What is faith?

Brothers and sisters,

This may seem to be a question with a very simple answer...but is it?

We as Christians must understand what faith is, mustn't we?

I ask for your contribution on this most important of subjects ( our faith is more precious than silver or gold)

Please....let all contributions be done unto edification.

Thank you,

Bro.,

Praise God,...for asking such a dire question !

And why could the Word 'faith' be DIRE ?

Has it been distorted ?

And would it benefit Satan greatly to create a disception...change the meaning of,....really key Words of God ?

The Word says,he is a deceiver,...that deceiveth the whole world,and actually,he is deceived his own self.

No,...it may not be as simple.

I look at the example,as to how the Word 'faith' is used in the Scriptures.

Abraham:
God called to Abraham,and told him to just GO,and Abraham went,not knowing where he was going. ( God told / spoke,Abraham did)
God spoke,told Abraham to take his only son and sacrifice him,...
( God spoke,Abraham obeyed )
Death to his will,and obedience to God

The Bible speaks of 'The faith of Jesus' ...that we are to have,The faith of
Jesus ...or Jesus' faith.

But what was Jesus' faith ?
The faith that Jesus had,was hearing from His Father,God,and doing,....
The Fathers will,...( obeying )
He lived a death to His will / way,..and lived a life ( LIFE ) to God,His Father.

Samuel was another,...did not let God' Words fall to the ground.,..
Samuel had faith in God speaking to him.

Moses,too,we know how he heard the voice of God,and 'believed' It was God, that was speaking to him,and obeyed.

I believe the meaning of the Word 'faith' means to hear the voice of God,
and obey,...'believe',believer....

"Faith cometh by hearing,and hearing,by The Word of God."

Thank you and bless you,
--------------
elizabeth

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb 11:1 - NASB))

You can cast about and look for defintions and meanings and stories of faith but going back to Hebrews 11:1 always provides believers with the most basic 101 defintion of faith there is. All writings, commentaries and defintions of faith should come back here. It shears away many concepts and musings and gets right back to basics.

Things hoped for can become real substance in your lives because you are assured of and believe in things even though you cannot see them.

"Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revelaed to the senses]. AMP

What do you believe is there that you cannot see?

All solid answers :)

James says faith without works is dead so a "living faith" is one that (like sister Elizabeth said) hears and acts in obedience.

I remember a while back sister Sandra had suggested an exercise where when we read the word faith in scripture to replace it with obedience...
This proved to be quite an eye opener for me😳

Loving all your answers,beloved! Keep them coming.

Also think of faith in relation to daily life and experience.

Thank you for all your contributions so far, a refresher course on faith never goes to waste.

Blessings,

Hey Brother Mark,

I appreciate you too, and all those on this forum who call on our Lord from a pure heart.

Hope you slept well and are bright and bushy tailed this morning!

I really appreciate all the input so far and I will attempt a little later to add my little bit :)

Blessings,

Beloved,this is what the Lord and I put together in my lunchtime. It is a bit longer than usual but won't take that long to read through. I hope it can be of encouragement to you.

Quite amazing how things pan out sometimes. Just after starting this thread I was listening to one of AW Tozer’s sermons from Titus entitled The Second Coming (because of all the end time threads we have been reading ) and quite co-incidentally he interjected a little teaching on faith as he was explaining that he would rather men be honest and say they do not believe than be Christians who doubt the basic tenets of the faith. What he basically said was: "Not all men have faith. YOU would not have faith if the power of the Holy Ghost did not touch you”. Then he used the example where Jesus said no man can come to Him unless the Father draws them and said, if the Father draws them to Jesus, they will come to Jesus, believe in Jesus and be saved.

