As the saying goes, “seeing is believing” but John 20:29 tells us otherwise:
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If you are part of God’s called Remnant (a follower of Jesus) than we have to adjust our way of living, our walk is to be one of faith. We have to adjust our thought process to match up with our faith. Because we were born to look at things in the natural it is almost like retraining ourselves and this is an ongoing life long process… Looking with our spiritual eyes that were opened when Holy Spirit removed the blinders off our eyes when we accepted Jesus as our Savior and made Him Lord over our lives. I will tell you that this is something that I, even after 34 years of being saved, STILL have to work on, usually on a DAILY process. As long as we have breath in our bodies, we are ALL works in progress.
Holy Spirit this past weekend as I spent time in prayer and studying my Word (the Bible) continued having me come back to the following story about Balaam, who was a soothsayer (one who professes to foretell the future) who believe in the God of Israel to the extent that he could be influenced by the Spirit. In the book of Numbers (in the Old Testament) the King of Moab tried to hire Balaam to curse Israel so that the Moabites could defeat them in battle in Numbers 22:19-34 we are shown an example that what is happening in the earthly realm is not necessarily what is going on in the spiritual realm, a perfect example of why we need to exercise believing in what our earthly eyes do not have the ability to see:
“Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again. Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”
“No,” he said. Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown. The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.” Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.” “
In the natural Balaam did not see what was IN REALITY occurring. Ol’ Slewfoot would have us believing that only what we can see with our earthly eyes is what is going on – THAT is not the case! (As you can see by the example above).
WALKING BY FAITH IS WHAT IS THE TRUE REALITY
Now anyone who lives “rationally” will miss out on what it is that Holy Spirit is trying to convey with this post.
GOD IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN WHAT OUR EARTHLY MINDS CAN COMPREHEND
The devil doesn’t want you to walk by faith – why? Because He wants you to doubt God. Listen, his tricks are the SAME tricks and methods as when he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. The devil made Eve believe that God did not have her best interests at heart. That God was a God that would “hold out” on what was best for her and for Adam. As you already know, that could not have been farther from the truth. The devil said in Genesis 3:4-5:
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
What is it that you are believing God for that the devil is whispering words of doubt into your ear? His tactics haven’t changed because they are STILL successful to those who are willing to believe his lies. His goal is to make you doubt God. We are commanded to trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation, provision and protection.
Think about it – one of the BIGGEST problems with the Sadducees and Pharisees is that they could NOT comprehend the truth in the parables that Jesus taught.
We have to retrain ourselves to walk BY faith and NOT by sight, it has been engrained in our thought process to look at life “rationally” in a “worldly” point of view, in other words, focus on CHOOSING to focus on Christ. Focus on rejecting the patterns and routines of the world. The Bible tells us in Romans 12:2:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
How do we recondition our minds? Renew them? We fill our minds with the Word of God. Philippians 4:8 instructs us:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Colossians 3:2 tells us:
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Reject the whispers of the enemy – he whispers lies and tries to make you believe that God’s promises are NOT true. Here is the thing – WE get to decide WHO and WHAT it is that we are going to listen to. If you take a look at Jesus in the book of Matthew, the devil approached him with three temptations. Take a look at Matthew 4:1-11:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'”
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”
Jesus is to be our example and so when we are met with thoughts and whispers that try to fill our mind, but that go against what God has told us, what our promises as Born-Again Believers are, we need to react the same way – using our shield of faith to block the flaming arrows of the deceiver. We need to wield our sword of the Spirit – the Word of God (the Bible) as Jesus did. We need to stand firm in ALL that Father God has told us and not give in to fear, defeat, despair or whatever tactics the enemy tries to sway us with.
REMEMBER HE IS THE FATHER OF LIES
But we STAND upon the truth! God’s Word. And if we remember that, than the devil will have NO choice BUT to flee, because as in 1 John 4:4:
“Greater is He that is in You than He that is within the world.”
As Adam and Eve had a choice, we have a choice. Choose to listen to God and to obey His Word. God IS faithful. God’s Word IS truth. There is an invisible battle occurring ALL around us. Daily I pray that God would give me eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell His sweet fragrance and a heart to receive ALL Holy Spirit would reveal to me. Our trust and faith is found in God, not in our circumstances, not in our problems, not in our feelings. We get to choose whether we are going to walk by faith OR walk by sight. I choose faith – how about you?
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