It Starts Small

When I start on what my son and I like to call the deep dive, I always try and write down everything I “know” about the topic. Then as I study and meditate, I can point out my own errors and sink my feet into God’s truth.

This was the start of the exciting part of my journey this last year. It’s amazing how a question can lead into so many other questions. I don’t believe the path with Jesus is linear. I believe we walk in circles. Not dead end circles, but sometimes you discover something and he reveals by truth that leads you circling back to a new question or old question. I don’t believe the distance to heaven is a straight line. It’s an ever looping path.

So faith…. I wrote it at the top of the page. What is faith? I already knew the definition of the word. We define faith as a trust in something or someone. Pretty generic. That’s an obvious answer. But… what is faith? What is my faith? What does it mean to grow in faith? How do I have faith? What is the substance of faith? The obvious glaring answer is you have trust in God, but what does that mean? 😩

Pastor Adrian Rodgers does an incredible series on faith. There’s about six sermons he preaches that I intended to and I just want to share what I learned.

So faith….

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Hebrews 10:38

We all have problems. All our problems are related to an issue with faith. The aren’t the result of our ow consequences. What brought consequence was a lack of faith.

Worry and anxiety – mild form of atheism.

Loneliness – faith makes God real, lack of it makes him fictional

Guilt – faith understands Jesus atoned my sin, lack of it believes there is no atonement

Disobedience- faith allows us to believe ALL the promises of God’s word, lack of faith leads to a life of rebellion

So all our problems and issues can lead back to the simple root, faith. Faith is rooted in our heart, not in our heads. Faith is not a head knowledge but rooted in the very center of our heart. Faith is the acceptance of God’s acceptance of me and faith is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

So I think it’s easier to define what faith is NOT vs what it is. Faith is not:

Superstition or closing your eyes to reality

Positive thinking or feeling optimistic

Leap in the dark

Faith is what the verse says above:

Confidence that rests in hope. Confidence is assurance. In the Hebrew language, this confidence refers to a title deed, like the deed on a car. When you hold that deed, you know for sure that car is yours. Confidence is not a will of wisp. Confidence is the complete trust I God’s truth and promises.

Substance: the Hebrew word here refers to something we stand on. We don’t stand on egg shells or jello. We stand on the mighty rock foundation of God. We build by lack of faith, foundation on sand. But building on God’s solid rock, we have the confidence that when crazy comes, we are protected and can stand up in the storm without the ground getting washed out from under us.

Hope: this is not referring to a wish, perhaps it might happen thinking, or desires. It is the wrought ribbed assurance based on divine revelation – the promises of God. If God said it, it is absolute truth.

We can have confidence in what God said is true and he will preform it. There is no legitimate faith without hope and no legitimate hope without faith. Faith is conviction that sees the invisible. The word evidence in the scripture means conviction.

To bring it all together, if you have faith in your heart, there is a conviction of something you have not seen. You don’t have to see it, you know it’s there.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: Colossians 1:16

Faith enables the believing soul to trust the future as present and the invisible as seen.

Faith is not altered by appearances. What are appearances? There’s a story of David and his men hiding in a cave. They were on the run from Saul as Saul wanted to kill David. So Saul walked into the cave to get out of the sun and rests. All of David’s soldiers claim this is a sign from God. He has delivered your enemy to be killed. David sneaks up to Saul and before he can kill him is immediately struck by the Holy Spirit. Instead, he spares Saul and later, after Saul wakes up and exits the cave, humbles himself to him.

We have to be so careful with appearances. So many times we think God is in something but he’s not. That great job you have that pays the bills but takes you from your family…. Is that really a blessing of God? (Another preacher I love to listen to used this example that sticks with me. God is not half in something and doesn’t do something that tears the fabric of his creation apart) Not only is faith NOT appearances, it’s not a feeling. God does not operate in our feelings. Our feelings are the most shallow fickle part of our make up. A great example is when Jesus is talking about sowing seeds. Seeds get thrown into shallow places. They root and die. Why? Because the seeds bloomed in the emotions of someone. I like to call it having a religious experience. It feels great, like a high, but as soon as trouble comes, the feelings die off.

God doesn’t operate by appearances and feelings. He operates by confidence.

God also operates outside our own logic. We’ve all heard the phrase a “leap of faith”. It is said that someone is jumping without knowing where they’re going to land. God doesn’t operate this way. He gives us the confidence to know that as we leap, we are going to land safely by his promises. It’s not a leap into darkness, but a step into the light.

What are the dynamics to faith?

Faith brings spiritual wisdom.

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Hebrews 11:3 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6

In verse three we learn that through faith we understand and in verse six it’s impossible to please God without faith. Just as God doesn’t prove himself to us, faith is not a response to the proof of God. Jesus speaks about this to his disciples. He’s constantly telling them that it was a lack of faith but faith in miracles that brought the masses. They didn’t believe by faith, but believed in a miracle. They believed what their eyes were seeing. The woman who touched the garment of Jesus, she had faith and when she touched him, she was healed. She didn’t need a sign or a miracle, she believed just enough and acted upon it.

Faith is a response to the truth he reveals to us through his Word. We will never have any sort of spiritual understanding until we get into his word.

It’s is the heart’s response to the character of God. This is why it’s so important to know who God IS. Its not by what God does that we have faith. We don’t act I faith to receive. We act in faith to obey. We have faith in who he is. Every single promise of God is Him revealing his character.

When my eyes are right, faith sees the light.

When my ears are right, faith hears the sound.

When my heart is right, faith responds.

Unbelief comes straight out of the heart. It’s not out of the head or our minds. Our whole existence responds to what is in our heart. In verse six, God rewards those who diligently seek him. The only way to seek him is by faith. We are rewarded with great faith when we seek him. You can’t seek him with your mind. All your mind does is gather knowledge. It’s not that knowledge is a bad thing, it just creates a library of knowledge. It’s only in the heart that spiritual wisdom makes all that knowledge come alive.

Faith is a relationship, not a library full of memorized scriptures, appearances, or feelings. (Winner winner chicken dinner)

Yeah I had no clue what faith was. I thought it was doing. Giving tithes. Reading the scriptures, doing “good” things…. That’s the response we have to our faith when we hear God speak to us and reveal to us his heart and desire. I didn’t have faith in that sense. I had a surface shallow faith. I didn’t have that deep rooted relationship with God my Father. I worked in my own knowledge and understanding.

And so…. The hunger began….