January 23, 2011 Forward Motion Faith

Forward Motion Faith to Die

This heading probably caught you off guard.  Faith to die?  Are you kidding Pastor Teague?  I barely have enough faith to live every day of my life in Christian experience much less think about dying!  Give me a break!

Let me share an experience with you I had while pastoring Evangel Temple in Warren, Michigan.  God allowed me to learn a valuable lesson from a woman of God whose name I will not mention due to the privacy of the family.  Her husband was on our elders council.  She was a mild, kind and loving woman of faith.  She was diagnosed with brain cancer and we watched her dwindle down to nearly nothing.  Her spirit was strong but her body was giving out.  She endured the normal treatments and we sincerely prayed for her healing.  Healing didn’t come in the physical realm – it came in a divine form that would teach me a lesson I will never forget. I received that dreaded call one afternoon and drove to their house just a few blocks from the church.   They had set up a hospital bed in her home.   Hospice had been involved for a few weeks ( these folk are angels by the way).   I sat on the edge of the bed that day and witnessed a faith miracle.  I watched her leave her family with a smile on her face and a glow about her that was nothing short of the Shekinah Glory of God.  It was as though her face lit the room up with the warm glow of the presence of God.  I have never experienced anything like it before.  The Holy Spirit whispered in my ear and said to me, “She had faith to die.”  Unbelievable!  While writing this blog I can sense that divine presence as though it were just yesterday!

I say all this because I was reading scripture this evening in Acts 6 -7 about Stephen’s encounter with death.  Acts 6.15 says that his face shone as an “angel.”  The Sanhedrin Council got a glimpse of a man who was full of grace and the Holy Spirit.  He was full of God!  His face was aglow with the very presence of God.   The Sanhedrin Council was a cold-hearted bunch.  They sat a horseshoe-shaped conference table and handed out religious judgments as though they were the voice of God themselves. They missed it on this one.

Stephen was run out-of-town and stoned.  They tied him to a scaffold about twice the size of a man.  The first stone thrown was at his chest.  The second stone was hurled at him with significant force.  If this didn’t kill him – the crowd would run at him collectively with force and throw stones at him simultaneously.  The process of throwign stones continued until he was dead.  His body would remain strapped to the scaffolding until sunset.  It was in this position as he was being stoned to death he managed the words, “Lay not this sin to their charge!”   Stephen died after preaching a powerful message that set his murderers off (Acts 7.1-53).  This is a man who had the faith to die.  He died as Christ-like as anyone ever could. 

I watched one late afternoon a woman die with the glowing presence of God on her face.  She didn’t fight it.  She persevered with great faith.  Strong faith.  Faith that took her by the hand and led her from here to there.  Faith that assisted her in managing her last breath here and taking her next one in celestial surroundings.  Great faith!  Awesome faith! 

Some “faith critic morons” would argue my point.   They would harshly accuse her, her family adn myself with having no faith.  Bunk!  Hogwash!  Asinine accusations!  But I would only point to Hebrews 11 – the great faith chapter.  Here is the hall of faith of those who have fought a good fight, kept the faith and have entered into their reward.  But wait a minute…hold on!  Some died – never receiving the promise.  Look at this passage with me:

Hebrews 11:13

13  All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

This is a faith that some “faith freaks” have a hard time with!  This is faith that never sees a manifestation of something promised prior to death!   This is faith to die with!  They died in faith without receiving the promises BUT HAVING SEEN THEM AND WELCOMED THEM FROM A DISTANCE…!!!!

I sat and watched a woman of great faith take her last breath.  She had seen something from and welcomed it from a distance – knowing she was a stranger here on earth.  I believe she saw the face of the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the Father’s right hand.  I believe she grabbed hold of something from a distance and died in great faith!!

There is a message here for someone who reads this!  Real faith doesn’t know disappointment!  Real faith doesn’t introduce us to loss, death, grief and loneliness!  Why not?  Because real faith is what takes someone from here to there – from a distance to a reality and divine manifestation of something we cannot see as “earthlings”. 

Hang tough people. When I die I want it said of me that I had the faith to die.  I want to grab hold of seeing something from a distance and welcoming the sight of glory!  Oh yeah!  She taught me that you really can have the faith to die.  Think about this for a moment.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.  If I can hold it in my hand I don’t need faith for it.  While I am alive I don’t need faith for living – I have life and have it more abundantly!  What faith really introduces to us is the reality of dying – seeing eternal life at a distance and welcoming it as we step from this life to our celestial life.  The test of faith is not what we see but rather what we don’t see.  To die in faith is to see something we don’t yet have – we see it and welcome it from a distance.  We see the other side of this life.

I have no idea why I am writing this tonight but I trust someone can understand that when facing death – you can have the faith to die.   Maybe someone you know has passed or is poised to pass from this life to their eternal abode. Let them go.  In faith they see something we can’t.  They see it from a distance!  They welcome it by faith.  By faith they pass and by faith we let them. 

Good night and God bless all of you.