What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 tells us....
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
However is this not the easiest verse to understand right away without really thinking about it.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. What is substance? Substance is something you can lay hold of. Substance is evidence, substance is something you verify with your senses or intellect.So lets say for example,hypothetically of course, you hoped for a broken bone to be healed instantly. We know that a broken bone takes weeks to heal. So the substance of what we hoped for would be an X-ray image showing absolutely no fracture or breakage of the bone. We hoped for something we knew could not be possible. This is why I say if it had to make sense then it would not be faith. Does it make sense to hope for a broken bone to be healed instantly? Now I know this is a fallible example, no example, unless made by God can ever completely explain the unexplainable.
Evidence of things not seen. This really hard, how do you have evidence for something you can't see? The natural world usually tries to explain this with wind, the wind is unseen by human eye is it not? The evidence of the wind is everywhere, we can see its effect on tree leaves that toss and turn. We can see the evidence of debris all over a yard if the wind blows violently. What evidence in the spiritual world do we have of what we can not see. The Bible says that no man has seen God at any time. However we have the created things in the world that gives us evidence of the unseen God. God has placed a measure of faith in every human heart, some refuse to respond to the evidence which is seen before them in creation and chose not to believe. How about love? Can you see love? You can't actually see love, like the wind you can see the effects of love, right? There is evidence of love, through sacrifice, through discipline, through gifts, through spending time and through these perceived things you have faith that love exist, even though you can't see it or explain it.
Difference between hope and faith...
What is the difference between the two? Hope is used in the definition of faith. Hope, is what we long for but have no confidence or expectation that it will happen. We wish it would happen, we desire it to happen but if it doesn't then we are not let down, it doesn't cause us to waiver because we never really knew if it would happen. Faith however is when we hope with confidence based on what we know to be true even if we can't see it. We know that what we are hoping for is going to happen but could never explain why beyond the shadow of a doubt because we can't prove it until after it happens. Faith is the unexplainable meeting the undeniable. We can't explain how Jesus got out of the grave to a non-believer but it is undeniable that His body is not still there.
Why faith doesn't have to make sense....
Faith doesn't make sense. Why you ask? If it made good logical or calculated sense would it really be faith? If you know that something is going to happen because it makes sense or you can use instruments, calculations, or logic then there is no faith in that. Faith is almost always unexplainable to others. Can you explain why God exist to an atheist, absolutely not, why because you have no logical proof, but don't you have evidence that God exist in your own life? Some might call the evidence in your life, "coincidence" because it doesn't make sense, but you know its God at work, but you only know this because God has revealed this to your heart.
Examples in the Bible where faith didn't make sense...
The story of Naaman. Quick review: Naaman is the commander of the enemy army to Israel. He has captured an Israelite girl as his servant. Naaman has one problem though, he has leprosy. Leprosy, an external cancer that eats away at your outside, highly contagious, and completely excommunicates you from others. Naaman seeks help, the servant girl speaks up and says the man of God from my home country could heal him. Naaman goes with a garrison of subjects and finds the man of God. Once he arrives, Elisha [prophet of God] sends out his messenger and tells him to go wash in the Jordan seven times and He will be clean. What doesn't make sense? Naaman states all of these senseless objections in 2 Kings 5:11,
11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ 12 Are not the Abanaha]" and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. #1 aspect that makes no sense... Elisha sent out his servant, the prophet of God doesn't even come out of the house. Imagine you go to your pastor for counseling because you believe he knows from God, he speaks with God, and your pastor sends you out a message through his secretary and says go feed the poor in a soup kitchen. What if the message he sends through his secretary is really from God, God told him this is their counseling. You think "How is going to feed the poor going to help me with my marriage, it doesn't make sense? Are you gong to walk by faith or by logic. #2 aspect that makes no sense.... Naaman expresses this one... are not all the rivers of my country better than the Jordan? It doesn't make sense does it, why would God chose a dirty nasty river over a nice blue clean one? When you come in faith you have to give up what you know, you have to drop your pride. Faith and pride cannot walk hand in hand, why, because faith causes you go against what you would do if you were in charge and do what God commands. Naaman had a pride issue, so do you, so do I, you will never have true faith in God and say "God my way is better than your way, I'll do it my way and expect a blessing." #3 aspect .... Naaman in 2 Kings 5:11 says surely I thought he [Elisha] would come out call on his God and waive his hand over me, and I would be healed. Naaman had heard stories of how God had healed others, surely he will do he same with me. Naaman had formed a way to get what he wanted from God without having to show real faith. Naaman had formed a false projection of God in his mind, the God in his mind did things his way, and if he didn't then he wouldn't obey. Aren't we the same way? Do we not expect God to bring forth a miracle the way we want it done, without us dropping our perceptions of Him, without us having to do something that would question our logic, that would keep us from social suicide? A god that conforms to your mind is usually a projection of your mind. See if Elisha has come out, called on God, waived his hand and Naaman was healed, then Naaman would not have had to have faith, it is true that Naaman had dropped some of his pride by coming to an enemy prophet, but God wanted to see would he completely abandon himself and believe in Me. Imagine how crazy Naaman had to look jumping into the same river seven times. First time or two his enemies are snickering, third, fourth, fifth they start wondering is he crazy, six and seventh they are like this is just plain sad. But when he comes out after the seventh, he is healed, he is clean. Faith ask the question, do I love the praise of people more than the glory of God. #4 Aspect .. Faith doesn't make sense because God uses it for His glory..Naaman came to God expecting a healing the way he wanted. If God had provided healing the way Naaman wanted it, who would have known God was the one true God? Answer, Elisha, his messenger, Naaman and his garrison. But now the whole multitude of people know this, rivers were huge sources of life to people in that day, people would have been by the river, people would have seen this happen. 