Where's your faith level? How strong is it? Don't worry, no matter how strong you feel it is, it WILL be tested. All things MUST be tested - faith, relationships, The Church - to see if they're worthy of Kingdom use. Jesus Himself was tested, remember? He was led by the Spirit to be tested by the devil. Take heart; if you fail these tests, the Lord always let's us test AGAIN and AGAIN until we pass. So, PASS as soon as you can! The word "faith", translated from the Greek ''' (pistis), primarily conveys the thought of confidence, trust, firm persuasion. Depending on the context, the Greek word may also be understood to mean faithfulness or fidelity (1Th 3:7; Titus 2:10). Pistis is actually a forensic term referring to an eye-witness, firsthand account of a person, place or thing. This kind of faith is based upon experiential knowledge. You see, biblical faith is NOT mere positive thinking; it's based upon one's personal experiences with God. Before we recognize these experiences, our faith grows by way of the testimonies of others, especially those accounts detailed in Scripture. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." Many people say they have great faith but few dare to ask, "Faith in WHAT or WHOM?!" It's only then that we would realize that what many who call themselves 'Christian' have not based this faith upon their experiences with Christ. Rather, their faith may be based upon their own self-confidence, self-assuredness or positive thinking. They have, essentially, Christless Christianity, which isn't Christianity at all. Sadly - and I remember having had this experience myself - most people cannot recall any such personal experiences with Jesus. As ministers - and ALL of us are - when we are counseling an individual, all it takes is some careful guidance regarding the providence of God already at work in an individual's life and it's exciting to watch that person light up with joy as they watch their very own experiences with Him unfold before their eyes. Generally, these are daily occurances that were previously taken for granted. My favorite example is to ask the individual: "Why did you wake up this morning? Many people went to bed last night and never saw today. But you did...why?" From that point, I remind them how God has a plan for their lives, a purpose, and that they are to bring Christ into their workplaces, jobs, schools, etc., and GROW in that relationship with Jesus from this day forward. Commenting on the function of faith in relation to the "new and better covenant" that we now have with God, Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The Hebrew word ''', translated as "faith" here, commonly appears in ancient papyrus business agreements, conveying the idea that a covenant is an exchange that guarantees the future transfer of goods described within the contract or covenant. Hebrews 11:6 further illustrates the meaning and the practical role of faith: "...without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." To summarize the New Testament concept of faith, it is an individual's reliance upon God as He has revealed Himself in that individual's life, especially in the sense of confidence in the thousands of promises that are written in Scripture. By the way, name five. In addition, the New Testament writers equate faith in God with belief in Jesus. The Gospel of John is emphatic on this point, as Jesus sais, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him," (Jn 5:22,23). When asked "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answers, ""The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent." (Jn 6:28, 29) HUMANISM: POSITIVE THINKING OR FAITH IN GOD? A frightening number of people have great faith in themselves; in their own human will power. That's humanism. I recall hearing a young man, about to undertake a difficult task, muttering his mantra, "I can do all things through Christ." Did he even know Christ? I hope so but, if he failed at his endeavor, has Christ then let him down? You see, Jesus wants to be a REAL person in our lives. For many, as was the case in my own life years ago, he was little more than an historical figure. I daresay, most who call themselves 'Christian' do so merely because they weren't born in Baghdad or Pakistan. A popular baseball expression has been "Ya gotta beleeeeeve!" Believe in what, especially when BOTH teams are "beleeeeeving" for the same results? While humanism declares, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive it can acheive," the Word of Faith movement claims that you can Blab it and Grab it, march around that BMW seven times and it's yours. Is this really faith or just so much hocus-pocus? Though positive thinking may appear to work positively on occasion, it's far more likely to work negatively MOST of the time. In that case, is it working at all? For some, faith tends to imply a transpersonal rather than an interpersonal relationship with their god (whether big or little "g"). The object of one's faith can be a person or even an inanimate object. It can be a proposition (or body of propositions, such as a religious credo). In each case, however, the faithful subject's faith is in an aspect of the object that cannot be rationally proven or objectively known. In religious contexts, "faith" has taken on several different meanings. Sometimes, it means loyalty to one's religion or denomination. It is in the latter sense in which we might hear, for example, "the Catholic faith" or "the Islamic faith," reflecting one's loyalty to a particular religious community. Either way, these types of faith are not true to the Biblical definition of the original Greek meaning of the word "pistis." WHAT ABOUT BLIND FAITH? Many religious rationalists, as well as non-religious people, criticize implicit faith as being irrational. In this view, belief should be restricted to what is directly supportable by logic or evidence. Let's look at Genesis 22:1-14 and Luke 8:22-25 Is faith blind? I don't think so - not if it's real faith. Should one go about taking great "leaps" of faith, believing to have "heard from God"? Genesis tells us that when Abraham heard God command the sacrifice of Isaac, his son, he obeyed. But Abe relied upon faith - his own experiential knowledge of God. Genesis 22 confirms that God will be with him and his descendants (represented by his son, Isaac), if he remains loyal to God. The relationship is conditional, so it is described as a covenant. Abraham obeys God as a way of ensuring that God, as promised, will provide Abraham with land and descendants. Likewise, it was unbelievable to His disciples that Jesus could quiet the tempest storm. The disciples lacked faith in Jesus but needed to learn this lesson: He could be trusted. After all, He was God incarnate. Perhaps that is the point. The meaning of this story might be that faith means trusting in God-in-Christ, even when we cannot know that future events will justify that trust. Just as the disciples needed to learn to trust Jesus, so must we today. THAT is how our faith grows. Talk about things that are "beyond belief," let's talk about God's grace. The apostle Paul declares that salvation is Gods act of grace, which cannot be earned by keeping the commandments of Scripture. All that anyone Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free needs to do is respond to Gods grace with faith - with trust His love as shown through the sending of His Son, Jesus. After all, it was Jesus who said, "When you see me, you've seen the Father." Afterward, as that relationship matures, one's experiences with Jesus will serve to cause one's faith to grow greater than anyone had ever imagined! So, go forward with God. Don't settle for anything less than faith in Christ. Don't settle for Christless Christianity...or a Christless existence. Now, scroll to the bottom of this article and E-Mail it to some friends. While you're there, RATE the article. If you need pastoral Counsel, write team1min@aol.com. Lord bless! |
