THE FAITH TO LIVE!
“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 were not made of things which do appear.” (Hebrew11:1-3)
It’s very important that we have a very clear
understanding of what faith is before we proceed any further. In one of the
most popular portions of scripture, faith is defined as the substance of things
hoped for. If you have hope for anything, faith is what gives it substance.
Faith gives you every reason to affirm something is yours before you see it
with your physical eyes. Why? Faith is the substance of things hoped for; it
calls real those things that are not physically observable. It calls them done
NOW!
Faith is also defined as the evidence of things
not seen, that is, the evidence of unseen realities. I do not see those things
with my optical eyes but they’re real to me. They’re so real you can’t take
them away from me. Faith is the evidence of unseen realities. That means it is
proof of the existence of something that is not tangible to the senses.The
Amplified Bible says,
“…Faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the
title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not
see {and} the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what
is not revealed to the senses]”
Faith is the title- deed. If you bought a piece
of land, you wouldn’t carry the land with you everywhere, telling everybody,
“See the land I bought.” You would have documents to that land called “a
title-deed.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a title-deed is ‘a
document containing or constituting evidence of ownership, you can simply pull
out your title-deed to the land and show them as proof of ownership. That’s the
evidence of unseen realities.
The land is real, but because you can’t carry it
around with you, they may not see it in your office. However, you have your
proof of ownership- the title-deed; - something they can look at and say,
“Yeah, you’ve really got that land.”
Faith is not in the realm of the five physical
senses, since it is the proof of things
we do not see and perceive by our senses. It is also transcends the realm
of reasoning and the mind. It’s a spiritual force, an attribute of the human
spirit. That’s why I always like to define faith as the response of the human
spirit to the Word of God.
Today’s
English Version of Hebrew 11:1 says, “To have faith is to be sure
of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.” Faith
makes a certainty of things we don’t see with our optical eyes. Therefore,
faith is not an irrational leap in the dark but a leap on God’s Word. It is
believing what God’s Word has said concerning anything and acting that way.
Now let me quickly point out here that there’s a
difference between faith and believing. Many people don’t understand that
difference.
Someone who’s suffering from a form of sickness
might cry, “Oh God, I believe! Oh God, I really know You can do it. Do it for
me today! Heal me Lord!” He doesn’t realize it but that’s not faith. All he’s
doing is expressing his believing.
That fellow might be discouraged and unhappy if he
doesn’t receive healing, because he’ll think to himself, “If I’ve ever had
faith in my life, that was one time I had faith!” He’ll be wondering, “Oh God,
why didn’t I receive?” not knowing that what he had was not faith at all.
Faith
is the corresponding action to what you believe. I said
earlier that faith is the response of the human spirit to the Word of God. For
the one who is sick, when he hears the Word that says “By whose stripes ye were
healed” and believes it, his response or corresponding action to that Word will
be to begin to declare “By the stripes of Jesus, I was healed!” He should start
acting as one who’s been healed and as a result, begin to do the things he
couldn’t do hitherto, due to that sickness.
Now, when he declares that he is ‘the healed’ by
the stripes of Jesus Christ, his declaration is not going to be based on his
feelings, but on the Word of God that says he was healed.
James made reference to this aspect of faith when
he said,
“My friends, what good is it to say you have
faith, when you don't do anything to show that you really do have faith? Can
that kind of faith save you? If you know someone who doesn't have any clothes
or food, you shouldn't just say, "I hope all goes well for you. I hope you
will be warm and have plenty to eat." What good is it to say this, unless
you do something to help? Faith that
doesn't lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!... Well, our ancestor
Abraham pleased God by putting his son Isaac on the altar to sacrifice him. Now
you see how Abraham's faith and deeds worked together. He proved that his faith
was real by what he did. This is what the Scriptures mean by saying,
"Abraham had faith in God, and God was pleased with him." That's how
Abraham became God's friend. You can now see that we please God by what we do
and not only by what we believe.” (James 2:14-17; 21-24) CEV
For faith to be faith and not just believing,
it’s got to have some action to it. That’s what James is telling us here. Your
faith in God is demonstrated by your action.
