Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 124
TRANSCRIPT
What is something that is absolutely necessary in order to live the Christian life, but is very hard to quantify or measure? The answer is faith. Faith is something that is an abstract concept, yet it is essential in the life of the believer in Jesus. In this podcast we are going to take a look at faith and how to experience more of it in your life.
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations and I welcome you to this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. In today’s podcast we are going to attempt to look at how faith, belief, and trust work together. They are all three essential, and they must work together to give us what we need to follow Jesus here on planet earth. I have to admit that when God gave me the idea to look at these three elements of our relationship with Him I at first turned Him down. My first thought was that this process was going to be difficult to explain and I didn’t need difficult in my life right now. Well, I lost that battle pretty quickly. Next, I told God that most people already know how faith, belief, and trust work together and that what I had to share would not really be helpful. His response was Oh Really? So here we go!
Today’s verse is Hebrews 11:1, “So faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The word “faith” in this verse means to have a conviction that something is true. It also has the meaning of the belief in the truth about Jesus and God. Part of this definition is that this conviction/belief leads to trust. So, in other words, the definition of faith is intertwined with the words belief and trust. They go hand in hand. So, it is very appropriate that we look at all three of these words together.
Faith is one of those words that is commonly used but is not always understood. That might be because we use the word faith in so many different ways. Yet knowing how faith, belief and trust work together is a powerful thing in our lives. Abraham is a good example of these three things working together. In Genesis 15:6 it says, “And Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
So, let’s define each of these words. Faith according to dictionary.com is the confidence or trust in something. It is a belief that is not based on proof. So, in even defining faith we have to use the other words to help get a better understanding, that is how closely related these words are.
The definition of belief is confidence in a truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof. Another part of the definition is confidence; faith; trust. There we go again defining one of these words using the other words.
Trust is defined as reliance on integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing, confidence. It also means the confident expectation of something, a hope. It is to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something.
So let me attempt to show how these three concepts work together in our lives. In RTF Ministry we work to change Ungodly Beliefs (lies we believe) into Godly Beliefs. During the ministry process we have the ministry receiver come out of agreement with the lie they have been believing then ask Father God for His truth. It is an amazing time as the ministry receiver has a personal encounter with Father God as He tells them His truth. We will then write up that new belief and have them go over that new Godly Belief to have it move from their head as a thought, to their heart as a new belief. Remember we said that the definition of belief is confidence in a truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof. So they start out with this new belief or confidence in this new truth because it is based on what they heard God say to them. I will often tell a receiver that if they start to doubt that they heard from God because our enemy will try to tell them things like, “You made that up. That wasn’t God”, call me on the phone and I will back you up because I sat there and watched you receive this new truth from Father God. You did not make that up. God actually said it to you.
So, the new Godly Belief starts with a truth that God spoke to them, it’s His truth. Then it must be coupled with faith. Trust is defined as reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing, confidence. It also means the confident expectation of something, a hope. So, as they join the confident expectation on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of God with this new truth, transformation takes place in their lives. That belief begins moving from their head to their heart. The truth is based on faith (a confidence or trust in the one who told them this truth) and it must be coupled with trust (a reliance upon the One who told them this truth). When all three of those work together it transforms their life.
One important aspect of faith is that it is not just an intellectual understanding. The western world culture puts more importance upon scientific understanding and knowledge than it does on faith. It wants everything to be logical and able to be verified in a scientific way in order to be believed. Things like faith in an unseen God is not logical in their minds so it is not believable. Yet as Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the evidence of things unseen.
Since this scientific mindset is the way of much of the world, how do we help people develop faith? It must start by dealing with the spiritual root of what is keeping people from hearing and receiving the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:2-4 says, “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” Much of the body of Christ has wrongfully been taught that it is our logical and eloquent presentation of the gospel that leads people to accept Christ. No amount of logic or eloquence can break through the spiritual blinding that keeps unbelievers from seeing the truth. Their minds have been blinded to this truth by the god of this age. We must come against this spiritual blinding in order for them to receive the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Once the spiritual blindness is removed through spiritually removing that blindness coming from the god of this age, then they need to have someone tell them the truth. Romans 10:14-16 says “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 unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes by hearing. So, it is necessary to have someone share the gospel with them. I don’t think this verse is just pointing to a pastor or evangelist to be the one to share the gospel with them. I think this verse is pointing to every believer to be a vessel used by God to share the gospel with the people in our sphere of influence. One of the best ways to share the gospel with others is by telling your story, or as we say in the church, telling them your testimony. Telling what Christ has done in your life is a very powerful way for them to hear the word of God. At RTF we put testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by the ministry of RTF on our web site. Why? It is a great way to grow people’s faith that God can do it for them. Faith comes by hearing. When we hear what God has done in another person’s life it gives us the faith to believe that God can do it in our lives as well. God is so serious about the power of the testimony that He included an entire chapter in the Bible about the testimony of the heroes of the faith. Hebrews chapter 11 is devoted to the faith of those who have gone before us. And I am reminded that none of those people mentioned in Hebrews 11 were superheroes. They were ordinary people like you and me that dared to believe God and they accomplished extraordinary things.
Faith also grows as we hear the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you are struggling in your faith, try taking in a steady diet of the word of God and see what happens. Many believers in Jesus spend very little time in God’s Word and wonder why they are so weak in their faith.
I hear people say things like “It is hard for me to have faith.” The truth is that we all live by faith every day. When you get in your car and drive down the road, you are living by faith. You drive 45 miles an hour down a two lane road with other cars coming at you from the opposite direction going 45 miles an hour and you are only separated by a painted line in the middle of the road. You pass those cars that are only 2 to 3 feet away from your car and you trust that the other cars are going to stay on their side of the painted line. That is faith. You also go to a doctor when you have an ailment and he prescribes a medication to help with the ailment. You have faith that the doctor knows what he is doing. Then you go to a pharmacy staffed by people you really don’t know and trust that they have the education they need to give you the proper medicine. They give you this medication and you take it without knowing what is in that pill. That is living by faith. So, we all have faith. The question is what is the object of our faith. And allowing the Word of God to work in our lives will build our faith and belief and trust in Father God.
One more thing about faith is that faith needs to be put into practice for it to really be faith. James 2:14-20 is very clear that faith without works is dead. It says “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? It is very clear that we can say we have faith in God, yet if we do not have works that back up our faith, do we really have faith? I am afraid that many in the body of Christ say they have faith when all they have is religious knowledge.
I am going to close this podcast by encouraging you to fight the good fight of faith. Living by faith is not easy. Do yourself a favor and spend time in God’s word. Faith grows by soaking in the Word of God. I would also recommend that you read or listen to the testimonies of others. We are so blessed to have many books about the testimonies of others that can help build our faith. We also have numerous podcasts that will build your faith by hearing the stories of others. I recommend going to the RTF website at restoringthefoundations.org and clicking on the About RTF tab at the top and there is a dropdown for Testimonials. They will help build your faith.
Prayer
Father God thank you for the gift of faith. That faith itself actually comes from you, and you desire to give it to us generously. I pray for each of us that we would grow in our faith, belief, and trust of You. In Jesus Name!
Amen
