Imaginative Faith

Ezekiel 12:1-14:11; Psalm 105:37-45; Proverbs 27:3

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been involved in a forum online, debating the question of whether homosexuality, let alone homosexual marriage, ought to be permissible in the United States of America. One of the most frustrating and uninformed arguments that some of my opponents have made is this: “God made us gay, so He must want us to be gay. So homosexual behavior and homosexual marriages are right.”

Now before you get too upset with them, let me explain a bit more about why this argument is frustrating to me. I get frustrated by this argument because I see the kind of faith it is based on being the kind of faith a lot of Christians use to make their daily decisions. It’s an imaginative faith rather than a faith that listens to God.

What do I mean? Well, many people have something that they call faith. And these people believe many different things, some of them better things than others. True faith says, “I’m going to listen to what God has to say by listening to people who are repeating God’s words found in the Scriptures, or by reading through the pages of Scripture for myself. Since God spoke, I’m going to let Him tell me what He thinks is good and what He thinks is bad.” Imaginative faith says, “I believe there’s a God. I’ve heard that He wrote the Bible through His servants, the apostles and prophets. But I don’t think I’m going to read it much, or let people who have read it tell me what He says. I have a pretty good idea about what God is like without putting that much work into listening to Him and His servants.” And those with imaginative faith then go and live their lives however they want to, justifying their behaviors by whatever character traits they imagine God to have.

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: `Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the LORD. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, "The LORD declares," when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, "The LORD declares," though I have not spoken? – Ezekiel 13:1-7

God has spoken. If we believe in God but refuse to listen to Him and trust in what He says, then we are fools on the path to destruction. A relationship with Him is just like any other relationship—it requires spending time listening to His words and His heart. If we refuse to listen to God, it doesn’t matter how well we pretend to know Him. We’ll end up just as disappointed as a man who pretends to have a relationship with one of Hollywood’s most famous celebrities—rejected and humiliated, our relationships shown to be nothing but a childish, imaginative fantasy.

Get a real relationship with God rather than living in fantasy. Listen to Him.