What is faith really? So many Christians go about using this word "faith", but how many really know what it means? I'd say the most perfect chapter in the entire Holy Bible is Hebrews chapter 11. It explains PERFECTLY what faith truly is.
Faith was only used TWICE in the Old Testament. It was used in Deuteronomy 32:20 and Habukkuk 2:4. In Deut., it was the Hebrew word "emuwn". It meant "established, trusty, trustworthiness, faith, faithful, truth". In Hab. it was the Hebrew word "emuwnah/emunah". That means "firmess, security, fidelity, faithful, set office, stability, steady, truly, truth, verily."
It was used many, many times in the New Testament. When people were said to have "little faith", it was from the Greek word "oligopistos" which means "incredulous (i.e. lacking confidence (in Christ)". When it wasn't being to referred of "little faith" but just plain faith, it was the Greek word "pistis" which means "persuasion, credence, conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself, assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity."
One definition of faith is: noun: complete confidence in a person or plan, etc.
So basically faith means 100% certainty of a thing. If you're fully persuaded that you're going to get your paycheck after working two weeks, you have faith in your job even though it has not happened yet. You have 100% conviction in the ability of your job to come through for you just as they have many times before.
I think it's important to get the original meaning of a term from the Bible. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek except for when it quotes some of Jesus' words which were in Aramaic and also some Hebrew words or phrases. So since the word "faith" was not used in the Bible at that time, we may lose a lot of the meaning and significance if we toss all that stuff I wrote about "pistis" into the word "faith" of which some people have no idea of the meaning. I love my Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Bible concordances list every word in the Bible in alphabetical and chronological order and tells you where you can find it. And in the back of the concordance it tells you the Hebrew word and meaning of the words in the Old Testament and the Greek word and meaning of the words in the New Testament. You get to see how many times a word and names are used in the Bible.
So like I was saying earlier, Hebrew 11 is the BEST chapter in the bible about faith. It's quite clear. It's not even hard to read. Here are a few verses that explain what faith really is.
Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is the thing that you're hoping for. Faith is the proof of the things you're hoping for but have not yet seen. Romans 8:24 asks a rhetorical question (a question to make you think with no answer expected). It asks something to effect of, "If you could already see what you have the faith for, then why in the world would there be the need to hope for it? You'd already have it and therefore wouldn't need to hope! And since you're hoping, you do what all hopeful people do. They wait for what they're hoping for!"
Romans 8:24 - For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
If you are hoping to graduate in December '09, don't you wait until that date? Do you just drop out of college or high school because it hasn't happened yet? What is that to do? What sense is that making? When you're hoping for something (ex. wedding date, graduation date, a fun event), you wait for it. It makes no sense to me that people don't believe that the things they are hoping for are going to happen just because they haven't seen it come to pass yet. That's where the concept of HOPE comes in. Hope is what makes you wait. It's probably the ONLY thing keeping you waiting if you really think about it.
And one quick question - what sense does it make to have 100% faith that when you die that you're going to heaven or hell if you don't believe anything else the bible says about healing, miracles, people being raised from the dead, supernatural provision, supernatural protection, etc.?
Hebrews 11 lists a number of people from the Old Testament who lived by faith even though the concept of faith wasn't even used much then. It lists Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gedeon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David, and Samuel. And in general, it lists women who received their dead raised to life again and martyrs who had faith. That chapter is packed with people with true faith when the word faith was only listed twice in the OT. And you already know of the many people who had faith in the New Testament that Paul did not list. He didn't even mention the NT peeps - lady with the issue of blood for 12 years, the people's who children were sick, those who were blind, maimed, lame, dumb, deaf, diseased, virgin Mary, old Elizabeth and Zachariah, the man who was crucified beside Jesus, and MANY more.
But there is a bad thing that some Christians teach about faith. It's these word-of-faith teachings. They have a lot of truth to them, but they can be very misleading.
The bible says that faith comes by hearing. So the ONLY people who can get faith are those who get it by hearing. Makes sense enough. And verse 17 of Romans 10 says that faith comes by hearing the WORD OF GOD. So you can't just go around having faith for things that are not God's words. I can't have faith to fly by flapping my arms rapidly and jumping off a building because that faith did not come from God's words. Understand? Verse 14 says you can't call of the Lord to be saved if you have first not believed. And then it mentions the thing about HEARING just like verse 17 does. It says that you can't be saved if you don't hear (which means you can't believe/have faith because the order to get to faith is HEARING then BELIEVING/FAITH). Later comes the ACTION (in this case, it's calling on the name of the Lord to get saved).
An example is this: Suppose that Wal-Mart is giving out free groceries for an hour. I'll never get to experience those free groceries unless I HEAR from a friend or an advertisement. And even after I hear it, I have to BELIEVE that what my friend or the ad is telling me is the truth and not a lie or a misunderstanding. THEN I have to act accordingly by getting down to Wal-Mart. I can't have faith for things if I never hear or see of their existence. My belief or faith in what my friend is saying to me starts with me hearing her words.
Likewise, I can't have faith for the many wonderful and exceedingly precious promises of the Bible if I never HEAR about them. And verse 14 continues on to say something to the effect of, "How in the world can you believe in someone you've never heard say anything? And how can you hear without the speaker of God's word?" And verse 15 carries on to say, "And how in the world can someone be God's speaker of God's very own words if God did not send them?" Makes good enough sense.
