God desires and expects our life to be a life of faith. The way we enter God’s kingdom, the kingdom of light, is through faith. In Romans 1:16-17 we are told that we are justified through faith.
16 For I 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. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)
Notice how many times the word faith is bound up in verse 17. From this verse we understand that, once we have been justified and saved through faith, God desires us to go on living our life through faith. In this way our faith will grow and develop from a faith for salvation into a faith as a way of life. A faith like this — faith as a way of life — leaves a mark behind it, a mark that can be followed. In Hebrews 13:7 we read about those fathers of the faith who left a mark behind them. There we are encouraged to fix our eyes on their way of life — to let them be our example, and to imitate their faith.
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. (Hebrews 13:7)
Do you see? True faith leaves a mark, leaves a trace, an imprint on the life of the believer. That is how faith can be imitated or followed.
There is a faith through which we are saved, and no one can be saved except through faith. But once we have been saved through this faith, we must not stop there; we must develop our faith so that it becomes for us a way of life. In this way we will leave behind us a mark of a good example and of the miracles God has worked in answer to our faith, so that those who come after us — the generations to follow — may look at the outcome, the fruit, of our way of life, and so imitate our faith.
WHERE DOES FAITH COME FROM?
True faith leaves a mark, a trace, an imprint on the life of the believer, and such a faith can be observed and imitated. But where does faith come from? Faith comes from hearing — not simply from hearing, but from hearing the word of Christ. In other words, faith comes from God, because the word comes from God and the preaching comes from God, so that ultimately faith comes from God. This can happen in a variety of ways:
- Through the written word of God — when we read and study the Bible, this builds up our faith;
- When we hear or receive a promise given in the Bible and the Holy Spirit brings it alive for us — then it produces faith in us. For example, when we read that when we pray in the name of Jesus, our prayers will be heard. As Jesus said:
24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. (John 16:24)
And if we believe this promise and pray on the basis of it in faith, then God will do what we ask, will answer our prayer, and we will be encouraged. What will have happened is that we had a word, a promise from God, which entered our heart and produced faith in us.
So God’s word can come to us in different ways:
- Through reading the Bible;
- Through hearing sermons;
- Through a prophecy from God given in prayer;
- Through a vision from God.
But all of this comes under one category, which is called “the word of God.” In Romans 10:17 the apostle Paul explains this very clearly:
17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17)
A little earlier in the same passage the apostle explains the process of salvation. In that explanation he expressly stresses that the process of salvation involves faith, and that this faith in turn comes from hearing (Romans 10:13-14):
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:13-14)
In other words, you have to hear about Jesus in order to believe in Him. So, in order to believe — whether for salvation or for anything else — you must have words, a word, a promise from God to be the ground of your faith.
HOW DOES FAITH WORK?
Believing, however, happens not with the mind but with the heart. It is not enough for us to hear God’s word with our ears. It must enter our heart, because believing happens with the heart. For faith to work, it must come from the heart. Romans 10:10 says very plainly that a person believes with the heart:
10 For 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. (Romans 10:10)
A person confesses his faith with his mouth, but he believes, or exercises faith, with his heart. We may have different minds and different intellects, but a person does not believe with his reason; he believes with his heart. Different people have different amounts of reason, but all people have the same human hearts. The fact that we believe with the heart and not with the mind is what puts us on an equal footing, on one level, before God. For if people believed with their minds, then perhaps those who are more intelligent would be saved more easily, while those who are less educated would be saved with greater difficulty. But God has done exactly the opposite — a person is saved not through his mind but through his heart. That is why we see that, as it were, less educated people are saved more quickly, because they receive things with their hearts. Intelligent people rely too much on their reason, and reason too often becomes an obstacle to salvation. They begin trying to explain salvation and spiritual things to themselves, and when you start to think about and explain to yourself some spiritual, invisible thing, you come to the conclusion that it cannot happen. This is because our reason is limited. But if with our heart we believe in God, God answers our faith and saves us through a faith that comes from our heart.
