Faith has been construed by so many Christians in the world, and in this sermon, we are going to see what is faith according to the bible.
First and foremost, let us see how the bible defines faith.
The definition of faith according to Paul the apostle.
So many believers think they can obtain faith through fasting, prayers and the works we do for God like: preaching, singing in the choir, sweeping the church, etc.
But Paul the apostle in Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
But then, many times we do hope for something but do receive it not in the long run.
And does that mean that we lack faith?
Certainly Not!
For how can we lack faith when we have already hoped for the things we’ve not seen?
Therefore the reason we can’t receive what we hope for is that we do not understand that faith simply comes from hearing the word of God as Paul later defines it for us: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
And hearing the word of God does not mean listening to your preachers; and or studying your bible to know all the scriptures offhand.
Rather it means putting into practice the sermons you hear; and all that you read from the scriptures, as it is written. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)
The definition of faith according to Jesus.
Before Paul even gave the right definition of faith as we see above, Jesus had secretly revealed it to us as we can see in Luke 17:5-10.
In that scripture, His disciples; eager to have strong faith but misunderstanding what it really means, went to the Master and asked Him to increase their faith.
But the Lord said to them: ” So the Lord said, “if you have 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.
But before these things they command can obey them; they must, first of all, reciprocate the obedience by obeying the One that created these things.
He made this revelation to them in the illustration He gave about what occurs between the master and a servant; as we will see in the continuation of the above text.
‘And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘come at once and sit down to eat? “but will he not rather say to him, ‘prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink? “does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. “so likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”
So therefore, our Lord Jesus defines faith from the illustration above as servants carrying out the instructions of the Master.
What is faith in the word of God?
From the Word Of God, faith simply comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God as we can see in Romans 10:13. Now let me give you a practical example of how hearing and practicing the word of God brings faith:
Brother Tony falls into a serious illness and is rushed to the hospital where doctors run every possible test on him. But yet, the cause of his illness cannot be diagnosed.
And so they arrive at the conclusion that Tony’s illness is not medical; therefore he should go and seek for a spiritual solution.
Getting home, friends, neighbors, family members, and more, comes up with different suggestions they think will save Bro Tony.
Some says he must go with them to meet a native doctor who will prepare a concoction and charm that will make his sickness go away.
Others say he should come with them to see a prophet who will anoint him with holy oil that will bring about his cure.
But since Tony knows that God had promised in Proverbs 4:20-22, that if anyone keeps to his words, it will bring life and health to his flesh.
And in Exodus 15:26, God is the one that heals us; and in Psalm 107:20, God promises to send his word and heal his children’s diseases as well as deliver them from every destruction.
Plus several other scriptures, pertain to God’s healing power. And he also knows that, if par-adventure he dies, it is going to be gain for him. (Philippians 1:16, Romans 14:18)
And so he then wishes above all things to depart in the flesh and be with God. (2 Corinthians 5:6, 8) so he can rest from his labors and wait for the fruits of his good works. (Revelation 14:13).
Therefore, these words of God gives Brother Tony all the confidence he ever needs; and so makes him refuse to fall into the temptation of going to an herbalist and fake prophets as suggested by people.
And so finally, this confidence, which comes from keeping the words of God; produces the faith that brings about his healing.
And so I rest assure you that there is neither situation nor condition you will ever face in this life that you will not see an example in the bible.
And if you are able to keep them; it will bring you confidence that will produce your faith in the end.
So if you want to have faith, you must start now to study and know what God says in the bible. And try as much as possible to obey them.
Because I came to realize that so many Christians do not spend much time studying their bible to understand the mind of God and most studies fail to put what they study into practice.
That is why they continue in sin which deprives them of faith that brings the grace of God. Because, according to the word of God, it is sin that prevents God from allowing His word to have an effect on our lives.
Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. (Isaiah 59: 1-2)
Examples of faith in the Bible.
The examples of faith in the Bible are:
- Faith of the Centurion
- The faith of Abraham.
