The Subject of Faith: Part 1

In simplistic terms a person could say that everyone has "faith", if we define "faith" as confidence in someone or something to perform in a manner that is consistent with the expectations imposed upon the person or thing. In other words, we could have "faith" that a chair is going to support our weight when we sit on it, or that a certain individual is going to keep their word when they tell us something, and do exactly what they told us that they would do. However, although there may be a general consensus of agreement on that type of definition, this is not the scriptural definition or description of "faith".

In fact, Paul, by the Spirit of God, asks the Thessalonian Christians to pray for his team, "...that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith" (1 Thess.3:2, KJV). Just based on that verse alone, it is evident that we are not referring to the broad, and generally misunderstood, conception of "faith", since not everyone has "faith", or walks, or lives, by "faith".

This verse also bears no contradiction to Romans 12:3, stating that "...God has dealt [distributed] to every man [person] the measure [a predetermined portion or allotment] of faith", since Romans 12:3 is specifically referring to those who are born of the Spirit of God; Believers; or, Christians.

Evidently, then, "Believers" have "faith", and non-believers do not. This is consistent with Ephesians 2:8-9 which states, "...by grace (charis) are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, (it is) the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast", where the emphasis and subject in the Greek text is "faith", that is in opposition to "works". Though it is commonly promoted, "grace" is not, according to the Greek text, the subject of Ephesians 2:8, set in contrast to "works"; faith is. We are saved by faith, and that faith is a gift of God, originating and finding its source in God.

According to Hebrews 11:1, which is couched in legal terminology, this faith contains all and every necessary aspect of spiritual materiality providing irrefutable evidence of the existence and eventual manifestation of the unseen realm into physical manifestation, so that things which are seen come into physical existence from things which are not seen, or do not appear, initially, to the physical perception (Heb.11:3).

We walk, or live by, or according to, this faith ["walk" is a Hebraism for "life"], and not by sight, or what we can perceive with our physical senses (2 Cor.5:7), "while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen (are) temporal, but the things which are not seen (are) eternal" (2 Cor.4:18).

Faith is living and existing according to the unseen dimension of spiritual reality with our every action and decisions governed by something we do not see; to the point that the scripture states that whatever actions we take that do not originate, or are "out of'' ,(ek), faith, are sin (Rm.14:23). ["sin" is (harmartia), 'missing the mark"], so that whatever we do that is not "out of" faith, ignores spiritual reality, causing us to miss God's plan and purpose for our life specifically, but even in our daily interactions, we can be totally missing it, living according our physical rather than our spiritual senses. In other words, we are either living according to the Spirit of God inside of us, living through us, or we are making decisions, choices, acting in the flesh, with no perception of spiritual reality, or the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit.

"Faith", in its most basic form, is living according to this understanding and the constant awareness of the spiritual realm, or spiritual reality.

Some years ago, a very reputable teacher of the scriptures was making a distinction between having "faith" and "believing" and his evidence for their distinction was James 2:19, which states, "You believe that there is one God; you do well. The demons also believe, and tremble". His statement was, "Are demons saved?", to which, the obvious answer is "no". Therefore, his conclusion was that having "faith" and "believing" are not the same thing, since, in his understanding, if you have faith, then you are born of the Spirit of God. His argument was convincing, but his premise was faulty, not understanding some basic elements of the two Greek words. "Faith" is the noun (pistis), 4102, and "believe" is the verb (pisteuo), 4100, derived from the noun. In other words, they are of the same word group, where "believe" literally means, "to have faith".

The argument of the passage in James chapter two is that real faith takes action or expresses itself by what it does. Specifically, in the illustration of the passage, faith supplies the needs of others (Ja.2:15-18). In keeping with that thought, even the demons have faith, since they actually do something as a result of their faith; they tremble [(phrisso), 5425, "are struck with extreme fear"], knowing the reality and existence of God. The point is that demons walk by faith in the sense that they live in and are constantly aware of the spiritual reality that forms their very existence.

You Are God's Best and God's Best is Yours