Sublime Intimacy
Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the
glory of God? - John 11:40
<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=John+11%3A40>
Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in
your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith. Common
sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the
relation of the natural and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where
your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture heroically on Jesus
Christ's statements when the facts of your common-sense life shout - "It's a
lie?" On the mount it is easy to say - 'Oh, yes, I believe God can do it';
but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with
facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration
belief. Every time my programme of belief is clear to my own mind, I come
across something that contradicts it. Let me say I believe God will supply
all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I
will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something
lower.
Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession
only through conflict. What is your faith up against just now? The test will
either prove that your faith is right, or it will kill it. "Blessed is he
whosoever shall not be offended in Me." The final thing is confidence in
Jesus. Believe steadfastly on Him and all you come up against will develop
your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith, and the last
great test is death. May God keep us in fighting trim! Faith is unutterable
trust in God, trust which never dreams that He will not stand by us.
<
Victoria E Gilkerson
