FAITH FIESTA: The Faith Core

“And it came to pass afterward, that He went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with him, and certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others which ministered unto him of their substance. And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: a sower went out to sow his seeds and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture and some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruits an hundred fold. And when he had said these things, he cried ‘he that hath ears to hear, let him hear’. And his disciples asked him saying, ‘what might this parable be? And he said ‘unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parable; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now, the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear, then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no roots which for a while believe and in time of temptation, fall away. And that which fell among thornsare they which when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. No man when he had lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candle stick that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. Then came to him his mother and his brethren and could not come at him for the press. And it was told him by certain which saith, ‘thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee’. And he answered and saith unto them, ‘my mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it’.” (Luke 8:1-21)

FAITH FIESTA- The dynamics of faith: Faithaholics (Part 2)

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal”. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

In the previous discussion on the dynamics of faith, we focused on the fact that one should not mistake works for faith.The scripture in James 2 shows two extremes of believers: those that want to pray all the time, confess the word, worship and believe God but don’t want to take any action towards what they believe, thus they pray and do not work. The other extreme are those that have no word in their spirit, don’t know where the promise is in the scripture, they don’t pray or get any revelation but just want to work it! These are the workaholics. Their agitation for their future is not based on God’s word but on what they can do exclusive of the word but Faith is not exclusive of works, neither are works exclusive of faith. We realized from what James said that the aloneness of faith makes it dead and doing works without standing on a word makes faith dead as well. Faith is the final word of God in your spirit precipitating actions but faithaholics have the attitude of faith with the corresponding action, faith is believing God enough with the corresponding, equivalent and a conforming, consistent attitude to what you believe. It’s not about crying out to God or praising Him alone but your faith has to be worked out, there has to be a corresponding action to what God said.

FAITH FIESTA - The dynamics of faith: Faithaholics(PART 1)

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works”. (James 2:14-18)

                                          

In the earlier posts, we’ve established the power and potency of faith. Faith is not a force; the force of faith is the word of God. We also concluded from the scriptures that you have to “have faith in God”and not “put your faith in Him” as is popularly said. Understand as we proceed that a man of faith is one with a substance i.e. matter, weight, height. You should believe God for tangible and specific things and not abstract things. We also established that faith is the response of your human spirit to the word of God and that the currency of faith has got two sides: faith and belief.

And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Matthew 17:14-16 (Emphasis mine).

FAITH FIESTA: What It Means To Have Faith( Part 2)

“And when even was come, He went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the root. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, ‘Master, behold, the fig tree which thou curseth is withered away’. And Jesus answering, saith unto the ‘Have faith in God. For verily, I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain ‘Be thou removed and be cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith’” (Mark 11:19-23).

“For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation”. (Romans 10:10).

What it means to have faith (Part 1)

“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.

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.

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