Therefore, in order to have faith, we must let God’s word into our hearts. For faith to be from the heart, God’s word, which is its foundation, must enter the heart. That is why, in Romans 10:16, the apostle Paul says:
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” (Romans 10:16)
So God’s word came to everyone, but not everyone was saved, because not everyone let the word into their heart. It reached only their mind; and if God’s word reaches only the mind and does not enter the heart, it cannot and will not produce faith. There are many people who hear God’s word, but they do not receive it as God’s word. They receive it as the word of men. That is why they do not obey it and do not let it inside their heart. Such a word, kept out of the heart, will not produce faith. Only when we receive God’s word as God’s word and let it into our heart will it produce faith in us. So, first, we must hear God’s word. Second, we must accept that it is God’s word. Third, we must let it into our heart. And, fourth, we must obey it and act according to it.
WHAT IS FAITH?
What is faith? Put most briefly, faith is expectation. Faith is the continual expectation of the fulfillment of the promise that God has given us. Abraham, along with the other patriarchs, was looking forward to the city of God, which God had promised him as an inheritance (Hebrews 11:8-10).
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10)
See, it says that Abraham “was looking forward to” the city with foundations. He was looking forward to the fulfillment of God’s promise. He was looking forward to his inheritance, just as we look forward to the Second Coming and the resurrection from the dead. So, put most briefly, faith is expectation. Something similar is said in Psalm 40:1-2. There David says:
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. (Psalm 40:1)
We are not only to “wait” for the Lord or to trust in Him — for this “waiting for the Lord” means that you trust in Him — but to wait for Him “patiently.” Faith is precisely this patient waiting for the Lord, this expectation of His supernatural intervention in our life. We see this in the lives of the biblical heroes — we mentioned Abraham. He was looking forward not only to the heavenly city, but also to his son. God told him he would have a son. His wife, Sarah, laughed: “How can this happen, when we cannot have children, since we are too old?” Abraham was 75 years old when he left Ur of the Chaldeans, and he was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Twenty-five years of waiting… But during those 25 years he did not wait the whole time. That is why we say that faith is not only expectation, but continual expectation. Because at one point Abraham tried to do things in a human way. He listened to Sarah, who told him to go in to her servant, so that she would bear a child which they would adopt — in other words, for Hagar to become a surrogate mother of their child. A surrogate mother is a woman who becomes pregnant and carries a child for another woman, having signed beforehand a legal agreement that she gives up the child in favor of the adoptive mother. As long as Abraham took part in this plan and reasoned in a human way, it was not counted to him as waiting on God. We too sometimes say of something that we have believed for it for a long time; but do we believe for it the whole time, or do we believe for a little while and then set off to do things in a human way? If we do things in a human way, it is not counted as faith.
And God had to speak to Abraham again, and Abraham had to be confirmed once more in his faith, until at last he received the fulfillment of the promise.
Of all the biblical heroes, the one who waited the longest was perhaps Noah. God told him: “There will be a flood on the earth.” And Noah was perhaps 500 years old (Genesis 5:32) when God told him this, and the flood came in the 600th year of Noah’s life (Genesis 7:6). For a hundred years he waited for this flood. But during that time he did not stand idle; he was preparing.
WHO IS THE ENEMY OF FAITH?
Faith is waiting for, or expecting, the supernatural intervention of God in our life. But we must also know that faith has an enemy. What is the name of the enemy of faith? Doubt. The greatest enemy of faith is doubt. In James 1:5-8 we are told that if we believe, we must be unwavering in our faith, otherwise we will not receive an answer to our prayer. Because if there is even a little doubt in our faith, it is no longer faith. Faith must be one hundred percent.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5)
So, if we ask of God, He desires to give to us! But look at what the condition is, at what it says…
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6)
The waves turn according to the direction in which the wind blows. They have no opinion of their own; they waver.
7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:7-8)
So we must not let doubt into our hearts. Doubt is what hinders our faith, what makes it invalid, what nullifies it.
