Faith is the life of a believer!
INTRODUCTION:
Faith is believing the Word of God and God Himself. It has been described as the anchor of Christianity, the basis of our relationship with God.
Faith is believing that God is who He says He is. The Almighty God who alone can do all things, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of all flesh, the God that changeth not, the I AM THAT I AM, and the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
We are saved by faith, we stand by faith, we are healed by faith, we overcome by faith and the bible says without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, there is no salvation. If you don't believe that Jesus is the son of God, sent to die for your sins, that suffered and died on the cross for your redemption, and rose after three days, you are not yet saved. Such a person is still in the world and not reconciled to God yet.
Faith is believing the word of God in your heart, obeying and doing what the Word says. Faith is applicable to all areas of life. For a Christian, faith is believing the Word of God with your heart and confessing with your mouth what you believe.
PURPOSE:
This write up is aimed at exploring the concept of faith and believing and the question is "What are you to believe and how"?
Belief makes our faith come alive. The faith that pleases God is believing His Word as it is without waiting for proof or evidence. This is why Jesus rebuked Thomas, one of His disciples that insisted he would not believe Christ has risen until he sees Him and feel His hands.
The Lord says blessed are those that believed without seeing me or demanding evidence. If you are going to wait until every symptom of Cancer you have been healed from disappears from your body and your hairs are restored and grown, then you are not a faithful believer.
Faith is the vehicle with which we take delivery of God's promises to us, and without faith, we cannot please God. Faith is a heart the beliefs in Jesus Christ and His words in the bible. We are expected to live by the Spirit after salvation and walk in the newness of life by the same Spirit of God. For, if we are led by the Spirit of God, we are the sons of God, who should not be afraid of anyone or anything, but confront every challenge with faith in God and the leading of the Holy Ghost.
Faith is not merely adopting a set of beliefs that you like, but a way of life that leads to eternal glory. Faith is one of the important Christian principles, a believer should understand very well. And yet, many seem not to grasp the significance of this concept, which unfortunately robs them of countless blessings, physical and spiritual.
Faith is an integral part of Christianity, so if you do not understand faith, your Christian faith is actually in doubt. Imagine a Christian who cannot please God in his behavior, because he does not understand faith...Is he/she truly a Christian? In Hebrew 11, the scriptures made it clear that no man can please God without faith (Heb. 11:6).
Believing is essential, a necessary condition before a person can become a child of God (Jn. 1:12), it is a condition for the hope of eternal life (Jn. 3:15-16), and those who refuse to believe are clearly outside the kingdom and in a state of condemnation (Jn. 3:18; 8:24).
To what benefit is believing in God without having a relationship with him, obeying and loving Him? In addition, what is the benefit of believing in eternity and in life after death if one does not prepare for it by repentance, walking in the spirit, and loving God? And to what benefit is believing in virtues if one does not live them? Therefore there is a big difference between theoretical faith which does not save the soul, and practical faith, the fruits of which are evident in one's life.
Not everyone who says he believes has faith but is measured by the fruits it can produce. The Bible says "You will know them by their fruits" (Matt. 7:16). There are those who claim to have faith but have neither the heart nor the life of a believer. So what then is the life of a believer? The life of faith is linked with peace, tranquillity, and lack of fear, for when you become afraid, then faith jumps out of you.
The life of a believer is also associated with purity of behavior, for the believer feels the presence of God, who sees, hears and records all that he does. For this reason, the believer feels ashamed and afraid of wrongdoing in front of God. The life of a believer is a life of submission to the will of God. Having faith that God is the maker of all things, and all that He permits to happen is for our own good. In this way, God's children live in peace, happiness, and satisfaction with all that God grants them.
The life of faith does not believe anything is impossible for the Lord, who said, "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23). Therefore the believer does not quiver in times of distress but believes wholeheartedly that God has all the solutions, and will interfere to fulfill His will.
The believer does not enter into an argument with God about His doing, but accepts all things and have confidence in God's wisdom and love. The believer concentrates on the unseen than the visible things, "For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). The heroes of faith are not only those who defended their faith but also those who lived a fruitful life of faith that worked in love.
The Nature of Faith
A matter of greater controversy within the religious community is the nature of faith. Many apparently entertain the illusion that redemptive faith is merely a willing disposition to trust in Christ as one’s Savior, independent of any further acts of obedience.
Such a notion is quite alien to the truth, let us explore faith deeper. First, faith involves a conviction grounded in evidence. Nowhere does the Bible suggest that one make a blind leap into belief without adequate evidence. When Paul began proclaiming Christ, following his conversion, he set about proving that Jesus was the Messiah based upon solid historical evidence (Acts 9:22).
Faith in this dispensation is anchored in the credibility of the biblical record, which is substantiated by ample evidence itself. No person with an inkling of biblical knowledge would affirm that man has an innate ability to produce his own redemption. When we look at the New Testament, we see clearly that faith involves much more than having a conviction concerning the Lord, or even a willingness to trust him. Faith also involves submitting to the divine will in obedience to Heaven’s requirements.
Faith in Action
Faith is a word of action. Consider the following passages:
“Seeing their faith”
When Jesus was in Capernaum, the crowds so pressed him that some who sought his presence could not gain access. Four men brought a lame friend. They climbed to the rooftop of the house wherein Christ was teaching and lowered their companion through the ceiling.
Significantly, Mark says: “And Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mk. 2:5).
What did Christ see? He literally saw the action of these men (including the sick one who obviously endorsed the activity). But the action is called faith. An action that involved such a high degree of risk and physical harm, is endorsed as faith. The reason is that God's ways are different from man, no human wisdom can comprehend what happened there as faith, but before the Lord, their action shows they believed in Him, as the Messiah and the Healer. They concluded that, if only they can get his attention turned to the sick man, the sick will be healed.
In a similar vein, James challenged: “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith” (Jas. 2:18).
Believers believe Jesus, His Word, and Promises
Believers of Jesus Christ believe in Him and His words, as well as His promises to us and, obey the instructions and commands of Jesus Christ. You must also believe that Christ is the end of the law for all believers in Christ Jesus so that you don't start struggling to please God, based on your works, else your faith is dead.
What are we to believe?
1. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – Romans 3:23
2. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord - Rom 6:23
3. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved – Romans 10:9
4. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation – Romans 10:10.
5. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name – John1:12
6. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth – Romans 10:4.
7. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
8. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Conclusion
The importance of faith is clearly seen in the apostle's words about the Lord, "But without faith, it is impossible to please Him" (Heb. 11:6). The importance of faith also shows in the apostle's description as one of the three great virtues "faith, hope and love" (1 Cor. 13:13) and the life of righteousness "Now the just shall live by faith" (Heb. 10:38).
Faith is the beginning of a life with God. Faith is also our companion throughout our lives, and the importance of faith is in its relationship with creating something new. The bible says God calls things that be not, as though they be, that's the kind of faith that creates something new. That's the kind of faith God expects His children to manifest. This was the faith that created heaven and earth, that turned water to wine, that put money into the mouth of a fish.
That's the kind of faith that lovers of God exhibit, that's the faith that pleases God.
Faith is the beginning of a life with God. Faith is also our companion throughout our lives, and the importance of faith is in its relationship with creating something new. The bible says God calls things that be not, as though they be, that's the kind of faith that creates something new. That's the kind of faith God expects His children to manifest. This was the faith that created heaven and earth, that turned water to wine, that put money into the mouth of a fish.
That's the kind of faith that lovers of God exhibit, that's the faith that pleases God.
FIRE...
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