Chapter
7A : The Level of Your Faith
Do
not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of
yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith
God has given you.
(Rom
12:3)
7A.1
Removing the Confusion over Faith
In the Preface I made mention of adding bits and pieces
to this book in the future. This chapter, as you will gather by its
numbering, is the first of such additions. As I have been reviewing
the book and considering the things being covered, I realised that I
had not given over any area to the subject of faith, yet faith does
seem to be one of those areas that Christians seem to feel bad about,
so here it is. I hope you find it helpful.
Faith is the air Christians breathe – an essential, and
yet it is something so many of us are confused about, and often in our
confusion we feel guilty at the absence of faith, or the smallness of
our faith, as we see it, so let's see just what the Bible says about
it.
a)
Belief in the Unseen
Heb
11:1 faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see
faith
is being sure – we have a clear feeling of assurance about something
and
certain – you are absolutely convinced of this thing
of
what we hope for – Christian hope is a strong assurance about
the unseen
what
we do not see – faith is about being sure of the unseen!
There is a sense where, for every Christian, this is a
very obvious verse. If there is a problem being a Christian, it is that
you can't see God, you can't see angels, demons etc. It's all about
believing in an unseen world! That's you isn't it? That makes you a
man or woman of faith! Start from there – declare it, “I am a person
of faith!”
Heb
11:6 without faith
it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek
him.
without
faith – faith is therefore a key Christian requirement
it
is impossible to please God – surely our desire is to please God,
therefore faith is vital to us
because
– the reason it is so important is given – God is unseen (Spirit)
and so if you want a relationship with Him, you have to believe He's
there and that He blesses those who seek after Him.
The same thing comes through – very obviously really –
if you want to be a Christian, then you'll believe in God, who is unseen,
first. When you pray, you talk to an unseen Being and God is pleased
that you talk to Him. That makes you a man or woman who pleases God!
Go on with this – declare it, “I please God!”
b)
How Faith comes
Rom
10:17 faith comes from
hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
faith
comes from hearing – faith is a response to what is said to you,
not something you conjure up.
the
message – a message is a communication from someone, in this case
from God.
the
word of Christ – this is the Gospel.
Where does faith come from? It first comes when you
hear someone share the truth of the Gospel with you and the Holy Spirit
speaks it into your innermost being – suddenly it seemed real to you,
suddenly you ‘knew' it was true, suddenly something rose in you that
said, “Yes!”
Thereafter, it happened again and again – the truth came
to you and the Holy Spirit spoke it deep into you and you ‘knew' it
was true. As we've said elsewhere, this truth coming to you may come
as you read the Bible, it may comes as you hear someone preaching or
someone prophesying, or it may simply come from a friend is sharing
the truth with you and God, by His Holy Spirit, imparts a sense of the
reality of it to you.
Now, if you are a Christian, this HAS happened to you – you heard
the Gospel and suddenly it seemed very real to you, and you responded
positively to it. It's probably happened many times since then as well
– somehow the truth came to you and you suddenly knew it was true! You
ARE a man or woman of faith! You need to reinforce that and declare
it out loud, “I AM a man/woman of faith!”
7A.2
So what's your Problem?
The problem for many of us is that we allow the enemy to sow
seeds of doubt so that we wonder if we actually hear God, or when something
comes, we wonder if it is from God. Then we allow the enemy to tell
us, “You're not a person of faith!” and we agree.
Some of us allow the enemy to get us to focus on our feelings,
and at the emotional level we don't “feel” people of faith, as if being
a person of faith has a particular feeling! It hasn't because faith
is simply an obedience response to what you've heard.
Perhaps you were reading the Bible and suddenly you
were convicted by something you read, and you knew that in a particular
area of your life you weren't what God wanted and you needed to do something
to change that. At the point you made an inner commitment to act. You
believed God's word was God's will and that it was for you.
Do you realize at that point in time you became just like
that man of faith, Abraham, again. Again? Well yes, you were like him
when you heard the Gospel and believed it. As you responded you were
justified by God, just like Abraham had been –
Rom
4:3 What does the Scripture
say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Because Abraham believed what God said to Him, God
declared him righteous.
Rom
4;23,24 The words "it
was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for
us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him
who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
The same thing applies to us – when you believed, you were
declared righteous by God. Your believing was an act of faith – your
believing was in the mind and in the will – you decided you would surrender
to God – that was a major act of faith!
