Faith

Note: You can find this study in a audio sermon on the Master's Table.
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Because it would take hours to cover all aspects of Faith this is not an exhaustive study on the subject so we will just go over some key scriptures that reflect what Jesus did and what He stated before the request was responded to. We will cover some very good examples of faith as well so we can see what the attitude of those who had great faith was. I would like to say that I make no claim at all that this information will result in God answering any prayers because the fact is that is God's business not mine. This is a companion study with the study titled How should we pray? And you can find that study at the end of this one.

Some of the problems concerning the understanding of faith have come about because many ministers have taught that faith only means we are to believe without question, or without proving, and some teach that we must WORK UP our faith. Others have even used it to mean what religion they belong to such as my faith is Catholic, or my faith is Baptist but is all this the meaning of faith? Is this the biblical meaning of Faith? If having faith is key to making contact with the creator God then we MUST come to understand what it is and how it is to be used or we run the real risk of not having God respond to our prayers.

Today it seems that Christians dwell on the things that Jesus stated we should not worry about. There are many concerns in life that we should address such as food, clothing and keeping a roof over our heads, however we should address them in the light of Jesus being in control of all things and leave much of the daily concerns as well as events and the troubles of this evil world in His hands. We need to truly grasp on a daily bases that our Holy Father and Jesus' purpose for mankind are salvation, health, wholeness, and happiness. During His ministry, Jesus was always concerned about healing the sick in body, and He also paid close attention to the mind and the spirit of those who suffered. If we have a strong faith and reliance on God and a strong belief in our understanding of life we will as a result have a strong mind and body because we will have self control and that will result in confidence. If we have the mind to build, and have order in our lives with the habit of being neat and having order in our homes and I must say that if we are not causing offenses such as using offensive language or being a drunk or living a life on drugs then we are on the right road to health and happiness as I'm sure you can understand and would agree.

Let's look at a scripture that shows Jesus' attitude about our spiritual, and physical health, and happiness so we can get a good idea to start with. Let's turn to Matt 4:23 which states; "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people." The fact that Jesus was healing people showed several aspects of His intent. One was surly to prove that Jesus was in fact the Messiah that was to come. Satan "can not" heal, as his very name is the destroyer, not the healer. Jesus was also healing for the purpose to show the great mercy of God, and His concern for people's physical health and happiness.

Another reason that Jesus healed and did many other miracles was to establish that Jesus had been given the authority by The Holy Father to have power over the creation, and others He choose like the twelve apostles and they had to do it in His Name, which means by His authority. The name of God is not some magic word as we have found some teach that if we say His name correctly we will contact Him but what they are not grasping is that as I just stated it is His authority that is important.

Notice what is recorded in John 5:26-27 "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." And we find it recorded in Matt 28:18 that Jesus stated this as well. It states…"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." and in Mark 1:27 we read…"Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him." And we see recorded in Luke 9:1-2 that Jesus can give this same authority to who ever He desires. It states…"Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick."

So we have established that the main point is that God the Holy Father who has all power and life inherent GAVE Jesus life inherent and all authority as well as the ability to give it to others. This means that Jesus is the one we must go to for anything pertaining to this kind of power, it means that Jesus is the Master of life, the Master of death, and He has power over the demons along with the power over all the heavens and earth or to state it more clearly…over all creation. It is Jesus that can call on the power of God which is the Holy Spirit and what ever He commands…it must happen so it is that our faith MUST be in Jesus the Messiah or some other god? No it must be in Jesus the Messiah.

Although to have faith demands that it be necessary to believe that God exists, and that He has all power in His hand; or that He is the creator God; it's not just the belief that God exists, or that He can do what ever you ask that brings about answered prayer, because we know that even the demons believe and tremble as we find recorded in the book of James 2:19.

Let's take a look at the very definition of faith to see this.
I'm going to give you the true definition of faith which is in relation to what we just covered and you might want to write this down and meditate on it in depth when you are alone and have time to pray and reflect. (The true meaning of faith the way Jesus meant it…is first and for most…The persuasion of the truthfulness of God and then to place your physical, and spiritual well-being into the care of Jesus the Messiah, trusting Him to give you what is good for you. It is to trust in God the Holy Father and in His promises as made through the shed blood of the Messiah by which humans are justified and saved.)

