I don’t know about you but no matter the season I am in or how far I go in life, it somehow feels like I constantly find myself in situations where I need something beyond what my physical circumstances allow for, beyond what human effort could logically make happen, and way beyond what my normal human mental abilities could envision. Just as it was physically impossible and I am sure incredibly mentally challenging for the Israelites (and me!) to envision the parting of the Red Sea when they found themselves trapped between the Egyptians and the waters.
Putting it in another way, I think I am constantly surrounded by the impossible in at least one area of life, where I come to the end of myself. My human limitations and lack of control over literally everything and everyone else but me make me yearn for miracles all the time! And by definition, what I am actually asking for are highly improbable or extraordinary events (a.k.a. miracles), that bring joyful consequences. That is, for my impossible to become possible through God’s mighty intervention by His amazing grace. Anyone else in the same boat?
But how could one imagine or believe for such things when the only option is death (for the Israelites) in every direction? Or when you feel trapped by the impossible circumstances everywhere you look or you see no way out and you are at the end of yourself? Or when your constant disappointments train you to believe that things are not going to change? When I find myself at this juncture, the Holy Spirit is quick to bring to my mind what Mark Batterson eludes to in his book “The Circle Maker” – isn’t impossible the absolute must have for miracles to happen?
It seems obvious or maybe even stupid to think this way but why would one need a miracle if they are not trapped between the Egyptians and the Red Sea and are walking on a flat, well-lit, and well-paved road?
And honestly, when God does part the Red Sea, do we have the courage to step into that miracle and trust God 100% when we do walk through the walls of raging waters on either side? Even when we are fully walking in God’s provision and protection? Hold that thought – that’s another blog post that I will link here when it’s done!
Navigating the Impossible: In Flesh
Not just with the parting of the Red Sea, the scriptures have shown us time and again that the impossible is a necessary component of the recipe for miracles. But in all reality, do we actually like finding ourselves in the middle of the impossible? Me thinks not. And, Mark says it best – we all want miracles but we don’t want to find ourselves trapped in the midst of the impossible that calls for miracles. In other words, we don’t actually like it or want it when God is in the process of setting us up for the situations that call for miracles. Isn’t that the truth?
Just like the Israelites, when God is moving me and my situations to bring me to the center of the impossible, I get very uncomfortable and I often find myself wanting to run away or regret all the decisions that would have brought me to that point. Especially when I come to terms with the fact that I can’t do much about it other than allow God to make a way through the Red Sea (if that possibility crosses my mind at all), I am usually scared, distraught, and can’t really see the end of the tunnel. All of this makes me feel hopeless without any faith in God instead of being excited for how God is going to show up and show out in the midst of the impossible to make the miraculous happen.
So, why do we not like the impossible so much? After all, when we are in the middle of the impossible, God will make the coolest, the most ridiculous, the most surprising, and the most unimaginable things happen. And they would bring so much joy! Wouldn’t it be so amazing to experience God’s divine intervention and experience His amazing and unfailing love towards us? Yet, why the hesitation to face the impossible when we find ourselves in the middle of it? In my experience, I think that is because of our immediate and natural tendency to deal with the impossible through flesh.
Dealing with anything in life in flesh is the absolute worst and the hardest way to do it. Because in flesh – we don’t like that discomfort and the possible suffering that comes with the impossible situations. We don’t like the crazy uncertainty that comes with it. We don’t like not having the control. We don’t like letting go. We don’t like surrender. We don’t like being still in His presence even though that’s exactly what we need desperately. We don’t like not trying harder. We don’t like that the outcome doesn’t depend on our actions or our effort. We don’t like being tested for our faith or for where we put our trust in those circumstances. We don’t like the fears, the what-if’s, and the worst case scenarios that we conjure up in our minds. We don’t like shifting our focus from our problems and our efforts to “fix” the situation to fixing our eyes on Jesus. We don’t like to battle the doubts in our minds with the Word of God.
We don’t like to take the responsibility and feel the guilt and shame for our choices that may have brought us to that situation to the Lord. We may especially not like forgiving others, if their choices and actions are what dragged you to this situation. We don’t like not blaming. Because we have seen so many failures and faced several disappointments in our lives, we just want to be “practical”, “conservative, and “realistic” with what we think could happen in our impossible circumstances! We don’t like believing that God is mighty enough to breathe life into the most hopeless situations because we tend to bring God’s abilities down to our human level and insult Him by doing so! And most important of all, we don’t like trusting the God of the universe to work through it all and having faith that the He could make the impossible happen because of the fear of jinxing it ourselves! As if we are so mighty and powerful to change the plans of the Almighty God! How silly but also how real it is for so many of us!
