I think many of us have a lot less faith than we may realize.

Growing up, I never doubted that I had faith. After all, I really did believe that Jesus died to save me from my sins. However I have come to realize that faith means more than that. Faith isn’t simply believing that something happened, rather, it is a trust in someone in the present. Faith is about knowing who God is, and trusting that he’ll do what he said he will do, not just accepting the fact that Jesus died for your salvation.

So, knowing this, what kind of faith do you have? Do you believe that God can and will do a miracle? I know many believe that God doesn’t work miracles anymore, but I believe the lack of miracles that we see is proportional to the faith we (people in American and other western cultures) have. Why do I believe this? Well, I get frequent newsletters from GFA (Gospel for Asia) listing the numerous miracles being experienced in Asia. In the book, The Insanity of God, Nik Ripken recounts numerous miracles as well.

Faith can move mountains. Do you really believe it will? Click To Tweet

Miracles aren’t gone; our faith is. And yet, there is one massive miracle constantly happening here that many millions of Christians around the world would give anything to witness: the ability to worship God openly without threat of persecution. In the book, Nik Ripken told a story about how he was hosting a Christian woman from a muslim country in their home for a while. They took her to a church service which just happened to have a baptism happening that day. Here is how that woman responded when she saw it:

“I cannot believe this! I cannot believe that I have lived long enough to see people being baptized in public. An entire family together! No one is shooting them, no one is threatening them, no one will go to prison, no one will be tortured, and no one will be killed. And they are being openly and freely baptized as a family! I never dreamed that God could do such things! I never believed that I would live to see a miracle like this.”

Earlier in the book, he was having a discussion with Chinese believers, saying that he wished we would see miracles in the states like they were experiencing in China. The men with him were flabbergasted and told him that he was being silly because we have the amazing miracle of being free to worship God openly.

Worshiping openly without persecution is a great miracle we take for granted. Click To Tweet

It really puts things into perspective. We’re blessed beyond what we can even know, but all we do is complain that we have no good Christian politicians to vote for and that our kids are taught evolution in school. Yes, these things grieve us, and persecution is beginning to grow, but Jesus promised that his followers would be persecuted, so we ought to expect it. Running from it to hide in our Christian circles is only hindering the spread of the Gospel. If we work hard to bring the Gospel to the lost, then we are inviting persecution upon ourselves, but we are also fulfilling God’s will for us and he will get us through it.

Anyway, I’m beginning to stray from my primary point. God’s work is being hindered by our lack of faith. God’s power is infinite and he wants to give you good things, including miraculous things, but we don’t really believe he will, so he doesn’t.

The Holy Spirit is waiting around for you to truly put all your faith in him so he can show you what you’re missing out on. He is ready to show you miracles, but we are so skeptical and cautious, making sure we don’t assume incorrectly that God will do something that we have essentially decided the Holy Spirit does not work in the world anymore. We aren’t expectant. We don’t pray and expect a powerful answer from God, but many men in the early church went straight up to lame people and told them to start walking.

Francis Chan, in Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, says this:

Perhaps it’s not theology we’re missing, but rather theological integrity. Many have the knowledge but lack the courage to admit the discrepancy between what we know and how we live.

We “know” that God is omnipotent and that he sacrificed much to redeem us, so let’s live like we believe it, like we truly believe he can use us for great things, like he will do great things in this world.

P.S. A great place to start building this faith is, obviously, by reading the Bible. See the miracles in there and realize this is the same God you worship and there’s no reason he couldn’t work in those ways still. If the Bible’s stories seem too distant, then I can’t recommend highly enough that you read The Insanity of God or support GFA to receive their amazing updates. Through these, I practically guarantee that you’ll see more clearly that God still works miraculously in this day and age. It certainly did for me and Kaylin. We’re still working toward growing and we’re also in the middle of reading The Insanity of Obedience, which is essentially the sequel. Pray that it too will convict us and help us fix our eyes on Jesus.

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