In Matthew 14:22-33 we read the account of how Jesus walked on the water. Then Peter also decided to walk on the water. And he set out, but at a certain moment he began to sink. Why? Because he “doubted.”
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:22-33)
How did Peter walk on the water? Through faith. Where did this faith in Peter’s heart come from? From the word of Christ — Christ told him: “Come!” and that was His word. Peter believed that this was Jesus, He told him: “Come!” and then Peter set out on the water through faith. So where did the doubt come from? The doubt came from the bad news. Doubt always comes from bad news — from the “wind,” from the “waves,” from the circumstances. Looking at them, Peter became afraid. He saw the waves, he saw the wind… he began to think: “Now, how am I walking on these waves?” As if it were harder to walk on waves than on a calm sea. And when Peter began to look at the circumstances rather than at Jesus, he became afraid. Fear is faith with a negative sign, or anti-faith. It is the expectation that something bad will happen. That is why we must not let fear into our heart. If we sense that fear is coming upon us, we must drive it away from us. How? By confessing 2 Timothy 1:7:
7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)
We must not let fear into our hearts, because fear is expectation — in other words, faith — that something bad will happen. But we must not expect that something bad will happen; rather, we must believe that, whatever happens, the Lord will keep us.
Let into the heart, bad news produces doubt. In Numbers 13:25-33 we read how this happened with God’s people. Moses sent out spies, who went into the land of Canaan, and it says:
25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. 26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:25-33)
This was the bad news. As a result of this bad news, that whole generation did not enter the promised land, but died in the wilderness.
Who entered the promised land? Only Joshua and Caleb. Because the two of them kept saying: “We can take the land.” Why? Because they were not looking at themselves but at God. They believed that the Lord would be with them, and that with His help they would deal with their enemies as easily as with “bread” to be eaten, as it says in Numbers 14:9. But the others forgot about God — as if they had come out of Egypt by their own strength. They forgot that, in order to bring them out of Egypt, the Lord had worked such great miracles; and if God had led them out of Egypt, what problem would it be for Him to bring them into that “promised land” by delivering their enemies into their hand? But at that moment the Israelites left God out of the situation. Whenever we leave God out of the situation, we begin to be afraid and doubt comes into us. When we forget about God, we leave God out of the situation and say, in a human way, that we cannot do this or that. We begin to think in a human way, and when we begin to think in a human way, our faith evaporates, because God is not in our situation.
When we believe the bad news, we begin to doubt and we lose our faith. Therefore we must be very careful what we let into our hearts and what we choose to believe — whether the bad news that comes to us from the circumstances, from the symptoms, from the situations, from the adversary, or God. Because faith is a decision — a decision not to believe what the bad news tells us, but to believe what God’s word tells us, to believe what God tells us.
In Hebrews 3:12–4:2 the author of this wonderful letter addresses his hearers — and I believe this also applies to us — with the following words:
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12)
Here the apostle is speaking to believing people — people who have come and entered God’s kingdom through faith — he calls them “brothers and sisters.” But the heart of these “brothers and sisters” in time turns out to be “unbelieving.” They become like the Jews who came out of Egypt by faith, but in the wilderness, when they heard the bad news, turned from believers into unbelievers and died in the wilderness.
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13)
See, here it says that we must not wait only for the pastor to encourage us, but that we are to encourage “one another,” and to do it “daily.”
14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. (Hebrews 3:14)
See, this is something many people do not understand. They wonder and say: “Once we are saved, we are saved forever.” But does the fact that we are saved mean that we can stop going to church, stop serving God? No. Because here it says that we share in Christ, “if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.” That is why we must have faith — faith not only for salvation, but faith as a way of life — to believe in Jesus Christ, to believe in the Second Coming, to believe in God’s word, to experience the miracles of God in our life, to have answers to our prayers, so that we may truly be believers who know their God and who leave behind them a mark, a mark so clear that others who come after us can follow it.
