(1 Peter 2:24 NKJV) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.
(Ephesians 1:3 NIrV) Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world. They belong to us because we belong to Christ.
Faith is absolutely essential to your walk with God.
To understand faith, you must understand a little bit about the spiritual world.
John 4:24 NKJV (24) God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
God is not a physical being at all, although He is very real.
God created this natural physical world out of the world in which He lives called the spirit realm.
He created this world out of His Word.
Hebrews 11:3 NKJV (3) By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
If I limit my scope of my understanding to the natural realm only, then I can never really begin to understand God or the realm in which He lives.
1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV (14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Natural man says, “I will not believe in it unless I can prove it by feeling it, seeing it, etc.” He says, “I have to prove it in order to believe it.”
There is a spiritual world that the natural man cannot understand.
1 Corinthians 2:15 NLT (15) Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things…
When you begin to understand spiritual things, you will learn that you have a spiritual nature that is different from your physical nature.
God’s power has superiority over any of the natural laws that are in operation in the earth.
Faith is the “invitation” that moves the creative power of God from the spiritual world where He lives over to this natural world where we live.
The very first thing we see that Jesus did in the Gospels, was to show His superiority over the natural.
John 2:1-8 NKJV (1) On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. (2) Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. (3) And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” (4) Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” (5) His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (6) Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. (7) Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. (8) And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it.
Jesus had never worked a miracle up to this point so Mary probably was not expecting a miracle. But He was full of wisdom and His mother knew that He could solve the problem.
Jesus could have turned air into wine as easy as it was to turn water into the wine.
Water pots were at a minimum of 27 gallons. We are talking about close to 180 gallons of water and it took quite a while to fill them up and the pots were very heavy. This took a lot of work.
We think it would be easier to turn the water into wine because it is a liquid but that is not true.
Jesus had them fill the water pots because He wanted them to be involved in the process of God’s power showing up to change the situation.
God could do everything that ever wanted to do without us because He is God and leave us out.
He chooses to bring us into the process and let us have a part in what is going on.
God wants to work WITH us in His plan in the earth but He must have faith to work with for that to happen.
Faith is the invitation we give God for Him to move in our situation the way He wants to and we need Him to.
John 2:11 NKJV (11) This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
Notice in verse 11, it says that because of this miracle, His disciples believed on Him and it was because they were involved.
(Matthew 14:22-33) NKJV Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. (23) And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. (24) But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. (25) Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. (26) And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. (27) But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” (28) And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” (29) So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. (30) But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” (31) And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (32) And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. (33) Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
Faith allowed the power of God to override nature and allow Jesus AND Peter to walk on the water.
Why is faith such a big deal to God?
God wants to work with us through faith to be able to get His power over into our lives so that He can make the difference He wants to make.