15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”16 But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. #5- Aspect that doesn't make sense... Naaman wants to pay God for the healing, to us this make sense right, someone performs a service for us then we give them money right? God doesn't not want our money, you can't pay God for a free gift. This is an Old Testament picture of the free gift that is given through Jesus Christ for our sins. Instead of just having faith in Christ don't we try to paid God for our salvation with our good works? It doesn't make sense that God would just give us such a wonderful gift and us have do nothing but have faith.
Another Biblical example...
Imagine for a minute that you go to church, you have a glaucoma and need healing. I know that some denominations believe this no longer happens, but this is just an example. You walk up the pastor makes a fire, takes the ashes in his hand, spits in his ash filled hands and proceeds to put the wet spit filled ashes on your eyes. You see his hand coming close to your eyes, what do you do? Well odds are you either stop him or let him? These are you two options. It will take faith will it not to let him, you may look stupid in front of others, this makes no sense, you know spit filled ashes don't heal glaucoma, you will have to drop your pride. Jesus does a similar thing with a man born blind, He spits into dirt, makes mud, and rubs the mud on the mans eyes. Jesus then goes one step farther than my example, He tells the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Don't just come in here in front of these people for a private healing, Jesus says Go, walk through town, walk by people, go wash. Why? Many people would see this man on his way there to wash, and after his healing who gets the glory? God. God will use His way to bring about His glory, not your way to bring about your glory. Can you see from the story in John 9 there has to be a certain humility that comes with faith. How proud can you be when someone rubs mud on your eyes? How proud can you be walking through town with mud on your eyes? How proud can you be when you have to come to someone else for help and you can't fix yourself? Why this doesn't make sense, why it took faith? Jesus almost never performs a miralce in the gospels without an act of faith on the part of the person. Could Jesus just not have walked up to this man as He did, say "your healed" and walk away? Yes, this is what doesn't make sense, He chose to cause us to have some element of faith. Trust in Him without seeing the evidence before us first. Biblical faith is not seeing then believing, this takes no faith, Biblical faith is believing then God allows you to see.
Growing church in Acts...
Does it make sense that a preacher without education could build a megachurch without education, without eloquent words, without studying scriptures day and night? It doesn't but it happened, Peter in Acts chapter 2 preaches for what most call a ten minute sermon and 3,000 people come to Christ. He yet again in Acts Chapter 4 does the same thing in Solomon's portico and 5,000 people believe. Would you consider 8,000 people starting out as the body of Christ a mega church? I would. How do I know that he was uneducated. Well a couple of scriptures point this out? [When I say uneducated I mean in his religion, he wasn't scribe, a Sadducee, high priest, chief priest, Pharisee] Peter is commonly called the average man, the man we can identify with, the guy who followed Jesus for three years listened to his teachings and still cut a mans ear off right in front of Jesus. So, back to the uneducated part, Matthew 4:18 says 18 Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers. They were Simon (his other name was Peter) and Andrew, his brother. They were putting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. 19 Jesus said to them, “Follow Me. I will make you fish for men!” 20 At once they left their nets and followed Him.Peter was a fishermen, nothing against fishermen, but most don't go get an education to do so. After being arrested in Acts chapter 4 Peter and John are questioned by the rulers, elders, and scribes about healing a lame man and by what power they performed the miracle. Peter spouts off an answer and then verse 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Oh this is good they saw boldness and perceived they were uneducated. #1 How did they perceived this? Must have been through their speech, they must not have talked with eloquence that the people of the synagogue talked with.#2 Human perception perceives by human standards, their standard for education is still much like ours. You need a degree [so to speak], you need to talk corrrectly, grammatically, you need to dress a certain way, you to need be highly esteemed by men. Luke 16:15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." Should this verse not change the way we look at how we judge the people in prominence and the ones that are lowly? So what do you need? According to the Bible you need faith, you need to know Jesus. Peter preached what He had seen and heard, he didn't have a theological background, he didn't have a new testament bible to read from. You need the power of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is not resting on a preachers words he might as well hang it up. 1 Corinthians 3:6, One sows, one waters, but God gives the increase. You sow the word into peoples lives, you water that word repeatedly, but ultimately you must have faith that God will produce the increase. We witness to people but the Holy Spirit must be witnessing also, for without Him we can do nothing.
