Heart Tracks - Faith Is The Victory

    I recently heard a friend describe faith as "living in the victory before the victory comes."  He said that means we "live in the realm of 'nothing is impossible," instead of the realm of "possibilities."  Think on that for a moment.  In the 80's and 90's, the term "possibility thinking" was a much used phrase in the church.  On the surface, it sounds great, but if we allow the Spirit to illuminate just what it really means, well then, not so much.  If we live in the realm of possibility thinking, then we are really living in the place of seeing what it is we think is possible, and that will always fall far short of what God says is possible.  When we bring our concept of what we think the possibilities are, they will always collapse when they come against the "wall" of the truly impossible.

    I heard author and speaker Christine Caine recently say that the first thing the Israelites encountered when they began their entrance into the land promised them by God were the walls of Jericho.  She said that "the promise" lay beyond those walls, but that they could not enter into that land, that promise, until those walls fell.  By faith, they obeyed His leadings, and in faith, they saw those walls collapse, and the pathway into the land was open.  The victory however was not won when the walls fell down, but in their obedience and trust in Him before they fell.  They were living out my friends definition of faith, living in victory before the victory came.  Living in the reality of the fallen walls, before the walls actually fell.
    I'm not promoting some teaching of "name it and claim it" faith, but I am saying that when we are truly living in, abiding in Christ, having more and more of His mind, heart, and sight, we can begin to see and understand what He sees and understands.  We see this in Jesus speaking of the rich man and the Kingdom.  He said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven.  The disciples were dumbfounded and asked then how could anyone be saved?  Jesus replied, "With men, this is impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible."  The disciples saw everything from the perspective and limitations of the flesh.  Their "possibility thinking," had very real limitations.  Jesus saw everything from the perspective of the Kingdom and the eyes and understanding of the Father.  So, no matter what was happening around Him, even when all betrayed Him, He lived in victory even before the victory of His resurrection actually came.  We can as well.  I don't mean that everything we want or envision will come to pass, but I do mean that no matter what happens, good, bad, or worse, we can, and must, live in victory whether that victory has come yet or not, or even if it may not come until after we have left this realm.  Hebrews speaks of this kind of life when it talks of those who saw the victory, the culmination of His promise from afar, but died without realizing it in their lifetime.  They lived in victory before the victory came.  All the walls that the enemy raised up to try and keep them from that "land" He had promised had fallen, and they had entered in.  Circumstances, difficulties, everything being against them, still they lived there.  Will we?
     One of the great lines in the great old hymn is "Faith is the victory......O glorious victory that overcomes the world."  I want to live in that victory, before the victory comes, even if the fullness of that victory doesn't come in my lifetime, or the lifetime of my ministry.  I will never do that by living in the realm of possibilities, but only by living in the land of "nothing is impossible."  May I, you, we, truly enter into that land, trusting that as we do, all the walls before us will fall.

Blessings,
Pastor O