Shift Heaven’s Power: How Your Faith Releases Miracles

Faith is essential in activating the Word of God.

In these end times, there has been given a greater revelation of the importance and power of faith. Faith in its simplest form is just believing God, but in the realm of the spirit it is the substance that activates the power of God, which is His grace.

Faith is a Tangible Substance in the Unseen Realm

Several years ago, I was reunited with one of my childhood friends. We had grown up together at Spring Valley Baptist Church, but the years had not taken our friendship. He had recently purchased a nice house in the Kansas City area and even though the furniture had not been delivered yet, Loretta and I were invited to his house for an evening of fellowship and Bible study. There were only a few of us there, so we sat on the carpeted floor in his living room.

As we were reading scriptures, singing worship choruses, and praying, I looked across the room and saw an opening. It was about four feet tall in the shape of an oval mirror or window that looked very similar to the cutaway you might see in a video showing interpreters signing for the deaf. It was as though I was looking through a portal into another dimension. The lights were on, my eyes were open, and I clearly saw this. This was not a dream, but what some might call an open-eyed vision. I could tell that no one else in the room saw what I was seeing.

As I looked past the people across from me into an area that seemed to be a few feet behind them, I could see what looked like several long shards of crystal that were connected into a single unit that floated in the oval space. I didn’t know exactly what I was seeing, but I was clearly seeing something quite astonishing! I said nothing to the others in the room, but kept it in my heart.

Several months later, I was the guest speaker at a local Baptist church. As I was preaching from the platform, I glanced at the back wall of the church and there I saw the exact same opening that I had seen before at the Bible study in Kansas City. In the opening were what appeared to be the exact same crystal shards connected in a unit floating within the oval space. Without missing a beat in my message, I continued to observe this opening for what seemed like several minutes before it was gone. Again, I did not reveal this to the congregation.

Later, during a quiet time with the Lord, I asked Him what it was that I had seen. Although it was not an audible voice, He clearly spoke to my heart and said, “You’ve seen into the spirit realm. The object you saw floating was the substance called faith.” I felt as though He was telling me that He had allowed me to see into the realm of the spirit to see the substance of faith because the teaching of faith and its importance would be a major part of my life and calling.

From that day forward, faith has been more than a concept to me. It is not a metaphor, it is not an illusion, it is not a theory, but I know without a doubt it is a tangible substance in the realm of the invisible that activates the visible power of God in this realm.

Of course, Satan is a deceiver who wastes no time in developing a counterfeit to the plan of God. I think it’s interesting that crystal is used by the enemy in the New Age cult.

What I saw looked like shards of crystal. In the Bible there are several verses that speak of things in heaven that look like crystal: a jasper stone (Revelation 21:11), a sea of glass (Revelation 4:6), and a pure river of water of life (Revelation 22:1), all appearing to look like crystal.

When you speak your confessions of hope and faith in this realm, you are actually building the substance in the spirit realm that will activate your deliverance. For this reason, it is extremely important not to allow faith and hope to become abstract ideas or concepts. The spirit of faith is living and tangible; it is the catalyst that activates your promise.

The Revelation of Truth

I have always believed that when working on an electrical appliance, the first thing to do is unplug it. That’s just common sense. I believed that when working on an unplugged appliance, it would be impossible to get shocked or electrocuted. Right?

Years ago, I had a microwave that quit working. I based my faith on my belief that if I unplugged the microwave, I could remove the back panel to work on it and nothing could hurt me. So I unplugged it and removed the back panel to look inside. After all, this is the macho thing to do before you send it off to the repair shop! Most men don’t want their wives to know they don’t know how to fix something, so they always make a token attempt before sending it to someone who really knows what to do.

Inside I saw a lot of wires and components. It looked like the inside of an old-time pinball machine. I didn’t know how to fix pinball machines either.

After looking inside long enough for my wife to think that I really knew what I was looking for, I decided everything looked okay. It was at that time I placed my right hand on the microwave and leaned against the refrigerator to think. All of a sudden, what felt like a million gigavolts of electricity shot through my body! I staggered back. I thought I was going to die. With one hand on my chest, for some strange reason I looked at my watch. I must have wanted to know the time that I was dying. My watch was a digital LED with red numbers, and it looked like it was speaking in tongues!

I don’t know how many thousands of volts are stored in the capacitors within a microwave, but later I learned from an electrical engineer that even with the appliance unplugged, it stays fully charged. My watch died that day! I didn’t die, but through this event I learned a great truth. Just because we believe something to be true does not make it true.

