There are several strong biblical examples that Highlight my point but the one that stands out strongly in my mind this morning is the following scripture:
Mark 10:46-50
English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.Several key things are occurring in this scripture that point out things we must do in order for our Faith to move into action and to satisfy the need that we have. First, we see that he was sitting, he was blind and he was in need of a miracle. While he was in that state nothing was happening in the natural but what was happening in the spiritual was what was important. Remember, he was blind so he could not see the demonstration of the healing, he could only trust his ears and focus on the enthusiasm of the words being spoken, the powerful testimonies of being raised from the dead, deaf people who can now hear, lame folks walking, demon possessed folks being set free and Jesus was the central figure in all of these testimonies. What he heard was enough to activate his Faith and do the only thing he knew to do. He began crying out, over and over again. "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Even when he was rebuked by many and told to shut up, he continued. Why, because his Faith was more powerful than the naysayers, unbelievers and common sense folks all around him. He didn't care how crazy he looked, what they said or any other obstacles standing in the way. He believed that his suffering would end if Jesus had mercy on him. And the truth is, it did.
Over and over again throughout my Faith journey I have had people say, why are you doing this, you are so intelligent, you should not be doing community development work, you should be this or you should be that. Well, I didn't listen to those folks with common sense, I listened to the Holy Spirit speaking on the inside of me. I learned long ago common sense is just that. It's common. What I am looking for in my life are uncommon manifestations of the power of God. The things I want to do are not common but are uncommon and require uncommon sense or Faith in God to bring it to pass.
You see it's common to go get a 9 to 5 job and work for the man day in and day out and look down on the suffering communities and say oh well. But its uncommon to go back to the hood and say I'm going to use all of my gifts and talents to begin to turn the hood around and make a difference. It's common to go down and exploit the hood with high priced merchandise, low wage jobs, and dope sales. But it's uncommon to go down and work to create jobs, build new homes, educate the youth and encourage the downtrodden.
This is Faith in Action and as Blind Bartimaeus received his sight, you can receive your miracle if you are not afraid to cry out. Do something that others tell you can't work. Put action with your Faith and watch what happens. You whole perspective on life will change and you will learn to tap into a source of power that far exceeds anything that is taught in Universities. You will understand that there is a world not seen but full of blessings and opportunities. And you will learn how to access them.
Be Blessed and Enjoy the Journey!!!
