Brothers and sisters,
This may seem to be a question with a very simple answer...but is it?
We as Christians must understand what faith is, mustn't we?
I ask for your contribution on this most important of subjects ( our faith is more precious than silver or gold)
Please....let all contributions be done unto edification.
Thank you,
Faith is choosing to believe that the "impossible" calling that God declares over me is "possible" and then goes on to obey God by walking out that "impossible" calling in the flesh. And I walk this out by the power of His strength even when my senses tell me and my feelings tell me to do otherwise.
Bro.,
Praise God,...for asking such a dire question !
And why could the Word 'faith' be DIRE ?
Has it been distorted ?
And would it benefit Satan greatly to create a disception...change the meaning of,....really key Words of God ?
The Word says,he is a deceiver,...that deceiveth the whole world,and actually,he is deceived his own self.
No,...it may not be as simple.
I look at the example,as to how the Word 'faith' is used in the Scriptures.
Abraham:
God called to Abraham,and told him to just GO,and Abraham went,not knowing where he was going. ( God told / spoke,Abraham did)
God spoke,told Abraham to take his only son and sacrifice him,...
( God spoke,Abraham obeyed )
Death to his will,and obedience to God
The Bible speaks of 'The faith of Jesus' ...that we are to have,The faith of
Jesus ...or Jesus' faith.
But what was Jesus' faith ?
The faith that Jesus had,was hearing from His Father,God,and doing,....
The Fathers will,...( obeying )
He lived a death to His will / way,..and lived a life ( LIFE ) to God,His Father.
Samuel was another,...did not let God' Words fall to the ground.,..
Samuel had faith in God speaking to him.
Moses,too,we know how he heard the voice of God,and 'believed' It was God, that was speaking to him,and obeyed.
I believe the meaning of the Word 'faith' means to hear the voice of God,
and obey,...'believe',believer....
"Faith cometh by hearing,and hearing,by The Word of God."
Thank you and bless you,
--------------
elizabeth
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb 11:1 - NASB))
You can cast about and look for defintions and meanings and stories of faith but going back to Hebrews 11:1 always provides believers with the most basic 101 defintion of faith there is. All writings, commentaries and defintions of faith should come back here. It shears away many concepts and musings and gets right back to basics.
Things hoped for can become real substance in your lives because you are assured of and believe in things even though you cannot see them.
"Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revelaed to the senses]. AMP
What do you believe is there that you cannot see?
Amen Docs,
Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for...
The question is "what is faith"?
Faith is a "substance", which to me means that it is a "something". You either have it or you don't. You can have lots of "it" or a little bit of "it".
All solid answers :)
James says faith without works is dead so a "living faith" is one that (like sister Elizabeth said) hears and acts in obedience.
I remember a while back sister Sandra had suggested an exercise where when we read the word faith in scripture to replace it with obedience...
This proved to be quite an eye opener for me😳
Loving all your answers,beloved! Keep them coming.
Also think of faith in relation to daily life and experience.
Thank you for all your contributions so far, a refresher course on faith never goes to waste.
Blessings,
Faith is not something to drum up ourselves. It is a gift of God, to those who hope, having believed the promises of life without sin. God then gives the assurance of it by way of the actuality, being made free indeed.
Hi William,
Thank you for this thread, I really appreciate your heart brother!
What is faith indeed. It is a substance and it is also something that can be increased. In this discourse between Jesus and the disciples I think they were struck with just how short they were falling from the glory of God. Forgive my brother over and over again...are you kidding me?
"If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.”
The apostles said to the Lord, "Show us how to increase our faith.”
The Lord answered, "If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you!
"When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”
What an amazing passage of scripture. Mind blowing. First when we discover that Gods will is for us to walk as Jesus walked we are struck with the impossibility of that ever happening, which should cause us to cry out, "show us how to increase our faith".
Jesus then tells the disciples the disciples that IF THEY HAD FAITH the mountain would OBEY them. And then He proceeds to tell them that when they have OBEYED Him they would be simply doing their duty.
I do believe that FAITH is directly related to OBEDIENCE.
The disciples asked how they could increase their faith and Jesus talks about obedience.
Something to chew on, but I am headed to bed. Blessings to you brother!
And if you want more to chew on, consider what happens to a persons faith when they choose to walk in disobedience to the Lord. The very opposite occurs.
Faith - this so called (mysterious) substance begins to decrease.
Hey Brother Mark,
I appreciate you too, and all those on this forum who call on our Lord from a pure heart.
Hope you slept well and are bright and bushy tailed this morning!
I really appreciate all the input so far and I will attempt a little later to add my little bit :)
Blessings,
Beloved,this is what the Lord and I put together in my lunchtime. It is a bit longer than usual but won't take that long to read through. I hope it can be of encouragement to you.
