Proven Faith
Faith is like a Housekeeper. Faith will be loyal to you. Faith waits to be instructed as to what to do and then does it. You are required to put Faith to work over your house. Faith provides a firm foundation under everything – a thoroughly dependable sort and worth much weight in gold.
The apostle Luke described how Jesus compared Faith to a servant and said “If you had even the smallest Faith you would say……. " Notice you have to say something to Faith. Faith is voice activated. In order for Faith to operate you have to speak, because Faith relies on being instructed before going to work.
Bearing this in mind, think what you could accomplish if you put Faith to work in God’s Word? Sadly, most Christians don’t give Faith in God’s Word much of a thought. They don’t understand that God’s Word is a source of power – a spiritual law that will operate for whoever puts it to use. You put Faith to work when you trust in God's Word over a situation you are dealing with. This isn't mind over matter, which is a kind of human faith that sounds good, but is in essence a deception. John Wesley once said "The devil has given to the Church a substitute for faith which looks and sounds so much like faith that some people can't tell the difference." He called it "mental assent".
God's kind of Faith will accomplish wonderful things if you allow it. God's Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1) . Moffatt's translation of this verse reads, "Now faith means that we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see." Think of it like a guarantee or warranty. In spite of the circumstances, Faith determines that there is another way that will overcome the way of the world and the way that the situation looks in this physical natural realm. God has given His pledge, or His Word, that He will perform that Word in your life if you use it in Faith.
Worrying is a massive occupation for many people today. Us humans have a lot to worry about. God knows this but He won’t take the worry or the problem away because He has already given us His Faith to use in every circumstance of life. He has already given us the spiritual asset we need to use for the job. Sadly many Christians don’t know how to put Faith to work and don't understand that He has already given us everything we need to overcome the challenges and problems we face on a daily basis. They simply have no idea of how to use that asset in their Christian walk, nor how to obtain it. I want to show you how you use Faith every day to overcome.
If you wanted to drive a nail into a piece of wood, you'd get a hammer to do the job. It's no good trying to drive that nail in using your hand - you'll get hurt. No, you'd go to your tool box and reach for your trusty hammer and get the job done in no time. You've already got the hammer, it's in your tool box. Well, as Christians who have a relationship with Christ, we have already been given the best tool in the box in order to overcome in this world.
Faith comes to us when we hear God's Word - the scriptures. This is how the Message Translation describes what the Apostle Paul said about Faith in Romans 10:9-10
It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
Faith comes to us the moment we hear God's Word about Christ. Acknowledging Christ as Saviour and Lord is the first step in employing spiritual faith. The moment you ask Jesus to come into your heart, when you declare your trust in Him, God places His Faith immediately at your disposal. Right into your spiritual toolbox. We don't necessarily 'feel' saved and we certainly don't 'look' saved. But we believe God's Word that says "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved". When we apply simple child-like trust to this scripture, something happens to our spirit - the part of us no-one but God sees. Our spirit then becomes new - a new creation in Christ - we are born again of the Spirit. Simple trust believes that salvation comes the moment we ask for it. 'Whoever' applies to you and me - or any person who calls on His Name. This is how we implement Faith - by hearing God's Word and trusting in it despite what everyone else says and despite what our flesh or body or mind say!
When you are new to God's faith, you'd be surprised how much your mind and your body speak out against the faith you are trying to implement! Your mind and your body are unrenewed to God's way of doing things. They gripe and complain and groan and get impatient, waiting until they can detect that every symptom of the problem is gone before they believe God. The way of the mind and the body (Paul called it 'the flesh') will never get very far, but the way of the spirit that is connected to Christ through salvation, will receive life and give glory to God!
Paul challenges us to think about how Abraham coped aged 90 after God had told him that he would be a father of many nations and that Sarah would bear a child in her old age. In the natural, physical realm, it looked ridiculous, but Abraham "....did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform." Romans 4:20-21. Isaac finally arrived when Abraham was 100 years old!
In order to trust someone, we need to get to know them. How do we get to know someone? By spending time with them, talking and listening, hearing what they have to say, meeting up with them often and forming a relationship. After spending time with that person, they can call you on the phone and just say one word and you know instantly who it is. We need to be like this with God. In fact, He desires that we turn to Him and seek His company every day. By speaking God's Word we are agreeing with what He says, declaring our trust in Him, not what the doctor says, or what the teachers say at school about your poor results, or what the bank balance says. Those things may be facts, but what does God say? He says you are healed! God says you can do all things through Christ. God says your needs shall be met from His great riches. His Word will cause faith to rise up inside you and trust Him for whatever it is you need in this life.
