I think it is important that we practice an outcome-based faith, a life of prayer and action that anticipates that God might act in powerful ways to produce wonderful outcomes. But for me a key word here is “might”. I agree with Anna Kettle that outcome-based faith is shaky ground and it is unwise to build on shaky ground. So our hope in God needs to be based on firmer ground, like our salvation in Christ. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness……On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.” I see Jesus stressing this focus when he tells the disciples (who are understandably excited about the power that they were able to operate with including “even the demons are subject to us in your name”) “do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20) The future outcome of our place in heaven is solid ground, not what we may or may not experience on this side of eternity.

I believe that we can anticipate outcomes and act according to that anticipation. And we can do that without building on that anticipation such that if it does not happen, we will suffer significant loss or devastation. I can give an example from Sharon’s illness of acting on the anticipation of an outcome that might happen. While Sharon was preparing for a bone marrow transplant, our pastor from the Navajo Reservation had a trip to Washington DC. I had the thought that he was going to pray for Sharon and she would be healed from his prayer. Besides the desire for Sharon to be healed, there were multiple other reasons that I thought this would be an outcome that would serve God’s purposes. As I pondered this, and wondered if God was giving me this idea, I realized that if this actually happened, the doctors at the hospital might not have a reason to stop the medical path we were on. So I wrote out this scenario and had a nurse sign it so that I would be able to convince them that something had changed and they needed to do a scan to see that the cancer was gone. Our pastor did visit and pray for Sharon, but she did not receive healing from that prayer. But I was not devastated because I was anticipating as if it might happen, not that it would happen.

Proponents of outcome-based faith strategic planning are likely to respond that “might” is not a strong enough faith. We need to be sure of the outcome and we can be sure of outcomes if we are paying attention to what God is telling us. But I question the belief that we can be sure of outcomes in our lives here on earth. A witness throughout Scripture is that people often misinterpret how God’s promises will be fulfilled, and what they think God has promised is not what God has in mind. And I believe that people who seek to hear and act on the voice of the Lord, if they are honest about their lives and experience, will have testimonies where they were convinced by various signs and confirmations of a promised outcome that did not happen like they thought it would. I had the dream of my friend that appeared to be a supernatural confirmation of the outcome God was promising (Outcome-based Faith IV). (By the way, God did wonderfully provide for that particular need and longing, but not in the way I felt called to trust Him for.)

I would champion a path of praying for and pursuing outcomes that are dependent on the power of God, but doing this as if they might or could happen, not that they will happen. This may involve some risks, and those risks should be taken on in a context that anticipates that the outcome might not happen. It would be unwise to plan for an outcome in a way that if it does not occur the fallout would be too harmful or devastating. That would be too risky.

So that is my current understanding of how to walk on the path of outcome-based faith without ending up in either the ditch of harmful disappointment or the ditch of deistic prayerlessness.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.