You really are not going to be able to understand God, if you do not get what we are talking about in this series.
Faith is absolutely essential to your walk with God.
If you do not have faith in God, you will not walk with God closely.
We will study other topics as well because they all work with our faith.
Galatians 5:6 | NKJV (6) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
Faith is important and therefore we must spend time studying it.
To understand faith, you must understand a little bit about the spiritual world.
John 4:24 NKJV (24) God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
You cannot worship God just in the outward sense because God is a Spirit, and you must make a spiritual connection with Him by worshipping Him in the spirit.
God is not a physical being at all, although He is very real.
God created this natural physical world out of the world in which He lives called the spirit world.
He created this world out of His Word.
Hebrews 11:3 NKJV (3) By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
If I limit my scope of my understanding to the natural realm only then I can never really begin to understand God or the realm in which He lives.
1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV (14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Natural man says, “I will not believe in it unless I can prove it by feeling it, seeing it, etc.” He says, “I have to prove it in order to believe it.”
There is a spiritual world that the natural man cannot understand.
1 Corinthians 2:15 NLT (15) Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things…
When you begin to understand spiritual things, you will learn that you have a spiritual nature that is different from your physical nature.
This is why people can be very successful in the material or physical, they are not satisfied or fulfilled.
That is because there is a spiritual God-sized void inside all of us until we have a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
Faith is the force of God that creates.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV (13) And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Faith is what moves the creative power of God from the spiritual world where He lives over to this natural world where you and I live.
Faith in God has superiority over any of the natural laws that are in operation in the earth.
The very first thing we see that Jesus did in the Gospels, was to show His superiority over the natural.
John 2:1-8 NKJV (1) On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. (2) Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. (3) And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” (4) Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” (5) His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (6) Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. (7) Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. (8) And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. Jesus had never worked a miracle up to this point so Mary probably was not expecting a miracle. But He was full of wisdom and His mother knew that He could solve the problem.
Jesus could have turned air into wine as easy as it was to turn water into the wine.
Water pots were at a minimum of 3 firkins each which was 9 gallons per firkin or 27 gallons. We are talking about close to 150 gallons of water and it took quite a while to fill them up and the pots were very heavy. This took a lot of work.
We think it would be easier to turn the water into wine because it is a liquid but that is not true.
Jesus had them fill the water pots because He wanted them to be involved in the process of God’s power showing up to change the situation.
God could do everything that ever wanted to do without us because He is God and leave us out.
He chooses to bring us into the process and let us have a part in what is going on.
God wants to work WITH us in His plan in the earth but He must have faith to work with for that to happen.
Faith is the invitation we give God for Him to move in our situation the way He wants to and we need Him to.
Notice in verse 11, it says that because of this miracle, His disciples believed on Him and it was because they were involved.
John 2:11 NKJV (11) This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
Matthew 18:2-4 NKJV (2) Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, (3) and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (4) Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Little children intrinsically trust that they will be taken care of. This is the way that we should be in our faith in God.
Jesus was showing us that we must approach the Kingdom of God as a little child believes without any hesitation and question.
Why is faith such a big deal to God?
God wants to work with us all through faith to be able to get His power over into our lives so that He can make the difference He wants to make.
Faith is absolutely essential to your walk with God.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT (13) Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.
Notice in his teaching on love, Paul states there are three spiritual forces that will last forever: faith, hope, and love.
In saying it this way, Paul is telling us that there is a difference in hope and faith.
Hebrews 11:1 NIV
- Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
There are a lot of people who think they are operating in faith but they are not. Hope does have some limitations. There are certain things that it cannot do. The two do work together and are connected.
Hope is a positive expectation of things in the future.
“I see good coming to me. Something good is going to happen to me this week…”
“I believe things are going to get better.”
God always builds our hopes before we actually begin to operate in faith.
Abraham is the father of faith. He is the classic case study of faith. Nobody matches him in terms of the quality of their faith.
What we see is that God did not begin Abraham in faith. He began him in hope.
Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV (1) Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. (2) I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:7 NKJV (7) Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 13:14 NKJV (14) And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are–northward, southward, eastward, and westward;
Genesis 13:17 NKJV (17) Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
Notice the tense of the words that God is using while He is speaking to Abram. They are words like, “I will…, shall be…” This is all hope.
We see that God is instilling hope into the heart of Abram first because faith has to work with hope.
Faith and hope can be broken down like this:
Hope is a blueprint or a model.
It is not the building; it is the expectation of the building.
Hope is the ability to imagine what is going to happen.
This is where you start.
God began to build Abram a picture of what He is planning to do not only for him but this people that He is going to make.
Faith is absolutely essential to your walk with God.
What is Faith?
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 (AMPC) NOW 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… – if it’s not now, it is not faith.
Hope is always future tense or pointing to the future. Faith says I’ll receive it now or I have it now.
What Is Hope?
Hebrews 11:1 TPT Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.
There are a lot of people who think they are operating in faith, but they are not. They are actually working in high hopes.
Hope does have some limitations. There are certain things that it cannot do. Faith and hope DO work together and are connected.
Hope is a positive expectation of things in the future.
“I see good coming to me. Something good is going to happen to me this week…”
“I believe things are going to get better.”
God always builds our hopes before we actually begin to operate in faith.
Abraham is the father of faith. He is the classic case study of faith. Nobody matches him in terms of the quality of their faith.
