Having faith in God is IMPERATIVE and CRUCIAL if we want Him to be a constant presence in our lives. Without faith, it is impossible to please the Lord. I know, it is hard to believe in a Spiritual Being that we cannot see. It does not seem logical to believe in a Spirit that we have never met before.
There are some of us who live by “I’ll believe it when I see it” motto. Granted, there is nothing wrong with that. People are more convinced on witnessing something happen before their eyes than relying on information shared with them by other people. However, if you haven’t already, please check out God’s Existence to see how I precisely lay out proof of His Essence. The Lord is everywhere even when it feels like we’re alone. Our faith in God is the most powerful thing that we can exercise. Let us dive in, shall we?
2 Corinthians 4:18 – “While we look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which ARE SEEN are TEMPORAL, but the things which are NOT SEEN are ETERNAL.” This Bible verse is amazingly true. Life is finite. We can see people, the sky, birds, animals, cars, houses, etc. Our eyes are capable of taking everything in as as soon as we lay our sight on an object/person (those with vision). But in the end, we know that these things that are witnessed/seen will die, wither away, become obsolete and/or be destroyed one day. What comes next after that? Everything that we see today, may not be here tomorrow.
Life is nothing but a breath. A vapor that will soon disappear. Life is fragile. Having faith in life is a waste because it is ever changing. It’s unreliable because things will be looking bright one day and dull the next. We think that things are finally looking up, just to be disappointed by someone/something.
No one knows tomorrow and anyone claiming to is a liar. If people are able to predict such events before they happen, they are a product of sorcery – especially if they seek spiritual means to attain their “visions.” These people are dabbling in murky waters and are making themselves vulnerable to the spiritual world. Witchcraft is highly forbidden. That is a path that will eventually lead to total destruction to anyone engaging in witchcraft because these deceitful spirits are only after their souls – nothing more.
(Check out Greed for more on this).
The things that are not seen – that is where we should really focus our attention on because they will stand the test of time. They will exist forevermore because they are not made up of nor do they rely on physical components like things that are seen.
God is not seen.
On purpose.
If God were to visibly show Himself, we would all surely die because we have witnessed something so pure and perfect in our flawed, sinful state. On top of that, if people were to see His glory, they’ll surely conclude it to be a figment of their imagination. People would look for every excuse in the world rather than admit that there is a Spiritual Creator. People would think that they’re going crazy.
Furthermore, if God were to make Himself visibly known, some people might feel obligated to believe in Him. They’d be like, “FINE, I guess I’ll believe in Him since He proved to me that He exists.” That wouldn’t be fair to us because God gave us all a free will to live as we please. We would feel inclined to believe in Him because of us having witness His presence. There is no free will in that. God blessed us with the ability to make our own decisions. If we seek Him, we will find Him on our own. But also, God already has made His presence known if we are spiritually enlightened to see that His essence is proven by the beauty of this world. (Check out The Holy Trinity for more on this).
It is up to us if we want to have fellowship with the Lord. Another important reason as to why God is not seen – people will try to create an image of the Lord by building shrines and/or statues. Because of that, people will start to worship/praise this man made figure other than God Himself. Even though the intentions were not malicious and in good spirits, the result is blasphemous. (For God not being seen, I am referring to the Father, not the Son of Man. Of course, the Son of Man was human and was seen by thousands of people during His time).
The things that are not seen are eternal. Spiritual forces are not seen. But sometimes they can manifest themselves to the point that they are able to reveal their grotesque nature (demons). But nevertheless, spiritual forces are not physical like our bodies.
2 Corinthians 5:7 – “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Having faith is believing in the things unseen. Things unseen are eternal. But let’s think about this in a physical manner.
How many of us were faithful to people who we thought were going to change for the better? How many of us have faith in our family, friends, career, partner, and most importantly, ourselves? How many of us hope for the best in a bleak situation? Our faith in this physical life are in things that we can see and cannot see. Our faith in our family is seen because our family is physically here with us. However, having faith in reuniting with our family in the afterlife is unseen. Also, having faith in a hopeless situation is towards something unseen. A miracle perhaps. Sometimes, miracles do happen. Sometimes they do not because it was not meant to be or it could be a test from the Lord. It depends.
There is no telling what the Lord has in store for us because His ways are higher than our ways. Hoping for the best is something we all do because we want to be placed in a better situation than the one we are in now.
