An Introduction to "Faith"
Part 2
By Iverna Tompkins
Transcribed by Jane Vaughn
We all have been given faith, a measure of faith (Rom.12:3) – so, what are we doing with it? Why is it that we are not moving mountains? The answer to that is: because there is an occasion, often in our lives, when we, literally, resist faith. It is sadly probable that many believers reading this message are like Governor Festus or King Agrippa of long ago. Do you remember the story (Ac.23-26)? Paul was captive in Caesarea under the Governors Felix (Ac.23:23ff), then Festus (Ac.25). King Agrippa comes for a visit and is given opportunity to interview Paul (Ac.25:26ff). Agrippa invited Paul to speak on his own behalf (Ac.26). So Paul gave his full testimony (vvs.2-17) and a fabulous sermon that included all of the elements that would/could lead one to salvation (vvs.17-23; see vs.28). Agrippa became so frustrated. He was the king but he didn’t know what to do with Paul. Paul seemed like a nice guy, yet he was always causing trouble. Finally Festus and Agrippa were there together, having heard all of Paul’s words, but they could not, would not, respond to the Spirit of God for themselves.
I love Paul. Whenever he was asked a question in court, do you notice that he always seized the opportunity to testify to the greatness of God? You would-be preachers will appreciate this – every time they bring in Paul, either shackled or recently unshackled, and they say, “Alright, Paul, do you have anything to say for yourself?” He says, “Yes. You see, many years ago…” and he preaches from Genesis to where he is at that moment. And such was the occasion at this time when he was before Festus and Agrippa.
I pray you all understand this - that gone are the days when the church, much less unbelievers, are impressed with great sermons. People have had enough great messages. They’ve become, in a way, immune. No longer are they impressed with fine verbal outlay, or what we might call “witnessing.” Witnessing is not effective if we try to force-feed people with memorized scriptures. That may make us feel good but it turns them off.
But when the presence of Jesus Christ is there, it makes all the difference. The anointing – the presence of Christ is the anointing. The anointed divine Presence is what makes the difference. It really doesn’t matter if you’re an eloquent speaker or a person who loses the place in your thoughts, when the presence of Jesus is there, it causes everyone to listen. They may not like it, they may be able to resist it, but they do hear it.
So Paul testifies to these great officials. “Yes, many years ago, you see…” and he relates the story of everything he knows about the goodness and provision of God. Now, it wasn’t his content so much as the presence of Christ within him – or if you prefer, the Holy Spirit present within him. That – He – is what made the difference - for the Word became flesh in Paul. “And the word became...” – what? – “...flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn.1:14).
Is the Word made “flesh” in you? Are you a walking, talking, thinking, acting, feeling Word of God? That’s our call. We’re not simply called to salvation. It doesn’t get the job done, or our calling fulfilled, just to stay saved. We have a job to do, can you agree? There’s a whole confused, mixed-up world out there saying, “We’ve seen the counterfeit, the fakes and the flakes. Is there any real?” “Well, yes there is” and we are supposed to mirror Him. Made in His image, we’re supposed to be like Him (Rom.8:29).
Let’s turn to Paul again. He is the fulfillment, the personification of what Peter intended when he said: “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts” (1Pet.3:15a). That’s the first step toward witnessing. Sanctify means, “to set apart for holy purpose.” “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks of you a reason of the hope that lieth within you with godliness and fear” (1Pet.3:15). Paul lived that way. Here he is back in the prison but still giving a personal report of the goodness of God – the hope with which Paul lives.
What would you do under such negative circumstances? “Oh, my God," we whine. "I’ve tried to serve You. I don’t understand this at all! Oh, God, You know I’ve done everything You’ve ever wanted me to do. My God, how can I witness in this place? You’ve called me to preach and….” Not Paul. He’s there, shackled, saying, “This is going so good, I can’t wait! Hallelujah! I remember the last time I was in a crazy prison. I started praising the Lord and He got too close and all the doors opened.”
There’s a side-sermon for you. I do find this so interesting. The Bible says, about that previous imprisonment, “And all the prison doors were opened; but nobody came out." Not anybody (Ac.16:25-29). Can’t you just hear them back in their cells? “I’m not coming out. It’s probably a trick.” Now, doesn’t that sound just like the Body of Christ today? “I’m not going to get involved in that. It’s probably getting off the deep end. It could be heresy!”
