Genesis 15:1-6 faith is VERY important to God.

Discussing 2 questions: (1) What is Faith? (2) Where does it come from?

Hebrews 11:1 Confidence in God’ promises. But a confidence not based on actually having or possessing the thing hoped for. Faith is the confidence you have of getting the thing promised to you BEFORE you get the thing promised to you.

Confidence or faith is not something that comes from within yourself. You are the one who exercises faith but the substance of it, or the surety of it, is based on the character of, the nature of, or reputation of, the one you have faith in.

An example of confidence from nature

I might want to believe that my tomato plants will bring forth delicious bananas if only I have enough faith. I can chant over and over in my mind “I know they can. I know they can, I know they can…” But this silly fantasy is something I have tried to create from within myself. I have no reason to believe that it will really happen other that the fact that I want it to happen.

I can however be very confident that my tomato plants, if properly cared for, will bring forth tomatoes based on what I know about the nature of tomato plants. I may have never seen this particular seed I put in the ground actually do it… but I have complete faith or belief that this one can do it.  DIAGRAM 1

I know about the nature of tomato plants one of two ways; either I have heard or read about them from someone with experience who I trust, or I’ve experimented with planting some seeds and witnessed the results first hand.

God asks us to believe things we have not seen. 

The very first humans did not believe or trust God’s word about things they had not actually seen or experienced.  Up to the point of their disobedience, God and the garden were all they knew. But when God told them not to mess with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (lest they die) He was telling them about things they had never seen the effects of, or had any experience with. Eating the fruit on the tree, disobedience, punishment or death.

All they had was God’s word for it.

What Adam did have was a flesh and blood mind which God had given him as part of his physical body. It’s the same flesh and blood mind you and I have. God created it and He created it good. The flesh and blood mind is great for interacting with the physical world; processing what comes in from our eyes, ears, mouth. It’s expertly programmed to achieve two primary objectives… to stay alive and to reproduce. 

But man is not merely a physical creation, man is a spiritual creation…a creation in process patterned after the God family. God has placed in each of us a spiritual component… the spirit in man… that enables you to think on a spiritual level and to interact with the spirit of God and complete the process of spiritual creation God has begun in you.

Believing God, having faith in Him essential to the process of spiritual creation.

The record tells us Adam and Eve did not believe God instead they relied on the flesh and blood mind to make their decision. They “saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes”, and they ate from it. Because to the flesh seeing is believing!

Diagram 2: how the flesh wants things to work… first you show me then I will believe.

But after you get what you want you don’t need faith. Remember, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen!

“We need more miracles” … then we will believe.

Miracles strengthen faith but they do not cause it.

When Jesus began His ministry He did many miracles that as John writes “caused many to put their faith in Him…” John 11:45. But Jesus own words indicate that the miracles of healing and driving out evil spirits only took place because there was some measure of faith already present. His miracles are often accompanied by a statement from Him like:

"your faith has healed you."

"According to your faith will it be done to you"

"Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."

But of His hometown, it is recorded that He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith…

Hebrews 4:2 Israel saw some amazing miracles. They saw God pummel the Egyptians, part the Red Sea, miraculously feed them with bread every morning… yet Israel did not believe because they did not combine it, or mix it, with faith.

Diagram 3 Visible proof is no substitute for faith!

Diagram 4 God is not a genie

Diagram 5: how God wants things to work… believe me and have faith and it will happen.

Sometimes God delays the process of fulfilling His promises to teach you something.

James 1:2-4 – to teach you patience or perseverance

Or to test the strength of your faith… to make it stronger…more on that thought later!

Recently a man we all know was struck with cancer, we prayed, we anointed and he died. Yet we still have faith that he will be healed. God’s promise that He will heal the cancer is as good today as it was last year or the year before. Because we believe God’s promise that the dead will rise and God’s promise of healing will be fulfilled… Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen! I Peter 1:3-9

Faith means you keep on waiting, trusting, and relying on God until He fulfills His promise. You have to trust that He knows what He is doing.

