FAITH COMETH BY HEARING
Two, three, maybe even four months ago, I had an experience which I am still trying to understand. On the surface, I understand, but I am also convinced that the Word of God is so profound in so many ways, I believe it would be foolish to try and suggest a particular scripture or passage means only one thing and nothing else. I have found by my own experience the Word of God is so deep and yet so perfect it is like peeling back the layers of an onion and each layer reveals another facet of God's perfect Word. And by the way, God's onion is so vast one will never reach the core.
Before I go into detail regarding the experience of which I spoke there is an aspect of God which I believe either I have simply missed hearing spoken of, or isn't being spoken of, period.* Take a look at Genesis 1:26,27:
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man IN HIS OWN IMAGE, in the IMAGE OF GOD created he him; male and female created he them."
The words which I've capitalized struck me the other day especially after reading John 4:23,24. In 24 it says, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
God did create man in His own image. What image? Consider the fact that there are so many different people in the world yet all are of the same structure; different and yet the same. I believe there is another aspect of Genesis 1:27 which hasn't been made abundantly clear, at least not to me, and that is that God also created us in the image of His Spirit just on a lesser scale. Remember in God's Word where He says that He would come into the Garden at a particular time of day to talk to Adam. Adam knew God's presence was with him, but it doesn't say that Adam spoke to God as one man would speak to another man face to face. Therefore, I believe they spoke to one another in spirit. "Okay," you say, "so what?"
Man, (me, you, my neighbor, your neighbor, children, etc., etc.) are alike in that we all have eyes, legs, heads, and so on, and also senses, but our abilities are different, the way we process information though similar is probably different, even the way we communicate with one another is different (never mind the fact that no man or woman has the exact likeness of another, ie. fingerprints), AND THE WAY IN WHICH WE INTERACT WITH GOD IS DIFFERENT (from a Christian perspective). I no more know your prayers, your hopes, your dreams, your thoughts unspoken than you know mine, but God does. How? Because He also made us in the image of His Spirit. Therefore, I cannot tell you how you must act or think in accordance with the Word of God. I cannot tell you what is or isn't an acceptable form of worship before God, I can't even tell you how you must act in the presence of God. I can only relate to you my own experiences based on the Truth which God's Holy Spirit has revealed to me in my own life based not upon my understanding alone, but upon what God knows I understand. Even having said so, there is so much more to learn of God through the Holy Spirit as He reveals to us the layers of His Word. Now there is at least one caveat which comes to mind, "Ye shall know them by their fruit."
So it is with the above in mind that I desire to relate to you an experience I had based upon Romans 10:17 which says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." As I have previously said in so many words, there is an obvious relationship of one verse with another, but I hope you'll see how this verse can also work in reverse with a corrupting effect.
One of the few crowns I have on the few teeth I have left (okay, I admit it, I really like sweet consumables) became dislodged and needed to be put back in the proper alignment. So I called the dentist and was able to get an appointment a day or two later. Now I'm sitting in the chair, and the dentist and his assistant (really very nice people) somehow or another begin to discuss my particular job and many of the...possible...dangers associated with my current job situation. Now, I'm sitting there in this chair with my mouth open as wide as I am able to do so, can't respond, and yet I have to listen to these two people going into detail about all the "what if's" and "could happen's" which certainly have happened elsewhere in the country in these types of work situations, but has only once happened to my knowledge in the history of that particular location over the history of the store.
I didn't give what they had spoken about much thought after I had left, but somehow, they had inadvertently sown a "bad word" (not to be confused with a slang or curse word) into my spirit. Remember that verse that says, "Out of the heart the mouth speaks?", or "Ye shall give account of every word spoken on the day of judgment?" or even, "If you had faith as a seed you would say,". Over the course of the next week, perhaps even two or three, my thoughts began to dwell on their words regarding possible bad scenarios at my job. I could not shake this feeling that something was going to happen to me via another party in an adverse way.
One Monday afternoon, one of the locals, a young high school girl, pumped $16 dollars worth of fuel into her vehicle. After doing so, she walked into the store, and while talking on a cell phone began to browse inside the store. I noticed she seemed to be taking an unusually long time, picking up certain items, then laying them down, going back and forth between isles all the while talking on the phone and becoming increasingly agitated. Finally, after a few minutes of watching her walk around the store and listening to the words she was speaking into the phone, I approached her. I said, "Miss______, do you need the money to pay for your gas?" I immediately opened my wallet and proceeded to hand her $16, all the money I had on my person at the time.
The young girl's mood instantly went from one of agitation to one of surprised gratefulness judging by the tears which began to well up in her eyes. She said that she didn't realize she didn't have her credit card in her purse until she had finished pumping the fuel. I walked back behind the counter, and she walked to the front of the counter. She opened her wallet and placed $10 dollars on the counter, giving me back $10 dollars and using the other $6 dollars I had given her to pay the sum of her purchase. She said she would be back the next day to pay me back. I said that was fine with me, and she hurriedly left the store.
However, this unanticipated act of kindness on my part which did feel good wasn't the most wonderful part of this experience. The most wonderful part happened without being immediately noticed by me in my spirit. That "bad word" which was unintentionally sown into my spirit by my dentist and his assistant was instantly plucked up by the root and cast out of my spirit when I offered to pay for the girl's fuel purchase. It wasn't until after reading Pastor Hagee's latest book, "Jerusalem Countdown" in which he expounds on his own beliefs regarding the Jewish people and the country of Israel that another aspect of this particular incident came to mind. There is at least one scripture I know exists and probably others (which I do not recall as I write) which says basically that anyone which blesses the Jewish people will in turn be blessed by God. The other day, this same young lady came into the store to make a purchase of a nature which I do not immediately recall. However, I noticed she was wearing a small diamond studded Star of David on a small necklace.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. There is so much more about this particular scripture I'd like to write about, but perhaps another time. But I do want to make it clear, by binding together the verses in Genesis, John, and Romans, that your faith in God and His Word is not contingent upon another persons understanding which comes first by revelation, second by action, and thirdly by experience. I tell almost everyone I meet or fellowship with to ask God in the name of Jesus for His leading through the Holy Spirit to find out what He wants the person to know of Him. He knows us personally, though one may not know Him, and He knows what He wants each of us to know about Him because we were also created in the image of His Spirit. Yes, I have told some people in the past to read a particular chapter of a book in the Bible, or look at group of scriptures regarding a set of circumstances which they may be currently experiencing. Yet, I will confess, while I believe what I am telling someone to be true, there are times when I realize after the fact that the Lord is trying to impress upon me a spiritual truth He wants me to apply to my life instead of another applying His Truth to their own life. "We prophesy in part because we know in part,".
*The very next day, while listening to American Family radio, a sixty second ad came on the radio expressing in much the same way my own understanding of that particular passage of Genesis.
Because of Jesus I live, and because of Him, I write.
Freely, I have received; freely, I desire to give.
In the spirit of the Love of Jesus,
Mike |
