Without faith it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11:6

When I come back, will I find faith? Luke 18:8

Have you ever wondered if God would ask this question if finding real faith were a common thing? In fact the way He asks it suggests He wonders if there would be any at all. Yet is this your perception? I do believe that we think differently of ourselves than God thinks of us when it comes to faith.

Note: Just before Jesus asks this question in Luke 18, He is talking about bringing justice to His people. He declares that one day God will indeed do this, but He then asks… will He find faith? I believe that the move of God that will bring justice to this world will cause many to see the truth about their faith. In my understanding it will be too late to do anything about it then. It is in the pre-Day of Judgment shakings that we are in the middle of even now, that our work must be done. Fill our lamps with the oil of intimacy that births in us the faith of Jesus.

Also note in Luke 18 that just after talking about this day when the Son of Man comes, He talks about those who are confident in their own righteousness.

Like I said, I do believe God is saying that we think differently of ourselves than He thinks of us when it comes to faith.

I believe we have gotten ourselves into this place because we’ve replaced the fruit of the Spirit with the good works of the flesh. We walk in something we call faith, but actually it isn’t.

Let me use the example of marriage to explain this… When a couple meets and marries… it’s beautiful … love is in the air, everything is wonderful and they believe they have what it takes to go the long haul. They’ve even had their first few fights but they’ve made up and it’s amazing; they really do love one another. Then one day they face a big challenge and suddenly… the love is gone. Where they could ‘love’ and ‘forgive’ before, now there is a huge struggle. This is because this love and forgiveness that first existed was of the flesh — not of the spirit and this profits nothing because at this point it isn’t strong enough to keep the marriage going.

This couple acknowledge this failure and they get divorced.

Zeal without Wisdom

There are many who are now ‘on fire’ for the Lord, yet when the test comes to their faith, they fall. They back slide. Why?

Just like this couple, they took it for granted that they had what it takes, real faith, but really they didn’t. They had a ‘honeymoon Christianity’ that never matured. They were taught a ‘seeker-sensitive’ message that removed the offense from the Gospel in order to win as many converts as possible. They were taught the sweetness of God’s unconditional love for all sinners, but not how this unconditional love has the power to bring them to repentance and they were not discipled to walk this out.

Now take another couple … they go to a Christian marriage councilor, and he tells them to bear with one another, love one another unconditionally; he explains how marriage is not a bed of roses, he tells the woman to submit to her husband, he tells the man to love his wife. He tells them to remember this and do it and everything will be fine. The couple go away and do that. They don’t get divorced but they live a lifeless, loveless form of marriage that looks wonderful on the outside especially as the years add up, but actually they’ve lost much on the inside.

This is because you can’t find the love of God in your marriage here on this earth by following the ‘law’ of marriage that religion has laid down.

Likewise you can’t find the faith of God by following the ‘law’ of man’s wisdom, reason and planning that religion has laid down.

The slow poison of legalism, the good works of the flesh, is causing so many to live a form of godliness that has no power and everyone is pretending that they have what it takes to find the Kingdom, and abide with the Bridegroom, but the huge divorce rate in the world today to me is a parallel of the real love of many (for Man and so for God as well) is growing cold during these last days.

This is happening because there is a serious lack of parents/leaders/mentors who have a true revelation of Grace. What we have mostly is legalism that we call grace and it’s like this married couple who have stayed married for 30 or 40 or 50 years because they’ve done the right thing because they ‘have’ to, rather than because they ‘want’ to.

Many young people today are not fooled by this however, neither in terms of marriage or in terms of Grace. They are beginning to see real Grace and know Christianity cannot be about these sets of rules we ‘must’ follow to be like Christ. It is what they are taught however…. ‘live a disciplined life, and call it freedom’… They are not falling for this so instead of living a sham, they reject the need for holiness outright. Thus comes the war between the generations. The kids saying it’s about freedom, and the parents saying no it’s about a set of rules that we call freedom.

But they’re both wrong!

The kids are heading towards divorce and the parents are heading towards a huge shock when Jesus is going to say, you’ve said “‘Lord Lord,’ but who are you? I don’t know you!” ... very few are fighting violently for the real thing.

I AM the WAY

Consider a third couple who go to Jesus. The wife on her own. The husband on his own. They take their pain and hurt to Him. He reaches down and touches them and wipes away the pain. Feeling a bit lighter each one honestly says, “Lord … how can we possibly do this? It’s impossible for us on our own.” From His Spirit He pours into them His Love ... only because they acknowledged that they did not have it (repentance) and asked for it. This is a very real experience, yet many fail to experience it because they are being taught that diligently doing the good works of the flesh is the way to please God and find his Kingdom.

Do we want to keep walking the way we are walking?

We think that when God comes back it’s going to be this great and lovely thing, just like the first couple who naively think they already have the love and faith to make it work forever. But God has called the Day of His Return a Terrible Day, “A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness.” (Joel 2:2)

Yes, we will live in glory as His Bride forever, but the path involves an experience with God similar to that milestone in marriage that either makes or breaks it. Faith is what will get us past that milestone. It is the reason He asks the question, “When I come back, will I find faith?” What He is saying is … when it gets hard will you really be there? He sounds like He understands that the Bride doesn’t quite know what she is saying when she confesses her never-ending love for Him. She’s convinced herself she has what it takes because of either a gospel of ‘cheap grace’ or a gospel of ‘works.’ Faith isn’t found in either of those paths.

So how do we find faith?

Faith is in the heart of Jesus and we can get to the heart of Jesus and receive all the faith He has, by seeking His heart. Begin with a simple prayer from your heart and don’t stop until you have a real experience of connecting with the living God. Everyone experiences this differently but know this… ‘I felt nothing special’ means you did not connect. Think about it, you are connecting with the living God… in every biblical example the people most definitely felt something. From trembling and falling face down, to having a glow on their faces that was blinding … there were any number of ‘feeling filled’ reactions. There isn’t one example in the Bible where people connected with God and ‘felt nothing special.’

You might not react like some people by screaming and yelling and going crazy — especially in public, and I find having that much self-control is quite scriptural — David’s ‘freaking out’ episodes in the bible usually, but certainly not always, were done in private.

But no matter what your physical reaction is, there is no way you will doubt whether God has showed up, if He actually does.

So if you are unsatisfied in this area and you’re wondering, “Is this it? Surely there must be more?” Well, then you are absolutely right. Don’t settle for less. Don’t just grin and bear it and explain it away like so many have done with their marriages, ‘This must be it; I might as well get used to it and call this love.’

God is awesome. Let’s find Him and let the faith of Jesus be ours. It’s the kind of faith He is seeking when He asked, “Will I find faith?” But have you found it first? You’ll be blessed beyond your imagination with it; yet you won’t have what it takes to last without it.

Cheryl Johnson

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