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The Works of Your Belief
by Willie Hudson
WHAT FAITH IS
Many Christians today, bona fide, tongue talking, bible toting Christians don't lead a victorious life because they lack the knowledge of what faith
is.
Without this knowledge, they cannot apply the principles of the faith law to their lives. When we discuss what faith is, we must first understand what faith is not. Faith is not belief, nor is it love. These three
things are very far from one another in their meaning and function. Everything in the Kingdom of God operates by the law of faith (Rom. 3:27). In the world's system, we obtain what we "want" through the use of
money. Goods and services are provided to us with our dollars. The more dollars you have, the more goods and services you can obtain for yourself. This is the same concept when you apply faith to the Kingdom of God.
Faith can be compared to money in this fashion. We obtain what we "need" through the use of our faith (Phil.4:19). The more faith we use, the more goods and services of the Kingdom can be provided for us. As
Christians we all believe, but with faith, we all must act. In the scripture, "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17) we learn without action, faith is belief and belief without faith is only theory. Love
is the motivation for our faith. I agree with Dr. Price when he says, "Love is the motivator, Faith is the activator." It is our love of Christ that makes us accept Him, serve Him, and want to live like Him.
So, we can use the definition that faith is acting on the Word of God of which we believe because we love Him through the redemptive works of Christ Jesus.
Now, we know what faith is and the difference between
faith, love and belief. Let's see how and when we got our faith. The apostle Paul says, "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith..." (Rom. 12:3). In this epistle, he directs the writing to "all
that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints..." (Rom. 1:7). This letter was written to Christians within the body of Christ not just in Rome, and because God ealt to each man "the" measure of
faith, He gave us all the same amount. No matter what color, sex, or age you are, we all have the same amount as a gift from God as soon as we accept His son Christ Jesus as our Savior (Eph 2:8-9). That faith is used by
us to pass through to get to this salvation and then it becomes ours permanently. This is when I got it. Now understand, you had to hear something about Jesus to get this far. You cannot accept something you never
heard. When you heard the Word of God, it settled in your spirit man. This is the law of faith, "so then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom.10:17). Jesus says, "go into all the
world and preach (proclaim) the gospel to every creature" (Matt. 28:19). When the Word of God is preached, His children can hear. When they hear, faith will come. When faith comes, they can believe, when they
believe, they can be saved. But if we don't preach His Word, they cannot hear, and if they cannot hear, faith cannot come. If faith does not come, they cannot believe, if they cannot believe, they cannot be saved, and
they are going to hell. And that's how I got it.
THE BIBLICAL IMPORTANCE OF FAITH
As Christians, as soon as we confess Jesus Christ as our Savior ("become saved"), we should immediately be
"schooled" on how faith works and be shown how to apply those principles in every aspect of our lives. There are many reasons why people believe faith is just a fad, or faith does not apply anymore to today's
standard, or God is doing a "new thing." For as many reasons people can believe that faith is over, there are just as many scriptures as to why that is not true. God should be in every part of our lives. Faith
should be a way of life, not just something we depend upon to "get" something from God. Tragically Christians don't realize they should be living by faith. If faith is going out, or God is going to do a
"new thing", then scripturally, Christians don't have a way to live everyday. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith (Rom.
1:17). Christians are never called upon to fight Satan. The only fight a Christian should be involved is the fight of faith. Satan doesn't care about us, he wants to take our faith, we have to stop him. This will be a
fight, it is the warfare in which we all fight. We have to "fight the good fight of faith"(I Tim. 6:12). Without faith, we cannot fight and the weapons of our warfare become ineffective. In the middle of those
circumstances that come against us, we should be joyful that even this will prove (strengthen) our faith. "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience" (James 1:2-3). If we look at this verse of scripture, we can substitute certain words to make understanding clearer. Instead of the word fall, we can say are pressed. We can add the words
trials and tests to the end of temptations. In place of the word patience use endurance.
Now the verse will read, "My brethren count it all joy when ye are pressed into divers temptations, trials and
tests knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh endurance." In other words, be happy that trials, tests, and temptations will strengthen your faith. Trials, tests, and temptations will cause you to depend
on and trust God to bring you through, and that is joy when His grace and power manifest the fruits of a steadfast faith. The most undebatable verse that let's us know the Biblical importance of faith is Hebrews 11:6
"but without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." God would not do a "new thing" and
neither can faith be a fad that is going out, if we need faith to please our Father.
