Quantum Christianity: Believe Again

by Aaron Davis

  Mark 16:15–18 (AMP)

  And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach and publish openly the good news (the Gospel) to every creature [of the whole human race].

  He who believes [who adheres to and trusts in and relies on the Gospel and Him Whom it sets forth] and is baptized will be saved [from the penalty of eternal death]; but he who does not believe [who does not adhere to and trust in and rely on the Gospel and Him Whom it sets forth] will be condemned.

  And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages;

  They will pick up serpents; and [even] if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get well.

  In an age when society is looking for love, joy, and peace in any way they can find it, when prescription drug use and abuse is at an all-time high, when suicide is at an all-time high, when broken families and children acting out with dysfunctional habits is at an all-time high . . . I just wonder what is missing. Could it be the manifested kingdom of God through the lives of people who have come to understand it? And if so, I wonder if we actually have access to this power, were created to be ambassadors and carriers of it, and are not experiencing it because we simply have not sought to understand, or never realized that we could know or experience it.

  If this is the case, many experiences that we have resolved as being simply the manifestation of God’s will and His sovereignty may actually have additional factors to consider.

  The top three issues behind substance abuse are a searching for love, joy, and peace. These are also the first three listed fruits of the manifested Spirit of God in the lives of men under the subjection of His kingdom.

  Coincidence? I don’t think so.

  Galatians 5:16–23 (AMP)

  But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).

  For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do. But if you are guided (led) by the [Holy] Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.

  Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies), Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

  But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,

  Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge].

  I’ve pondered a lot of questions as it pertains to this kingdom concept. I just can’t help but wonder if the early church had a more clear understanding of what it meant to walk in the restored kingdom of God than we do today and exemplified it through the very signs that Jesus said they would. It seems to me that they understood what it meant to walk under the kingship of God. As a result, they expressed in fullness the benefits of the kingdom to which they were connected and seemingly brought the principles of heaven into their physical existence, exemplifying the same “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” as Jesus prayed for and manifested as well.

  The fact that, as a whole, a great majority of Christians have not only never seen these types of miracles take place, but don’t even know if they exist today, leads me to question if somewhere along the line, we have missed, lost, or even been lied to about something vitally important that the early church understood implicitly. And for those who may insist on the impossibility of miracles even taking place, I can say with experiential authority, I’ve seen with my own eyes this impossibility manifested on multiple occasions when I prayed for someone with a physical ailment, and in that very moment, they were completely healed.

  Perhaps it’s possible that “most people in our culture unknowingly live under the influence of a dark kingdom. Yet they suffer with problems that have their answer in the Kingdom of God . . . and both wisdom and power are available to us that we might provide solutions from another world that meet their needs.”31

  I wonder if the unseen world (the spirit realm) has influence over the visible (physical) and if, like Bill Johnson states, “the people of God will not reach for the Kingdom at hand, then the realm of darkness is ready to display its ability to influence.”32

  FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE

  The more I have studied this subject of faith, the more I am convinced that it (and the release of faith) is the tipping point for so many aspects of the miraculous. From the choices we make as a result of it, to the intentionality of our pursuit of God, to how we process His promises, faith seems to be the catalyst for breakthrough in the kingdom of God.

  Faith is the mirror of the heart that reflects the realities of an unseen world—the actual substance of His Kingdom and through the prayer of faith we are able to pull the reality of His world into this one and if this is the intended function of faith . . . and that Faith was never intended only to get us into the family but rather, it is the nature of life in this family where faith sees and it brings His Kingdom into focus. What if all of the Father’s resources and all of His benefits, are accessible through faith.33

  As I ponder these questions on power and authority and what Christ said would be the “signs of those who believe,” I wonder what the catalyst is for the loss or lack of the experience. Is it the failure of man to step out in authority? It is the failure of man to discern who he is supposed to be, versus who he has become? Is it a failure to pursue necessary knowledge or fear of asking the necessary questions? Is it a perceived separation between dimensions that we assume are distant and unrelated when actually they are more interdependent than we may have assumed? And if that is the case, are there bidimensional laws that work on both sides of our perceived divide?