There are some of us who are still not convinced – I know. Even when our eyes witness something unbelievable, we still want to look towards more physical/spiritual evidence. There are some of us who have been through spiritual awakenings or disturbances. Our bodies were/are inhabited by demons or our bodies are inhabited by the Holy Ghost. We are able to feel their presence within us or in the same room with us. There are some of us who go through night terrors and are certain they felt a presence in the room but could not see what it was. Or worse – they did and were unable to move. There are those of us who go to Church and feel the presence of the mighty Lord in and around our bodies. Evidently, we start speaking in tongues or we feel this immense and extraordinary power flowing in and around our bodies.
But even when we cannot see these spiritual forces, we know they are there. We feel them. Just like when we’re happy, sad, or angry, we cannot physically see these emotions (but they are manifested physically). These emotions are felt because of certain events and/or certain people. We know we’re happy because we feel happy. As a physical result, we smile. We’re at peace and we feel joyful. Sadness is felt because we feel low and numb inside. As a physical result, we cry. Emotions are eternal. Spirits and feelings. They are intertwined if you ask me. Being filled with the Holy Spirit brings about joy and peace. Being filled with a demon brings about darkness and misery. Having faith in God and being spiritually matured in Him brings about a reassurance that cannot be found anywhere else.
God is always protecting us, whether we deserve it or not. God is always merciful to us, even when we do not deserve it. He is loving to us even when we do not love ourselves. The Lord is not partial, we are equally as important to Him. He makes the sun shine on both the believers and unbelievers. He makes the rain fall on both believers and unbelievers. Salvation is offered to any and everyone who believes in Jesus Christ – the Son of the Living God. To anyone who repent of their sins and seek the Lord earnestly and sincerely, they will surely find Him. I know because I did. On my 22nd birthday, last year. Only I didn’t know the extent of what happened until afterwards (Check out Unforgivable Sin).
Romans 8:24 – “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?”
How can we hope for things that are already seen? Hope are in things to come. Faith is in the things that we believe will come to pass. My readers, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. God searches/knows the heart and if we are sincere in our quest for the Lord, He will reward us with many blessings. Of course, with blessings comes trials and tribulations as well. There is no escaping that. We are all destined to experience the woes of life to a certain extent because this world is cursed and corrupted with evil. It is life but our faith in God will continue to provide us comfort and it will increase by hearing His word. His word is the Bible. Also, to piggyback off of being sincere in finding Him, we must not be driven by selfish reasons. God knows when we are only praying to Him for greedy purposes.
For an example – trying to obtain that promotion or to win the lottery.
Furthermore, I personally thought God was mad at me because of the slew of bad things that were plaguing my life. I thought I had offended Him. So I fasted and dedicated my 22nd birthday to Him. Soon, things were FINALLY looking up. I concluded the uneventful things that were happening to me, to be an attempt by the Lord to redirect my attention back to Him. Or it could be something entirely different – I have no idea and I may never know. Bottom line – they happened and as a result, I drew closer to the Lord. So things turned out for the good in the end, even if they started out horrible. It could’ve been demons trying to break me because of my newfound faith in Him. Nevertheless, I made poor decisions prior to these unfortunate events that were negatively affecting my life and these poor choices will always keep me humbled. I can never forget how low I sunk to emotionally, mentally, and financially before hand. Now, I am back on the road to recovery and redemption.
Going back to faith.
Faith is essential. Don’t we all want to see our loved ones again after they perish? Don’t we all want to believe that the Lord rose from death on the third day, in hopes that believers in Him will also rise again when He comes back to Earth to reclaim what is rightfully His back from the Evil One? We should want that.
Fortunately for us, it’s certain, as it is written. He broke the chains of death and sin when He was risen from death. The Lord holds the absolute power and He will reign forevermore. He holds the key to everlasting life. His glory will reign forever. The question is: will we reign with Him or be eternally separated from Him?
Believers
Another thing I will like to talk about is us surrounding ourselves with people who have faith in the Lord. Believers. Even when our faith wavers or we are in despair and too distracted to even look past our troubles, we must have people at our corners who are strong in their faith in the Lord. Even when our faith is shaky and we cannot see the goodness of the Lord because of our tribulations, our friends/family who are spiritually and faithfully grounded in the Lord will help us see His goodness.
My friends, it is highly important to have friends/family members who are spiritually devoted to the Lord. Through our tribulations, they are the ones to hold us up even when we want to let go. They are the ones who are praying for our spiritual revival in Him. They are the ones who care enough to insert themselves in our troubling situation and take on our issues as if they are their own. That kind of love is powerful. Not only do they have love for the Lord but they believe the Lord is able to repair and positively change our circumstances.
Their faith in Him is the driving factor and because of that, the Lord will hear their/our prayers. He will answer them. Might I add, that we must not only look to God to change our physical circumstances. We must look to God to change our SPIRITUAL CONDITION. Our spiritual condition should be the first thing we want to change. When we invite the Lord into our lives and spirit, we are allowing Him to cleanse us of our physical nature. We are allowing the Lord to finally take control of our lives. Our physical nature is the root of our sins. Once the Lord takes hold onto our spirit and body, we will start to see and feel His presence in our troubles. Believe me! I cannot make this up.
