We often hear of the importance and value of doctrinal development in the Christian church over the past 2000 years, but how much do we consider the influence of other developments on our faith during that same time period? Have the historical events and various sociological and philosophical developments served to lead God’s people closer to Him or farther away from Him in their daily living?

Many Christians still insist on a literal, seven-day creation, but many others don’t. We have no trouble attributing massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and their consequences to God, but we don’t see seas or rivers being separated or manna falling from heaven or storms being stilled in order to save God’s people today. We might have trouble believing such phenomena (and attributing them to God’s supernatural intervention) if we did see them.

Especially for the last 500 years or so, Christian faith has been moving farther and farther away from belief in anything supernatural. Along with the Reformation, which represented a return to Biblical truth and personal faith in God through Jesus Christ, came the Renaissance, the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment. Man began to discover wonderful things about himself and the world he lived in, but he also began to rely more and more on his own ability to solve his problems and meet his needs rather than on God. It is a dangerous course we have taken because it can only finally lead to a rejection of all things supernatural, even belief in God, who is Himself altogether supernatural.

In a brief incident early in Jesus’ ministry that involved the healing of a leper, we learn something very special about God. It came from the mouth of the leper, but it was confirmed by Jesus. It was a revelation of a divine characteristic that should be just as relevant to us today as it was then. Often Jesus asked those who came to him for help if they believed that He was able to help them—to heal them, to free them, to restore their sight or hearing, etc. From these and other scriptures we see that there is a clear, often necessary link between the faith of the one who would be cured and the cure itself. This time, something else was added to the miracle. Not just faith that Jesus could cure the leper, but a belief that Jesus could if He was willing to do it. Jesus, filled with compassion, said He was willing and then healed him.

The Greek word used here for “willing” is thelo, which means “to be disposed to, to wish or desire to, to delight in,” and even includes the element of love. More than that, the word carries with it a determination to execute or follow through regarding that desire.

It is a character trait of God that we learn from other scriptures as well. It means for us that God is not only able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,” but He wants to do it and even intends to do it! The problem is that we don’t believe it; therefore, we seldom experience it.

God has not changed and will not change. That means neither His infinite power nor His willingness to use it has changed. But He does make the supernatural use of His power contingent upon our asking for it in faith. The New Testament is very clear about that.

It is another means in which God, our Father, can be involved in our lives. That’s really what He wants. He loves us. He wants to be in fellowship with us. He delights in meeting our needs (though not our selfish whims and desires). And He wants us to trust Him, rely on Him, and seek Him first in everything.

For us, it means changing our faith from a faint hope when we pray to a real expectation. It still doesn’t mean that God will always do what we ask, but then we can be certain that the only reason He doesn’t do it, even if it requires powerful, supernatural intervention, is that it is better for us that He doesn’t. Either way, we win and we can rejoice in it…and God gets the glory He deserves and the personal involvement He desires.