Just Believe!

John 6:²⁹ “Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (NIV, emphasis added)

Faith is relational. Friends take their friends at their word. You have faith in someone, you believe in the person. You have faith in God, you believe God. You relate with God; you believe what God says. You have a relationship with Jesus, you believe what Jesus says. What if Jesus says there is no more Heaven, will you still follow Him? Will you still be a Christian, a follower of Christ? If by the time rapture happens, Jesus says, there is no heaven. What will you do? If Jesus says to me there is no heaven, guess what? I will believe Him, and I will still follow Him wherever He goes. Why? It is because wherever Jesus goes is heaven. It is all about His presence.

What is the value of heaven without God’s presence? We are not going there because of the streets of gold, or the mansions. We are going there to behold His face, to see our Father. If Jesus says there is no heaven, He is going to be in Jerusalem. I will move to Jerusalem because that is the new heaven. When you have a relationship with someone, you believe them. Biblical faith is choosing to believe something is true because you believe Someone is truthful. Someone said to me, ‘You went to school, how can you believe that a virgin will conceive and have a child?’ I said, ‘I believe it is true because I believe that God is truthful’.

2 Timothy 1:¹² “…I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him…” (NIV, emphasis added). Paul did not say I know ‘what’ I have believed. If all you have believed is ‘what’, when that ‘what’ comes under fire, you lose your faith. But if it is a person (whom) you have believed, and ‘what’ comes under fire, you may not understand ‘what’, but you know ‘whom’ you have believed. You may be thinking that your world is falling apart. You may not understand ‘what’ is going on. But do you know ‘whom’ you have believed? If you know whom, you will survive the season.

So, what about doubts? The truth is that if you never had any doubts, you would not need any faith. There is a component of faith that will not be required if you have no doubt. Faith is what carries you through the doubts. Everyone that walks with God has had doubts. But because they trusted in the Person, that trust in the Person carried them through. Despite the way things look, the way things seem, the way you feel, you choose to believe.

Prayer (song): I, I believe in Jesus. I believe He is the Son of God. I believe He died and rose again. I believe He paid for us all. I believe He is here now, Standing in our midst. Here with the power to heal now and the grace to forgive. Amen!