Visualising the Impossible

If you was a one hundred year old man like Abraham with no children and had a wife Sara who was ninety years old, and had been barren all her life, and an angel came from God and told you that Sarah would have a baby and your descendents would be like the stars in the sky for number, would you laugh? Sarah did and the angel was disappointed by that (Genesis 18:12). Why do you think he was disappointed? Well having been serving God for a long time the angel would find it incredible that anyone could possibly think that anything was impossible to God and would know from experience that with God miracles are the “norm”. Interestingly Jesus said if we had “The faith of a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20) miracles would be the norm for us too. (We need to develop that kind of faith).

Talking of miracles, do you like this photo? Well God miraculously designed and made everything in it. You see, the world was “without form, and void” before He spoke everything into existence creating what we have. (Genesis 1)

If we are to co-operate with God to our advantage, (as He would like us to), we need to be like Him in our thinking and “see” things that “are not” as if they were, (Romans 4:17) by that I mean, if we pray for the healing of a broken arm, for example, we must visualise the arm as healed, not broken. Or if we want to pray for changes in our land, we need to visualise those changes and thank Him for them in advance. The account of how the 10 lepers got healed is a good example: These 10 men were under quarantine as outcasts because they had that dreadful disease, so from a distance they cried out and asked Jesus to heal them (Luke 17:13). The interesting thing is that Jesus didn’t “lay His hands on them” as was often His custom, neither did He tell them that they were healed; instead He relied on their faith in Him and just said “Go show yourselves to the priest” (which was what the law required of people who were healed so they could be released from quarantine and return to the community). Apparently, that was enough assurance for them, because although the symptoms were still there they obeyed Him in faith (Jesus said it, they believed it, so that settles it, type of attitude). Consequently, “as they were going they were healed”, and when one of them came back to thank Jesus He said to the man “your faith has made you whole”.

Then of course there was the woman with a haemorrhage that had troubled her for years who said to herself “If I can but touch the hem of His garment I will be healed” (Matthew 9:21) Now that’s what I call faith. The exciting thing is that it worked and although there were throngs of people around Jesus, brushing against Him in various ways, (as the disciples pointed out)

He nevertheless knew that someone had touched Him with faith. And when she admitted to having touched Him he replied “your faith has healed you”.    Our God is so great, originally there were no such things on the earth as trees and rivers,  God had to visualise them and then speak them into being; we humans have the same ability to visualise things we plan to make, whether it is a chair or a car or a cake, but we don’t have the ability to speak it into existence like God does and that is why it is logical for us to call on His help, not only when we feel out of our depth but also in our daily routine. We have no shortage of information available to-day. Indeed there is an “information overload” on the radio, T.V. and Internet but knowledge without wisdom can lead to disaster. Fortunately our Heavenly Father understands this and tells us through James chapter 1 verse 5, to ask for wisdom by talking to Him in prayer without doubting and He will gladly supply us wisdom. This doubting bit is the problem that seems to trouble lots of us. But doubting is just lack of faith and the bible also tells us that “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God” (Romans 10:17). I find that my faith is also strengthened by just observing the marvels around me: The trees, the soil, the flowers, the animals, the insects and of course people. These are remarkable creations; God who can do all that without a set of plans is a colossal God and just think; He knows you so intimately that He knows how many hairs you have on your head! (Matthew 10:30). And He wants fellowship with you! So “text” Him with a prayer of thanks, He would appreciate that.   Best wishes, Tom.