August 10th, 2022
Last week, I talked about the power of believing and all of the things God promises to whoever will believe Him. Our belief in God is the doorway through which we enter His kingdom and is absolutely fundamental because we can only come to God if we believe He exists! This week, however, I want to talk about the difference between believing and knowing, because believing is actually the doorway to knowing. In the natural, we’re taught to believe something only after we see it, test it, and know it. However, in the kingdom of God, it’s exactly the opposite. There are things we will only ever know through believing!
Abraham, the father of our faith, was given the promise that he and his wife would have a son in his old age. He believed God’s word and that was counted to him as righteousness. Romans 4:18-20 tells us,
“In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
However, believing God’s promise wasn’t where Abraham’s journey ended. Eventually, after years of waiting, Abraham looked into the face of Isaac. He held him when he cried, taught him how to walk, and told him the miraculous story of his birth. At that point, Abraham didn’t just believe God’s promise, He knew him.
1 John 4:16-18 says that we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. As with anything in the kingdom of God, we will never know if we don’t believe! Knowing the love of God first takes a leap of faith to believe what He’s said is true. There is a very well-know story in John 20, about one of the twelve disciples, who’s come to be known as doubting Thomas (although Jesus never called him that). After hearing the stories from the others that Jesus had risen from the dead Thomas said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe” (vs. 25). About a week later, the disciples were all together and Jesus appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe” (vs. 27). Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed is those who have not seen and yet have believed” (vs. 28).
Jesus gave Thomas exactly what he asked for. He rebuked him as well, but after an experience like that, I would say Thomas didn’t struggle with doubt like that again. He was in the upper room in Acts when the Holy Spirit came and church history tells us that he likely became a missionary to India, where he gave his life for the gospel. Doubting Thomas was skeptical, yes, refusing to believe without seeing, but Jesus met him where he was. He is the only disciple that we know put his finger into those nail pierced hands and his hand into Jesus’ spear-stabbed side. However, remember what Jesus said: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” We are the ones that Jesus talked about who believe, through encountering the truth of His word and His spirit, even though we have not yet seen Him in the flesh. Just two verses after the story of Thomas ends, the Bible says,
“These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31)
By believing we will have life in His name, but the outcome of our faith doesn’t end with the life that He gives here on earth. At some point, we will see Him face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says,
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
Even now though, we can know Him to a depth that goes beyond just believing. Paul said, “I know whom I have believed.” Paul wasn’t saying here that he knew about Jesus in an intellectual way. He was saying he knew Him. Knowing is something that goes deeper than believing and it comes from encounter. If you only believe in Jesus because someone’s convinced you in your head, you could be convinced another direction, but no one can ever take away the reality of an encounter with Jesus. As my Pastor says, “A man with an encounter is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.”
So, I want to ask you today, do you know whom you have believed? Believing is the foundation of our faith and it’s the door through which we enter the kingdom of heaven. However, our faith is the substance of that which we hope for. We do not hope in vain, but with the understanding that the things we believe will eventually be the things we know. Faith is accompanied by works and when we believe His word, with our whole hearts, we will act on it, and at that point we will know it. We will not know what it is to see a crippled person healed when we pray until we believe the truth of His word with such certainty that we lay hands on the sick ourselves. It’s only when our belief turns to action that we will know. The hall of faith in Hebrews 11 is filled with men and women who believed what God said when they could not see it, but eventually saw the promise fulfilled. Isaac was born. The rain began to beat on the boat that Noah constructed in the middle of a desert. The walls of Jericho fell. Our believing is not the end of our faith. It’s the beginning! I want to encourage you to today to remember that you are a believer, and our believing is not in vain. If there is a promise you have not yet seen fulfilled, continue to feed your faith with His word. Water the seeds that have been planted in your heart and you will see the fruit, because God’s word never fails. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and every promise He has made will come to pass!
Abraham, the father of our faith, was given the promise that he and his wife would have a son in his old age. He believed God’s word and that was counted to him as righteousness. Romans 4:18-20 tells us,
“In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
However, believing God’s promise wasn’t where Abraham’s journey ended. Eventually, after years of waiting, Abraham looked into the face of Isaac. He held him when he cried, taught him how to walk, and told him the miraculous story of his birth. At that point, Abraham didn’t just believe God’s promise, He knew him.
1 John 4:16-18 says that we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. As with anything in the kingdom of God, we will never know if we don’t believe! Knowing the love of God first takes a leap of faith to believe what He’s said is true. There is a very well-know story in John 20, about one of the twelve disciples, who’s come to be known as doubting Thomas (although Jesus never called him that). After hearing the stories from the others that Jesus had risen from the dead Thomas said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe” (vs. 25). About a week later, the disciples were all together and Jesus appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe” (vs. 27). Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed is those who have not seen and yet have believed” (vs. 28).
Jesus gave Thomas exactly what he asked for. He rebuked him as well, but after an experience like that, I would say Thomas didn’t struggle with doubt like that again. He was in the upper room in Acts when the Holy Spirit came and church history tells us that he likely became a missionary to India, where he gave his life for the gospel. Doubting Thomas was skeptical, yes, refusing to believe without seeing, but Jesus met him where he was. He is the only disciple that we know put his finger into those nail pierced hands and his hand into Jesus’ spear-stabbed side. However, remember what Jesus said: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” We are the ones that Jesus talked about who believe, through encountering the truth of His word and His spirit, even though we have not yet seen Him in the flesh. Just two verses after the story of Thomas ends, the Bible says,
“These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31)
By believing we will have life in His name, but the outcome of our faith doesn’t end with the life that He gives here on earth. At some point, we will see Him face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says,
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
Even now though, we can know Him to a depth that goes beyond just believing. Paul said, “I know whom I have believed.” Paul wasn’t saying here that he knew about Jesus in an intellectual way. He was saying he knew Him. Knowing is something that goes deeper than believing and it comes from encounter. If you only believe in Jesus because someone’s convinced you in your head, you could be convinced another direction, but no one can ever take away the reality of an encounter with Jesus. As my Pastor says, “A man with an encounter is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.”
So, I want to ask you today, do you know whom you have believed? Believing is the foundation of our faith and it’s the door through which we enter the kingdom of heaven. However, our faith is the substance of that which we hope for. We do not hope in vain, but with the understanding that the things we believe will eventually be the things we know. Faith is accompanied by works and when we believe His word, with our whole hearts, we will act on it, and at that point we will know it. We will not know what it is to see a crippled person healed when we pray until we believe the truth of His word with such certainty that we lay hands on the sick ourselves. It’s only when our belief turns to action that we will know. The hall of faith in Hebrews 11 is filled with men and women who believed what God said when they could not see it, but eventually saw the promise fulfilled. Isaac was born. The rain began to beat on the boat that Noah constructed in the middle of a desert. The walls of Jericho fell. Our believing is not the end of our faith. It’s the beginning! I want to encourage you to today to remember that you are a believer, and our believing is not in vain. If there is a promise you have not yet seen fulfilled, continue to feed your faith with His word. Water the seeds that have been planted in your heart and you will see the fruit, because God’s word never fails. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and every promise He has made will come to pass!
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