Acting As If...
How do we live these new behaviors and walk in this love that is alien and foreign to this world? Doing something that we have never done before, that we never thought of doing and, if we did, believed that it could not be done, is begun by acting as if it can be done. Faith has no other frame of reference, no past track record to pull from, no feeling of doing it before that we can dredge up into our consciousness. All we can do is nakedly obey God and act as if Christ lives in us and that we can live the life of the new creation.
Think for a moment of Peter in the boat on the Sea of Galilee hearing the call of Jesus to come and join Him walking on the water. When he obeyed, he did so with no past experience. In fact, he had a track record of sinking! But he proceeded to get out of the boat as if the water were solid ground.
The normal way to journey from a boat to the water is to plunge in, getting over the side in such a way as to prepare to swim. When one gets from the boat to solid ground, the approach is very different. Peter must have flung a leg over the side as if there were dry ground awaiting him.
I use the expression “acting as if” to describe acting without reference to feelings. Unbelief holds a committee meeting with feelings to see if they approve of what He has said. Our feelings scream and howl, telling how foolish we are to proceed with the harebrained plan to obey God. Faith disregards feelings and acts as if God’s Word is true. Abraham acted as if God had spoken when he packed his house and left the land of his fathers.
Exodus 14 tells the story of Israel’s being pursued by the Egyptian army, with the Red Sea in front of them, and accusing God of abandoning them in the desert. The Israelites were abiding in the presence of the Egyptian army; they were practicing the presence of the Red Sea! Moses practiced the presence of God and heard His voice telling Him what to do.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.
Exodus 14:15,16,21
To human logic and feelings, the word of God made no sense. To go forward was to walk into the Red Sea! What could the lifting of a rod do to open a way through the sea? Nothing made sense—obedience to God was to go against all common sense, logic, and feelings. Moses acted out of sheer will, acting as if God’s word was true even though he could not understand or be overly excited about it.
When our feelings and logic scream against the will of God, we must ask ourselves, “What would I do now if this were really true?” We then proceed to act as if His Word is true. There is nothing else to do, for we have no past history of doing anything like this; we are proceeding on the Word of God alone.
There is a sense in which faith always behaves in the “act as if” mode. If we believe our feelings that He is not with us but is an absent God who has left us alone in life, our faith in our feelings will then act as if that were true by worrying and sweating anxiety. So, when we believe His covenant Word that He is with us and in us, faith will act as if that is so.
Numbers 13 and 14 tell the story of the unbelief of the Israelites at the border of the land of Canaan at the place called Kadesh. Moses had sent into the land twelve spies, one representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel. They brought back the report of what they had seen. Ten of the spies told of the immense difficulties that awaited them in the land; two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, brought back a report of faith that recognized the presence of God with His people. It is a lengthy Scripture passage, but read it carefully as it contains what we are looking for. The ten spies are speaking:
Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Numbers 13:28,30-33
Actually, what they said made very good common sense and was an accurate report given by the five senses. Their advice in the light of what they had seen made good sense too.
So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
Numbers 14:1-5
The ten spies, and now the people, were practicing the presence of the Canaanite giants and their own natural inability to take God’s gift. There is not one mention of God in their entire report; it is, in fact, a report of persons alone and without God or covenant.
They were present to the evidence of their senses and what their senses reported. Sense evidence filled them until their bodies were racked with sobbing and their tents with panic-stricken conversation that plainly said that, in their estimation, God’s covenant and promise was a foolish pipe-dream.
“Acting as if” is not to be thought of as an isolated behavior; it draws all of life into it. It encompasses how we think about a situation, how we talk about it to close friends, where we go in our imagination with it.
But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.”
Numbers 14:6-9
The two spies had seen the same things as the other spies and had cowered before the sight of the great inhabitants of the land. They had seen the inhabitants of the land as they had practiced the presence of God and reminded themselves of His faithfulness to His covenant promises. They talked and acted as if the Lord was with them as their covenant partner. They gave the barest reference to the land and its inhabitants, for the evidence they found in the presence of God canceled out the evidence that their eyes had seen.
Hebrews 4 uses the response of the ten spies and the people to illustrate hearing God’s Word but not mixing it with faith.
For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
Hebrews 4:2
Caleb and Joshua saw the impossible task and mixed it with faith. The God of covenant was the starting point of their interpretation of the facts that their senses had recorded.
I Will Fear No Evil
This principle of choosing to believe without reference to feelings is seen throughout the Psalms, but nowhere better than in the words we all know in Psalm 23: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (verse 4).
At this point, David was peering into the future, which is when most of us collapse into anxiety, and imagining the worst thing that could happen to him. He said in effect, “If it comes to that, my worst fear, this is the action I will take: "I will fear no evil." He made a life choice that came up out of his inner true self, his spirit. He then gave the reason behind the choice: ...for You are with me; he was speaking out of his practicing the presence of his covenant God. The valley of the shadow of death was a terrifying reality, but the greater reality that was his starting point was that he was present to God, who would never leave him.
Put on Behavior
Another way the Scripture speaks of this action of faith from the will is of putting on behavior as one would put on a suit of clothes. Do not think of this as the action of a hypocrite. This expression, which is found throughout the Scripture, describes the choice to do a behavior that reflects who we truly are. This may be illustrated from Isaiah 59:17, which speaks of God putting on His actions as a garment.