With this as background, read Romans 1 verses 16 and 17 as well as Romans 10 verses 8 to 10 plus 17: 16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is
the power of God that brings salvation to everyone
who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
17For in the gospel the righteousness of God
is revealed””a righteousness that is by faith from
first to last, c just as it is written: "The righteous
will live by faith.” D
8But
what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in
your mouth and in your heart,” g that is, the message
concerning faith that we proclaim: 9If you
declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,” and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your
heart that you believe and are justified, and it is
with your mouth that you profess your faith and
are saved.
7Consequently, faith comes from
hearing the message, and the message is heard
through the word about Christ

FAITH in our context has to do specifically with:
The preaching of the gospel
The hearing of the gospel
The believing of the gospel and
The confession of the gospel (obedience)

It is this faith that brings us to God and into a right relationship to / with God. It is not merely the believing of certain statements about God but rather the believing IN or INTO a Person, the Son of God, for God’s Word to us IS a Person, Jesus Christ. We enter into a relationship of total confidence in and reliance upon, The Word of God, Jesus Christ!
For me, this faith is beautifully summed up in the words: ”Not I, but Christ”
As the apostle Peter says: "having not seen Him we love Him and still not seeing Him we believe in Him and rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory!”
Brenda said in her post: "this faith is not from us”, i.o.w not worked by us, but is a gift of God to repentant hearts, hearts that turn to God when hearing the Good News.
"for by grace are you saved, thru faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”
Sadly, this faith, this relationship of total reliance upon Christ, can be drawn back from, can be shipwrecked, can be lost…
Therefore, it must be cherished, nurtured, encouraged, protected at all costs, for it holds the promise and the hope of Eternal Life, secured for us by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!
Colossians 1 verses 22,23:
"22But now he has reconciled you by
Christ’s physical body through death to present
you holy in his sight, without blemish and free
from accusation”” 23if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, and do not move from the
hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that
you heard and that has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
And 1 Peter 1 verses 4 to 9 :
"3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us
new birth into a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance
that can never perish, spoil or fade. This
inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5who
through faith are shielded by God’s power until
the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed
in the last time. 6In all this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while you may have
had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These
have come so that your faith””of greater worth
than gold, which perishes even though refined by
fire””may be proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8Though you have not seen him, you love
him; and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible
and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving
the end result of your faith, the salvation of your
souls.

I have always liked that part of the definition of faith. Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for. What we need from God, that which we hope for can become reality as we maintain our conviction of things we cannot see.

What is that which we cannot see?

"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by ythe word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." (Hebrews 11:3)

The writer here points to a contrast between "what is seen" and "things which are not visible," between the visible and the invisible. Our senses relate us to the visible world, to "what is seen." But faith takes us behind the visible to the invisible - to the underlying reality by which the universe was formed: that is, the word of God.

Thus faith relates us to two eternal, invisible realities: to GOD HIMSELF AND TO HIS WORD.

(From "Faith To Live By" - Derek Prince)

Amen.

Faith gives substance to our relationship with an invisible Savior and God...and consequently all He has promised.

Blessings,

So is faith something we have, or something we exercise? Or both?

If we have it, in what sense do we have it?

I tend to think of faith as the fuel for obedience, or action. If you don't do anything with it it just sort of sits there and goes stale, like old gasoline in a lawnmower.

Hey Todd,

Faith defines our relationship with God. It is what unites us as branches with the Vine, Christ. Obedience is the obedience of faith. We obey God when we trust in His Son.

If our faith is real and we are indeed united to His Son, then His Life is in us and will bear fruit.

The good works, the Christ like temperament, these are all fruit, the Root is faith.

Hope that helps :)

So could it be said;
Faith is the God given ability to see by His perspective, to see and walk by the revelation of the finished work of Christ ?

Finding security in Him alone and not in our flesh or worldly provisions?

Btw- good thread bro William:)

Thank you for your kind words, Fletcher.

I must agree with you. By faith we receive the Holy Spirit, Who reveals Christ in us and to us, causing His Love to develop within us and all other loves to fade.

Once we know, by the revelation of the Spirit, Who Jesus Christ is and the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Him, all worry ceases :)

God bless,

William-

In your view is faith something more than belief?

Hi Todd,

In my view, or as I have come to understand, belief can be equated to believing a set of facts about somebody (as in "the demons "believe" and they tremble) but it does not cause the person to repent and obey the command to "savingly" believe and cast themselves, their whole life and being, in trust to that person to be their Savior and God.
Christian faith is a believing that results in the leaning of the entire personality on God (as the Amplified states it)

Does that clarify?

...in other words...their belief does not lead to works of repentance / corresponding actions.

A good summary statement I heard a while back:

"You are saved by faith, not works. But you are not saved unless your faith works."

