God's purpose for us is to provide a life filled with hope and a promising future, but what God requires from us is to trust Him and not allow our doubts to interfere. He wants us to have an abundant life (John 10:10), so the experiences we face in life are designed to assist and fortify us—not cause harm. Therefore, no matter how despairing our situation may be, have faith in knowing that it will lead us to a better life.
From Series: Life Lessons Learned from the Bible — Hebrews 11:1
Once you understand the impact of of faith, you will see how faith allows you to bring Heaven to earth and how with faith, you will lack nothing.
Faith is essential for safeguarding our destiny. It allows us to influence the world rather than be influenced by it, when we combine faith with God's Word. By grasping the principles of faith and nurturing the fruit of faith, you will achieve a victorious and peaceful life.
We learn that we should solve problems independently, be self-reliant, and autonomous, but life was never meant to be like that. We were created to live with God, through God, and for God; and we were meant to thrive and achieve guaranteed success with His help (Galatians 1:10, Jeremiah 29:11).
But this can only be achieved if we are guided by Him, and to be guided by Him, it is crucial to both have and understand faith, as faith is the foundation of our Christian life.
Hebrews 10:38 says that God's righteous one, whose righteousness is a gift from God obtained through faith in Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:9; Galatians 2:20), will live by faith, and God is displeased with those who retreat. This serves as a stern warning that God disapproves of a lack of faith in Him, making faith in Christ not only our foundation but also what dissatisfies God.
Why is this important to God? One reason is, faith is what we need to be effectively guided by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). Without faith, we might not go where God wants to take us, and our life will be less than what it should be. Resulting in a life that falls short of its potential.
If our lives do not reach their full potential, it indicates we are not fulfilling our purpose. If we are not fulfilling our purpose, then how can God be glorified? And if God is not glorified, how can the multitude be saved?
This is why having faith is important to God, as it makes us effective, useful, and influential in His presence or Kingdom.
Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is the certainty of things hoped [wished] for, the assurance [firmly held belief] in things not visible.
For Instance, in Jeremiah 29:11 it says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
In this scripture God says He declares, which means He announces aloud over our life's what He wants for us.
So, when we trust in what God declares about us, we acknowledge that even if it hasn't happened yet, it will eventually happen.
This should inspire us to align our own words with what God says about us. In other words, whatever God says about us we need to be saying the same things about ourselves. In Proverbs 18:21, it says that the tongue holds the power of life and death. This is due to the energy your words carry. So, speaking negatively can turn your words into your reality.
In the book of Genesis, God had to speak the Word before the Worlds that we now see became a visible reality (Hebrews 11:3, Psalm 33:6,9, John 1:3). This proves that Gods Word’s has creative power, and since we are made in His image and are one with Him (Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Romans 6:5-7), you can also speak God's Words into your life, and it will also become a visible reality.
Our unity with God is the foundation to our success, power, and influence
God says His goal for you is to prosper you in Jeremiah 29:11. This implies that your life experiences are designed to assist and empower you, not to harm you.
God's intention for you is to provide you with hope and a future, but what He requires from you is to trust Him and not allow doubt to hinder you.
How does our unbelief get in the way?
In Mark 9:23 Jesus said, “Everything is possible for the one who believes." The requirement is, you must believe. When you believe then everything becomes a possibility.
The word for means in favor of and when you believe, things happen in your favor. Or in favor of the one who believes.
It's like having a judge rule in your favor in court. When a judge rules in your favor it means to award a decision to you or to render a decision favoring you. Basically, you get what you ask for.
God serves as our judge, and when we request something with faith, He decides in our favor, granting us what we have asked for.
Also, in Matthew 21:21 Jesus said, "if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but you can also say to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done."
The term 'and' signifies 'together with,' indicating that with faith, together with or coupled with a strong belief in the truth even without evidence, you will not only have the ability to perform miracles like Jesus did with the fig tree, but also to command mountains to move.
The requirement remains unchanged: we must have faith without doubt.
Our unbelief can get in the way of God being able to help us and to answer our requests. An example of this is In Matthew 17:15-18 where a sick boy was not able to be healed from the disciples because of their disbelief.
Having unbelief will cause you to displease God (Hebrews 11:6). In Psalms 78:12-41, although God showed evidence of His faithfulness and abilities, the people still doubted Him. Their doubt caused God to be displeased, it put limitations on their lives, and caused them to suffer.
Causes of our disbelief
There are at least 60 verses in the Bible where the believers doubted God even though He showed clear demonstrations of His abilities, power, and authority. God was repeatedly asked to prove Himself. But why? Why did the people continue to question God after witnessing numerous miracles, answered prayers, signs, wonders, and more?
