Easily Understanding Faith That Works

Last week we briefly discussed how to begin hearing from God.  I think it’s a great teaching because we cover a list of God’s communication methods, how to tune into God’s frequency, and three safety practices to help you confirm you’ve really heard from Him.  If you didn’t listen to that teaching then please do so, because if you aren’t hearing from God regularly that teaching will help you start, and your life will never be the same.

I remember when I first started learning about God and His Ways in my early twenties.  I realized that many people think all sorts of different things about God.  This is true even among Christians, where you can find a wide variety of beliefs even in the same church. 

Ironically, this first dawned on me when speaking with my grandfather.  Now Grandaddy was a Christian, but he wasn’t going to let the Bible get in the way of what he believed.  One day I read a Bible verse to him about the power of thankfulness.  He said, “Well, I just don’t believe that.”  I was thinking, “what do you mean you don’t believe it, I just read it to you.”  I kept my mouth shut, but I’ll never forget that conversation.  I realized that we must let God’s Word dictate our beliefs, and we need to be willing to change our beliefs if they don’t line up with God’s Word.

So as I kept learning about God and His ways, I started to get a little frustrated.  I remember thinking how complicated some subjects are, and how could anyone ever master these subjects or really walk in victory in all these areas of life.  But I’ve found, after around 18 years of Christian living and rather serious Bible study, most Biblical topics are actually not difficult to understand.  Much of the truth about God and His will for our lives can be easily summarized in a few statements.   I do admit, however, that it can take a long time to know how to craft those statements, and how to create simple teachings to easily explain very important truths.

I really hope I can do that for you and anyone who listens to my teachings.  I want to explain all these subjects clearly and quickly.  Hopefully I did that last week with hearing from God.  Today I’m going to do this with faith.  Like last week, I’m going to give you many references to Bible verses, but I’m going to skip long quotes and passages.  While you may understand everything I say, you will still want to spend time going through the Bible passages themselves. 

Before I begin I want to mention the idea of “firing off a round.”  After we go through the basics of faith I’m going to discuss that concept.  I’m just telling you now, it’s a great subject, and even if you think you know all about faith, please make sure to review that section at the end.

I define faith as “perfect belief.”  I realize that people use many different definitions for faith, but I think the idea of “perfect belief” both includes the meaning of the Greek word which is translated as “faith” and is also understandable in English.

When you have faith, in the sense that Jesus meant, you believe something.  You believe God exists in Heaven.  You believe the Holy Spirit lives inside of you.  You believe that Jesus was raised from the dead 2,000 years ago.  But you don’t just believe these truths, like you believe the football game starts at 6 p.m., you believe these without the slightest doubt.  You believe them to the point that you would die for them.  You even believe them without any physical evidence of their reality, or even in the presence of contrary physical evidence.  That is perfect faith.

In fact, my faith is based on God’s Word alone.  I have perfect, doubtless belief in God’s Word. 

I would also briefly mention the statement that “faith is belief in your heart” – and I got that from my friend Misty Umholtz and her awesome podcast which is called “Grow in Knowledge” and I highly recommend you check that out.  It is important to understand that faith is not just about what you think in your mind, it’s perfect, doubtless belief in your heart.  I don’t just have faith in God’s Word because it makes sense to my brain.  I have faith in God’s Word because I have chosen to do so with my heart. 

So faith is perfect belief without any doubt (Mark 11:22-24).  Now when I’m talking about faith that works, I’m talking about faith that makes God’s will a reality in your life.  Let me say that again, the type of faith that works we are discussing today is faith that makes God’s will a reality in your life.

The reality we want for our lives is God’s will.  God’s will for our lives is in fact our best possible lives.  God’s will for your life is the highest expression of you, your gifts, and your potential.  God’s will for your life is salvation (2 Peter 3:9).  God’s will for your life is becoming like Christ (Romans 8:29).  God’s will for your life is also doing certain good works God has planned for you, which is the maximum eternal impact you could have with your life (Ephesians 2:10).  Obviously, this could be another subject in and of itself, but to keep it simple, we should all want God’s will.

We learn God’s will for our lives from both God’s written Word (Psalm 119:105) and God’s direct words to us (1 Corinthians 2).  That’s one reason why hearing from God is so important, we will never know God’s will for our lives if we can’t hear from Him. 

The Bible tells us (especially in both Mark 11 and Hebrews 11), that faith is the key to seeing God’s will for our lives.  So we must understand faith and how to use it.

