For today’s written article, we’re going to talk about what faith is. First, we’ll look at some definitions of faith from God’s generals. Then, we’ll look at what the Word of God has to say about the subject. I pray this is a blessing to you!
According to God’s Generals:
“Faith is just the open door through which the Lord comes. Do not say, ‘I was saved by faith’ or ‘I was healed by faith.’ Faith does not save and heal. God saves and heals through that open door. You believe, and the power of Christ comes.” – Smith Wigglesworth
“Faith is not something you have to get. It's something that you, as a born again child of God, already have. Act on it by releasing it to God. That's when your healing starts!” - Oral Roberts
“Faith is that quality or power by which the things desired become the things possessed.” - Kathryn Kuhlman
According to God’s Word
(Heb.11:1-3)
1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
According to God’s word, Faith has a lot to do with your “words”. This is why the bible uses the expression, “the word of faith” (Rom.10:8). Words are one of the primary transmission points for power. In the beginning, God “spoke” and released His creative power to shape and “frame the worlds”, and you do the same thing in your life, being created in the image and likeness of God. If you speak faith, you’ll see the promises of God connected to that faith. If you speak doubt and unbelief, you’ll see the effects of the curse and the fall that comes with that doubt and unbelief. It really is that simple.
So what is faith? According to God’s word, faith is “substance” (Heb.11:1).
Webster’s dictionary defines “substance” as “the ultimate reality that underlies all outward manifestations and change”.
So, faith is the ultimate reality of God and His eternal kingdom, that underlies all of the outward manifestations and changes in the earth and in creation that occur, on His behalf.
Manna: A Picture of the Word of Faith Made Manifest
(Ex.16:14)
“And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.”
(Jn.6:49-51)
48 “I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
(Heb.4:1-2;8)
1 “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”
8 “For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.”
So, what I want you to see here, is that when you combine (Heb.4:1-2;8) & (Jn.6:49-51), you clearly see “why” the children of Israel died in the wilderness. It was because when they partook of the manna (the impartation of the word of faith, of Christ himself), they did not partake in faith; they did not mix the word with faith, and therefore they did not receive the benefits of it. The only two that did not die in the wilderness and were able to carry on into the promised land (into their rest) was Joshua and Caleb. Why? Because they heard and believed the report of the Lord; they said, “we are well able to overcome the giants (Num.13:30).
According to (Heb.11:1) faith is the substance, and here in (Ex.16:14) we see literal substance coming down; literal substance that speaks of the ultimate reality that underlies all outward manifestations and change which comes from God. It is the bread of life, which is Christ. Faith is the substance of Jesus Himself, which comes to us via the impartation of His Word Body.
So faith is substance. It comes from Jesus. It comes through the impartation and ingestion spiritually of God’s word, which comes from God to us. Once it is fully assimilated, received, believed, and acted upon, it overrides the visible with the superior invisible laws of God and His kingdom, bringing breakthrough, blessing, and miracles into our lives, here upon the earth.
The Substance of Things Hoped for
(Heb.11:1)
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
(Rom.8:24-25)
“24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”
Get this in your spirit…. Hope puts things off in the future, but faith is now. Faith apprehends and manifests things now, whereas hope prepares you to move into faith and manifest in the future. Now faith is (Heb.11:1).
Many people believe they’re operating in faith, but they’re actually only operating in hope. You have to change the way you think, change the way you talk, and change the way you act, if you want to tap into God’s substance of faith and manifest the miraculous realm of God’s kingdom in your life!
“Faith changes hope into reality.” Kenneth E. Hagin
“Hope says, "I'll get healed sometime." Heart faith says, "It's mine now”. - Kenneth E. Hagin
Hope is still essential, because there are some things that can only come in God’s time, therefore by default, they are allocated to the future. For instance, the bible says, “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;” (1 Pet.3:15). This hope is the hope of the coming of the Lord, the future hope of being joined to the Lord for eternity. Because that’s a future hope, faith remains in its more raw premature form, which is hope. But because healing is in the atonement, according to the finished work of the cross (1 Pet.2:24), you need to step into faith for healing and quit putting it off to the future.
Call Those Things that Be Not as Though They Are
(Rom.4:17)
“(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;”
Faith always calls those things that are not, as though they were. You must get used to this method of the Word of Faith daily operating in your life. You will not be able to effectively walk out the promises of God in your life, until you start thinking like God thinks and talking like God talks. This is how He thinks and talks. He speaks in the present as if He’s living in the future promise, and this miraculously brings the future promise into the now, through “Now Faith”!
This concludes today’s written article. This piece of content was taken from Lesson 3 of our online course entitled “Healing & Miracles”. To check out this online course and others we have available, Click here: https://charles-s-school50.teachable.com/p/school-of-healing-miracles