Dare to Believe

You may remember when you were little hanging out with a group of friends when someone came up with a hair brain idea. To entice someone to act they would say, "I dare you." If that did not do the trick the next two things out of their mouth worked every time. "I double dare you. I tripled dog dare you."

In my neighborhood a triple dog dare could not be passed on. You had to act. Your honor was at stake even though little kids may not even understand what honor is. All I know is if one of my friends wanted me to do something good or bad all they had to do was to triple dog dare me. That little phrase set in motion a courage and resolve to act. The consequences of those actions did not deter me from following through. A triple dog dare could not be resisted.

Today as an adult I look back on those times with a wry smile and shake my head. Why did those words entice me to do things I would later regret? Today I am more sensible in a way. I have outgrown those childish and immature actions for the most part.

There is still an area in my life where I am as impulsive and reckless as I used to be in my youth. That is the area of following God and walking by faith. At forty-six I still dare to believe God. I take Him at His word. When I read a promise in the Bible I believe that promise includes me. When God challenges me to believe Him for something, even if it seems ridiculous, I choose to believe. I dare to believe God for impossible things. No dream is out of reach. No vision is too grand. No task seems undoable with God's held. I dare to believe when others do not. I run toward impossible odds like David running to battle Goliath. My confidence is God. What He wills I dare to believe will come to pass.

Let me illustrate. Sometime ago this year God planted in my heart to hold a Shake the City Revival in Paradise. This is not so unusual. After further praying I sensed the Lord wanted me to use an old friend from my past to lead the worship for the revival. Here is where it gets unusual. We have scheduled the services to go for at least two straight weeks. Fourteen days and nights of worship, preaching, and trusting for revival.

I just got off the phone with my friend who will be leading our worship. Chris told me that people in his church cannot understand why we are meeting for two weeks. It is beyond their comprehension. Chris and I both have been a part of meetings where God moved in extraordinary fashion and you wanted to be in the presence of the Lord night after night. We have seen moves of God that lasted three weeks or more. I have read about revivals lasting for three and four years. Do we at Faith Community Church dare to believe God for something supernatural and miraculous for the Paradise community.

Daring to believe God for true revival that turns the city upside down is the desire of my heart. I actually believe God is not only going to meet with us for two straight weeks but I am open to the idea of meeting longer. God is the desire of my heart. I believe backslidden people will come back to God repentance. I believe multitudes of lost people will be saved. I believe this revival will have far and lasting impact on the Paradise community.

Yesterday I wrote about how from time to time God plants outrageous dreams in the hearts of His people like He did with Moses. In those moments we have to dare to believe God or sink back into doubt. I honestly do not understand why so many in church do not dare to believe God for more. It is like we all want to believe God can do the impossible. We seldom hear about miracles though. We seldom hear about how God worked powerfully in this life or in that church. There are a few exceptions. When we do hear or read about those situations we are quick to ask why God does not move like that where we are. We sing the songs and hear the sermons but the power of God is not always on display. We settle for the normal and the routine.

People sit and wonder if God really can and does work like He did in the pages of the Bible. We long for more than the routine. We yearn to see God splash on the pages of history in our day and do things that leave us awed. We look and wonder if it is all really true. Over and over again God responds to such longing hearts by challenging our faith. In essence God says, "Dare to believe Me for this." He then lays something on our hearts and in our minds that makes our knees buckle. Instead of faith we cower in fear.

We fear if we follow through with God's promptings it will spell financial doom for us. We fear we will come out looking like a fool if we dare to believe God. We fear risking our reputations. I know. I have been there in the past and I am there again.

To schedule a revival to last for two weeks is strange. If God does not move powerfully I will look like a fool and I will be preaching to a largely empty building before two weeks is up. I cannot manufacture revival. I cannot usher in the living holy presence of the Lord. I cannot transform one heart or cause one person to fall to their knees in brokenness and repentance. Those are things only God can do.

It would have been easy for Elijah to fear failure when he stood on Mount Carmel in that great show down with the 850 false prophets. Elijah cast fear aside and dared to believe God for the miraculous. You know the story. You know how he not only trusted God but saturated the sacrifice with water along with digging trenches and filling them with water. Elijah dared to believe that his God would truly answer by fire. The whole nation watched and waited to see what Elijah's God would do.

