Effective Faith (episode 3)

We continue on our series...
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Now Faith Is
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
—Hebrews 11:1
In Hebrews 11:1 God tells us what Bible faith is. Mof-fatt's translation of this verse reads, "Now faith means that we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see." Another translation says, "Faith is giving substance to things hoped for." Still another translation reads, "Faith is the warranty deed, the thing for which we have finally hoped is at last ours."
There are a number of kinds of faith. Everyone, saved or unsaved, has a natural, human faith. But here God is talking about a scriptural faith. He is talking about a Bible faith. He is talking about believing with your heart. And there is a vast difference between believing with your heart and just believing what your physical senses tell you!
Faith is grasping the unrealities of hope and bringing them into the realm of reality.
For example, you hope for finances to meet the obligations that you have to pay. Faith gives the assurance that you will have the money when you need it. "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." You hope for physical strength to do the work that you must do. Faith says, "The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid" (Ps. 27:1). Faith will say about itself everything that the Word says, for faith in God is simply faith in His Word.
Many people want to get something and then believe they've got it. But you have to believe you have something and then you receive it. You may say that you know God's Word is good, but you never will really know until you have acted on it and have reaped the results.
And this is what I am trying to tell you that faith is. Faith is giving substance to the things hoped for. A lot of people just hope—and stop there. And that won't work. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. If you say, "Well, I hope God heard my prayer," and that's all you do, He didn't, and there won't be any answer. But your faith can and will give substance to the answer to that prayer.
Remember this: Hope says, "I will have it sometime." Faith says, "I have it now."
John Wesley said, "The devil has given to the Church a substitute for faith which looks and sounds so much like faith some people can't tell the difference." He called it "mental assent."
Many people see what God's Word says and acknowledge that it is true—but it is only with their minds that they are agreeing. And that will not get the job done. It is heart faith that receives from God. Notice what the Bible says, "For with the heart man believeth...." (Rom. 10:10).
Jesus said in Mark 11:23, "...whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart [this doesn't say a word about the head], but shall believe [that is, with the heart] that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."
You may ask, "How can I tell whether I have heart faith or whether I am just agreeing with my head?" If it is merely mental agreement or mental assent it says, "I know God's Word is true. I know God promises me healing or the Holy Spirit, but for some reason I can't get it. And I can't understand it."
Real faith in God's Word says, "If God's Word says it is so, then it is so. It is mine. I have it now." Real faith also says, "I have it when I can't see it."
Our text declares that faith is "the evidence of things not seen." One who has not prayed in real heart faith might say, "I don't see the thing about which I have been praying, so it hasn't come to pass." If the thing had come to pass—if you had it—you wouldn't have to believe it; you would know it.
You must take the step of believing to come to the place of knowing. Many want to know it first and then believe it. That is, they want to know it from the standpoint of its having come to pass. But we know it from the standpoint that God's Word says it is so—then it materializes. Notice what Jesus says in Mark 11:24, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, BELIEVE that ye receive them, and ye shall HAVE them." Now notice that the having comes after the believing. Most people want to turn that around. In common, everyday terms Jesus said, "You have to believe you've got it before you get it."
I never have been able to receive healing for my body without believing first that I had it, even while every symptom in my body was crying out, "You don't have healing." I would simply say to my flesh, "The Bible says, 'let God be true, but every man a liar....' So if you say I am not healed, you are a liar. God's Word says that I am healed." When I act like that, results are forthcoming one hundred times out of one hundred.
Conversely, if a person sits around and groans, sighs, gripes, and complains, waiting for something to happen—waiting until he can detect that every symptom is gone and all the flesh corresponds with his faith before he starts believing God—he is out of order, and he will never get very far.
Thomas said, "I will not believe until I can see Him and put my finger in the print in His hands, and thrust my hand into the wound in His side." Then when Jesus appeared, Thomas said, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).
Jesus said to Thomas, "Because you have seen, you have believed." In other words, Thomas wasn't believing in the same way you and I believe in Jesus' resurrection. He believed because he saw Him with his physical eye. We believe it because the Word of God says it is so.
Some people miss it without realizing it. They say, "Well, I believe in divine healing because I saw So-and-so healed." That's not the reason I believe in divine healing. I believe it because the Word of God says it.
Likewise, I don't believe in speaking in tongues because some people believe in it and speak with tongues. I believe what the Bible says; not what I see and hear. My faith is not in what I see and hear. My faith is in what God says. When we get our faith to that point, we are right and in order, and it brings results.
Thomas said, in effect, "I will not believe until I see." And Jesus said, "Thomas, thou hast believed because thou hast seen; blessed are they who have not seen, yet do believe." Those are the ones who are blessed!
Compare now Thomas' faith with the faith of Abraham:
ROMANS 4:17-21
17 (As it is written, I have made thee [Abraham] a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:
unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Notice the difference between Thomas' faith and Abraham's faith. Thomas had only a natural, human faith which said, "I'm not going to believe unless I can see and feel." Abraham, however, believed God's Word, considering not his own body. If he didn't consider his own body, he didn't consider physical sight or physical feelings. Then what did he consider? The Word of God!
PROVERBS 4:20-22
20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them [my words] not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they [my words] are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Notice what He says: "Let them [my words] not depart from thine eyes." Now think for a moment. Don't you know that if God's Word says in Matthew 8:17 that Jesus took your infirmities, and bare your diseases, and if you do not let that Word depart from before your eyes, you are bound to see yourself without sickness and without disease?