I agree that faith is more than mere belief.

I think part of the difficulty is that the only evidence of true faith is outward action(I include life and behavior change as outward actions).

If I truly believe something but have no corresponding action then either 1) I am mentally deranged or 2) I don't really believe

For example, if I told my neighbor that my house was on fire, but I continued to weed my garden, he would either conclude I'm a nut, or that I don't really believe my house is on fire.

I am not sure what to make of the demons believing and trembling passage. I think they do believe the facts, but I don't think they are able to take it further, just as redemption is a mystery to even the holy angels who desire to look into such things.

The demons quote is taken from the middle of James teaching about faith and works.
"But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 aYou believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe””and shudder!
20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? "

One day when I was reading Hebrews 11 where it details what faith is, what it does, how it is lived out was a moment of enlightenment the like I have not had in a long time. It was a WOW moment in every sense of the word.

Obeying God, doing what seems absurd, ridiculous but knowing he said it....this act of obedience will expose to us the miraculous hand of God in life.

Imagine building a boat in preparation of a worldwide flood....and spending 200 years doing so. Imagine the ridicule this must have evoked. Did you notice how people believed him and who did not go into the ark with him? Where were his kinfolks? Surely Noah was not an only child - hard to imagine that. But what about friends? None believed him, either, apparently. Sounds like a very lonely task. But he kept on and on and on.

Amazing man, Noah was.

How does my walk with the LORD stack up to these OT saints? This challenges me.

Sandra

The Lord said that we should have a child like faith. Following this direction, there are attributes of faith that we can reflect upon:

1. Awareness or belief:
a. As a matter of fact on His existence and who He is,
the demons have it this way.
b. As a matter of probability of His existence and
who He is.
c. As a matter of spiritual revelation on His existence
and who He is.
d. As a matter of safety for fear of the unknown, to
avoid misfortunes and to solicit luck, goodwill, or
blessings.

2. Attribute characterized by a trusting relationship.
a. For our needs.
b. For our security.
c. For our future.
d. For our final salvation.
e. For moment to moment forgiveness of our sins.
f. On His sovereignty.

3. Attribute characterized by respect, loyalty, and
submission.
a. For our quest on vengeance, justice, or victory over
adversaries.
b. To His counsel, to His holiness and righteousness on
complicated matters that tend to shake our faith on
His integrity or character.

4. Attribute characterized by obedience and devotion to His
will, work, and purposes.

True faith in God is a gift, we must pray hard for it. Faith is a dynamic state, it can advance, it can regress, it can be lost.

Edited/added/deleted items for clarity.

Appreciate all your contributions,beloved!

Keep the revelation coming so we can all learn from each other 😀

"This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23).

Faith is believing in Jesus in the full assurance that as we believe we are saved.
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Faith is believing that Jesus IS ("I AM”) in the full assurance that as we believe we receive Him ("I AM in you”).
"but as many as did receive him to them he gave authority to become sons of God -- to those believing in his name” (John 1:12 YLT)

"and apart from faith it is impossible to please well, for it behoveth him who is coming to God to believe that He is, and to those seeking Him He becometh a rewarder” (Heb. 11:6 YLT)

Faith is a grace ,in that it is a gift that comes ,through a revalation of Christ by the gosple , it is a reaction from our inerman ,that is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit ,and is literally a part of the Devine nature of Christ ,that we partake in , rather then a responce that comes from the carnal fleshly natural man , for he can't receive the things of the spirtual for it is foolishness to him ,said Paul .....

It is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure .

Abraham believed God ,because he saw God ,not because he herd of God ,and it was accounted to him for righteousness...

Saving faith is the desperate thrust of a helpless soul ,upon the arms of an allmighy savour........

The demons believe but they don't trust ,hence they have no faith ,

Gods grace is not extended to the demons ,they get no revalation of gods love through the spirit ,that's why they only believe ,,

We trust God because of gods manfestation of love toward us ,

In a similar way we trust those who love us ,

God is worthy of our trust ,and it is a natural respons to his manfest literal love ,through the spirit,

Perfect love casts out all fear ,and faith is what comes with that love it is a high attribute God , Paul also said we also believe and ther for we speak .....

