Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Radical Reality of Belief


God does what He says He will do.  Okay.  I get that.  I have lived long enough to have experienced things in life that can only be described as miraculous.  I am talking about transformations of the way people think, speak, and live . . . healing of the body, mind, and soul . . . the dried waters of the Jordan River and Red Sea kind of  miracles  . . . when nothing and no one else can explain how something happened.

The thing is . . . I need to look at my response to life in this season of life. . . and ask some hard questions:
 Do I live in belief that God will do what He says He will do? 

I need to look at the stubbornness of humanity and see how long it takes to receive and believe what God says.  Study what God promised to Abraham, long before Joshua was born: Now the LORD said to Abram,"Go forth from your country, And from your relatives and from your father's house,to the land which I will show you; Genesis 12:1


 Is believing God my reality? 

I need to question my reality, because when it comes down to it, I am not always aware that God is at work. God always makes a way through every circumstance.  Look at how God made a way through the Red Sea and the flooding Jordan River when it seemed there was no possible way to go where God said to go.  And . . . God is the Finisher . . . He is always at work completing the good work He began:  For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Do I  hesitate and shrink back from all-out-believing God? 

God repeatedly reminds us that He will do what He says He will do.
There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Genesis 28:13


If, I would risk more . . . live beyond comfort and be more radical in my belief . . . then would the universe shift more often? 

To be honest, I know that I must be more intentional in believing that God will do what He says He will do. My tendency is to over-analyze. So, I understand why Joshua told the people that the story must be intentionally told from generation to generation; they needed to remember that their world radically shifted when they finally believed God would do what He said He would do:  "For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; Joshua 4:23


When we focus on what God has done, then, we strengthen our belief that God is doing something in the times that we are unable to clearly see His work. 

Believe God will do what He says He will do.

Live in the reality that God is doing what He said He would do.

Refuse to hesitate in your belief.

Watch the universe shift . . . as you are more radical in belief.  

Learning with you to KICK START in the radical reality of belief,
Pastor Kerrie

 (written by Kerrie Palmer © 2010 All Rights Reserved)
interactstudies/ ~ kpalmer@hillchurch.com ~Church on the Hill~700 N. Hill Rd.~McMinnville, OR 97128~503.472.8476 ~www.hillchurch.com~Archives & Daily Subscription: go to http://kickstarttoday.blogspot.com/