The geography of Faith…

Recently we had an incredible opportunity to take a day with another family and venture into Judea Samaria to see physical evidence of the faith of those that shaped what it means to live a life surrendered to God. For me this time in Israel has been really cool to see where historical events have taken place, but it really has not had an effect on my faith. I know who God is, I know His Spirit is in me, and I know what that means for my life. I have seen the evidence of Him in others in every country we have been to. I am comfortable in not being “overwhelmed” by the geographic location of where His spirit is, because He is with us and guides us daily.

And then there was Shiloh. When I was “stuck” in my shop three years ago reading the bible for 21 hours a day for a week straight the story of Hannah broke something in me. There are so many facets to this story where God’s faithfulness brought healing, allowed legacy to continue, brought hope to His people, and paved the way for a continued revelation of the sovereignty of God even when Israel “needed” a king. All of this from one woman, who “just” wanted to have a child so that she could feel better about herself in her marriage. One layer deeper in setting the scene is a husband who did not follow what everyone else was doing in stopping coming to the tabernacle three times a year. This allowed his wife to be in the right place when she was at the end of herself. This story is in 1 Samuel 1 and even if you are familiar with it, read it again. For me, being at this place, seeing the stone outline of the first permanent tabernacle, knowing what transpired here, seeing all of the historical evidence through all of the years that “proves” this is THE place, broke me again. I was not crying (which if you know me is a miracle) I just knew more deeply than before that God is answering prayers, He is faithful, and it is on each one of us individually to decide if we are going to bring our “answered prayers” back to Him to serve His purpose in prospering His kingdom and seeking His nature to be expressed through them. That is what Hannah did, it was not an ultimatum if you answer me, then I will do this for you. It was the reality for her that she knew you are the only one that can fulfill this and you deserve all of the fruit that my healing bears.

Three years ago God healed me. He healed me mentally, emotionally, physically, and most importantly He healed me spiritually. He was the only one that could do it and He is the only that deserves the product of that healing. So He gets my family, all of us. He gets every ounce, and every second. This has allowed us to continue to know Him more deeply, and continue to see the fruit of the healing that He has brought us. I am not saying we are perfect; the Lord knows I have had to make many phone calls back to someone after we hung up to retract something that “Jake said” and was not of or from God. But the faith of Hannah, and the Faithfulness of God in her life allowed me a practical application of how to give my family up for His kingdom in totality. If there were a physical tabernacle to drop us off at, I would have packed us up and gone. But now, we are the tabernacle and temple of the Lord. We do not have to go anywhere to make good on our side of our prayers. We repent, turn around, change our mindset, and head our lives in a new direction and the Lord blesses it by saving us. Which means healing, salvation, deliverance, wholeness, and preservation. This is the reward that Hannah got. Because of her faithfulness in re-returning when the Lord had shown up, it brought the same to Eli, the tribes of Israel, King David, and countless others. We stood on the rocks where Hannah prayed so fervently that Eli thought she was drunk, I picture the same spectacle that King David portrayed when bringing the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. She was not worried about her dignity, she was only concerned about God knowing her heart. We need to remember to leave our dignity at the doors of the tabernacle and only come in with the desire for God to know where we need healing that only He can bring so that we can give Him back what only He deserves. People do not need to think you are drunk, but God knows when we are worried about how we sound and look over being fully transparent and vulnerable in His presence.

There was so much more that we saw this day. So much that simply makes sense with how Abraham would have traveled with such a large entourage from modern day Iraq. Genesis 12 says “he went up as far as Shechem” and this is where the Canaanite’s were. So to be safe he would not have set up camp in the valley that He came up which is talked about in Song of Solomon 6 “you are as beautiful my darling as Tirzah”. So this place, known as Mount Kabir, is the only place where “oak of Moreh” makes “sense” to be. There is an oak there that sits by itself, has survived who knows how many fires that are intentionally set by Israelis and Arabs alike to keep the other from settling in the area and is approximately 3000 years old. This geographically makes sense where the Lord would have shown Abraham the land that his descendants would be given. This is all before Sarai and Abraham have children mind you.

I say all of this to say, when the prayer may seem crazy to others (and yourself) and when the promise does not make sense, God is faithful. My wife held onto a promise of who I was for 14 years and prayed prayers I am sure at times felt hopeless and redundant. God is FAITHFUL! Have faith and pray! He is still answering prayers and fulfilling promises.