We are going to talk about faith today- what it is and what it is not. Plus, how to create more faith. Let me point out the obvious: If God just wanted you to believe and have faith for no good reason at all, then why did He give you an entire book of reasons? You see, faith is not some commodity that has limited supply. You can actually, knowingly and effectively, create more faith if you know the steps.
First, let’s talk about experience.
We can use these three examples- Seatbelts, money, and gravity. All these levels are based on experience. Your level of trust with each is cemented based upon how often you have experienced the benefits of them. The Seatbelt the least, as most don’t get in car crashes every moment of their day. Money we deal with daily. We have more experience, thus more trust in money. Next is gravity. We have such complete trust in gravity, as we experience it every moment of our lives. We have so much faith in gravity, we no longer think of it. We don’t worry that when we roll out of bed, gravity won’t be there for us. We take it for granted that gravity with always do what gravity does and we will not be disappointed by it.
Now with God, it’s a little different. He has His own will and He is not just an object or a law of nature. Yet, the principle remains the same. Faith is all based upon experience.
Hebrews 11:1 is one of the most misunderstood bible verses and it can cause a lot of damage.
The “Faith Hall of Fame” sounds impressive, but have you ever realized that all the great acts mentioned only fill a chapter. That in the entire lives of these individuals, it came down to one defining act. I believe all of us could, can, and will eventually be able to be added to such a list.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Let me ask you a question:
“If Faith is the substance of things hope for, then what is the substance of faith?”
I’m going to build a case that the substance of faith is knowledge and reason. Yes, reason. Not mindless confidence. Biblical faith is a fungible, expendable commodity that can be created, earned, and used to our benefit. But before we cover that, let’s quickly show how Faith is a “Weapon Of Our Warfare”- A Mighty Weapon to kick in the teeth of all demonic forces, allowing us to stand upon their decaying spirit.
~The Weapon Of Faith~
Faith Is A Gift From God.
1 Corinthians 12:8-11 “For through the Spirit is given to one a word of wisdom; and to another a word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; (9) and to another faith by the same Spirit; and to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; (10) and to another workings of powers, to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; and to another kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues. (11) But the one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing separately to each one as He desires.”
We Are All Given A Measure Of Faith To Start.
Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. But set your mind to be right-minded, even as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
Faith Can Grow And Increase Or Decrease.
Luke 17:5-6 “And the apostles said to the Lord, Give us more faith. (6) And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, Be rooted up and be planted in the sea! And it would obey you.”
Faith Is A Spiritual Weapon In The Following Ways.
It Saves Your Soul and Keeps You From Burning In Hell.
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,”
Faith With Obedience Makes You A Saint Of God.
Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints. Here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
Faith And Obedience Makes You A Soldier In The War Of Eternity.
Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was enraged over the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Faith And Obedience Makes You The Victor In The War.
Revelation 12:10-11 “And I heard a great voice saying in Heaven, Now has come the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. (11) And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony. And they did not love their soul until death.”
The First Step In Creating Biblical Faith
“Knowledge”
We must seek God’s Word to find the truth. The truth that is worthy to base your knowledge and understanding upon.
Hosea 4:6a “My People are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”
The knowledge they lacked was of God’s ways, and how He wished to be approached.
Romans 1:28a “And even as they did not like to retain God in the knowledge,
God gave them over to reprobate minds.”
The Bible tells us that we are supposed to keep God and His ways in our minds- our knowledge.
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
2 Timothy 3:15b “you have known the Holy scriptures, which makes you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Again, we are told that knowing the Bible is going to make us wise to salvation. This also implies that not knowing the Bibles makes us unwise, uneducated about God’s ways and salvation. And in turn, makes having faith a near impossibility.
1 Peter 2:2-3 “desire the sincere milk of the Word, as newborn babes, so that you may grow by it; if truly you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
IN the book of peter we have been given the recipe for growth, Reading the word.
Could you imagine a baby never receiving mother’s milk, or formula? What would happen?
Hebrews 5:13-14 “For everyone partaking of milk is unskillful in the Word of Righteousness, for he is an infant. (14) But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, even those who because of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
The first dose of God’s Word and love is not enough for you and me, we have to keep digging. We need more biblical nourishment. We must graduate on to deeper and deeper things of God to truly grow our faith. We have to fill ourselves with the knowledge of God.
The Second Step In Creating Biblical Faith
“Reason”
God wants us to ask questions and seek godly answers. He wants to teach you and reason with you. Faith is not some ethereal, mystical mountaintop experience. Faith is knowledge and reason based. It is a fact based conclusion decided upon knowable information.
Job 13:3 “Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.
Job recognizes God’s authority, and wants to have a discussion with God about what’s going on.
Isaiah 1:18 “Come and let us reason together says the Yahweh.”
God wants to have discussion with the fallen nation of Israel, about what is going on. Our Father is approachable, even if we disagree.
The problem of reasoning is when you do it on your own, outside of the framework of Scripture that is the Bible.
2 Corinthians 1:9-10 “Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, (10) who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;”
Outside of the power of God, can you raise the dead? So, why trust your reasoning?
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
We are told that we can’t even know our own hearts.
Proverbs 3:5-7 “Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. (6) In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (7) Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.”
Reasoning with God means To Understand His Reason, not our own.
God’s rebuke of using your own reasoning.
Isaiah 55:7-9 “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Jehovah, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
So, true biblical reasoning is taking time to understand how and why God thinks the way He does. It is not trying to impose our will on God.
The Third Step In Creating Biblical Faith
“Belief With Understanding”
Most people confuse belief with faith, but it is not. We will see this in the following examples, that we must combine belief and understanding together. Belief alone is not enough.
A Faith Issue Explained
Mark 8:17-21 “And knowing it, Jesus said to them, Why do you reason that it is because you have no loaves? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Have you still hardened your heart? Do you have eyes and do not see? Do you have ears and do not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves among five thousand, how many hand baskets full of fragments did you take up? They said to Him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many lunch baskets full of fragments did you take up? And they said, Seven. And He said to them, how do you not understand?”
Their eyes have seen, their ears have heard, and their brains forgot.
Now, did the disciples believe in Jesus? Yes, He was right there.
But did they have faith in Jesus?
James 2:19-20 “You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble. But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”
Satan believes in God, yet he does not have faith. Why? He does not have the works that transform his belief into faith. (This Is Five)
Romans 10:8-10 “But what does it say? The Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart"; that is, the Word of Faith which we proclaim; because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.”
God’s Word was first:
1. Near us- we heard it.
2. Then in our mouths- we talked about it, we reasoned,
3. Then we believed it- now it went into our hearts.
4. Finally the action or work, if you will- confession.
Now, remember in 1 Peter 2:2-3 “We are told to desire the sincere milk of the word.” We have taken that first step of knowledge, we reasoned over it with God. Now we need to move on to belief with understanding.
Isaiah 28:9-12 “Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Those weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; for with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people. To whom He said, This is the rest; cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing. Yet they were not willing to hear.”
So, now that we have the milk of the word, the basics, we are meant to move. We must renew the cycle by continually increasing our knowledge and seeking deeper understanding, but most importantly, we must hear the Word of God. Most people usually move on, some don’t know how. But I am telling you how right now. You must always increase your knowledge of God and His ways. Then reason it out with God, seeking His ways. Then let it transform into a belief, as an accepted fact, and have adequate understanding of that belief.
The Forth Step In Creating Biblical Faith
“Faith / Trust”
The fourth step is trusting in the One that the belief has been based upon. Meaning, knowing just like gravity, He will continue to be steadfast and unchanging.
Did you know that the word “faith” is only mentioned 2 times in the Old Testament and 248 times in the New Testament?
The definition of Faith coming from the Greek word 4102 “pistis” which means- “persuasion, credence, and conviction of the truthfulness of God. And has it root meaning from the Greek verb 3982 “pietho” which means- to convince, to assure trust and to yield.”
So, to pull it all together, what does faith mean?
Faith: “To persuade and convince to a point of trust.”
This is done by increasing your knowledge of God through the Holy Scriptures, and having the experience of walking out that belief and knowledge. Then you will see the outcome and your trust in the controller of those outcomes.
Replace the word “Faith” with the word “Trust” for greater understanding:
Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
Romans 10:17 “Trust comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
Anything that undermines the Bible, is trying to undermine your faith.
Again, let us replace the word “Faith” and put “Trust”:
Hebrews 11:1 “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1 “Now Trust is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your Faith /Trust should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
Galatians 3:11 “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by Faith /Trust.”
Hebrews 11:6 “But without Faith /Trust it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
The Fifth Step In Creating Biblical Faith
“Action”
For faith to truly be faith, it must be accompanied by an action. If there is no step of action, it is not faith. But just a belief with potential.
Demonstration:
You can’t say that you trust your seatbelt in your car to save your life in a car crash, and not put it on, and then expect it to do so. It can only perform its function in the action of placing it around yourself and buckling up. Then your trust is validated by your action. Because if you truly believed it would do what you said it would, then you would buckle up.
Let’s read James 2:26
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so Faith /Trust without works is dead also.”
Wrapping It Up: Now I have been saying that faith is easily represented by the word trust. But what is it, and who is it, that we are placing our trust in?
Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”
Romans 5:1-2 “Being therefore justified by Faith /Trust, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; (2) through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Galatians 3:26-27 “For you are all children of God, through Faith /Trust in Christ Jesus. (27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Pulling it all together:
John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and will not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
1. If your faith feels weak, increase your knowledge.
2. Let that transform into faith, by becoming a belief accompanied by an action.
3. We have the recipe for a greater walk with God- use it!
4. Let’s not settle for good enough, go for great.
5. Let’s not just try to get by, let’s get ahead.
6. Let’s be wise and do what the Bible says.
Let us also examine ourselves: Are we like the Devil and the fallen angels with just an unrealized belief? Or, are we those who have put an action to your knowledge and created Faith/Trust?
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine your own selves, whether you are in the Faith /Trust. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”
Here Are The Key Ingredients To Powerful Biblical Faith:
Knowledge
Reason
Belief With Understanding
Trust
Action
= Meaningful Beneficial Faith
