WHAT IS FAITH?

 In our Christian circles we have become so used to easily speaking words (like love, trust and faith) that we can fail to understand what they really mean. Faith is one of those words. How easy it is to say to someone: “Just believe – have faith in God.” The older (and hopefully more mature) I become, the more I realize that true Bible faith will always produce a result to God’s glory, and to our spiritual growth. I have come to believe that faith is a prophetic word. It is activated by our ability to hear and recognize what God is saying to us. Romans 10:17 declares,“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Faith does not come by merely reading the Word of God. It is when God speaks, either through the Holy Spirit “making alive” the portion of Scripture we are reading, or by the many other ways by which He can speak to us. Just how often we recognize “the many other ways” has a lot to do with our personal relationship with Jesus.

I have been married to Jean for more than 43 years. I know her voice and she knows mine. I have known Jesus Christ for more than 45 years, and have learned to know a number of different ways by which He speaks. Every time He speaks to me, I know I have to respond by activating my faith. Activating my faith demonstrates to God that I love and trust Him more than my own reasoning or logic, and more than what others say to try and talk me out of “such a silly thing,” etc.

What is faith? “Now faith is the substance (“realization or confidence”) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV). Each time we positively respond to the voice of God to us our faith grows. It grows in the confidence that what God speaks is absolutely right. Faith is the foundation upon which we build or launch out on in order to fulfil what God says to us. Faith is a demonstration of obedience to God – there can be no true obedience to God without faith being activated to do what God says. The voice of God to us enables us to see and hear in the unseen, invisible realm what God wants to do in and through us – but it is faith that enables us to translate what God says into the seen, visible realm. Faith enables us to capture our vision (that which God has revealed)!

• Faith, then, is a vital part of our walk and relationship with Jesus. Faith released is the pivotal point of the revelation of God becoming the reality of God.

For our faith to be alive and active we must know how and when God speaks to us. God speaks to us today through His Holy Spirit, through the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12), through the five-fold ministries (Ephesians 4:11-16), through His Word . . . through any means He desires. Our task is to recognize when He is talking, then release that God-pleasing confidence – called faith – and see what He can do in, for, and through you! Be strong in faith! ~ Rodney W. Francis.

Bible  Readings:  Luke 7:1-10; Hebrews 11.

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