So, back to our example above, when you read the Bible
and were convicted and changed your mind and your will to come in line
with God's will, that again was another act of faith. In fact you exercise
faith every time you determine to go God's way.
Every time you pick up the Bible to read it, that's an
act of faith. Every time you pray, that's an act of faith. Every time
you go to worship, that's an act of faith. Every time you share your
testimony, that's an act of faith. Every time you tell a non-Christian
friend about Jesus, that is an act of faith. And you say you are not
a faith person???????
7A.3.
But it's so little faith!
This is the other cry that so often comes. My faith seems
so small. Let's have a look at the truth of this one. There are three
aspects to consider
a)
A Gift
Rom
12:3 Do not think of
yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with
sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given
you.
In the passage from which this verse comes, Paul is telling the
Romans to keep things in perspective because they each have different
gifts according to the measure of faith that God has given them, and
he then goes on to list various gifts of service.
What is he saying? That God has made us like we are and He's
given us different abilities which are really expressions of faith.
In the verses that follow he says that different people are ‘good' at
different things e.g. giving (you can go through the list yourself and
apply this to the various things he lists). So, he says, a particular
person might be particularly good at giving, and so for them, that is
a particular expression of faith that they are good at. They've simply
heard God speak into their spirit the ability to give fearlessly, but
we're not all gifted like that!
So what are you good at? That's the important issue, not how
little faith you have to perform miracles! God has put something into
you and so the important thing for you is to take note of your particular
gifting.
Still not sure? Consider the following two verses:
Eph
2:10 For we are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do.
i.e. when we come to Christ, we open up the way for God
to lead us into doing the things He's designed us to do best.
Psa
37:4 Delight yourself
in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart
When we focus on Him and delight in Him, then He will share
His heart with us and put the things of His heart on our heart, and
then as we let Him lead us, He will lead us to receive those things.
Why? Because He loves us and knows best what we're good at, because
that's how He's designed us!
Christians sometimes have some bizarre thinking about God's will
for them. Sometimes we get into the way of thinking that says God will
only work through my weakness so He'll always ask me to do things I
don't like. Bizarre thinking! That's not the God that Jesus revealed
to us.
Lk
11:11- 13 "Which
of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though
you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him!"
God is a loving heavenly Father who doesn't play mind games with
His kids. The Lord knows you're going to have enough trouble feeling
weak, even with the gifts He's given you, without having to make it
worse by asking you to do things you don't like and are not gifted for.
Have you noticed, that the things you are good at and do well, you enjoy?
The Lord knows you'll struggle enough with the pride-humility issue
without Him making it more difficult for you!
So what are we saying? Take notice of the things God's made you
good at. Delight in Him and let Him share His heart for you with you,
and be blessed. Dare to believe the glimmerings of things you think
you might have heard. Test them out, see if they go anywhere with God's
blessing on them. It could be a whole new day!
b)
Power of a Seed
A second aspect of this thing about “small faith” that we so
often tend to forget, is what Jesus said about small faith –
Mt
17:20 if you have faith
as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, `Move from
here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
Now that is incredible! It basically says you don't have
to worry about the ‘size' of your faith. It can be as tiny as a mustard
seed (very, very small) but will still achieve amazing things. Why is
that? Well, go back to basics. What is faith? It is responding to what
God says, so if God says tell that mountain to move, and you do, He'll
move it! Remember, that when it comes to the miraculous, you can't do
it, only He can. Only He is God, not you. All you have to do is be obedient
to Him and speak out what He tells you to speak, and He'll do the rest.
To put it another way, you may have only caught a whisper
from God, but if it was God, the thing will happen. Immediately you'll
be thinking, “But suppose it wasn't God? Supposing I act and nothing
happens?” Well, you've said it, nothing will happen, so the worst that
can follow is that you'll look stupid. Oh, you're suffering from pride,
I'm sorry! Come on!
If my memory serves me right, John Wimber, of Power Healing fame,
caught the sense that God wanted him to pray for healing, and then prayed
a tremendous number of times (?getting on for a hundred times?) before
the Lord acted and someone was healed, and put an entire, new, incredible
dimension to his ministry.
If you're wanting to move out with just a grain of mustard seed
faith, you don't have to bolster up your ego by being loud and brash,
in fact you can be to the contrary, humble and contrite and say something
like this: “I hope you don't mind but I'm trying to learn to listen
to the Lord more accurately and I believe He's said I'm to pray like
this…..” or something similar. If the Lord turns up and vindicates your
faith, great. If He doesn't, go and have a talk to Him and listen out
for what you feel He might say.
