In the first two chapters, we identified acting faith and resting faith as essential ingredients in a Christian's life. In this chapter, we need to examine a counterfeit that we will certainly meet when we attempt to live by faith. It is called presumptuous faith.

    On August 22, 1973, Wesley Parker died from untreated diabetes.

    As a consequence, in August of 1974, Wesley's parents, Larry and Alice "Lucky" Parker, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse in San Bernardino, California.

    But this is not the story of a dysfunctional home with irresponsible parents. Both the father and mother in this active Christian family cared deeply for their four children and made a concerted effort to follow the Bible's teaching regarding faith.

    Wesley was an 11-year-old, insulin-dependent diabetic. Though his church had prayed for his healing on several occasions, there had always been the disappointment of "unanswered" prayer.

    During the morning service on August 19, 1973, a visiting evangelist closed the service by asking if there were any who wanted to come forward for special prayer. Lucky felt led to again seek healing for Wesley. Larry was hesitant, but eventually agreed. The evangelist and others in the congregation subsequently prayed specifically that Wesley would be healed of his diabetes.

    In his book We Let Our Son Die (Harvest House Publishers, 1980), Larry describes his struggle with the decision he faced as Wesley's father and as the one who administered the insulin injections each morning. After much Bible reading and prayer during that Sunday afternoon, Larry finally concluded that the family must act in faith, believing that Wesley had indeed been healed.

    Sunday, August 19^th, was a normal day because Wesley had received his insulin that morning. On Monday morning, Larry did not give Wesley his usual insulin injection. Wesley had an active morning, though by evening he was not feeling well. On Tuesday, he stayed in bed because he was becoming increasingly ill. Throughout the day, there was much prayer and Bible reading. By Wednesday morning, August 22^nd, Wesley was in considerable pain. He died that afternoon.

    My heart goes out to Larry and Lucky Parker. They were faced with a momentous decision. Unfortunately, they had far less time than they realized to consider its possible ramifications.

    I can do no better than to let Larry describe the painful lesson they learned regarding presumptuous faith (quoted from pages 159-166 by permission from the author). For the sake of brevity, some editing has been done.

    Wesley died needlessly, a victim of our imbalance and misuse of the Bible. We mistook presumption for faith, overstepping the proper bounds of God's sovereign plan for our son's life.

    Presumption is putting God between one's foolishness and the painful consequences of his mistaken actions. It is walking by the faith of another instead of obeying the voice of God. It is intimidating God into action against His will. It is applying general Bible verses to specific circumstances without a clear inspiration of God.

    Perhaps one of the greatest hindrances to faith, the sin of presumption, is a universal possibility. Even Jesus was tempted by it:

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 change concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up....(Matthew 4:5-6).

    In other words the devil sneered, "Go ahead. If You're the Son of God, jump off. I dare you. God will protect You. He won't let You down. He'll honor His Word."

    Jesus' response is significant. He said, "It is written again, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' (Matthew 4:7). An alternate reading says, "Thou shalt not put the Lord...to the test." Unwittingly, that's what Lucky and I did.

    We acted presumptuously by trying to "prove" God and our faith. Not understanding the command of Jesus against putting Him to the test, we were ignorantly trying to force God into the position of acting against His sovereign will.

    In Malachi 3:10 God says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this...if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need."

    How does this passage reconcile with "Thou shalt not put the Lord...to the test"?

    We can test God only when He specifically asks us to do so. This is where we made our mistake. God did not tell us to withhold Wesley's insulin to prove His faithfulness and our faith, as we had assumed.

    A major flaw exists in the positive confession principle that is so popular today. The practice encourages people to incorporate selected verses from the Bible as their own record or promise from God. Passages concerned with many spiritual principles can have general application. But not all verses necessarily will apply to your circumstances or God's plan for your life. While the Bible is true and its promises can be claimed, one cannot arbitrarily take some passages and say, "I'm going to stand on them."

    This was a painful lesson for Lucky and I to learn.

    The promises of God must be given; that is, inspired by the Holy Spirit to a person for a specific need. Only when God speaks to us clearly, applying His Word to our circumstances, can we stand upon them, for it is then that God's gift of faith begins to flow on our behalf.

    Arbitrarily claiming the general promises of the Bible for specific needs opens the door to presumption. Out of balance, many of the teachings of the Bible can have heartbreaking consequences.

    In their zeal people often have taken spiritual insights and transformed them into formulas. "If you follow these steps," they argue, "God must honor His Word."

    Formulas in themselves are not evil. Often they are heavenly prescriptions for someone's ailing finances, poor health or crumbling marriage. They can be the result of God's inspiration for an individual's need.

    Formulas have helped people to exercise faith for miracles. Yet dangers exist with the general use of spiritual recipes. People tend to work the formula instead of seeking God. Formulas sometimes put God in a box, implying what He will do every time in a given situation. Formulas often elevate man; we have finally figured out how God works, making it possible for us to manipulate Him as we please.

