, not just your talk. Faith is made real when you choose to obey God even when you cannot see the reality or rationale of your obedience from a human perspective.
Faith is made real when you choose to obey God even when you cannot see the reality or rationale of your obedience from a human perspective.
What’s more: faith must always precede sight. Once you have sight, it is no longer faith. That’s why Hebrews 11:1 declares, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” If you have to see it first, you have cancelled faith. Faith is prior to, and apart from, sight. In fact, faith leads to sight. But, even so, most people first decide what they are going to do by what they see. As a result, they regularly cancel out the supernatural from taking place in their lives. Don’t make that mistake, for God wants you to experience more of Him.
I recall a time when I had some serious ant hills on my front lawn. As these ants served their queen, they built mounds on my lawn, turning a once-green lawn into a place of foreign habitation. They were building their own kingdom on my lawn, so I needed to address their presence. If I didn’t...
Everybody needs someone to help them navigate through their life. Timothy had the best of mentors in the apostle Paul, who wrote two letters to encourage him in his life and ministry. During his missionary journeys, Paul had left Timothy behind in Ephesus so that he could grow the ministry that...
