According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue
- 2 Peter 1:3
Faith is an essential ingredient to life and godliness. And according to this key verse, faith is based on the knowledge of God.
Faith does not come by praying for it or by having others lay hands on you to receive more of it. Every born-again believer already has the faith of God in them (Rom. 12:3). Faith is resident in every believer’s heart, but our heads must learn how to utilize it. We need to change our thinking to line up with the kingdom of God.
The way we do that is through studying His Word. The Apostle Paul said, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). God’s Word reveals His knowledge to us, which then releases His faith within us. Faith comes as the result of what we think.
God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6). The first step to faith and the victory it produces is obtaining the knowledge of the truth (John 8:31,32)
Faith is our positive response to what God has already provided by grace (unearned, underserved, unmerited favour). GOD by GRACE – God’s Righteousness At Christ’s Expense-- has already anointed us.(II Cor. 1:21) and has blessed us with all spiritual blessings (Eph 1:3).
Jesus died for the sins of the entire world 2000 years ago – before we were born, before we ever sinned, before we could do anything to earn or deserve it, God provided for our salvation. That is unmerited favour (Tit 2:11).
God loves us because He’s a good God. He loves and deals with us by grace. He has already forgiven all our sins, our past, present and future tense sins. His willingness to answer our prayer is not dependent on our performance, the good things we do like fasting, praying, and other religious exercises. If we rely on these to gain salvation, or to please God we are blaspheming. God has already done everything through the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. If He loved us while we were yet sinners, so much that He died for us, then how much more does He love us now that we are born again? (Romans 5:9). We are a part of Him because we have made Jesus our Lord and Saviour.
Believing and responding in faith will release God’s provision in our life. God does not do anything beyond the power that works in us, which is faith (Eph.3:20). Our holiness will change our own hearts towards God and not God’s attitude towards us. We need to study God’s Word to know and understand God’s love, to know what our inheritance in Him is .We need to attend Church to hear the word of God and fellowship with other believers and be the salt and light of the World as Jesus has commanded us to be.
A true understanding of God’s grace does not encourage us to sin. It is His goodness that causes us to fear Him and depart from sin and live a sober, righteous and holy life.
Sin is not only the wrong things that we do, but also what we know we should be doing but failing to do so (James 4:17). Sin does not contaminate our born again spirit. The instant we are born again, our spirit is sanctified and perfected for ever. Our spirit is sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13), but our body and soul get defiled when we sin. We give satan an inroad bringing sickness, poverty and disease into our body and depression, discouragement and fear into our soul (mind, will and emotions). Our heart becomes hardened, cold, insensitive and unfeeling towards God (Heb 3:13).
When we know that we have committed a sin we should confess it to God, repent and turn from it (I John 1:9). When we repent we give the power located in our spirit the ability to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (Titus 2:11-12). It drives the devil out of our life. The only sin that is going to send us to hell is of rejecting Jesus as our personal Saviour (John 16:8-9).
At salvation, every born again believer, is given the supernatural faith of God – an abiding fruit of the spirit within us. Faith comes through hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). We use the faith within us to believe the Gospel. We are all given the same measure of faith at salvation (Romans 12:3). We just have to use it without the hindrance of unbelief and doubt – by believing and obeying God’s word. When John the Baptist was in prison, discouraged and alone, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus,” Are you the expected one or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus pointed him back to the Word. He knew John was familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah (John 1:22-23). The faith John needed to remove his doubt would come from the Word of God. The Word of God is magnified above the name of God and more trustworthy than the audible voice of God out of Heaven. We too need to go to the Word ourselves and receive the greater blessing of walking by faith and not by sight (Heb 11:1). When we hear and believe all that God has already provided by grace – like salvation, healing, deliverance, it becomes a reality to us. When we mix faith with the Word of God, what has already been done by grace begins to manifest in our life. It we do not believe we will not receive. We are saved by grace through faith.
We should trust and rest in what God has already done and believe that nothing will ever happen to us that God has not already anticipated and provided for. We must labour to enter rest (Hebrews 4:11) controlling our negative thoughts, words and actions. Faith is an active force within us, but it takes effort to release it. Faith abounds with thanksgiving (Col 2:7). We should praise and thank God for what His Word says He has done not what we see or feel. As we thank and praise Him, we start to believe and then faith begins to rise up in our heart, then faith and grace together releases the power of God and we see the things of God come to pass. This takes effort. We have to go against our feelings and what the circumstances say (Heb 12:2), we should walk by faith and not by sight.
