What is faith?
According to the dictionary, it is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. But don’t you think there’s something more to it?
Human faith can only trust and believe what it can see, taste, hear, smell, or feel; making it limited to the five senses. Using natural human faith, we can fly in airplanes even if we don't fully understand how they work, and even if we don't know the pilot, but we trust that everything will be okay. We can sit in a chair we've never sat in and fully trust it will hold us up. That takes human faith, which God gave to every person.
What if someone asked you to sit in a chair you couldn't see? Or what if the chair was missing one of its bases and was tumbling over? You wouldn't sit in a chair like that with human faith. Would you fly in a plane if you could see that the engine was falling off or the tires were flat? Your senses would hinder it.
Lets look into an excerpt from Hebrews 11: 1-16 and see why faith is what we don’t see
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see. For by it the people of old received God’s commendation. By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible. By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain, and through his faith he was commended as righteous, because God commended him for his offerings. And through his faith he still speaks, though he is dead.
So in fact children were fathered by one man—and this one as good as dead—like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore. These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth. For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Let’s put a spotlight on what faith can genuinely do to our lives…
1. Faith can make you offer your best sacrifice to God.
If we put our 101% for God, we will definitely feel fulfilled. We may not be our best selves, but if we know how to offer and lift everything to Him, our faith will speak for us. Anytime we demonstrate faith, we’re relying on something. When you sit in a chair, you’re relying on the chair’s builder to produce something that will hold you up. When you’re on the highway, you’re relying on every other driver around you.
Faith in God means we trust on him and depend on his steadfastness. Having faith means realizing that God is greater, bigger and better than us – and He loves us deeply.
2. Faith can make you experience the supernatural.
When it comes to God, we have to believe things that we cannot see. You haven't seen God or the devil. You haven't seen sin; therefore, you wouldn't know what you would look like if your sins were taken away. You haven't seen heaven or hell. However, you have to believe in all these things to be a real Christian. How can you believe in things you can't see? The answer is that you can't believe in invisible things with human faith. A great number of people have shared their supernatural experience with God.
The crucial understanding that will help you move out of faithlessness is the clear cut comprehension that there are levels of supernatural encounters. Yes, it is possible that you can catch the voice of God talk to you in a distinct voice. Yes, this is an extraordinary experience close to miraculous, that before you have it, you will have many more subtle experiences, where your Christ self talks to you as the still, small voice within, which is what many people call intuition. Thus, any intuitive experience, is a supernatural encounter.
3. Faith can make your household, your family, be saved.
Faith in our family begins with trusting our Heavenly Father and His will. We move forward despite challenges, never giving up on ourselves or our children. We teach our family to have faith in Christ by living what we know to be true. Our children learn their most powerful lessons from our faithfulness.
4. Faith moves you out of your comfort zone.
The more you know about faith and how it works, the better it will work for you. If all you knew was that you have the same faith Jesus has, then that would remove fruitlessness and eventually lead to genuine motivation. If you live your life trying so hard to believe that God’s promises will be given to you on a silver platter, then you are cowardly living on your comfort zone.
People would eventually see genuine results if they just kept trying. However, they give up easily because they believe they don't have what it takes to fulfill God’s will. That is definitely not true. The Lord has given us everything we need, including all the faith we need. We just need to recognize what we have and start to learn the laws that govern the process of God's faith.
Let us remember this verse from 1 John 2:15…
Do not love the world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you don’t have the love of the Father in you.
Genuine faith is relying on God's straightforward direction and on who He is. God is stronger and reliable than anything this world can offer. He knows what you need, and He wants to meet those needs. Unfortunately, we think we know better. We think we have a better plan. We want to use our logic and get to the answer in a way that makes us look good, doesn’t cost us anything, and doesn’t require risk. But God wants us to grow, so he takes us a different way. Let’s trust in Him.
Our mindset should be towards the Kingdom of Heaven. We should believe that our true citizenship and our true home is in Heaven.
Discussion Questions:
Do you have your own version of faith story? Share one testimony.
How important is it to have faith?
