The Faith of a Child

The Faith of a Child

by Eric C. Wheeler

Last week I was praying to God asking Him where He was in my life. Lately, it had seemed like He was far away, distant and quiet; so much so that I had been questioning if everything was alright. I wondered if I had been unknowingly sinning. Was He angry with me? Had everything between us just been a dream that I had imagined? You know the thoughts that can sometimes invade your mind. Thoughts that cause doubt, fear, worry, and human reasoning – all of which are described in the Book of Matthew as carnal traits that destroy faith (see Matt. 6:30-31; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8). Yet, we know that it is our faith that pleases God (Heb. 11:6); and the “just [those who are in right standing with God] live [daily] by their faith” (Hab. 2:4; Heb. 10:38). After I rose from praying, I went into the bathroom to prepare for my day, when suddenly I was given some deep revelations to ponder. It’s difficult to accurately describe and isolate how these spiritual truths were given to me, but that’s not really the point. What is important is relaying how my carnal “human side” had temporarily blinded my spiritual “inner man,” thereby causing me much unnecessary confusion, distress, and turmoil. God’s momentary silence wisely revealed a deep human weakness within me; a weakness that caused temporary “spiritual blindness” in me so that I couldn’t see my confident and steadfast standing in Christ anymore. Just like when Peter lost his footing walking on the water when he began to allow doubt to speak louder in his heart and mind than the words of Jesus which were bidding him, “Come!” (Matt. 14:28-31). Peter consequently began to sink, and so did I. Truth be told, I mistakenly took the Lord’s silence as a “sign” of His displeasure. Even though Jesus had told us that “an evil and unfaithful generation seeks after signs” (Matt. 12:39). The point being that we, as Christians, can’t rely on our own human reasoning and understanding, or how things might “look” to us, in order to conclude God’s will and/or perceive His thinking. During times of silence from God, we need to simply trust as little children, waiting patiently, looking to our Father. We need to learn to quietly stand firm in obedience to what He has told us in His Word, and steadfastly hold our current faith and position in Him until we receive further instructions from Him. This is true childlike faith. We need to quit second-guessing God, trying to figure things out on our own, and learn to sit quietly and wait upon Him, trusting and knowing that God is with us and that He loves us. We need to stop letting our flesh overcome our spirit – realizing that our spirit is united with God’s Spirit as His children (Rom. 8:16). We need to learn how to quietly rest [trust] in Him.

I want to share what I was given (and also what I was reminded of by the Holy Spirit) as I recently experienced this relatively short silence from heaven. I want to relay how best to combat this wily enemy – our own fleshly human nature – in this ongoing epic struggle we all fight as Christians. “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Gal. 5:17). “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh,” Paul wrote. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner man I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, making war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – [deliverance is] through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:18-25).

Regarding my temporary spiritual blindness, remember in the Bible when the two angels blinded the men of Sodom? I’m sure most people, as I did, presumed they were permanently made blind so that they couldn’t see anything. But that is NOT what the Scripture says. It specifically says that the angels “struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.” (Gen. 19:11). Notice that they were only partially blinded “so they couldn’t find the door.” It doesn’t say they couldn’t see at all. They obviously were all able to make it to their homes that night. It’s significant when you consider that the Scripture says Jesus is the Door (John 10:9). The men of Sodom couldn’t find the door – Jesus! They were blinded to God and to the things of God. At that moment, and subsequently, they couldn’t find or see God. And truth be told, they really didn’t want to! They were only interested in pleasing their flesh. Sadly, I think this is true for many people. They only want God in order to satisfy their fleshly desires. So God is hidden from them. I know that I too have sometimes foolishly fallen into this wrong motive and unholy way of thinking.

I don’t think this is uncommon. I’m fairly certain most, if not all, Christians have occasional struggles with fear and doubt that has led to spiritual blindness. But the question becomes, what do you do with this blindness? Are you a truth-seeker who searches out the answers – earnestly looking for the truth? Or are you just a religious person who shrugs their shoulders in comfortable complacency? There is a vast difference between a truth-seeker and a religious person. For the purpose of this article, a religious person refers to a casual Christian, while a truth-seeker (a real Christian – a Christ follower) pursues truth regardless of the consequences. It doesn’t matter to a truth-seeker if they lose everything in order to attain the truth; nor does it matter the costs involved to retain and promote that truth. Whereas a religious person is only willing to proceed to a certain level of comfort and/or discomfort in their pursuit of knowledge. Therefore, they are not worthy of the truth. Like the Door, who is the Truth? The answer, again, is Jesus! For He declared: “I am the way, the truth, and the life…. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 14:6; 18:37). If everyone who is of the truth hears His voice, then what about the people who do not hear His voice? Is it because they don’t want to? Perhaps, they’re not really interested in the Truth? Is it because, like the sodomites, they don’t want to find the true Door – that is, Christ? If this is the case, neither would they really want to hear from Him who is the Truth. As a result then, they have been divinely stricken with both blindness and deafness according to what they truly want.

I once heard a very interesting comment made about me. After reading my autobiography, In His Service, a person apparently said, “Eric Wheeler is nothing special. God speaks to all of us. The only difference is Eric listens!” I couldn’t agree more. I am not special or unique. God talks to all of us. I believe it is as Jesus said: “Everyone who is of the truth [wants to know the truth] hears [listens to] My voice.” Obedience and earnest effort are therefore key.

As I was thinking about these things, the Holy Spirit suddenly brought the following two Bible verses to my mind:

“Unless you are converted and become like a little child, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3)

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.” (Luke 10:21).

