I Don't Know... (Part two)

Throughout the Bible we read saints saying:

I am persuaded...
I am convinced...
I am sure...
I know...

How do they use language so solid, so strong, so sure,
so confident?

Their faith and our faith are 2 different things.
To the western world (gentile world) our knowledge
is based on learning facts. Its logical learning.

We think that if we learn enough facts about something
then we know something about it.

If I read about a subject enough and understand it then
I am qualified, and know something about it.

If I asked you what 'pancake bay' is, most of you, if you
thought the question was important enough, would read up
on it. Maybe do a google search, go to the library and
read books on the subject.

We are taught to learn like that.
*Pancake bay info on the end of this blog.

Unfortunately, we use this way of study with GOD and
trying to understand our Christian walk!

This may be the way we have to learn in school,
but that is NEVER the way the
Jews learned or GOD expects us to learn HIS ways!

But to the Jew or those in the early church,
they would NEVER think about knowing something
without experiencing it.

Experience trumps logical learning any day.

If you were needing plumbing repair, water was starting
to flood your floor and 2 different guys came to your
home. One said, he has studied plumbing for 5 years in school
and the other said he has worked as a plumber (for 3 years)
and has fixed your exact problem before for others.

Who would you choose?

Paul said 'to know HIM and the power of HIS resurrection'
Know HIM - how???

Normally the Church says they know GOD but they really
only know 'about' GOD - and fearfully many don't know HIM!

We would say we know about GOD, because we read the Bible,
went to Church (building), went to Bible school,
read christian books and heard hundreds of sermons.

But I think most of what we call 'Christians' don't really
know their GOD (although HE is desperate for them to know
HIM). They have studied the scriptures, attended services,
listened to preaching and STUDY, READ and More STUDY!

John 5:39
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that
by them you possess eternal life.
These are the Scriptures that testify about me,

My own father as I was growing up was a drunk and without
getting into a long story, it was hard on the entire family,
him included!

Nothing worked, and my parents almost came to divorce
had the LORD not intervened. Bless GOD!

Anyway, long story short, my dad finds the LORD and in a
fairly dramatic way our entire life gets changed. (and still
HE is changing us)

We were in 'awe' (and still are, when we think about it) seeing the
changes GOD's GRACE did for my dad and family. (My dad hasn't
touched alcohol for over 30 years now and lives his life knowing
JESUS loves him).

If someone came to me for help/prayer over their addictions
(like being a drunk) I would have 100% faith, knowing that GOD
would definitely help them. They will be 'set free' and all they
have to be is willing. GOD who really loves them, wont violate their
'free will' and love doesn't force - it lets go, if it has to.

So, if willing, GOD will do a miracle (like HE has done so many times
with others) and set the captive free!

I am confident that if you are in addictions like drinking, GOD
will 100% set you free if you ask HIM to and believe HE is doing
it (even if you don't see it at first).

My faith is based not on reading the Bible and seeing HIM set the
captives free as HE walked recorded in the Gospels but based on
knowing my LORD, who has done it before! Its not hard, HE
will do it for you - whatever the addiction, are you willing?
Did you ask HIM?

It may be harder for you, in the sense that faith grows when you
see GOD, come through again and again.

The trap we are in is this:
You hear about GOD doing an amazing thing in scripture. You then
decide to study it (reading bible, or books). You never see
change because your faith is intellectual faith not
experiential faith!

Faith is a person - JESUS!

Every time, you pray about something and leave it in HIS hands
alone and 'trust HIM' to do it - and HE does, then your faith
is based on the experience you have in a real GOD a 'real person'.

I trust my wife, not because of all the love letters she wrote
me when we were teenagers, or because of what I've learned her
family told me about her when we were dating. No, I trust her
completely because I know her!

Now to someone who loves GOD (or really has come to realize
GOD loves them) but they never ventured out and see GOD deliver
them or a family member/friend then they haven't experienced HIM
(in that way).

So, their faith is mostly mental exercise. If you asked them if
GOD was going to definitely deliver the drunk on the street that has
asked GOD to deliver him, they might agree, (logically) but never
come to real faith - experience. And can not say "I am persuaded",
or "I am confident"!