In this area, it is important, as Paul said in Rom 12:3, to think
soberly, or keep things in proportion. If the Lord does great things
and uses you as part of them, then remember that it was HIM who did
it. It was great that he gave you the privilege of being part of it.
As Jesus gently chided his disciples when they came back from a great
ministry time, don't rejoice over the authority you've been granted
from heaven, but rejoice in the wonder of God's salvation that has included
you in this (see Lk 10:20)
Finally, under this heading, perhaps we should consider that
if faith comes by hearing, then we should desire to have more than a
grain of faith, by seeking to more effectively learn to listen to God.
How? Spend time alone with Him, reading His word, praying and listening
to what we believe He is saying. That would be a good start.
c)
It can come where none was previously
A final thing to think about in this section is the thought
that faith can appear where it wasn't previously. Let's look at some
verses together:
Mt
6:30 “O you of little
faith .”
The first time faith is referred to in Matthew's Gospel! The
disciples obviously are not responding well to Jesus' teaching about
God's provision. In this area their faith is small.
Mt
8:26 He replied, "
You of little faith , why are you so afraid?"
This was when the disciples thought they were going to drown
on the lake. Their faith in Jesus' ability to protect them was
quite small at this point!
Mt
14: 31 Immediately
Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. " You of little faith,"
he said, "why did you doubt?"
Here is Peter who has just responded with incredible faith and
walked on water, but then he looked at the waves and started to rationalize
what was happening, and started to sink! His faith level was also sinking.
His ability to believe Jesus for provision of the ability to do the
supernatural, collapsed in the face of the wind and waves.
Mt
16:8 Aware of their
discussion, Jesus asked, " You of little faith , why are
you talking among yourselves about having no bread?
The disciples have been misunderstanding what has been happening.
Their faith level is low. Their level of understanding spiritual
realities was low.
Mt
17:20 He replied, "Because
you have so little faith
The disciples have just failed to cast out a demon. Why? Their
faith level was low. Power couldn't flow. Here is a mystery. Surely
God could have dealt with the demon even if their words were not faith
inspired? No, God will only back what He has inspired. We don't know
what God had wanted to do here, but obviously the disciples hadn't heard
aright and so the power wasn't flowing. Their level of understanding
the spiritual authority that had been given them was low.
The
disciples (us?) have failed in these situations to believe Jesus for:
- Provision
- Protection
- Power
to do the supernatural
- Understanding
of spiritual realities
- Understanding
their spiritual authority.
In each of these cases we have observed the disciples in training
being gently faced up with a low level of faith in a variety of situations,
yet one has to recognize and accept that these same disciples went on
to do amazing things as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Conclusion?
They learned.
But wait a minute! We seem to have a contradiction! One
minute Jesus is chiding them because they “have so little faith” and
the next minute he is telling them that they only need faith as small
as a grain of mustard seed to be able to move mountains. How can we
reconcile these two things.
A suggestion, and only a suggestion. When you look at each of
the situations above where Jesus chided them, actually there was NO
faith being exercised! Go back and look at each of them and you will
see that in fact they were failing in each case because there was no
faith, they had not heard from God and were not responding to what they
had heard.
So, when Jesus is using the phrase “little faith” he is
in fact meaning that it is so small as to be in reality non-existent!
If they'd heard a bit from God and responded, they would have won through,
but they didn't.
Now go back to what we said about the disciples (apostles)
in the Acts of the Apostles –they may not have had faith in their training
phase, but once they had been through the Cross and through Pentecost,
they were now so transformed that they were men of faith.
What does this say? It says realize the wonder of Christ dying
for you on the Cross and your total inability to be righteous in yourself,
or your total inability to earn the right to perform miracles, and you
will be half way there. Only half way? Yes, realize that without the
presence and power and direction of the Holy Spirit you will achieve
nothing.
When these two staggering truths grip us, we'll be in a far better
place to respond to the voice of God so that he can do amazing things
through us! Let's risk what we think we're hearing and let the Lord
do what he wants to do. Today could be a turning point.
7A.4
So how can I build my faith?
There's really nothing magical about this. It's simply a case
of stepping out in what some in the past have called spiritual disciplines.
