By Augustus Henry (PhD.)
Crazy faith is illogical when you think about it but becomes more logical as you experience God in it.
The most basic stage of faith starts with incoherence – how do you have evidence that you will receive something you need, but your evidence is invisible? (Heb. 11:1).
But insane faith is a bigger enigma:
You see, throwing someone into an intensely raging oven of fire, and expecting that person to survive is madness, but once he survives it, that becomes a feat of faith (Dan. 3:17). Throwing a human being in a tribe of hungry lions and expecting him to return alive is insanity, but once he makes it, he goes into history as a faith giant (Dan 6:16). It is ridiculous for a doctor to say to a 90-year-old whose oestrogen and ovaries have been completely depleted, that she is expecting a child; but when it happens, she is pronounced, mother of the faithful (Gen. 17.).
Insane faith is like expecting rain out of a clear, blue sky; your mortgage to be paid with no money; healing for stage 4 cancer; essentially, God putting all of natural law on hold and paying attention to you. Insane faith is expectation that exceeds human imagination, but an agreement that is congruent between you and God (Luke 18:27).
How do you know that you have insane faith; or how do we measure it?
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you, [your measurement of faith]” (Romans 12:3). Therefore, a person’s faith is measurable.
When we do not know the level of our faith, many of us over expect from God.
Mark 9:1-29: A member of the crowd said to him, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that makes him mute …it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth …I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they were not able to do so. Then Jesus said to him, … All things are possible for the one who believes.” Immediately the father of the boy cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” …Jesus gently took his [the boy’s] hand and raised him to his feet, and he stood up. Then after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” He told them, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” Mark forgot to say prayer and fasting, but Matthew remembered. In that situation, the disciples try to deliver something that was clearly out of their ‘faith league’.
Be disciplined enough to know your level of faith.
The boy’s father was aware enough to understand that he had some faith but not enough. He knows he does not possess insane faith – insane faith that exceeded human expectation by exorcising that demon from the boy. He had just the type of faith that believed that Jesus could do it.
The disciples on the other hand, in presumption, believed that they had inherited insane faith from Jesus – without even taking stock of their own – proceeded to demonstrate crazy faith that they did not possess. The results, gross disappointment; the father was disappointed, the crowd was too. The disciples were embarrassed, and Jesus was angry.
Richard J. Vincent writes of 6 stages of faith:
The first three involves: external faith, belief in a church community, a book of instructions, and following directions from spiritual leaders. Faith at that level is practice through the lens of others (2 Cor. 10:15).
The fourth stage: internal by nature, where we begin to wrestle with what we were taught, what we read, or what we saw and heard from our church community – whether that is sufficient to manage difficult or impossible life circumstances. In many cases we discover that level is insufficient when it comes to difficult or impossible crossroads. At such a juncture we call for something deeper. That is where that father was.
He understood that what he heard and saw was not the same as experiencing the full and awesome power of almighty God. He took full measure of his faith. Right then and there, he exclaimed help thou my unbelief! He asked Jesus instantaneously to empower his faith – to give him the faith that reaches insanity.
That is what Vincent refers to in the fifth and sixth stages of faith:
A faith that is an outward expression of God’s will and purpose for our lives. At that stage we become channels for the will of God. That type of faith is knowing what God wants ahead of time and agreeing to play your role as he desires.
“[Demonstrating a level of faith] to others in the world more clearly and consistently than we ever thought possible” – that impossible things are possible with God.
Be discipline enough to learn how to grow faith to insanity
Do you know what level of faith you currently possess?
We all know our level of confidence in God. It comes down to faith from what you see or hear, Versus firsthand experience with God. Many of us fake that type of faith. In such instances we claim God miracles even when we have no conviction that he will deliver.
So how do we grow insane faith?
1. “Increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10) – not knowledge of the word, but knowledge of God.
2. We are “being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
3. Prayer and fasting (Matthew 17).
If you are to grow a type of faith that is crazy, it can be done through the discipline of a scheduled prayer and fasting regimen. As we gain knowledge of him and allow the renewing process to take hold, fasting will connect our power cables to God.
Faith is not a spectator sport; you must get your hands dirty. Rick Warren says ‘’you can’t have faith without being faithful” (that’s the discipline part).
Now that you know, what will you do about it?