“Behold the soul which is lifted up is not upright in him,
but the JUST shall LIVE by his FAITH”. Hab. 2:4.
The
word “JUST”in this scripture and in
the Old Testament refers to a righteous person; in the New Testament, it refers
to people who are born again. “LIVE”on
the other hand refers to the lifetime,
living or the life of a man. So the
.scripture is saying that the lifetime of a man is anchored to his FAITH, thus faith becomes very
important and indispensible.
Although, there are some who assume that
love is the most important due to the misconception about what Apostle Paul
said in 1Co
13:13 “And now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three; but the greatest of these is
charity”. This scripture is the reason for the assumption that Paul said
love is the greatest. But is he comparing
faith, love and hope? You’ll get a better understanding if you read the entire
chapter. In verses 1 to 3; “Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am
become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body
to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing”,
Paul wrote to the
Corinthians to see “love” as their greatest motivator for all things. He is not
comparing them as assumed by many as he would be contradicting himself in doing
so. Paul was referring to love as a substratum to everything. what motivates
you to have faith and hope. Love! Love has to be the foundation of all you do.
Serving God whether you’re in the midst of your challenges, giving your tithe
or answering the ministry call, they sound good but are they borne out of Love?
Nevertheless, faith is very essential and very important. Love motivates
you to start something, but faith is what activates the power to love.
Sometimes, it’s hard to love in the midst of the trials of life, like Naomi,
you may say, call me marah, but not
when you have faith, faith helps you to crystallize love. Faith obtains a good
report. Faith sometimes brings you to a place where your love is tested. Your
faith empowers your love. In your walk with God, love should be your greatest
motivation, not hope for personal gains. This is because when hope is
shattered, it is faith that keeps you believing that God will come through.
This faith has to be based on the Word of God, not in your man of God or your
jobs; the just shall live by HIS
faith, not someone else’s. So what is faith?
Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen
(physically) were not made of things which do appear (show).
Heb 11:1-3. (Emphasis mine).
The word ‘substance’ in Hebrews, ‘hupostasis’, refers to anything that is tangible, something that has
weight. Faith is the tangibility of something that is hoped for in your spirit.
It is also the evidence; ‘elegchos’, an exhibit or proof of things that are not seen. Faith is
not abstract because you have the evidence. Verse 2 talks about how by faith,
the elders obtained a good report, walking in faith gets you to have a good
report. The ‘good report’ here is the same word used in the wilderness to
describe the report of ten out of the other twelve spies who went into the
Promised Land and gave an evil report. You may want to ask since when did
telling facts become evil? They saw the giants, they weren’t lying, so why? It
was evil because they didn’t see the promise with faith. It is possible to give
an evil report about your life when you say what faith is not saying about you.
This is when your faith is blind. But you obtain a good report when you have
give a faith report i.e. it is your evidence. Faith is the evidence that you
are blessed, that you have everything in the realm of the spirit even if you
can’t see it in the physical. Faith is what is written down in the Word of God
about you before you ever had a need, it’s the evidence that you already have,
not going to get and it’s undeniable to you because it conveys the tangibility
of what you asked. Evidence is a legal term used in law, it refers to
sanctioned rules in a judicial proceeding, and thus, faith is a concrete
essence, a confident and tangible assurance.
In verse 3, the Hebrew writer talks about the potency of faith “by faith, we understand that the worlds
(physical, spiritual etc.) were ‘framed’by the Word of God. Framed (katartizo) here means to make something fit into its best place. It
is faith that gets you to understand Genesis and navigate the creation story
with understanding. Genesis is a testimony of faith, you will need faith to go
beyond verse 2 of the first chapter of Genesis. The Word is a creator of God’s
intention into the physical. The word ‘made’ i.e. ‘bara’ as used in Genesis means to make something out of an existing material; the material is the Word of
God in the realm of the spirit. God has given us His word and His name
(spiritual materials) to the believer to use in creating things that eyes
haven’t seen. This shows you that your confession (spiritual) creates the
things you hope for into tangibility.