Preliminary
We're simply going to consider some of the
ways that we can raise the faith level within us, ways that we can hear
God and respond. It can really be seen in two parts:
1. Putting out the things that inhibit your faith
2.
Putting on the things that build faith.
Starting
with putting out the things that inhibit faith, consider the following:
Mt
9:24,25 he said "Go away. The girl is not dead
but asleep." But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been
put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand...
Jesus
had been called to heal Jairus's daughter.
When
he got to the house he found all those who believed she was dead.
He
challenged them with the truth and so he put them out of the room before
he brought the healing
Sometimes
we have to put out of our lives or circumstances the people or things
who are flying contrary to the truth and who inhibit faith.
Acts
9:40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he
got down on his knees and prayed.
Peter
had obviously learnt some things from watching the Master.
When
it comes to healing Dorcas he put outside all the professional mourners
Then
he prayed.
We
have to "put outside" those who are in faith for nothing to
happen!
As a preliminary to building faith, we need to come against
and "put out" of our lives things that are working against
faith. It may be that we simply have to come against negatives from
the past, things that the enemy has said to us and we've believed.
A first stage may be repenting of our past
unbelief, of listening to the enemy. Perhaps we have to stop listening
to well meaning but faithless people, people whose minds are utterly
materialistic.
In all of this we're talking about allowing
God to transform our minds via our spirit so that we come to a place
of believing the truth - that God CAN transform and WILL transform this
situation as we step out in obedience to His word. That is what faith
is all about.
Let's move on to the second part, putting on
things that build up faith in us. Check out some of the following:
a)
Reading the Bible
Christians who don't read the Bible amaze me. Here is one
of the greatest sources of God's word to us. Don't say, “Oh it's hard
to read.” Recognise that for an unspiritual person it is impossible
to understand. So what is a spiritual person? Someone who hungers after
God's word, someone who seeks God for help with His word. If you go
to the Introductory Pages of this site you will find helps and comments
about reading God's word.
All I can tell you is that as I read God's word (and I don't mean
just a verse a day and then someone else's nice thoughts for the day!)
I find my confidence in God building. Again and again I come away stimulated
and encouraged and confident in God. This is faith being built.
Sometimes as we read the Bible we'll find particular verses standing
out to us and appearing very meaningful. This is God speaking. Suddenly
we find a new confidence in this particular truth that enables us to
step out in new ways. This is faith. Unless you read the Bible regularly
how can you have your faith built? Settle in to make daily Bible Reading
a habit. This is what this entire site is all about.
Start out with small bites. Aim to do it three days running –
meaningfully – which means putting aside some precious minutes to devote
to reading and taking in God's word. Then extend it to a week and seek
how you've been getting on. Extend it to two weeks, and then establish
it as permanent habit.
b)
Praying
Prayer, as I think I've probably already said somewhere
else in this book, is more talked about that actually done. There are
praying geniuses around, but perhaps you're not one of them. Why prayer
when we're talking about building faith? Because when we talk to God,
He talks back. Very often it is simply as a sense of reassurance as
we have committed something to Him or asked Him about something. This
is faith in action. Sometimes when we are praying we find thoughts going
through our minds. This could be the Lord speaking to you. It often
happens. When it does, act on it and see what then transpires. This
is faith in action.
When we don't pray, obviously nothing happens, but when we do
pray, if we are observant, things happen. A friend of mine used to say,
“Well, people say answers to prayer are coincidences, but all I know
is that when I stop praying, the coincidences stop happening!”
But it's more than this. When we have been praying (or
even praying and fasting?) we come away, whether we're conscious of
it or not, strengthened on the inside, stronger in God. Sometimes we're
not aware of it until something happens and we find ourselves acting
well, in faith! There may be lots of other reasons to pray, but prayer
builds faith.
For those who are charismatically inclined, (and if you're
not, please just jump down to the next paragraph!) if you have the gift
of tongues, can I encourage you to use them in prayer, especially when
you are on your own. Tongues are another dimension of faith and when
you exercise that gift, you will find a new faith level flowing. If
you have the gift but don't often use it, stir yourself up and use it
daily and see what happens. Faith will rise.
c)
Worship
Included in this we will include praise and thanksgiving.
When we purpose to acknowledge the Lord and declare His greatness, for
not other reason than because He's worthy of it, we find we are declaring
truth. The Holy Spirit, who is sometimes referred to as the Spirit of
Truth, then acknowledges and confirms it in us. We may start out
doing it coldly, but as we do it the Holy Spirit joins in, and it suddenly
becomes real and everything in us lifts and we are strengthened and
faith flows. We've just 'heard' God in the declaring of truth and we
know it's true and He's there. We are strengthened.