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
I see a lot of people who are "preachers" but who were never "sent of God". They are wolves in sheep's clothing that we have been warned about in the New Testament epistles. We already saw that we can only "legally" (biblically) have faith for things that we hear about from a preacher that is sent of God with God's word. Again, the requirements for biblical faith are:
1) A preacher
2) A preacher that is SENT OF GOD
3) A preacher that speaks the words of God
4) A preacher that you HEAR
5) You believing the preacher sent of God who speaks the word of God that you hear
And I have yet to meet a true preacher that has not told people to read the bible for themselves to hear for themselves truths and promises for them to have faith for. So I don't think that we can ONLY get words for faith from the mouth of a preacher because true preachers themselves will tell you to read the scriptures for yourself. Also, God gives some people direct revelation without going through a preacher. But all these people are bible readers and all these people listen to preachers!
And then after you have the faith (or the belief, assurance, confidence, persuasion that the Greek word "pistis" speaks of), THEN you have the RIGHT to respond or act accordingly. So an example would be Noah. Only after he heard the word of God and believed Him, THEN he started building the ark. Keep in mind, this was before rain was ever seen! Another popular example is Abraham. Abraham believed 100% in God giving him a child by his wife Sarah. Keep in mind, Sarah had reproductive problems even when she WAS of childbearing age, so of course when she's very old, it's going to be even harder to have faith for that!
So that shows me that faith or "pistis" means 100% surety and security and confidence in what God has said even when it makes absolutely NO sense in the natural world. It means 100% total belief in what God has said for you to do or feel or believe even when it looks ludicrous and absurd! Even if the WHOLE WORLD deems you psycho. When I tell unbelievers that I believe 100% that I'm going to a paradise when I die for all eternity to live with angels, that I believe that 2,000 years ago a man died for my sins and rose from the dead three days later and is in heaven now interceding for me, that I believe that same man was conceived in his virgin mother's womb without a male's sperm, that I believe that one day that same man is coming back real soon to take me and all the other Christians dead and alive from the earth to give us new bodies and shining white robes, THAT SOUNDS CRAZY TO THEM! And I can see why. But that's only because they don't have faith. I have faith for that. And not just cause Mama and Papa said so. It's because it is the literal word of God. And the bible says that not one jot or tittle of God's word will not be fulfilled. It will ALL come to pass. If it was between either God's words not coming to pass OR the entire earth and heaven passing away, God's words would be chilling and being fulfilled while the earth and heavens passed away!
Luke 16:17 - And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Matthew 5:18 - For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Luke 21:32 - Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. 33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
The verse below tells us that people without faith cannot please God in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Simply stated, it's impossible. So if it's hard for you to believe that I can believe everything the bible says about a supernatural world (even though it's been confirmed by many, many people in addition to the words of the Bible), then you're not pleasing God. I'm not saying you're not pleasing God because you don't believe the same things I believe in; I'm saying that you're not pleasing God if you don't believe in the words of the preachers that He has sent with His words. And many of these preachers have made the books of the Bible.
Hebrews 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Another VERY important thing about faith is this. Hear me and hear me good! FAITH IS ONLY APPLICABLE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE IN GOD'S COVENANT BECAUSE WE ARE FELLOWHEIRS OR CHILDREN OF GOD. Romans 8:14-17 says that we Christians are sons of God. And since we are sons, we are heirs (meaning we get an inheritance from God our Father). And since we are heirs who are receiving our inheritance from God, then we must also be joint-heirs along with Jesus who is the only begotten son of God.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
So with this in mind, we now know that ONLY CHRISTIANS have access to the promises by faith in Christ and God (100% full, total assurance of what the Bible and true, God-sent preachers say about God and Jesus). Here's an example:
If a man promises that after church he is going to take all his 3 children to Baskin Robbins for ice cream, those 3 kids can rejoice! Not his nephews and nieces, not his second cousins, not all the kids in their Sunday school class. JUST THOSE THREE KIDS OF HIS regardless of if they are biological, foster, adopted, or stepchildren. This promise ONLY applies to his children. And if this dad is a man of his word and nothing comes up to spoil his plans, those three kids are going to get the ice cream he promised them!
So I don't like it when I hear that preachers make EVERYONE think that they can get the promises of God when the truth is that ONLY GOD'S CHILDREN CAN! It's because we're in a covenant relationship with God. Just like in a marriage, the body of Christ is the bride of Christ. In a human, earthly marriage, if a husband says, "Tonight, I'm going home to have sex with my wife," there is no reason for every wife to rejoice! Only his wife is of the covenant.
Two definitions of covenant are these:
noun: (Bible) an agreement between God and his people in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from them in return
noun: an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified.
It trips me out when some atheists say things like, "If God's so good, how come He's letting all those people die of starvation and AIDS in other countries?" God is not even in covenant with them! Christians have many fundraisers, charities, donations, and non-profit organizations to help feed and doctor these hurting and suffering people, so they can't say that God is doing NOTHING for them. But the truth is that He has no true obligation to people that are not in His covenant. I think we can all agree that in the Old Testament, God OFTEN AND UTTERLY destroyed MANY of the enemies of His covenant people - the Jewish people. No one back then said, "If your God is so good, how come He lets us go through all this destruction?!" It's because each and every one of them know the answer which was, "It's because you're over their worshipping idols/false gods/demons. So why don't you ask them to help you?"
My future husband - if that's God's will for my life - will not be under any obligation to every other wife on the globe. He'll only be allowed to have sex with me, to buy me nice and expensive things, to live with me, to have children by me, to be committed to me, etc. That's because he'll be under covenant with me!!!
So I believe that word-of-faith preachers should make it crystal clear that only God's children have access to these promises. You have to have faith in Jesus. You have to believe 100% what the Bible says about Him. He was born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem. He was crucified on the cross to take away the sins of those that would believe in Him. He was buried in a tomb. He rose three days later - resurrected from the dead. He's now seated on the right hand of God. He makes intercession for those who believe in Him for salvation. He's coming again soon. That is the truth. That's the Bible. Believe that.
It makes no sense. But that's where your faith comes in.
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