"'If you can do anything,' said the man, 'have mercy upon us and help us.' The question is not, says Christ, what I can do; but what you can believe. All things are possible to me; but this will help you little.
Have faith, and then all things will be possible to you. My power is given to faith; and fills every channel that faith provides."
— George Bowen (1816–1888) · The White Sadhu of Bombay✦ The Great Reversal
A father came to Jesus with his son — a boy tormented since childhood. And the father placed the question mark on God's ability: "If You can do anything." Jesus immediately moved it. The question is not about My capacity. The question is about yours.
This is a complete reversal of how we naturally think. We come to God with a problem and say — can You handle this? And Jesus says — I can handle everything. That was never in doubt. The variable is not My power. The variable is your faith.
"Have faith, and then all things will be possible to you. Faith comes first, not what's on your mind."
✦ Channels of Faith
Bowen's image is extraordinary: My power is given to faith; and fills every channel that faith provides. God's power is like water — abundant, unlimited, always available. But it flows through channels. And faith is what digs the channels. A narrow faith provides a narrow channel and receives a narrow stream. A wide faith provides a wide channel and receives a flood.
The power does not change. The supply does not change. What changes is the size of the channel faith provides. The mind says — let me calculate the problem, measure the obstacle, assess the odds, and then decide how much faith is reasonable. Faith says — I believe first. The channel is dug before the water arrives. The capacity is prepared before the filling comes.
This is Hebrews 11:1 — faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The substance comes before the sight. The channel is dug in the dark. And then the power fills what faith prepared.
"My power is given to faith; and fills every channel that faith provides."
— George Bowen · The supply is unlimited. The channel is the variable."Christ has all power in heaven and in earth; and he is with his servants, even unto the end of the world: but something beside these facts is necessary that Christ's mighty power may be manifested among men.
It is still true that faith determines the exhibitions of his power; he could not do many mighty works in Nazareth because of their unbelief; and it is doubtless because of the Church's unbelief that he doeth so few mighty works in this our day."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)✦ He Could Not
Mark 6:5. And the word is staggering: could not. Not would not — chose not to, decided not to, thought it unwise. Could not. The Son of God, with all power in heaven and earth — and human unbelief created a condition in which His power could not be manifested.
Not because His power was diminished. Not because He lacked ability. But because He gave His power to faith — and where faith provided no channel, the power had nowhere to flow. Nazareth had the same Jesus standing in front of them that every other village had. The same hands. The same authority. The same compassion. But they looked at Him and said — is this not the carpenter's son? They measured Him by what their eyes could see. And their unbelief closed the channel.
Unbelief
Jesus was present. All power was available. Every fact was in place. But the people measured Him by sight — is this not the carpenter's son? The channel of faith was closed. He could not do many mighty works there. Same Jesus. Same power. No channel.
Faith
"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). The father's faith was imperfect — mixed with doubt, trembling, desperate. But it was a channel. Cracked, narrow, barely wide enough. And through that cracked channel, the power of God flowed and his son was healed.
✦ The Church's Unbelief
Then Bowen does the thing that makes him dangerous — he applies it to today. Not the world's unbelief. The Church's. The people who already believe — or say they do. The ones who sing the hymns and read the Scripture and confess the creeds. Bowen says the reason the power of God is not more visibly at work in the earth is not that God has withdrawn it. It is that the Church has narrowed the channel.
The supply is the same. All power in heaven and earth. With His servants until the end of the world. These are facts — Bowen does not question them. But facts alone are not enough. Something beside these facts is necessary. And that something is faith — the channel that receives what has always been available.
The Great Reversal
The question is not what God can do. It is what you can believe. We place the question mark on God's ability. Jesus moves it to our faith. The variable was never His power. The variable is the channel.
The Channels
God's power fills every channel that faith provides. Narrow faith — narrow stream. Wide faith — a flood. The power does not change. The supply does not change. The channel is the variable. And faith digs the channel in the dark, before the filling comes.
The Church Today
Christ has all power and is with His servants until the end of the world. But something beside these facts is necessary. Faith determines the exhibitions of His power. Nazareth closed the channel. The Church has narrowed it. The supply awaits a wider faith.
Yesterday Bowen taught about the couching of the moral vision — the eye repaired so it could see the light already there. Today he teaches the other side: once the eye can see, faith opens the channel through which God's power flows. First the eye is healed. Then the channel is dug. Then the flood comes.
The father in Mark 9 came with an imperfect faith — "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" — and Jesus did not reject it. A cracked channel still carries water. A trembling faith still provides a passage for power. What closes the channel entirely is not weak faith but no faith — the Nazareth response that measures God by sight and finds Him too ordinary to trust.
Five days of Bowen in Normandy. From as your days so shall your strength be to the surgeon and the assassin to strength made perfect in weakness to the couching of the moral vision to the channels of faith. Each morning building on the last. The eye healed. The strength supplied. The channel widened. And a pilgrim at Beauvoir — at the gateway to Mont Saint-Michel, where pilgrims have been coming for a thousand years — receiving it all before dawn.