1. Faith of the Centurion
For scriptural references to this point, please read Mathew 8:5-13.
Now let me, through the Spirit reveal to you what is happening in that scripture.
Had it been the Centurion agreed for Jesus to come to his house, it would have meant him giving the orders for Jesus; Who is the only one to give orders, to follow.
That was why he rather told Jesus to give the command to whatever was causing his servant to be sick to depart so that healing can come to him.
And he went on to show us that he knew what faith really meant when he told Jesus that he too has servants who obeys his orders each time it is given.
And Jesus confirmed that the Centurion understands what faith really means can be seen when he told His disciples that he has not seen such faith in the whole land of Israel.
Kinds of faith.
LITTLE FAITH.
Jesus referring to the disciples as having little faith, when they interrupted his rest and asked Him to calm the storm; shows how most of our Christians today will immediately start to shout and complain to God.
Or even fast and pray when little problems arise in their lives; not knowing if Jesus was relaxing at that particular time.
And they have interrupted His rest as the disciples did.
GREAT FAITH.
The Centurion shows how Christians who have strong faith react whenever they face difficulties in their lives.
They don’t need to put Jesus to stress by taking Him through a long distance to go and solve the problem by Himself.
All they do is keep calm and ask Him Who dwells inside of them to speak a word to their problem and it will go.
ZERO FAITH.
Yes, this is also a kind of faith because, if the disciples had zero faith; they would have jumped into the water and try to swim to safety.
And this shows the lives of those Christians; who will run to their G.O. or pastor to pray for them in every little problem that comes their way. And some even go to the extent of running to native doctors for charms and concussions.
Now is the time for you as a true Christian, who practices the words of Christ; to search yourself and see what category of faith you fall in:
Questions to consider to see your category of faith.
- Are you one of those who when faced with difficulties, do not allow Jesus to relax by too much prayers. As the disciples did when they woke him up to calm the storm?
- Or is your faith great as that of the Centurion, that no matter how long you think Jesus is far from your problems; you will know that if only He gives the word the distance becomes nothing in an instant as your problems fade out?
- Or do you jump into the water by calling your G.O; or worst still going to a native doctor, which shows that if you were the disciples you would have left Jesus in the boat and jumped into the water trying to swim to safety.
Beloved God wants every Christian to be independent, that was why he promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28).
And he fulfilled that promise on the Pentecost day (Acts 2:1-4).
So don’t always jump into the sea when the storms rise up, by running to fetish people to seek a solution to your problems,
If you find it possible to obey the words of God for your faith to be strong as that of the centurion. At least let it be as little as that of the disciples, to make you wake Jesus up by fasting and prayers as Jesus Himself instructed in Mathew 17:14-21.
(Before we move further, I know you will now be thinking of how the disciples did not listen to the word of God; which prevented them from healing the man’s child.
But as you will understand fear as an obstacle to faith later; you will realize that the disciples were afraid whenever they saw the epileptic demon throw the boy to the ground.)
How to get little faith.
So as we saw in the last text, you can see with me that; little faith (as a mustard seed) can be achieved through so much prayer and fasting.
Because it will help to kill certain weaknesses you have, either any manner of sin or fear and doubt which are the two obstacles to faith.
(And please this does not mean that people with big faith should not fast and pray, but the point is that prayer in itself is an act of faith.
So even if one prays till thy kingdom come, and has not faith even as little as a mustard seed; his prayer in itself is void.
But if the person with a big faith says a prayer as short as can be, he because of his faith; has already received the answer to that prayer.)
“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. (Mathew 21:22)
2. The faith of Abraham.
Now, let us take our Father Abraham as an example; he had the strongest faith because he heard and did God’s word on several occasions.
In Genesis 12, God told Abraham to leave his father’s house and hometown ;and sojourn to a land He will give him and his descendants.
Without knowing the distance and location; Abraham did the word of God which gave him the faith that took him to Canaan-the Promised Land.
In Genesis 22, God commanded Abraham to take his only son Isaac, whom he begot in old age; and offer as a sacrifice to Him.
