Fact Faith Feeling

Back in the early 70s when I first became a Christian, Campus Crusade put out a little booklet called “The 4 Spiritual Laws.” It was designed to explain the plan of God's salvation in simple terms that anyone could understand. One graphic that was really powerful for me displayed a train with an engine, a car and a caboose labeled in order: Fact-Faith-Feeling.

The booklet explained that God's word and His promises are always the Truth. They are Fact whether we believe them or not, and no matter how we feel about them. Faith results when we are persuaded of the truth and choose to put our trust in God's promises. It is wonderful when we have powerful feelings that accompany our decisions of faith, but this doesn't always happen. We can never base the truth of a situation on how we feel about it. Truth is always based on the Fact of God's word.

Most Christians understand and accept the Fact-Faith-Feeling paradigm as it applies to forgiveness of sin and acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord. However, when it comes to divine healing, we often get the cars on the train out of order.

Many people put Feeling first. They may not realize it, but they are operating by the principle of “seeing is believing.” If they don't immediately feel a change, they think that nothing has happened and that they are not healed. This is in direct contradiction to God's word that instructs us, “for we live by believing (faith) and not by seeing.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) In fact, faith is defined as “the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Another common mistake people make is putting Faith first. They try to work up enough faith to strongly believe so that healing will happen. They fall into a type of magical thinking that if they simply say something, like quoting a Scripture enough, they can make it happen. Their faith becomes a performance they do to move God to do something He hasn't already done (i.e., to heal them).

They have the order backward. They fail to understand that faith can only appropriate what God has already done. Faith begins by accepting God's word as Fact above anything else. Faith ignores Feeling and chooses to trust in God's word and promises alone. Actually, God's promises are so powerful that even a tiny amount of faith (i.e., the size of a mustard seed) is enough to activate them.

Mark 11:23-24 instructs us to believe that we receive what we ask in prayer, regardless of what we see or feel, and we will have it. God assures us that by the stripes of Jesus we were healed (i.e., an accomplished Fact). As we focus on this Fact of God's word, Faith builds within us and through faith we know it is true no matter how we feel.

This type of steadfast faith will always produce results, but often we get pulled in two directions at one time. We strongly hope God's promise of healing is true, but we feel no change and fear that nothing has happened. The book of James tells us that when we do this, we are like a wave being tossed back and forth. We have not made a firm decision to believe and release our faith, and therefore nothing happens.

To avoid this wavering, we must keep the train in order. God's Fact is first. It is the Truth we base our Faith upon. Our Feelings can vary moment to moment and we need to ignore them when they don't line up with God's Fact. If we keep our train in order, healing will result!

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM when we will have a special guest speaker, Andy Comiskey. Please note that our afternoon healing service will now begin at 2 PM. Don't forget to turn your clock back as we go off daylight savings time this weekend!

Pastor Che