"Well, I don't need God", you might say. "I don't have anything that I need to trust Him for..." Really? If you have family that you love and cherish, you will want them to be protected from danger and harm. If you have a job, you will need a wage to help you buy food and clothes and pay the bills. If you have a spouse, you will need that spouse to be a help and a blessing to you and your family. If you have breath in your body, you need that breath to keep going so that you can bless others! God understands you need all these things, but when we don't seek Him for them and trust Him to take care of our family's needs, our own health and the life we have now, then we can't complain when things go wrong. It is only by our own unique individual relationship with Christ that we are saved, not by anyone else's.
Faith is not just for salvation nor to get to heaven, it’s for now. For your life right here on earth. When we become saved, our transformation is progressive and dependent upon how much we study the scriptures to seek out what God has said in His Word. We develop and grow as Christians as we seek God and have reverence for Him and He is faithful to sanctify us, making us 'different' to everyone in the world who can't see the point in it all. That transformation grows into a beautiful relationship which deepens daily, bringing with it a dependence upon Him and also bringing with it a bond that no other person can break.
God gives us HIS Faith at the point of Salvation - at the point that we decide to trust in Jesus - so that we can trust Him in every circumstance. It’s not something we have to conjure up on our own. We are not required to be perfect. We are not required to go to church or be a Missionary. We do not need to clean our act up before we ask for Salvation. In fact, our heavenly Father wants us to run to Him just as we are. In our filthy, dirty, stinky self-righteous, sinful, grubby, shameful lives. All we are required to do is seek Him first before anything and anyone else and spend time with Him as a friend. Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and our every day lives will be taken care of.
Faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:16) and shouldn’t be saved for 'special' occasions or just when things get 'really' bad. When He sees us acting in faith for everyday things such as protection, health, walking in love, having our needs met as well as trusting and believing that He cares for us, our families and our livelihoods, that He deeply loves us and wants what is best for us, it pleases Him.
Faith is not a religion. “Oh I’m of this faith or that faith”. No, faith is our handle on the future – on the things we can’t physically see. There are other realms besides this worldly realm where we can see, touch, hear, smell and taste. The spiritual realm is no less real. In fact, it’s more real than this worldly realm. It’s where God resides and all the forces He has at His disposal. We don’t need to fear the future when we have Faith and when we fear and reverence God. He gives us those spiritual forces to use in this physical realm so we can overcome life’s obstacles.
Paul's letter to the Romans tells us how Abraham believed God's Word. He didn't have his Bible close to hand. He had to trust the Word of God that came to his heart. He had to put aside Sarah's mocking tone. He had to lay aside his own doubts and fears and put his trust in a God he could neither see nor physically hear. In Chapter four of Romans, Paul says this:
20 Abraham never doubted. He believed God, for his faith and trust grew ever stronger, and he praised God for this blessing even before it happened. 21 He was completely sure that God was well able to do anything he promised. 22 And because of Abraham’s faith God forgave his sins and declared him “not guilty.”
23 Now this wonderful statement—that he was accepted and approved through his faith—wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. 24 It was for us, too, assuring us that God will accept us in the same way he accepted Abraham—when we believe the promises of God who brought back Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He died for our sins and rose again to make us right with God,[e] filling us with God’s goodness.
Faith, though infinitely more precious, is like gold. Gold is tested by fire – the goldsmith will burn the raw material to a liquid and in doing so, all the contaminants rise to the surface under extreme heat. They are then skimmed off leaving the pure ‘proven’ gold. The apostle Peter said in 1 Peter Chapter 1 verses 6-7 that “pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure”. (Message Translation). Peter was referring to faith that is tested and he went on to say;
“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. Fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:7, NLT).
When we experience trials and tribulations and we use God’s faith to overcome, that faith is put on display by God as evidence of the victory. Imagine a gold cup, won by a team who played the game and won. The blood, sweat and tears that it took to get that gold cup is often never seen. The frustrations, the sacrifices and the battle that it took to attain victory are a distant memory. The gold cup is held aloft in triumph. Tears of happiness flow as the team remember all the trials and extreme adversity they had to overcome. The temptation to quit, the overwhelming exhaustion and sheer frustration could have won instead, but faith saved the day. Faith is the evidence of that what you'd hoped and desired and strived for.