There is a saying that ‘Faith
is the currency of heaven’ but in my study, I find this to be too ambiguous
to understand: Any currency that lacks two sides is fake, hence, to spend the
currency of faith, you must first believe .The
currency of faith thus must have two sides: faith on one side and belief on the
other. To believe however, is to operate in faith that springs from God’s
word. You can’t claim to have faith without believing. Faith is acting on what
you believe. There is a story of a man and his friends journeying in the
desert, they grew very thirsty and then they came across a bad source of water,
this man claimed that he believed that if he drinks the water it wouldn’t hurt
him, he kept believing and believing until he died of thirst. Don’t just
believe, act out what you believe. Your response to the word stems from belief
but faith pushes you to take action on the word. This is great faith.
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What is
Great Faith? It’s found in the story of the centurion in Matthew
8:5-10. His servant was ill and Jesus offered to come to his house but he said “…but speak the word only, and my servant
shall be healed”. His faith was not predicated upon Jesus’ presence in His
house but upon His Words. Speak your word he said. I find this funny because
Jesus just spoke words but to the centurion, it wasn’t for Jesus to come, but
to heal his servant. And Jesus said “…I
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel”. This is Great faith is
action, it is authority mixed with the word of God. The centurion knew some
secrets about being in the place of authority; he knew generals don’t just
believe, they speak! “Speak” is an action word, not a believing word. Believing
won’t do anything, believing won’t break any yoke, believing won’t add a
miracle to your long standing situation. Do something about what you really
believe God has said concerning you. Are you operating in little faith? In Mathew 6:27-34, Jesus reminds His audience that
God cloth the lilies, in other words, the Father is an actor of His word, He
watches them to FULFILL them, (Jer.1:12,
33:14), He didn’t believe that the lilies SHALL have cloth but He DID something
about it…that’s faith. It’s amazing to know that even the Gentiles are
described to be involved in an action program -they seek! But why did Jesus say
that we shouldn’t be like them? It’s because our action must be predicated upon
the word of God, the gentiles didn’t have it as they were (at that time)
alienated from the covenant of Abraham, they were foreigners to the
commonwealth of Israel. (Eph 2:18-19). Yet, the same action word is used for
the believer; SEEK YE! First the kingdom, the King’s way of doing things. How
do you seek the King’s domain? By Seeking His words- Faith and every other
things shall be added unto you. O ye of little faith. Did you see that? In
great faith, action abounds. Your faith must prioritize the kingdom; that is
why the Bible says “Seek ye first the
kingdom of God”. What is the King saying about your house, marriage, job
etc? The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Words, go for the Word. In little
faith, it’s all about talking, not acting, despite what they believe. What you know and what you believe does not
change your life but when you act on what you believe, you empower the agencies
of the spirit to bring things into manifestation.
In Mark 2:3-5, a man sick
with palsy was carried by his four friends, but the crowd with Jesus was too
much, they soon figured out the roof top strategy, but wait, didn’t they
believe? Couldn’t Jesus have known them by word of knowledge? They didn’t say
“if it be God’s will” like some would have said, “can’t God see that I’m deaf?
Can’t He see that I’m broke? etc. They knew believing will not do any good to
the palsy so they took action. They pulled down the roofing sheets and dropped
the man in front of the Jesus. Surprisingly, Jesus saw their faith. Saw their
faith? For me, all Jesus saw was a dilapidated roof, a broken roof, some sweaty
guys on the roof, but that’s faith. Where is your faith? Where is your strategy
about what you believe? Walk in the gift of faith, take bold steps that others
will call risks, get results. How far will you go with this sure word of
prophecy? Go in faith. God is watching your faith. Get up and walk.
Bowale Abrahams
Visionary Pastor, The
Burning Church.
.