The Facts Of Faith
The Bible defined Faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of unseen realities.
A lot of people either misunderstood this definition or wrongly apply it to their situations.
Faith no matter how small –even as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.
Faith says “I may not have seen those things I desire with my optical eyes yet they are very real to me”.
Faith is the proof of the existence of something that is not tangible to the senses. However,
Faith is not the denial of facts…
True faith does not the fact that there is economic meltdown or there is a feeling of pain somewhere in your body rather it denies these facts the ability to detect to it or dominate it. True faith doesn’t mean there is no pain or trouble it rather means “I see the challenges alright but I refused to consider them or give them a thought, I won’t give them the chance to run my life”.
Someone who feels sick and says ‘I am not sick” is actually lying, that is not faith. But if he says “this illness you are not permitted to stay here, you are a stranger here, therefore leave and never return’ is a faith person unleashing his faith, he will get a better result than the pervious example. The reason is because the other instance he was denying the existence of the illness even when he knows it is there while the later instance, he acknowledged the presence of the illness but he declared faith- filled words that the illness needed to hear and obey.
Faith is calling done what you are yet to do:
When you are walking by faith, you stop believing that God is going to do what you’ve asked Him instead you see that He has already done it and you start acting that way.
Remember faith is not in the realm of senses; faith goes beyond the realm of the physical- reasoning out issues with your mind.
Faith is when you are feeling ill and someone ministers to you, you are not expected to still lie down on your bed feeling sorry for yourself instead you get up and begin to do what you couldn’t do before.
Faith is knowing and acting as if you have those children you prayed about, you have the job, you got that contract, you have that money. Know it of a surety and act it out.
The God-kind of faith:
This is the type Jesus asked us to have as believers. This kind of faith makes declaration and doesn’t go back to check whether those declarations are working out or not.
God declared light into being at the foundation of the world and light came out of darkness. God saw a chaotic mass that the earth was and spoke orderliness into the earth and the world responded by coming orderly with waters gathering together at a place with set boundaries.
Jesus came around and practiced same kind of faith; He spoke to virtually everything tree, wind, deaf ears, blind eyes, corpses et al and they all responded positively to Him.
Jesus didn’t work with facts and figures, He worked by faith based on God’s word. Importantly, you don’t need to pray to have God-kind of faith, if you are born again, you already have it.
The faith of man:
This is the kind of faith that Thomas operated in the Bible. This is the zero level of faith. It is the no faith at all. It is the type that says “I won’t believe until I have seen it”. Faith is the corresponding action to what you believe, if you merely stop at believing then you are operating the faith of man. The God-kind of faith talks to the situation and change it for the better while the faith of man talks about the situations which of course remains the same.
Faith can grow:
The believers each got the measure of faith; there is none that got born again with more faith than the other. Each of us got the same measure of faith that God gave (Romans 12:3). You are expected to grow the measure of faith you got so as to use it to do grater things. As a child of God, faith is your life-style.
You grow your faith by being an ardent student of God’s word…faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). There is no short –cut to growing your faith, studying God’s word is the only way to grow your faith strong. You have to saturate your mind with God’s word and refuse to consider contrary opposition.
Strong faith, weak faith, great faith and little faith:
Strong faith has been exercised, it doesn’t panic when confronted by challenges rather it gives glory to God.
Strong faith doesn’t fail; it is the faith that works. It doesn’t consider the circumstances, it speaks and it is established.
Weak faith on the other hand is the faith that has not been exercised. This kind of faith doesn’t practice God’s word that it hears. It is like a fellow who only eats and sleeps, he sure will get big and flabby but without muscles. To get muscles, he needs to engage in more physical activities like sports, gymnastics et al.
Great faith is faith that will not give up no matter the strength of the opposition that came against it. This kind of faith responds with knowledge, it is based on the amount of information one acquires and endorses. However, for great faith to be really effective, it has to be strong- continuous exercise, for challenges only bow to strong faith not just impressive, massive, gigantic faith that is flabby but can’t win a battle.
Little faith is as a result of insufficient information from God’s word but weak faith is as a result of not practicing God’s word that you hear. Fear, discouragement, doubt and so on come as a result of little faith in God or strong faith in the adversary.
The audacity of faith:
This is the boldness and fearlessness of your faith. God loves it when His children display absolute trust in Him like David before Goliath (1st Samuel 17:45-46) and Moses before Pharaoh (Exodus 5). These guys displayed so much audacity before their adversaries who physically are stronger than they are. You develop this audacity when you are fully conscious of God’s presence with you. You will speak with so much power and dominion. You have to consistently speak, vocalize your faith for this is where the power is- in your words.
Our examples above, David and Moses all spoke, they were neither quiet nor muttering words under their breadth, they spoke out! As much as Goliath and Pharaoh hated the guts of the David and Moses, they couldn’t destroy them because of the fearless words of faith they vocalized and the consciousness of the presence of the great Jehovah with them.
You can do it, you can have such audacity of faith, vocalize your faith today!
Faith always works:
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome says “if it didn’t work, it wasn’t faith for faith always works”. Remember, faith is endorsing God’s word as the only light and truth in that seemingly dark situation. Because God’s word never fails, faith which is born of God’s word cannot fail either. Faith is demonstrated by speaking forth and because “ye are gods” (Psalms 82:6 & John 10:34) your words are full of power. Faith is born out of God’s word that can stir you up and program you for greatness. When you consider God’s word only, you sure will emerge victorious at the end of the day. Each of the times Jesus displayed faith in the Bible; there were always corresponding positive results. You can achieve same result, just grow that faith and exercise it, you will be surprised!
Faith is the victory:
What makes you overcome and equally put you over in life is not your long hours of prayer neither is it your fasting. It’s not even your being in church regularly, as good and wonderful as these activities are, they won’t make your dreams come true, they won’t make you a champion, what does is faith!
1st John 5:4. Remember God made this world, He knew the components and ingredients and He tells us if you have faith, you will overcome. Wouldn’t you rather believe Him? It’s not going to cause you anything to have faith and experience this victory. Study Hebrews chapter 11 and see how great guys overcame and subdued their worlds simply by their faith in the ability of God who made them and sent them.
Believe today, dare to speak out your faith today, exercise that faith in God’s word and see your victory over all things.
Final word…
Every human being has faith; the question is in whom does your faith lie? Faith in God causes you to overcome while faith in the adversary causes fear, failure and death.