Focus: The Senses of Faith (Pt.1)

Text: Heb.11:13

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having SEEN them afar off…"

Man has five senses - smelling or tasting, seeing, hearing, touching and feeling, and beyond that is the sixth sense of faith. This sixth sense rises above the human senses. It is spiritual, in the sense that it is generated by God's word and informed by God's Spirit.

The Christian's faith expresses all the senses. It begins with HEARING. Paul says, "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the HEARING OF FAITH?… He thereforethat ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the HEARING OF FAITH?"(Gal.3:2,5). Faith hears. Paul says again that "faith cometh by HEARING, and HEARING by the word of God" (Rom.10:17). Faith has ears, and it comes by hearing the word of God. Isaiah declares, "Incline your EAR, and come unto me: HEAR, and your soul shall live…" (Isa.55:3). Our soul is enlivened and revived by the hearing of faith.

The next sense of faith is SEEING. According to the author of Hebrews, by faith we understand. Faith sees, envisions and knows. It has sight, insight, foresight and hindsight. By faith we see into the future. God has revealed tomorrow to us. In Hebrews we read that the patriarchs saw the promises of God from a distance. They saw into the far-off tomorrow. Abraham saw a city with God as the architect and construction engineer.

Balaam says, "For from the top of the rocks I SEE him, and from the hills I BEHOLD him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Num.23:9). From the top of the mountain he sighted Israel. He saw into Israel's future and their unique place in history.

God says to Moses, "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he LOOKETH upon it, shall live" (Num.21:8). The believer is healed from the snake bite by looking to the cross by faith. In Isaiah, God says, "LOOK unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isa.45:22). 

Our salvation comes by seeing Jesus Christ and welcoming Him into our hearts and lives.

Faith hears and sees. Believers in Christ have received the Lord's medicinal ointment for vision. He says, "Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see" (Rev.3:18). We operate by the spiritual vision of faith. Peter writes, "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (2Pet.1:9). 

The non-practice of certain virtues lead to spiritual blindness and the inability to see into God's future. How active are the senses of your faith? Is your faith faculty functioning effectively? Examine your faith.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter