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Posts Tagged ‘Faith’

Do you have faith?

“I assure you and most solemnly say to you, if you have faith [personal trust and confidence in Me] and do not doubt or allow yourself to be drawn in two directions, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen [if God wills it]. And whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Matthew 21:21-22 (Amplified)

Faith doesn’t allow itself to be drawn in two directions. The man or woman of faith knows God and follows hard after God. That is the only direction.

Faith gives no assent to any thought or philosophy that questions or undermines the sovereignty of God. That man is unstable. As James said, “let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6-8 (NKJV)

Faith isn’t a feeling, not even a strong desire or belief in something good–faith is an action, a way of living. Faith speaks to the fig tree because the fig tree is under God’s sovereignty and when the man of God speaks to the creation of God within the perfect will of God, trees wither, mountains move. Prayers are answered.

Prayer is a great way of exercising faith in God’s economy. Prayer is a faith-action that God will do as He has said He will–those who seek will find, those who ask will receive and to those who knock, the door will be opened. Faith believes that promise and seeks, asks and knocks. Faith believes God–about everything.

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Mountains of Alaska (near Denali Park)

 

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Faith as it is used in the vernacular is “confidence or trust in a person or thing.”  [Dictionary.com]  This is far from what the Bible considers faith.  In Hebrews 11, Paul defines faith as ” the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  He goes on to add that “by it the elders obtained a good testimony” and “by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” [Hebrews 11:1-3]
Biblical faith can be understood in part by looking at what it is not:
  • It is not mere hopefulness
  • It is not mere optimism
  • It is not merely a hunch
  • It is not merely an emotional sentiment
Biblical faith is so much more . . .
  • Biblical faith makes the future present
  • Biblical faith makes the invisible seen
  • Biblical faith can grow
  • Biblical faith has God as its object
  • Biblical faith has God’s Word as its assurance
  • Biblical faith gives evidence for what can’t be seen
  • Biblical faith is a gift from God, not based on experience or works
  • Biblical faith has a certainty – being sure of what we hope for:
    • Forgiveness of sins
    • Acceptance into heaven
    • Rewards for faithful service
    • Living with settled conviction of His promises
    • Taking God at His word
  • Biblical faith takes hold of the future and lives based on the future now

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