It was due to their hearts, traditions, culture, experiences, what they saw and listened to, stubbornness, pride, impatience, deceit, and lack of a close relationship with God.
Much like today, our hearts are not aligned with God either. Our relationship with God is shaped by cultural influences, and we are swayed by what we see and hear on social media. We are prideful, impatient, and expect instant results. The enemy has deceived and ensnared many of us, causing us to lose the close, intimate relationship we once had with God. These are some of the reasons why our faith is weak.
What we see, hear, and experience
We wrestle with doubt due to what we see, hear, and experience. The adversary, Satan, expertly exploits our experiences, current circumstances, or what has been said to us against us.
If you frequently encounter disappointments and haven't shifted your perspective or change your mindset, it will be challenging to envision a prosperous life. Rather than recognizing how God is utilizing the negative experiences in your life to bring about a better result, the enemy aims for you to perceive your life as a total failure.
But when you have a close relationship with God, things work differently, as your life and outcomes will differ from others—it will always turn out well (Psalm 23:6).
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 states, our minor and brief troubles are creating for us an everlasting and incomparable glory. Therefore, we focus not on the visible, but on the invisible, because the visible is temporary, while the invisible is eternal. This revelation provided to Paul informs us that our negative experiences are fleeting and can be leveraged to create achievements in our lives beyond our imagination (Ephesians 3:20).
If we are unable to look past what we see, hear, and have gone through to envision what God has in store for us, we will struggle with unbelief. However, there is a remedy: ask God to assist you with your unbelief (Mark 9:24). The Holy Spirit's role, as God, is to help us (Romans 8:26).
In His divine love and awareness of human needs, Jesus did not abandon us to navigate life on our own. He sent us The Holy Spirit to guide, help, instruct, reveal, and support us throughout our life's journey (John 15:26).
The next solution is to read the Bible because God tells us that "faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word about Christ" — Romans 10:17.
Immersing yourself in God's Word will force out and silence the lies you tell yourself, those the enemy whispers, or what others say. When your mind is filled with God’s Word, it leaves no space for any other thoughts but God's, as His Word becomes dominant (1 Corinthians 2:16; Romans 12:2).
The Book of Job is an excellent read for understanding how your faith can develop through engaging with the Scriptures.
Stubbornness
While unbelief may arise from insufficient evidence or understanding, its theological interpretation suggests a deliberate resistance to the truth.
According to Scripture, stubbornness leads to unbelief.
In 2 Kings 17:14-20, we learn that God's people deliberately refused to trust Him by rejecting His words and chose to follow their own ways. They decided to adopt the customs, traditions, and practices of the surrounding nations instead of placing their trust in God, resulting in their disobedience.
When you habitually disobey God's instructions for your life, you cause disobedience to be both something easy to do and a part of you.
Disobedience gets in the way of God, it hurts you, and it hurts those around you. It is so dangerous that it will cause you to walk out of the will of God and His Divine will for your life.
The danger of being stubborn is, if you continue to not listen, God will give you over to your stubborn desire (Psalm 81:11-12, 1 Samuel 15:23). Also, people who are stubborn usually are irrational and easily become prey to the enemy (1 Peter 5:8).
Pride
Arrogance, a characteristic of pride, can lead to unbelief.
Thinking that your wants is greater or better than what God wants for you, or believing you know more than God, is a sign of pride.
An example of this is when God tells us to do something, and we either choose the opposite or do what we prefer instead. Subconsciously, this implies that we believe our choice is a better choice than what God proposed. Otherwise, we would simply follow God's instructions. So, what does it signify when we don't do as God says?
Pride causes you to become arrogant and stiff-necked leading you to listen to your own advice over the advice of the all-knowing God
These Scriptures highlight God's abilities: Nehemiah 9:16; 1 John 3:20; Psalm 147:5; Psalm 139:4, and after understanding what God can do, why would anyone choose not to obey Him?
Satan's arrogance led him to believe he surpassed God in wisdom, power, glory, and more. He thought he could outsmart God, but he failed to realize that God could hear his thoughts (Isaiah 14:13-14). A servant cannot be greater than his master, and creation will never exceed its Creator.
Being unfamiliar with God
"The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person." — Oswald Chambers
Our unbelief can stem from not knowing God. We don't read the Scriptures or interact with God, and we don't make time to fellowship, talk, open up, and be intimate with Him.
The Bible illustrates the depth of Moses's faith, which allowed God to use him to accomplish His plan for the nation of Israel. However, Moses's faith was a result of spending extensive time with God.
