Faith

            I’ve been wrestling with the concept of faith for the last couple of weeks. I don’t think I understand it, it is such a deep subject, but there are some thoughts that I have had. I figured I would write them out.

I guess I will start with Luke 17:5. The disciples see their lack of faith, and cry out to God “Increase our faith!”, Jesus’ response is a little strange. He doesn’t give them a “yes” or a “no”, or something they can do. He basically tells them that they don’t need more faith. He says “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you”. A mustard seed is very small, so it would seem that it’s not about the amount of faith. It is not more faith that they need, but something else.

I started looking to the following verses to find what that “something else” could be. Vs 7-10 states “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” This section of scripture has always puzzled me. I thought it was referring to us as God’s servants, specifically because of the last verse. But I began to think about it in another way. What if the servant is creation, and we are the Master? That we have authority over creation and it must obey us. The miraculous then should not be shocking, it should be expected, like a servant simply doing his duty. It seemed like somewhat of a radical thought, but I decided to search it out more.

First I came to Psalm 8:4-8 “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.” This verse basically states that God has given us authority over all of creation. God has made us the master, creation is the servant.

I still wanted more, especially in regards to authority, so I looked up Luke 7 where Jesus was going to the centurion to pray for his servant. “He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: ‘Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to this servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, ‘I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.’ Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.” Vs 6-10. Why did Jesus say that the centurion had such great faith? It was because he understood authority. He knew that all it took was one word from someone who had authority, and he knew that Jesus had the authority. I find it interesting that in the first passage when the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, he also talked to them about authority.

What is it about authority that we do not understand? The centurion knew that Jesus had authority, and that’s where his faith came from. Do we need to know that we have authority? Jesus says in Luke 10:18 “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Is our problem not necessarily that we need more faith, but we need to use the faith that we do have; we need to see and understand the authority that Jesus has already given us?

Or to put another spin on it, what about the fact that Jesus is in us? John 14:20 “On that day (when Holy Spirit comes) you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”. So, if Jesus is in us, would that not mean that all the authority that he has would be inside of us as well? Maybe it’s not even realizing our own authority, but realizing His authority, and the power of that authority inside of us.

So could it be that faith for the miraculous is not so much about trying harder to “believe” in something, but simply understanding our authority. It is understanding “his incomparably great power for us who believe” Ephesians 1:19; knowing that we already believe in his ability to do it, we now need to believe in our ability to walk in it.