For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
Isaiah 59:17
He certainly is not covering who He is with an action or behavior that is hiding who He really is! The expression “put on” indicates the doing of a behavior that reflects who we really are in our inmost selves.
Or again, Isaiah 51:9 calls upon God to put on strength: Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Very obviously, He is not putting on something that He did not have before but is bringing forth a potential action of His true self.
To “put on” a behavior that is fitting, expressing who we know ourselves to be in Christ as we abide in Him, is not hypocrisy but the act of faith. Hypocrisy is putting on a behavior, not because we practice His presence but because we want to impress, please, or deceive other people.
We put on the behavior of Christ because abiding in Him, present to Him, and seeing ourselves for who we truly are in Him, we know such behaviors to be the truth. He never asks us to be who we are not. In Scripture, the garment describes the person. We put on the garments of praise because we have been called out of the darkness to proclaim His praises. We are joined to Him who is love, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and we choose with an act of will to clothe ourselves in love behavior. In putting on Christ behaviors, we are workers together with the Spirit to do the will of the Father. The energy of the Spirit connects our behavior with our true selves and our whole beings are drawn into line.
We put on clothes that fit us, that reflect who we truly are, and at certain times that shows up more than at other times.
Joseph put on the garments of prime minister, throwing away the prison clothes, because he now was the prime minister, and it was fitting that he wear the clothes of his position. He could not have fulfilled his duties if he had insisted on wearing the prison clothes around the palace!
The prodigal threw away the garments of the far country and put on the best robe because the rags of the far country did not describe who he truly was, the beloved son of his father.
In both of these cases, the men would have had to grow into feeling comfortable in the new clothes. After prison garb and rags, it would feel odd, awkward, even embarrassing, to dress in the new clothes. These men would have had to get used to the sniggering of old friends making fun of them dressed in such an unusual way.
Likewise, we go through a period of awkwardness as we get used to the reality that we truly are not the persons we were but are new creations in Christ and, therefore, called to wear new behaviors. The pressure of the world around is to entice us, bully us, into putting on the old clothes that no longer describe who we are.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2
Phillips’ version of this reads, Do not let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold. I have never forgotten the pathetic sight of a grandmother in the teenage clothes department dressing herself in clothes that she had outgrown thirty years before! We are in Christ, joined to Him in covenant, and the behaviors of the flesh no longer fit; we make fools of ourselves trying to be who we are not.
Clothes do not come to our bodies; we go to the clothes closet, choose the ones that we want or need to wear, and deliberately put them on our bodies. We choose the ones that fit us, that describe who we are. As faith behaves and acts out the truth of who He is and who we are in Him, the Spirit witnesses that truth within us and draws our whole being into line with it.
This is not only true in the development of a godly life, but also the ungodly. If we assume a behavior, we will become what we have chosen to act like. A dramatic illustration of this is in Psalm 109:
As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, so let it enter his body like water, and like oil into his bones.
Psalm 109:18
This man whom David describes put on cursing his neighbor as he put on his suit of clothes in the morning. The result was that his behavior linked with his ungodly self, his behavior seeped into his body, and he became what he had assumed. This is the energy of the flesh at work—to “put on,” or assume, unforgiveness by willing not to forgive—and bitterness becomes the way one is in one’s deepest self.
We have seen teenagers fall in with bad company and before our eyes “put on” dresses in the behaviors of the gang. They adopt the language, music, and lifestyle of the gang, and it is only a matter of time before it has become their lifestyle; before they have become the behavior, they “put on.”
Putting on Christ
The Epistles abound in the language of putting on behavior by a willed act of faith: Be put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:14).
We not only put on the behaviors of the Lord Jesus, but we starve the flesh by making no provision for its needs. This means that we avoid the places and triggers that the flesh craves, not in order to try to kill it but because that is not who we are anymore, and we neither need it nor want it. We strengthen who we truly are by faith behaviors, and we reinforce the crucifixion of the flesh by not feeding its cravings. The cries of the flesh are like the itch of an amputated toe! The toe has been cut off but the toe feelings are still there. We declare the feelings and act the truth, and we become who we are.
Our old behaviors are seen now for what they are—rags filled with the lice of lust—and we fling them away from us. We do this in baptism, but it must then be implemented in the choice of faith. Not only is this so, but the behaviors of the past are now ill-fitting; we do not look good in them anymore. In Christ, we have grown out of them and they no longer describe who we are; they are old and ready for the garbage can.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Colossians 3:12-14
Notice that, first, the persons this is addressed to are identified; they are the “elect of God, holy and beloved.” Because of who they are, they are commanded to put on a certain lifestyle, to do certain things. There is no mention of feelings. The lifestyle that they are to wear is essentially the love first seen on earth in the humanity of Jesus and now ours through the Spirit. It becomes functionally ours as we assume the behaviors of that love. Then the final sentence calls us to put on love as if putting on the coat that covered all the others.
I am often asked how we can love as Jesus loved, and that is an important question because He commanded us to do just that! We should not conti
nually examine ourselves to see if we have godly feelings of love toward our neighbor because this command is not speaking of behavior arising from feeling. It calls us to will to put love on: Act as if you do! You will find that when you behave in faith as if you love someone, the Spirit will silently work within you, and you will soon come to truly love the person.
We are commanded to put on these behaviors, not to feel them. We are directed from the Word of God that we hear as we practice abiding in His presence, not from our dark flesh feelings.
That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
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