What Does True Faith Look Like?

I have been at training camp for less than a week, which frankly isn’t a lot of time. Yet, in that minuscule amount of time, God has shown himself in ways I never thought possible. This has been the most difficult post for me to write simply because I cannot fully comprehend what is happening. God is moving so much around me and through me that I can’t even describe it in words. My faith has been stretched and challenged minute by minute. I will try my best to give you even just a glimpse into the endless, everlasting love that God has been showing me this week.

It all started on the first day when I was saying bye to all my comforts and family for nine months. We heard a sermon and it discussed the call to action we have as the Kingdom of God. It set the stage for this week because it talked about how it’s not just me who should be radicalizing my faith. We are all called to make disciples of many nations, but we often lose sight of that when we live our normal day-to-day lives. It challenged me, and even my parents who were there with me for the send-off. 

The most incredible and life-altering realization for me so far has just been how excruciatingly deep God’s love for us is. God gave everything for us. I never truly understood how emotionally embedded God is in my life. God isn’t someone who just watches over us making sure we follow Him because he’s our King. He wants an actual relationship with us. He mourns with us when we mourn, His heart breaks for us. All He wants is to have a relationship with us. He aches for our hearts, He wants us to be made whole. He must watch us wander aimlessly, blinded by our own ignorance.

The incomprehensibility of God inspires me. I see all these attributes of God and just start to question what is real and what simply can’t be true. I hear testimonies but I can’t truly shut out the doubts. What if they are accidents, what if its just luck? I have so many lies from the enemy that circulate in my head. But God. But God tells me what’s true, but God shows me a new way. But God blesses me and allows me to overflow with living water. He fuels me with a flame that burns so bright it blinds demons and satan Himself. All it takes is a relationship. 

This week has questioned what it means for me to be a Christian. I always just said I was a believer but I heard something in a sermon that stuck with me. Even the demons believed that God existed. Are they redeemed? Are they new creations with the power of the Holy Spirit inside of them? Absolutely not. What does being a Christian truly look like? That’s what I’ve been and still am wrestling with. My relationship with God has been tested. It feels like the devil has been scratching at every last blemish he can in my life. But God has been using the trials I face to teach me to lean into Him. It’s been mesmerizing, I wake up every day in awe of where God has placed me. It is surreal to me that I get the opportunity to serve such an incredible Father.

Miracles have been a very odd concept for me to wrap my head around ever since I became a Christian. I’ve heard many stories in the Bible of the sick being healed and the blind regaining sight, even the dead being raised. It always made me think to myself, “if I saw a miracle like that in my life, it would be impossible for me to doubt.” Fast forward to the beginning of World Race and I hear this, “If God is endless in His power, love, and mercy, why can’t he do it again? He is the same God that could breathe and create the cosmos. Why do we limit His power based on our expectations?” This cut to my core like a bullet through paper. I always have limited God. No sugar coating, I never fully believed in the incredible power of prayer. But, on a leap of faith, I prayed, “God, show me a miracle. Show me a miracle so I can know for certain that I can place my trust in you.”

Thursday, September 1st, I had just finished doing some team building with my squad when we had a discussion. We brought the whole group together to discuss how the team building went as a group and it was good. However, in the end, God showed His presence. One of the team members had hurt their ankle to a point where it was extremely swollen and they could barely walk on it. So as a group, we all laid our hands on her and prayed. We prayed that God would heal her, but quite frankly, I didn’t truly believe anything was going to happen. I figured we would pray and then she might feel seen and recognized but that would be the end of it. I believed we’d still just have to throw in the towel and just go to the hospital. But God. We finished praying and she was told to stand up and walk. She slowly, but surely, rose to her feet with a face of intense nervousness. But when she was standing, she realized, and said, “wait, I feel no pain.” We all looked down, and nearly all the swelling had disappeared. She jumped and shouted and we all screamed in amazement. But I’m stubborn, so I still doubted. I thought, “there could be many explanations for this, it’s probably just adrenaline.” But God wasn’t finished. More people lifted up their hands asking for prayer over their pain and injury, and one by one God healed them. Not in an, “oh I think I feel a little more relaxed now,” way. I mean in a “Jesus I’m in awe of you, my pain has been eradicated” type way. God healed a woman who hadn’t felt anything but pain in her back for eight years. In seconds her life was changed. God literally took nails that were broken in half and bleeding and mended them back together seamlessly. I physically could not contain myself from screaming and shouting and jumping off the walls. I began uncontrollably shaking, it felt like there was lighting burning through my veins and I just needed to explode. I just wanted to let out every ounce of breath I had to praise the Lord. The final healing was different though. God healed the man partially. He removed the pain from his leg, but not the stiffness. We prayed two more times, yet, no improvement. But God showed me a vision. It was Peter, in a boat, being called out to by Jesus. Jesus said, “come.” But Peter lost his focus on Jesus and began to sink. I contemplated this vision for a while. But then it clicked. We healed five people that night. However, we had begun to lose sight of who we are. Was we our group? Or was we, us and God? We had been so blown away by the miracles that were happening that we lost sight of the one who worked through us. We shifted the focus onto ourselves, thinking that we were the ones doing miracles.

God fills all of His Kingdom with the Holy Spirit. This spirit allows us to do amazing things through Christ. You don’t have to be in a different country, a different state, or even a different town. God blesses us all with the power to cast out demons and heal the ill and hurting. As Christians, we have power that we cannot even comprehend. Who are we that we can give as generously as this? How can we serve a God who blesses us with so much even though we forsake him so often? We are the Lord’s Kingdom, we are His chosen ones, how can we go on living without serving Him?

I pray that God works in and through all of you that read this. I want every single person on this earth to know this love I feel. God works in mysterious ways, but in all things, he works for good. 

God bless you all, thank you.

-Gabe