So many today say “I just don’t have the faith”, or “I wish God had given me more faith” – prayers today go unanswered by the millions, Christians are sick and dying, and where is God? Why do we not see the mighty works today that were so prevalent in the first century church? Has God changed? Malachi 3:6. Jesus said that we would not only do the same works He did, but GREATER works! (John 14:12). So why aren’t we seeing those works today?
Remember, God promised! Many times, and in many ways! If you can’t trust God, who can you trust? If Jesus’ word is no good, then where is your hope? Can you really expect to receive SALVATION AND ETERNAL LIFE from a God who won’t even give you the physical blessings HE ALREADY PROMISED TO GIVE YOU?
Psalms 56:13 (KJ2000) For you have delivered my soul from death: will not you deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? How can you trust God to deliver your soul from death, but not trust Him to keep you from TRIPPING? On the other hand, if you really can’t trust Him to protect you from thieves, sickness, and persecution, how can you possibly rely on Him for salvation?
Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. ALL things you ask in prayer, BELIEVING, you will receive… Have YOU seen that happen? Really? Is it happening in your life? In the lives of your family or friends? In your church? Why not? Did God lie?
Jesus said faith was so powerful, that if you had even a TINY bit of faith you could move mountains, and NOTHING WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE to you! (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6). Did Jesus say He would stop answering prayers in the end times? (Luke 18:8). No! He said it would be hard to findfaith, and without faith it is impossible to please Him! (Hebrews 11:6).
So how can you, today, make God’s promises a reality? How can YOU have powerful faith, faith like Jesus had, the same powerful, dynamic faith the apostles and prophets had? Elijah was just a man with lusts and weaknesses like you and me. Yet Elijah asked God to stop the rain, and the rain STOPPED! And it didn’t rain for three and a half years! (James 5:17). Were these idle promises for a long-dead people? Or are they LIVING promises meant for YOU, today? Promises meant to make YOUR life better, make YOUR spiritual path easier to find, and make YOU better able to stand against the world!
WHY IS FAITH HARD TO FIND?
God hasn’t lied; neither has Jesus gone back on His word. Nor has God changed, abolished miracles, or replaced divine healing with today’s science – nor any of the excuses faithless people make for whyGod ignores them! The reason your prayers go unanswered is… you!Proverbs 28:9 He that turneth away his ear FROM HEARING THE LAW, even his PRAYER shall be abomination.
If you turn away from God’s law, as so many professing Christians have today, your prayer is an ABOMINATION to God! God says He will HIDE His face from you, because of your sins! (Isaiah 59:1-2). It’s not that God CAN’T hear you, or that God has changed, but YOUR SINS have separated you from God so that He WILL NOT HEAR YOU!
Proverbs 15:29 The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. The responsibility for your lack of faith lies squarely on your own shoulders! It is not God who has “said no”, but YOU who have prevented God from even hearing your prayers! This is wonderful news! Because it means if you want to get closer to God, it means all you have to do is change! But many people despise this understanding, because it means if they want to get closer to God they have to change!
This puts responsibility on YOU for how well God hears you – not on some whim of God, God’s unknowable will, or how often and how loudly you beg God! Instead, it’s based on simple and easy things YOU CAN DO!Which sort of person are you? Are you willing to change anything and everything about yourself in order to come closer to God? Or would you rather wait and hope that someday God will change andmove closer to you?
Can what you do prevent God from answering your prayers? 1 Peter 3:7. Does God listen to the prayers of the evil? 1 Peter 3:12. Does He hear all prayers – even those of sinners? John 9:31. What is sin? 1 John 3:4. Do your sins cut you off from God? Isaiah 59:1-2. Is He far from sinners? Proverbs 15:29. Whom does He hear? Psalms 34:17.
God listens to the righteous, and ignores the sinners. It is commonly supposed today that God hears all prayers, but as you can see from the scriptures above, the Bible says that simply isn’t true. Most prayers simply wind up in the giant spam folder in the sky! Churches today don’t teach you how to get faith; sermons on faith today just tell you to BELIEVEmore – to PRAY HARDER – but is that really the answer? Can you just work up “belief” by singing and shouting and lying to yourself? Can you just force yourself to believe something, contrary to all common sense And what exactly is it that you must “believe”?
WHAT IS FAITH?
He who comes to God – that is, who prays – must believe what? Hebrews 11:6. That’s two things – but don’t even the devils believe God “is”, that He exists? James 2:19. Is that enough by itself? Apparently not! What is the second thing you must believe? That God “rewards those who diligently seek Him”. But don’t most Christians, even those with little faith, believe that God is good? Yet they still have little faith!
But think about it! What does it matter if God rewards the good… unless YOU are good! So, then you must believe that YOU are diligently seeking Him in order to expect an answer – in order to have REAL FAITH! Without merging and harmonizing, this cannot be understood! This means when God says “if you believe…”, He means you must believe all THREE things!
