Sunday, May 23, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
The God kind of Faith - Part 1
Rom 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
What is Faith? Is it difficult to have faith? Is it something that we need to muster up on our own? It has been a subject on which there has been a lot of teachings and sometimes to the extent of producing guilt and condemnation for not having enough faith. Strong’s concordance says that the meaning of the greek word ‘pistis’ for faith is persuasion or conviction.
So how do you get faith (persuasion or conviction) about someone or something? It is by getting information about that person or thing. For example, if you let a salesman at the door talk to you long enough about how good his product is, chances are that you will be persuaded about that product. The longer you listen to him, the more the persuasion arises in you. You then become so persuaded that you buy that thing (faith in action – persuaded to such an extent that there will be a corresponding action). But that kind of faith or persuasion is about something or someone that you can see or pertaining to the physical realm.
What about faith for the things of God that we cannot see. For example, we haven’t seen sin, God, Satan, nor can we see in the physical that our sins were taken away. We cannot have faith in such things by our natural faith. We need God’s supernatural faith! So how do we get God’s supernatural faith? In the same way that you get persuaded by getting information about something in the natural, we get supernatural faith or persuasion about spiritual things by hearing the word of God (Rom 10:17). Moreover, this kind of faith is a gift from God (Eph 2:8). So the way it works is that, when you are presented with the good news of the word of God, that word brings the supernatural faith or persuasion in you. As a human being you have the choice to respond to that persuasion.
So then the God kind of faith is something that you do not have to work up on your own, it is a gift of God (lest any man should boast), which comes by hearing the word of God. But the question is have you heard the word of God that produces His faith in you or have you heard the word that produces fear, guilt and condemnation? What is the word of God? What is the faith of God? To be contd………
What is Faith? Is it difficult to have faith? Is it something that we need to muster up on our own? It has been a subject on which there has been a lot of teachings and sometimes to the extent of producing guilt and condemnation for not having enough faith. Strong’s concordance says that the meaning of the greek word ‘pistis’ for faith is persuasion or conviction.
So how do you get faith (persuasion or conviction) about someone or something? It is by getting information about that person or thing. For example, if you let a salesman at the door talk to you long enough about how good his product is, chances are that you will be persuaded about that product. The longer you listen to him, the more the persuasion arises in you. You then become so persuaded that you buy that thing (faith in action – persuaded to such an extent that there will be a corresponding action). But that kind of faith or persuasion is about something or someone that you can see or pertaining to the physical realm.
What about faith for the things of God that we cannot see. For example, we haven’t seen sin, God, Satan, nor can we see in the physical that our sins were taken away. We cannot have faith in such things by our natural faith. We need God’s supernatural faith! So how do we get God’s supernatural faith? In the same way that you get persuaded by getting information about something in the natural, we get supernatural faith or persuasion about spiritual things by hearing the word of God (Rom 10:17). Moreover, this kind of faith is a gift from God (Eph 2:8). So the way it works is that, when you are presented with the good news of the word of God, that word brings the supernatural faith or persuasion in you. As a human being you have the choice to respond to that persuasion.
So then the God kind of faith is something that you do not have to work up on your own, it is a gift of God (lest any man should boast), which comes by hearing the word of God. But the question is have you heard the word of God that produces His faith in you or have you heard the word that produces fear, guilt and condemnation? What is the word of God? What is the faith of God? To be contd………
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