When you think of the word “now”, what do you think?
When I graduated from Bible School, I went on a 6-week mission trip. I spent a few days in South Africa and then went on into Zimbabwe.
While I was in South Africa, I was staying with a friend and we had plans to meet someone, and I heard her tell her friend on the phone, “We’ll leave just now.”
And then we just sat there. And we sat and we sat and we stayed where we were at least another half hour. I was getting nervous thinking, “Wow. Here we are just waiting, and this person is probably wondering where we are. She did say we were leaving, and I’m sure I heard the word now.”
So I finally asked my friend, “Shouldn’t we be going? I heard you say we were leaving now.” And her reply was, “Oh, I said we were leaving just now, which means in a little while. If I were going to say we were leaving right this second, I would have said we’re leaving now now!” Oh…Okay. That explains it all. 🙂
Now means now. Right now. At this present moment. Without further delay. Now is a present tense word. It doesn’t mean someday. It doesn’t mean in the future somewhere. Now means right this instant.
Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. (Hebrews 11:1 AMP)
Now faith is…present tense. Faith is now. Faith says that thing God promised, that thing I prayed for, is presently and currently and already mine, even though I can’t see it with my eyes or touch it with my hands. It’s real. It exists. It’s mine. Now.
In the post What Do You Call It?, we looked at when God changed Abram’s name to Abraham so he would be speaking forth the promise of God every time he spoke his name. We looked at calling our mountain what God calls it. Calling sickness healed and calling lack fully supplied.
And many of us do this, but we kind of put it off to the future. When faith contradicts what we actually see with our eyes, we tend to rationalize it and say something like, “God is going to do (insert name of miracle here).” God is going to heal me. God is going to provide for me. And in our mind and in our words we’re saying just now. We’re putting it off to the future sometime.
But that isn’t what faith says. That isn’t what God said about Abraham. He didn’t say to him, “Abram, I’m going to call you Abraham just now…when Sarah starts popping out those babies. You aren’t Abraham yet, but you will be. Just hang tight.”
Abraham didn’t tell people, “Hello, my name is Abram right now, but pretty soon I’m going to get to change it. God is going to give me a baby through Sarai, and THEN we get to change our names. Isn’t that going to be wonderful? I’m going to be Abraham just now!”
No! Faith is now! God said, “Now you are Abraham.” Abraham started saying, “Now I am Abraham.” Not just now….NOW NOW! Right. This. Instant.
I wonder how many people looked at him like he was nuts. “Ummmm, Abram, you do know what that means, right? A father of a multitude? I’m just not seeing it. When I see it – that’s when I’ll call you Abraham.”
It was already a done deal in God’s eyes, so it was already a done deal in Abraham’s eyes. He didn’t wait to see it to believe it. In spite of what he saw, he believed God enough to act on what He said, and He received the promise.
I can’t begin to explain why we have to wait sometimes. Why we don’t just see things immediately in this realm. But oh, there is a realm we cannot see with our eyes. It’s the realm where God dwells. The realm where the promise is a reality as sure as the tea I’m drinking right now.
I heard a minister say once, “If you don’t see it before you see it, you’ll never ever see it.”
Faith sees it. Faith speaks from the revelation of the reality of that realm. And faith is what pulls things from that realm to this one.
It is done currently. Presently. Without further delay. Can you see it?
My prayer is that He will open our eyes to see it and strengthen our faith to stand. And to speak. Present tense. Now now. He is faithful!