- That God exists
- That God rewards the obedient
- That YOU are obedient!
For you to have powerful faith, you must believe ALL THREE THINGS! Every Christian believes the first two things, so if you want to “know he hears you” (1 John 5:15), the only thing missing is, you must KNOW that you have been diligently seeking Him!
Does God only reward those who diligently seek Him? Proverbs 11:18. If you know that God “heareth not sinners”, then to get God to listen, you must know that you are not a sinner! If your heart doubts your obedience – if you know of things, you’re doing that are wrong, you CANNOT have faith!
This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect to have faith; it just means you must be obeying God in every way you know how. You might be sinning in a hundred ways, but if you can honestly say to God “I am doing nothing wrong of which I am aware” … you can have perfect faith. Is this impossible? Is it unreasonable? How many specific ways are you sinning right this moment?
Did reading this lesson interrupt a murder you were committing? Did you have to crawl off your neighbor’s spouse to read your Bible? Are you using an idol for a paperweight to keep your Bible open? I’m deadly serious! This isn’t that hard! So why not do it just a little better? 1 John 3:21-22 (Williams) Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have perfect confidence towards God; and whatever we ask for we obtain from Him, because we obey His commands and do the things which are pleasing in His sight.
You receive what you ask of God because you keep His commandments! How easy to understand! How hard to argue those simple words! If you keep His commandments and do those things pleasing in His sight – turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, tithing, condemning sin, and ALL the sides of the law, you will have WHATEVER YOU ASK OF GOD!
Because if your heart does not condemn you, you have confidence towards God! Not merely confidence that God exists! Nor just that God is good – but also, and most importantly, that YOU have done ALL that God asked you to do! If you do that, then you KNOW God hears you, because HE HAS TO HEAR YOU – HE PROMISED TO HEAR THE RIGHTEOUS, AND YOU ARE RIGHTEOUS! Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore COME BOLDLY unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. And if you are righteous, and if you KNOW you are making EVERY EFFORT to please God, you have nothing to fear from God or anyone! You can go BOLDLY before God’s throne to make your prayer! And that’s the relationship God WANTS to have with you!
THE GOLDEN RULE
Isn’t this exactly what YOU would want with your own children? If they get grounded for disobeying you, how likely are you to give them a new bike? You’re unlikely to give them anything except the necessities of life until they’ve learned their lesson! And if they come to you mumbling and staring at their toes to ask you for something, wouldn’t you suspect that they had done something bad? Because that’s how they act when they know you should be unhappy with them!
But if they come to you confidently, head held high, reminding you that you promised to buy them a bike this birthday, and that they had diligently done their chores and done everything you’d asked, how can you say no? How could you go back on your promise? As always, this is blindingly obvious if you just think about the principle upon which all the lawsand the prophets, and all the doctrines and the promises, are based! “Do unto others!”
But what if your child comes to you confidently, not realizing he did one of those chores wrong. Won’t you tell him about his mistake so he can do it better next time? But you’ll still give him his bike because at the time he asked was doing all HE KNEW that you wanted! He thought he was perfectly obedient and even though he wasn’t; his intention was what mattered!
Likewise, your heart never condemns you for something you don’t know. How could it – you don’t know it is wrong! So, you could be the worst sinner on earth, as long as you didn’t KNOW you were the worst sinner on earth, and still have PERFECT FAITH! God might well have answered your prayer as a child, or last week – even though you were ACTIVELY (but ignorantly!) breaking the law of God!
Faith does not care about the right and wrong of the matter; all it cares about is what you BELIEVE about the right and wrong of the matter – and this works both ways. If you are sinning and don’t realize it, it won’t hurt your faith AT ALL!But if you’re not sinning, but think you might be, it WILL hurt your faith! Is it a sin to do something you think MIGHT be wrong? Romans 14:23. If you think something might be unclean – if there is doubt – does that mean that, unclean or not, it IS unclean to YOU? Romans 14:14. And is it EVIL ifyou try to do it anyway? Romans 14:20. Should you ask God for things with doubt and uncertainty? James 1:6. Will you receive ANYTHING from God if you do? Verses 7-8.
Must you be FULLY PERSUADED that what you are doing is the right thing? Romans 14:5. Is that the only way to be happy about the decision you made? Romans 14:22. So you see, if it even MIGHT
be wrong, you must immediately stop it – you can always start it again once you’re sure! But if you keep doing it believing it might be wrong, you are hurting your faith – and whatsoever is not of faith is sin! (James 4:17).
