Take It by Faith

By Alexandra Copeland 

I believe that every person has a guardian angel. Statistics tell us that there’s at least 7.4 billion people in the world. The Word of God speaks about Heaven’s Armies, and this 7.4 billion number gives us a glimpse of God’s unlimited resources in heaven. In Matthew 26:53, Jesus Christ said that Heavenly Father would dispatch more than twelve legions of angels for him, and they would show up in a moment’s notice for his defense. A legion is six thousand, so more than 72,000 angels would show up in a twinkling of an eye if Jesus requested it. There are many more angels than there are humans. They’ve been around longer than us, and they are servants of God for His Kingdom’s sake. We know from our Lord and Master’s declaration in Matthew 26:53 that they are sent to the earth on assignment from God to help us in many ways. It is often said, though, that many angels are poised to do the miraculous in our conditions and circumstances, but we are not doing our part as the recipients of the favor and blessings they are eager to deliver.

The question we have to ask ourselves is why. Why are we not receiving all the help that angels on assignment are poised to give us? There may be as many answers to this question as there are people, but I will venture to say that the common denominator in all of those answers is that we still haven’t learned to take the blessings of God by faith. People don’t have any problems believing that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and has all power. When it comes to their needs and desires, they know He’s able to take care of whatever situation they’re praying about, but we all struggle at times with balancing His ABILITY with His WILLINGNESS to bless. Sometimes we have difficulty believing that He’ll back His promises on our behalves. 

The ugly head of self-condemnation
One of the reasons we have difficulty believing that God will bless us is because of self-condemnation. Romans 8:1 (NLT) tells us, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”  This is one of God’s richest gifts to us. Sometimes we forget that God knows us through and through. He knows our weaknesses and mess-ups. He knows what we’re thinking at all times, and there isn’t anything about our lives—past, present, and future—that He doesn’t know. He gave His Son to die on the cross for us, and He is well aware of our condition. Jesus gave his life for us because we desperately needed to be rescued. 

You and I couldn’t make ourselves righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) tells us “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” God made it possible for us to be spiritually transformed. Our bodies look the same. We’re the same person, but 2Corinthians 5:17 tells us that through Jesus Christ, we’re new creations. We’re new people. The old life is gone, and a new life has begun! 1Peter 2:5 says we’re living stones, and piece by piece, God is building us into His spiritual temple. When we allow self-condemnation to pull us down into a mind-and-heart-set of beating up ourselves and questioning whether God will bless us, we’re forfeiting an opportunity to be truly thankful for what God has done through Christ. That doesn’t please Him. None of us are worthy of God’s goodness without Christ, but through him we are. Our gratitude to God for giving us His righteousness through Christ continually fuels our faith. 

Trusting what you can’t see
2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us that this new life through Jesus Christ is one where we walk by faith and not by seeing. In short, our physical sight takes a backseat to our spiritual sight. Many Christians say that they’ve never seen in the spirit, and wouldn’t know what the spiritual realm looks like. Well, God has told us one thing that we can know for sure, and it is that we don’t have to see it to believe it. The spiritual realm is more real than the physical or natural realm. 2Corinthians 4:18 assures us of this. So when God makes us a promise in His Word, when He tells us that Jesus Christ has made a more than abundant life available to us (John 10:10); when He tells us that He’s empowered us to live a successful life (Deuteronomy 8:18), and when He’s assured us that we’re His masterpieces, newly created in Christ, so we can do all the good things He’s planned for us (Ephesians 2:10); we have to believe Him!

Sharpen your vision
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) gives us the definition of faith. It says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We know that God created faith to be a powerful tool, because He used it create everything that exists. He’s given us this same tool to get things done within this natural, earthly realm. We can’t do anything without having some amount of faith that we can. All of us have faith, because Romans 12:3 says that God has given each person a measure of faith. Whether we increase in our exercise of it is another story altogether. 

Faith is the substance of everything that exists. We see stuff and call a tree a tree, a car a car, a building a building. But nothing in the earth lasts. It’s temporary. Faith has been around since the Lord created it. Faith is more real than anything of our expectations can produce. So, it’s God’s reliable substance, waiting to create for us the good that we are willing to produce through our patience, endurance, and thankfulness to God. If we can see and perceive it with spiritual eyes, even though our physical eyes are not yet witnessing it in the natural realm, faith will produce the vision we imprint upon it. 

In testifying of the record of those who refused to shrink amidst challenges and instead pressed into God through faith, the Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 11:32-34(NLT), “How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.” This is what they accomplished and they lacked the spiritual and wealth of resources that those of us living today have at our disposal. Everything that you and I will ever need is already in the earth. God is waiting on us to cast off self-condemnation, sharpen our spiritual vision, and take it by faith.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.