Faith believes God!

Faith believes God for who He is and then proves that by action. This morning I woke up with a durable thought and as it resonates through my mind I know I need to dissect it to get a clearer understanding of its message. My first point of call must always be prayer and then to cross reference all those ideas that resonate with the bible. No notions may supersede the Word of God; if it does it must be dissuaded as a vain imagination!

How do we help someone in need? Obviously there are many differing applications to comfort a person in want and I am sure we could all fill in the blanks quite comfortably. My objective is but one and with the help of God the Holy Spirit to show you who the Lord Jesus is! He is the only true Christ and before any true miracle can take place people must believe that emphatically!

Let me prove this to you from scripture, the writer of Hebrews has this to say about faith; “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” (Hebrews 6:1) - Why do so many look to reinvent the wheel; programmes, course and other tools to try and conjure up more faith, when in fact it is really very simple, “faith towards God” will do! No need to add salt to the recipe! Commitment to the sound Word of God is all that is required.

Let’s explore what it means to have “faith towards God”; “a firm belief of the existence of God, of his nature, attributes, and perfections, the trinity of persons in the unity of essence, the whole mind and will of God as revealed in his word, particularly what relates to the Lord Jesus Christ. We must by faith acquaint ourselves with these things; we must assent to them, we must approve of them, and apply all to ourselves with suitable affections and actions. Observe, (1.) Repentance from dead works, and faith towards God, are connected, and always go together; they are inseparable twins, the one cannot live without the other. (2.) Both of these are foundation-principles, which should be once well laid, but never pulled up, so as to need to be laid over again; we must not relapse into infidelity.” (Matthew Henry) - An unbeliever could never believe all of those truths that Matthew Henry so accurately points out for us, they are spiritually blind! Nevertheless they must at the very least understand that it is God who has the power to heal. They must have faith in His ability and no one else!    

The problem I see with the world today is very simple, many Christian communities do not witness true miracles because they do not believe God at His Word and they doubt His ability to heal, which in turn only proves one thing, their unbelief! It’s not that they don’t want the miracle to happen, they do but their sight is shifted onto the wrong source. How so? They look to the man and not to God! People flocked to TB Joshua and a building collapsed. Men will always be unseated; God will never be dethroned that is impossible! Do you believe that?

Now let’s look at some actual examples from scripture to prove that “faith toward God” is where the power lies; Let me use one of the greatest illustrations to prove this; The Roman Centurion heard about the man Jesus of Nazareth, he was so convinced that He had the power to heal that he made every effort to be seen by Christ.

Here is the account; “When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And he said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith." (Matthew 8:5-10) – From the outset it is evident that the soldier understood the Lord Jesus’ authority, His power to heal is obviously understood by the man – his “faith towards God” in action! Proving that he believed God at His Word, this is a true understanding of what it means to have “faith towards God”. If God says it, it will come to pass; nothing else will ever be needed. WE MUST UNDERSTAND THIS! There must be no hedging of our bets! It is up to us to make this very clear to people when we pray for them!

I have by the grace of God resolve to no longer pray for someone without helping them understand this truth where possible.

If we go back in time we see that men no longer honoured God for who He IS and therefore God withdrew from them. Society is so warped that it is our responsibility with the aid of God the Holy Spirit to steer men and women back to God, but we must declare Him as the great “I AM” nothing else will cut it! No other men or gods can ever be entertained.

Here are the verses that prove this thought; “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. (Romans 1:21-24)

My conclusion is that we must get those in need to understand who God is before we pray for them so when He decides to respond to our prayer that there is no mistaking the source of the miracle. When God puts on a show, it is magnificent!

Signing off

Tyrone