Living on the Edge | AllWorship.com

Faith is … not necessarily what you think.

Jesus speaks of faith in today’s Scripture passage, so, let’s go there. What IS faith?

As Jesus was going away from there, two blind men followed him. They said loudly, “Show kindness to us, Son of David.” Jesus went inside, and the blind men went with him. He asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to make you see again?” They answered, “Yes, Lord, we believe.” Then Jesus touched their eyes and said, “You believe that I can make you see again, so it will happen.” (Mat 9:27-29 ERV)

Faith, in the context of which Jesus speaks, is living on the edge. Believing the illogical. Doing the unreasonable. Challenging the acceptable. Being comfortable where most are unwilling to go. I chose the image as a metaphor of a spiritual place like that.

Faith is believing God is greater than anything we can see, feel, taste, touch, or hear. Faith is believing Him even when that belief requires us to defy this reality’s physics, medicine, or reason.

Faith is … accepting and believing above all those and all else that Jesus is who He says He is. It is really that simple … and that complex. I will go a step further: Faith–real faith–is KNOWING.

I will tell you something real faith is not: Faith is not a mental assent. This means that it is not something of which we, by our own thoughts, express approval or agreement with. Make no mistake: Though it must begin there, it cannot end there if it is true faith. Let me give you an illustration:

Look again at the image above. If this was you sitting on the edge of a high, rocky cliff overlooking a long fall to deep water and Jesus asked you if you believed He could prevent you from being hurt or drowned if you jumped, you might say that you believed Him. And you really might.

Of course, at that point, it is only hypothetical, so it would be fairly easy to agree. But then what if He said, “You really believe Me? Then jump.” Yeah, an entirely different level of belief would be required. It just went from hypothetical to scary real.

In that moment your faith escalated from a mental agreement with what Jesus said to you having to KNOW–to be certain beyond any question–that He would do what He said if you jumped. DO you know that He will do this in your life? ARE you certain of it? Both questions rest on Him being who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do.

It is easy to agree with Him on that hypothetical level. He is Jesus, after all. Whatever He says is true; at least most of us accept this to be so. Good so far?

Now, what about when trusting Him requires a life-or-death decision or puts you in a very hard place–not in a hypothetical illustration but in real life? What about when your continuation to breathe air on this planet or have what you need to survive depends on Him being all that He says He is?

In that moment you must KNOW that He will do what He says He will do. (Otherwise, the consequences could be most unpleasant.) This is the threshold of genuine faith, faith that will move mountains as Jesus spoke of in Mark 11.

In Luke 17:5, Jesus’ disciples asked Him to increase their faith. I have heard it preached that this is a dangerous question. I disagree. It is the safest question you could ask–so long as you are not attempting to remain in control of your life. Surrendering to God and dying to our flesh nature (as Paul describes it in Romans 7:4-6), the part of us that resists God (Romans 8), is another one of these leaps that require this level of faith.

It is safe so long as you are willing to trust Jesus no matter what He says. If you are unwilling to go there, however, then it may indeed be a dangerous question to ask. FYI: That would be a real-life decision whether or not to jump (spiritually).

Would you ask Him that question? Would you allow Him to make you into what He has for you to be? Would you make that leap of faith?

Let me change ‘would’ to ‘will’: Will you ask Him to increase your faith? In the process, I can say with a great degree of certainty that He will not ask you to jump off a literal cliff, so don’t be afraid of that.

He may ask you to do something that would be as scary in a spiritual or emotional sense, however. And if He is indeed who He says He is, you will be perfectly all right as long as you trust Him.

I have it on good report from Him that “the water is fine.” He knows. Because He jumped first.