Faith comes when we hear God’s Word (Romans 10:17).  You heard that God wants you to accept Jesus, that God’s will for your life was salvation through Christ.  You heard the Gospel.  You’ve never seen Jesus or God, but you chose to believe.  You got saved.  You believe that you are now saved.  You have faith in Jesus and your salvation. 

Most Christians agree that God wants everyone to be saved (2 Peter 3:9).  But that seems to be about all that most Christians agree on.  With respect to everything else (God wants you to have money, God wants you to be healthy, God wants you_____) Christians seem to be divided about 50/50.   But don’t worry about that, don’t worry what other people think or believe.  If you want to agree with me, then great, if not, that’s great too.  But get in God’s Word and learn God’s will for yourself.  That’s what I did, and that’s what you should do to.

As you spend time with God and His Word, you will learn His will for your life.  You will learn what He wants for your family life, your financial life, your spiritual life, your physical life, and every other aspect of your life.  And, great news, what God wants for your family life is your best possible family life.  What God wants for your physical life is your best possible physical life.  So on and so forth.  Again, you don’t have to take my word for it, study the Bible for yourself. 

As you consider God’s Word and His will for your life, just remember, because most Christians either don’t understand this or forget it, you are not an Israelite living under the Old Testament anymore.  You are covered by the blood of Jesus.  All of your sins have been forgiven.  You are completely under God’s grace.  You are perfect in the eyes of God.  (1 Corinthians 6:11, Hebrews 10:14, as examples)  All of God’s curses have been removed from your life (Galatians 3:13).  All of God’s blessings are now yours (Ephesians 1:3).

So you read the Bible and you hear from God and you discover His will for your life.  Now here is where faith comes in.  You have faith for your salvation, now it’s time to have faith for every other area of your life.

When you read a Bible verse and you want what it says, it’s time to put your faith to work.  For example, 1 Peter 2:24 says, “by Jesus’ stripes you were healed”.  2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”  So what do you do with that?  How do you use your faith for those verses? 

Many people think these verses will just happen automatically in your life if God wants them for you, but He might not want them for you.  Maybe it’s God’s will for you personally to be sick or broke?  Where did that crazy idea come from?  He wants these amazing verses, these amazing promises, for all of His children!

Another group of people think these verses will happen for you if you earn them.  If you are well-behaved enough then you will see God’s blessings.  I’m sorry but that’s not the way it works either.  You didn’t earn your salvation and you aren’t going to earn anything else from God.  Read Romans 4.  There is no system of labor and wages in God’s family.  All of God’s gifts and promises are freely given by His grace to His children.

So all of God’s amazing promises are gifts of grace, you can’t earn them, and God doesn’t just pick and choose who gets them.  So how do you get them?  How do you start seeing them in your life?  The answer is faith.

The master formula of the Bible is “by grace, through faith” (Romans 4:16, Romans 5:2, Ephesians 2:8).  The grace part is done.  If you are in Christ, you are completely in God’s grace.  But your job is faith.  That’s right, your part of the equation is faith.  God has given you faith (Romans 12:3), but you must use it.  And if you don’t use your faith in a particular area of your life, you are not going to see God’s will in that area (James 1:5-8, Hebrews 11:6). 

So, just to recap before we move on, you can know God’s will for your life by reading the Bible and listening to Him, and when you know His will for an area of your life, it’s time to use your faith.  God’s will for your life is not automatic, and He doesn’t just pick and choose who receives which aspects of His will.  To see God’s will in your life, you must use your faith.

So now how do we use our faith to see God’s will for our finances, for example?  Remember, 2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

Faith is perfect belief and faith comes by hearing God’s Word.  You have heard God’s Word on your finances, so now it’s time to have perfect belief in that Word.  Maybe today you are broke and you have $0 in your account.  That’s ok, it doesn’t matter where you are, it matters where you are going.

It’s time to believe that, in fact, God makes all grace abound towards you, and you always have all sufficiency in all things, and you abound to every good work.  Do you see what I did there?  I made God’s promise into a statement of your personal, present reality.  To put that another way, whenever you see a Biblical promise you want, make it into a statement of your present reality.

Perhaps you are going through a physical problem and you read that 1 Peter 2:24 says, “by Jesus’ stripes you were healed”.  So now you make that promise into your present tense statement.  “By Jesus’ stripes, I was healed.”  I am healed now! 