12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 13And in keeping with what is written: "I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak, 14knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.…

Paul says it is a spirit of faith ,,, it is from God ,the faith of the son of God ,Paul said he lived is life based in that faith ,,,,a supanatural faith .....

Thanks brother Gary, some great revelation in your posts.

Blessings

Your welcome , I hope it didn't seem like l was disagreeing,with you or anyone else, because I never read all the posts before I posted, I read them after , sorry if it seemed that way , I was just responding to you oridgnal question .......

God bless....

No problem at all Gary, that's exactly what I wanted, different points of view and levels of understanding so we can all learn from it, if possible.

God bless,

Chapter 7 (From "The Pursuit of God.")

The Gaze of the Soul

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.-Heb. 12:2

Let us think of our intelligent plain man mentioned in cnapter six coming for the first time to the reading of the Scriptures. He approaches the Bible without any previous knowledge of what it contains. He is wholly without prejudice; he has nothing to prove and nothing to defend.

Such a man will not have read long until his mind begins to observe certain truths standing out from the page. They are the spiritual principles behind the record of God's dealings with men, and woven into the writings of holy men as they "were moved by the Holy Ghost." As he reads on he might want to number these truths as they become clear to him and make a brief summary under each number. These summaries will be the tenets of his Biblical creed. Further reading will not affect these points except to enlarge and strengthen them. Our man is finding out what the Bible actually teaches.

High up on the list of things which the Bible teaches will be the doctrine of faith. The place of weighty importance which the Bible gives to faith will be too plain for him to miss. He will very likely conclude: Faith is all-important in the life of the soul. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith will get me anything, take me anywhere in the Kingdom of God, but without faith there can be no approach to God, no forgiveness, no deliverance, no salvation, no communion, no spiritual life at all.

By the time our friend has reached the eleventh chapter of Hebrews the eloquent encomium which is there pronounced upon faith will not seem strange to him. He will have read Paul's powerful defense of faith in his Roman and Galatian epistles. Later if he goes on to study church history he will understand the amazing power in the teachings of the Reformers as they showed the central place of faith in the Christian religion.

Now if faith is so vitally important, if it is an indispensable must in our pursuit of God, it is perfectly natural that we should be deeply concerned over whether or not we possess this most precious gift. And our minds being what they are, it is inevitable that sooner or later we should get around to inquiring after the nature of faith. What is faith? would lie close to the question, Do I have faith? and would demand an answer if it were anywhere to be found.

Almost all who preach or write on the subject of faith have much the same things to say concerning it. They tell us that it is believing a promise, that it is taking God at His word, that it is reckoning the Bible to be true and stepping out upon it. The rest of the book or sermon is usually taken up with stories of persons who have had their prayers answered as a result of their faith. These answers are mostly direct gifts of a practical and temporal nature such as health, money, physical protection or success in business. Or if the teacher is of a philosophic turn of mind he may take another course and lose us in a welter of metaphysics or snow us under with psychological jargon as he defines and re-defines, paring the slender hair of faith thinner and thinner till it disappears in gossamer shavings at last. When he is finished we get up disappointed and go out "by that same door where in we went." Surely there must be something better than this.

In the Scriptures there is practically no effort made to define faith. Outside of a brief fourteen-word definition in Hebrews 11:1, I know of no Biblical definition, and even there faith is defined functionally, not philosophically; that is, it is a statement of what faith is in operation, not what it is in essence. It assumes the presence of faith and shows what it results in, rather than what it is. We will be wise to go just that far and attempt to go no further. We are told from whence it comes and by what means: "Faith is a gift of God," and "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." This much is clear, and, to paraphrase Thomas a Kempis, "I had rather exercise faith than know the definition thereof."

From here on, when the words "faith is" or their equivalent occur in this chapter I ask that they be understood to refer to what faith is in operation as exercised by a believing man. Right here we drop the notion of definition and think about faith as it may be experienced in action. The complexion of our thoughts will be practical, not theoretical.

In a dramatic story in the Book of Numbers faith is seen in action. Israel became discouraged and spoke against God, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them. "And they bit the people; and much people of Israel died." Then Moses sought the Lord for them and He heard and gave them a remedy against the bite of the serpents. He commanded Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole in sight of all the people, "and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." Moses obeyed, "and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21:4-9).