You see the definition denotes that we must become like a child in the care of their father, or mother, trusting with complete trust, but never forgetting that we also must take responsibility for our actions because we are responsible for our decisions in life. Never get it into your mind that God is going to be like a puppet master micro managing our lives. Also we find recorded in the book of James that God will not answer prayer if we are asking to consume it on our lust as I covered in the sermon titled How should we pray? James stated in chapter 4:3-4…"You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." So we see here that we should never have the attitude that God is our personal genie that gives us all the physical things we ask for.

God does want us to be happy brethren, but He wants us to learn as well, and He would much prefer that we learn in a state of happiness rather then in a state of suffering. This does not mean that we should expect to go around all day jumping for joy or that we are going to be happy all the time as we know times of trouble will come to all because Satan is working against us, and trouble of any kind will cause concern and anguish, but what we need to understand about our relationship with God is how we view, and deal with trouble. Just knowing God is pleased with us should bring a sense of peace and confidence that no one can shake, and this is one reason we should keep sin out of our lives because it separates us from God! By doing so gives us the real confidence we need when we come before God. Remember the scripture that states we should come before the throne of grace boldly to receive help in time of need? Let's deeply come to understand what it means to be close to God so that we can have true faith in God, and deal with the troubles that come along in life.

Let's look at Luke 18:7-8; which states…"And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

Now what about healing? Why is it that God may not heal although the bible states He will? Some have misunderstood and come to believe that God will heal regardless of our attitude towards our health, or sins that dominate our lives. God will heal in many cases, but He also wants us to take responsibility for our health and our actions. Before we can even come to understand the relationship with God in FAITH we must realize that our own decisions in life and actions such as any corruption and inefficiency coupled with selfishness will be destructive to all it comes in contact with and that is why sin should be rejected as much as possible. That is why we should work on ourselves so we can come to a place where we are keeping the things of God because what God commands will cause good things to come to us. What is the point of having faith and looking to God if our actions are causing the problem in our own life?

Let's understand that most of the time God leads us to first understand what we need to quit doing which caused the illness in the first place, and a good example we can look at is why would God continue to heal a person from lung problems if that person refuses to quit smoking? However, sometimes the sickness has not come upon the person that's sick because of what they did, but because of what someone else has done. Many have been injured or killed because someone else was careless with a firearm or driving a car. Even children are born sick because their mothers drank alcohol excessively, or took drugs while pregnant. Many are ill because they eat the wrong foods such as pork, crabs, clams, catfish or they eat excessively which in itself can cause the body to break down and not be able to fight off a virus or other infections that cause illness. Many people have heart problems because they inherited the weak heart from their Father or mother's side of the family. Yes genetics can be the reason some have cancer or even as my wife having the genetics that has caused her Rheumatoid arthritis. If you are ill you need to find out what caused you to be ill and then perhaps God will show you what can be done to help but the key is we need to first go to God for the answers.

Just as we covered already that Jesus is the one that The Holy Father gave all authority to He and He alone is the one that can heal us but we must accept that He heals whom He wants, when He wants, if He wants, and by whom He wants to use to lay on the hands, if anyone at all. Healing is contingent on Jesus' will concerning each person's life and most of all according to His own personal plans for your life. Let's understand once and for all that true faith is accepting His will; following His lead, and understanding that He is concerned about teaching us the right way to go as well as developing the charter that we need. He knows what each person needs to learn in order for that person to be used in the future and where that person will be and what they will be doing in the kingdom of God. He has His own purpose for each one of us. We must remember that Satan is still in control until Jesus returns and takes that control from him setting up the Kingdom which is what the Gospel is all about.

The point is that God is showing the difference between the ruling powers of man, cut off from God, verses the ruling powers of God in the coming Kingdom when all will be made perfect and straight which brings us to another point I must address here for the sake of those whom have been taught that it is a sin to go to a doctor. You will not sin by going to a doctor! However, please understand that if we Believe in the doctor as the healer, then we are rejecting God as our healer, and even stating that man can take care of himself without the creator God. That would be a sin! But to go to a doctor because he knows how to set a broken bone, or has understanding of the illness and we are realizing that God is the one who created the healing process is not wrong. Those that teach it's a lack of faith to go to a doctor needs to consider some things about their beliefs or what they are teaching people. I would like to ask them if they have ever had their eyes examined and bought glasses so they could see better, or have they ever been to a dentist to have their teeth fixed?

