Bible study: “Changing the Seen & Shaping
the Unseen” (By Charles Capps)
Chapter: (2)
Subject: Faith
Is Unseen
Study: Insight
This chapter is very
short, but reading it was so encouraging, and helpful to my faith walk. Another
thing that is helping me to understand this study more is my reading the book
of “The Prayer of Jabez.” I love these
books!
God bless our study today, amen
“But God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.”
1 Corinthians 1:27, 28
Look at the same passage in The
Amplified Bible:
"[No,]
for God selected—deliberately chose—what in the world is foolish to put the wise
to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.
"And God also selected—deliberately
chose—[what] in the world [is] lowborn and insignificant, and branded and
treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose
and bring to nothing the things that are."
God
has chosen things that are not to bring to naught things that are! He is simply
talking about things not revealed to the physical senses.
In my research I found this
and just had to share it, because it really explains 1 Corinthians 1:27 more
for me:
“1
Corinthians 1:27 "But God has chosen the foolish things of the
world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world
to put to shame the things which are mighty…"
The
context shows a radical distinction between God’s infinite wisdom and
the finite wisdom of man. This passage shows the fundamental difference between
God-confidence and self-confidence. Verses 26-31 take a hard look at the
Corinthians themselves. In 2:1-5, Paul reminds the Corinthians of the one and
one half years he spent with them. Neither those who listened nor those who
presented the gospel did so by self-confidence. Verse 26 shows three things the
Corinthians were not. Now we come to what they were in verses 27 and 28. Verses
29-31 explain why God calls the weaker to be used by Himself.
But God
has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise,
The word
“but” is a conjunction of strong contrast. In contrast to human wisdom,
there is a divine wisdom.
God
chooses simple trust in the gospel message to do His bidding. The reason
for this is that human philosophy is bankrupt in its attempt to find infinite
truth by finite means. God uses perceived foolish things as tools for His
purposes.
And God
has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are
mighty
The power
of Christianity is in its message, not in its messengers. The power of
the gospel does not reside in recognition by the high and mighty but in the
power of the gospel message.
Ro 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for
the Greek.
Note the
three-fold use of the words “has chosen” (twice in this verse and once in the
next). God makes it abundantly clear that God’s work is His work, not
man’s work.
God’s
chosen weak things puts to share the things that are mighty. God exposes
pretensions of the academy. He reveals it as a shallow show. God is in the
business of disgracing it. God does this to demonstrate the power of the
message of the gospel, not the power of the evangelist. God is independent
of human power.
PRINCIPLE: God’s plan is a paradox to the finite way of doing things.
APPLICATION: God does not need a PR agent. His Word does not need support from human
intellect or political power. God does not require numbers or bigness to
accomplish His purposes on earth.
D. L.
Moody was a great 19th century evangelist who shattered the King’s
English. Yet, God used him to reach students at one of the great learning
centers of that time, the Cambridge University in England. Some students came
to hoot him off stage. He began his message with “Young gentlemen, don’t ever
think God don’t love you, for he do!” Terrible English, but the message reached
their souls and some came to Christ. Moody probably would not qualify to enroll
in Moody Bible Institute today.”
Let’s look at Faith now:
Hebrews 11:1 tells us:
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.
Faith is the substance, the raw material. One translation says
that faith is giving substance to things hoped for, to what you desire and what
is not yet manifested to the physical senses.
Faith is the substance that God used to create the universe, and
He transported that faith with His words. God used His words as containers to
transport His faith out there into the vast nothingness, into the darkness.
He said, "Light, be!" (Gen. 1:3.)
And light was!
When there was nothing but darkness, God took the Word light and
spoke it into
Existence. He took that which was not and brought to naught
that which was!
In Genesis 1:26, 27 we are told that God created man in His own
image and likeness. Therefore, man is capable of taking those things which are
not and bringing to naught those things which are! He is capable of taking
things that are not revealed to the physical senses and bringing to naught
things that are revealed to the physical senses.
Faith is the substance of things, but you can't see faith. Faith is a
spiritual force. You can't see my faith. For example: What if my wife and I got
in our airplane to go on a trip, but after looking out the windows, decided we
couldn't go because we didn't see any lift on the wings?
Or what if, after getting the airplane up to 70 miles an hour on
the runway, I cut the engines because I didn't see any air out the window?
That
way of thinking is dumb, isn't it? You can't see lift on a wing. A lift is an
unseen force produced by the unseen air flowing over the wing.
You can't see air. You can't feel it or hear it; so there must not
be any there. Right? Wrong!