  Furthermore, can a lack of knowledge or belief influence our experience? If what is being proposed in this book is true, then I would say most definitely—it would have to be! In the same regard, just like the failure to believe in radiation would have affected our progression toward harnessing that invisible energy and within a century creating atomic power plants, so also would be the parallel of not acknowledging or believing in a spiritual force made available by God through faith to the ambassadors of His kingdom in establishing that kingdom on the earth.

  Because the visible was created by the invisible, and the invisible is superior to the natural, faith is anchored in the unseen. And if that is so, as Bill Johnson says:

  Faith lives within what God reveals to us as His will. If this faith is a catalyst to what we do or do not experience, then when I have misconceptions of who He is and what He is like, my faith and experience is restricted by those misconceptions. For example, if I believe that God allows sickness in order to build character, I won’t have confidence praying in most situations where healing is needed. But if I believe that sickness is to the body what sin is to the soul, then no disease will intimidate me. Faith is much more free to develop when we truly see the heart of God as good.34

  And the reason that this is important is because we will not seek what we do not believe, and it is rare that one finds or simply stumbles upon anything knowledge related they are not first seeking.35

  As a result of all of this, I just wonder if, although nothing can separate us from His love, if something has separated us from the intentional
manifestation of His kingdom in the earth? And what might that separating something be?

  I’ve heard it said that Satan’s real power lies in his ability to deceive those with authority and to use that power for his use and in the establishment of his desires. It’s possible that many blame God for things that the devil does and many blame the devil for experiences that they themselves have actually contributed to. If you found out that the devil (if you even believe in the devil) is not as powerful as you may have assumed and you found out that he (Satan) only has dominion here in the earth when and where man has come into agreement with his deception, what would that change for you?36 Would you then consider more intentionally whose kingdom you come in to agreement with?

  If Jesus were the example of the kingdom of God manifested on the earth, then I have to believe that there is more accessible to us through the institution of kingdom principles than what we are currently seeing in most of our lives. Lance Wallnau said it this way:

  You are called to enter into and engage in every earthly sphere of this world with a supernatural ability to manifest what God’s kingdom looks like. You are uniquely qualified to solve problems nobody else can solve! When you do so, you “show forth the excellence of him” and build a platform of profound credibility from which you can teach others his ways.37

  As I consider this point, I find myself asking the question if “Jesus” is what the kingdom of God established in the earth looks like, is it dangerous or even detrimental to our progress to simply excuse life experiences that Jesus would have never tolerated as “the will of a Sovereign God”? Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” If He’s the model for what the will and love and kingdom of God looks like and if the kingdom of God is truly at hand, I, for one, want to see what that looks like.

  Don’t you?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Do You Believe?

  “I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.”

  —Wernher Von Braun (1912–1977), German-American rocket scientist

  In my own experiences, I have found Christians to be very limiting of God in their expectations of Him. Through perspectives I call absolutes, they paint their ignorance of who He is with statements like, God always, God never, God will not, or God doesn’t . . . (just fill in the blank of the perceived absolute) based upon their experiences or interpretations of what the Bible says regarding specific scenarios.

  The problem with absolute processing is that it has the potential to limit faith and subsequently possibly the breakthrough when people encounter an occasion outside of their absolute expectation, absolute previous knowledge, or absolute experience.

  Mark 9:22–24 (NIV)

  “ . . . But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

  “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. ”Everything is possible for one who believes.”

  Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

  There are multiple examples throughout the Bible (some of which will be referred to later in this chapter) of times when God did something that would likely have been considered absolutely impossible, or at the very least, absolutely out of His character, based upon the previous record of God’s responses or those whose new experience seemed to defy previous understanding of God and His modus operandi.

  When we place God in a box of limitation, at the very least it hinders our faith to expect or believe outside of that box, but the damage is done exponentially when a leader teaches others that the box he has placed God within is an absolute for others as well.

  “God won’t help those who can help themselves . . . ”

  “God never answers people that way . . . ”

  “God doesn’t perform miracle’s anymore . . . ”

  Unless the Bible says “God never” or “God won’t,” I think we should be very, very cautious about absolutely placing restrictions on Him based on our experience or lack thereof.