Quite amazing how things pan out sometimes. Just after starting this thread I was listening to one of AW Tozer’s sermons from Titus entitled The Second Coming (because of all the end time threads we have been reading ïŠ) and quite co-incidentally he interjected a little teaching on faith as he was explaining that he would rather men be honest and say they do not believe than be Christians who doubt the basic tenets of the faith. What he basically said was: "Not all men have faith. YOU would not have faith if the power of the Holy Ghost did not touch you”. Then he used the example where Jesus said no man can come to Him unless the Father draws them and said, if the Father draws them to Jesus, they will come to Jesus, believe in Jesus and be saved.
With this as background, read Romans 1 verses 16 and 17 as well as Romans 10 verses 8 to 10 plus 17: 16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is
the power of God that brings salvation to everyone
who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
17For in the gospel the righteousness of God
is revealed””a righteousness that is by faith from
first to last, c just as it is written: "The righteous
will live by faith.” D
8But
what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in
your mouth and in your heart,” g that is, the message
concerning faith that we proclaim: 9If you
declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,” and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your
heart that you believe and are justified, and it is
with your mouth that you profess your faith and
are saved.
7Consequently, faith comes from
hearing the message, and the message is heard
through the word about Christ
FAITH in our context has to do specifically with:
The preaching of the gospel
The hearing of the gospel
The believing of the gospel and
The confession of the gospel (obedience)
It is this faith that brings us to God and into a right relationship to / with God. It is not merely the believing of certain statements about God but rather the believing IN or INTO a Person, the Son of God, for God’s Word to us IS a Person, Jesus Christ. We enter into a relationship of total confidence in and reliance upon, The Word of God, Jesus Christ!
For me, this faith is beautifully summed up in the words: ”Not I, but Christ”
As the apostle Peter says: "having not seen Him we love Him and still not seeing Him we believe in Him and rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory!”
Brenda said in her post: "this faith is not from us”, i.o.w not worked by us, but is a gift of God to repentant hearts, hearts that turn to God when hearing the Good News.
"for by grace are you saved, thru faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”
Sadly, this faith, this relationship of total reliance upon Christ, can be drawn back from, can be shipwrecked, can be lost…
Therefore, it must be cherished, nurtured, encouraged, protected at all costs, for it holds the promise and the hope of Eternal Life, secured for us by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!
Colossians 1 verses 22,23:
"22But now he has reconciled you by
Christ’s physical body through death to present
you holy in his sight, without blemish and free
from accusation”” 23if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, and do not move from the
hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that
you heard and that has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
And 1 Peter 1 verses 4 to 9 :
"3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us
new birth into a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance
that can never perish, spoil or fade. This
inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5who
through faith are shielded by God’s power until
the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed
in the last time. 6In all this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while you may have
had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These
have come so that your faith””of greater worth
than gold, which perishes even though refined by
fire””may be proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8Though you have not seen him, you love
him; and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible
and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving
the end result of your faith, the salvation of your
souls.
I have always liked that part of the definition of faith. Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for. What we need from God, that which we hope for can become reality as we maintain our conviction of things we cannot see.
What is that which we cannot see?
"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by ythe word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." (Hebrews 11:3)
The writer here points to a contrast between "what is seen" and "things which are not visible," between the visible and the invisible. Our senses relate us to the visible world, to "what is seen." But faith takes us behind the visible to the invisible - to the underlying reality by which the universe was formed: that is, the word of God.
Thus faith relates us to two eternal, invisible realities: to GOD HIMSELF AND TO HIS WORD.
(From "Faith To Live By" - Derek Prince)
Amen.
Faith gives substance to our relationship with an invisible Savior and God...and consequently all He has promised.
Blessings,
So is faith something we have, or something we exercise? Or both?
If we have it, in what sense do we have it?
I tend to think of faith as the fuel for obedience, or action. If you don't do anything with it it just sort of sits there and goes stale, like old gasoline in a lawnmower.
Hey Todd,
Faith defines our relationship with God. It is what unites us as branches with the Vine, Christ. Obedience is the obedience of faith. We obey God when we trust in His Son.
If our faith is real and we are indeed united to His Son, then His Life is in us and will bear fruit.
The good works, the Christ like temperament, these are all fruit, the Root is faith.
Hope that helps :)
So could it be said;
Faith is the God given ability to see by His perspective, to see and walk by the revelation of the finished work of Christ ?
Finding security in Him alone and not in our flesh or worldly provisions?
Btw- good thread bro William:)
Thank you for your kind words, Fletcher.
I must agree with you. By faith we receive the Holy Spirit, Who reveals Christ in us and to us, causing His Love to develop within us and all other loves to fade.
Once we know, by the revelation of the Spirit, Who Jesus Christ is and the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Him, all worry ceases :)
God bless,
William-
In your view is faith something more than belief?
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