15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. (Hebrews 3:16-19)
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. (Hebrews 4:1-2)
Do you see? The bad news keeps the word from being combined with faith and from producing life and miracles. Doubt leads to unbelief, and unbelief is not pleasing to God, and it makes the person who does not believe not pleasing to God either. If we have in us a “sinful, unbelieving heart,” we will not be saved.
But here we are speaking not only about salvation, but also about blessing and about the whole abundant life that God has for us. In Hebrews 11:6 it says:
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Do you see? We must believe not only that God exists, but we must also believe that He “rewards” those who seek Him. How? How does God reward us? Above all with eternal life and resurrection from the dead, but also with answered prayers, with protection and defense, with success in our work, by providing for our needs and by giving us health. This is precisely why, in our mission statement, we say that “we are committed to leading people to God.” And then what? To “establish them in the faith.”
We are committed to leading people to God, establishing them in the faith and equipping them for service, investing ourselves in them, motivating them and helping them to reproduce themselves in many generations of followers of Christ.
The followers of Christ whom we build up must be believers. And for them to be believers, we must first be believers ourselves. Because we may indeed speak what we ought to say, but we reproduce what we are, and our spiritual children will resemble us. That is why we must be a generation of faith.
WHERE DOES THE ASSURANCE OF OUR FAITH COME FROM?
Faith believes. Faith is characterized by 100% trust, 100% certainty and full assurance. In Hebrews 6:11-20 we read where the assurance of our faith comes from.
11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:11-12)
Do you see? The hope is actually our “promised blessings.” And in order for us to inherit them and for them to be fulfilled for us, we must have “faith and patience,” faith and full assurance. See where this “full assurance” comes from.
13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” (Hebrews 6:13-14)
15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. 16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:15-20)
The assurance of our faith comes from the source of the words that bring us that faith. Who is this source? God Himself. Here it speaks not of one, but of “two unchangeable things.” These “two unchangeable things” mentioned in this passage are God’s promise and the oath by which He swore that He would fulfill that promise. In Genesis 22:15-18 we read what God said when Abraham passed the test of faith and reached out to offer his son as a sacrifice.
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:15-18)
God’s promise and His oath are like the two flukes of an anchor that has fixed itself extremely firmly to the sea floor and does not allow the ship to be carried off by the waves of the sea. God does not lie, and He is faithful to His promises. He fulfilled His promise to send us a Redeemer.
The anchor of hope, guaranteed by His oath, enters “behind the curtain.” What is behind the curtain? The curtain spoken of here is the curtain of the tabernacle, and behind this curtain is the Most Holy Place, the holy of holies. There Jesus is, with a glorified, resurrection body in perfect holiness. This is what awaits us too. We will rise from the dead and will be in God’s presence and in His perfect holiness throughout eternity.
God does not lie, He is good, and He is able. These three things — that He is faithful, that He is good, and that He is able — are the guarantee that what He has told us, He will do. That is why we have grounds to believe in the fulfillment of His promises — both for our salvation and for every single thing in our life.
First, we can trust God because God does not lie (Numbers 23:19).
19 God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19)
God does not lie. If He has said something, He will do it. The question is that our faith be “switched on,” “hooked up” or exercised on the “right” promise, so to speak. We must be very careful and search the Word, the Holy Scriptures, and discover God’s promises in it. And if we find a promise that applies to us, we can believe it. The reason why we may sometimes have believed a promise and it was not fulfilled is perhaps that it did not apply to us, but to someone else. We must be sure that the promise from God’s word which we have taken hold of applies to us. In God’s word there are promises that are specific and apply to God’s people, to the Jews. But there are also many promises that are “broad-spectrum” and cover many things. For example, the promise about prayer (Matthew 21:22).
22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. (Matthew 21:22)
Mark 11:24:
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:24)
God desires us to have faith in Him. He desires us to pray and to receive an answer to our prayers. We must live such a life of faith — to know God as a faithful God and to be sure that, if He has said something, He will do it. When we pray to God, we must pray with faith that He will hear us, will answer our prayer, will provide, will work a miracle, will move the circumstances, will stir up people; He will do what He desires. God will bless those who seek Him, because they believe in Him. And they believe in Him because they know Him and know that He does not lie. God is a faithful God.