Faith Hall of Fame...
Noah had faith according to Hebrews 11. I shouldn't have to explain much about why his faith didn't make sense. He was to build an ark to save his family and creation from the wrath of God. Does this make sense? Would you have questioned anything while building if you were Noah?
Abraham is mentioned for having faith, he goes out as the Lord command to sacrifice the very child that was promised by God to give Him the inheritance he had been promised. Does it makes sense to get rid of the very blessing through which your inheritance would come? He walked by faith, not by what made sense.
Sarah is accredited for having faith also. An old lady having a child? This is the opposite of making sense right?
Moses is mentioned many times... Did he have faith, even in the midst of bewildering commands from God? He could speak plainly, he forsook a life of comfort in Egypt to be with his people, he ran into a dead end when he came to the red sea leading 1 million people out of Egypt. I'm sure we would have thought, God I've done what you asked, I'm leading these people out of Egypt and now I have a huge body of water in our path with Egyptians chasing us, this doesn't make sense, we should be having a clear path.
Faith doesn't make sense...
God is continually trying to get us to trust Him. How much would you trust God if he always performed the way you thought He would. You wouldn't....why...because you would become prideful, you would think it was your idea. God uses things, situations, circumstances, problems that allow us to trust Him, if He did it your way then you would think you had achieved it on your own. If, which He doesn't, but God allowed us to achieve salvation through good works who would we have faith in, ourselves or God. It is a great blessing that God doesn't allow faith to make sense, otherwise you would trust in your logic more than in God.
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
However is this not the easiest verse to understand right away without really thinking about it.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. What is substance? Substance is something you can lay hold of. Substance is evidence, substance is something you verify with your senses or intellect.So lets say for example,hypothetically of course, you hoped for a broken bone to be healed instantly. We know that a broken bone takes weeks to heal. So the substance of what we hoped for would be an X-ray image showing absolutely no fracture or breakage of the bone. We hoped for something we knew could not be possible. This is why I say if it had to make sense then it would not be faith. Does it make sense to hope for a broken bone to be healed instantly? Now I know this is a fallible example, no example, unless made by God can ever completely explain the unexplainable.
Evidence of things not seen. This really hard, how do you have evidence for something you can't see? The natural world usually tries to explain this with wind, the wind is unseen by human eye is it not? The evidence of the wind is everywhere, we can see its effect on tree leaves that toss and turn. We can see the evidence of debris all over a yard if the wind blows violently. What evidence in the spiritual world do we have of what we can not see. The Bible says that no man has seen God at any time. However we have the created things in the world that gives us evidence of the unseen God. God has placed a measure of faith in every human heart, some refuse to respond to the evidence which is seen before them in creation and chose not to believe. How about love? Can you see love? You can't actually see love, like the wind you can see the effects of love, right? There is evidence of love, through sacrifice, through discipline, through gifts, through spending time and through these perceived things you have faith that love exist, even though you can't see it or explain it.
Difference between hope and faith...
What is the difference between the two? Hope is used in the definition of faith. Hope, is what we long for but have no confidence or expectation that it will happen. We wish it would happen, we desire it to happen but if it doesn't then we are not let down, it doesn't cause us to waiver because we never really knew if it would happen. Faith however is when we hope with confidence based on what we know to be true even if we can't see it. We know that what we are hoping for is going to happen but could never explain why beyond the shadow of a doubt because we can't prove it until after it happens. Faith is the unexplainable meeting the undeniable. We can't explain how Jesus got out of the grave to a non-believer but it is undeniable that His body is not still there.
Why faith doesn't have to make sense....
