Faith Part One
There is no limit to what the Spirit-filled Christian can do for God, no matter who or where he is, if he will (a) learn the ABC of faith; (b) dare to believe God and (c) act on the Word.
What is Biblical Faith?
There are different schools of faith and many teaching different ‘types’ of faith. We therefore need to understand what the Bible says about faith, and lean heavily on the Scriptures.
Faith is not a magic formula, or a wand that you wave to get answers from God. Faith is a way of life (it is practical). Everyone can have faith, you don’t need to be educated or come from the right family, etc. God is a respecter of faith! And He requires faith of every believer. “The just shall live by faith.”
The definition of Faith
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Heb 11:1 (Quote this until you memorise it). The Bible speaks about two separate ideas: Faith and Hope.
Hope is the climate in which faith works. Your hope is your dream, your desire, your goal. Hope is the thing that you joyfully expect to receive. It is a joyful, confident expectancy. Therefore, my faith is the substance of those things I expect to happen. There is a difference between expectancy and hope. Hope = “I might see you.” Expectancy =“I expect to see you” (you will be there)
Faith on the other hand is now. It is the substance of this hope. It is the title deed or evidence that is yours. It is the right you have to believe God’s promises are true for you. Faith is the solid ground for what you confidently expect. It is a “doing” thing in that we must act on our faith.
Your Faith is active!
What do you expect God to do? To see great things, you need to expect great things of God. Faith is active! There is joy in living a life of faith. Our faith gives substance to the things we hope for. You can have all the faith in the world, but if you don’t have a hope/expectancy, there is nothing your faith can give substance to.
People of faith, love to praise Jesus. In fact praise is the language of faith. Learn that God is El Shaddai – He is more than enough! If you put your faith in Him, He will do more than meet your needs
Faith is grasping the unrealities of hope and bringing them into the realm of reality now
Believing you have received it before you see it in the natural
Faith created by the Word of God perceiving as real fact that which is not revealed to our natural senses. We, for example, by faith understand and know that we are going to Heaven
It takes a positive faith – a now faith – to get positive results
You can always recognise hope because it is always future, but faith is now.
Faith always has a good report
“For by faith and trust and holy born of faith, the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report.” Heb 11:2 (Ampl)
“For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” Heb 11:2 (NKJ) When you are a man or a woman of faith, your life carries a good testimony (your lifestyle and words speaks of your faith). You can see and hear a man of faith – he confesses the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Joshua and Caleb gave the people a good report but the other ten spies gave an evil/bad report (Num 13:32). The people chose to believe the faith-less report of the ten spies. Therefore they chose a leader to take them back to Egypt. Because the children of Israel chose to believe their evil report, unbelief of the people kept them from entering the promised land, and they were forced to turn back and wander in the desert for another forty years (Num 14:22-24;33)
What was binding the children of Israel was not giants, but their own thoughts and unbelief, and their concept of God. “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight” Num 13:33. This ‘grasshopper mentality’ is prevalent in Christians across the denominational spectrum. Many Christians have this faith-less mentality because they don’t walk by faith
Some Christians speak and act negatively, despite saying that they have faith and believe God can do great things. The Bible says: “Out of the heart, the mouth speaks” What’s in your heart will always come out. If you pray, but your words and deeds negate your prayers, then you shouldn’t be surprised when your prayers don’t get answered. We have to “believe you have received and it will be done for you.”
It is imperative that we know and confess the ’faith Scriptures’. These are the promises and Word of God that inspire and build our faith. When we believe God’s Word above our own thinking or the words of others, we will start to see Godly results.
What are the giants in your life? Don’t believe that you are unable to conquer. If you are a person of faith, nothing will be able to stop you. These men had faith and they carried a good report. What makes you ‘big’ as a Christian is when you realise that you serve a great God, and when you look at your giants compared to your God, they are no longer a problem.