Second, God is good. He is on our side. He is not against us; He is for us (Romans 8:31)! In Psalm 34:8 it says:
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:8)
If we believe in God, we are blessed, because God loves us and He desires to bless us — even more than we ask or think. It is possible, however, that there may be some obstacles in us — obstacles that we must remove. Such obstacles are doubt, bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness and occult practices. We must be cleansed of these and other similar sinful vices and practices so that God can work in our life.
God is good and kind, and His goodness and kindness do not change — they remain the same (James 1:16-17).
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:16-17)
In other words, God is good, and He goes on being good.
And third, God is able. He is almighty (Mark 10:27).
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)
For Him there is no incurable disease, for Him there is no impossible situation. He can heal any disease, supply our needs in any situation.
These three things are very encouraging to me — that God does not lie, that He is good, and that He is able. This encourages me to trust Him. It is precisely for this reason — because God is faithful, because He loves us, and because He is almighty — that He can be trusted. The more we get to know Him, the more we draw near to Him, the more our faith in Him will grow. Because the more we draw near to Him, the more we will see in practice that He does not lie, that He is good, and that for Him nothing is impossible.
DO YOU SEE THE INVISIBLE?
Hebrews 11:1 begins with the words: “Now faith is…” In other words, what follows is some kind of description or definition.
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)
On the basis of Hebrews 11:1 we could give the following definition of faith: Faith is the continual expectation, with full assurance (100% trust and 100% certainty), of the moment of the coming-to-pass (the fulfillment, realization or materialization) of the expected (the hope, the promise, the vision) thing (object, event, reality), which continually cannot be seen until we receive it.
The problem with hope and God’s promises is that they are invisible until they are fulfilled. That is, the whole time we believe for their fulfillment, they cannot be seen.
Faith deals with invisible things, and we as believers must get used to the fact that the promises are invisible and that we are dealing with invisible things. See what is said about Noah in Hebrews 11:7:
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. (Hebrews 11:7)
See, here it says very clearly that Noah was warned by God about “things not yet seen.” Until then there had been no flood. Just as we are told that Jesus will come a second time. We do not know how He will come, but we know that it will happen, because God has promised it. When Noah was warned by God about the invisible things, he began to build his “ark,” which was actually something like a ship with no steering and no engine, in which, besides his family, he was to fit animals of every kind. Noah built this ark for a hundred years. People laughed at him and mocked him: “Noah, what are you doing? Where is the harbor for your ship? We are not by the sea! Even if you build it, how will you carry it to the sea? You are mad!” But Noah saw the invisible. That there would be a flood — something no one had ever seen before. This was something invisible, which nevertheless would become visible. This is precisely what faith is — the expectation of the invisible.
In Hebrews 11:24-27 we read the following about Moses.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:24-27)
Faith is connected with this. We must “see him who is invisible.” As a man, Jesus revealed God, but in His divine nature, in His divine essence, God is spirit and He is invisible to our natural eyes. We can see Him only through faith. Of Moses it is said that he saw Him who is invisible. How do we see Him who is invisible? We say that when we are gathered, Jesus Christ is among us. But can anyone point to exactly where He is standing? We do not see Him with our natural eyes. Then how do we know that He is among us? We see Him with the eyes of faith. In Matthew 18:20 Jesus said:
20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. (Matthew 18:20)
We believe this promise, and on the basis of it we can say that Jesus is among us. Although we do not see Him with our natural eyes, we see Him with the eyes of faith.
When you begin to look into the invisible and to see Him who is invisible, you will do the impossible — miracles will begin to happen in our life.