We need to get our spiritual existence in check before we seek the Lord to change our circumstances. We cannot have the mindset of “I just need this to change and I’ll be good.” No, we need to change internally before we take action on the external aspect of our lives.
My friends, the devil has a way of distracting us with obstacles we go through. He will try to keep us down so we won’t discover the Lord’s saving grace and merciful nature. It is all part of The Essence of Life. Some of the things we go through might make us think that God hates us but that could not be further from the truth. That is the devil’s attempt to make us question God’s character and also make us hate God so we can live obliviously in the darkness. Not knowing God, is living in darkness my friends. That is a spiritual separation. We are ALL spiritually dead until we repent of our sins and cry out to Him to save us. Then when we make Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, we have found the Light. He is the Light.
Matthew 10:28 – “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.” Please, let us be wise in what we do. We never know when our time is up.
I will also like to add and elaborate on why faith is something that does not happen naturally. It is with much digging within ourselves and a yearning for something more, that we find faith in the unseen. Or sometimes the Lord will put in our hearts a yearning to find Him. It depends. Faith comes from believing, reading the Bible, and hearing the word of God. Some people are not able to or unwilling to place their faith in God because of personal reasons/reservations. Furthermore, faith is not tested when the going is good. When life is moving smoothly and we’re experiencing blessings after blessings, there will be no need for faith because life is already all that we’ve hoped for. And we may think we were able to do it without God because our life is good.
No.
Faith comes along when we are on our last dollar. When our hands are tied behind our backs and we are utterly and completely lost in the world. For people who have never been beaten down, who have never experienced emptiness, they have that “good faith.” I call it good faith because they knew/know God in a good place. They never really experienced the woes of life yet and are only exercising faith in God because it is either convenient or they grew up in a religious home and they were forced to. Real faith comes from being broken beyond repair. Having people turn their backs on us and we’re left with having to fend for ourselves. Having no support system or a shoulder to lean on. Fighting losing battles with our inner demons on a daily basis. Having every reason to give up. THAT is when spiritual faith comes into the picture and that is when the Lord makes His presence known when called upon.
When a person is able to turn to God as the last resort – his/her circumstances are not as unbearable as they once were. They are able to look for better days to come because they feel a resurgence within them. They feel like their cries were heard by God because the voices of doubt and worries are not as strong/troubling as before. Rightfully so – they FEEL that they experienced a phenomenon that was indescribable. That is when faith is felt the strongest. Even when we have EVERY reason to give up and succumb to the woes of the Earth, there is a flickering light within us that was/is newly discovered.
Faith in God will continue to grow for people like that because they FIRSTHAND experienced what it was like to lose EVERYTHING. Hearing their testimonials will warm the hearts of even the coldest spirits. It is a spiritual revival that I hope WE ALL encounter one day.
Slightly off topic but people often misconstrue what counts as being “saved.” Most people think that it is by good works that we “earn” our salvation. Good works include – helping the less fortunate, having integrity, treating everyone with respect and dignity, etc. Although these are noble acts, the Lord is not impressed. The only way to be saved – it is mentioned a few times throughout this blog post. From there, the Lord is content because we are able to find/have faith in Him without ever meeting Him a day in our lives. We will find favor with Him because we are able to turn to Him and we were able to give Him a chance.
Accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is the ONLY way we are saved. Why, you may ask? I’ll tell you love :).
Well, for one, no one can brag that they made it to Heaven based off of what they did on Earth. No one can say that they made it to Heaven by what THEY’VE accomplished as humans rather than what God did for them as the Lord. People love to think highly of themselves so it is important to understand that our good works ALONE is insufficient because our faith in Him is missing. FACTS. And with faith in God, we are blessed with His grace and forgiveness.
Conclusively, I want to apologize to my readers who feel as if I’m pressuring them to believe in God. I am simply informing and stating my position but I tend to be passionate about Him and about my faith. I also want to apologize if what I write makes anyone feel uncomfortable. Due to my beliefs, my faith in Him may come off “assertive.” Forgive me. Especially if you don’t believe in Him, reading this blog may seem like a huge overkill. Bear with me. I definitely do not want to come across as dogmatic but I do want to make known where I stand as a believer. If I do not educate or inform my readers/viewers about the Almighty, I will be doing you and the Lord a disservice.
To conclude, you may leave questions, comments and/or suggestions if you so choose. Thank you for reading. God bless.
