Faith Like Potatoes

Arrow Lake Near Nakusp- B.C.,Canada

February 19, 2010
We’ve been in Canada since Monday and plans are to leave this beautiful part of the country on Sunday heading for California with a couple of stops along the way. It amazes me every day how different – wonderful and fresh and beautiful - everything (for me) is on this road trip. There’s a part of me that keeps wondering if this is going to last – when is the other shoe going to drop and things, me, will be back doing stuff – acting - the old way. But every day that passes the new life grows stronger and the old gets weaker. I lift my hands to Abba and praise Him for His glorious deeds manifest in and around me!

Galena Bay

Anyone seen the movie, “Faith like Potatoes”? We highly recommend it! The interview is especially compelling. Anyway, there is a theme in the movie that jumped out at me and has caused me to do much pondering and meditating and repenting. When Steve introduces us as The Peregrinnatti, he talks about faith as substance and evidence; YHVH steps in - that’s substance and His answer – that’s evidence. This FAITH that is substance and evidence doesn’t leave room for “if”. What kind of faith raises people from the dead; the faith that moves in belief to the “Word of YHVH!” That’s why when we pray we must pray according to the Will of The Father. We must take the time to KNOW His will. When we pray The Father’s will there is no room for “if”. Then, praying the Father’s will requires obedience. What is Abba telling me? Am I willing to do what He is telling me to do?

Ferry Crossing at Galena Bay-B.C., Canada

Several years ago our best friend was tragically killed in a work-related accident. I knew with everything that was in me that his death was not the will of YHVH. I prayed and declared and proclaimed and everything else, but what Abba had asked me to do. I was “afraid” of the opinions of man. The years since I have tried to justify in my mind my lack of obedience; what I needed to do was humble myself and repent. My heart realizes now that I use the word “if” all to frequently in my interactions with Abba; the little word that has huge implications.
We use “if” as a back door just in case Abba doesn’t answer our prayer and then we say “well it must not have been The Father’s will” to heal so and so or to deliver or, as in our friend’s case to raise them from the dead. The strong conviction that came upon me in watching this video is that my faith has become substance and evidence-less. I have emasculated myself with this one tiny, little word. I use it as an excuse why the Power of YHVH is not flowing in my life like “rivers of Living Water” that Yashua promised would flow out of those that believe. I want to believe, I must believe, my faith must become real substance and evidence. The word “if” has no place in the life of a follower of Yashua. No ifs, ands or buts about it! We must learn to pray the prayer of faith, believing YHVH to be who He says He is.
Here is a saying The Father gave me some time ago that had unfortunately become relegated to the cobwebs of my mind, “Trust to see what you have had faith to believe and been obedient to do.” The 4 cylinders in the engine of your car!

Beautiful Mountains Near Hope, B.C., Canada

It is recorded of Yashua in John 10, “The sheep hear His (Yashua’s) voice and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. He goes before them and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice, and a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” When I pray the prayer of faith I am responding to the voice of The Shepherd and following Him. When we are called to an action of faith we come under the unction of the Ruach (Holy Spirit)and The Spirit flows out of us for the Doing of the Father’s will.
When we pray out of an emotional need to see YHVH intervene in a particular circumstance we can come under listening to the voice of a stranger – “Did not God say” – as was said to Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In the movie, “Faith Like Potatoes”, when Angus believed the Lord was telling him to plant potatoes he had a host of nay-Sayers come against his plan. They all had good intentions – wanting to keep him from financial ruin to protecting him from losing his faith when the crop failed due to the lack of rain and the weather forecast of no rain in the foreseeable future. Angus could have listened to their good intentions and not planted potatoes, but if he had done so he would have been following the voice of a stranger not following the voice of The Shepherd. But Angus knew the voice of The Shepherd and was able to resist the temptation to deviate from the word of YHVH to him. By being faithful to The Shepherd a great miracle happened that was witness to the Glory of God.
We must get so in tune with Abba that we walk in His Light, we dwell in the shadow of His wings, under His feathers we shall find refuge. It is in our relationship with Him that we hear His voice telling us what to do. My sheep hear my voice and the voice of a stranger they will not follow. It is the stranger that takes us in our emotional moments and tries to be the voice and authority of YHVH to us. It is at these times that we are pressured to act presumptuously or arrogantly or blindly. Each day as Paul admonishes us we must die to self so it is YHVH’s will we seek and not our own. As bondslaves we put His needs, wants and desires ahead of our own. Our natural self would seek to judge, to heal, to deliver and feed every person that comes across our path, or not, but it is recorded in scripture that Yashua said that “He can do nothing of himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”
I want to hear what Yashua is telling me. I don’t want to trust myself to know what to do. I want to follow Him so closely that when He says rebuke death and raise this person up I want to be in a place of obedience and do what I have been told to do. I want to be in such close relationship with Him that when He says my greater purpose is going to be revealed by this person’s death I want to obey Him rather than the need of my flesh to see a person’s life restored.
Help me Abba to stop lacing my life with excuses and justifications for my inabilities, for in doing so I am essentially blaming You for my lack of power in Your Ruach that comes from being in relationship with You. Forgive me for listening to and following a stranger instead of You Abba. Turn my heart back to You Abba that I might Be all that You created me to Be and Do all that You have for me to Do.
If My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My Face, turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Remember the story of the blind man, the disciples asked, who sinned this man or his parents that he should be born blind? Yashua answered, it was neither that this man nor his parents that sinned that he should be born blind, but that the Glory of YHVH might be revealed.
When we follow The Shepherd, when we obey His voice the Glory of YHVH is made manifest in our midst! Oh to hear and obey!
Even so come Lord Yashua!