Tuesday, July 16, 2019

By Grace Through Faith: What is Faith?

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8 NKJV

16 Therefore it is of Faith that it might be by Grace Romans 4:16a KJV



We are beginning a new study on New Covenant Faith. Faith is often misunderstood in some Christian circles. When one says Faith they mistakenly think of the denomination one is a part of. Are you of the Baptist faith? Are you of the Lutheran faith? Are you of the Methodist faith? That is not what Faith is.

 Faith is also often mistakenly referred to as blind faith. That Faith simply blindly trusts in something without any evidence of whatsoever. That it trusts without knowledge. Again this is a wrong concept about Faith. Let's explore the truth about Faith. 

What Faith Is...

What is Faith? It's not blind trust. It is not someone's religious practices. It is not a spiritual detecter revealing "superior" and "inferior" Christians. It is also not someone who is "wishing and a hoping" for some positive turn out in the circumstances of their life. 

 New Covenant Faith is determined. It is specific. It isn't sporadic in its focus. It is single-minded. It is purposed and unwavering and unswayed. How do we define Faith? The Amplified in my view gives the absolute best definition of Faith.


11 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]. Hebrews 11:1 AMP

  Let this definition sink in, get rooted deeply in your spirit. Faith is the assurance that what we hope will come to pass. Faith gives substance to hope. Hope is positive expectation based on what Jesus, God's Grace made available, what God promises we have because of Jesus. 


 Faith is the confirmation of the promise of God. Faith is the title deed. This is an awesome truth. In this world, we who are old enough will understand a title deed. Each nation runs a little differently but this principal of the title deed is the same the world around. 

 If one buys a car from someone, and they get the title deed that paper is proof enough that they have a car. They can tell their friends look I have a new car. They make look upon that one in bewilderment, saying we don't see a car. All that person need do is show them the title deed. See I have a car, it's mine, you may not see it but I have a car this deed is proof enough.

 Maybe you'd say I have never bought a car or house this illustration is lost on me. Ok, I will make it even clearer. Faith is the confirmation. You bought that item online. Your friends may not see that item. All you need do is show them the confirmation number and they will know you do in fact have that item.

 Faith is our confirmation number that all God provided in the Finished Work is ours. Faith is the title deed, revealing to us when presently possess all Grace procured for us. Faith is being fully persuaded by unseen evidence in the spiritual realm. Faith is the conviction that it is settled in the Heavens, that what God said is ours because of the Cross is in truth fully ours. 

 So what is Faith? It is being fully persuaded by unseen evidence. It isn't blind. It isn't trusting without evidence. Faith perceives as real facts what is not revealed to our natural senses. As Paul said we walk by Faith not by sight. The evidence is revealed to us in the spiritual arena not this natural. God declared us righteous and holy once for all time. Yet we don't always look like it, but we aren't focused on the evidence we can see with our physical senses but with what we see with our spiritual sense, what God accomplished in the Finished Work.

 Again Faith is the belief of our hearts, our spirit man, not our heads, that is our mental assent, our intellectual thoughts. Some try to insinuate that Biblical Faith is mere mentally agreement with what the Bible says, not a heartfelt agreement. Look, Faith is of the heart, not our intellect, for there are truths in God that supersede the natural order and scientific fact. Disagree?

 Under the Old, God did many mighty miracles. The prophet Elisha operating in a manifestation of the Spirit caused an iron axe head to float in water. How many realize that iron doesn't float on top of the water? That is not something we can intellectually make sense of. That is a change in the natural order of things. Jesus, God in the flesh was conceived by the Spirit in Mary's womb. Scientific fact, it takes a fertilized egg for conception to occur. Yet Jesus was born of a virgin. That supersedes science fact.

 In summation, Faith is being fully persuaded that what Grace provides and what the Father promises because of the Finished Work we can reach out and take and receive. In order to walk in Faith, sometimes we have to turn off our minds and just do what God says to us. 
Image by reenablack from Pixabay

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