At that moment, I began to think of Ron Wyatt. He was an “amateur” archaeologist who died in 1999. He made several amazing biblical discoveries during his lifetime. Although most so-called “educated” scholars and professionals looked down on Mr. Wyatt and dismissed his discoveries as nonsense, many of his finds are now proving true. His discovery of the real Mt. Sinai being in Saudia Arabia as the Bible states (see Gal. 4:25), as opposed to being located on the Sinai Peninsula as tradition has erroneously taught, is quickly becoming authenticated and growing in acceptance. Even the Saudi government is now finally publicly admitting and acknowledging his discovery. For decades people laughed at Ron and mocked him, especially the so-called “wise and prudent” of the world. He also arguably found the exact location of the Red Sea crossing by Moses and the Israelites, as well as located the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even now, while many so-called “scholars” laugh and scoff, archaeological evidence is proving Ron true. I began to wonder how he could have found so many divinely “hidden” things. What was the secret of his success? While contemplating this question, the answer suddenly became clear to me. Ron himself even revealed the secret of his remarkable archaeological success in some of his online videos before his death: “I simply followed what the Bible said. I believed it and knew it to be God’s Word. So in response, God opened my eyes so that I could see what He had hidden in plain sight right in front of all of us that we’re all missing!” Ron then used the example given above regarding the men of Sodom; and how God had hidden Lot’s door from their eyes. The key to his divine success was simple. He had childlike faith. Ron simply believed what God said and took it at face value, knowing and believing it was/is the truth. Therefore, his eyes and ears were opened by the Spirit to see the hidden things of God.

Another biblical example of God blinding people to His Work is given in the Book of Acts in relation to Peter supernaturally slipping past the prison guards. And it wasn’t just one set of guards either! Notice this: “So when he [Herod] had apprehended him [Peter], he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. Peter was therefore kept in prison… And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were guarding the prison. Now behold, and angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, ‘Arise quickly!’ And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, ‘Gird yourself and tie on your sandals;’ and so he did. And he said to him, ‘Put on your garment and follow me.’ So he went out and followed him… When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him… Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death.” (Acts 12:4-19). The guards were not sleeping, at least not naturally. They were blinded to what God was doing in their midst – sadly, to the detriment of their own lives! These guards were not earnestly involved and interested in the things of the Lord. They were only concerned with pleasing man and earning a paycheck. Therefore, the angel of the Lord blinded them to the things of God, and it ultimately cost them their lives.

The Bible says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!” (Matt. 5:8). I’m convinced that the main reason people are not seeing and hearing from God is that they are not earnestly seeking Him with their whole heart – with pure motives and childlike faith! Childlike faith is trust and belief in God – simple and pure. It takes God at face value eagerly believing what He says! It’s not a scholarly pursuit that relies on human understanding and reasoning. As it is written: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5). “For without faith it is impossible to please Him; for those who come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6). With man, “seeing is believing.” But with God, “believing is seeing!” The problem is people rely on themselves or others, and not God. Since the day we collectively ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil our “eyes were opened” and we have become gods unto ourselves (Gen. 3:5), no longer relying on the One True God and looking to Him. Therefore, in a very real sense, our eyes were opened in one way, yet they were completely closed in another. As the Apostle Paul explained, we “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator… And although [we] knew God, we did not glorify Him as God, nor were we thankful, but we became futile in our thoughts, and our foolish hearts were darkened [blinded]. Professing to be wise, we became fools.” (Rom. 1:21-25). Generally, we humans don’t look to God, but to ourselves and to each other. We focus on the physical and look for physical solutions to spiritual problems. And then we frustratingly wonder why things get worse and not better. We collectively refuse to turn to God and to His Word for instruction, correction, wisdom, and guidance; instead choosing to rely on what WE think and desire. Is it any wonder that God’s truths remain hidden to us?

Many people don’t understand that with God, first comes the physical, then comes the spiritual (I Cor. 15:46). If a person is not faithful to what has already physically been given to us by God, for example the Ten Commandments which were physically ascribed by Him on stone tablets (“Thou shall not lie, cheat, and steal or have any other gods besides Him…”), then God is NOT going to spiritually give a person anything else. Jesus reaffirmed this divine point by saying to the people of His day: “If you don’t believe Moses’ writings, how shall you believe My words?” (John 5:47). Moses wrote commandments about physical things; yet Jesus’ words are spiritual (John 6:63). Jesus said, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets [the things written in the Bible], neither will they be persuaded by One who has risen from the dead.” (Luke 16:31). Clearly, if people don’t believe and obey what is written in the Bible, they surely will not listen to what the Holy Spirit of God has to say! If a person is not faithful in “unrighteous mammon” (the physical things), then they won’t and can’t be entrusted with “true riches” (the spiritual things) from heaven (Luke 16:10-11). Why would God who is Spirit (spiritual) reveal Himself to anyone who isn’t faithful to what he or she has already physically been given? The answer is God doesn’t. He doesn’t give spiritual things or beneficial divine knowledge and revelation to people who aren’t faithful to what God has already commanded and given (see Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 16:10-12). As Jesus expressed: If people don’t believe Moses – a physical being God spoke through – how can they believe God a Spirit Being speaking?

The point is that we have to become like little children who believe, trust, and obey what God says. We must simply take Him at His Word and remain steadfast in it. When this happens consistently in our lives, God will begin to give us more in the way of knowledge and revelation of Himself and His hidden spiritual treasures. The sky is the limit – literally (pun intended)! Your understanding of heavenly things will become limitless! For God has so promised: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” (I Cor. 2:9-10). And again, it is written: “That God would grant [us], according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith; that [we], being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.” (Eph. 3:16-21).

Let’s all grow up in Christ by becoming little children!

Pease feel free to reproduce, reprint and/or forward as desired. Altering or editing is strictly prohibited. To contact us, send a request to info@sharingtheway.com or visit our website at https://www.sharingtheway.com/. Using an article for any form of advertising is strictly prohibited.