The bible teaches that there is more to life than faith in Christ. Philippians 1:29 . At first reading this seems a dreadful thing to say. But when opposition comes, very often we flinch and try to dodge the struggles and stresses of life, opting out for the easy way. We want the problems to go away, for things to be ‘normal’ again. We pray and beg God to take away the problem for us. What Paul meant was that we can use faith to overcome the obstacles we encounter on a daily basis. A bit like using soap for a daily wash!
I have heard so many people say that they are not religious because of all the terrible things that are going on in our world right now and because of all the suffering. Why does God sit by and allow all these things to take place? Why doesn't He intervene? Why does there have to be so much sin in the world when God has supposed to have got rid of it?
God has already intervened. Two thousand years ago He came to directly to us in the form of His Son Jesus Christ, to die for us and to take our worries, cares, sorrow and pain. He suffered on the cross in order for us to have Son-ship with Him - to be heirs with Him and receive the Promise - the gift of salvation. Faith is just like soap. We need to use it to wash ourselves clean - it's not going to do the job just sitting beside the bath! We've been washed clean by Jesus' Blood - but you've got to put your faith in that Word, believe it and put your faith to use. Faith is a gift that we never have to earn - we just have to believe.
Paul warns us of the perils of rejecting Christ and exhorts us by saying in 1 Corinthians 10:13
“No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.”
Have you accepted God's offering to you of Christ? Paul warns us of the perils of self indulgence and the dangers of rejecting Christ. One commentary on this passage of scripture (Ellicot) says: “Let the one who thinks that he stands secure take great heed, lest he fall. The murmuring against their apostolic teachers, the longing to go so far as they could in indulgence without committing actual sin, were terribly significant indications in the Corinthian Church. When we feel ourselves beginning to dislike those who warn us against sin, and when we find ourselves measuring what is the smallest distance that we can place between ourselves and some desired object of indulgence without actually sinning, then “let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
There has to be a test in order for faith to be proven and the things that hinder our walk with the Lord need to be removed. It's alright for you, you might say. You try replacing thoughts about what the Dr has said, what the bank balance says, what the bailiffs say. You try replacing those thoughts with lovely fluffy thoughts of God! Well, I can tell you, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to prove my faith. If it wasn’t for my faith in God’s Word I wouldn’t be here now writing this sermon! I could regale you with a whole list of 58 years worth of trials and tribulations, circumstances and horrid things that have tested me.
It wasn’t until I was 28 years old that I first heard about faith. I thought I was a Christian because I believed in God. I didn't know that I could have a relationship with Him, talk to Him and implement His Word in my day to day life. I didn’t know that I could accept God's free gift and put His Faith to work on my behalf. I had no idea, but I slowly started to learn and seek. I started to read the scriptures and I would write down the ones were applicable to my life at that time. I not only thought about them, I memorised them so that at night I could replace those worried thoughts with the hope and the love and the protection that those scriptures gave me. Slowly, week by week my knowledge of the Word grew and I was able to counteract negative thoughts with God’s Word. Things started to change. My life transformed. I met my lovely husband, married and had two beautiful children. Along the way and throughout the journey we've had to deal with many challenges and difficult times. Some of those challenges will be similar to your own. If you are married with children, then you will know what I mean! I’ve had many an opportunity to throw everything up in the air and walk away. Who doesn’t? I am not bragging on my own hardships, I am merely pointing out that I know from experience how hard life can be sometimes. We ALL need to employ Faith.
Have you accepted God's intervention for you? If not, say this simple prayer:
"Heavenly Father, thank you for intervening for me by sending your Son Jesus. I am sorry that I have rejected Christ and not understood what that rejection means to how I live my life now. I repent of rejecting Christ Jesus, of not acting in faith and trusting Him to care for me and for my loved ones. Jesus, I give You my life now and ask You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I am empowered with Faith to live the Christian life. I believe in faith Jesus died for my sins and that He rose again from the dead and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now in me, making me new. Thankyou Father! I pray this in Jesus' Name. Amen