In 2 Corinthians 4:18 the apostle Paul says:
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
Believing people look at the invisible. This invisible thing is actually God’s promise. It is not seen until it is fulfilled. But because we are in relationship with God and because we have believed His word, our spiritual eyes are opened and we see how God is working to fulfill what He has promised us. This seeing of the invisible is not hypothetical. It is real, and it makes us live as though we truly saw it not only with our spiritual eyes but also with our natural eyes. That is, faith, or the seeing of the invisible, is not merely something imaginary or only a matter of words. Seeing the invisible transforms our behavior. We begin to speak and to act as though what God has promised us will most certainly happen.
In Hebrews 11:3 it says:
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3)
What is the visible? The visible is this world. And what is the invisible? The invisible is God’s word. But God’s word, which is invisible, is stronger than that which is visible, because that which is visible came into being through the invisible.
In the natural world too there are things that are invisible, yet have been scientifically proven to be real. For example, no one has ever seen electricity, but everyone knows that if you stick your hand into a socket, you will feel very plainly that there is “something” there — provided, of course, that the socket is live. If the power is switched off, then even if you reach in, nothing will happen to you, isn’t that so?
Faith is the acceptance of the apostolic traditions as trustworthy. We did not see Jesus Christ when He was on this earth, but we believe that He was on the earth. When He was born on this earth, He was without sin. We did not see this, but we know that it happened, because God promised it, it was written in God’s word, and the apostles have told us of it. We did not see the Lord crucified on the cross, but God’s word tells us that it happened. We did not see how Christ bore our sins, but we believe that He did it, that He is the perfect sacrifice, and that through this sacrifice we are justified and redeemed from all our sins. You see that even faith in the fundamental truths of Christianity deals with invisible things.
Material things were born from spiritual things. God’s word has within it the ability to call into existence things that do not exist. It possesses creative power — the ability to create something out of nothing. As human beings we cannot create something out of nothing. We can make a given thing out of another thing, but we cannot create something out of nothing. God, however, can make something out of nothing simply by saying that thing is to be there, and it appears.
In Romans 4:17-21 the following is said about God.
17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. (Romans 4:17)
So, something may not exist, but God can “call it into being.” Abraham believed this. He had no children, and by natural means it seemed there was no way for this to happen. They were old, they had passed the age at which people can have children. Sarah was barren, but see what Abraham did.
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (Romans 4:18)
Abraham saw Him who is invisible and believed that what He says would happen, and it happened. When we pray for something, we must always quote God’s word back to Him. We must come to the Lord with His words and say to Him: “Lord, You have said this and this and this, and on the basis of what You have said, we draw near to You and believe that what You have said, You will fulfill.” Abraham had something that God had told him — God showed him the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea and said to him: “So shall your offspring be.”
19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:19-21)
Abraham was a realist. He saw how things stood. He did not pretend that something was so when it was not. But in spite of this, he “did not waver.” There are some people who pretend to believe when they do not believe. They, of course, cannot deceive God. If you pretend to believe when you do not believe, you will receive nothing, because God is the searcher of hearts — He knows your heart and knows what is in it. There are also people who see how God works miracles in the lives of others. Then they try to imitate those people, but the miracles do not happen. Why? Because they do not have the true faith of the people who received the miracles. So God does not want us to pretend to believe when we do not believe. If we do not believe, it is better to be honest and to say, like that man who cried out: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” And the Lord helped him, because He is merciful. We must relate to God naturally. Abraham took into account the real state of the situation, but at the same time he did not accept that it could be an obstacle to the fulfillment of God’s promise.
In this passage we see all the things we have been talking about. Abraham had a promise from God. He knew that God is almighty. He confessed his faith by giving glory to God.
One of the definitions of faith is that faith is seeing in perspective. To see in perspective means to see beyond the things that stand in the way of your gaze. This is exactly what Noah was doing, what Abraham was doing, what Moses was doing. All of them saw God, eternity, and the consequences of what God had said. As believers we see that human life is short and this world is short-lived. However strong a person may be, however rich, he is only a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. All of us are mortal and temporary on this earth. A hundred years from now, none of us who are here will be on this earth. For some this period may be much shorter — ten, twenty years. The wall that stands in the way of our gaze is the grave. With our natural eyes we see only into the natural world. But when God opens our spiritual eyes, we begin to understand that there is something more than what we see. There is a spiritual world, there is a God who is invisible yet real, there are angels, a person has a spirit and a soul within him. And when a person dies, he does not cease to exist, but simply moves to another dimension.
