Living by Faith Not by Sight: by Chris Van Staden

Romans 12: 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.

So many people today want to see the proof that a product works before we buy it or invest in it in any way. We keep our distance until we are more or less forced to commit by the evidence. However this attitude is not living by faith; its living by sight. In a way we cannot blame anyone because that attitude is normal when it comes to buying a new computer or a camera. However when it comes to the One God he doesn’t need you to test His product before He expects you to obey. As the bible says “we live by faith and not by sight”. To be able to test and approve of Gods will we must not conform to the world. God is not DELL or sony, He is the fearsome God who created the sun with His own hands, who conceived of the concept of speed and made light photons travel at 299 792 458 miles per second. He knows our sins and shortcomings and has offered His own son as a sacrifice together with the perfect plan of discipleship to not only change our lives but also the whole world. He doesn’t let us test to see if His plan works before we conform to His will. When we don’t commit ourselves to discipleship God does not see it as consumer suspicion or confusion; He sees it as conforming to the world and blatant, full on disobedience. When we are indifferent to the suffering of Gods own son and His plan to save the world we are nothing more than objects of wrath. It was once said that the worst corner of hell is reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. I don’t know if hell has corners, I just know I want to obey God and try to save as many as possible from going there.

My decision to move to London and join the newly established church here was a decision by faith to break my growing conformity to the world. There was no proof or evidence that suggested that this would “for sure” be the right choice. I just wanted to obey God and stop waiting for things to “get better” in my former fellowship as I was constantly being told they would. I knew that the Spirit never stopped moving, that Jesus didn’t forget about his plan to make disciples and I wanted to keep pace with the Spirit. I knew I needed to break my conformity to be able to test Gods awesome will for my life. Nevertheless I would be lying if I said I wasn’t downright scared by this massive change in my life. I was entering a new fellowship with new disciples in a new city and I was apprehensive.

When I arrived in London I saw a group of eager disciples who were ready to do anything to be used by God to save as many as possible. I saw Tim and Lianne’s hard work to build a mission team that would take on this city. They worked day and night by faith alone to restore, baptize and strengthen the disciples and fight for a toehold in this city. There was no way to believe that two leaders would be able to succeed at this task and these were the dark days of the battle. Not many people would sign up for this job! Right away I knew that I needed to live by faith and soon I was also in the middle of the havoc, fighting side by side with the disciples towards a goal that we could not see. I started to pray for specific blessings from God. Although I wanted to live by faith a little sight would have been good at that point! I prayed for God to answer my prayers.

I was asked by Tim to lead the campus ministry and we knew we had to baptize someone who lived on campus so that we could have our bible talks in a dorm room instead of Starbucks. At our first bible talk on campus we had two guests and I prayed that they would both be baptized. One of them, Isaac who lives in the dorms was baptized three weeks later and Lord willing the other, Gema will be baptized this weekend! We asked by faith and we received a little sight right there! At the Gathering conference the first brother I met and spoke to was Niyi. I prayed that he would place membership and two weeks later he did! A little more sight was added! My heart went out to a fallen away brother who I met at the Gathering. We managed to spend some good time together after the conference and I prayed the impossible prayer that he would return to God. Ola was restored last Sunday and he is one of the most encouraging amongst us! That’s about all the sight anyone needs! God truly gives sight when we live by faith!

Right now we have seven disciples opening up new terrain on a new campus downtown and our first campus group is having great bible talks in the dorms. The East side bible talk is a fired up group of disciples with a real sense of identity and vision. The West side bible talk that was started only a couple months ago is already bulging with bible studies and building a family that will take on that side of the city. Through faith we are praying for strong groups to go north and south by the end of the winter. We now know Gods good and pleasing will, a will that give us confidence and hope that we are behind His plans. We still must act by faith and believe in what we cannot see, knowing that God will give us strength and more answered prayers.

I know its necessary but I am still sad leaving London now to go to LA for more training. I know that if I want to be an evangelist I need go to the next stage of my development as a leader. Its not easy to leave the family behind here but I know that London and LA are really just one big family as Tim always says and I will just be away in person but not in spirit. I’m so grateful for my time here and I cant believe how much I would have missed out on if I had not taken this step by faith. I want to encourage anyone who is afraid to step out on faith as I did, even if it means moving to London, to take this step, you certainly will see what you pray for by faith.

Your brother,

Chris Van Staden