We do however need to be wise and realize that many doctors attitude towards healing is not the ways of God. Their way is through science and most doctors have the mistaking belief that they can heal people by either cutting, burning, or to poison the disease which will in many cases will poison the person. They very seldom know or teach about the root cause of your disease, and therefore they miss out on the opportunity to understand real healing knowledge. Most people don't realize it but the very text books the doctors are taught from in college are written by the pharmaceutical industry so be wise when going to the doctor. There is a balance, and we need to understand that doctors can help, but they are not the healer, nor do they know it all. We can and should question them and never let them just do whatever they want just because they have a PHD by their name. Realize that some Doctors have even paid others to do their test in college so what could that man do for you? Do you want to trust a person that was dishonest and may even be learning as he goes?

True Balance:
We do need to consider all the aspects of this subject and understand how God views it as right or wrong in true balance. As an example: If you came upon someone that were badly injured and bleeding should you stop the bleeding or just stand by and wait for God to heal them? The truth is that they would bleed to death and God would hold the one that did nothing responsible for their death!

This reminds me of the story of a man that was caught in a flood, and cried out to God for help. It was not long when a log came near him, but he refused to grab it. He then cried out to God again, and then in a while a large door came by, and again he refused to grab it. A third time he cried out to God for help, and again a tree trunk came by, but the man refused to get on it because he wanted God to save him. Well the man drowned, and in the resurrection we find him asking God why He did not save him because he did have great faith in the power of God. The answer from God was, I sent you a log, a door, and a tree trunk so you could save yourself, but you rejected my help.

Powerful faith.
The truth is that we have not seen great faith in the Christian Church in many, many years such as the faith recorded in the Old Testament where men who've had powerful faith changed many lives and caused kingdoms to fall. We find in the records of the Old Testament that there were those that relied on God and caused the tide of battles to turn and Kings to be crowned.

What about King David? Why did he have such great faith in God? When a Bear, or Lion took a Lamb from his flock, David killed the Bear, or Lion and took the Lamb from their mouth as we find recorded in 1 Sam 17:32-37. When Goliath came against the armies of Israel, David's attitude was..."For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" We can also read in vs. 46 "This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you." and in verse 47 King David stated... "Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD'S, and He will give you into our hands." Think about that attitude and how he had such great faith to stand in defiance of his enemies.

The great key we find here is to rely completely on God, and to be in a right relationship with Him as King David was. Notice that King David said the LORD will deliver. Listen…King David never went into battle wondering if he was going to win. He "knew he would win" because the great creator God of heaven was his God, and King David knew God personally, as well as being in obedience to His laws with a great love for all that God commanded. David had a deep love of God and God even stated that David was a man after His own heart!

Now let's continue so we can genuinely Understand Faith:
Let's turn to what has become known as the faith chapter to find some very good examples of Faith. What was the author's definition of faith in Heb 11:1-3. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 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."

Notice in the verse we just read…"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Having hope and believing in evidence of things not seen comes by trusting God, and trusting comes by getting to know Him and learning He is reliable. The word "Trust" means to rely on, to put your full confidence in the one you trust. Trusting God means that no matter what He decides to do, you will accept the fact that it's for the best because you truly have come to understand that the outcome may be for the good of others as well. How would you have reacted to Jesus hanging in agony …bleeding and dying on that stake? Would you have thought it was the greatest day for all mankind?

That is where real trust comes in. If we will trust God's judgments and have the humble attitude to accept His decision as Jesus did that day, we can rest in peace knowing all is well. This is where true faith comes into play as it is written "Without faith you can not please God, for he who comes to Him must (a command) believe." If we don't believe Jesus is the Messiah that came down from His throne in heaven, to suffer, and die, so we may be justified before The Most Holy Father, then we are still in our sins, separated from God and a very shallow life before death is all we have for our future. We find this statement in the book of John 3:18. It states…"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Also notice again the very important point in verse three of Heb. Chapter 11. It states "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the WORD of God," Brethren, when God speaks, the command has to be fulfilled! When Moses in faith commanded the waters to part at the Red Sea, they had to part! The Word of God is alive, the Spirit of God acts upon the Command of God, and when you read the Words of God you are drinking in His living Spirit. Jesus, who is the Christ, stated He came to bear witness, and His witness was true. Do you believe Christ' witness is true? Do you believe it without the evidence? Because you believe Him?