LAWS OF FAITH
There must be some degree of faith present in the person, receiving a miracle or in an intercessor who is praying for miracles
Luke 8: 43-48 – The women with the issue of blood believed that she would be healed if she could just touch Jesus. She received her healing by the law of faith (Romans 3; 27)
Jesus could not do many mighty works in His own hometown because of the people’s unbelief.
The centurion (Luke 7:9) believed that the spoken Word of Jesus was sufficient to heal his servant. Jesus marveled at his faith. (John 20:29).
Faith is released by speaking words. (Prov. 18:20-21). (Romans 10:8-10).
God released faith when He spoke creation into being. (Gen 1:3-26).
We should pray and believe God’s promises not doubting, then we shall have whatsoever we say (Mark 11:23).
Faith requires action. Faith is like the wind as it affects life around it (John 3:8).
It is invisible but is always accompanied by corresponding action which can be seen (James 2:17-26)
The man with the palsy was healed. Jesus watched their action and saw their faith (Luke 5:17-25). Though the man was weak he obeyed the command of Jesus and got up.
The man with the withered hand was healed when he obeyed Jesus and stretched forth his hand in faith.
The blind beggar in Jerusalem obeyed Jesus instructions with faith in his heart when he was told to go and wash the clay from his eyes at the pool Siloam (John 9).
Peter was able to walk on water by faith in Jesus Word – COME. The power needed for Peter to walk on water was in the Word (Matthew 14:29).
Likewise any word spoken to us by God carries in itself the anointing and power to fulfill that Word – if we will release that power by believing and acting on that Word.
What hinders Faith?
1. Ungodly Fear
2. Unbelief
1.Fear
Fear is a hindrance to faith. Faith and fear are opposing forces. Fear can neutralize faith (James 1:5- 8) . God has not given us the spirit of fear (II Tim 1:7). When we are in fear we believe something or someone other than God. The scriptures tell us not to be double minded or waver.
We should seek God with our whole heart (Matt. 6:33). Many do not receive from God because they seek to please man and please God at the same time. The devil uses persecution from people to steal God’s Word and thereby stop our faith. If we are concerned about what people think, in order to gain their approval we will never do anything that brings criticism – “What we compromise to keep, we loose”.
2. Unbelief
We can have thoughts of faith and unbelief at the same time. That was why Jesus told Jairus to “believe only” (Luke 8:50). If we remove the unbelief, a mustard seed amount of faith will be sufficient to move our problems.
Unbelief that comes through ignorance can be overcome by receiving the truth of God’s Word but the unbelief that comes through our five senses can be overcome through prayer and fasting (Matt 17:21).
Unbelief of others can stop the manifestation of God’s power. We should believe that we receive when we pray. Perseverance in prayer will overcome satan. The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 4:7 says we should submit ourselves to God and resist the devil.
God has already healed us.Eph. 1:19-23 says the same power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us.Jesus gave us the authority to speak to the mountain and command it to leave
Our hearts become hardened when we think or meditate on anything other than God and His ways and by sin such as anger, murder, self centeredness, unforgiveness, bitterness, etc.
Mark 11:24-25 says that forgiveness is essential to get our prayers answered. It takes faith to walk in love and forgiveness that was why the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith (Luke 17:5), when Jesus taught about forgiveness. We should remain sensitive to God to keep our hearts from becoming hardened preventing us from understanding spiritual truths. It keeps us thinking in the natural realm bringing thoughts of fear and doubt. We should harden our hearts to unbelief and doubt by considering only God’s Word.
There is more to prayer than asking God for things and believing the promises. We must resist the devil’s hindrances by praying the prayer of agreement (Matt. 18:19), the prayer of praise (Matt. 21:16), the prayer of intercession, the prayer of binding and loosing (Matt.18:18) and the laying on of hands (Mark 16:18).
The purpose of faith is to serve God, every area we use our faith should bring glory to God. When we serve God more than ourselves(Luke 17:7-10) we stop worrying about our needs (Matt 6:33). The Lord desires that his children live a life of faith. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Living by faith is for every born-again believer