Paul sits there waiting. He says, “Glory to God! I just love You, Lord.” And I love Paul’s description of being a prisoner! I am sure that absolutely frustrated the jailers as well as the kings that put him in prison. Every time he wrote he said, “I, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph.3:1;4:1; 2Tim.1:8; Phm.1:1.9, bold added). Oh, Church, I wish we could grow up to that – that once we have accepted His salvation and committed our lives to Jesus, He truly would become King. You know, in a Kingdom only the King gives orders or has a vote on any issue. And the King’s responsibility includes taking care of his subjects. Your King will take care of you in every circumstance that is a part of your life – if you let Him.
So, here’s Paul and he can’t wait to see what God is going to do this time. Days go by, and more days go by, and even more days, but Paul is not worried. He’s not holding any pity-parties; he’s not upset; he’s not whining or complaining or wringing his hands in despair wondering where his God is. He’s just saying, “Lord, it’s so good to be shut in with You. I’m a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Finally they loose him, bring him out into the daylight and say, “Well Paul, you’re being brought before Festus and Agrippa today. They are going to give you opportunity to say something for yourself.” We can only imagine Paul is quietly praying, “Holy Spirit, give me the words. Make it come alive!” And Paul, one with Christ, so totally united with Christ – filled with His Holy Spirit –
What do you think being filled with the Spirit is? “Well, it’s an experience,” you say. I feel sorry for you if all you did was to fill up an empty doubt with an experience but haven’t filled up again since. Anyone that personally knows what Baptized in the Holy Spirit is, emerges with this one awareness: “Christ is truly in me! and that’s the hope of God’s glory filling all the earth (Col.1:27). Everywhere I go, people will see Christ. Every time I speak, people will hear Christ.” It’s an awesome privilege – and responsibility.
Why do you think everyone was so stirred in the Synagogue when Jesus arose and read from Isaiah? They heard the same passage read often. That passage was no big deal to them. But when Jesus got up and read it – He didn’t comment on it, He just read it – when He finished reading, they said, “Wow! Never has a man spoken like this!” (Lk.4:16-20; cf.Mk.6:1,2; Jn.7:46). He gave it all fresh meaning. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me for He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings, open prison doors and set the captives free! Open the eyes of the blind…” (Lk.4:18). They all were confronted with the fact that Jesus was now identifying Himself with the messianic revelation in the passage.
The whole church has blind eyes today, limited vision – walking around with tunnel vision – seeing one little concern and only that issue. When Paul came out of the prison he said, “Spirit of God, be Thou released from within me.” And he stood there waiting for that moment, that divine appointment, when Agrippa said, “What do you have to say for yourself” (Ac.26:1). Then, at their invitation, Paul began to explain to them every feeling that was within him and expound on the very words that they claimed religiously to believe. (I pray you’re hearing this.) One who stood there, Festus, began to tremble (26:24).
I’ve seen people so completely under the conviction of the Holy Spirit that they literally must grab the pew to hold themselves up. I’ve seen them get up to quickly exit and be stricken by the Holy Spirit. Just recently, I watched a person start to rise as we were ministering the Word, and God just struck them over – Whap! Slap! Everyone started to run to her aid and I said, “Leave her alone. God knocked her down; He will pick her up when He’s ready.” Listen now – there’s something about the power of the Holy Spirit that does the job all by Himself and we have interfered in His business long enough. It’s time for us to stop trying to help Him do what only He can do. We need to start cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
Festus begins to tremble, but he was able to resist. Agrippa begins to be moved by faith (26:28), because any time it’s the Word of the Lord, it is always coupled with sufficient faith for the hearer to react. Now, remember that for it will be useful to you in days to come.
Allow me to say it another way. When Jesus said to the lame, “rise up and walk” (Mt.9:2-7; Jn.5:3-9), they always could comply at that moment. Whenever God is speaking through a human vessel, He couples that message with sufficient faith that anyone who hears it can do anything they hear. If you’re hearing, "You can be set free out of your own prison tonight" – if you heard that, you can be. But if you walk out of here without responding to God in the kairos moment, you can resist that special divine outpouring of faith-for-the-moment. If you are hearing some things about the anointing and you understand what you’re hearing, you can move into that or you can resist it and say, “That’s just her opinion.”
Festus trembled. Agrippa said, “I’m hearing something like I’ve never heard it before.” He doesn’t know what to do because he doesn’t want to obey it; he doesn’t want to change his ways; he doesn’t want to be impacted by this Paul or his God. So, he must – now hear this – it’s a word of knowledge for some of you – when you don’t want to obey what you hear, you must get rid of it. You have to dispel conviction, get it out of your mind, and you can do that by talking. Selah.
