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.
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.
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.
Doubt in YOUR HEART Can Lead to Unbelief
Matthew 17:14-21 NKJV And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, (15) “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. (16) So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” (17) Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” (18) And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. (19) Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” (20) So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. (21) However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
The disciples could not cast out the devil because of their unbelief.
Notice Jesus did not say because they did not have enough faith. That seems to be the answer that we give or get sometimes these days. We think that the answer to everything is that we need more faith. We need to grow our faith and grow in our faith but I believe that nowadays, perhaps the issue is not that we don’t have enough faith but rather dealing with the issue of unbelief.
Matthew 10:5-8 NKJV These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. (6) But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (7) And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ (8) Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Jesus gave the Disciples the authority and power to cast out demons here when they were called and sent out.
They had been successful up until this time.
Luke 10:17 NKJV Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
Again, Jesus did not say that they could not cast out the demon was because of their lack of faith. It was because of their unbelief.
Jesus pointed out that if you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, that it was sufficient to get the job done.
The mountain represents problems or challenges in your life that just seem to be huge like a mountain. What Jesus is saying is that it does not take a mountain of faith to move a mountain of problems.
That is due to the power of God that is resident in speaking by faith to the mountain.
Think about it, something as “small” as a faith-filled word can wither a fig tree or move a mountain.
Faith filled words go out into the realm of the spirit where the root of your problems really are and works on the situation at the root.
It is not a ton of faith but a small mustard seed size of faith that will get the job done.
But remember, Jesus did not say that it was because your faith was so small but because of your unbelief.
Somewhere since Jesus anointed, called, and sent them to go out and this incident in Matthew 17, their faith was being hindered.
We have thought the way to address unbelief is to gather more and more faith like a tug-of-war to see who can move the mountain.
The life of faith is not a tug-of-war. The life of faith is not a struggle between faith and unbelief.
Mark 9:14-29 NKJV And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. (15) Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. (16) And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?” (17) Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. (18) And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” (19) He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” (20) Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. (21) So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. (22) And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” (23) Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” (24) Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (25) When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” (26) Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” (27) But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. (28) And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” (29) So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
So the Disciples had been successful in casting out demons before but Mark points some things out that contributed the unbelief of the Disciples and kept them from being able to cast this demon out.
- They were trying to cast the demon out in front of a large group of people.
- Their critics were standing right there disputing with them while they were trying to do this.
- When the child came to them, the spirit probably responded to them by throwing the boy down in front of them just like it did with Jesus.
The unbelief came when they had the report of their eyes, the report of their fears, and the report of their critics.
They felt the pressure and it allowed the unbelief to surpass the power and anointing that was on their lives that Jesus had put on them to do the work.
Jesus shows up on the scene and Jesus did not care what the people thought, He did not care what the scribes thought, and He was not moved by the report of His own eyes looking at what was happening to the boy. He was only concerned about pleasing His Heavenly Father and doing the Word of God.
Jesus had schooled Himself in not being moved by the emotions of the people when ministering to someone. Smith Wigglesworth had done the same thing.
Just like faith is fed, unbelief is fed. The way unbelief comes and grows is by listening to the reports of people, the reports of circumstances, and the reports of what you can see with your own eyes.
The tug-of-war started in the Disciples and the unbelief overcame their faith.
Scriptures pertaining to unbelief:
Matthew 13:58 NKJV Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. (not lack of faith)
Mark 6:6 NKJV And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.
Mark 16:14 NKJV Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
Hebrews 3:19 NKJV So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
This is where unbelief comes from:
2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
You cannot stop unbelief from coming at you but you can refuse to accept it.
The way you stop unbelief is to starve it to death and not feed it.
You can have food all around you yet starve to death if you refuse to eat any of it.
Jesus explained how he was able to overcome unbelief this way:
Matthew 17:19-21 NKJV Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” (20) So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. (21) However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Prayer and fasting does not drive out demons.
Prayer and fasting has to do only with your relationship with God NOT driving out unbelief. In other words, it causes your relationship with God to go deeper thus not permitting unbelief to be able to prevail over you because your confidence is totally in God.
Again, there seems to be the misunderstanding that we simply need more faith when things aren’t working. When in reality we need to address the challenge of unbelief.
Jesus did not say in this story that the disciples needed more faith; He said that they needed to get rid of their unbelief.
It is not the size of the faith but rather the size of the unbelief that causes the faith not to work. Remember, He said that faith the size of a grain of mustard seed is enough to get the job done.
God is actually the one that does the work, not your faith. But unbelief in your heart can tie the hands of God and keep Him from being able to work in your life like He desires.
Remember, if the faith you received from God at the new birth was powerful enough to cause you to be re-born, death unto life, and to move you out of Satan’s kingdom into the Kingdom of God’s Son, then it is powerful enough to move the mountains that may be in your life.
Jesus had schooled Himself in not being moved by the emotions of the people when ministering to someone. Smith Wigglesworth had done the same thing.
Just like faith is fed, unbelief is fed. The way unbelief comes and grows is by listening to the reports of people, the reports of circumstances, and the reports of what you can see with your own eyes.
The tug-of-war started in the Disciples and the unbelief overcame their faith.