DAILY CATHOLIC WEDNESDAY June 10, 1998 vol. 9, no. 112
KEY TO LIVING GOD'S WILLColumn by Father John H. Hampsch, C.M.F.
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INTRODUCTION |
"Faith: Key to the Heart of God"Forty-Third Installment: Faith's SimplicityWhen a husband and wife are deeply in love with each other, there is no effort required in trusting each other. If you are truly close to the Lord, faith in Him becomes effortless. It is a kind of leaning on Him, with a peace and security.One time I was praying for some people for healing and right in the middle of that healing session I was straining and gripping the person's head and relying somehow on physical effort to bring about this miracle. Suddenly, in the midst of my teeth-gritting efforts, the Lord just seemed to speak and say, "I'll do it!" I was acting as if I were doing it, that somehow I was the healer. But I'm not the healer, the Lord is the healer. When that realization hit me, I said, "Lord, take over. Just use my hands as your hands. I can't heal cancer, blindness, and such things, Lord. Just channel all your healing love through me. It changed my entire mentality. At that moment God made me realize I had been doing it the wrong way. I was making it effortful rather than effortless. The closer you get to the Lord, the more you lean on Him with reckless abandon, the less effort it requires to practice faith, for real faith is a form of surrender. It is not necessary to scream and yell to heal or to cast out demons. Just a simple faith. I saw a man once conferring the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was laying hands on a person and commanding them to receive the Holy Spirit. Sweat was pouring down his face and he was gripping the person tightly, squinting mightily and grinding his teeth; expending vast amounts of energy. I couldn't help but wonder if the man was baptizing in the Spirit, or was it the Lord? St. John the Baptist said Jesus was the one that baptizes in the Spirit; we simply administer the prayerful act. And the same is true of the other gifts of the Spirit. He is the one who does it. It is important to distinguish between the natural desires and the real promptings of the Holy Spirit behind your prayer of faith. Again, I John 5:14 speaks of the confidence that we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, the request will be granted. The prayer of faith then is a definite request in line with God's will, made with definitive faith for a definite answer-and presuming you have it, simply stepping out and claiming it. In the next installment, I will touch on "Anointed Faith."
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KEYS TO LIVING GOD'S WILL DAILY CATHOLIC |