What is Faith in the Eyes of God?
By Rev. Jack Barr

Faith is believing every word that God says. Faith is believing that whatever God says will come to pass.

So then the Question is: What is it that God Said?

I read an article in the "Pentecostal Evangel", a publication of the Assemblies of God. The article was written on "Faith," by a pastor of great age and experience. The article went on to say that we can not make God do anything. He went on to explain that God will answer our prays Only If He feels like it, and the entire article followed this vein.

As I read the article, a voice kept telling me that the man writing the article was wrong, that his idea of what faith is, was wrong. Now I was young in the Lord, and was studying for the call to the ministry that God gave me.

The following Sunday I was to preach the sermon at our small church with a congregation of about 10 persons. As I stepped up to the pulpit, the pastor went to sit with the congregation. I opened my notes for my sermon and then the Holy Spirit took me over and started speaking to the people. The Holy Spirit started telling the people what true faith was, that the article in the "Pentecostal Evangel" was not the truth. They couldn't see the Holy Spirit. To them it appeared that it was I who was speaking, but it was not. As the Holy Spirit spoke through me, I could see a transparent wall like transparent cement blocks that stretched from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall in front of me. I could see the wall and through it to the people in the church. I could see the words come out of my mouth like a train, running toward that invisible wall. When the words reached the wall they would bounce off, back toward the podium, ricocheting around me without ever reaching the people. I saw the words try to get through over there, and down there, and up there, to the right, and to the left, but not one word broke through that wall to the people. Three times I tried to break off and go to my sermon, but the Holy Spirit would not let me. The pastor asked a few questions during this time but it was clear that he rejected all that was said. And as he rejected, so to, did all of them. They followed his lead as pastor. Then after approximately a half hour, the invisible wall suddenly disappeared and the Holy Spirit released me to preach my sermon. Not one person in the church that day accepted even one word that the Holy Spirit was trying to tell them, except me. Shortly afterwards the Holy Spirit led me to write a letter to the author of the article on faith. It was sent to him through the publisher, who was to forward it to the author. I have no idea if the author even received it, but I obeyed God. And now I again obey God in telling you what true faith is, as the Holy Spirit said.

That sounds simple doesn't it? But it is harder to achieve that you think. And because most people do not truly believe God's Word, you see very few miracles. Most people say "Yes, I believe" when they truly do not believe in their heart. They have been given so many excuses why the miracles did not happen, that they believe the excuses, instead of Believing God. They say, God was sleeping, or God was on a trip somewhere, or that it just was not God's will, or you just didn't have enough faith when I prayed for you, or God wants you to suffer just a little longer. The excuses go on forever. The people have heard these excuses all of their lives and they believe the excuses, for they say to themselves, these preachers must know what they are saying, for they know God's Word.

Jesus said that if you believe, if you can say to the tree to uproot itself and move, that it will move. But if you ask any of these preachers if the tree will move if they call for it to move, they will give you a song and dance about why the tree will not move. Unbelief!!! It will not move for them because they do not believe what God said.

The Apostles believed and the miracles happened. Down through the ages there have always been a few who truly believed, and the miracles happened. And in the future, there will be those who truly believe and the miracles will happen. Not because these men say it, but because they believed God when God said that He would perform these miracles at their word because they believed. The Bible supports this, all throughout the Bible.

While it is true that we can not tell, or command, God to do anything. But It is also true that God said that He would honor our word as His word, because it is God's desire to do so. God will honor and perform our word and commands, when We Believe, because God said that He would. Because it is God's desire to do so. The Bible confirms this repeatedly. When you truly believe in your heart that God will heal, or raise the dead, perform miracles, at our call for these to be done, then God Will do it, because God SAID that He would do it. And that is faith, believing what God said.

An example of God honoring man's word, only a short time back, even though it was not God's will for the event to happen is exemplified in the life of Smith Wigglesworth, from England, who became an evangelist for Jesus Christ.

Quoting from "Smith Wigglesworth Apostle of Faith" by Stanley Howard Frodesham, page 148, which relates to Smith raising to life from death his own wife.

Smith Wigglesworth raised three persons from the dead, his wife being the last. We can see from this report that God honored the command by Smith to raise his wife from the dead, even though it was not God's will for her to be raised from the dead. We see also that Smith Wigglesworth instantly released his wife back to death as soon as God make known to him what God's will was. God honored Smith's word because Smith believed God's Word and Jesus had said that :

"Verily, verily , I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." (John 14:12)

"And whatever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14:13-14)

Did Jesus lie when He said that you can do more of the same works (miracles) that He did? Did Jesus lie when He said that He would do anything that you ask, when you ask in His name? Jesus healed the sick, healed the lame, open the eyes of the blind, gave hearing to the deaf, cast out demons, raised the dead. And here in John 14, Jesus says that you can do every bit of the same things, and even more that He did, IF YOU BELIEVE, if you have faith. Then Jesus tells us Why we can do all these miracles, It is because when you perform these miracles that He, Jesus, in honoring your word, will bring Glory to the Father. Jesus says "Anything You Ask". There is no limit except the limit that we place on ourselves.

But you say that you called for the healing of someone and they were not healed. You say that you asked for a miracle and it did not happen. You say that you called for the tree to move and it did not move. You say that you tried to walk on water and you sank. Why did you ask?? Was it for your glory or for God's Glory?? Were you trying to test God?? Are you truly serving God, or are you just going through the motions?? Are you serving God for what you can do for Him, or are you serving God for what He can give to you?? Are you a Believer, or are you just saying that you are?? That can only be between you and God.

