Many believe that if a person can conjure up enough ‘faith,’ they can be healed of any ailment, declare things into existence, and receive all the money they could ever want. Conversely, it is believed that if a person is not healed or has little money, they lack in personal faith.
Most believe that the biblical definition of faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1 ESV). However, that is an explanation of what ‘faith’ is and not what it means.
In the Old Testament, God is called "the God of truth" (Isa 65:16 YLT). In the original Hebrew, it means the "God of Amen." The Hebrew word “aman” is where we get the word ‘amen.’ It is often translated as ‘believe’ and means to stand fast, endure, to be true. Figuratively it means to firmly trust and believe without a doubt in absolute certainty - to be faithful. God is the One who remains eternally faithful and true, the One who can always be relied upon.
In the New Testament, Jesus is given the same title; "the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness" (Rev 3:14 YLT), “..for as many as [are] promises of God, in him [are] the Yes, and in him the Amen” (2 Cor 1:20 YLT). Jesus is the “Yes,” and the “Amen” who is eternally true and reliable. The word “amen” in Greek means "true and faithful.” It is a formal word that was used to confirm a statement, an oath, or a covenant contract. Jesus is the God of Amen, the “God of faithfulness.”
The word “faith” used in the New Testament comes from the Greek word “pistis.” It is defined as the living, divinely implanted, acquired and created principle of inward and whole-hearted inward confidence, assurance, firm persuasion, trust, absolute reliance, dependence upon, (and belief in) God and all that we hear from Him in His written Word, the Bible.
The root of “pistis” is the word “peitho,” which is a primary verb - an action word that is in a continual state of being, moving forward or reverse, never standing still. Faith, in and of itself, is dead apart from trust. Faith, without works, “is dead” (James 2:17). The working of faith is trust.
The present tense of the Greek word "pistis" is the word “believe.” It denotes the act and process of faith, which is trust, and must be continually exercised to experience its benefits. It is impossible to please God if a person does not trust Him (Heb 11:6). Those who live their life in biblical faith will tend to be more trustworthy, reliable and committed to fulfilling the tasks and responsibilities given them by the Holy Spirit (Acts 14:22; Eph. 6:16; Col. 1:23; 2:57; 1 Th. 5: 8; 1 Tim. 2:15, 3:9; 6:12. 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13; Heb 10:23-38; 2 Pet. 1:5-10).
Faith, along with love, is “found in” Jesus and comes abundantly from Him because He is the “author and perfecter of faith (Heb 12:2; Eph 6:23; 1 Tim 1:14). Learning to trust God is a result of teaching. Christians are to fix their focus on Jesus alone because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17 NIV).
The world can’t exist or operate without faith. It is impossible to become a Christian and please God. It is the absolute fundamental element of Christianity. It is just milk, and a tricycle with training wheels, in the nursery school of discipleship (Heb 5:12-6:3). There is no exhausting it.
God gave EVERY Christian all the faith they needed to believe Jesus is the Savior. It is God who gives them the faith to trust Him today. Christians must learn to put on the faith He has given them just as they put on their clothes each day.
"But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” (1 Thess 5:8 NIV)
When a person places their faith in Jesus, they believe/trust in Him, and He grants His righteousness to them. That doesn't make them co-equal with Him as a little god. The “righteousness of God" is not a ‘law’ righteousness but a ‘faith’ righteousness. It comes through the faith possessed by Jesus and is imparted to all who are willing to receive. Christians have the faith of Jesus!
“Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference” (Rom 3:22 KJV).
Faith is not a work. It is described in the Bible as a gracious gift from God.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10; see also Rom 3:27 ESV).
To continuously and actively believe in Jesus is to respond to this gracious gift, exercising the faith God offers to all. The proof that ‘faith’ exists is shown daily by naturally producing the good works that accompany salvation, and bearing good fruit that can only come from a good tree (James 2:26; Heb 6:9; Matt 7:17-23; Luke 6: 4).
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist together and for each other as infinite love that defies human description, understanding, or comprehension. Because They are love, They trust one another without hesitation and will do whatever the other asks.
The Creator God of the Universe longs to have people who will trust Him and desire to worship Him because they want to, not because He does something to make them love Him or they “feel” His presence or get 'Holy Ghost Goosebumps.' The foundation of trust is love. In order to trust, there must be freedom. God put into humans an unlimited capacity to love and trust.
The Object of Faith
Jesus is the object of our faith because He is 100% God and 100% man. God doesn't need faith in God. Faith is always object-oriented, so faith 'in' God is not the faith 'of' God. Jesus said that His disciples were to "Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). In the Greek, it speaks of ‘faith’ that has God as its object and not ‘a’ ‘faith’ He possesses. Jesus didn't need faith in Himself. He is the author of faith.
When a person places their trust (aka faith), in Jesus with an undivided heart, they can say to a mountain in their way, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea” (Mark 11:23 KJV). When they ask in trusting-faith “anything in His name” according to His will, “it will be” theirs. (Mark 11:22-24 ESV). Christians are redeemed/justified by the faithfulness of Jesus (Gk: pistis Iesou Christou) on their behalf and not by their own ‘faith’ (Rom 3:22; also Gal 2:16, 3:22; Rev 14:12).