Regardless of how much we believe it is true, or how much we act like it is true, or regardless of how much we confess it, if it isn’t true, it is false. And if we act on something that isn’t true, it can mean death. My belief that I could not get shocked by an unplugged appliance was a partial truth. A partial truth has the appearance of truth but contains an untruth and that can be very deceiving. Only believing the whole truth will set us free. Only believing the complete truth will protect us from the destruction and possible death that comes from the deception of a partial truth.

Faith Never Fails

A few decades ago when the revelation of faith was first given to many great men and women of God, there were some Christians who only acted upon a partial truth so they did not receive results they expected. Critics quickly labeled their actions as “faith-failures.” However, there is no such thing as a faith-failure. Faith-failure is an oxymoron because faith never fails.

So, what was the problem? Why did it appear that faith had failed? The answer is obvious. They did not have a true definition or understanding of faith. Only what is based on the truth will bring freedom.

The Bible tells us clearly the definition of faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Let’s break down this definition to examine it closely so that we can fully understand how to break free from despair and walk in hope.

Faith Is

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

First of all, faith is. The scripture does not say faith was or faith will be; it says faith is. While faith is a gift that grows and it can be small or great, this definition is referring to mature faith. Mature faith doesn’t look backward by being linked to guilt of the past, nor does it look forward to the uncertainty of the future. Mature faith is established and built upon a foundation of God’s Word that lives vibrantly in the present. Faith is.

Faith is the Substance

Faith is the substance. There are two worlds: there is the original world known as the spirit world and the created world known as the physical world. While faith cannot be seen with our natural eyes, in the realm of the spirit, faith is a tangible sub- stance. The substance of faith grows and becomes more powerful as our belief in the Word of God increases. Once the substance of faith has fully matured, it becomes the catalyst that activates the power of God’s promise, which is His grace.

While we live in the physical realm, we reach into the realm of the spirit with our words of faith. The spoken belief in our heart apprehends the faith in the realm of the spirit and pulls it into the realm of the physical, activating God’s promise that brings victory.

The Substance of Things Hoped For

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Bible hope can be defined as the intense expectation that the promise of God will be fulfilled. While hope is not faith, hope is essential in attaining faith, for without hope in a promise from God, there is nothing to apply your faith to. While some have ridiculed hope, calling it unessential, in reality hope is extremely essential.

Hope is developed by hearing that deliverance is possible and promised by the Word of God. Hope brings the possibility of victory into one’s heart where despair once resided. Hope is the distant flickering light in the dark that reveals the possibility that destruction is not imminent but that victory can be attained.

Although some ridicule hope, there are two things we must always remember. Paul said that we should hold fast the confession of our hope (Hebrews 10:23). In 1 Corinthians 13:13, we are told there are three things we are to abide or continue in: faith, hope, and love. While we are told that the greatest of these three is love, never forget that hope made it to the top three.

The Evidence of Things Not Seen

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. In a court of law, victory or defeat is based upon the evidence shown. The courtroom of God is in the spirit world but remember, the spirit world cannot be seen from the physical world unless supernaturally revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Even though the substance called faith that has been built by the revelation of the Word of God may not be visible in the physical realm, it becomes the evidence in the courtroom of heaven. Our faith becomes the proof our Advocate needs when presenting our case. The Judge is committed by the precedence of His own Word, so when the evidence of faith is presented, He must pronounce the verdict that He promised. The promise is then moved from the realm of the unseen into the realm of our physical existence. Healing, prosperity, and deliverance are the outcome of the trial because the Judge in heaven has proclaimed that He has been pleased by our faith.

Faith is believing that God has done what He said He would do, and believing it so much that everything we say and every- thing we do is based upon that belief. While hope is a good thing, we must always remember that hope looks forward to the promise of God while faith believes that the promise is here right now.

Someone might say, “But I don’t see it. How can I say it’s here if I don’t see it?” Paul addressed this issue when he made the statement that we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). In other words, we believe what God says in spite of what we may or may not see. In its simplest form, faith is believing God.

If a person just simply believes God, then faith will grow and become strong. With all the definitions that scholars have come up with through the years, by far the best definition of faith is the one given by God in His Word. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

While this phrase ultimately defines faith, many times we still need greater understanding. Because of this, the following outline is to help you understand faith.