To Think About…
by Norman Grubb

Faith

"Go, throw yourself into the sea"
-Mark 11:23

Speaking the word of faith (having once settled what the desire is) could not be more simple. It is the "obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26). That is all the "works" involved. It is a work of faith to this extent: all that the outer appearances can pour on us at such a "speaking" moment, they will pour. That is to say, we shall likely feel the full impact of the foolishness of faith. It looks absurd. It is absurd, because the agony of faith is that nothing can ever be experienced until after we’ve committed ourselves to it, not before. As we’ve seen, that is actually true in a minor way of even the least act of everyday faith, like sitting on a chair. How much more when it is these leaps into what is invisible and impossible and unattainable by human methods!

So there is a travail of faith because of the new assaults on us by every emotional reaction to the absurdity and impossibility of it. And equally, by every rational objection to what spirit-faith has always been–the irrational. So in that sense, we say speaking this word is not simple. Yet it is, because it is just speaking the word! And that is why something equivalent to "confessing it with our mouth" is a seal on it–a means by which, once we have said a thing, it’s a settled matter–and the affirmation to ourself or to others helps to settle us into it. But that’s all. These are our supreme moments when the rivers of the Spirit are flowing out of us on our spirit level. This is the faith that gives substance to things hoped for.

–From Yes, I Am.