BABY FAITH
If we must build our own faith, why does the Bible say God “has dealt to every man the measure of faith”? (Romans 12:3). It’s very simple. Faith depends on knowing you’re obeying God. When you don’t know God at all, you’re in almost complete ignorance of the law of God – hence with even a tiny bit of obedience, you might easily believe you’re completely obeying God, because you’re obeying all you know!
We’re all given a bit of faith before we’re called, otherwise we couldn’t believe anything! (1 Corinthians 2:14), which is why faith is a gift of the spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9). God shows us a very little bit of truth, opens our mind to see it, and we BELIEVE it, and suddenly we have faith!
But it’s a simple, fragile faith. God has given every person in the church a measure of this “baby faith”; some greater than others. This is an extremely temporary faith, highly conditional upon your constant
unerring obedience! It is a gift – and a disposable gift at that! By its very nature, it is IMPOSSIBLE for God to give you mature faith! Just as it is impossible for a baby to be born with big biceps! God cannot give you much of something built upon the foundation of the commandments, until you have first obeyed those commandments!
A CLEAN HEART
If God is far away… whose fault is that? 2 Chronicles 24:20. Is your current situation a direct result, not of some cosmic accident, but of your personal faults? Jeremiah 2:17. If God isn’t answering, what’s the problem? Ezekiel 39:24. If you want to get God to hear your prayers again, what do you do?
Hosea 6:1. Will God hear hypocrites – those who believe one thing and do another? Job 27:8-9. Does God punish, people for hypocrisy – their heart condemning them? Isaiah 9:17. On the other hand, what is a reward
from God based on? 2 Samuel 22:21-25 (that’s worth reading a few times).
Do you want God to answer your prayers? Then you MUST be able to say what David did in 2 Samuel 22. Do you know how Hezekiah got an answer to HIS prayer – and got 15 more years of life when he,was dying? Isaiah 38:2-3. What keeps God from hearing your prayer? Psalms 66:18.
How do you purify your heart? 1 John 3:18-19. That is how you KNOW you are of the truth – AND how you “assure your heart before Him”! By systematically keeping the commandments and “doing
those things that are pleasing in His sight” – the positive side of those same commandments!
CAN GOD HEAR SINNERS AT ALL?
Suppose your heart DOES condemn you. Suppose, while you’re praying, your heart is saying “you did
this wrong, and that wrong, and you shouldn’t have done that, and….” Can you still get an answer to prayer? Yes! 1 John 3:20 (Williams) because if our consciences do condemn us, God is greater than our consciences, and He knows everything. If our conscience condemns us, God is greater than our heart; He knows we are but dust (Psalms,103:14). So, we MIGHT get an answer to our prayer because God is just nice sometimes, even when we don’t deserve it! So, God may answer you – BUT YOU CAN’T COUNT ON IT! And we want faith we can COUNT on, that will NEVER fail us! If your heart condemns you, you must rely on the grace of God who “sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). But if you have fulfilled ALL of God’s conditions, and if your heart does NOT condemn you, then you have CONFIDENCE towards God (1 John 3:21), because God MUST answer you – because you were PROMISED an answer to your prayer! And God dare not break that promise!
HOW TO BUILD FAITH
Deuteronomy 23:12-13 lays out a physical principle which applies to all of us on a spiritual level. In speaking of the disposal of human waste, God instructed Israel to take it OUTSIDE the camp and bury it. Why did God make this command? Deuteronomy 23:14. Was Israel a pattern for us today?
1 Corinthians 10:11. So then, as Israel removed their physical waste which offended God, so we must remove our spiritual waste which offends God? 2 Corinthians 6:17. So then you must “clean up the camp”, so that God will see “no unclean thing” there, when He “walks in the midst of your camp”, so that He will be there “to deliver you”, and not “turn away from you”. (Deuteronomy 23:14). How then, can you clean up the camp?
Do you start by examining yourself? 2 Corinthians 13:5. And if you don’t examine yourself, but act as if you are a Christian anyway, does that bring judgment – and punishment – upon you? 1 Corinthians 11:28-29. Why is it that many Christians are weak and sick and dead – because they didn’t pray enough? 1 Corinthians 11:30-32. What sort of man gets an answer to his prayer? James 5:16.
Does it help to make MANY prayers? Matthew 6:7. What must you do to make God hear you, if He, isn’t hearing you now? Isaiah 1:15-18. Does God say that YOU must make the first move? (And what IS that move?) James 4:8. Does He say that a pure heart is NECESSARY to “draw close to God”? (Same verse). Will those with a pure heart receive the blessings of God (including answers to prayer)? Psalms 24:3-5. How does Paul say we MUST approach God? Hebrews 10:22.
Get the repeated connection between REAL FAITH, and keeping the law! And further, the connection between a pure heart and real faith! There is a reason for that – because keeping the law PRODUCES a pure heart! (1 Timothy 1:5).
