by Jacob Ninan
What is faith? Faith is one of the most crucial aspects of our relationship with Christ, and if we don't get it right, we can't get right with God. Therefore it is understandable how much the Devil tries to confuse people about faith. If we get it right, then we can see that it is so simple that everyone can understand and we don't need a theological degree to have it. But if we get deceived about it, it can be so very difficult to see where it is wrong.
Many people seem to think that faith is a mystical something we must have in our mind with which we can get what we want. They talk about our faith activating events, or releasing or unlocking the power of God to work for us, almost as if it a physical switch that connects to God's power. They seem to have the idea that once they exercise their faith, it will automatically make God do certain things for them! For example, when they say 'with faith', "I am healed," when they are sick, they will automatically become healed. Others say, "I am strong," or "I can do all things through Christ," and expect their words to change their present situations.
For those who think like this, it is natural to assume that it is their faith that accomplishes things for them and to conclude that if they had bigger faith, they could produce greater results! To increase their faith, they will try to repeat what they believe, and remove negative thoughts that tend to dampen their faith! But true faith is not something we produce with our efforts but the response we have when we get to know God. Jesus threw out this human idea of small and big faiths by saying that it was not the quantity of faith that mattered (Matt.17:20).
All this confusion about faith is based on the assumption that faith is what we produce and then use to bargain with God. Christians do not realise that much of the above false concepts of faith are borrowed from eastern religious philosophies! Actually, one of the first things we must understand in this context is that we are only created beings, and neither we nor our words have supernatural powers. True faith relies on God and requests Him to meet our needs (Psa.62:11).
Faith is the confidence in what we know is true
How can we go on saying, "I am healed," when we know it is not true? We can have faith only when we know without doubt that what we believe is true. If we don't have that assurance, we may have hope, but not faith (Heb.11:1). By repeating what we hope for, we cannot make it happen. We can have that assurance only when we know it to be true. If we are sick, we know we are sick, and then we cannot say with assurance that we are healed. We can hope we will be healed, that God will heal us, but that does not mean that we can say we are healed. God cannot accept lies (those which are untrue), because everything about Him is true and real and there is no falsehood in Him (1Jn.1:5). Faith is not some magic that will turn what is not true to reality. Therefore, we cannot make what we want to happen by convincing ourselves that it is going to happen.A part of the confusion comes from not differentiating between believing that God is able to do what we ask Him, and assuming that He will do it. Certainly nothing is impossible for God, but that concerns His almighty power. But that is different from knowing if He will do something, because that depends on His sovereign will. He does not have to do everything we ask for or claim, because He does everything according to His wisdom. Unfortunately, there are many Christians who really do not believe that God does supernatural things, and for them, to come to believe that He is able, for example, to heal their sickness, is a huge step. But that is not to be confused with knowing His will.
Some others claim that whatever we ask for has been already accomplished in the spiritual realm even though it may have some delay before being evident on earth. When God tells us that He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph.1:3), isn't it just a way of telling us that He has prepared for every blessing that we need? Can we take verses like this to imagine that all we need to do is to ask, and that everything we ask for, we will receive? Aren't we trying to override God's wisdom and His sovereign will and assume that everything will be according to our desires? Can we pressurise Him to give us what we ask, by presenting faith to Him? Instead, we ought to learn to submit to Him.
Faith in God
Faith is our confidence and trust in God, knowing His love, wisdom, goodness, almighty power, etc. It does not produce any confidence in ourselves or our faith. God can move mountains, stop the rotation of the earth, divide the Red Sea, provide manna from the sky, raise up dead people, give a child to old Abraham and Sarah, or whatever He wants (Jer.32:27), and our faith is our trust in Him.He is almighty, but we remain as created beings, with limitations in every direction. We don't have supernatural powers as if we were gods. We cannot make things happen by producing 'faith' for them or using our words to 'unlock' God's power. If our faith were to have that kind of power, we could then accomplish whatever we wanted, and the implication is even that we will be in the driver's seat, so to speak, making God turn whichever way we want. But our right position is to be subject to His will, and trust not only in His almighty power but also in His wisdom that operates in love towards us. When we take that position, we make our requests to Him (Php.4:6), and then leave the answer to His will for us.
When we have come to trust God, we believe also in the word that He has given us, that it is true. When we hear Him speaking to us from His word, we receive faith in our heart that what He has said will happen (Rom.10:14,16,17). Faith comes by hearing from God. We cannot pick verses for ourselves from here or there and claim them. All verses in the Bible are not applicable for us, and so we must first check if specific promises are are applicable for us, and also if we have met the conditions attached to them. But when we receive the promises from God, we can believe that they are true and that things will happen for us as He has promised.
Here is where we have to differentiate between what God has actually promised us, and what we may be just wishing for from our side. Another practical point to remember is that when we see God doing something for someone else, that by itself should not make us think that God will do the same thing for us too. Just after the apostles started preaching the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus, the apostle James was put to death by King Herod, while Peter was miraculously delivered out of prison by an angel. God may have different plans for each one of us in such matters. At the same time, if God has promised something to us, He will do it.
There was a Roman centurion whose faith Jesus appreciated as being greater than what He had seen in Israel. This man believed in Jesus' ability to do whatever He wanted, but the other factor was that he took a humble position of considering himself as being unworthy to receive any favour from Jesus. For us too, true faith must be associated with a humility of heart. In other words, we should not be thinking that our faith deserves an answer from God.
Growing in faith
The power of testimony is great, and when we hear what God has done for others, we get encouraged to have faith in God. As we read the history of what God has done for different people in the Bible, that will also increase our confidence in God (Jer.32:37). As we begin to have more and more direct experiences with God, our faith in Him becomes stronger.As our faith grows and becomes stronger as we get to know God better, we will see that we have less and less doubts about Him. If we have doubts about His ability to do things for us, that would be unbelief. But there may be things which we ask for and which are not clearly promised in His word, about which we may not be sure if we would receive them. Here we must distinguish faith from hope. If we have heard directly in our heart from Him, then we don't have to doubt. Concerning things that are promised clearly in His word, such as victory over sin, we need to exercise faith without giving up, even when doubts come.
Faith in God must triumph even in the midst of trials when we cannot understand what is going on and when answers to prayers are not seen immediately. Uncertainty about the future is a common place where our faith is tested. The example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, when they were threatened with being thrown into the fire, is remarkable, and an example that challenges us. They had no idea whether God would actually save them alive out of the fire, even though they were absolutely certain that He was able to do that. Their faith in God was so strong that they decided to obey Him no matter how things turned out (Dan.3:16-18).
When faith is tested in the different circumstances of life, we have an opportunity to grow. Faith that has been tested and found to stand has a great reward (1Pet.1:6,7). When we choose to obey God at each step, holding on to faith in Him in the midst of the uncertain future, that will build up our faith (Rom.6:17,18). That is how we can grow in faith and closer to God.
Let us examine ourselves to see what kind of faith we have. If you have been taught not to allow any question regarding your faith and salvation, saying such doubts are from the Devil, please think about it and understand that it is for your benefit that you examine yourself and make sure that your faith is genuine and not counterfeit. See if your faith is taking you towards God and away from sin. See if your desire to obey God in every detail is increasing with time.