By Titto Thomas

Sidharth and Justin did a terrific job of explaining “Repentance from dead works” as part of our foundational series. In his last post Sidharth explained how the foundation of repentance translates into practical everyday living in God. If you can agree with me that all these topics are fundamental cogs in our walk with God, we can move on to lesson number two- FAITH TOWARDS GOD.

Like Sidharth explained repentance is not an end in itself, rather it moves us out of the negative and faith moves us into the positive. The Bible teaches this very clearly. What do I do after I repent? Believe in GOD! In Mark 1:15 Jesus tells to repent and believe. So the first thing I want you to understand as we move to our second lesson is that we are not starting a new topic, rather we are continuing the first lesson!

You cannot put your faith in God when you are turned away from Him! You have to first turn to Him! The interesting thing about both these aspects of coming to God is that God is responsible for both- our repentance (caused by Godly sorrow) and Faith (His Gift to us). Say this to yourself- “It is His work in me as I yield!

In this first part of Lesson Number 2 I will deal with some aspects of the foundation of faith 

1.      THE ORIGIN OF FAITH – Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. The verse begins with “Fix your eyes on Jesus”. Before we can start on the foundation called faith, your eyes should not be on faith. Your eyes should be on Jesus! Also refer to Ephesians 2:8 where it says Faith is a Gift, implying that Faith can neither be manufactured nor produced. It is a GIFT!

2.      THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH -  Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God…”. Now if there is anything that pleases God it’s faith, so faith is no small matter.

3.      THE NECESSITY OF FAITH- Why does God use this instrument called faith? We need to realize that GOD is Spirit and all our dealings with Him must be in the spirit! We cannot touch God with our emotions or with our eyes or ears. God uses this instrument called faith which makes the spiritual a reality! So you see there is no substitute to faith.

4.       THE PRINCIPLE OF FAITH – To put faith plainly, it is a journey. So if faith is a journey what is its objective? A journey in faith has to with your eyes being opened to the fact of how much you can trust GOD. It is a growth in confidence primarily. If we haven’t clearly understood faith, our growth in faith will be a different journey! Paul explains this very clearly in Romans 1:17 where he tells us that this journey is from faith to faith. Beginning with faith and ending with it!

5.      THE ESSENCE OF FAITH – The essence of our faith is a commitment with God. This commitment is the beginning of a relationship with God. According to Ephesians 2:8, at the time of our salvation God gave us a gift of faith to accept Him and put our trust on Him. Now this was the beginning of a relationship with Him. This was the starting point of faith. The working of faith comes into place only when we understand this fact.

6.      THE WORKING OF FAITH – The working of faith has to do with receiving of God. Now this topic has been really misused, but let us not forget that this is a crucial part of our Christian walk. 

Faith is such a distorted topic in the body of Christ today, but I hope you have come to a point where you understand that faith has nothing to do with denominations and your ideology or belief. Faith is a Gift from God and that is the first and foremost thing you and I need to learn before we can truly comprehend faith. In the coming post Nathan will explain in detail about faith and how it differs from hope.