He came in fire and consumed not only the sacrifice but also all the water in the trenches. Immediately the people fell on their faces saying, "The Lord He is God."

For years I have been fascinated with the prayer Elijah prayed before God sent the fire. You read that prayer and you know he dared to believe God for something supernatural. Read it for yourself. "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back." [I Kings 18:36-37]

Elijah did not create this stage. He said in his prayer that he did all of it at the word of God. I interpret that to mean God instructed Elijah to take this bold stand. God called for this dramatic show down. It was all God's idea. Elijah dared to believe and acted on that belief in obedience.

Why don't we see God doing more miraculous things? Why don't we dare to believe Him for more? The problem is not on God's end. It is our lack of belief.

I know what I am talking about. If you have kept up with my life you know that we have been trying to sell our house in Seminole for over a year. Finally we agreed to lease that house for a year. The lease agreement runs until April of 2013. Before we signed the lease a couple from Seminole looked at the house and loved it. I wrote about this family because the kids were playing in the back yard and when summoned to leave they told their parents they were playing with Jesus. We wanted to sell our house to that family but they could not buy it at the time.

Nobody else seemed interested in buying it and we agreed to the lease. Here is where this story gets interesting. In my private times with the Lord He has dared me to believe for several things. There is a house Brenda and I recently looked at with our realtor. This is the house I feel God wants me to dare to believe Him for. There are several impossibilities staring us in the face. First, the house is way out of our price range. The price is a menacing mountain. I feel this is the house God wills for my family. I cannot shake it. We have looked at other houses that were cheaper and I really liked several of them. God keeps calling me to believe Him for this particular house. Wisdom would dictate forget even considering a house while you are in a lease agreement. Wisdom would say you cannot afford that house. What I hear God whispering to me is dare to believe.

The other impossibility for all of this is the lease on our house. We are contractually obligated to lease our house for the next nine months. My hands are tied. I will not break that lease agreement. I have begun to dare to believe that God could move the people leasing our home to find a permanent home and want out of the lease. This would be a win win for all of us. I cannot force this to happen.

I have only told one person these things I am writing down today. I pray about them secretly and trust God to work.

I have been silently praying over all these issues. Guess who called me yesterday. No it was not the people leasing our house. The couple called me who really want our house and who's kids played with Jesus in the backyard. Their financing is all together. They more than qualify for our house. I talked with the husband and explained the situation. They are believer's as well.

He told me just the night before he and his family prayed God would give them our house. He is daring to believe God for that house, our house. Six hours away I am daring to believe God for another house. We both agreed to dare to believe God to move in the heart of the people leasing our house. I know that all sounds quirky.

That is not the way real estate works. I choose to put my trust in God to be my realtor. I find it more than coincidental that this man would call me yesterday when the Lord had already put all these things in my heart. So what do I do. I dare to believe God to do something miraculous. I pray and I watch expectantly to see what God will do. I may appear foolish in the world's eyes. It would not be the first time and I am pretty sure it will not be the last time.

Regardless of what people think about me or the ways the Edwards family does things, I dare to believe  God. That is my focus. When God instructs me to trust Him for something like; building a church, trusting Him for provision of a house, holding a lengthy revival, giving away my possessions, asking for things like carpet, a screen, and signs for our buildings I dare to believe.

Now back to Elijah. Elijah did not dream up that great show down and promote himself on the national stage. God put him there. God called him to believe for a miracle of fire. Likewise, I am not seeking grandeur. I walk with God and what God instructs me to trust Him for I dare to believe. I believe Him for revival. I believe him for a third miracle house. I believe Him for a revived and growing church. I believe Him for twenty-five acres down the road for Faith Community Church. I believe Him for another $130,000 to pay off the debt on the hospital in Honduras. I dare to believe God my books will sell millions of copies.

You may read this and say, "Matt, you are off your rocker. You are losing touch with reality." My reply would be, "You know, you may be right. But the greatest reality in my life is God. He works in strange and mysterious ways. Sometimes the things He does might be considered weird. Yet, I dare to believe Him. I have found He can be trusted. All the time and every time He is faithful. When God comes through as He always does, the whole world will know God did those things and not Matt Edwards. He will get all the glory and I hope others will be inspired to dare to believe Him in their situations?"