When Faith Is Tested

SAT., APR. 29, 1995, 6:44 AM
FARM, STUDY

The story you saw portrayed on television last evening was about the testing of faith… at least that’s the message I’ll comment on as this cool Spring day commences. Your faith is tested only minimally in day to day life. Most events and circumstances are explainable in ways that leave faith and secular, discernible interpretations apart from each other… and not in conflict. Faith is lived out, but not truly tested.

But I do like to test faith, now and again. In the story to which I refer. I did it in an uncommon way. The prayers of a young boy for forgiveness were “answered” with a stigmata – bleeding from the hands like unto the bleeding that came from My hands, as Jesus, in the crucifixion experience. But here in your rational, secular culture blood does not flow from one’s hands without a reason. Blood flowed from your finger a couple of evenings ago, but you knew the cause. A rabbit nipped you with her teeth as you messed with her food. No mystery.

But for blood to flow in the midst of prayer, from wounds not explainable, is a test of faith. It can be scary, for such actions occur very seldom. It can be troubling, for it is known that there is considerable faking of miraculous “happenings.” You know there are ways to create illusions, and people don’t like to be fooled, unless they agree to it.

Faith, however, holds that I, the Triune God, am in charge of this earth realm, and though I generally allow it to function “normally” I can intervene. I can cause, and I can allow. I can cause blood to flow from the hands of a lad when there are no discernible wounds. I can use a boy who has turned to Me in an earnest fashion to bring about healing that your vast, complex, expensive medical system cannot. But when does this happen, and when is it an illusion, explainable in rational ways?

The faith of the one I choose as a servant is tested. In a way almost like that of responding to a cancer diagnosis comes the question, “Why me?” The attention can be excessive, and some are bound to respond in anger to this apparent break in the explainability of life events. You were chosen in a dramatic way, as you can tell it, but the circumstances can also be explained in quite natural ways. You say that you are hearing from Me, the Holy Spirit, but the writing style is yours… and so there need not be anything mystical about it. It isn’t spectacular like blood flowing from your hands, so if it’s fake this can just be accepted as an older man’s charade.

Still, your faith is tested every time you take up this pen and write on this paper. You know that it is I who supply these words and ideas, but you also want to avoid identification as a religious freak… or, worse, as a fraud. People do get angry when someone claims or appears to have a closer relationship with Me than they have… or “is normal.” You then become a threat, to be opposed, with anger, or ignored.