In the New Testament this important bit of history is interpreted for us by no less an authority than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is explaining to His hearers how they may be saved. He tells them that it is by believing. Then to make it clear He refers to this incident in the Book of Numbers. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:1415).

Our plain man in reading this would make an important discovery. He would notice that "look" and "believe" were synonymous terms. "Looking" on the Old Testament serpent is identical with "believing" on the New Testament Christ. That is, the looking and the believing are the same thing. And he would understand that while Israel looked with their external eyes, believing is done with the heart. I think he would conclude that faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.

When he had seen this he would remember passages he had read before, and their meaning would come flooding over him. "They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed" (Psa. 34:5). "Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us" (Psa. 123:1-2). Here the man seeking mercy looks straight at the God of mercy and never takes his eyes away from Him till mercy is granted. And our Lord Himself looked always at God. "Looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the bread to his disciples" (Matt. 14:19). Indeed Jesus taught that He wrought His works by always keeping His inward eyes upon His Father. His power lay in His continuous look at God (John 5:19-21).

In full accord with the few texts we have quoted is the whole tenor of the inspired Word. It is summed up for us in the Hebrew epistle when we are instructed to run life's race "looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." From all this we learn that faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God.

Believing, then, is directing the heart's attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to "behold the Lamb of God," and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives. At first this may be difficult, but it becomes easier as we look steadily at His wondrous Person, quietly and without strain. Distractions may hinder, but once the heart is committed to Him, after each brief excursion away from Him the attention will return again and rest upon Him like a wandering bird coming back to its window.

I would emphasize this one committal, this one great volitional act which establishes the heart's intention to gaze forever upon Jesus. God takes this intention for our choice and makes what allowances He must for the thousand distractions which beset us in this evil world. He knows that we have set the direction of our hearts toward Jesus, and we can know it too, and comfort ourselves with the knowledge that a habit of soul is forming which will become after a while a sort of spiritual reflex requiring no more conscious effort on our part.

Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves-blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.

Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Unbelief has put self where God should be, and is perilously close to the sin of Lucifer who said, "I will set my throne above the throne of God." Faith looks out instead of in and the whole life falls into line.

All this may seem too simple. But we have no apology to make. To those who would seek to climb into heaven after help or descend into hell God says, "The word is nigh thee, even the word of faith." The word induces us to lift up our eyes unto the Lord and the blessed work of faith begins.

When we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us, for it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout all the earth. The sweet language of experience is "Thou God seest me." When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth.

"When all my endeavour is turned toward Thee because all Thy endeavour is turned toward me; when I look unto Thee alone with all my attention, nor ever turn aside the eyes of my mind, because Thou dost enfold me with Thy constant regard; when I direct my love toward Thee alone because Thou, who art Love's self hast turned Thee toward me alone. And what, Lord, is my life, save that embrace wherein Thy delightsome sweetness doth so lovingly enfold me?"1 So wrote Nicholas of Cusa four hundred years ago.

I should like to say more about this old man of God. He is not much known today anywhere among Christian believers, and among current Fundamentalists he is known not at all. I feel that we could gain much from a little acquaintance with men of his spiritual flavor and the school of Christian thought which they represent. Christian literature, to be accepted and approved by the evangelical leaders of our times, must follow very closely the same train of thought, a kind of "party line" from which it is scarcely safe to depart. A half-century of this in America has made us smug and content. We imitate each other with slavish devotion and our most strenuous efforts are put forth to try to say the same thing that everyone around us is saying -and yet to find an excuse for saying it, some little safe variation on the approved theme or, if no more, at least a new illustration.

Nicholas was a true follower of Christ, a lover of the Lord, radiant and shining in his devotion to the Person of Jesus. His theology was orthodox, but fragrant and sweet as everything about Jesus might properly be expected to be. His conception of eternal life, for instance, is beautiful in itself and, if I mistake not, is nearer in spirit to John 17:3 than that which is current among us today. Life eternal, says Nicholas, is "nought other than that blessed regard wherewith Thou never ceasest to behold me, yea, even the secret places of my soul. With Thee, to behold is to give life; 'tis unceasingly to impart sweetest love of Thee; 'tis to inflame me to love of Thee by love's imparting, and to feed me by inflaming, and by feeding to kindle my yearning, and by kindling to make me drink of the dew of gladness, and by drinking to infuse in me a fountain of life, and by infusing to make it increase and endure."2

Now, if faith is the gaze of the heart at God, and if this gaze is but the raising of the inward eyes to meet the allseeing eyes of God, then it follows that it is one of the easiest things possible to do. It would be like God to make the most vital thing easy and place it within the range of possibility for the weakest and poorest of us.

