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What is faith?

           is a big deal. Consider Hebrews 11 vs 6:

Hebrews 11:6 (King James version) But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Faith is required if you desire to please God, the kind of faith referred to in Hebrews 11 verse 1. Faith is not your religion, nor just a matter of what you believe, rather of who you believe. You show that you believe God, by doing His Word; knowing that He will reward you with the corresponding blessing or result of having obeyed Him, as promised in His Word.

Faith is not this elusive feeling or mark of maturity that few of us get the privilege to experience, let alone live.  Nor is it the domain of God and His sole prerogative as to who He will allow to experience it.  Faith is for you and I, normal, everyday Christians living our lives on this earth to the glory of our Father. We are to have faith and use it to live our lives by. That is why the prophet Habakkuk prophesied:

Habakkuk 2:4 (King James Version)   “...but                                                           ."

For any understanding of faith we have to start in Hebrews 11 vs 1.  Here we find the purest definition of faith. So what does                                     tell us? The King James Version translates it as follows:

Hebrews 11:1 (King James Version) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The Amplified Bible renders it:

Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified Bible) Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

This scripture tells us that faith is what gives substance to your hope. Before you can exercise any faith you must have             If faith is what you will use to manifest, to cause to come to pass that which you hope for, you must first know what hope is. Without an understanding of, indeed without hope, faith is not needed.

Many people seek after and pray for the things promised them in the Word of God, without true hope and therefore not exercising true faith.  We will examine and determine what is the kind of hope referred to, in this context. Once you know what true hope is, how to have hope and keep that hope alive, then you can employ faith to manifest that which you hope for.

We also see that faith is for things I do not already possess in the natural realm. It is for those things needed in my life, which things I do not enjoy the use of, yet. Note:  I did not say “do not have”, but “do not enjoy the use of”.  Just because I cannot see it with my natural eyes, my physical senses, does not mean that I do not possess it. That is why the Amplified Bible says:

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

Faith knows that there is a spiritual realm and a natural realm.  God is a Spirit and He lives and functions in the spirit realm.
John 4:23-24 (King James Version) But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  (24)  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

You and I however live on the earth in the natural, physical realm and faith is the conduit that we employ to bring those things from the spiritual realm, into manifestation in the natural realm. Without faith the things I hope for cannot manifest in the natural.

Faith is present tense.

Hebrews 11:1 (King James Version) “Now faith is...”

Faith possesses and has already received,  confidently acting accordingly.  Faith does not say “I hope to”, “soon I will” nor “I trust that”. Faith knows that you already possess in the spiritual realm and that spiritual life supercedes natural life. Faith knows that I have been blessed “...with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” - Ephesians 1:3 (King James Version), and that which has been conferred, granted in the spiritual realm is for enjoyment and use in the natural realm.

Faith is not for living in the supernatural, but for impacting the natural world by manifesting what is supernatural, to change what is natural to conform to the supernatural. 

Faith is to manifest health, by being healed when sick.

Faith is for changing lack into abundance and poverty into wealth.

Faith is for walking in  victory and manifesting peace in the midst of the storm, forcing circumstances to conform to the Word of God.

Faith is to take authority over the devil, principalities and evil, to rule and reign as a king and priest in this life.

Faith is about knowing your Father, having a revelation of Christ and Him crucified; and living your life in accordance with that revelation in a living, dynamic relationship with a supernatural God.

                                               
                                                   © 2008 Stephanus Hendrik van Schalkwyk
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