Now let's look at what is meant by Diligently seeking Him:
On into verse four through six in the book of Hebrews we find that "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who "diligently" seek Him." Notice, we must come in faith, and "diligently" seek Him to receive the reward. To be diligent is to be earnest and steady without wavering. God just might hold back in answering to see if your faith is wavering, and to strengthen your faith. We find more examples of great faith in Heb chapter 11 which ties into defeating our enemies, which states... through faith they subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

Another thing we need to understand is the point Jesus was teaching about forgiving others, and believing God. I covered the subject of forgiving others and being forgiven by God in the sermon titled "How should we pray?" so I will not cover it here but you might want to hear that sermon because it has some very important points we need to consider on forgiveness.

Now let's get into the term "to believe" because many have not been taught that to believe is the same thing as to have faith. In my research I found that Jesus was limited in doing healing because of those that did not believe. Question…Why couldn't Jesus do very many works among His own countrymen? Jesus is of the God family and has all power, so why is it He could not heal very many because they did not believe? What does believing have to do with the healing power of God? Let's turn to the book of Mark 6:2-4 to look at this. It states; "And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, "Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this, which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! "Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" And they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house."

You see they could not believe Jesus came from God the Father and was the long awaited Messiah they heard preached by the priest in the temple over the years because they knew Him from the time He was born. They grew up with Him so they could not believe He was the Messiah. But surly Jesus should be able to heal with out them believing. He has the power over all the creation as we learned earlier right?
Lets look at another scripture to illustrate the point of believing recorded in the book of John chapter 11-27. This is when Martha's brother Lazarus died. Let's pick it up in verse 21 "Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Now look at what she states next…"But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

So we see here that Martha had to come to believe Jesus was the Messiah and that He is the resurrection, and had life inherent in Him. She had to know He was the savior and also notice the very important point that she understood that her dead brother was not in heaven but would come back to life in the resurrection at the last day as she stated. This statement shows that people understood the teachings about the resurrection. (That is a sermon in itself and we do have information on the subjects of heaven and hell on the Master's table if you are interested.)

Now let's get into something very eye opening concerning faith.
What was the greatest example of faith that Christ ever saw?
We find this great example in Matt 8:5-10. Let's read it…"Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. "For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"

What did Jesus say when He heard this? "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!" If this was the greatest faith Jesus had ever seen then we need to understand why, and how to have the same faith. Why was this attitude showing great faith? The answer is that he believed that Jesus had all power and all authority from God the Father. The man believed Jesus was the Son of David that was to come. He believed that he could not go to anyone else because he understood that Jesus was the Messiah and had the authority. You see brethren…God wants us to trust and believe Him to the point that we will do whatever He commands, even if we don't understand why. Remember, Adam and Eve fell because they did not have this kind of trust in God, and we will fall into Satan's traps also if we don't come to fully trust Jesus and believe that God the Holy Father gave Him all power!

What other reason could result in unanswered prayer from God?
I would like for you to consider this question...Do you believe that if you could come into the direct presents of God you would become healed, and even forgiven of all your sins so you could be perfect before Him? What would you truly do if an angel came to you one night and said that he was sent from God to bring you before Him? Would you come to the Most Holy Father half- asleep, or smacking on some gum? Would you come with thoughts of what else you could be doing instead of having to be there? Would you come as if you were bored to the point you could not wait till you could leave, or would you be in great awe? Would you feel reverence, and admiration mixed with fear? Would you connect with God in such a way that you would feel His great power and Holy Character? Would you understand your frailty in His great presents? Would you understand your great weakness and ignoble character in the presents of such strength and Nobility? Would you know you were in the presents of GREATNESS, and the very one that created the universe? The very one that holds life in His hands with the great wisdom and love that makes up all that is fantastic. The God of god's, the Lord of lord's, the King of all kings!

The question we all must ask ourselves is do we truly worship God? The word worship also means to reverence, or to adore. Think about what it truly means to adore, and do you truly adore God? Do you love Him? Do you admire Him? Many people say they do, but in reality they only want Him in their lives on the day they attend church or at Christ-mass time. Many professing Christians will not even bring up the subject unless someone else does. Many do not dwell or meditate on the wonderful things of God during the day. We should sense all His goodness, and love He has for not only us but also all His creation. We should be able to take time out every day to look around and appreciate all He has given in true love. The fresh air, the cool breeze on a hot day, a cool drink of water, the sight of a great snow capped mountain, the site of the Grand Canyon, the vastness of the night sky, the taste of our favorite food, the smell of a rose, the smile on their face of the ones we love when they see us coming to them or the wonderful kiss our true mate, or their hug. We should be trying to understand how His creation works together and how God created all out of a great love and concern for us. He gave it to us! Yes! God has given us much to appreciate and to be able to see His mind and heart through His creation if we will just stop and be willing to see.