The RESULT of keeping the commandments – positive, negative, internal and external – is LOVE, from a PURE heart, and a SINCERE faith – REAL, POWERFUL FAITH – the kind that gets things done! So many today just have a PRETEND faith! They make prayers, and they talk about “God this” and “God that”, but their works show they DON’T have faith! They never really expect things to happen! They never actually trust God – they go to the doctor when they get sick, not to God (James 5:14-16).
They lock their doors, have security lights, alarm systems, and guard dogs rather than trust God (Job 1:9-10). They’re afraid of lightning and cows and wolves and snakes and spiders – but a REAL faith is, afraid of NOTHING! (1 John 4:18). Not even the shadow of the valley of death! (Psalms 23:4)., What does God promise in the way of protection? Psalms 91 [Note: the whole Psalm bears reading several times to really GRASP the enormity of these promises which God has made to YOU! And notice the SPECIFIC things God said not to fear – probably many of the very things you DO fear!]
Should you fear ANY animal – or thieves or war or hunger? Job 5:19-23. And WHY would God do that for you? Verse 24. Can any man stand against a follower of God? Deuteronomy 11:25. Who is afraid of the dark – and who isn’t? Proverbs 28:1. What about fearing oppression? In fact, what about ANY fear, PERIOD? Isaiah 54:14-17. Does God give you what you have coming? Proverbs 10:24. Does God allow harm to come to those who serve Him? 1 Chronicles 16:19-22. What does God promise you’ll be like, and what are the conditions? Isaiah 58:9-11. Does God really mean you needn’t fear ANYTHING? Proverbs 3:23-26. That HE will protect you? Psalms 121:5-7. But what are the conditions? Proverbs 12:21. And who always comes out on top? Psalms 34:21-22.
But that’s all-Old Testament stuff – is there anything in the New Testament? 1 Peter 3:13. Does it disappoint God when you are afraid of anything – like storms? Luke 8:23-25. What about snakes and
scorpions (and metaphorical snakes and scorpions!)? Luke 10:19. Was Paul afraid of snakes? Acts 28:3-6. What about deadly poisons? Mark 16:17-18. Are even your ENEMIES at peace with you – IF you obey God? Proverbs 16:7.
So, this is what a REAL faith is like – and how many do you know who act like that? Not many, I’m sure of that! So how can YOU have faith like this – for surely, you wouldn’t want to walk out into the jungle on a dark night without being SURE God will protect YOU! Read these verses: John 14:13.
Mark 11:24. John 15:7. Luke 11:9-10. Matthew 7:11. John 16:24. 1 John 5:15. All these scriptures stress that you will have ANYTHING you ask for IF YOU BELIEVE! Believe all three things! Everyone believes these apply to anyone who “believes in God”, but that’s not it! That’s only one of the THREE THINGS you must believe to have faith!
We receive an answer to our prayer only IF we KNOW He hears us – and HOW can we know that? By believing that WE are diligently seeking Him, making sure our heart does not condemn us because we are doing those things that are pleasing in His sight!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
When anyone else teaches faith, they always start with two of the most unhelpful verses in the Bible;
Hebrews 11:1, and Romans 10:17. What do those even say? Did they make sense to you, at all? They never did to me! But now that you understand what faith IS – the certainty that you are fulfilling God’s will – they are, EASY to understand, and they are VERY useful! Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith comes from hearing what? The word of God. And what does the word of God do? Hebrews 4:12. It helps you discern the THOUGHTS and INTENTS of the HEART – it helps you PURIFY your conscience! NOW that verse makes sense!
Most preachers interpret this scripture to mean that if you can stay awake during their droning sermons, you will somehow magically get more faith as you “hear the word of God”! But that’s not what it means!
If what they say doesn’t prick you in the heart and get you to change into a better person TODAY, then it probably isn’t the real word of God! Because that is HOW faith comes by hearing – because it is the hearing about your sins and what God expects from you – and changing accordingly! – that purifies your heart and gives you faith! (Proverbs 17:10). Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
This verse is quoted all the time, and it means nothing to anyone! No one understands this – it’s not just you! It’s just pleasant-sounding words to most people (Ezekiel 33:32). But it CAN make sense, now that we know what faith is!
Part of the difficulty is in the translation; Young’s Literal renders it, “And faith is of things hoped for A CONFIDENCE, of matters not seen A CONVICTION”. Weymouth renders it, “Now faith is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see”.
NOW can you understand this verse? Faith is the CONFIDENCE of things hoped for – a CONFIDENCE that you will have them! And WHY are you confident? Because your heart does not condemn you! Faith is the CONVICTION that God MUST answer you, because YOU HAVE FULFILLED HIS CONDITIONS! It is the calm, well-grounded ASSURANCE that the things you’ve prayed for will come to pass because God cannot break His promises!