God chose the things that you couldn't see to bring to naught the
things you could see. When you realize these laws work and you begin to work
them, then you can supersede other laws.
The law of thrust and lift will supersede the law of gravity. The
law of thrust and lift doesn't do away with the law of gravity; gravity is
still working. But we're taking the things that are not seen and causing the things that are seen to come to naught.
I want to say this before I go on…………..
Naught means nothing,
nonexistence, nothingness, insignificant, worthless, obsolete. Wow!
Charles continues to
say………………
An airplane can be seen. You can see it, touch it, and feel it. If
you bit into it, you could taste it.
Naturally speaking, the airplane is too heavy to fly. It weighs
about two tons when empty; but because of the law of lift, it can fly.
For
years, men didn't know anything about that law. But when you understand these
laws and set them in motion, one law has to give way
to the other. Things that are not seen put to naught
things that are seen, and my airplane flies like a bird, up to 31,000
feet.
You don't supersede one law with another by violating God's laws.
First, you have to find out how they work; then you have to cooperate with
them.
This
is great!
Operating according to God's
laws causes you to be able to shape things that don't seem to be—the
unseen—into a workable situation. Each
day I try to do this, and sometimes it works for me, then when my faith fail,
it does not. My faith has to be in
operation too.
Questions:
1 How should we look at faith?
2 Did He (God) have faith in His Word to bring about what He said, or did He (God) have faith with His Word to bring about what He said?
3 As God creation, what are we capable of doing?
4 When you operate according to God’s law, what
will it cause?
5 What book is you reading now that help you in
your faith?
6 Give a biblical story of this principle
working.
1 comment:
Answers:
1 How should we look at faith?
First of all, we can’t see faith. Faith is unseen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 Did He (God) have faith in His Word to bring about what He said, or did He (God) have faith with His Word to bring about what He said?
He had faith in His Word that in using His spoken Word it would be accomplished.
3 As God creation, what are we capable of doing?
Man is capable of taking those things which are not and bringing to naught those things which are! He is capable of taking things that are not revealed to the physical senses and bringing to naught things that are revealed to the physical senses.
4 When you operate according to God’s law, what will it cause?
Operating according to God’s law causes you to be able to shape things that don’t seem to be-the unseen-into a workable situation. You must cooperate with God’s law.
5 What book is you reading now that help you in your faith?
I am read the book of “The Prayer of Jabez”
6 Give a biblical story of this principle working.
Abram assured by God that he was in the right place, deserted Canaan for Egypt in a time of famine, and tried to pass off Sarai as his sister, to purchase his own safety at her expense in Gen. 12:10-20.
He returned to Canaan in Gen. 13:1 at which point Lot (Heb. lot, envelope, covering) and he separated and divided up the Promised Land (13:14-17), well before the name change in 17:5. He opposed all the kings (14:13-16) and then refused the world’s wealth in (14:21-24), confirming his new confidence and faith in the protection of God.
Although Abram and Sarai followed their own ways and through an Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, and she had Ishmael when Abram was age 86 (Gen. 16:7-16), in gentle grace God picked up the pieces in Hagar’s broken life and reaffirmed his covenant with Abram in Genesis 17:1.
In three ways the Lord made his promises more sure.
• First, by making Abram and Sarai into new people (17:3-5, 15-16). This is the significance of the gift of new names: they are themselves made new, with new capacities.
• Second, the Lord restated and amplified his spoken promises so as to leave no doubt of his seriousness in making them (17:6-8).
• Third, he sealed his promises with the sign of circumcision (17:9-14) so that forever after Abraham and his family would be able to look at their bodies and say, "The Lord has indeed kept his promises to me!" This must be accompanied by a "circumcision of the heart." Out of this experience, and having the promises confirmed and sealed, Abraham’s faith grew to maturity.
The Lord appeared to Abram for the New Covenant, on the ninth day, with a new initiate, the promise of future sons (8 plus 1 adopted = 9), who is the ninth person from Shem.
Abram settled in Canaan, where God made a covenant (special agreement) with him. The covenant promised that Abram would have many descendants and Canaan would be their "everlasting possession" if they remained faithful to God (Genesis 17:4-8). As a symbol of His pledge, God changed Abram's name to Abraham, which means father of many nations. God commanded Abraham and all males in his family to be circumcised as a symbol of this covenant.
Now, Romans 4:17 comes into place “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”
I was always taught that God changed Abram’s name way before his son Ishmael was born, so that the people around him could speak those things which are not as though they were into his life as they called him Abraham. Very wise!
Post a Comment