Faith is the flag ship of the Christian movement.  Faith is believing and seeing the reality of God’s Kingdom without the benefit of any “outside stimuli.”  Faith left to itself is simply a word in the dictionary.  The faith that is exhibited by Believers today is more like hope, which Webster defines as “A feeling that what is wanted will happen.”  This secular definition of hope is what has been substituted by Believers for faith.  Many believe that feelings will not only jump start their faith, but will also give them the help they need in fulfilling their hopeful desires.  Feelings tend to dilute faith.  All of us have been propelled and decelerated by feelings.  Feelings tend to decide how we respond to life.  “I don’t feel like going to church today.”  “I don’t feel like reading my Bible.”  “I don’t feel like praying,” etc…  Feeling is the antidote to faith.  When Believers use feelings to nudge along their faith, they will experience limited spiritual accomplishments.  So many Christians limit their faith by their feelings.  They will take a Scripture and initially accept its intent, but as time passes and the Word does not seem to work in their lives, they begin to question whether they correctly understood the verses.  The “can of feelings” opens and everything from sadness, disappointment, depression, anger, and confusion push against the truthful reality of God’s Word.

Faith rests in the integrity of the Scriptures.  God means what He says and says what He means.  There is no need for secular evidence or prompting by feelings to bring about the reality of God’s Word.  What is needed is faith upon faith, faith to believe in faith.  We must have faith that the Bible is the Word of God, and faith to believe the fulfillment of the Word.  A Syrophenician woman came to Jesus to seek healing for her daughter.  After a challenging statement from Jesus and her response, she left for her home with faith in His words that her daughter was delivered. (Mark 7:25-30)  Feelings had nothing to do with her faith.  She simply believed and responded in faith.  I can imagine that as she returned home, she walked with a confidence that was not attached to feelings, but with an assurance that her daughter was healed.

A Christian must never allow feelings to interfere with their faithful obedience.  There should never be a time when feelings determine the degree of one’s faith.  Feelings can compliment faith, but never question faith.  Whenever feelings dominate our reaction to the Word, the Word will be limited in its action.  A number of times, Jesus confronted His disciples for not exhibiting faith.  The reason for their faithless behavior was they were operating on feelings and emotions.  On the Sea of Galilee, they saw the boisterous waves and wind and feared for their lives.  Feelings snuffed out their faith. (Matthew 8:23-27)  When are we going to stop letting feelings challenge our faith?  Feelings should be subject to the Word, not the Word subject to our feelings.  One of my favorite songs is, “The Word Is Working Mightily In Me.”  David Ingles composed this little tune that simply says, “No matter what I feel or see, the Word is working mightily in me.”  The Word takes precedence over every emotion or feeling that our mind wants to exhibit.  We don’t need any evidence to help secure our faith.  Faith is simply believing and acting on what God says, no matter what our eyes and emotions tell us!