What does having faith really look like?
So, what could having faith really look like? I think I got the best understanding of it (doesn’t mean its always easy for me to apply it to what I am going through!) during a season of prayer and fasting at one of my previous churches. During each week that season, we focused on one vital aspect of spiritual growth. That year, our focus for one full week was faith. I didn’t understand why they had to start the season with faith or spend so much time on something so basic (yes, I am cringing too!). I mean, we were all pro Christian enough to fast for 21 days… and that certainly means all of us must be pros at it, right? But now I know those basics are constantly at threat in our lives and I totally see their wisdom in doing what they did.
To best explain what faith looks like, a pastor leading one of the evenings used the example of speed of light (here’s the link to it). During a class he sat in about Einstein’s theory of relativity, he was taught that if we are strapped to a rocket traveling at the speed of light through the streets of New York City, we’d be going so fast that it’d seem as if the buildings are twisting and bending and we can see beyond the corner in the street before we get there. Like we can see things before they happen. True or not, I think that is a really cool way to understand and exercise faith. He ends that illustration by saying that because Jesus IS the light of the world, when we are strapped to Him, we can see things beyond our circumstances and imagination. Truly, isn’t that the way to live, instead of reducing our lives to what is humanly and circumstantially possible?
Few attributes of faith…
If faith enables us to see beyond human possibility, what are some of its characteristics? Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). With faith, we see things before we have them. We receive them before we receive them, when strap ourselves to Jesus. Also, without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
Childlike faith is what God asks of us. We are familiar with the popular verse in Matthew 18 where Jesus calls us to change and become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven. He adds that it is otherwise impossible to do so. When Jesus says it’s impossible, He means impossible.
When I think of childlike faith, I think of simple, pure, unshaken, undoubting, innocent, and wholehearted faith that little children have in their parents. They don’t care to think or desire to understand the state of their imperfect parents and yet, they trust them completely. Their parents are their heroes. They don’t know any different and seem to be content with just that. They don’t overthink or question; they just believe with all their hearts. In a spiritual or metaphorical sense, it’s the kind of faith that trusts God with and in the midst of the impossible, relying on His ability to work miracles even when things seem hopeless. It’s a faith that doesn’t rely on evidence or understanding but on a deep, innate trust in Him. I think that is a basic attribute of faith and it’s what having faith practically looks like.
Jesus also talks about having faith the size of a mustard seed. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus says that if we have faith as little as a mustard seed, we can move mountains and nothing is impossible. What I learnt in life is that when Jesus says nothing, He means NOTHING. Isn’t that crazy and wild to think about? We are so wired and have been so normalized to think and do everything within our abilities that thinking in such a manner where our faith could change or move impossible things does seem very foreign. Or highly unrelatable. But with the Holy Spirit and prayer, that unfamiliarity or lack or relatability can be changed. We can think and ask for the impossible.
Further, faith without actions is dead (James 2:17). It highlights the crucial relationship between belief and behavior. In this verse, James emphasizes that genuine faith is not merely a mental or emotional agreement with beliefs; it must be demonstrated through tangible actions. This means that true faith manifests itself in how we live, interact with others, and respond to life’s challenges.
Lastly, faith is also the shield in our armor of God against those pesky darts of the enemy. It is the protective element in our armor during spiritual warfare. When we are in the middle of a battle that is so fierce that offense is not an option, we hold up our defense of faith against the conniving schemes of the enemy. Faith serves as a source of strength and protection in the face of doubt, temptation, and adversity!
These attributes of define what faith is, the kind of faith God asks of us, what having faith as small as a mustard seed could do, the impact of faith on us, and how faith is our ultimate protection in the spiritual warfare! So, how do we get there? How do we have and exercise such faith in the midst of fierce battles and the impossibles? Let’s take a look at the Word of God!
Hebrew 11 – Heroes of Faith
It would be crazy to write about faith and not talk about the famous passage in the Bible that recounts the heroes of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11. After having gone through and still going through many situations in life that needed me to have faith beyond anything I could imagine, when I think about the Holy Spirit himself literally calling these men heroes of faith, I can’t imagine the kind of situations that pushed them to become faith heroes. This chapter lists 16 men distinctly and calls other heroes prophets. Through faith, despite their flaws, inabilities, and the intensity of difficulties they faced, they achieved things for the glory of God. All of which have received the privilege of being recounted in the holy scriptures!