Abraham obeyed God and this brought him the faith that exchanged Isaac for a ram, and a descendant as the stars in the sky and sand on the seashores of which I and you are one.
Note what God said to Abraham after He blessed him: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:18)
Therefore, if you need the grace that will save you from any and every situation in life; you must first start by hearing and doing the word of God; either
- By listening to the preachers according to the scriptures: …and how shall they hear without a preacher. (Romans 10:14)
Or
- By reading the Holy Bible, which contains the scriptures that were written by the inspiration of God?
What causes a lack of faith?
There are two things that cause the lack of faith as we can evidence from Mathew 8;23-26 and John 20:24-29 and they are
- Fear
- Doubt
As we can see in the above passage, though the disciples obeyed the words of Christ; fear became an obstacle to their faith.
And from Thomas’s example, we can perfectly understand how doubt obstructs faith; and as James would put it doubt involves having a double mindset:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man that suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double minded, unstable in all his ways. James 1:6-7.
From here you can understand that though the disciples knew that Jesus had power over nature and they obeyed Him; which is the foundation of faith.
They still were afraid that the storm would kill them all and if anyone would be saved it will only be Jesus.
This same fear was why they could not heal the epileptic boy as we examined earlier.
Therefore, Christians should take note of this and try to avoid fear and doubt at all costs; if they want to have a strong faith.
What does the Bible say about faith without works?
But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without work is dead? (James 2:20)
As we have already analyzed above, faith does not only stop at hearing God’s words; but by putting those words into practice.
Therefore faith without work is simply the inability to practice the words of God given by Christ Jesus, which is the only thing that brings the manifestations of our prayers and expectations.
Now let us examine James 2:14-26 to see what faith without work means.
Now James begin the above discourse in using the example of an acclaimed Christian who refuses to render an helping hand to a fellow Christian who is in need.
Even though he knew that Jesus taught us about what will happen on the last Day of judgment as recorded in Mathew 25:31-46 where God will say that whatsoever we do to the least of our brethren is what we did to Him.
Hence James uses this example to clearly reveal to us that faith means putting the teachings of Christ into practice.
Even demons believe and tremble.
Then he goes from there to show us that if we claim that we believe in Christ but we do not listen and hearken to Him, we should understand that the demons, whom we think do not believe in Christ, listens to him with fear and trembling.
And in order to understand how demons listen to Christ, let us examine Luke 8:27 -33.
As we can all see, the demons in the passage above obeyed Jesus by leaving the madman on His command to enter into the herds of sheep.
Thus, if demons, who are not serving Jesus, would listen to and obey Him, how much more those who claim they belong to Him?
Abraham’s belief made him leave Haraan as God instructed
And as James continues his discourse, Abraham obeyed God by leaving Haran to an unknown destination promised him by God, and afterward took Isaac to be offered as a sacrifice, still according to God’s command.
And if did not do these things, he wouldn’t be known today as the father of faith which was even accounted unto him for righteousness.
Rahab had faith that, was why she saved the spies.
James also shows how Rahab, even though she was a harlot, put her faith into action by serving the spies who were sent to Jericho.
She might have known that if she saves the spies, an opportunity will also present itself for the spies to save her.
And in the end, we see how her action did not even save her alone, but her entire family.
This a perfect example of faith with work.
Now the person that is able to put God’s words into practice must also work towards getting whatever it is he or she requests from God.
For instance, if you have been praying God to give you a nice paying job and one day, while working down the street; you see an advertisement on a local paper about a job vacancy in a mortgage bank.
You must be there and then realize that the faith in your prayer has manifested.
And what you have to do now is carry out the work that will produce your faith.
That work can involve immediately rushing home to get all the credentials they list out for qualifications; as well as writing an application letter, and submit at the office address seen in the advert as soon as possible.
And after that prepare well for the interview which will finally grant you the job you have been praying for.
Conclusion.
So start studying the word of God today, and put into practice whatever it says and you shall see no limit to the kind of faith you will have.