Faith doesn't make sense. Why you ask? If it made good logical or calculated sense would it really be faith? If you know that something is going to happen because it makes sense or you can use instruments, calculations, or logic then there is no faith in that. Faith is almost always unexplainable to others. Can you explain why God exist to an atheist, absolutely not, why because you have no logical proof, but don't you have evidence that God exist in your own life? Some might call the evidence in your life, "coincidence" because it doesn't make sense, but you know its God at work, but you only know this because God has revealed this to your heart.
Examples in the Bible where faith didn't make sense...
The story of Naaman. Quick review: Naaman is the commander of the enemy army to Israel. He has captured an Israelite girl as his servant. Naaman has one problem though, he has leprosy. Leprosy, an external cancer that eats away at your outside, highly contagious, and completely excommunicates you from others. Naaman seeks help, the servant girl speaks up and says the man of God from my home country could heal him. Naaman goes with a garrison of subjects and finds the man of God. Once he arrives, Elisha [prophet of God] sends out his messenger and tells him to go wash in the Jordan seven times and He will be clean. What doesn't make sense? Naaman states all of these senseless objections in 2 Kings 5:11,
11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ 12 Are not the Abanaha]" and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. #1 aspect that makes no sense... Elisha sent out his servant, the prophet of God doesn't even come out of the house. Imagine you go to your pastor for counseling because you believe he knows from God, he speaks with God, and your pastor sends you out a message through his secretary and says go feed the poor in a soup kitchen. What if the message he sends through his secretary is really from God, God told him this is their counseling. You think "How is going to feed the poor going to help me with my marriage, it doesn't make sense? Are you gong to walk by faith or by logic. #2 aspect that makes no sense.... Naaman expresses this one... are not all the rivers of my country better than the Jordan? It doesn't make sense does it, why would God chose a dirty nasty river over a nice blue clean one? When you come in faith you have to give up what you know, you have to drop your pride. Faith and pride cannot walk hand in hand, why, because faith causes you go against what you would do if you were in charge and do what God commands. Naaman had a pride issue, so do you, so do I, you will never have true faith in God and say "God my way is better than your way, I'll do it my way and expect a blessing." #3 aspect .... Naaman in 2 Kings 5:11 says surely I thought he [Elisha] would come out call on his God and waive his hand over me, and I would be healed. Naaman had heard stories of how God had healed others, surely he will do he same with me. Naaman had formed a way to get what he wanted from God without having to show real faith. Naaman had formed a false projection of God in his mind, the God in his mind did things his way, and if he didn't then he wouldn't obey. Aren't we the same way? Do we not expect God to bring forth a miracle the way we want it done, without us dropping our perceptions of Him, without us having to do something that would question our logic, that would keep us from social suicide? A god that conforms to your mind is usually a projection of your mind. See if Elisha has come out, called on God, waived his hand and Naaman was healed, then Naaman would not have had to have faith, it is true that Naaman had dropped some of his pride by coming to an enemy prophet, but God wanted to see would he completely abandon himself and believe in Me. Imagine how crazy Naaman had to look jumping into the same river seven times. First time or two his enemies are snickering, third, fourth, fifth they start wondering is he crazy, six and seventh they are like this is just plain sad. But when he comes out after the seventh, he is healed, he is clean. Faith ask the question, do I love the praise of people more than the glory of God. #4 Aspect .. Faith doesn't make sense because God uses it for His glory..Naaman came to God expecting a healing the way he wanted. If God had provided healing the way Naaman wanted it, who would have known God was the one true God? Answer, Elisha, his messenger, Naaman and his garrison. But now the whole multitude of people know this, rivers were huge sources of life to people in that day, people would have been by the river, people would have seen this happen. 15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”16 But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. #5- Aspect that doesn't make sense... Naaman wants to pay God for the healing, to us this make sense right, someone performs a service for us then we give them money right? God doesn't not want our money, you can't pay God for a free gift. This is an Old Testament picture of the free gift that is given through Jesus Christ for our sins. Instead of just having faith in Christ don't we try to paid God for our salvation with our good works? It doesn't make sense that God would just give us such a wonderful gift and us have do nothing but have faith.
Another Biblical example...