Those who have miracles in their life are people who exercise faith. They see Him who is invisible, and with His help they manage to do the impossible. Do you see the invisible? If so, then you have faith; if not, then you do not have faith. Faith deals with invisible things. So if you want to exercise faith, you must be ready to deal with things that are not seen.
DO YOU CONFESS YOUR FAITH?
If a person has faith, it will be seen in his confession, in what he says. Faith speaks. The Lord Jesus said that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34). This means that if something is in your heart, sooner or later you will “let it out” — some sooner, others later. Sooner or later what is in our heart will come to the surface, and we will speak it with our mouth. So if a person believes something, he will not speak the opposite of what he believes. A person who believes speaks out his faith. In 2 Corinthians 4:13 it says:
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, (2 Corinthians 4:13)
This is characteristic of our salvation as well. We believe in Jesus, and therefore we speak to people about Jesus. We tell them: “Believe in the Lord and you will be saved.” Why do we say this? Because we believe that a person is sinful and separated from God because of his sin, and that without Christ he cannot be saved.
Faith can be spoken out in several ways. First, it can be spoken out in our conversations with others — when we share with them our expectations. Our expectations are either faith — the expectation that something positive that God has promised us will happen — or fear, because fear is also expectation, but the expectation that something bad will happen. When people get together, they usually share their fears. If we do this, we fall into a kind of vicious circle of unbelief. The way out of this vicious circle of unbelief is to believe and to confess that there is a God and that He will do what He has promised. In 2 Chronicles 16:9 it says that “the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” So all we have to do is to commit our hearts fully to God, and then He will work in our life. How can we do this? By filling our hearts with faith, because a heart without faith is not pleasing to God.
Another way to speak out our faith is in prayer. In the New Testament there are several vivid spiritual lessons which are so important that Jesus not only taught these principles but demonstrated them with something He did. One of these commands is the Lord’s Supper. Jesus not only said to observe it, but He demonstrated it — He took bread, broke it and distributed it; He took a cup, blessed it and drank from it. Also, He laid His outer garment aside, put on an apron, took a towel and began to wash the disciples’ feet. In this way He showed us that we must serve one another, and that whoever wants to be greater among us must be our servant. Another similar object lesson was the lesson of faith. In Mark 11 it is told how Jesus cursed the fig tree. Jesus turned to the tree and said: “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” (Mark 11:14). If at that moment someone had been watching Him from the side, he might have said to himself: “This man is not well — he is talking to a tree.” But Jesus did it, and in front of His disciples. Why? Because Jesus wanted to show them that faith speaks, and that it speaks out the result — what it wants to come about. When they passed by the same tree the next day, Peter said to Him: “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.” It is remarkable that when Jesus told the fig tree to wither, it did not wither, but the next day it says the disciples saw the fig tree “withered from the roots” (Mark 11:20). This shows us that from the moment we confess faith to the moment we see the result of what we believe, a certain period of time may pass.
This is an encouragement for us to pray for a given thing again if we do not see immediate results. Once Elisha prayed for the resurrection of a dead boy. But the boy did not rise at once. What then did Elisha do? Did he give up? No. He prayed again. See what is said in 2 Kings 4:32-36:
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. (2 Kings 4:32-35)
Jesus too once laid His hands on a man who was blind. As He laid His hands on him, Jesus probably also prayed for him. The man did not see perfectly the first time. What then did Jesus do? He prayed again. This is told in Mark 8:22-25:
22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” 24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. (Mark 8:22-25)
A classic example in this regard is also Elijah. He was a man of God and a prophet, yet he too did not always receive the answer to his prayer the first time. In 1 Kings 18:41-45 it says:
41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. 43 “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” 44 The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” 45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. (1 Kings 18:41-45)
Elijah did not give up after the first time, nor after the second, nor after the third, nor after the fourth, nor after the fifth, nor after the sixth. He kept on praying until he received an answer. James calls this “the prayer of a righteous person” (James 5:16-18).
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:16-18)
In Mark 11:22-23, after Jesus demonstrated the lesson of faith to His disciples, He said to them:
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. (Mark 11:22)
“Have faith in God!” This morning I am speaking God’s word from God’s Spirit into your spirit, and I say to you: “Have faith in God!” Let our church be a believing church. Let our church be a praying church. Notice that in the next verse Jesus confirms our thesis that faith speaks.
23 Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. (Mark 11:23)
Jesus does not want us to move local hills and make some geographical changes to the earth. The “mountain” in this verse is a metaphor for the problem, for the obstacle that stands in our way.
23 Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. (Mark 11:23)
At the moment we say that something must happen, we must believe that it has happened at that very moment. And if we believe and expect it to happen, it will happen.
So we can speak out our faith when we converse, when we share with the people around us, and when we pray.
When we speak out our faith, this is actually called confession. And the word confession has two meanings. One meaning is when we confess our sins. We call them by their true names, we agree that they are sin before God, and we speak them out before Him, and in some cases before other people as well. Then God forgives them. By calling sins by their true names, we cut through the deception of sin. Satan’s strategy is to tell us that a given thing which is sin is not sin, and that it will not have the consequences about which God warns us. But when we say that this is sin and that it leads to death, we cut through its root, and this sets us free from it. We might call this kind of confession negative, because through it we renounce our sins. But there is also a positive confession, and it takes place when we confess, or verbally agree with, God’s word. An example of this is the confession at our believing and salvation. In Romans 10:9-10 it says:
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For 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. (Romans 10:9-10)
This is not a confession of sins, but a confession that Jesus is Lord. To confess means to say the same thing that God says. God said of Jesus: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And you say: “Yes, it is so. Jesus Christ is Lord.” In other words, you say the same thing that God says. We can confess God’s promises. For example, God tells us: “Jesus is coming again.” And we also say: “Jesus Christ is coming again. Come, Lord Jesus!” This is confession. We say what God has said.
This principle of personal confession also works in our personal life. According to James, our body and our life are controlled by our tongue (James 3:1-6).
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. 3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. (James 3:1-6)
Of course, this about being set on fire by hell is not always so. James says these last words in a challenging tone. He does not want this part which “sets the whole course of our life on fire” to be set on fire by hell. When our tongue is set on fire “by hell,” we have troubles in our life. But if our tongue is set on fire not by hell, but is set on fire by heaven, if it is set on fire by God’s word, then through our tongue God’s words will be spoken. Then we will experience miracles and will have blessing in our life.
So faith is expressed in this way — through prayer, through what we say, through the praise of God. As it is said of Abraham, that when he believed, he “gave glory to God,” through thanksgiving, because when we give thanks, we express our faith that our prayer has been heard (Romans 4:18-21).
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:18-21)
That is why the apostle Paul also encourages us to include thanksgiving in every one of our prayers. Why thanksgiving? Because it is an expression of faith (Philippians 4:6).
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)
Thanksgiving is actually a confession of faith. Because when you give thanks, it shows that you believe you have already received it. Who gives thanks for something he has not received? No one, right? We give thanks for something we believe we have received. And since we believe that we have received it, and we give thanks for it — it will come about and will be given to us.
Faith speaks. It says what God says. In this way it releases power in the invisible world. Then people will see the manifestations of God in our life and will glorify Him.
ARE YOU ACTING ON YOUR EXPECTATION?
James 2:17-26:
17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:17-26)
Deeds grow faith and make it mature, so that it can bear fruit (James 2:22).
22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. (James 2:22)
Inaction kills faith.
Receive the word of God, understand it, put it into your heart, believe it, pray, confess, act, and receive! And let faith be your way of life!