Many Christians today equate belief with faith. However, contrary to traditional religious teaching believing alone is not true faith. The Bible provides a working blueprint on the kind of faith that will move you into God’s purpose for your life. God wants you to fully receive all the promises of His Word. Therefore, you must know whether or not you are walking in true faith.
Recently, the Spirit of God has taken me through a faith examination. In Second Corinthians 13:5, the apostle Paul writes, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith…” (emphasis added). The word the does not appear in the original, but was added during translation for clarification. The original (Greek) text actually reads: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in faith.” To examine means to “observe carefully or critically,” or “to check the condition of.” So, Paul is saying to critically and carefully observe yourself –check to see what kind of conditions you are in relative to faith and pay attention to see whether or not you are in faith. Examine also means “to determine the qualifications of.” In other words, find out what qualifies you to be in faith and make sure you measure up to it. The reality of your situation is not what I say it is, and it is not what you say it is; it is what God’s Word says it is.
I want to begin with a foundational definition of Bible Faith. By “Bible Faith,” I am referring to what God means when He says “faith.” This is important because the Word of God says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6), and “the just shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38). If without faith it is impossible to please God, and if the just (or those who have been justified or made right with God) shall live by faith, then it is not something we can afford to be confused about as a justified men or women made right with God by the blood of Jesus.
According to Scripture, “the just shall live by faith.” Therefore, they shall not live by church attendance, church membership, or by being under the ministry of a preacher they like. The just shall live by faith. It is not faith according to my definition or your definition of faith, but faith according to the definition of God’s Word. This is important because he is the one who has promised life in abundance, freedom from sin's dominion. He is the one who has promised deliverance from sickness, bondage and all the power of darkness.
Just like the commercial in which the kid asks, “Is it soup yet?” you must ask yourself, “Is it faith yet?” It is not soup until all the ingredients are there to make it soup. You and I must ask if all the ingredients are there to make it faith. I am talking about Bible Faith. You might say, “Bishop, you are straining at a gnat here – this is a small thing”’ but it is not a small thing. Let me give you an example of how important it is to have the right definition.
A few years ago, there was a word introduced into the youth culture by the hip-hop community – phat. Left and right, you could hear kids saying, “That’s phat,” or “That’s a phat ride,” or “Man, you’re looking phat,” and you just finished a 90-day stint a Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, you would be insulted. You must understand that the word phat means to the person using it, in order to understand that he is not saying you are overweight.. If you do not understand what phat means in that culture, and are working off the traditional definition of “fat,” you will not understand that “You look phat” is actually a compliment. In other words, if you tell a person who does not have the same definition of “phat” as you do that they look “phat,” you could get a very negative reaction, and then you will wonder why you did not get the response you expected.
