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Many people think faith is acting like something is so when it really isn't so, and if we do that longenough, then it will become so. But that's not it at all. Faith is real.

Hebrews 11:1 says,

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Faith is substance. his is saying that faith is real. !t is the e"idence of things not seen. #otice it didn'tsay $things that don't e%ist.$ hey do e%ist. hey &ust aren't seen.

"en in the natural world, we'"e come to reali(e that there are things that do e%ist that we can't see.)e can't see tele"ision signals, but they do e%ist. !n fact, where"er you are right now, there aretele"ision signals right there with you. !f you say $#o there aren't$ &ust because you can't see or hearthem, that doesn't mean they don't e%ist. !t &ust means you aren't "ery smart. hey do e%ist, they are

&ust unseen. hey are unseen realities.

* tele"ision set can make unseen signals "isible. )hen we see the images is not when they becamereal. hey were already there. * tele"ision set doesn't generate images. he set &ust recei"es thesignal and con"erts it into sights and sounds that we can percei"e. But the tele"ision signals werealready there, before we tuned them in.

+robably e"ery person reading this letter has watched tele"ision when suddenly the picture wentblank. )hat did you do ! bet you didn't call the tele"ision station and complain about them stoppingtheir broadcast. he first thing you did was check and see if e"erything was working on your tele"isionset. )as the electricity on )as it plugged in -id a tube go out or did some circuit melt ouchecked your recei"er to see what was wrong with it. ou trust that the station broadcasts /0 2. oudon't 3uestion that until you eliminate all the possible problems with your set.

4ikewise, 5od is real and does e%ist. He &ust can't be seen. He is broadcasting all His power andblessings /0 2. !t's ne"er 5od's transmitter that is broken. !t's always our recei"er that is the problem.!f we ask 5od for something and we don't see it manifest instantly, most people 3uestion why 5odhasn't answered that prayer yet. hey assume that because they ha"en't seen or heard anything,nothing has happened. hat's all wrong. )e need to ha"e more faith in 5od than we ha"e in atele"ision station.

here is a "ery good illustration of this truth in / 6ings 7. lisha, the prophet of 5od, was re"ealing the8yrian's battle plans to the king of !srael. "ery time the king of 8yria tried to ambush the king of!srael, lisha would warn the king of !srael, and he would ambush the 8yrian's ambush. hishappened so often that the king of 8yria finally asked his ser"ants to re"eal who the traitor was. Heknew that the king of !srael could not be maneu"ering like he was without inside information.

)hen one of the king of 8yria's ser"ants said that lisha, the prophet of 5od, was re"ealing the wordsthat the king of 8yria said in his bed chamber to the king of !srael, the king of 8yria sent his armies tocapture lisha.

8econd 6ings 7:19 says,

"And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall wedo?"

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testimony of her goiter being healed. Howe"er, the goiter was still "isible. But the people praised 5od,thinking that the healing would manifest itself shortly.

he ne%t year at the same campmeeting, the woman got up again and praised the 4ord for herhealing, but there still wasn't any "isible proof. his concerned a lot of people, but they didn't say

anything. hen the ne%t year, the same thing happened. his was too much for most of the people,and it caused the leaders of the meeting to approach this woman and tell her she couldn't testify ofthis healing again until the goiter was gone.

he woman told the 4ord that she knew He had healed her, and she didn't ha"e to see "isible resultsto belie"e it. But for the sake of the unbelie"ers, she asked the 4ord to physically remo"e the growth.!t disappeared and the woman showed them what she already knew was true. ou can get that strongin faith. our faith is substance and all the e"idence you need. Faith is real.

!'"e e%perienced this in my own life. )hen my youngest son, +eter, died on March 0, /;;1, my wifeand ! spoke our faith and said, $ he first report is not the last report.$ )e spoke resurrection life backinto +eter's body, and then we headed into town. !t was one hour and fifteen minutes from the time wegot the call until we got to where +eter was. -uring that time, ! was operating in faith. ! rememberedprophecies that had not yet come to pass in +eter's life, and therefore, ! knew it wasn't time for +eterto die. ! re&oiced by faith, seeing +eter ali"e and well.

My oldest son, hristian life. his iswalking by faith and not by sight ?/ >or. 9:2@.