Your believing and confessing God’s promise starts the process of His promise becoming your reality.  I know, that sounds totally crazy.  That makes no sense.  It sounds like weird wishful thinking.  But, my friends, this is just how it works.

Please carefully study Mark 11 and Hebrews 11, both of which I’ve discussed at length in other podcasts about faith if you want to listen to those.  In short, you make your request to God based on His Word.  You command the mountain of your debt, of your headache, of your whatever problem to move in the Name of Jesus.  You pray and make your declarations, and then you believe that it’s done.  You have perfect faith that it’s done.

I have perfect faith in God’s Word.  I have perfect faith in God’s promises.  I may not be able to see their reality with my eyes, but I walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  To put it another way, I govern my life according to my perfect belief in God’s Word, not according to what I can see in the natural realm.

So now you have prayed and make your declarations according to God’s Word, according to God’s will.  You are trying to have perfect faith without any doubt because doubt blocks this process.  But you don’t see it in the natural realm.  Your head still hurts, your bank account is still empty

Here is what happens.  When you first establish your faith in God’s Word for something, it’s like you have planted a seed (please study Mark 4 about this).  And this seed is going to grow up and produce.  The seed of God’s Word, with your faith, will produce money in your life.  The seed of God’s Word, with your faith, will produce healing in your body.  The seed of God’s Word, with faith, will produce restoration in your relationships.  The seed of God’s Word, with faith, already produced your salvation, and the exact same process will produce the rest of God’s will for your life. 

The seed of God’s Word is going to grow from the spiritual, unseen realm and it’s going to produce in the natural, physical realm.  It will produce the money, the healing, the job, the relationships, and every other aspect of God’s will for your life, in the natural, physical realm. 

Just like any crop needs time to grow, so does this one.  You need to treat this process like a farmer.  Water your seed with worship, thanksgiving, and confessing your key Bible verse out loud, in the present tense (By Jesus’ stripes, I was healed.”) and stand in perfect belief that it’s already done, even though you can’t see it yet.  Though it tarry, wait for it.  And don’t let any doubt or unbelief come and steal the seed or your harvest.  By faith and patience we inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12).  

If you feel fearful or anxious about the matter, then you aren’t in doubtless, perfect belief.  I’m not getting down on you and I totally understand that can be difficult, especially in a dire physical or financial situation.  That fear and anxiety is the devil and unbelief trying to steal your harvest.  You should worship, praise, thank God, and confess your verse until you really feel peace about the situation.  A nice peace in your mind and heart about the matter is the true indication you are in Biblical faith.  Please study Hebrews 3:17 through Hebrews 4 about this issue.  The relationship between peace and faith, and how peace is the best indication of faith, is very important.

When you are trying but you know you don’t have perfect belief, or Biblical faith, about something, you are actually experiencing a conflict between belief and unbelief.  We see this concept in both Matthew 17 and Mark 9:24.  We want to believe, but opposing forces (usually contrary natural circumstances) are causing unbelief to war against our faith.  While I mentioned prayer, thanksgiving, worship, praise and confession a moment ago, as those things help increase our faith and focus our minds, Jesus said, in Matthew 17:21, that prayer and fasting deal with unbelief.  So you should do those as well. 

Maybe this sounds like a lot to do or think about, but if you are ever in the midst of a very difficult situation, like a terminal diagnosis or a financial crisis, you will want to know what to do.  And in such situations, it can be very tough to have perfect belief in God’s Word without engaging in these other practices to bolster your faith and drive out unbelief.

The last part of your faith journey is listening for any specific instructions from God.  When a person is believing God for the supernatural, God will often give that person something to do.  Usually, the instruction won’t make sense to the natural mind (think about the Israelites marching around Jericho or Gideon fighting with only a small army).  This is one of the great lessons from the Bible.  You must do whatever God tells you to do, even if it makes no sense.  When believing for the supernatural, you must stay tuned in to God to listen for any of these directions.  As Mary told the servants at the wedding where Jesus turned the water into wine, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5).

To wrap up our discussion today I’m going to mention something we might call “fire off a round.”  This is certainly a more nuanced and specific aspect of the faith discussion, but I feel like God wants me to include it.  Typically, the phrase “fire off a round” describes shooting one bullet from a gun, but I recently heard Pastor Bill Winston casually mention it when discussing faith.  Let me explain as I’ve found this to be a very, very helpful exercise in my own life.  I’ve just never had a name for it before.