What we see is that God did not begin Abraham in faith. He began him in hope.
Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV (1) Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. (2) I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:7 NKJV (7) Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 13:14 NKJV (14) And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are–northward, southward, eastward, and westward;
Genesis 13:17 NKJV (17) Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
Notice the tense of the words that God is using while He is speaking to Abram. They are words like, “I will…, shall be…” This is all hope.
We see that God is instilling hope into the heart of Abram first because faith is required to work WITH hope.
Faith and hope can be broken down like this:
Hope is a blueprint or a model.
It is not the building; it is the expectation of the building.
Hope is the ability to imagine what is going to happen.
This is where you start.
God began to build Abram a picture of what He is planning to do not only for him but this people that He is going to make.
Genesis 15:5-6 NKJV (5) Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” (6) And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Abraham did not walk a walk of faith for 25 years. He clung to hope for all that time, but he walked in faith for the last year of the time he was childless.
God wanted Abraham to arrive at a place where it was completely and totally impossible for him to have a son.
If Abraham is to be the father of our faith (Romans 4:11) and he and Sarah are going to be our model of faith, they needed to believe for something that is completely and totally impossible and no reason to hope for.
Romans 4:18 AMPC [For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be. [Gen 15:5]
Romans 4:18 ERV There was no hope that Abraham would have children, but Abraham believed God and continued to hope. And that is why he became the father of many nations. As God told him, “You will have many descendants.”
Romans 4:18 MSG When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!”
Romans 4:18 TPT Against all odds, when it looked hopeless, Abraham believed the promise and expected God to fulfill it. He took God at his word, and as a result he became the father of many nations. God’s declaration over him came to pass: “Your descendants will be so many that they will be impossible to count!”
We face problems in our lives every day that are not complete and totally hopeless. Very few of us face situations that are completely hopeless.
This means that if the principles of faith that we learn from Abraham worked for Abraham, they will surely work for us.
All of a sudden in God’s dealings with Abram, something changes.
Genesis 17:1-4 NKJV (1) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. (2) And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” (3) Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: (4) “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. (5) No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
God says for the first time, “I have made you a father of many nations.” He says to Abraham, if you accept this, change your name and get circumcised.
Romans 4:16-17 NKJV (16) Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (17) (as it is written, “I HAVE MADE YOU A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS”) in the presence of Him whom he believed–God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
Romans 4:17 AMPC As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed. [Gen 17:5]
When God wants to change something, He calls those things that are not as they were.
Hope is the blueprint. Hope says, “It is going to happen…” But faith is the construction crew.
Faith is like an invisible construction team; a team that works while you are at home asleep and does not want you watching them work yet you show up each day and are amazed at how much has gotten done behind the scenes.
Faith works in the invisible arena where God lives.
Romans 4:18-20 NKJV (18) who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.” (19) And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. (20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
Consider (GREEK): to observe, notice, consider, contemplate, to have respect to, to regard
You will not be able to stay strong in faith if you continue to look at the natural negatives.
If you look at the natural negatives, you will talk yourself out of the promises that God has made to you.
Abraham DID NOT CONSIDER his body.
Some think that God always works in measurable degrees. We think that there should be measurable progress as you go along. But there also may be times when things get worse instead of better.
Abraham stayed strong in faith even when the news did not get better. He does not deny it. He refuses to focus on it.
Romans 4:21 NKJV (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
Who was it that fully persuaded Abraham? Did God do it?
If that is the case, then all God has to do is persuade everyone that they need to get saved and they would receive it.
Who then persuaded Abraham? Abraham persuaded Abraham.
You and I have the responsibility to persuade ourselves to believe what God has already said.
How Does Faith Come?
Romans 12:3 KJV For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
“every man that is among you…” is referring to each believer.
Romans 10:17 (NKJV) 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
“Word of God” (GREEK): Rhema – spoken word uttered by a living voice that brings revelation; a revealed word.
It does absolutely no good to pray for faith.
Your faith is fed and developed as you spend time in the Word of God and the Holy Spirit brings revelation of the Word before you. The Holy Spirit will speak a revealed word to your spirit and faith is fed and grows.
Faith for salvation comes as one hears the Gospel and that message is revealed by the Holy Spirit to your heart. One can then receive the New Birth because they now believe it and can act on it.
Faith for healing, prosperity, peace, etc. comes the same way. You avail yourself to hear the Word of God in that area and the Holy Spirit will bring revelation of that Word to your heart and then the blessing can be received.
The principles of faith are the same in any area, whether it be finances, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, healing or whatever it is. If you can learn the principles of faith, then it is easy to receive whatever it is that you are seeking from God or need to receive.
The principles and laws of God work the same every time and if you can learn them, they will for you every single time.
Dr. Lillian Yoeman said, “If I pray for any one thing, or I pray just one time for anything and I don’t get it, I start changing. I start changing. I start changing because if I pray and that prayer is not answered, there will have to be a change before the answer comes. And I know there can’t be any change with God, because He never changes, so if there’s any change, it has to be on my end. So if I pray and do not receive, then I start changing.”
Faith is of the Heart and Not the Head
Romans 10:8-10 NKJV But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): (9) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Mark 11:23 NKJV For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
It is possible for one to have faith in their heart and doubt in their head.