Matthew 4:5-7, "Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

What the Word of God actually means when it says we are to walk by faith not by sight, is to not look at the circumstances. Don’t dwell on the negative stay focused on the positive. It doesn’t mean if you see water covering a bridge that you ignore it and cross. That would be pretty stupid wouldn't it? And I don’t think many of you would do that.

When Peter was walking on the water, he got out of the boat and started on his way but when he saw the wind boisterous he panicked and started to sink, however Jesus reached out and saved him.

Matthew 14:28-31, "And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him…"

It wasn’t the water that scared Peter. It was the wind. However, common sense tells us that he couldn’t walk on water whether the wind was blowing or not. It was Jesus who called him out of the boat and it was Jesus who kept his head above water.

What if Jesus wasn’t there when Peter tried to walk on the water? What if Peter had of said, "Since the Bible tells me to walk by faith not by sight, I am not going to concern myself with all this water I see, I am just going to jump right out of the boat and start walking?" He would have drowned. But, Jesus was there. He called Peter out of the boat and helped him stay afloat.

Let me point something out, you can walk on water if you are called to. Peter was called to walk on water, you may not be. Get what I am saying? Many try to preach that aren’t called. There are those that try to prophesy when they don’t even know the voice of God. Many don’t succeed in their ministries because they are not called to do what they are trying to do.

The Bible says in I Corinthians 7:20, "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. "

Abide in your calling and do whatever God has called you to do and leave the rest alone.

Many ministers on television start huge projects without the leading of the Holy Spirit. They don’t use common sense and end up building things they can’t afford thus begging for money to finish them. They start a building for this and a building for that. Pretty soon that sound like that old song "…Old McDonald had a farm, e-i, e-i, o, with a building here and a building there, everywhere a building…" Now, this little song may sound corny to you but you have to admit it’s the truth. When some of these men of God, and women too, get started building they don’t know when to stop. And, I don’t believe God has called them to do all these projects if they end up begging for the money. Because if they are begging for the money, and they are if they hound on it everyday on their programs, they must not have much faith in God meeting their need.

A well-known lady minister who is an excellent teacher wrote a letter, which I received, asking her friends and partners to help her build a particular building. She said God wanted her to build it debt free.

I was delighted she wanted to stay out of debt however as I read on I became very frustrated with her statement. She said, "you may charge your monthly pledge to your credit card." And then she listed different credit cards you could pay her with.

I saw right then and there that something was terribly wrong. God wanted me to go in debt to keep her out of debt? No, I don’t think so!

She wasn’t putting her faith in God she was putting her faith her partners’ pocketbooks and credit cards.

I heard someone say, what God orders He pays for. That statement may not be in the Bible literally worded that way, but it’s a fact! When God orders a new building to be built He will pay for it.

Remember, though a person is of God, they can still miss the leading of the Holy Ghost. So just stay alert.

Too frequently the same ministers that try to teach us faith are the same ones we see begging us for money. Now I am not saying its wrong to let your needs be made known but if asking turns to begging faith isn't working.

…allow the doctors to help you. Take the medication they have prescribed for you until the manifestation of your healing has occurred.

…walking by faith not by sight doesn’t mean that although you can’t see any money in your account, its there, so you go ahead and write so-called faith checks to pay your bills. If you do this, you will only be prolonging your misery because not only do you now have bills you cannot pay; you have bad checks you can’t make good on.

Allow faith to work but don’t throw common sense into the wind in the process.

Copyright 2001 by Darlene Osborne (Revised January 2008)