I really struggle with Word Faith in a lot of ways. And yet in many ways it works. Sometimes when I get home from a trip and I know I'm going to be exhausted and emotional, I will tell Tina-Marie that I am going to be Word Faith for the week. What I mean is that I am not going to let myself be emotional. So am I denying how I really feel, thus being inauthentic? Or am I choosing a higher road? Crazy thing is – it works. But it feels like living a life of that, is living a life in denial in many ways.
I appreciate people's desire to believe for more, and the sincerity of it, but it's a bit like sickness – you know, you're sicker than a dog and you walk around saying you're healed. Well, no you're not. You're sick. The body is suffering and you refuse to acknowledge it. But then I think people do that with the soul too. We have a church full of hurting Christians that walk around declaring that they will “rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice”. Many of them are just dying inside from rejection and disappointment. They won't dare admit it for fear of appearing less spiritual.
And we wonder why we are shallow and not whole?
The world is filled with struggle and when we close our eyes to it, we deny a fundamental part of who we are as people.
On the other hand, sitting in a pity party of emotions never really did me any good either so I suppose there is a balance of being authentic and knowing when to walk in something other than what we “feel”
I think of the scripture in Romans that says “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angel or demon...” I think that perhaps life can persuade us of a higher reality. But without persuasion it just seems like empty inner chanting, often due to the fact that we are afraid we will come across less spiritual if the bill hanging on the fridge didn't get paid on time.
But I feel like I am being persuaded of things these days and that causes me to want to believe in things that I might see or might not see in my life, but regardless of what I see happen in my own life I will believe that such a thing exists. (Now that's vague!) And I suppose that's where I differ from much of word faith. Just because something exists I don't believe I just demand that thing be manifest in my life. And quite frankly when I do demand it I only set my self up for disappointment it seems.
I have a friend Claudia and financially she is persuaded that she will be blessed. She doesn't come across as just casting empty declarations into the air. When she struggles, it's more like the current situation doesn't line up with what she has been persuaded her life will be. I personally don't have the same persuasion though I do have hope.
Another friend of mine told me about his ex. He said that she just moved into a condo that her parents completely paid for. When she lived with him, he took care of her financially in amazing ways. Basically to say she has been well taken care of. When he told me the story, oddly my reaction was not what I would have expected. Rather than think – lucky girl!! She gets to live without every paying a mortgage or rent! I thought this – poor thing.
I was shocked at my reaction. And I was sincere. My first thought – think of all the character that she will never have.
That made me look up Romans 5. We also rejoice in sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint. That sounds a little bit to me like suffering produces persuasion. Or how about James that says we know that our testing produces endurance and when endurance has its perfect effect, we will be complete, not deficient in anything.
And what about the “hall of faith”. Some of those guys made it into the fall of faith having NEVER seen the thing they were persuaded of. That didn't mean they lacked faith, it just meant that they believed in something regardless of whether or not they ever saw it.
I continue on my journey of persuasion. It takes time for that. I really can say that I am persuaded of things now that I once was not. I don't know what will be, how things will turn out. But there are things I believe in that don't require me seeing it to continue in my belief.
Love this song and what you wrote, Heather. In my first years as a Believer, I was in the Word Faith stream. I didn't know any other. But after over 5 years, I was really hurting inside. I worked in the bookstore and there was almost no book on inner healing of the soul. I finally found a few little things that just started to crack the door to some healing and I knew I had to get to deeper healing waters. So I changed streams. Having said that, I often reflect back on that season and the results we had as a congregation were huge as far as physical healings, salvations, prosperity, etc. I still do take the Word Faith approach of God's word regardless of my feelings in many circumstances because I know it is truth and often works, as you said, no use feeling sorry and wringing your hands. But I'm also not a robot. I think the compassion of Jesus and the 'real' people in the bible exemplified the feelings of humanity. I guess that's why my favorite word is BALANCE.
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