God responds to your explicit faith
by Ivan Ho 1 June 2020
Faith is visible
The woman with the issue of blood had to press through the crowd and overcome fear of embarrassment to get her miraculous breakthrough. Jesus asked: “Who touched my garment?” indicating that he wasn’t aware that the woman was around. Jesus didn’t even notice the woman in the beginning but it didn’t stop her from making her presence felt. That’s why Jesus said to her: “YOUR faith has made you whole!“.
Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Luke 8:43-48
When you are walking in faith, God sees it, your friends see it, the crowds can also see it. When the woman touched the garment of Jesus, it was visible to the crowd, apparent to the disciples and Jesus also knew it, for she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
Similar principle was shown when the friends lowered the crippled man from the roof to where Jesus was because the entry to the house was blocked by the presence of a big crowd. Most people, when faced with obstacles, would have thought: “forget it, it’s too hard!” and given up but not for the crippled man’s friends.
Sometimes God initiates the miracles, but other times we have to take the initiative and the necessary steps of faith for our breakthroughs in life. Notice the bible says that Jesus “saw” their faith. Their faith was visible.
When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
Luke 5:20
Don’t be a crowd pleaser for most people couldn’t care less about you so why are you concerned about what they think? Your true friends will go out of their ways to help you overcome your difficulties to reach your God given destiny.
If you want to stay bound you can stay religious and wait for God to come to you, or you can press through the obstacles to go to him in faith instead.
My breakthrough came when God saw my faith
The Holy Spirit came upon me in power in a classroom at the university in Sydney during my final year there. About 6 months before that someone who visited Sydney walked into the traditional Baptist church I was attending. I went up to him to welcome him and during our conversation he began to share with me about the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I started to pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit straight after that but it didn’t happen until a visiting minister laid hands on me at the university.
God is not confined within the 4 walls of church buildings that men built. He is sovereign and has appointed days of our encounters with Him.
When I saw for the first time the power of God being demonstrated in miraculous healings from the pastor ministering in our university, I went right from the back of the auditorium to the pastor while he was still conducting the meeting and said to him “Can you pray for me to be filled with the Holy Spirit?” Let me tell you that wasn’t my normal self to do things like this, but I was desperate to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit even though I hardly knew what it was, coming from a traditional church background. The pastor then asked everyone who wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit to go up the front to be prayed for. I did not receive my breakthrough that day but in the following meeting, the Holy Spirit came upon me in power when the pastor personally laid his hand and prayed for me, fulfilling the scripture:
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
Faith is single-mind
Most people, church goers included, are happy to flow along with the crowd. Only those who are desperate for changes will push through the crowd to receive their miracles. In the world we are in, it is like a supermarket full of options of goods and people are free to choose what they want in life. They are not walking in faith but rather, looking for what suits them most amongst a host of choices. You need to know that God responds to your faith, your single minded decision to pursue Him alone. If the way Jesus predestined for your life is one of many options you choose, God is also like an option to you. If it suits you and He makes you feel good, you follow Him. If not, you pursue other options. That’s not the kind of attitude which God responds to. Unless you make up your mind to pursue His will alone, you are leaving your options open, so to speak.
The Bible says that a double-minded man will receive nothing from the Lord.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James 1:6-8
Make up your mind today who you will follow, who you will serve. There is no plan B nor plan C in God. Make up your mind to pursue plan A and let it be made known to Him and to everyone. When God sees your faith that aligns with His prophetic destiny, He will make all things work for the good for you who are called according to His purpose.