The words “in” or “of” used in the verses listed are not in any Greek text. The grammar used is a possessive genitive, which means that the phrase can be interpreted as either subjective or objective. It is like the phrase, ‘the love of God.’ That is either a person’s love for God or the love that God has. In one case, it is objective (love for God), in the other subjective (God is the subject), and it describes the love that belongs to God or God’s love.
The Bible says that “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so the Born-Again Christian also has believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal 2:16 ESV). True faith is active trust in the sovereignty of God.
Once again, the word “faith” used here is “pistis,” and in context, it is referring to the faithfulness of Jesus. That makes it “subjective” where the righteousness of God is the subject of the verse because of God’s faithfulness. The “faith” that the Believer stands upon is not their own, but on the faithfulness of Jesus.
Beyond Belief
Having ‘faith’ is more than believing. Faith is a continual state of mind being totally secure, and it needs a subject to trust in. The subject is an individual choice. The choice one makes becomes the object of their faith. Faith exists, no matter what their object is. God requires faith for eternal life because it is trusting Him exclusively! Having faith means a person must act as if God can be trusted!
Having active trusting-faith in God is something human beings must provide! It is not the supernatural ‘Gift of Faith, which is a miracle faith that is given to expect unexpected things at a specific moment in time (1 Cor 12:9). Every Born-Again Christian has faith because they are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph 2:8-9).
Trusting-faith is beyond daily belief in God. It is based on freedom because faith requires it. Adam and Eve chose not to trust Him. The Bible says that the “righteous will live by his faith” (Hab 2:4 NIV). They are to continuously live by faith. To do that they must enter into the state of “amen” where no doubt exists.
Trusting-faith is plugging into God, and He takes care of everything else. It is like building muscle memory. The Born-Again Christian must be constantly put into situations that require them to trust. The more they do it - over and over again - the easier it is to appropriate without consciously thinking about it. It must become a recurring habit pattern.
Human Beings need faith to exist, which is why God gave them a measure of faith when He created them (Rom 12:3). Jesus didn’t need faith to be an example for people because He is God the Son, and co-equal with God, the Father, and God, the Holy Spirit. He did not have "faith" in God because He is God. He knows all things (John 21:17). It is by the faith of Jesus the Born-Again Christian is justified and acquitted of guilt before God (Rom 3:24-28, 5:1,9, 8:30, 10:10; 1 Cor 6:11; Gal 2:16-17, 3:11,24; Titus 3:7).
When a Born-Again Christian lives in genuine love, they live in God, and their love is made complete because perfect love casts out all fear (1 Joh 4:16-5:5). "Faith" is not a force or a tool. It is trust in action in Jesus who is the healer and redeemer. Actively trusting God through faith becomes as easy as taking a healthy breath of fresh air. He doesn't need the cooperation or help of the created. There is nothing a person can do to earn salvation or healing.
God alone makes miracles happen. God alone is the speaker. Humans are the hearers and the receivers, and are blessed when they believe what He says. Humans are the created. God alone is the Creator.
God is the only One with the authority to speak things into existence and order into chaos. The "breath" of God is what animates life, which is something only He can do (Gen 2:7; Job 33:4; Ps 33:6; Isa 42:5; John 20:22; 2 Tim 3:16). When He sovereignly speaks, things move instantly at that very moment. Complete restoration, reconciliation, and healing is released immediately and not because a person conjures up enough 'faith' to make it happen for themselves or another person.
The Born-Again Christian is a “citizen of Heaven” (Phil 3:20). They are called an Ambassador/ Envoy of Christ, however, that does not make them co-equal with Him or having equal power or authority (2 Cor 5:20-21; Eph 6:20). Just as a police officer stops a person in the name of the law, so does a Born-Again Christian respond using the name of Jesus. That doesn't make them like Him in any way, shape, manner, or form.
Jesus never commanded His disciples to 'declare' or ‘speak’ anything into existence. Only God can speak things into existence. When the Born-Again Christian speaks His written Word, the Bible, they are repeating what He has already spoken into existence because He is God and they are not. They are co-laborers, a companion in work with Jesus, building upon Him because He is the chief cornerstone of the foundation that was already laid by the Prophets and 12 Apostles (1 Cor 3:9; Eph 2:20).
Everything a Born-Again Christian prays for and does in ministry must be in the sovereign name (authority of) Jesus because they aren't the sovereign God, but just His emissaries doing things according to His will and purpose in the place and time frame He designates and allots. Speaking on behalf of a sovereign doesn’t make them sovereign just as speaking for one’s father doesn’t make them their own father. If that were true then everyone who was dead would be raised, and everyone who needed healing, whether they had enough ‘faith’ or not, would be healed. Nowhere in the Bible is anything else said, intimated, alluded to, or inferred otherwise.
The Born-Again Christian does NOT share God’s nature (Rom 8:23). They are “adopted” and not “natural” children of God, who have entered into a relationship with God as their Father and are renewed and transformed into the moral likeness of God. They do not have His DNA nor are they transformed into a god (2 Peter 1:4,5-11).
A person can choose to have faith in their self - the created - and their own blood, or faith in Jesus - the Creator, who shed His blood for their deliverance and redemption. It can only be one or the other. It can’t be both. Light and darkness can’t dwell in the same place together (2 Cor 6:14).
Never forget this simple truth - the word ‘TrusT’ begins at the Cross and ends at the Cross. Every day of life, and with every breath taken, it is within the One who is absolutely faithful that “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28 NIV). Jesus is the one who supernaturally changes things, not anyone else, because He alone is God.
