Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. (St Augustine)
How is it that we can know anything? Everything in our physical world is discovered via our sensory systems.
We are in a series called “Making Sense of Our Senses”. In the last blog we discussed the five sensory systems used to experience reality both physically and spiritually. When any one of them is underdeveloped or impaired, we lose our capacity to experience reality. As with our physical senses, our spiritual senses need training and use if we are to live the Spirit controlled life God designed for us.
All of our five senses are linked together through our nervous system which is a complex structure that coordinates sensory information with our actions. The nervous system permeates the entire body; it is hidden but essential.
Faith in the life of a disciple functions much like the nervous system. It is hidden, working behind the scenes to coordinate sensory input and actions. Our spiritual life cannot function without it. It is the part of our spiritual anatomy that links everything together.
The writer of Hebrews summarized its importance when he said, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).
Notice he is not saying that it is our faith that pleases God (although that would be true), he is saying that without faith we have no chance of pleasing God or even coming to Him. Faith is a prerequisite for the spiritual senses to function in real life. The examples of the men and women of faith written about in Hebrews 11, illustrates making decisions based on belief in something real but intangible.
Because faith functions like a spiritual nervous system in the life of a disciple, it merits some focused attention before exploring each of the spiritual senses individually.
• At its basic level, faith is believing in something we have not personally observed but still accept as true on the bases of the testimony of a trusted authority. For example:
- We have faith in the records of historians regarding a past event or person.
- We have faith in the doctor’s assessment of our medical condition.
- We have faith in the scientist who claims the cosmos is expanding.
- We have faith in the teaching of a pastor or theologian regarding Christian doctrine.
- We have faith in the teaching of biblical authors who say that Jesus is the revelation of God.
When you think about it, much of what we believe can be attributed to faith. In reality, we have very little firsthand knowledge of even the simple things in life … ones we take for granted.
Everyone lives by faith…even scientists
Faith is not just for religious people. Everyone lives by the principle of faith. Frequently secular voices try to demean and discredit religious people of faith by implying that Christians live in a fantasy world of faith whereas they live in a factual world.
However, no scientist has observed a black hole, yet it is almost a given in the scientific world that they exist. Albert Einstein first predicted their existence back in 1916 with his general theory of relativity. The term “black hole” was coined years later (1967) by the American astronomer John Wheeler. So how do we know that black holes exist?
Scientists can’t directly observe black holes with telescopes that detect x-rays, light, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. We can, however, infer the presence of black holes and study them by detecting their effect on other matter nearby (science.nasa.gov).
Both black holes and dark matter are known by “inference” not direct observation. The same is true for the spiritual dimension of faith. Our faith is not based on fantasy or optimism but on inference from reliable documents.
What we see depends on the lens we use.
The Hubble telescope just celebrated its 30th year of service. Pictures during that time have greatly expanded our knowledge of our expanding universe. However, Hubble is primarily a visible light telescope which limits its ability to see into deep space through the clouds and gases present in the cosmos. Currently scientists are super excited about the Webb telescope (scheduled to launch in 2021) that will be able to penetrate through this material by using a large infrared lens, revealing what has been there all along but hidden.
Faith does not create reality but reveals it. Though physically unseen the spiritual dimension is real. Exploring the spiritual world by faith is like looking at the cosmos through an infrared telescope. We see what has always been there but unknown when using only our physical sensory system.
Spiritual faith “believes in order to see” verses “sees in order to believe”.
The apostle Thomas said he refused to believe in the resurrection unless he could actually see and touch the scars on Jesus’ body. In other words, he insisted that he must “see in order to believe”. A few days later Jesus accommodates him with a personal appearance in which Thomas physically touches Him and then declares his belief. However, Jesus then identifies another pathway to knowing reality: “Blessed are those who believe without (physically) seeing Me” (John 20:21).
An earlier example of belief leading to sight is the story of the people at Sychar in Samaria. Jesus has an encounter with a woman from that village near a well (John 4). When the woman returned to her village and reported her experience with Jesus, many of the Samaritans believed because of her testimony (faith). Fueled by their initial faith, they went out to see Jesus personally. Then they said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). Their initial faith led to their own encounter with Jesus and increased clarity.
Faith is our means for perceiving spiritual reality; it is the nervous system that allows our spiritual senses to discern what is real though invisible. Our faith must be implemented and our spiritual senses developed if we are to discover life in the dimension of the kingdom of God.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
For Reflection
1. Think of examples of when your belief has led to greater sight.
2. Why are we so resistant to living by faith?
Loved: “Faith does not create reality but reveals it.”
Kinda reminded me of the story in 2 Chronicles 20, about the vast army coming against Jehoshaphat and God says, “You won’t have to fight this battle.” Well, you know the rest. I love that story. Just reminded recently.