“What is your Faith?”
“What is your Faith?”
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
We had been having a revival at our church, I’m no spring chicken, but I was catching. There was a rather tall, well built young man, who seemed to be constantly getting in the way while presenting himself as a cather. It’s never a good thing to stand behind someone, in the way of others trying to handle the task of catching and allowing people to fall. Now there is a great discernable difference between a person going down in the flesh and one going down in the Spirit. I was there attending to my position every night, and every night, this man stood in the way of catchers till they got frustrasted and stopped trying to catch. After 3 weeks, it finally happened, he stood between me and the person I was trying to catch, so I ducked under him and proceeded to take my position in readiness. He grabbed me and threw me out of the way and I just retook my place again. Again, he threw me out of the way, I sort of looked at him, wondering what his problem was. I stood up and proceeded once again to try to take my position, then it happened, he pulled me away, turned me around and punched me in the chest.
A little history about me, I am a martial artist and though it sounds like brag, it’s not intended to be. I went 25 years in the ring, undefeated, I was the cruelest fighter of all. I was willing to die to win and my opponents could see it in m y eyes. Most of the time when that look came in my eyes, my opponents left the ring, because they knew from what they saw, I didn’t care about anything accept winning, no matter the cost!
Let’s return now to this fateful night, when he punched me, it was hard enough to drop me to my hands and knees. The dead man in me began to arise, and as I began to stand up, my mind filled with the thought patterns of my past. In the 1st second, I thought of how many ways do I know how to kill a man and which one would I use. In the 2nd second, my mind filled with an even worse vengeance of thoughts, how many different ways do I know how to hurt a man and leave him with a lifelong pain, so he would remember, never do this again. Then the 3rd second came, and as I looked up with death in my eyes and a hateful desire in my heart to inflict massive pain on this man, I heard the Holy Spirit clearly say, “who are you going to show?” I lowered my head and removed myself from the sanctuary and sat with my Pastor in the sound booth. My Pastor knew, something had happened, from the time I stood up till the time I looked at the man, wanting to cause him pain, he said, so what did He, meaning the Holy Spirit, say to you? During this period of time, my days were really long, I was getting up at 3AM, so I could spend time with the Lord before I went to work. From work, I would race home, grab something to eat, shower, shave, get dressed and return back to church, where I would be till idnight or after. My Pastor said it was time for me to get some rest, so I did, but I was awed and stunned at the same time, by the events that had just taken place. I praised God all the way home, got to see 1st hand in action, 1Jn 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
To my blessing, those words have stood in rememberance, everytime I run into similar circumstances, but now they are always before the flesh thoughts.
Recently, I had the occasion to see this man again at another church, there appeared to be no difference in his actions or demeanor. A couple of days ago, for no apparent reason, those words rang out loud again, causing me to ponder on everything that had taken place, until that new moment of thought. “Who are you going to show?”, made me wonder, not only about Whom I would choose to display that fateful night, but who actually did I show it to? The only person who actually saw my choice of whom to show was me and I was the only one effected by all events surrounding the many times those words were heard. Then the Lord led me back to a strange place in my mind, this is what He said, you have faith as big as a mountain for others, but you lack that faith for you. I am a visual person when it comes to my life and anything that directly surrounds my life. As an unsaved person, my life consisted of hatred and I lived for anger, anger was my drive and my focus. I could see the results of my anger and see them immediately, no matter the task, I got the desired results and anger was my fuel. That does not mean that everything I did was of an evil and hateful nature, it just means anger fueled my accomplishment quotient.
It was right here at this moment of clarity, I realized, I was still looking for that accompliment quotient, but instead of anger as the fuel, it had to be love as the fuel. This is where the Lord stepped into change my thought patterns and direct my footsteps correctly. He said, your fuel must be faith, while your foundation is love, and in this, hope is resurrected. 1Co 13:13 So these three things continue: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
God always, already had a plan in place, and if you have enough faith to believe God, He will show you and the Holy Spirit will teach you truth and no lie.
If God is working in your life and your letting Him, praise Him, His works are always perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So what is your faith, before this moment, my faith was what I could see, but now, because of His immence love, He has taught me to take my faith, personally for me.
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
We had been having a revival at our church, I’m no spring chicken, but I was catching. There was a rather tall, well built young man, who seemed to be constantly getting in the way while presenting himself as a cather. It’s never a good thing to stand behind someone, in the way of others trying to handle the task of catching and allowing people to fall. Now there is a great discernable difference between a person going down in the flesh and one going down in the Spirit. I was there attending to my position every night, and every night, this man stood in the way of catchers till they got frustrasted and stopped trying to catch. After 3 weeks, it finally happened, he stood between me and the person I was trying to catch, so I ducked under him and proceeded to take my position in readiness. He grabbed me and threw me out of the way and I just retook my place again. Again, he threw me out of the way, I sort of looked at him, wondering what his problem was. I stood up and proceeded once again to try to take my position, then it happened, he pulled me away, turned me around and punched me in the chest.
