Susan Duncan

Faith

By Susan A. Duncan

For my quiet hour one morning while reading the first chapter of Genesis, my attention was called to these words, “God said” and “God saw” or “it was so” ten times each these words are uttered.

It occurred to me that a principle underlying all faith is established just here, i.e., - Seeing will always follow Saying, if the Saying be in faith.

Here we are told that in the creation, “God spake” and “It was so.” What was God doing? Just what He requires you and me to do; believing His Word.

Suppose that when He was about to call into being the myriads of worlds, together with the inhabitants of earth, sea, and sky, He had began to doubt as He spoke, whether anything would follow or not what would have been the result? You say, alas, there would have been no sun or moon in the skies, no birds in the air, no fish in the sea, no man in the garden; in other words, the void chaotic condition would have continued until this day, or until God had really exercised faith, for we read, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.” Heb. 11:3.

Listen to the annunciation of the angel to Mary, as found in Luke 1:28-33. This annunciation is based on the “God spake,” for we read in Is. 7:14, “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,”and the rendering of Luke 1:37 in the R. V. reads, “No Word from God shall be void of power.”

Mary was doubtless a student of the Old Testament, and when the angel came with that astounding announcement, she did not begin to reason and say, how can this be? But recognizing that God had spoken, she said, “How shall this be?” assenting at once that it shall be, whether she could understand or not. As the angel explains to her more fully something of God's thought, mark the sublimity of faith in her answer, “Be it unto me according to Thy Word.”

“According to Thy Word,” this is the ground of all faith. All we need to know in any case, has God spoken, if so, we are one with Him in our asking and we cannot fail, for what God wills, He works always.

Mark these three steps: First, hear God speak; Second, instantly obey; Third, God works. Look at the whole book of Joshua, especially the 8^th chapter. Its keynote is, “God spake,” and Joshua did so.

God's Way Of Working

When God wills a thing it is before Him as an accomplished fact. Read Mark 11:23. “For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith, cometh to pass; he shall have,” in other words, seeing will follow saying, if you do not doubt in your heart. When one steps out in faith for anything Satan will keep up a great noise and seek to draw you into an argument with him about the impossibility of the situation, but our part is simply to stand on the Word of God – feeling or not feeling, - do not doubt in your heart, no matter how the head may be tempted to listen to reason; declare in the face of Satan, “God Spake and it was so.”

In Rom. 4:17-18, the Word declares that God made Abraham, “like unto Him,” and then tells us how God works; “who calleth those things which be not as though they were.” And then He says, Abraham became like Kim in that he also “believed,” according to that which was spoken;” what was Abraham resting on? Surely not on the probabilities in the case, but God had said in Gen, 17^th chapter, “A father of many nations have I made thee,” and Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him.” So all that Abraham had to do was to believe the word, and count God “faithful who had promised.”

Faith is an ever-present now, and accepts the words spoken.

To Illustrate: We had engaged a new man to care for our furnace, I was giving him some instructions. There is a water pan at the back of the furnace, which is enclosed in brick, I said, “You open the door and the pan is just inside; it will hold this pail of water.” It was as black as night inside but I said, you need not trouble to get a light every time, you just pour in the water without seeing and it will be all right for the pas is there.

I noticed that at first he was rather inclined to reach out his hand and feel around for the pan, I said, “Don't be afraid, you can't make a mistake,” so he took my word, began to pour, emptied his pail and shut the door not having seen a thing.

Children of Abraham, are you desiring of God anything within the limits of His will, just pour out your petition in His ear, and shut the door of faith against all doubts and reasonings, and you too shall have whatsoever you say.

The Result of the Saying of faith will be the Seeing of that which is good. Seven times in this creation chapter we read, “God saw” and “it was good,” verse 31, “very good.” Thus the truth is established that God is not the author of evil.

Satan, whom the Bible declares is the “prince of the power of the air,” and the “god of this world,” works ruin and havoc, both in earth and among men; and then seeks to make God the author of it all, as in the case of Job, when this deceiver put it into the heart of his wife to say, “Curse God and die.”

As we look on the long list of diseases with which mankind is afflicted we can truly say, all these, as Job's carbuncles, came from the hand of our enemy, the devil. On the other hand we read 1 Jno. 3:8, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” how is the destruction of Satan's work to be made available to us. In Luke 10:19 we read, (R. V.) “I give unto you authority over all the power of the enemy.” But you say how can we, in our weakness grapple with the devil who is stronger than we. Surely not in our own strength but by the authority given us of God. There is a great difference between power and authority.

To Illustrate: Yonder is a man, tall, massive and of gigantic strength. He is an offender of the law; an officer comes along, it may be a delicate, weak looking fellow, but he walks boldly up to the strong man and laying his hands gently on his arm, arrests him, by the authority of his office; if it were a matter of strength or power he would not stand any chance, but it is simply a matter of authority, and the weak man captures the strong man armed.

God is saying to his children who are afflicted in any way by Satan. I have given you authority over all his power; in other words, arrest him and cast him out, and his power over you will be broken and you will be free.

Lest some may say this authority was only intended for Apostolic times. I quote from Edersheim's Life of Christ! “The authority and power over sickness and demons, was not to pass away with the occasion that had called it forth. The Seventy were the representatives of the Church in her work of preparing for the Advent of Christ. What the faith of the Seventy had attained, was now to be made permanent to the Church, whose representatives we are.”