Jesus said that Every Believer (in Jesus Christ and in all of God's Word, ) will have signs which will follow them. These signs will prove that they are Believers, just as the signs followed the Apostles and all of the saints in the early years of the Church. If you have these signs, then there is no limit on the miracles that you may perform to the Glory of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Jesus Said:

"And these signs shall follow those who believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:17-18)

There are so many who take the above verse and turn and twist it so that they may explain away the fact that they do not have these signs. But Jesus said that Every Believer Will have these signs. Did Jesus Lie?? Are there no Believers today?? No, Jesus did not lie!! Yes, there are Believers today. And Yes these signs are following many today, and yes there are a few miracles being performed today, even in this time on great unbelief, because these persons really believe what God said. I was told by one person that if they saw a miracle, then maybe they would believe. That person will never receive or perform a miracle, for there is total unbelief. When Jesus visited his home town, it says that he did very few miracles because of the unbelief.

Each of us will exercise our faith with the limitations that we place on ourselves. An example of this is when the Apostles were crossing the sea, and Jesus came to them walking on the water. Were the Apostles believers? Yes they all were believers and Christians. When Peter asked to walk on the water, Jesus told him to come on and do it. Peter did step out of the boat and walked on the water, But, there were eleven other Apostles who also could have stepped out of the boat and walked on the water, and they chose not to do so. They could have but they limited themselves.

Every Christian has been given the authority to exercise the faith which brings about miracles, but very, very few will even try.

I once had a pastor who told the congregation that if they had the power to raise the dead that they would be running all over town raising everyone from the dead. His statement was wrong. That certainly would not glorify God. Jesus did not raised everyone from the dead, just as Jesus never tried to heal everyone. Jesus never tried to cast demons out of everyone around him, but only healed those who came to him for healing, and then made it plain that He was only there for the Jews, and not for the Gentiles, at that time.

If I ask a Christian today if they can raise the dead, they get such a horrified look on their face and claim that there is no way that they can raise the dead. Since they deny that they can do it, they limit themselves, for God will only use those who have the Faith to believe. The Faith to believe that not only did God say that they could, but that God would back up His statements with action, and honor their word as if it were His.

Man says that you can't do it, but who will you listen to, God or man??

Does this mean that you should, or can, run to every hospital and nursing home around you and lay hands on everyone for healing?? No it does not, for then you are trying to glorify yourself. Testing God in a mighty way. Does this mean that you can tell a tree to uproot itself and fall down just so you will not have to pay someone to cut it down?? Certainly not. That would be only for your glory, not for the Glory of God.

What it does mean is that if you believe God's Word fully in your heart, then God can and will use you, and the miracles that you perform WILL Glorify God.

There was a missionary who, about ten years ago, with his small congregation went to pray for God to raise the pagan island leader from the dead. After he and the entire congregation started praising God while standing in a circle around the dead man, God led him to call the dead leader back to life. The leader did return back to life, and as a result God was Glorified when the entire island population then accepted Jesus Christ and worshiped God. No Glory for the missionary, just Glory for God. And the islanders knew that this missionary did truly speak from God Almighty.

The following verses from God's Word, the Bible, shows that God does indeed honor what a man of faith says.

1 Kings 17:1 "And Elijah the Tishbite, [who was] of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, [As] the LORD God of Israel liveth, before who I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word".

James 5:17-18 "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

________________________

2 Kings 6:18 "And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha."

2 Kings 2:23-24 "And he went up from thence unto Bgethel; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the woods, and tore forty and two little children of them.

_________________________

2 Chronicles 30:20 "And the Lord hearkened to Hezekian, and healed the people."

________________________

Jeremian 1:12 "Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it

Ezekiel 12:25 "For I [am] the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 12:28 "There fore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD."

________________________________________

Matthew 17:20 "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to younder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

Matthew 21:21-22 "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this [which is done] to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Luke 17:6 "And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you."

________________________________

John 14:12-14 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."

John 15:7 "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be dome unto you."

______________________________

Acts 6:8 "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people."

____________________________

I was given a testamony by a man who came to our church on occasion. This was in the 1990's and he was in his high 80's at the time of his testamony to me. He related to me what his father had told him about an incident that happened, at the location of our church, in the late 1800's. He related how at that time there was a little wooden church where our present church was standing, and this was a wooded area at the time, wild growth around. He said his father related to him that when his father was a teenager, he and two other boys were in front of the church and they started fighting. His father said that he saw the preacher riding up on his mule, so he ran and hid in some bushes. The other boys didn't see the preacher until the preacher stepped down off of his mule. The preacher told the boys to stop fighting, but both boys turned on the preacher, one picking up an old chair and the other picking up a board, raising them over their heads to hit the preacher. He said that the preacher dropped to his knees and started praying. Moments later the preacher got up and climbed back on his mule and rode off. Both boys, one holding a chair in the air, and the other holding up a board over his head, were yelling for the preacher to come back and release them, for they were unable to move. He didn't say how long before the boys could move again, but the man said "In those days the preachers had Power."

They had power because they had faith, and God honored that faith.

Who Will YOU Believe, God that says that you can, or man who says that you can not???

Jesus said, If you have faith, Nothing is Impossible!!

Faith is simply Believing every word that God said, knowing that God Will carry out His Word for those who Believe. The Bible proves it all through the Bible, as you have seen by the verses above, yet these are only a few of so many verses which tell you the same thing.

If you have the faith to believe, and do not limit your self, you too can heal the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, walk on water and raise the dead. Why? Because God the Father and Jesus Christ said that you can, they will perform anything that you ask because THEY want to do this.

May the Almighty God Lead You into All of His Truth

Rev. Jack Barr