Chapter 5 - Know How to Work Your Faith
What we are about to get into is a significant element of the walk of faith and living by faith. We have established over precious chapters some powerful and incredible truths concerning faith: what it is, how you walk by it, what it really means, and what the Bible actually means when it talks about faith. Now we are going to discuss how faith comes.
The Bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). It also says “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). Therefore, in order to please God, you must have faith. In order to live, you have to have faith, and so, you need o know how it comes because faith is something that “comes.” It is not something that you just have. In this chapter, we are going to qualify what is meant by faith. We will begin wit Romans 10:17 – a passage o Scripture that is very familiar to you by now: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Let us stop right there. I want you to check your own Bible and make sure that what you just read was, indeed, Romans 10:17. I want you to read it again because this verse is going to change before your very eyes; “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Romans 10:17 is familiar, but I am convinced that most Christian do not really understand what this verse is saying. Remember what faith is. Remember what James 2:17 says: “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Most people think of faith as belief. So when the Bible says in Romans 10:7 that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” most Christians think it mean that “believing” comes by hearing. They think that faith is belief and belief is faith, but the Bible is clear that belief and faith are different things. You must know and understand how faith comes if you are going to exercise faith and stop allowing the devil to tell you that you do not have enough faith for what you are believing God to do.
You must develop your faith. It is not as if you are unable to get faith, but tone of the things you have to understand is that you are never going to get more faith by asking God for it – that is not how faith comes. God is not going to give you more faith simply because you pray for it. You might say, “How can you possibly say that?” Because Go has told you and me in His Word how faith comes, and He has told you and me in His Word how faith comes, and He has told us that faith is not a product of you asking for it and God giving it to you.
James 2:17 says, “Thus also faith,” or conviction or persuasion, without “works,” or corresponding action, is dead. So, James is telling us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that conviction or persuasion, if it does not have corresponding action, is dead. Verses 18-19 continue:
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! (James 2:18-19)
In other words, devils believe! Okay, it is good that you believe, but understand that believing is not Bible Faith. He says, “demons believe,” but that doesn’t make them change anything. They do not please God. The reason they do not please God is because their corresponding actions never line up with what they believe. Demons know Jesus is Lord, but they do not act in accordance with that knowledge. The Bible tells us that they know Jesus is Lord because it says “As I live says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Romans 14:11)
People get healed because demons know that Jesus is Lord. People get set free from depression, addiction, darkness when believers pray because demons know that Jesus is Lord. They just do not act upon that knowledge until somebody with more authority than they have comes and makes them obey. However, if you do not know that you have this authority, the you sit there and let the whip you and think, Well, it must be God’s will. No! It is not God’s will! It is because of your lack of will, your lack of knowledge, and your lack of information.
