We all know that faith is an inherent part of our walk with God. Without it we cannot even please God! But before we can start to dwell on what it is, we have to come to terms with what it is not!

IT IS NOT A COLLECTION OF OUR BELIEF SYSTEMS OR IDEAS

“What faith are you?” This is a very common question that we hear being asked all the time. People reply with “ I am a protestant, catholic, hindu…”. Now biblical faith is not what denomination or sect you belong to. You may have a lot of beliefs and wonderful ideas but it is not biblical faith. Unless you belief system is originated from the word you might as well dump it in some trash can. Bottom line here is faith is not what you believe or do not believe. Faith is a gift that God gives (It substantiates his things).

FAITH IS A FEELING

For many of us faith is that warm feeling near our heart. That tingly feeling which when (we think) becomes strong can raise the dead. My friends faith is not a feeling at all. Feelings follow faith not vice versa.

FAITH CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS

Most people do not think about this but just think if Christians could move mountains! Boy there would be mountains flying all over the place. Everyday in the papers there would be reports of bosses, spouses, mother-in-laws, neighbors being smashed by mountains! The truth is you don’t move anything, Faith connects you to God who moves mountains!

FAITH MOVES THE HAND OF GOD

Again there are a lot of people who think that if you have a lot of faith you can twist God’s hands for getting what you want. Something like paying with lots of money. The bible can be divided into facts, promises etc. Faith is for the facts ie. That which is a reality because God has already done a work.

FAITH IS HOPE

We mix these two all the time. Let me give you the difference. While hope is for the future, faith is for NOW. We don’t have faith about Jesus’s promised return, we have hope(it is a promise). Likewise for a fact like healing most people have hope on the matter. They say Yes I am sure God will heal me some day(yep! You are right in Heaven where there is no sickness or sorrow!!) but God wants us to use our faith in this matter. Not God will heal me tomorrow but accept that he has already done it. Hope is a powerful thing but faith and hope are two different things.

FAITH PRODUCES

From our view we need to understand what faith does. Why did God give us this entity called faith. What faith does is this- IT RECEIVES. So don’t see your faith as some manufacturing plant. Faith receives of God.

FAITH WILL GET YOU A CAR

Just to avoid confusion and to make my point clear let me illustrate this with examples. Do you know of anyone who has bought a car for using its lights. Let me give you a simpler one. Do you know of anyone who buys cereals for the spiderman or batman toy inside. Yes of course you know… KIDS( I can see some adults blushing as well!). When we were immature we run around trying to get this and that. But as people who are moving on with him we need to realize God gives you faith to receive of his life. It is from here that everything else flows. So basically you are not trying to receive of the providence but receiving of the provider, the healer, the savior, the deliverer..

ACTIONS STIMULATE FAITH

One man desperately wanted to be freed of his spectacles. One day he realized the healing was for now and he threw away his glasses. Immediately he was cured. Another man seeing this started praying and then threw his glasses and…..well he had to get new ones! Faith is always followed by actions (that’s how you know whether it is the real thing or not) but actions can never cause faith to raise. From scripture we see that a shout of Joy follows us believing a report.(Isaiah 53 and 54).

READING THIS MESSAGE WILL GIVE YOU FAITH

If you are looking to spiritual books or writings to strengthen your faith, then you are mistaken. It is like growing mustard seeds on a wet tissue. These writings are just pointers to the real thing. Only reading and meditating on his word will cause faith to strengthen in you. Romans 10 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Have you allowed the word to speak to you?!

YOU DON’T HAVE FAITH

For those who have been born again of God this is a misnomer. Eph 2 says God saved you through the gift of faith. JESUS is the author of our Faith. And so we see the origin of our faith as thus…Who do you say Jesus is. The same question that Jesus asked peter. See faith is a connector. People say faith is all you need. Nope Jesus is all we need.You don’t need mammoth faith for the problem that you are facing. You just simply need to see that you are connected to a mountain moving God! See faith like a mustard seed!!

FAITH HAS TO INCREASE

Faith has to do with coming to God. There was a point where the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus immediately refutes the idea. Faith is not like cooking oil. God give me 2 more liters!!! Jesus corrected them by saying that Faith needs to be strengthened.

I encourage you to look at his word closely on the matter because for building on a good foundation we need to chuck out our pre conceived notions. With this message I hope that you will learn the fact that next time you go need something you will not waste your time looking for faith but rather look to JESUS.

By Jonathan Shieh

When I first became a believer, I didn’t know anything about the authority of the believer. What I did know is that Jesus asked us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). Jesus then continued to tell us to cast out demons and heal the sick by laying on of hands.

Great! That sounds so exciting! I want to cast out demons! I want to see the sick get healed! I want to see the miracles of God!

But you know what? As much as I would like to see these miracles, my past experiences immediately rose up and stopped me. “That’s impossible. Why would someone get healed just because I put my hand on them? I don’t have any miraculous healing powers like Jesus! And I certainly don’t know anything about demons!”

Unfortunately, this mentality tends to stick with us even as we grow and get to know God better. Even when we have seen and experienced God’s power in these ways, sometimes we still have difficulty mustering up the courage to actually lay our hands on someone and pray for them!

A simple explanation of authority

There is a place in the bible where authority is spoken of plainly.

Matthew 8:5-10

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 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!”

Here, Jesus meets a person who knows and understands authority. A centurion is an officer in the Roman army, which commands a unit of 100 men. When this particular centurion looks at Jesus and saw Him casting demons “with a word”, he recognized something! It’s authority! It’s what the centurion uses everyday. A command is issued, and it is done.

So then if that’s how Jesus performs healings, the centurion realized that Jesus doesn’t even have to come to his house! “Just say the word! I know it will be done! That’s how authority works!” Jesus commended him. No. Jesus marveled at him and said He has not met anyone among the God-chosen people with such great faith.

The disciples of Jesus were probably standing very close by. Peter, James, and John and all the others followed Jesus day-in and day-out. They saw Jesus perform miracle after miracle. They should be living and breathing miracles. And yet, Jesus often rebuked them for their lack of faith and their unbelief. Imagine how the disciples of Jesus must have felt when He made that comment.

What’s the difference between the centurion and the disciples? What makes one of “great faith” while the other of “little faith”? Jesus helps us make a connection here. A clear understanding of authority gave the centurion certain insight that resulted in what Jesus called “great faith”. And indeed, the understanding about authority, will help us receive healing, as is the case in this scripture. But more than that, it will help us to begin to move into ministering to others supernaturally, as Jesus has commanded us to do.

There is so much more to say about authority. We’ve only laid the foundation for a continuing discussion so far. Now, we can continue speaking about authority along the line of a centurion. But that seems a little far-fetched and distant from us. How many times have you seen a centurion anyway?

But I’ll bet you’ve seen a policeman… Let’s leave that until next time though.