This can be something we can do on our own at home or as
part of Sunday morning 'worship'. In fact, if we don't do it at home
on our own, what we do on Sunday mornings will have a slightly artificial
or forced dimension to it. Worship isn't to be something we just do
for twenty or forty minutes on a Sunday morning. If we build it into
our lives, we find it is one of those prime factors that renews our
mind, our thinking, our outlook, our faith.
Perhaps we need, like Bible reading (or prayer), to set aside
a set piece of time each day to be on our own and to DO IT. To start
it, think about what you know of the Lord and then to declare it out
loud. Think of all the reasons you have to be thankful and declare that
thanks out loud. If you are not someone who prays out loud, you don't
know what you are missing. Get time on your own and start doing it.
You'll be surprised at the changes that start happening.
d)
Witnessing
One of the most exciting things in the Christian life is
leading someone else to the Lord. It starts with simple witnessing.
Now the problem in this area is that so many of us feel defensive and
so our witnessing is artificial. When it's working best, witnessing
is a natural and spontaneous sharing of our experience
of God's love towards us, that others could also experience.
Whenever we do that, it's like prayer or worship, as we
declare the truth, the Holy Spirit witnesses to it and we are strengthened.
I'm not talking about the outcome here – which may be the person coming
through to Christ, or simply going away and thinking about it – but
what takes place in you, which is what we're thinking about on this
page, your faith being stimulated.
We said about that when it's working best, witnessing is a natural
and spontaneous sharing of our experience, but sometimes
we have to recognise we have the choice whether to share or not. Break
free from the worry of the consequences and whether that other person
will respond to Christ or not, and you'll find you do witness more freely
and more spontaneously and it will be both enjoyable and faith releasing,
and the more you do it, the more you'll do it. And the more your faith
is released and built up, the more the Holy Spirit will be able to use
you to draw others to Christ.
e)
Gifts
One of the things about Gifts of the Spirit – and this
is surprising to those who are suspicious of Holy Spirit things – is
that we have a large say in exercising the gift. Consider the following:
2
Tim 1:6 I remind you
to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying
on of my hands.
- the inference is that Timothy could do something about using
the gift that had been given him.
1
Tim 4:14 Do not neglect
your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the
body of elders laid their hands on you.
- similarly the responsibility for using the gift is clearly
shown to be Timothy's.
The
reality is that when we are aware that God has gifted us in some particular
way for service, when we come to Him and ask Him to give us opportunities
to serve Him in this way, our faith will be released and built up. Flowing
with God as He leads and empowers means faith flows and the more it
flows, the more it flows!
f)
Simple obedience
This leads us to the last of these suggested means of building
and releasing faith. In Acts 5:33, Peter speaking refers to “the Holy
Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Now undoubtedly that
does refer to the Holy Spirit being given to those who surrender their
lives to Him and receive new life through the finished work of Christ
on the Cross, but the reality is that there is always a release of Holy
Spirit life in us when we are obedient to God.
Do you see how this works? God speaks – whether directly
to us, through His word, through preaching or whatever, and we respond
in obedience. That obedience is in itself an act of faith, and as we
do that there is always an acknowledgement from heaven, and the Holy
Spirit in us is released more. Faith is stimulated and our relationship
with Him is opened up some more. That is what faith is all about.
7A.5
And So?
So what have we seen in this chapter?
We have seen that faith is
•
a sureness about unseen things
•
the basis of our life with God
•
something that comes from hearing God
•
our obedient response to what we hear
•
something we exercise continually as
Christians
We
noted that our feeling that our faith is so small, forgets that
•
faith is a gift from God
•
it only needs to be tiny to be effective
•
we are equipped to move more powerfully
in faith through the work of Jesus on the Cross, and the releasing
of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
We
have considered a variety of spiritual disciplines that build release
faith in us
•
reading the Bible
•
praying
•
worshipping
•
witnessing
•
exercising gifts
•
being obedient.
The
result?
•
Remember we ARE people of faith.
•
We can learn to listen to God
more effectively.
This in turn will enable us to be used even
more if we are willing to be obedient to what we hear. This is what
faith is all about. Let's rejoice in the knowledge that as Christians
we ARE a people of faith. Let's live it!