Several conclusions may fairly be drawn from all this. The simplicity of it, for instance. Since believing is looking, it can be done without special equipment or religious paraphernalia. God has seen to it that the one life-anddeath essential can never be subject to the caprice of accident. Equipment can break down or get lost, water can leak away, records can be destroyed by fire, the minister can be delayed or the church burn down. All these are external to the soul and are subject to accident or mechanical failure: but looking is of the heart and can be done successfully by any man standing up or kneeling down or lying in his last agony a thousand miles from any church.

Since believing is looking it can be done any time. No season is superior to another season for this sweetest of all acts. God never made salvation depend upon new moons nor holy days or sabbaths. A man is not nearer to Christ on Easter Sunday than he is, say, on Saturday, August 3, or Monday, October 4. As long as Christ sits on the mediatorial throne every day is a good day and all days are days of salvation.

Neither does place matter in this blessed work of believing God. Lift your heart and let it rest upon Jesus and you are instantly in a sanctuary though it be a Pullman berth or a factory or a kitchen. You can see God from anywhere if your mind is set to love and obey Him.

Now, someone may ask, "Is not this of which you speak for special persons such as monks or ministers who have by the nature of their calling more time to devote to quiet meditation? I am a busy worker and have little time to spend alone." I am happy to say that the life I describe is for everyone of God's children regardless of calling. It is, in fact, happily practiced every day by many hard working persons and is beyond the reach of none.

Many have found the secret of which I speak and, without giving much thought to what is going on within them, constantly practice this habit of inwardly gazing upon God. They know that something inside their hearts sees God. Even when they are compelled to withdraw their conscious attention in order to engage in earthly affairs there is within them a secret communion always going on. Let their attention but be released for a moment from necessary business and it flies at once to God again. This has been the testimony of many Christians, so many that even as I state it thus I have a feeling that I am quoting, though from whom or from how many I cannot possibly know.

I do not want to leave the impression that the ordinary means of grace have no value. They most assuredly have. Private prayer should be practiced by every Christian. Long periods of Bible meditation will purify our gaze and direct it; church attendance will enlarge our outlook and increase our love for others. Service and work and activity; all are good and should be engaged in by every Christian. But at the bottom of all these things, giving meaning to them, will be the inward habit of beholding God. A new set of eyes (so to speak) will develop within us enabling us to be looking at God while our outward eyes are seeing the scenes of this passing world.

Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the "us" of the New Testament is being displaced by a selfish "L" Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole Church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life.

All the foregoing presupposes true repentance and a full committal of the life to God. It is hardly necessary to mention this, for only persons who have made such a committal will have read this far.

When the habit of inwardly gazing Godward becomes fixed within us we shall be ushered onto a new level of spiritual life more in keeping with the promises of God and the mood of the New Testament. The Triune God will be our dwelling place even while our feet walk the low road of simple duty here among men. We will have found life's summum b®num indeed. "There is the source of all delights that can be desired; not only can nought better be thought out by men and angels, but nought better can exist in any mode of being! For it is the absolute maximum of every rational desire, than which a greater cannot be."3

O Lord, I have heard a good word inviting me to look away to Thee and be satisfied. My heart longs to respond, but sin has clouded my vision till I see Thee but dimly. Be pleased to cleanse me in Thine own precious blood, and make me inwardly pure, so that I may with unveiled eyes gaze upon Thee all the days of my earthly pilgrimage. Then shall I be prepared to behold Thee in full splendor in the day when Thou shalt appear to be glorified in Thy saints and admired in all them that believe. Amen.

1. Nicholas of Cusa, The Vision of God, B. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1928. This and the following quotations used by kind permission of the publishers.