When David went to kill Goliath, he said a strange thing he said
1 Samuel 17:36
Your servant (David) has killed both the lion and the bear;
this uncircumcised Philistine (Goliath) will be like one of them,
because he has defied the armies of the living God.

David understood 2 things in this amazing passage.

1) David has seen and experienced GOD delivering him and his sheep
before from attack from lion and bear.
David didn't learn that GOD would come through against lion, bear
or now Goliath because he read them in books (scrolls) but
lived to see GOD deliver him before!
Faith soars and is easy seeing a present GOD who delivered
him before and will do it again!

Like the child who knows, his mother will feed him - why stop now?

2) Uncircumcised Philistine (not in covenant)

GOD is a covenant keeping and covenant creating GOD. Either to
HIM you are in HIS new covenant or you are not. (I will LORD
willing type a blog on Covenant soon).



We also have Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 2.

Elijah is the powerful prophet and he had a number of
disciples, those being trained including young Elisha.

Elijah has done great things including using his prayer
shawl (mantle) and dipping the corner in the river to part
it. Elisha is living with the ongoing experience of seeing
and hearing everything Elijah does.

Elijah is a type of CHRIST. The bible talks alot of
those that 'foreshadowed' the MESSIAH -JESUS.

Anyway, in this story, Elisha should be like us. Us
watching the Master Elijah at work with the power of
GOD.

2 Kings 2:9
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha,
"Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?"
"Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied.

Anyway, when Elijah is taken away in a chariot of fire,
he throws his prayer shawl (mantle) to Elisha below to catch it,
to now have it.

When Elisha, gets Elijah's prayer shawl, (everyone watching) he
walks over to the Jordan river and like his master Elijah had
done before, he dips the corner in the river and parts the river!

What happens next?

2 Kings 2:15
The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching,
said, "The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha."
And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

It was simply a living faith. A GOD who was present in Elijah
and doing wonders through his prayer shawl, or Moses' staff
or Davids sling, they had all experienced a real vibrant
relationship with GOD, by seeing HIM do the impossible before
and then watching HIM do it again!

Didn't JESUS say, I only do what I see my FATHER doing?
I only say what I hear my FATHER say?

Faith works simply (as long as you have received JESUS).
You already have it (if you have HIM, JESUS).
You are not trying to ask for more.

Don't you get it, if you've got HIM (JESUS) you got FAITH?
But your faith works, by seeing GOD come through for you
again and again.

If you've never seen a miracle of GOD (like a healing)
you would be hard pressed to have faith for that.

But if you've seen HIM come through for you personally
or for a close family member and you experienced the LORD
and HIS GREAT LOVE and Commitment to you (covenant with you),
then you rest in that LOVE, and faith really works.

It goes to work, while you are resting!

HE works, you rest.

Can't you see - its all about a person, its all about
HIM for you (not against you).

When you experience HIM more and more, speaking to you,
answering your prayers, giving victory to your troubles,
then your faith soars and its easy!

When Adam said he knew Eve.
Or Mary (before she was going to give birth to baby JESUS)
said 'she knew no man'.

Means the same thing - Adam experienced his wife.
or Mary never experienced a man in a 'marriage, intimate'
way.

Its not about learning intellectually.
Studying and thinking you know something.
Its all about knowing and trusting your GOD.

Can you trust your spouse, or mother when there
is 'tough times'?

Then why can't you lean back and trust the ONE
that you've committed yourself to?

Maybe your faith is more intellectual belief.

The Bible says that demons believe and shutter.
James 2:19

I expect you want your faith to grow and
be more like bible type faith.

How?

Try praying for something you need from HIM
and know that there is no way you can fulfill it!

Watch GOD, your GOD come through!

Then watch faith grow!


Pancake Bay
By the way, here is the place Pancake Bay in Ontario
that my family and I have been. Far from most places
but because of it, its very natural and beautiful.

You can read about it at the link below and know about it,
I have spent time there and enjoyed it and know it! (by experience)