When you want to see God’s will established in your life, you must use your faith.  Your jobs are to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12) and to labor to enter into a “faith rest” about the situation (Hebrews 4:11).  God’s job is supplying the supernatural power to perform the miracle or bring His Word to pass.  It’s good to remember this division of labor.  You can’t do God’s job, and God won’t do yours.  But when you stand in faith for God’s will, then God will do His part to supply the power so that it comes to pass, and He will do it every single time.  If you do your job, God will do His.

So let’s say that you have done all of this and you have entered doubtless, perfect, Biblical faith for something, perhaps a healing miracle.  But as the days go on and you haven’t seen your answer in the natural realm yet, you sense your faith waning, or you feel fears or anxiety creeping in.  You can always do what you did before to get back into faith.  But before it becomes a real struggle, at the very first moment you feel the slightest fear or anxiety or a negative thought, fire off a round.  To fire off a round in this context means to boldly, aggressively and quickly (and for me, loudly) confess your key Bible verse or verses.  The bullet is God’s Promise, and you fire it by speaking it out in faith.  Let me give you an example.

In general, I’m in Biblical faith for my financial life.  And just so you know I’m a self-employed real estate lawyer.  The other day, as I was considering all the bills this time of year and my current workload, I felt fear rising for my finances.  You would think after all these years and the financial miracles I have seen that I wouldn’t go through this anymore, but hey, I’m still a work in progress.

Anyway, I took a minute and basically yelled my financial promises.  “God supplies all my needs according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).  The blessing of the Lord constantly makes me richer (Proverbs 10:22).  God makes all grace abound towards me and I always have all sufficiency in all things and I abound to every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8).  I am enriched in everything to all bountifulness (2 Corinthians 9:11)”.

It's amazing what this exercise did for me.  It immediately reset my mind towards the promises of God.  It immediately repelled the negative thoughts and feelings coming against me.  It immediately raised my faith back up to where it needs to be (remember, faith comes by hearing God’s Word, Romans 10:17) and it immediately got me back into that peaceful feeling, with no fear or anxiety. 

This is what it means to fire off a round.  You’ve done the work.  You’ve studied the Word.  You know God’s will.  You’ve confessed the Word and prayed and now you are standing in faith.  But you haven’t seen the physical manifestation of God’s Word yet, and you sense fear or anxiety over the matter.  So you remind yourself, God, the devil, and anything else who can hear you, what you really believe.  You quickly and boldly declare God’s Word, and you set yourself back into perfect belief, with a faith that’s far above any natural circumstances or unbelief attacking you.

Just try this.  Yell God’s promises as the mountains in your life.  Boldly tell them what you believe.  You’ll sense your faith rising.  You’ll sense the peace coming.  Even though you can’t see God’s promises in the natural, you’ll know it’s done.  That’s where you want to get to.  Keep yourself in this peace especially by praying, fasting, and firing off a round every time it’s needed.

My friends, four times the Bible tells us that we are to live by faith.  But what does that mean?  Most people think that it simply means we let our faith in Christ guide every aspect of our lives.  That’s not a bad explanation, and I agree with that idea entirely.  But there is more to it.  We don’t just let our faith form our mental framework and worldview, our faith is the tool we have to see God’s will become our reality.  We live by faith to see God’s best in ever area of our lives.

God’s Word is filled with many promises, some say thousands.  God has provided a great life for each of us, filled with blessings, provision, health, good relationships, and so much more.  But the devil, his unclean spirits, and this fallen world are all at war against God’s will for our lives.  And faith is the victory that overcomes the world and every opposing spiritual force (1 John 5:4).

Spend some time praying about your life.  Where do you think you are seeing God’s promises?  Where do you know that some aspect of your life doesn’t line up with God’s Word?  Start there.  Find some of His promises.  Meditate them, pray over them, and then boldly confess that they are yours now.  Remember, all of God’s promises belong to you, but you must use faith to receive them (2 Corinthians 1:20 and Hebrews 6:12). 

Most of the time, after you pray for them and confess them, they won’t appear instantly in your life.  But stay in a perfect, patient faith.  Whenever you need to, whenever you feel any fear or anxiety fighting against you, fire off a round from God’s Word.  As you protect your faith, the seed of God’s Word will grow straight out of your heart and into your physical life.  Do this for every area of your life, and you will see God’s will, which is God’s best, in every area of your life.