How does faith really work? What is it to experience faith? What is the reality of faith? So many times we quote the Scriptural definition of faith (See Hebrews 13:1) but fail to follow the direction in which it leads us.
Many of us look at faith as the instrument by which we acquire the desires of our hearts.
We strive to visualize what faith can produce, but tragically are blinded by the reality of our surroundings.
In other words, we have limited our capacities for faith to the realm of the tangibles.
We use faith as a magnifying glass in which we take our minute hopes and make them into larger than life expectations.
For them to become a reality, we feed our faith with our works.
For example, we use the neo-Christian teaching of sowing and reaping.
But the problem is we are assisting faith by introducing the human element.
Instead of simply believing God for financial deliverance, we take whatever money we can acquire and, instead of chipping away at our debts, we sow it to a spiritual spokesman.
We then wait with baited faith for the dividends to roll in.
If for some reason we do not receive the financial rewards, we are told we do not have enough faith, or we did not sow enough "green" to bring growth.
Well, at least our financial solicitor is benefiting from our wrongly motivated giving.
If we exhibit irresponsible stewardship resulting in financial debt, how can we justifiably ask God to bail us out? We have a responsibility to be financially responsible.
The recording of the healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17 is actually a teaching primer on faith.
To understand what happened to these men is to look at faith through the eyes of a Samaritan suffering from Leprosy.
As Jesus approached a town in Samaria, He came upon a group of ten men who were all infected with leprosy.
Their whole life had turned upside down.
They lost all semblance of normality.
Seeing Jesus, they lifted up their voice and cried out to Him for mercy.
Jesus responded by simply telling them to go and show themselves to the Priest.
The Priest, according to Leviticus 14, would check over a person who claimed he was healed from the decease.
If he was found cleansed, he could then return to his community.
The problem that faced these ten lepers was that they were not healed! They would look like fools if they presented themselves to the Priest in their current state.
What they did was exhibit the foundational truth about Faith.
They acted on the Word of Jesus without seeing any evidence of their healing! The Bible says as they journeyed to the Priest, they were healed.
Faith is birthed by ACTING on the Word of God.
Faith does not take notice of circumstances.
Somewhere down the road, the lepers experienced a dramatic healing.
There must have been shouting, jumping, explosions of excitement.
One of the group is so thankful he returns to find Jesus and express his gratitude to Him.
Jesus was a little surprised that the other nine had not returned with him.
He then looked at the cleansed leper and said, "Your faith has made you whole.
" What an introduction to faith! Maybe this Samaritan man had walked the road to his healing by confessing his belief and trust in the words of Jesus.
Jesus had told them to go to the Priest.
They went knowing that Jesus had a purpose in sending them there.
I can just hear the Samaritan saying aloud, "I don't understand this walk, but I walk because He said to.
" Maybe the others joined in and together they birthed their faith.
Faith expressed with gratitude brings even greater faith.
I wish we knew more about this man after his life changing experience.
I kind of believe he took many more walks and experienced many more miracles in his life.
What happened to the other nine? We have no idea, but I would guess it dwarfed in comparison to the habitual faith walker.
Faith is birthed by walking with complete trust in God's Word.
Obedience to the Word brings a walk which leads into His presence.
When Faith is conceived it will contradict circumstances.
When Faith becomes a reality the impossible will become possible.