Faith. It’s a common topic among believers. It has also become a kind of canned-response whenever someone asks about something… “Oh, you need to have faith!”, or “I just need to have more faith!”, but what exactly is faith? And how do we get faith?

 

Today we will be studying these questions, and by the truth of the scriptures we will put an end to the confusion surrounding this essential element of the life of a believer.

 

When I was a new believer, I quickly became frustrated at the lack of explanations given for these terms. It seemed as though the answer to every problem was faith, but nobody could tell me what faith was or give me details on how to get it. Some defined faith as belief, while others told me it came through experience and suffering. I was not satisfied with either of these answers and I truly believed that God would not instruct me to do something without telling me exactly how to do it. So today I will be sharing with you in one lesson, what has taken me years to learn through much prayer and study. Let’s begin with Romans 10:14-17:

 

“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias said, Lord, who has believed our report?

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

 

Most people are familiar with verse 17 which states that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, but it makes very little sense when read on its own because that singular verse is part of a longer thought of the previous verses. By taking one verse out of context a lot of confusion has been brought to many people. We can see very clearly from verses 15 and 16 that faith is information. Specifically it is information regarding the Gospel; the good news of who God is, what He has accomplished, and who you are today in Christ as a new creation. Faith is information given from God to you. For example, when you are reading your Bible, and you read a verse such as Isaiah 53:5 that states that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed, that information is faith. What we choose to do with that faith determines our belief. Many people mistakenly interchange belief and faith, but they are not the same thing.

 

You see my friends, in the Bible, faith is a noun, it is information (as we have just seen). Belief is a verb. Belief is the action we take based on the faith (information) that we receive from God’s Word. To use the example above: If we were to read Isaiah 53:5 and receive the faith that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed, and then we start to live accordingly, that act of living healed is our belief that is based on our faith.

 

So we see now more clearly according to verse 17, that faith (information) comes by hearing, and hearing only comes through the Word of God (which is Jesus Christ).

 

We can also see from verse 16 again that faith and belief are not the same thing because not everyone who heard the report obeyed the Gospel. Sadly there are many today who hear the Word of God but actively choose to disregard it, and that is their choice. But we know that once we receive the information (faith) which everyone receives a measure of according to Romans 12:3, that it is then our choice to believe (act upon it) or not.

Alright, so now that we understand the true Bible definitions of faith and belief we now have a solid foundation upon which to examine faith and how we can apply it in our lives as Jesus taught us to. Let’s examine Mark 11:22-24:

 

“And Jesus answering said to them, ‘Have faith in God.

For truly I say to you, That whoever shall say to this mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass; he shall have whatever he said.

Therefore I say to you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.’”

 

This is an amazing principle that Jesus is teaching us here. Yet because of the previously noted confusions regarding the nature of faith and how to receive it, many people have been led astray trying to apply these principles of Jesus here without understanding what faith is.

 

Now it is important to note here that the first sentence of Jesus in the original Greek text is not “Have faith in God”, but “Have faith of God”, which until now has made very little sense. However now that we know that faith is information, this sentence now makes perfect sense. Jesus is actually saying Have information of God. In other words: know your rights, know your role and know the mind and heart of God before you proceed! Don’t act blindly, but be on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ before you move. You can’t claim anything without the information of God to back you up. Yet once you have that Word, nothing can stop you!

 

My friends, do you see how wonderfully simple this is now? And do you see what an amazing promise this is to us from Jesus? He has given us the absolute authority to quite literally claim all of our rights in Christ, and He has given us the faith (information) to back up our claims via His Divine Word.

 

Too many believers today are living in ignorance of what the Word of God actually says regarding their lives, and many more simply do not care. However those of us who want to stop living below our means and start receiving all of what Christ Jesus has paid for us to have should start believing the supreme authority and divinity of the Scriptures and start taking freely what is ours. God is good and He loves to give us good gifts.

 

So then how much faith do we need? We find the answer in Luke 17:5-6:

 

“And the apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith.

And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, Be you plucked up by the root, and be you planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

 

Now the Mustard seed is one of the smallest of seeds, and the Sycamine tree is a tree that has very deep roots – hard to uproot. What Jesus is telling us here is that even one piece of faith (information) is sufficient to do big things. I have known people who have grabbed-hold of one healing verse of Scripture and used it to heal many people of various diseases. It’s not the size of the faith, so much as it is the quality of the belief upon it (the action). Just remember that this is not saying that works are greater than faith, because faith is the foundation upon which belief is built. It is not possible to merely believe the air, or have great works out of self-effort, but only through faith of Jesus Christ which is the only solid ground. We see this clearly in Luke 6:47-49:

 

“Whoever comes to me, and hears my sayings, and does them, I will show you to whom he is like:

He is like a man which built an house, and dig deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently on that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded on a rock.

But he that hears, and does not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house on the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”

 

Before there can be any doing there must first be hearing. And what is it that we should be listening to? Jesus says we are to hear His sayings. Not our own desires, not our own thinking or wisdom, and not the mere opinions and ideas of man, but His sayings, which w can only get from the Bible.

 

So as we close the study today, we can see how wonderfully simple God has made all of this for us. He has given us great power, great authority, and also a great responsibility that comes with our high position. Yet even so it is not burdensome, because again He has made it simple for us. He has given us the benefit of His great wisdom and guidance and every blessing that comes in Christ. All of the information is there in His Word for us to freely receive. And by it, we have all the faith available for us in Christ Jesus.