Imagine for a minute that you go to church, you have a glaucoma and need healing. I know that some denominations believe this no longer happens, but this is just an example. You walk up the pastor makes a fire, takes the ashes in his hand, spits in his ash filled hands and proceeds to put the wet spit filled ashes on your eyes. You see his hand coming close to your eyes, what do you do? Well odds are you either stop him or let him? These are you two options. It will take faith will it not to let him, you may look stupid in front of others, this makes no sense, you know spit filled ashes don't heal glaucoma, you will have to drop your pride. Jesus does a similar thing with a man born blind, He spits into dirt, makes mud, and rubs the mud on the mans eyes. Jesus then goes one step farther than my example, He tells the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Don't just come in here in front of these people for a private healing, Jesus says Go, walk through town, walk by people, go wash. Why? Many people would see this man on his way there to wash, and after his healing who gets the glory? God. God will use His way to bring about His glory, not your way to bring about your glory. Can you see from the story in John 9 there has to be a certain humility that comes with faith. How proud can you be when someone rubs mud on your eyes? How proud can you be walking through town with mud on your eyes? How proud can you be when you have to come to someone else for help and you can't fix yourself? Why this doesn't make sense, why it took faith? Jesus almost never performs a miralce in the gospels without an act of faith on the part of the person. Could Jesus just not have walked up to this man as He did, say "your healed" and walk away? Yes, this is what doesn't make sense, He chose to cause us to have some element of faith. Trust in Him without seeing the evidence before us first. Biblical faith is not seeing then believing, this takes no faith, Biblical faith is believing then God allows you to see.
Growing church in Acts...
Does it make sense that a preacher without education could build a megachurch without education, without eloquent words, without studying scriptures day and night? It doesn't but it happened, Peter in Acts chapter 2 preaches for what most call a ten minute sermon and 3,000 people come to Christ. He yet again in Acts Chapter 4 does the same thing in Solomon's portico and 5,000 people believe. Would you consider 8,000 people starting out as the body of Christ a mega church? I would. How do I know that he was uneducated. Well a couple of scriptures point this out? [When I say uneducated I mean in his religion, he wasn't scribe, a Sadducee, high priest, chief priest, Pharisee] Peter is commonly called the average man, the man we can identify with, the guy who followed Jesus for three years listened to his teachings and still cut a mans ear off right in front of Jesus. So, back to the uneducated part, Matthew 4:18 says 18 Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers. They were Simon (his other name was Peter) and Andrew, his brother. They were putting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. 19 Jesus said to them, “Follow Me. I will make you fish for men!” 20 At once they left their nets and followed Him.Peter was a fishermen, nothing against fishermen, but most don't go get an education to do so. After being arrested in Acts chapter 4 Peter and John are questioned by the rulers, elders, and scribes about healing a lame man and by what power they performed the miracle. Peter spouts off an answer and then verse 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Oh this is good they saw boldness and perceived they were uneducated. #1 How did they perceived this? Must have been through their speech, they must not have talked with eloquence that the people of the synagogue talked with.#2 Human perception perceives by human standards, their standard for education is still much like ours. You need a degree [so to speak], you need to talk corrrectly, grammatically, you need to dress a certain way, you to need be highly esteemed by men. Luke 16:15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." Should this verse not change the way we look at how we judge the people in prominence and the ones that are lowly? So what do you need? According to the Bible you need faith, you need to know Jesus. Peter preached what He had seen and heard, he didn't have a theological background, he didn't have a new testament bible to read from. You need the power of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is not resting on a preachers words he might as well hang it up. 1 Corinthians 3:6, One sows, one waters, but God gives the increase. You sow the word into peoples lives, you water that word repeatedly, but ultimately you must have faith that God will produce the increase. We witness to people but the Holy Spirit must be witnessing also, for without Him we can do nothing.
Faith Hall of Fame...
Noah had faith according to Hebrews 11. I shouldn't have to explain much about why his faith didn't make sense. He was to build an ark to save his family and creation from the wrath of God. Does this make sense? Would you have questioned anything while building if you were Noah?
Abraham is mentioned for having faith, he goes out as the Lord command to sacrifice the very child that was promised by God to give Him the inheritance he had been promised. Does it makes sense to get rid of the very blessing through which your inheritance would come? He walked by faith, not by what made sense.
Sarah is accredited for having faith also. An old lady having a child? This is the opposite of making sense right?
Moses is mentioned many times... Did he have faith, even in the midst of bewildering commands from God? He could speak plainly, he forsook a life of comfort in Egypt to be with his people, he ran into a dead end when he came to the red sea leading 1 million people out of Egypt. I'm sure we would have thought, God I've done what you asked, I'm leading these people out of Egypt and now I have a huge body of water in our path with Egyptians chasing us, this doesn't make sense, we should be having a clear path.
Faith doesn't make sense...
God is continually trying to get us to trust Him. How much would you trust God if he always performed the way you thought He would. You wouldn't....why...because you would become prideful, you would think it was your idea. God uses things, situations, circumstances, problems that allow us to trust Him, if He did it your way then you would think you had achieved it on your own. If, which He doesn't, but God allowed us to achieve salvation through good works who would we have faith in, ourselves or God. It is a great blessing that God doesn't allow faith to make sense, otherwise you would trust in your logic more than in God.