    Formulas are tempting because they appear to offer simple solutions. When we read God's word on a daily basis, He can say more to us. When we rely on a formula as a substitute for reading His Word, we limit His communication and sometimes violate His sovereignty.

    Lucky and I claimed the promises of God for Wesley's healing, but our son died. Presumption, in the guise of faith, kept us from seeing the sovereign time and method of God. By taking Wesley off his insulin, we in effect were forcing God to heal our son. God has many varieties of healing. By our act we prevented His perfect method for Wesley's life. God cannot answer "faith" that is rooted in presumption and which maneuvers Him into acting against His sovereign will.

    Realizing that the verses we claimed were not God-given in our situation was another painful experience to us. Indeed, they were an expression of our human desires. So desperate was our hope for Wesley's healing, that we were blinded to Satan's deception.

    Our experience has taught us that God sovereignly heals whom He chooses. Any genuine faith healing can stand the test of medical verification. Whether or not a cure takes place as the result of prayer, God must decide. All healing comes from God—medicine, nature, and prayer are methods by which He accomplishes it. It is presumptive to believe a healing has taken place when the symptoms persist.

    Too often Christians misuse the verse in 1 Peter 2:24, "...by whose stripes ye were healed." Confessing this Scripture, some people run around saying, "I'm being healed," while they continue to suffer. This is what we did with Wesley. But if the healing is real, the symptoms will disappear.

    Often healing is progressive. It's okay to say "I'm being healed" while continuing to treat symptoms medically. But it is a lie to say that we're cured when suffering persists. Until our miracle comes, we can treat the illness without compromising faith.

    There is more to the story than I told you. Larry was hesitant to seek prayer after the Sunday morning service because he did not want to subject Wesley to more disappointment. However, he then spent Sunday afternoon in Bible study and prayer, attempting to determine God's will as best he could. He eventually concluded that he must act on faith as though the healing was complete. He continued to wrestle with the decision through a sleepless night. His decision was put to the inevitable test on Monday morning. Wesley's blood sugar level was still high. Had he been healed, it would have been normal.

    Because Larry wanted to act in faith, he did not inject the insulin.

    Larry readily admits in his book that, as parents, they failed Wesley in their presumptuous faith. By his own admission, we will give him a failing grade in this area. But that is not the only area in which he should be graded. How did he respond to an unexpected test of his faith? Could I suggest to you that when a believer spends the afternoon and evening in Bible study and prayer before attempting to trust God in a difficult decision, that the resulting grade should be an A+ for the integrity of the decision?

    Larry gets two grades. He gets both an A+ and an F. Sadly, the "failure" part of the grade resulted in devastating consequences.

    (As an interesting footnote, Larry and Lucky get a perfect grade later. Against their defense attorney's advice, they decided not to appeal their conviction. The initial trial with its heavy media coverage produced significant controversy among both believers and secular observers. The Parkers felt that God was leading them to leave the outcome entirely to Him because of all the animosity a second trial would cause in the Christian community. Four years later, their probation officer petitioned the judge to terminate their probation. A request to reduce their felony convictions to misdemeanors was included in the petition. The judge not only terminated their sentences and reduced their convictions from felonies to misdemeanors, but he overturned the convictions from guilty to not guilty. They were innocent. In this second decision by faith, their grades were A+ and A+. Again, they had prayerfully considered what God was leading them to do regarding an appeal. Again, they used Scripture as their guide. But this time they were more careful to use the verses appropriately as the Holy Spirit led. And again, they acted in faith. This time, God honored their faith with an unexpected and delightful answer.)

    The potential of presumptuous faith will become greater the more we attempt to live by faith. In the absence of trusting Jesus, there is little risk of excessive zeal in living by faith. It is only as we attempt to make faith work that we will face the hazard of presumptuous faith.

    The superficial similarity between presumptuous faith and genuine faith is confusing. Certainly, we understand that "jumping off the temple" would inappropriately test God. Nonetheless, whenever we assess a step of faith, we will often struggle with self-imposed conditions which are not part of God's plan.

    I have no simple solution to this dilemma. It is one of the lessons in living by faith which each of us must learn at the Holy Spirit's direction. Avoiding presumptuous faith will involve a careful study of Scripture. It will involve prayer. Without demeaning the leading of the Spirit in our lives, it will also involve a willingness to take risks that may result in failure.

    Nor is one action always presumptuous faith while another is not. What is, and is not, presumptuous faith will vary between individuals. In fact, at one point in our own life something may be acceptable today which will change at a future date.

    May I suggest, however, that our self-indulgent American church experience often fosters presumptuous faith. We are conditioned to think that exercising faith must result in something "good" for our own benefit (healing, deliverance from adversity, financial gain, etc.). In reality, if we are seeking the kingdom of God first, living by faith should primarily be directed toward personal growth and ministry. Exercising faith in ministry for the salvation of the lost and the growth of fellow believers will often free us of the self-centered view which results in presumptuous faith. We will see that God's fulfillment of ministry through our life may result in a breakdown of health, increase of adversity, and financial loss. At the same time, we will discover that these personal losses allow God to work in others' lives through us.