Among the heroes of faith, Gideon is hands down one of my absolute favorites. His story is one of a kind. When I truly grasp his journey from asking God for multiple, almost ridiculous signs to believe the miraculous that God said He would – NOT in a dream, to Gideon walking into the enemy’s camp with only 300 men after sending thousands of men home right before an impossible battle is nothing short of amazing. The amount of faith it would have taken Gideon to send all those able-bodied men – his physical and tangible source of confidence to fight the historically brutal and oppressive Midianites – to walk into the battlefield with 300 men while trusting God with the rest is insane to me. I am sure it was not easy to believe God in that moment, even with the encouragement he receives right before marching in. But he did. And that brought a miraculous victory to the Israelites and delivered them from years of oppression from the enemy. And this story – his story, has a permanent record in the living Word of God for millions of people to read thousands of years later!
Think about the power of one decision to trust God despite all odds without paying any heed to the crumbling, disastrous, painful, broken, and the impossible “reality”! These decisions to have faith and trust in God have tremendous impact on both the natural and spiritual, and I do not think I would ever be able to truly grasp the power and impact of such decisions on the trajectory of God’s kingdom. I mean, I don’t think the people that sowed and came in faith to India as missionaries back in the day and painfully established the school my grandmom went to and those that ministered to her would have imagined me and my family, generations down the line in a Hindu family, to have the relationship with God like I do right now. Would they? I don’t know what kind of faith and pain it took those missionaries to leave everything they knew to a strange foreign land but I am a result of that faith decision and for that, I am forever grateful. I wish they could see what their faith has resulted in but maybe they already know! 🙂 I know they are not listed in Hebrews 11 but to me, they are faith heroes!
Where does faith come from and how can we have that kind of faith?
After writing about so much about faith, this was the question I ended up asking myself. I began writing this blog during a crazy situation in my life that called me to have extreme levels of faith. I am not sure if its a situation like the parting of the Red Sea but its the closest I probably got to in my life so far. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say when I started this blog but I knew it is what I needed to get through that faith test. Sadly, I am still writing it over a month after, but the act of writing this blog smack dab in the middle of that situation was probably what helped me maybe borderline pass that test? God came through. And I was determined to write about what causes our faith to shake, what having faith truly looks like, and how to get there. Hence, this blog. So, let’s find out what God will reveal!
Earlier, I discussed why we often shy away from challenging situations where we desperately need God’s intervention for a miracle. My answer to that was our innate tendency to deal with the impossible through flesh. I concluded that it stems from our natural inclination to rely on our own strength and understanding rather than trusting in God’s power. When faced with the impossible, we may instinctively resort to our own efforts, missing the opportunity to invite God’s mighty hand into our circumstances. So, to experience God’s best – the miraculous, what if we dealt with the impossible in the Spirit? Let’s dive into this idea.
Navigating the Impossible: In the Spirit
At this point in my walk with the Lord, I think of faith as believing in the mighty hand of the God of the universe to intervene and bend something that is impossible according to the natural laws of the earth! What does it mean and look like if I walked in the Spirit when facing the impossible?
It means that I trust Him to take my anxiety even if it seems impossible in my strength. God will not leave me alone. No matter what I have to go through in this world, He gets the glory from this. He leads me by still waters even if I walk in the valley of shadow and death. I am safe by His still waters. In the moments where I need the Red Sea parting, His Word says I can trust Him to make a way. His Word says He will make me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters – not when I am already in green pastures or walking by still waters but even during every impossible situation. He is faithful even when everything around me seems to be choking me. I will lack nothing and His grace is sufficient for me to make it through every impossible turn in my life. And most importantly, He knows and holds my tomorrow, and I am held in and by His mighty hands, what should I be afraid of? When He is the author of life, how can mere physical “impossibilities” or my lack of imagination in my 3-lb brain stop such a mighty God make the impossible possible in HIS perfect timing? She laughs at the future to come. That’s a promise that I can hold onto even when I know NOTHING about my future or how crazy this moment or my right now feels.
Now that stirs my faith. Going back to God’s promises in the scriptures and talking back to me with those promises applied to what I am going through helps me have faith even there is no real basis for me in the natural to trust God with what I am having faith for. After having done this several times, I can testify that God came through every single time. I was filled with peace in the most trying situations and I had no fear of my future. And I could trust God to make the impossible possible according to His perfect plan, even if it looks nothing like what I thought or wanted. I could still trust God even if His response was different from what I had hoped for or wanted Him to do. And that is A-okay! Because when Jesus is better than life, what matters more is having Jesus first and foremost in my life, in every situation. NOT for every situation to work out the way I want it to. I mean, only God knows how bad that could turn out for me and those around me! That is why only surrendering and obeying Jesus matters because He is better than life.
And I think that is how we can act and respond to and in the midst of the impossible in the Spirit and have faith that glorifies God beyond our wildest imaginations! I pray and hope for this to be each and every believer’s reality all day everyday!
Anchored by His Grace 
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