Focus: The Senses of Faith (Pt.2)

Text: Heb.11:13

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

Faith is a spiritual faculty. It hears and sees. Those who believe also behold. Faith is formed and informed by God's word. It is influenced by the Spirit of Christ in us.

We have seen that faith hears and sees; the next point is that faith touches the intangible and lays hold of the truths of God's word. Faith is the hand that takes what God gives. The spiritual senses of faith are very active and vital.

Matthew writes, "And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and TOUCHED the hem of his garment… But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; THY FAITH hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour" (Mt.9:20,22). By faith we connect with God, and by the same faith we collect from Him. The woman came by faith, touched by faith, and was made whole by faith. The trouble that had lasted for twelve years in her life instantly disappeared. That is the touch of faith. She came to Christ by faith and left with a miracle. Mark writes, "And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?" (Mk.5:30). The word 'virtue' here is 'dunamis' in the Greek, and that is the word for 'power'. (Mk.5:30). By her faith she tapped into the power of Christ. She drew healing power out of Christ. Faith works miracles in the lives of those who believe in Christ.

By God's directive, Abraham traveled to an unknown land with no map or GPS to direct him. That is the move of faith. Faith advances us into new frontiers. According to Paul, we walk by faith. We take faith steps and possess new territories. Faith determines our pace and brings us into new spaces. By faith we hear, see and touch. We hear the inaudible, see the invisible, and touch the intangible. The scripture informs us that Moses saw the invisible.

The next point is that faith has the sense of smell. We can smell spiritual things. We sense spiritual fragrance. The psalmist says, "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad" (Ps.45:8). We read in the Song of Solomon, "Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth" (Song of Sol.1:3). That is the fragrance of faith. Faith senses the divine scent. O the faculty and the fragrance of faith! We read in Genesis concerning Isaac and Jacob, "And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed" (Gen.27:27). This was faith at work. That's faith's sense of smell in display. 

I pray for your faith senses to come alive. I pray that you hear things, see things, touch things, and smell things in the spiritual realm. Indeed, faith in Jesus Christ is the foundation of true spirituality. Our spiritual faculty works by faith.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter