The importance of Faith!

(Hebrews 11:13) “These all died in faith…”

We have or should have understood that it is our faith (the substance of things hoped for) that pleases God, in fact without it we are not even acknowledged. This is a clue; it will help us with our relationship with our Heavenly Father, it will cause Him to smile. And which child does not love to see their fathers smile back at them?

Come let us reason together, this is often a good instruction we should heed when wanting to understand the deeper truths of God. So when we reason, we must first agree that we will use the same source to reason from; in this case the Bible! Amongst family and friends we must first establish the source that we base our reasoning on. Without the Word of God being foundational we would be wasting our time and eventually fall over from dizziness.

If I am alone with God as I am now and my intention is to seek His face, and I seek to be led by my great God as God the Holy Spirit teaches me and guides me into all truth. This is where I believe many Pentecostals make their mistakes, as I often have. When the voice of God speaks and an idea springs to mind; you could say this is the time we claim that, “When God spoke to me”. I understand that God does not speak to his Children as He once did; His voice does not audibly boom from heaven. God the Holy Spirit has been assigned to teach God’s children. Yet we have a text book which must be used in conjunction with His voice. If we hear God speaking to us what then is our responsibility? We could, run off in “faith” with much zeal thinking that what we are doing is of God, because we heard his voice in one form or another. Zeal without knowledge is not the wise choice. How can I be sure that I have heard the voice of God?

Let me now use my morning’s thought as an example and hopefully it will help all of us…

If I want to please God my Father I must apply faith to my life, it sounds right, I think it is right, but how can I be sure? Let me now go to God’s text book (the Bible) to find proof to justify my initial thought. This cannot be optional amongst believers, it is imperative that on a daily basis we use this type of application in our lives. Faith is not blind; “it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen”. That does not mean we cannot see any direction for our lives, in fact the opposite is true, because we now have an itinerary for our lives, in and through the Word of God we now in FAITH are able to reach for our unseen goal, which is heaven. This statement now needs to be proved and confirmed. Why? We have been warned that many false teachers and prophets will arise and deceive many. We must be sure what we hear is of God and simply not vain imaginations.

Back to my initial thought, “We have or should have understood that it is our faith (the substance of things hoped for) that pleases God, in fact without it we are not even acknowledged.” I did not preconceive this thought; it appeared and got me thinking. Did God place it there? I would very much like to believe He did! I then say to myself, I need confirmation to prove this thought. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) – Now I am excited because I can say with an assurance that my initial thought has confirmation, I can then with great gladness find reassurance that God is leading me. Now I know I am on the right track, but for me to begin to understand what this actually means for my life I now need to examine this verse in context; I will now look at what those men of old did to please God and in turn be rewarded by Him. No new formula is needed! God does not change, “He is the same yesterday, today and forever!” When I read through Hebrews chapter 11 it is very clear that all people mentioned had something in common, Faith!

My conclusion then is we all must find faith in our lives to please God. How then do I get this faith? Again I have some ideas that spring to mind, but I must confirm them, and how do I do that; it is obvious, I look for answers in this great text book, the Bible!

How do I add to my faith? “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) – In other words I must hear the voice of Christ (God) if I want faith. To get saved or to be born again I must hear an accurate gospel message, it is only in and through the message of the cross where I find life and receive faith. This now explains salvation. Give some other man-centred gospel message and what we will be left with is man-centred conversion. And many of these apparent conversions are not from God by from man and the devil. How do I prove this, once again I look to confirm this statement by the Word; "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” (Matthew 7:21-23) – Faith then is needed in salvation and the Word is the catalyst used to supply faith.

If we have been saved what role does faith now play in our lives? We are now just as dependent upon it as it was Christ through faith who has saved us; look at these verses; “Let me ask you only this: “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith--just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?” (Galatians 3:2-6)

We did initially believe the Word of God for salvation and we must now continue to believe the Word to see us home and to help our faith gain momentum.      

We too just like Abraham must believe God if we are to see Him smile back at us.

Signing off

Tyrone