The Law of Faith (part I)

As believers we are to live by faith and not by sight.  What does that mean?  You will find as we get better acquainted that one of my pet peeves is that as Christians we have a bad habit of using words and phrases (I will call it Christianese) that we have heard in the church growing up and often times have no idea what they mean.  We even spout verses of scripture that are often overused out of context having never meditated on the scripture to allow the Holy Spirit to give us greater revelation into its meaning. 

So let’s take a more in depth look at what it means to live by faith.  The Bible makes it clear that faith and sight are opposed to each other.   We were created to live by faith, but remember that when man fell he learned all kinds of unnatural behaviors and became “at home” in his flesh.  Let’s also keep in mind what we have learned regarding the 2 kingdom system in previous posts (Law and Order 1-4). We will look more closely at the Bible’s definition of faith in a moment but here is the concept of faith: God’s Kingdom is unseen, but He has written its principals on our hearts, (that is actually our inner man) and by faith we operate in this unseen realm.  Since the devil has no access to the believer’s spirit man, he must attack using our mind will and emotions.   If we stay in faith and refuse to trust in what we see, he has no power to harm us.  If we step out of faith, and react in fear to what we see, we have just given legitimacy to his lie and are now
helpless to try and fight him on his territory, by his terms. (Fear is Satan’s counterfeit to faith)  The World REACTS, based on the market, the weather, or their mood.  Believers DO NOT live that way, we live confidently walking, listening for the voice of our Lord and savior.  Satan is no match for the risen victorious Christ living inside of us by faith, but in the flesh we are no match for the devil. 

Yes the evidence and lies will scream at us to go by what we see, Satan is after all, a master of deceit.  If Satan had the power that most Christians credit him with, he would have killed us all off long ago.  When Jesus approached the demoniac, the demon flailed the man about trying in a last ditch effort to appear powerful.  Like the little man behind the curtain in “The Wizard of OZ”, the truth is, that was all he had, he’s all show and no go, unless we pick up his lies and give them life.  Don’t take the bait.  Isaiah 14:16 says that in the end, when all is stripped away and we see him for who he is, we will stare at him and say “is THIS the one that made the earth to tremble??”

Faith is not walking around telling ourselves “I think I can, I think I can.”  It is not some feeling or emotion that our flesh can whip up on its own.  Hebrews 11:1 says faith is the substance of what we hope for, the evidence of things we CANNOT see.  The Greek word there for substance is hypostasis: a substructure or foundation, that which has foundation, actual existence, substance, real being.  The Greek work for evidence is elegchos:  proof, a thing proven or tested, conviction.  And the Greek word for things, pragma: something accomplished, matter, that which exists, or a law suit.  How exciting!  Here is the picture; Our Father puts hope in our heart to accomplish something that is on His heart.  At that point, in the Father’s mind, the THING is already done, it is ALREADY accomplished.  At that point He asks us to partner with Him in faith to bring the thing about.  He loves to share His heart with us and He loves for us to desire what He desires.  Faith is the delivery system by which God takes what is in His heart and causes it to become reality in this worldly realm.  Faith is like the union between a man and a woman by which children are born. 

We will dig more deeply next time, and we will see how, when it comes to our part in faith, God does not ask us to shoulder the impossible.  There too HE provides what we are unable to.