Another question we must cover concerning faith is do we love and worship God the way He wants us to and could worshipping Him in the wrong way prevent us from receiving answered prayer? What if you were praying to a pagan idol; Do you believe you would receive answered prayer? Is it possible that there are many people who consider themselves as Christians are deceived into worshipping that which God hates? And will come one day and destroy! Remember the first of the Ten Commandments? Why is it that Christians don't even do what their bibles teach them? Why is it that most pictures of the cross and other things that are considered holy have Sun rays coming from them? Why is it that people need the cross to worship our creator God? Ministers should be researching into the way sun rays were worshiped by the pagans and how the Catholic Church does to this very day. When God stated that we are not to make any graven likeness He meant that if we use anything visual from the sun, stars, or figures such as a cross or a persons likeness to point to Him we would be diverting ourselves from Him.

Its recorded in the book of John that Jesus backed up the Commandment given to Moses concerning the worship of pagan gods. Now all those that claim to be Christian should take to heat what Jesus the Christ teaches concerning this subject because it is a fact that Satan has presented a false Christ before many people. Let's turn to John 4:23-24…Jesus stated here…"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must (A Command) worship in spirit and truth." To worship in spirit means without ANY likeness of anything so just maybe God is not answering prayers for some because they are going to the wrong God! Question is…will you even consider it? Would you even consider that the cross, Christ-mass and Easter is pagan?

Because I do want to do what I can to worship God the way Jesus commanded I placed on the Master's table home page these words...
All Christians that accept Jesus as the Messiah should replace the cross with these words..."We who worship here; Worship God in Spirit and in Truth."

That cross is in front of you so when you bow your heads you are bowing to the cross.
I stated this before but it is well worth repeating. The true meaning of faith, and the way Jesus meant it…is first and for most…the persuasion of the truthfulness of God and then to place your physical, and spiritual well-being into the care of Jesus the Messiah, trusting Him to give you what is good for you. It is to trust in God the Holy Father and in His promises as made through the shed blood of the Messiah by which humans are justified and saved.)

We have seen that faith has to do with the love of God, as well as learning about God, and in this relationship coming to trust Him. We have seen that trust and reliability is something very important and is based on God being trustworthy and reliable. We have learned that the Word of God is all-powerful, and when God commands, it MUST happen. We have learned we must accept God's will in our lives and rest in His love knowing that all things work out for the good to those who love God, and are working according to His purpose. We must earnestly pray, study, and fast to God in order to truly come to a real and profound understanding of having faith in Him, keeping faith growing by using it and not losing heart. Satan's greatest tool to defer success is discouragement so never loose heart.

We must stir, and evoke the Spirit of God always or it will like a fire, go out. As we stated in the study concerning "How we should pray" we must never believe that we can give money to some preacher and he will GET God to GIVE us a house, car, or even health. We must never believe faith is something we have to WORK UP in order to get God's attention! And we have learned that we MUST come to God and worship Him in spirit and not with any idols because we then would not be in contact with the creator God but relying on some other god. It is our choice..It is your choice…it is my choice but if we continue to worship these pagan gods we will never have the powerful faith that King David had and remember King David destroyed ALL idols from the land and there was a reason he did that!

Yes, God could heal every sickness, but He is not healing everyone at this time, because the time of great healing and correcting all human lifestyles and problems will come when Jesus returns with His kingdom to rule. That is when He stated He will make all things straight and is the time Satan and his demons will be locked into outer darkness for a thousand years.

Although having faith is very important, let's not forget that the true love that comes from the true creator God is greater and it is God's love we should seek but never let someone cause you to forsake the truth or worship pagan gods using their customs in the name of love because that is not the true love of God as we have found the true love of God is worshipping Him in spirit and truth.

Click on the link for the companion study titled How should we Pray?

(See our study titled The Choices We Make.

Regards and god Bless
Timothy M. Youngblood