What Real Faith Demands

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

There is a faith crying out to us…in the wind.  It calls, “come nearer”.  It whispers, “hope”, “believe”, “persevere” for there is more we are not tasting, higher steps we have yet to embrace because of fear.

I climb blindly.  Will you?

Will you rest on wings like eagles and go where logic can’t contain your spirit?

He is here.  Only a breathe away.  Will you draw nearer?

Oh, we built steeples, castles, and our own fortresses….but there is only one tower that will stand when the earth shakes and all we experience falls away.

And it is faith that draws us where few will go.  It is faith in a God that defies the capabilities of our souls.

For there is more.  He wants more than empty works or powerless religion….He is looking, calling, drawing a people who will seek Him in this hour….diligently.

And He is only a breathe away.  Will you come nearer?  He is calling.

We lay weight on our culture, our bank accounts, or our plastic lives we posture….when there is a God alive.  A God of power.  A God who draws the least of these in their most desperate hour.

He is more than an emblem, a ritual, a chanting….He is a fire, a fortress, a refuge, all goodness….

And when we know we can’t stand…will we draw to Him…in that hour of our desperation?

For He is waiting.  Only a breathe away.  He is asking….will you come nearer?

I stand in the center of an arena.  Athletes working, crowds chanting the name of mere men fighting for more.

But if we have not faith in a God that calls us to root for His cause…what have we got…really?

For faith is the essence of those things unseen.  It is the strength, the resource we need as the clouds come nearer, the earth shakes below us drastically….

And I don’t want to stand on my own strength. I don’t want to fight with knowledge, or doctrine, or even position in this bleakening hour….

• For it was not knowledge that led Moses to free the Israelites out of bondage.
• It was not wisdom that parts the seas before us.
• It was not doctrine that broke down the walls of Jericho.
• It was not teaching that let Rahab to believe in a God and what He is capable of.

It is faith friends.  Faith in a God who takes the impossible and makes it possible.

It’s faith not in works, doctrine, or position.  For we have misconstrued faith, at times….loving God not for who He is…but for what He can give us….

And humbly I cry out…that is not true faith.  That is faith in the gifts and not in the giver.

But we have a God who is good….even when we struggle in the deserts.  He is a God who scoops us up in our hour of need…and by His grace and mercy, carries us.

Yes, He is our deliverer.  He is a God who waits for us.  He is a God that longs for relationship with us….

And He is here.  Can’t you hear Him calling?  Come nearer.  This hour.  In this very breathe He whispers to us.

For without faith, it is impossible to please God.  And maybe if we could see Him, maybe that wouldn’t be faith at all.

“For greater is he who believes and does not see.”  Isn’t that what Jesus told Thomas?  Isn’t that what He whispers to you and me?

And though carnal eyes are like blind men begging…the eyes of the Spirit will draw us to the desert, like John the Baptist.  They will cause us to not just speak, but do things that confound the proud and humble the very weakest of us….

For isn’t faith without works dead.  Isn’t speaking and not doing just hypocritical?

And yes, we can save the world, yet not ever speak the gospel or the name of Jesus.  But friends I tell you then too…that is not faith….

That is benevolence and “good works”…that is doing for the sake of feeling good.

For faith requires…no, it demands…we have Jesus on our lips. That we are unashamed of His name, for one day He says it is then, He will speak of us to God the Father and not be ashamed of us too.

And I want to lift His name on High…don’t you!  I want to stand in faith, and rise and speak whatever He calls me too…

But dear ones…it starts here.  It starts now, this hour.  He is calling you….Will you come and meet Him, this very breathe, this very hour.

Can’t you hear Him my dear friend?  His whisper drawing us nearer?

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Linking Emily Lyli