Having Faith in God

January 3, 2024

What is Faith?

The word faith is having complete assurance and confidence in God’s Word and God’s promises even when we cannot see them happen right away. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” When you take the Word of God at face value, you believe what He says as the absolute truth.

It is the ability to trust God when you experience hard times regardless of how bad things get because you know that He will never leave your side. A lot of times believers of the Lord Jesus Christ say that they have faith but their actions say a completely different thing. Having little faith during those difficult times can cause your firm foundation to be wavered.

James 1:6 explains it perfectly when he states, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” In other words when you come to your Heavenly Father with anything you want to ask Him knowing that ALL things are possible, Philippians 4:13. The Lord is always going to have our best interests at heart and He wants us to believe that He does.

Another verse of Scripture that we need to look at is Romans 10:17 it says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The word “word” in this verse means “rhema” or the spoken word of God. This can happen in many ways: a verse of Scripture will pop out at you; you may hear a message from a Pastor meant just for you, the Lord may give someone a word specifically for you, and many other ways that God speaks a Word explicitly for us. When you begin to see that spoken word manifest, your Faith grows tremendously!

The Bible is the story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, John 1:14. That is why it is vital for us to understand and gain the knowledge of the good news that the Lord is giving to us in every verse of Scripture. It is the absolute Truth, the key to living your life abundantly, and the Sword needed to fight off the enemy. When you spend time in God’s Word and begin to see His Promises fulfilled in your life, your faith becomes unshakable!

Faith pleases God

The fact of the matter is that your faith pleases God and without faith it is impossible to please Him, Hebrews 11:6. So, if that is the case then one would ask the question: what if you have no faith, what do you do then? Romans 12:3 answers that question when the Apostle Paul states, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

Here we can see that Paul is letting us know that every single follower of Jesus Christ is automatically dealt a measure of faith as a gift of God. What that means is that the Lord has already set us up with a faith “starter pack” so to speak giving us no excuses when it comes to adding to the faith that He has already given us. That is why the Lord is clear on the statement that it is impossible to please Him without it.

It is then up to us to decide whether we want to live our Christian life with little faith or great faith. There are so many ways that we can develop and establish assurance in the Lord, I have written articles that cover this topic that I will link here: Bible Verses on Faith, How to activate your Faith, and Hebrews examples of Faith.

One thing that we can say for sure is that our faith will be tested. James 1:2-3 discloses, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” Here we can see that the Lord will allow the trials and tribulations in your life to determine how much faith you actually have. Do you trust and rely on God rather than yourself during your time of testing? That is a question that you need to ask yourself.

Our faith is not supposed to remain stagnant, it is supposed to be planted and grow into a tree that bears fruit. We can see this described in multiple passages of Scripture; first we see it mentioned in Matthew 17:20 “So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Jesus is describing to us about having faith the size of a mustard seed.

He doesn’t stop there though Luke 13:19 details, “It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” Jesus is disclosing what you will need to do with your grain of mustard seed faith in order to thrive in the Kingdom of God. It has to be developed because strong faith can only grow into a tree if it is firmly planted and that is what the Lord wants our faith to resemble.

I am going to go deeper into this topic on an upcoming article.

Hebrews 11:6

True Faith is the key factor that shows your absolute trust and belief in the Lord and His Word. It is what activates the power of God to work in your favor. The Bible makes it extremely clear just how important faith is to the Lord. Hebrews 11:6 states “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

The Lord is explaining to us plainly that there is no way to please Him outside of having faith. With us knowing that fact we need to make it a top priority to learn how to develop complete reliance on His Word because that is how your Faith is primarily established. The more you consume the Holy Scriptures, the more your faith will naturally develop.

Let’s take a closer look at Hebrews 11:6 so that we can have a clearer understanding of what the Lord is saying in the passage of Scripture. The word “faith” being used is the Greek word “pistis” which means: belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same. The word “impossible” being used is the Greek word “adynatos” which means: unable to be done, impossible.

The word “believe” being used in this passage of Scripture is the Greek word “pisteuō” which means: to trust in Jesus or in God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something. So when we piece these key words together in this New Testament Scripture we can conclude that the Lord is letting us know that without having belief and trust in God and Christ we are unable to please Him.

Then when we dig a little more we can determine that the Lord wants us to trust in Him and His ability to aid us in obtaining or doing something. In simple terms the Lord does not want us to lean on our own understanding or our own strength when the storms of life hit. As Christians we have been given the ability to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to give us the necessary strength to make it through the difficult things that we encounter in life.

In order for us to build our foundation of faith we have to live our everyday life submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot depend on on our physical strength to get through tough times instead of seeking guidance and direction from the Lord. God has to be the object of faith because if He isn’t what that means is that we are trying to do things our own way.

One of the primary ways that your faith is built is by digesting the Lord’s Word which is sustenance and the literal bread of life. We need to be consuming it daily without exception. As we begin to get God’s Scriptures engrained in our heart and mind, the reality of the Gospel will begin to come to life in our lives.

Don’t underestimate your Sword (the Word of God). If your Bible was just an ordinary book the devil and his demons wouldn’t be threatened by you opening it up and reading it. They know that the more you spend time learning the Truth, the more your faith will grow which makes you a threat to the kingdom of darkness! If you can to take all Bible verses at face value the foundation of your faith will become rock solid.

We need to have an understanding that faith in the Word of God is the substance or currency of the things that we hope for. When we are coming to God in our time of need hoping for a positive outcome, we need to make sure that we are approaching Him with what His Word tells us concerning that matter.

The scriptures are filled with the promises of the Lord but the questions we need to ask ourselves are; are we standing on those promises as the complete truth? Are we speaking His Words over our family, our children, and ourselves? They have so much power!

One thing that we know for sure is that God does not lie. Numbers 23:19 reveals “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” So what that means is that whatever promises that the Lord has given us we can expect them to be fulfilled in our lives. He will never go against His Word and even places it above His own Name, Psalm 138:2.

The ability to have great faith usually stems from facing trials of many kinds and seeing God bring you through every one of them. You have the ability to see the love of God firsthand and experience just how faithful He truly is! When we do things God’s way and follow God’s plans we can never go wrong.

Conclusion

Having faith in God is a requirement that the Word of the Lord is clear about. At times we forget that this dark world that we live in is run by the prince of the air, Ephesians 2:2. Without the help of the Lord there is no way that we are going to live victorious lives as believers of Jesus Christ.

In order for that to happen we need to learn how to live our lives fully submitted to God which will require us having the kind of faith that is firmly rooted and planted unable to be moved or shaken! God is the “I AM” meaning that He is everything that you will ever need in any given time in any circumstance!

Also, don’t forget to check out my other blogs:

Who is the Prophet Isaiah

Breaking Spiritual Strongholds-Fight Back

Breaking Spiritual Strongholds-Feed Your Spirit

Breaking Spiritual Strongholds-Renouncing

Breaking Spiritual Strongholds-Confess and Repent

Recognizing Spiritual Strongholds