  From my perspective, based upon conversations I’ve had with believers and unbelievers alike, the words that pastors use to make an intended point while speaking, and especially teaching in absolutes, has some of the greatest potential to stifle the faith of others more than any other habit. For one, when you speak in an absolute, if a thinking individual can imagine or has experienced a loophole for the absolute you are presenting, then they may write off other things that you say for a lack of perceived credibility. And secondly, if they blindly believe you and there are exceptions to the absolute that you have presented, then you have, by default, placed the people you are leading behind the eight ball with a lack of faith if you tell them that God “can’t, doesn’t, or never” does things a certain way before they even start to seek God for deliverance or breakthrough in their situation. Just because you’ve never seen or heard of (or imagined) God doing something a specific way doesn’t mean He hasn’t or won’t.

  Take the story of Balaam, for example: a prophet in the Old Testament who had an incredibly unexpected encounter when God used an instrument that would have been considered unthinkable to him to make a point—a donkey!

  Numbers 22:21–28 (MSG)

  Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went off with the noblemen from Moab. As he was going, though, God’s anger flared. The angel of God stood in the road to block his way. Balaam was riding his donkey, accompanied by his two servants. When the donkey saw the angel blocking the road and brandishing a sword, she veered off the road into the ditch. Balaam beat the donkey and got her back on the road. But as they were going through a vineyard, with a fence on either side, the donkey again saw God’s angel blocking the way and veered into the fence, crushing Balaam’s foot against the fence. Balaam hit her again. God’s angel blocked the way yet again—a very narrow passage this time; there was no getting through on the right or left. Seeing the angel, Balaam’s donkey sat down under him. Balaam lost his temper; he beat the donkey with his stick. Then God gave speech to the donkey. She said to Balaam: “What have I ever done to you that you have beat me these three times?”

  This particular story makes me laugh every time I read it! I place myself in the shoes of Balaam, who is the first person from a biblical account to hear an animal talk since the Garden of Eden. It’s easy to just simply read this account in the Bible and not weigh the totality of the circumstances, but for just a second, put yourself in Balaam’s shoes. You are riding this donkey that you have now lashed out in anger against three times, when it was actually trying to save your life. You even beat it with a stick. The last thing you are expecting is for that donkey to speak to you, because, in your experience, God doesn’t speak through donkeys.

  If I were Balaam, when that beast started talking to me, after I let out a little-girl scream accompanied by about five more terrified swings at the donkey with my stick, I would just pray to God that the animal wasn’t between me and wherever I needed to go to get away from it.

  I bet if we had an opportunity to talk to Balaam the day before his donkey conversation, he would have likely argued that he was a prophet, he knew the voice of God, he knew how God worked, and animals didn’t talk after the Garden of Eden. However, the day after this previously unfathomable experience, accompanied by a recent humbling and confirming trip to the undergarment cleaners, I bet Balaam would be willing to admit that God’s responses weren’t so limited by his previously absolute perceptions of Him.

  I recently read a quote that stated, “We miss God when we live as though we have Him figured out. We have the habit of making Him look like us. In fact, if we think we understand Him we have probably conformed Him into our image. There must remain a mystery in our relationship with this One who has purposed to work beyond our capacity to imagine (see Eph. 3:20). To endeavor to know Him is to embark on an adventure in which questions i
ncrease.”38 I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss God by thinking I already know it all.

  QUANTUM TUNNELING AND QUANTUM TELEPORTATION

  If we look at scripture, many of the things that God or Jesus or the disciples did rarely had a previous reference. If anything, it seems like very frequently God is doing something new.

  In the life of Jesus, take, for example, something seemingly impossible taking place and breaking the barrier of what was likely expected by God’s people of the day in Luke 4 and John 20. In one instance, Jesus is about to be thrown from the edge of a cliff and then amazingly slips through the crowd unseen and unscathed. How did that happen?

  On another occasion, the doors are locked and Jesus knocks on the door and the disciples do not answer it out of fear. Then, in a few moments, He appears in the room in His physical body with His disciples. Up to this point, this is not something that happened frequently in the Bible and people may have considered it impossible. But from a scientific perspective, there is actually a hypothesis surrounding what may have happened, particularly if there are things about physics that we do not know, but perhaps Jesus understood.