Cracking the Faith Barrier
By Hal Lindsey
In John 16:33, Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
We’re having some of that tribulation now. People are afraid and not just of disease. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Stocks are falling faster than they did during the financial crisis, the crash of 1987 or the Great Depression.”
Many are watching their lifetime’s savings evaporate before their eyes. It’s easy to be upset. But we shouldn’t be surprised. The Bible is full of warnings about the dangers coming on the world in the last days. But that same Bible is also full of promises God has made to His people — promises we can stand on.
As a new Christian, I suffered from times of depression. I prayed that the LORD would show me what was wrong. I asked him to teach me how to do His will and live out His plan in my life. Not long after this prayer, a friend of mine took me to a Bible study taught by Pastor Bob Thieme in Houston. I liked him immediately and wanted to hear more. He began a series entitled “Cracking the Faith Barrier.” God used this teaching to deliver me from depression, insecurity, and fear. Today, we all need it.
On October 14, 1947, a Bell X-1 aircraft piloted by Captain Charles ‘Chuck’ Yeager became the first human vehicle to go faster than the speed of sound in controlled flight. To get there, Yeager had to pass through something called “the sound barrier.” A lot of people thought it was impossible. As pilots approached that speed, tremendous turbulence built up against the airplane. The air couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. It piled up in front of the leading edges of the aircraft. The buffeting was extreme.
In those days, they didn’t know how to design the aircraft for supersonic flight. The buffeting caused changes in airflow over the vehicle’s control surfaces, making it almost impossible to fly. Sometimes controls froze and became inoperable. Brave men died in the conquest to break “the sound barrier.”
During his flight, as Yeager approached the speed of sound, the plane began to shake violently, as if it might disintegrate at any second. The control stick shook so much that Chuck could hardly hold it still. Just as it seemed the aircraft would rip apart, there was a loud boom, and everything became quiet inside the cockpit.
When Yeager broke through the sound barrier, the buffeting stopped. The controls responded again. He and his X-1 left behind the screaming noise and violent air as he bolted toward the dark blue of the edge of the earth’s atmosphere. There were still great pressures on the outside of the little craft, but the turbulent air had shifted from the leading edge to the rear.
And so it is when a Christian breaks the faith barrier. The pressures shift rearward. We move past the old ideas of depending on human resources and emotions. We switch over to faith in God’s promises alone.
It takes a great deal of speed to crack the sound barrier. But to crack the faith barrier we must stand still. The hard part is that it’s easy, and we can’t accept that something so great came come as a gift. It defies our old way of thinking and doing. All our lives we have sought to cope with problems using our own limited strength and understanding.
To get past that is to crack the faith barrier. And when we do, we find rest and peace. The pressures and problems still exist, but God’s peace and assurance well up within our hearts.
And that’s when the Holy Spirit begins to do amazing things in and through us. When we rest in the Lord our efforts cease to be the primary thing, and we turn fully to the Holy Spirit. Amazing things happened in my life when I passed through to the other side of the faith barrier. They will for you, too.
Romans 8:37 says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” “All these things” might include viruses and pandemics. They might include financial difficulty. In all these things, God urges you to crack the faith barrier. Become more than a conqueror.