Where Does Faith Come From? Where Does Faith Begin?

Ephesians 2:3-9 (see also Acts 3:16, Romans 12:3, I Cor 2:5, 12:9, Galatians 5:22)

Faith enters into your life, or your mind, or your spirit, by the power of God through his Holy Spirit. Faith is a gift God gives to you, undeserved, unearned, graciously given to you by the creator of the universe. … Explain meaning of grace

Your job is to respond!

Diagram 6: The Cycle of Faith

1. Faith come to you as a free gift from God
2. You respond to this initial measure of faith with belief
   • Heb 11:3 Belief that God created all things
   • Heb 11:6 Belief that God exists and will reward (meaning He is judge of all things and is expecting  certain things from you)
3. Which leads to action… you seek Him. You want to find out what He wants, what is it that He is expecting, what is His will… what are the rewards… where do I go from here… what’s next.

Then you repeat the cycle…. A ball of string, a rope made of threads, a shield (of faith)

Faith is something that grows and gets stronger through hearing the word of God, through practice and finally through testing. I Thess 3:10, II Cor 10:15

Romans 1:18-20 You may come to believe in God’s existence and understand His nature based on the witness of the creation. But you are never going to come to an understanding of Jesus Christ, of justification, God’s plan of salvation or any of His other wonderful promises by studying the creation, the stars, plants or animals.

Romans 1:1-6 You get these things from those who God has sent to proclaim them!

Most importantly you need His Word which needs to be written into your heart and mind through the power of God’s Holy Spirit working in you… so that you may believe God and have faith in the promises He has made to you and all mankind. Romans 10:5-10, 13-17

Romans 3:20-26 – A few other things our faith is directed toward:

1. Faith in Jesus Christ verse 22 – that resurrection to eternal life is a real possibility Col 2:12
2. Faith in His blood verse 25 – that you can be justified and your sins forgiven Acts 15:9
3. … but let’s not stop there!
4. Romans 3:31 Faith towards God’s Law… in faith we respond to God’s law by upholding it, by keeping it and thereby writing it upon our hearts and minds.

I say to you… the Apostle Paul says to you… rather God says to you:

If you are not upholding the law then you are not demonstrating belief, you are not responding to faith with faith and you will not be pleasing to Him.

Remember where we started today? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham was not justified by his works… meaning it was not because Abraham was such a righteous person, so good, so wonderful that God was obligated to bless him. We don’t have a lot of detail about how or why it happened but God made a move, He came to Abraham, He spoke to him… and Abraham responded with belief, he put his faith into practice and he was pleasing to God. Romans 4:1-2 Faith is VERY important to God.

And real faith is active faith

James 2:14-24 You respond to God’s gift of faith with some faith of your own, and your faith leads to obedience, to upholding the law, because you believe God, you take Him at his word… that He is who He says he is and that His word is true.

Gal 5:6 Faith needs to be acted upon and expressed to be real

Diagram 7: God Strengthens Your Faith By Making You Use It

He has prepared works in advance for you to walk through Eph 2:8-10

Sort of like a training course Col 1:1-12

How do you know what are the works that God has prepared for you? II Tim 3:16-17

Every time you go round this Cycle of Faith… every test of obedience, every trial that calls for patience… you have the option to get off, to disbelieve to reject. To respond with a spiritual mind in faith or to respond with a materialist mind, a fleshly mind, a carnal mind that rejects that which it cannot feel, taste, smell, or see.

Sometimes we never see the healing from cancer… we won’t see our own resurrection from the dead, we don’t feel our glorious spiritual bodies. But to have them we must have faith as the substance of what we hope for and the evidence of things not seen. Because Faith is VERY important to God!

Hebrews 11:39 – 12:2

Jesus sacrifice of Himself was many things, it is the substance of our way back to a right relationship with God through justification, it is the evidence of our hope of resurrection…

And for us here today it is an example for us of faith toward God, expressed in obedience and trust.