CONFESSIONS OF FAITH
We are what we confess. Since faith is action, the first action of your faith is
confession, that is saying what God says (homologio). Faith is activated by the words of your mouth. Jesus spoke to His disciples and said, "If you have the faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry
tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you"(Luke 17:5-6). Again, in Matthew 21:21, Jesus says, "...if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done
to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, it will be done." Confession is believing with our hearts, and repeating with our mouths God's own declaration of who and
what we are in Christ. Our confession comes first, then Jesus is able to respond to our confession. We should confess (claim) before we see any manifestation in our lives. Our Father spoke this world into existence. We
are made in His image. Jesus Christ gave us the capacity to do even mightier works than Himself through the Holy Spirit. Is it not plain how what we say will come to past?
There are positive confessions and
negative confessions. The negative confessions we see on a daily occurrence are in the music and television medias. We are concerned about our children "hearing" rap lyrics that denote negative images of
themselves and others. When our children have kept these negative confessions in their spirits for a period of time, it becomes a part of them. The Holy Spirit says in Proverbs, "as a man thinketh in his heart so
is he." What are our children becoming? The disrespect for God, parents and each other come from what they hear. There is a spiritual law that says our confession rules us. A person who confesses to be sick all the
time, and does not say what God says about our healing, will be sick all the time. One verse of scripture stands out from all others when we think about how strong confession is to our spiritual lives.
Confession is a reflection of what we believe. What we believe is a part of our hearts, and what is in our hearts is truly what we are to become. "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10).
HOW TO DEVELOP ONE'S FAITH
When a woman gives birth to her child, he is brand new to this world. She can hold this child in both arms and love and nurture him. In order for this child to grow and become a healthy
adult, she must feed him the best foods available. His development will come as he exercises his body and eats the best foods and grows over time. This is the same concept involved with developing your faith. In order
to fully develop your faith, you have to know where you are now. There are two things involved with this development:
Feeding Your Faith
Paul says in Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." You must take heed to what you hear, because what you hear feeds your faith. If you give
your child junk foods for a number of years, that child would not be as healthy as a child who was exposed to a good diet with all the proper foods. Your diet of God's Word must happen every day. How many times do you
eat? Once a day, twice a week? No, you eat every day. This is also true of feeding your faith. Your faith must be fed everyday. When you accepted Christ Jesus as your Savior, your spirit was transformed instantly,
however, your mind was not. Your mind needs to be renewed continually. It is a process that matures over time. You need a constant diet of God's Word to stay healthy. If you don't feed on words of faith, which is any
word that causes faith to come to you, you give place for the devil. He will attack you and rob you of any seed that has been planted in your spirit. Exercise Your Faith
Isn't it ironic that the very
enemy that wants to rob you of your faith, can be the greatest trainer for the development of that faith! A young man makes up his mind that he wants to be a body builder. As he looks in the
mirror, he sees himself
in the future with muscles of steel all over his body. He sees where he wants to be before he begins. So it is with developing your faith. You must first know where you are, before you can see where you want to be. He
goes into the gym, and begins a weight
program. As he stands before the mirrors, he sees where he will end up with constant work and strict adherence to his workouts. Over the months, he can see his progress. His
muscles are beginning to get larger, and more defined. He gets excited and works harder, because he realizes that the harder he works, the better the result. Remember our scripture, "my brethren, count it all joy
when ye fall (are pressed) into divers temptations (trials and tests) knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience (endurance) (James 1:2-3). Without his knowledge, Satan is training and developing our
faith. When we stand and do not faint, our faith will be a perfect work.
HOW FAITH WORKS
Learning to apply all the principles of faith is the best part of all. We are not to worry about anything, in fact,
the Lord says "to cast all our cares on Him" (I Peter 5:7). When we cast all our cares on Him, we slowly begin to operate more in the spirit world and not by our senses. It takes trust in God to be able to
know by our faith, He will do what He says He will do. This scripture when used with Phil. 4:19 will give us our plan, "but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
As our faith becomes mature, so should our relationship with God. Our prayer life, which enhances our relationship with our Father will lay claim to the promises and the gifts of our new covenant with Christ Jesus. To
activate God's power in my life, I have to give Him the ability to manifest those things I pray for and I must make a demand on His promise to provide all my needs. More importantly, I must remember to keep His
blessings in the present and give thanks to Him before I see the manifestations.
My first act of my faith will be to pray, "Father, I believe I have received...I thank you Father in the name of Jesus
Christ..." and let my faith do the rest. The power of God will be released by turning on the switch of my faith. Each and everyday I will thank Him for my blessings. In this way, I "Walk by faith, not by
sight." |
