The Power of Belief

The Power of Belief

By David Woodbury

In western culture today The Salvation Army may well be a pale imitation of what it once was. True, it may appear successful, effective and relational, but the reality is that it lacks the potent energy that once fuelled the early Salvation Army. Somewhere, along the timeline of our existence, some vital dynamic went missing. Perhaps we became too sophisticated, too influenced by other religious organisations that surrounded us, or we allowed too much of the influence of an unchristian culture to seep into our organisational thinking and structure. Perhaps it is this very situation Paul had in mind when he wrote to Timothy: They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. (2 Timothy 3:5 – NLT) 

In a previous post I explored the impact that early Salvation Army song writers had on the mindset of the organisation and its soldiers:

What are we to make of their literary and music sentiments? Some of the aspirations expressed never really eventuated. The whole world was not redeemed in William Booth’s time, nor has it since. Are we to see them as largely symbolic and some sort of poignant gesture? Were they just really poor deluded souls completely out of touch with pragmatic reality? Or could it be that these early Salvationist had discovered a unique energy source unlike any other that empowered this asset poor organisation?

What they intrinsically knew, was that an unpretentious belief in an ideal creates a powerful and contagious energy. It was that energy that allowed the early Salvation Army to achieve incredible feats around the world. When people believe in, and wholeheartedly commit themselves to an ideal they unleash enormous power and potential, an energy out of all proportion to the size of their organisation.

Is this energy source, this potent dynamic, biblically authentic or is it simply borrowed from humanistic philosophies?

In Ephesians Paul not only gives us a clue, but also a process into tapping into this remarkable energy available to Christians; I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 1:19-20 – NLT)

Two personal elements clearly stand out in the passage:

• the need for us to fully comprehend (you will understand) this incredible energy,
• and the need for us to commit to a rock solid belief (for us who believe). 

Paul’s prayer that we might understand is significant and timeless for one of the great dangers of the Christian in the kingdom lifestyle is imbalance; either it is an experience of purely head knowledge or a retreat into sheer emotionalism. Both the mind and the emotions are necessary and desirable but need to be balanced if we are to have an authentic experience of the incredible energy that can flow from belief. It is when the mind and the heart are totally engaged in a well-adjusted mindset that we can experience something of the incredible greatness of God’s power.

The reality is of course, that this incredible greatness is way beyond our comprehension; however, something of this divine energy is available to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise of Jesus in Luke 24:49 was that after his ascension he would send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised, and he would fill you with power from heaven.

Our early salvationists had little in the way of resources in their knowledge of the Holy Spirit, save the Bible. No great library of information such as we have today in books and electronic information and no spiritual gifts seminars, or the like. While early Salvation Army leaders would begin to write and teach about the Holy Spirit, these pioneers had a simplistic and innate sense of His great presence and power which energised their fledgling movement. Our history records that, empowered by the Holy Spirit; they achieved great feats for God

There may well be a sense in which all the information we have today about the Holy Spirit works as a barrier in our relationship with Him, and the result may be that such information confuses us, rather than assists us. The danger is that we tend to rely on books, podcasts and video presentations etc. when in fact we need to be working at being tuned in to the Holy Spirit on a very personal level. The cacophony of noise in today’s religious market place is, at times, overwhelming and distracting, and we need to get back to the simplistic attitude of our pioneers and listen intently for the voice of the Holy Spirit, and when we hear, like Samuel utter the words: Speak Lord, your servant is listening (1 Samuel 3:9 – NLT).

Paul says this incredible greatness of God’s power is available for us who believe and it may well we need to move belief and faith out of the realms of theology and into the nuts and bolts of everyday living.  A belief in God is an intentional, rational choice we consciously make. It is not a resolve that removes doubt and human frailty, far from it, for these will always be part of our humanity. It is an intentional decision, taken with a clear mind that acknowledges the existence and supremacy of God, His claim on our lives, and makes a commitment to conducting our lives in accordance with His will as we understand it.

It is a confusing mistake to expect that somehow when we commit our lives to God we will be enveloped with mountains of faith and all doubts will be removed.  Jesus himself understood that faith and belief would have minute beginnings. In Luke 7: 6 He concedes that our faith and belief could be likened to the minute mustard seed. However, we cannot be just satisfied with the mustard seed of faith and belief. It will simply decay if we do not endeavour to develop it.

There is a sense in which faith and belief needs constantly to be renewed and reinforced simply because the non-believing world in which we live will bombard us with philosophies that will undermine our spiritual life. Many of these philosophies will, on the surface, sound quite reasonable and acceptable and their subliminal impact often goes unseen, and in unguarded moments we may well give unconscious assent to them. Heresy is an insidious thing for it usually has enough elements of truth embedded in it to make it sound highly believable, reasonable and plausible.

The reality is that our faith must lead us to an unshakable trust in God otherwise it is questionable. When the Bible uses the word trust, it implies a daring confident security or actions based on that sense of security. We should not confuse trust and faith. While they are closely related they are not the same, but rather trust is an outcome of our faith; we trust because we believe. When we implicitly believe the promises of God in his word we act in accordance to that belief, even at times when circumstances seem contrary. Hebrews 11 speak of a faith that accepts and believes the truth about God and the redemptive work of his son, Jesus Christ. Consequently, the practical outcome of that faith is trust, which works itself out by exercising that faith.

Very early on our pioneer Salvationists came to understand the indelible nexus between faith and simple trust and it unleashed a potent energy that drove the early ministry of The Salvation Army to great heights. The incredible greatness of God’s power has in no way been diminished nor has the availability and dynamism of the Holy Spirit. The only thing lacking is our humility to take God at his word and our determination to follow the simple example of our pioneers. We need to recapture that simplistic and innate sense of belief which energised our fledgling movement.