Hebrews 11:6 tells us without faith it’s impossible to please God. And God is not easily impressed. When you have created everything, you ultimately own everything. When you’re all powerful, there’s nothing you cannot do. When you have seen nations come and go and have existed in eternity past, there’s nothing you have not seen. There’s very little left to be impressed with. But our faith can impress God, our love and commitment to Him can impress Him. Today I want to take a moment to talk about the kind of faith that impresses God.
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their place at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the Kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping an gnashing of teeth.
The Jesus said to the Centurion ‘Go! It will be done just as you have believed it would. And his servant was healed at that very hour.”
This Centurion astounded Jesus with his faith. Jesus had spent hours with his disciples, teaching them, building their faith and agonizing over their lack of faith. You would expect the faith of a Gentile soldier to be significantly less than that of the Israelite disciples, and yet here the faith of this man stopped Jesus in His tracks! That’s quite a miracle in and of itself!
There are many aspects and dimensions to faith. True faith that pleases God is centered in the person of Jesus and flows from relationship with Jesus. Because of his military background this Centurion understood two critical this things which relate to faith. The first thing he understood was the principal of honor.
The Centurion did not want to trouble Jesus. He said “Lord I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed.” He honored Jesus’ time, He honored the office of Jesus as Prophet and Messiah. He understood who Jesus was and honored Him as Christ, the Son of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He held Jesus in deep reverence.
He also understood his position in relation to Jesus. He didn’t say ‘I am this great Centurion, I demand that you come right now and heal my servant!’ No he respected Jesus, he honored Him as one having far greater authority than himself. He had a revelation and sense of his own unworthiness before the holiness of Jesus.
This repentant, humble attitude, touched the heart of God. The Bible says whoever exalts himself will be humbled, whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12), the last will be first and the first will be last. (Matthew 20:16)
The second thing the Centurion understood about faith was authority. He was a man under authority in the natural, and that helped him understand authority in the Kingdom of God. The Bible says in James 4:7 that “as we submit to God and resist the devil, he will flee.” If we want to see God move in our lives we need to understand the Lordship of Jesus in our lives.
If Jesus is not Lord of all in our lives, then He is not Lord at all. We need a deeper understanding of the authority and Lordship of Christ in our lives. Jesus was astounded by the faith of the Centurion and if you want to impress Jesus with your faith, you need to understand honor and authority.
As a ministry, wherever we travel we respect the authority of the Pastors we serve whether in a Gospel Festival setting or ministering as a guest speaker. I remember being invited once to speak in a Church which was a little more conservative. The Pastor asked if I could ‘tone down’ my preaching for his Sunday service.
I could have gotten offended at that point but I respected the authority God had placed in that Church and toned down my firey preaching style to honor the Pastor. We had the most incredible miracles manifest in that service.
A few weeks later I found out a young boy who had cystic fibrosis, a degenerative disease got the first positive report from the specialist that he had ever had in his life. I believe the miracles we saw and what God did had to do with understanding and respecting the principle of honor.
Further on in this passage Jesus begins to talk about the anticipated Gentile mission. He says “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their place at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” He is in effect giving an endorsement in advance of the great mission Paul and others would have to the Gentiles. That many Gentiles would enter the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom would not be inherited by birthright, but by faith!
The Jew’s expected salvation would be theirs based on birth, but Jesus was saying, salvation is all about faith in my finished work. You can’t be born a Christian, Jesus said you must be born again. (John 3:3) It is only faith which brings all the benefits of the Kingdom; salvation, healing, deliverance, prosperity, relationship with God can only be received through faith in Jesus.
Then Jesus said, ‘Go! It will be done just as you have believed it would. And his servant was healed at that very hour.” I believe that because this man honored Jesus and understood and respected his authority, Jesus honored him in this way. I also believe in some mysterious way, God makes Himself vulnerable to, and works in partnership with, our faith.
Jesus is always wiling to heal and God knew about the suffering of this servant. That is why Jesus came, as a response to the fall; to do away with sin and all the effects of the fall, which bring so much suffering to humanity. What this Centurion asked Jesus for, Jesus was willing to do! He was asking for something that was God’s will, so it was easy for Jesus to say, it will be done unto you according to your faith, because this mans faith was aligned with the will of God!
Psalm 107:20 states that “He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from all their destruction’s.” When Jesus spoke everything changed for that servant. One word sent from God, changes everything. One anointed Rhema word is all it takes for a person to be completely healed and delivered from paralysis and a lifetime of suffering.
And that Centurion cared about his friend. He was an intercessor for a friend who could not be there to make the request. Maybe today you have someone you can approach Jesus on behalf of and ‘stand in the gap’ for them. So many people lead lives of spiritual and even physical paralysis and suffering and we can come to Jesus with the same faith the Centurion did.
Today I want to encourage you, no situation is too difficult for God to fix, or to turn around. God is a God of miracles and as you honor Him in your life and submit to His authority, there is nothing He will not do for you or for those you love. One word from Jesus changes everything!
If you enjoyed this word of encouragement, please feel free to sign up for future words of encouragement and updates of our ministry endeavors, by joining our mailing list on the top right hand side of this page.
