I’ve seen quotes posted by famous and not-so-famous athiests and agnostics that “faith” is akin to make-believe, having an imaginary friend, or checking your brain at the door because you can’t be bothered with logic or rational thinking. The truth is, truth isn’t so simple.
There are things you can’t “know”as true, but can still be completely convinced of. I guess it comes down to what you are willing to accept as “proof.”
Faith is the “evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) Meaning to me, that faith is the manifestation of something, something which we cannot tangibly touch, but which already exists in the supernatural realm and therefore impacts us (even indirectly) in this physical realm.
Faith is the “substance of things hoped for.” So to use more scientific terms, faith is a property of something else. Just as a property of fire is heat, or a property of gasoline is its volatility, in this sense faith is more than a feeling (yes, you sang that in your head just now, didn’t you?).
Faith is actually the tangible experience of an intangible reality “poking through” into this one. It is a “visible” effect or emanation of an invisible event. Just like a sunburn is a visible effect of exposure to too much sunlight (which I can’t technically “see” until in interacts with something else, like my skin), faith is the “reflection” of something from the supernatural into the natural!
I can “think” something, I can “like” something, I can even “believe” something, but when I say I have faith, I have moved beyond emotion or feelings and into a sense of compelling certainty about something which has a reality that I can sense, even if I can’t taste or touch it…yet.
Faith — the kind of true faith which translates into action — suggests that we have a sense or senses beyond the five physical senses which allow us to perceive things that our physical ones cannot.
And I think that the power of our faith actually plays a role in bringing some of those things from the supernatural realm into the natural. “Calling those things which are not as though they are.” (Rom. 4:17) I mean, real quantum physics level stuff here.
Faith isn’t just “coming into agreement.” I think that faith is a property of this universe every bit as real and impactful as gravity or photons of light. And in the same way as the greater the gravity, the stronger the impacts on things across a wider sphere of influence, or how a brighter light illuminates things at a further distance, the stronger the faith the greater the power to literally change the reality around us and bring together a fusion of the natural and supernatural in a way that is most often described as…
“…miracles.”
While these things are far from imaginary, our faith IS powered by our imagination, and thus is limited only by what we will permit ourselves to imagine. To believe in, and to believe for. In that respect, it is not only better, but essential to let go of some our carefully held preconceptions in order to unlock the potential of those things which await the power of our faith and conviction to bring them to life!
“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.‘” Matt. 19:14
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Mark 10:25
“The only people who can truly begin to understand quantum mechanics are particle physicists and small children.” ~ Chuck Missler