One time Moses went away for about one and a half months to be alone with God. The moments Moses spent with God led to a close relationship, where God communicated with Moses face to face, as one converses with a friend (Exodus 33:11).
Abraham too knew God intimately and trusted God to guide him in every area of his life. His trust was so strong that God praised him as righteous (Romans 4:3).
Also, Noah acted on faith when he was told to build the ark because he had an intimate relationship with God.
The amount of your faith or your faith level is in direct relationship to your experience and knowledge of God.
It is hard to trust someone when you don't know them and to know someone you need to spend time with them.
When you spend time with God you will get to know more about His character, abilities, strengths, and wisdom. Then it will become easy to trust Him, because you will see His intentions for you are always good and He does not make mistakes.
Having knowledge of the Scriptures will allow you to know the characteristics and the nature of God. You will notice that God is compassionate, gentle, good, forgiving, patient, understanding, merciful, faithful, very protective, humble, meek, modest, He is full of grace, He grants you favor, and much more. Most importantly, you will experience how deep His love for you is.
God's very nature and character is faithfulness and goodness. He is always constant, true, and so is His Word. Neither He or His Word will ever change.
Malachi 3:6 says, “I the Lord do not change…” and Isaiah 55:10-11 tells us that God watches over His Word to make sure what He says happens.
Psychology tells us that the relationships we've experienced over the past five years can shape or have shaped our personality; therefore, the more time you spend with God, it will shape your personality, affect your thinking, and impact your whole life.
When you live a life with God you will obey even when you don’t understand or when it’s uncomfortable, since you know that anything God does in your life is perfect, good for you, and cannot be done better any other way.
"Being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised "
We also struggle with unbelief because fear, but regardless of the reasons, understanding what the Scripture says can help maintain and strengthen your faith (Romans 10:17).
Studying the Bible strengthens your faith. Over time, you begin to notice changes within yourself.
Studying reveals who God is, His capabilities, how He has assisted you in the past, how He continues to support you, and more. Also, the Scriptures serve as God's resume, demonstrating His faithfulness.
As you continue to ready, you will realize that God is capable of doing anything, and no matter how bad the circumstance may be or how dire the situation might appear, in the end you will be victorious, you will overcome, and you will prevail!
Genesis 18:14 asks us the question, "is anything to hard for the Lord?" And Psalm 3:8 tells us that victory belongs to Him.
It is important not to be influenced by your emotions when it comes to faith. When we are faced with a difficult situation we naturally will react in our usual way, but remain joyful, as James 1:2 encourages us to do.
If God's promises weren't true, the enemy wouldn't try to tempt you.
Nehemiah 8:10 says, "...the Joy of the Lord is your strength." Therefore, when the enemy attempts to undermine your faith, choose to rejoice rather than feeling sorrowful or frustrated, as your joy will provide the strength needed to maintain your faith.
God wants us to have a full understanding of faith so we can have the power needed in every area of our life, and our faith will give us that power because faith allows us to become all that God desires for us to become. Our faith empowers us to achieve all that God wishes for us to be.
Remember, faith is not only believing in God. It is also believing God and living by every Word that comes from the mouth of God as the Bible commands us to (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4).
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen"
— Hebrews 11:1.
You may not see what you're hoping for now, but allow faith to help your eyes become opened.
Right now, you may feel that your expectations and hopes are far away, perhaps even out of reach. But, in these moments of doubt and frustration, the strength of faith can assist you in persevering, maintaining hope, and seeing where God is taking you before you get there.
Faith, in its essence, is the unwavering belief in possibilities that transcend our current circumstances. It encourages us to look beyond the immediate obstacles and visualize the brighter future God has waiting for us.
When we nurture our faith with the Word of God we gradually train our perspective to see not just what is present, but also what could be.
So, as you navigate life as followers of Jesus Christ, embrace this journey of opening your eyes to new opportunities and insights, for often, the most significant transformations start with the simple act of believing in what lies ahead.
From Series: Life Lessons Learned from the Bible — Hebrews 11:1
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A call for salvation
When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, His spirit will become one with yours. This is one of the greatest blessings of salvation. You don't have to go through someone else to get to God, as you and Him are now one.
All you must do is receive salvation, simply choosing to repent of your sins and welcome Jesus into your life by confessing Him as Lord. In Romans 10:9 Paul said, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Here's a Prayer that you can pray to get saved:
Jesus, I confess that you are Lord, and I believe in my heart that you died and were risen for my sins. I ask for forgiveness of my sins, and I accept you as my personal Lord and Savior—in Jesus' name, Amen.
After this step, pray for guidance to find a ministry where you can grow spiritually, gain knowledge about the kingdom, and begin living the abundant life promised by Jesus.
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