2 The Vision of God

3 The Vision of God

http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/tozer/5f00.0888/5f00.0888.07.htm

Some really good posts on here. I particulary like this from brother Mark...
"The demons do not obey. They merely believe IN God rather then ON God. Faith and Obedience are two sides of the same coin. If there is no "walking out" what we profess to believe then it is dead faith. It is false currency and unable to obtain anything from God. Living faith is what we are really talking about of course. James says that if we have faith and no works (obedience) then our faith is dead."

Also the 'Gaze of the Soul' article from Tozer (forests) and Ginnyrose..."Obeying God, doing what seems absurd, ridiculous but knowing he said it....this act of obedience will expose to us the miraculous hand of God in life. "

Faith can be described as Trust and Obey.
Hebrews 11 tells us that faith is a 'substance' and 'evidence'. If there is no substance or evidence to what we profess to believe it is not saving faith (ask James).

Thanks Forrest for that quote from Tozer. Wow! This sentence sums it up:"From all this we learn that faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God."

Today,beloved,as the sun flower turns its face toward the loving rays of the sun,let us follow its example,turning the eyes of our hearts to our Son and gazing intently at Him until His glory shines from our very faces.

Blessings,

Who can fully measure or express the potential represented by the short, simple word - FAITH!

Perhaps the clearest way to bring faith's potential into focus is to set side by side two statements made by Jesus:

- With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)
- All things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23)

In each of these two statements we find the find the words "all things are possible." In the first passage they are applied to God: in the second they are applied to the one who believes. It is not too difficult, perhaps, to accept that all things are possible with God. Can we equally accept that all things are possible to the one who believes? Yet this is what Jesus tells us.

In practical terms, what does this mean? It means that, through faith, the things that are possible to God are made equally possible to the one who believes. Faith is the channel that makes God's possibilities available to us. Through faith, all that is possible to God becomes equally possible to us. No wonder that, from beginning to end, the Bible consistently emphasizes the unique and supreme importance of FAITH.

(From "Faith To Live By" - Derek Prince - copyright 1977)

Personally, just reading the phrase "with God all things are possible" and then reading "all things are possible to him who believes" causes some kind of faith to stir in me. Just in the reading. But faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

What do you good folks think of the staggering statement of Jesus that if with God all things are possible then all things are possible to the one who believes?

Two verses I have used a lot as well, David.

Add to those the one where he says to Mary and Martha: "Did I not tell you, only believe and you will see the glory of God!"

I would suggest it has to do with our relationship to Christ Himself?
All things are possible to him who believes....in Me.

Blessings,

Quote: "turning the eyes of our hearts to our Son and gazing intently at Him until His glory shines from our very faces."

"And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him[Stephen] saw his face as the face of an angel." Acts 6:15

So it is possible!

Amen Todd! :)

When the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon us we are changed into different people
(Like King Saul when he was in the midst of the prophets)

Thank you William for initiating this post, and for all of the wonderful replies.

Every man has faith in something, even if it is faith in himself or faith in a certain philosophy of life.

But the faith that we are talking about is the God kind of faith. The faith of the Son of God. This is the faith that we are called to live by.

Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

The Word of God produces faith in our hearts.

Faith must be exercised or it will not grow, and God allows us to go through trials and temptations so that our faith will be perfected.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.

Faith is a fruit of the Spirit.

Faith takes a hold and appropriates the promises of God.

The revelation of Jesus Christ in our hearts by the Holy Spirit produces faith.

Hearing the voice of God daily will produce strong faith in the child of God.

All things are possible to those that believe.

Thanks Mike, for your comments as well.

All the posts have been beneficial, I think, and I trust those who read it will be encouraged in their faith.
May the Father draw many more to believe in (into) His Son

Blessings,

Just had to add this ☺️

Leonard Ravenhill in a sermon I listened to today:
"Faith reckons, it risks and then it rests"

Reckons on God's promises
Risks great exploits for God
Rests in the provision of God

Blessings,

Ha!
Now that is good stuff!!!

Faith is unwavering assurance and confidence in the faithfulness of God. That it is impossible for God to lie, and for His faithfulness to fail.

Faith is not based on the five physical senses, but only on the unchangeable Word of God.

Faith is stepping out on the water at the command of Jesus. This is not blind faith. It is stepping out on the Word, which will never fail.