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January 11, 2016

Luke 18:8

…when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

This scripture has been resonating in my heart lately.  When I think of having faith, I remember something Kenneth Hagin used to say, “Faith begins where the will of God is known.”  Think about that.  Faith begins; it has its origin, in knowing the will of God.  There’s a lot said about the will of God.  There is a lot that could be said about the will of God.  But, if we need faith, and we do, then how do we obtain faith?  Faith has its origin in knowing the will of God.  So, we need to discover the will of God.  The will of God has to do with His purposes and desires.  He is God, our Father, our Creator, the sustainer of all life and when we get in touch with His will, we discover the reason for all things.

Take a look around you.  Everywhere we turn, people are lost.  They are searching for purpose.  They are searching for identity.  They are searching for the explanation of what is going on around them.  The nations are under the microscope of God’s holy purposes in our day.  But really, they always have been.  God established His purpose for man before He made the world.  Before He placed Adam in the garden along with Eve, He knew what He wanted to do.  He knew the players.  He wrote the script.  He’s the director.  He is God.

It’s so easy to say these kinds of words because of our religiosity.  But, having the spirit of understanding that gives us the ability to see beyond natural circumstances, we are taken beyond just mere words.  Why?  Within words are the possibilities, the hopes, and the expectations of what we believe or want to believe, what we envision for the future.  We want to believe there is something better in our future.  Can it be that these desires find their origin in the fact that God created us and He created us to seek out His purpose for our life?  The answer is obvious if we are willing to acknowledge that we are created beings and in that reality, we have a central reason for being created.  Those of us who know Him are on a journey of discovering our purpose for being.

In the earth today, we see the unraveling of the purpose for living.  Apart from God, we have placed much emphasis on natural human understanding in defining our lives and why we are here.  As the dealings of God are being released in the earth, everything we’ve come to value that helps give us focus on why we are here is being shaken to the core.  We are watching the destabilization of life as we’ve known it to the point that we wonder if things will ever be the same again.  The question is – the same as what?

History tells us that change is normal.  We have many ways of describing these changes.  But change is a constant.  Why?  All mankind is on a journey of fulfilling the will and purpose of the Creator.  In His sovereignty, He has set a course for us and though there may be delays, missed turns, and even what seems to be the loss of all direction, we are on this course and He is going to see the fulfillment of all that He has decreed for His creation.  Our choice in the matter is to cooperate with Him, allowing Him to bring the change necessary to our life that positions us to become whom we were created to be and in that identity we live our lives as those who manifest the reality of a life that is lived for His purpose.  In this we find peace that our life is for a reason.  We are contributing to the overall purpose of a grand design.

However, we cannot and will not see this grand design accomplished in our lives without knowing His will.  How can we know His will?  The scripture says it this way, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  We must return to His Word.  His Word reveals His will.  His Word is the solid foundation of the faith we need in this hour to understand what God is doing, why the earth is experiencing such upheaval and the part we play in the overall plan of God for the nations.  If we don’t return to His Word and discover His will, we will be left to our own conclusions and there is no faith in our human reasoning.  Left to that, we find ourselves to be pessimistic, believing that bad things happen as a general rule and that evil is overwhelming good.  We also become cynical, believing that all people are generally selfish and dishonest which tends to diminish any motivation and optimism for change.  Nothing is further from the truth.  There is much hope if we will look to Him and to His Word for clarity in unsettling times.  His promise to His Son, the King is, “Ask of Me, and I will give you the heathen for our inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession.”  This is not a possession of the earth in itself, but a possession of the peoples of the earth as a family.  Hope?  Yes we have hope.

Hope is the substance for faith.  Hope is the blueprint.  Hope gives us vision for what can be.  Hope prepares us to believe what God says.  When we believe what God says, when we believe His Word, we position ourselves to see things from His perspective and we take our place in the work He is doing to bring about all He has planned for mankind.  We have a great privilege and responsibility of participation in His kingdom.  Isaiah said, “of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” and we are a manifestation of that reality.  As His sons and representatives in the earth, we are the light, the proof that there is hope.  When we embrace this hope, we find faith to believe.

This is the hour to return to Him, to return to His Word, to know His will.  When we do this, we are going to discover that our fears about the future of our nation and all the nations will be calmed in knowing that He is fully engaged in revealing His grand plan of redemption through His Son, the King and Lord, Jesus.  When He comes, will He find faith on the earth?  Let our answer be – “Yes, He will find it in me!”

May we be those who are busy about our Father’s business, seeing what He is doing and involving ourselves in that work.  May we be those who are standing in faith for the nations – living our lives with hope for a future that is secure because we know His Word has revealed a future that is better than our minds can conceive and our hearts can believe.   Selah.