So, Agrippa says to Paul – out loud – “Paul, almost…” (Ac.26:28). Almost – almost. Church, we could talk more than an hour on “almost.” “Almost the Lord has you completely…” “Almost there’s a new anointing in your life today…” Almost – almost – almost. But you are able to talk yourself out of whatever it is that God is focusing on with you. It’s your choice. That’s part of our free will in action.
The Pharisees took a legalistic view of ministry. “Here are the rules, now follow them explicitly.” The disciples of Jesus were teaching something relational – “God loves you and has a plan for your life.” The legalists had to get rid of these “revolutionaries” and they set out to capture Peter (see Ac.23ff) along with some of the others that were preaching like he did. They could not actually find any fault in these men of God (Ac.23:9), but the legalistic officials were people-pleasers, and the majority of the people did not want Christianity preached - - - - - - - do they? Even today.
The majority of people in the United States of America don’t mind “religion.” They don’t care if people go to church or not. And there are many different church denominations, so they don’t mind how you worship. But – they have a terrible time when Christianity makes a difference. When Christians finally come together in unity long enough to form some kind of an influential group. “God forbid the Christian evangelicals should align themselves and form a political presence, let alone a voting block.” They don’t like it when Christians dare to find out how elected officials are voting or when they dare to let people know what the voting records reveal. It is then the liberal media jumps in and says, “This is ridiculous. They can’t do that. There must be a separation of church and state.”
Come on, Church, it’s about time for us to grow up! It’s time for us to get involved! We have been standing on the sidelines long enough. God is saying some very personal things and we all know it. If you’re sitting around trying to find someone as miserable as you are, so the two of you can talk away the anointing, I fear for you. You see, it only takes one voice, and we find agreement. If we can find three, that makes for a very strong cord (Eccl.4:12) even though it is a negative situation.
Do you remember the time the disciples were so excited following the Resurrection of Jesus when He suddenly appeared to them? (John 20:24ff). Earlier, Thomas was missing from the group gathered but now had just come in and they said, “Oh, Thomas, Thomas! Oh, you should’ve been here! We were just sitting around here together, Thomas, and the Lord came! The Lord came! He just came in! Thomas, it was like – I don’t know how to say it. It was like He came through the wall or something. But oh, Thomas! It was glorious!” And they were all going on and on about the visitation. Finally, Thomas said, “That’s impossible! I doubt all that. You probably got caught up in mob psychology or something. You know, a lot of these teachers are great at that. They get you revved up and then you think you’ve got hold of something. The only way I’ll believe is if I actually touch Him.”
Interesting isn’t it? That happens to be too true. You can talk about Jesus from now until He returns and yet not be a part of the Army of God who gets the job done. You can go out and witness – trying to cram your words down people’s throats: “Are you saved?” “You have got to have a plan for your life.” “Blah-blah-blah.” And all it really is, is just talking scriptures. You put them in your Gospel-gun, and shoot them out there – rat-ta-tat-tat! – “in the name of the Lord” (of course). We call that “witnessing.”
No wonder the world balks at us! They often laugh in derision. A better witness? When we hear His voice and become rightly-related to Him – then walk and talk as Jesus did. And when people touch us – what happens? They touch Him! They can’t deny the reality of the power of God when they work or live alongside of a life, mine or yours, that lives like Jesus and loves like Jesus. They might resist responding to His call, but they can’t deny the reality – if it is a reality!
Thomas said, “I will not believe.” And then Jesus stepped in once again (Jn.20:26ff) and said to him, “Thomas, what was that you said?” Thomas’ response was in utter astonishment: “Oh, my Lord and my God.” Jesus lovingly understood just where he was: “You want to touch Me, Thomas? Come on, Thomas, you can touch Me. Let’s make a believer out of you, once and for all.” If people can touch Jesus, through us, the results will be awesome. Jesus made this great attempt to jump-start their faith.
On the other hand, if you honestly, really doubt your walk, your experience with God; if you doubt the Holy Spirit’s presence in you; if you doubt the call of God upon your life – if you’re honestly doubting at this very moment – God will make it all certain to you once again. He will allow you to touch in Him exactly what you need to touch, and in the way you need. He will make it all a reality to you, for you. He does not want you to continue in uncertainty or doubt. I believe that with all my heart! Honestly – doubt is not the sin. The sin is not to admit you doubt. Can you see the difference?
But – if the doubts are over and you have touched nail-scarred hands; if you have heard the glorified Christ and you know that He has spoken to you; my friend, you don’t need to hear another voice. It is settled in the purposes of God. Now, you just need to get on with the program. That’s how we resist faith – by not responding to Him when we know we have heard His call; by remaining the same after we have heard the divine voice.
Go to Part 3