A little history about me, I am a martial artist and though it sounds like brag, it’s not intended to be. I went 25 years in the ring, undefeated, I was the cruelest fighter of all. I was willing to die to win and my opponents could see it in m y eyes. Most of the time when that look came in my eyes, my opponents left the ring, because they knew from what they saw, I didn’t care about anything accept winning, no matter the cost!
Let’s return now to this fateful night, when he punched me, it was hard enough to drop me to my hands and knees. The dead man in me began to arise, and as I began to stand up, my mind filled with the thought patterns of my past. In the 1st second, I thought of how many ways do I know how to kill a man and which one would I use. In the 2nd second, my mind filled with an even worse vengeance of thoughts, how many different ways do I know how to hurt a man and leave him with a lifelong pain, so he would remember, never do this again. Then the 3rd second came, and as I looked up with death in my eyes and a hateful desire in my heart to inflict massive pain on this man, I heard the Holy Spirit clearly say, “who are you going to show?” I lowered my head and removed myself from the sanctuary and sat with my Pastor in the sound booth. My Pastor knew, something had happened, from the time I stood up till the time I looked at the man, wanting to cause him pain, he said, so what did He, meaning the Holy Spirit, say to you? During this period of time, my days were really long, I was getting up at 3AM, so I could spend time with the Lord before I went to work. From work, I would race home, grab something to eat, shower, shave, get dressed and return back to church, where I would be till idnight or after. My Pastor said it was time for me to get some rest, so I did, but I was awed and stunned at the same time, by the events that had just taken place. I praised God all the way home, got to see 1st hand in action, 1Jn 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
To my blessing, those words have stood in rememberance, everytime I run into similar circumstances, but now they are always before the flesh thoughts.
Recently, I had the occasion to see this man again at another church, there appeared to be no difference in his actions or demeanor. A couple of days ago, for no apparent reason, those words rang out loud again, causing me to ponder on everything that had taken place, until that new moment of thought. “Who are you going to show?”, made me wonder, not only about Whom I would choose to display that fateful night, but who actually did I show it to? The only person who actually saw my choice of whom to show was me and I was the only one effected by all events surrounding the many times those words were heard. Then the Lord led me back to a strange place in my mind, this is what He said, you have faith as big as a mountain for others, but you lack that faith for you. I am a visual person when it comes to my life and anything that directly surrounds my life. As an unsaved person, my life consisted of hatred and I lived for anger, anger was my drive and my focus. I could see the results of my anger and see them immediately, no matter the task, I got the desired results and anger was my fuel. That does not mean that everything I did was of an evil and hateful nature, it just means anger fueled my accomplishment quotient.
It was right here at this moment of clarity, I realized, I was still looking for that accompliment quotient, but instead of anger as the fuel, it had to be love as the fuel. This is where the Lord stepped into change my thought patterns and direct my footsteps correctly. He said, your fuel must be faith, while your foundation is love, and in this, hope is resurrected. 1Co 13:13 So these three things continue: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
God always, already had a plan in place, and if you have enough faith to believe God, He will show you and the Holy Spirit will teach you truth and no lie.
If God is working in your life and your letting Him, praise Him, His works are always perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So what is your faith, before this moment, my faith was what I could see, but now, because of His immence love, He has taught me to take my faith, personally for me.
Brother Jeff,
I just wish I could let my faith show at work, but there is this one person that really gets 'under my skin' & there appears to be nothing that can be done. I have considered transferring to another ward, but the other wards are not as nice as mine current position.
This lady I'm speaking of is an older nurse who has been with the organization far longer and has tons of seniority. She is like a rock in the place and is a union representative, on nursing council (that makes decisions on the unit), and is also involved in almost every aspect of the job like doing the unit scheduling. I feel like there is nothing I can do. She's always on my case as if I'm her stoogie.
I try to stay hidden in my patient's rooms doing whatever I can think of for them. If I'm not in the rooms of my patient's, I'm offering to assist other nurses with their patients. When I can't do that --- I make sure to take my break and hurry to get off the unit. I have found a part time job for which I will start tomorrow for orientation... it doesn't pay nearly as much as the one I have now--- so I can't leave.
I'd love to hear any advice you can share with me. Thanks in advance Jen Fad