FAITH AS THE SIXTH SENSE (3)

“Who are kept by the Power of God through FAITH for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” – 1 Peter 1:5

In life’s darkest seasons, FAITH as the SIXTH SENSE leads the Believer through into deliverance: “Who are kept by the Power of God through FAITH for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet.1:5). The possibility of enduring trials victoriously is a reality based on the relationship of the Believer with the Lord. This relationship is not based on sight, but on faith: “Whom having NOT SEEN you love. Though now you DO NOT SEE HIM, yet BELIEVING, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (v.8). The people in 1 Peter had been beaten up, bruised, battered, run all over, and yet Peter reminded them that they could see Someone who was invisible to the naked eye, and not only see Him, but love Him, believe in Him, and gloriously rejoice in Him.

Faith as the Believer’s Sixth Sense is like seeing in the dark. As Christ’s disciples, our lives centre around knowing God and being found in Him. However, for many, the path to knowing God seems to go dark from time to time. In some seasons, the path is not visible. Navigating through life’s dark seasons requires the development of this sixth sense – the ability to perceive and engage God beyond the five senses through which we experience our natural world. Faith perceives God’s moves even in the dark: “Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You” (Psa.139:12). Though our physical eyes may not see clearly, God’s Sight – Faith, the Sixth Sense – is unhindered. Faith leads through the dark!

Israel, on their wilderness sojourn from slavery to citizenship, discerned God’s movements in both the day and the night. During the day, His Presence was experienced as a hovering cloud, offering shade, protection, and refreshing from the harsh desert sun. At night, His Glory shifted to reveal a hot, vibrant pillar of fire. Each expression was radically different, but God remained the same! God’s people learned to recognize His Presence in two different contexts. They knew Him in comfort and also in fear. Both contexts are purposefully significant. The day woos us to God’s Heart of Love, while the night awakens a spirit of revelation that cuts deep into the hidden caves of the soul, uncovering our greatest dangers, but also the richest treasures that would otherwise go unseen.

God is visible and knowable to our Sixth Sense, even life’s dark valleys! It’s easier to discover the shady comfort of His Presence by day, but we particularly need the sixth sense to discern His Person in life’s night times. When the sun goes down, when the world succumbs to an eerie silence, God is still there. He remains the same! Faith proclaims: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God…” (Psa.46:1-4a). Faith see the river of gladness amidst life’s troubled waters!

Peter experienced Faith tried through the dark: “And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that YOUR FAITH should NOT FAIL; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Lk.22: 31-32). Faith as the Sixth Sense sees God’s Rod and Staff of Comfort beyond the dark valley: “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” (Psa.23:4). Faith enables us to know God in the dark and discover His hidden treasures: “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by name, am the God of Israel” (Isa.45:3).