True Faith

[BanjoPicker]

HISTORICAL FAITH (1 Jn. 5:10-13).

This is faith in the history or the record of God concerning the past and concerning His own work for men. One can believe the record of God to the letter and still not be saved. It is simply believing in the record of anything of the past. No consecration to God is necessary to believe history.

 

[BanjoPicker]

MENTAL FAITH (Jas. 2:14-26)

Mental faith is similar to historical faith in that it believes history but goes further and believes very part of the Bible, past, present, and future, as well as all the truths of the blessings of God, but it does not act upon the Word of God. Faith without works is dead, being alone. It is passive faith or mere mental assent to truth. Thousands of sinners have mental faith in God and the Bible, /but they keep neglecting the definite action of obeying truth.

True faith is not mental assent to truth as fact. Most people have such assent. Men will believe that God is able, that He has promised to do certain things, and that He would if true faith were exercised, but there is little effort put forth to co-operate with God or to get what He has promised. It is merely a mental assent to truth without active faith in it. It is the kind of faith that will turn to every source of help but God, and at the same time maintain that it does believe in God and His Word. It is just like believing that food is good without every eating to get the benefits from it. Mental assent, or passive faith, is one of the most dangerous enemies of true faith in God. It claims all the faith in the world and is satisfied easily with either anything or with nothing from God. If it does not get what it wants, it does not care. It would accept something from God if He would come personally and lay the answer in the lap and beg one to keep the gift, but apart from this there is little, or no effort put forth to act in faith concerning anything God has promised. Mental faith may go as far as to maintain belief in every truth and in every part of God's program, and it may even claim to be contending for certain benefits, yet it dares not act upon the promises of God.

 

[BanjoPicker]

ACTIVE FAITH (Jas. 2:14-26; Heb. 10:19-38).

This is the kind that acts upon the Word of God as it is made clear. James put it this way; "SHEW ME THY FAITH WITHOUT THY WORKS, AND I WILL SHEW THEE MY FAITH BY MY WORKS. " All men must have this faith to get anything from God. As long as faith is purely mental and passive no action will be taken to obey the truth. Men must get beyond the stage of hearing and into the act of doing what God says before they get results. Active, living faith moves to obey every truth of God to the letter and to appropriate what God has promised. It acts as if the things that are now seen are a reality. It is quick to provide works to prove that it is sincere and obedient.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Think of having a real active, living faith of your own! Imagine the thrill of having your own prayers answered! Multitudes of people have never had an answer to prayer, and they are missing the greatest blessings of life by such neglect. Most people depend upon others to get answers for them. They pray, as they think, but they want someone else to do the believing. In reality, they are not praying. They are merely saying words and going through a form of prayer. True New Testament praying is always heard of God, and the answer is always sure. God has planned that all men should have this kind of faith and results. "These signs shall follow them that believe," and "all things are possible to him that believeth" Mk. 9:23; 11:22-24; 16:15-20; Jn. 14:12-15.
Faith can be developed into a mighty living force that will know no defeat. You can know that you are master of all demon powers and circumstances through Jesus Christ. You know longer need to be a slave to fear, timidity, weakness, failure, sickness, poverty, helplessness, and despair. You can be a conqueror in the very things wherein you have suffered defeat.
"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" Jn. 15:7, 16. Again "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" Jn. 15:5.
You must awake to the consciousness of the new life you have in Christ. As a branch, you have His life, His health, His power, His love, and His nature flowing through you. You are the fruit-bearing part of Christ in the Earth. You are in Him, and He is in you. You have His words abiding in you, giving you faith for whatso every you ask. You have as much right in Him to be asking and receiving from God as He had. You have a right to expect the same answers from God that He got. You represent God here as He did, so do not be satisfied to go without the benefits that He died to give to you.
We are commanded to be a doer of the Word, and this means ask and receive. We are not to be merely a hearer. You are not deceiving yourself when you act upon the Word. It will be confirmed, for it is truth. It must be a living active faith, not a mere mental passive something that all sinners can have. You are in Christ, and as God's child and heir you have the authority to act on the Word. You are a fruit-bearer, a producer for God, so get busy and produce for Him according to His Word.

 

[BanjoPicker]

WAVERING FAITH (Jas. 1:5-8).

This is faith doubting God and refusing to believe. Truly to believe and to have faith is to act on the Word. It means taking what is already yours. To believe on Jesus means to take Him for all that the Bible declares Him to be. It means that you take salvation from sin, healing for the body, answers to your prayers, and all that He died to bring to you. Believing is an act of the will. When you really believe you will acted, you have taken the necessary step to get what you want from God. Faith is action in counting those things that be not as though they were Rom. 4:17; Mk. 11:22-24. Doubting is refusing to act on the Word. Unbelief is either refusing to act according to the knowledge that you have, or it is a manifestation of ignorance of the Word of God. If you do not know, you cannot act because you do not understand. If you do not understand you are afraid to act because you do not know how to act. The cure for all unbelief is a thorough knowledge of the Word and consecration to obey it to the letter, regardless of how impossible it may seem at the moment.
A wavering faith is called double-mindedness, a constant change of the mind as to what is wanted or whether the thing asked for is wanted or not. It is the attitude of yes--no, yes--no and yes--no until God Himself cannot tell whether it is yes or no. One minute it is decided that a thing is wanted, and it may be wanted with some real desperation, but the next minute it is not so important. People who have wavering faith do not really make up their minds that they are going to see the fight of faith through to an answer. They would accept the answer if it would come without any hesitation or effort on their part, but to take the necessary steps to get an answer or to fight in the least for the thing that is asked, is another question.

 

[BanjoPicker]

UNWAVERING FAITH Heb. 10:23; 11:6.

This is faith taking God at His word without any question. God commands us to "ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavererth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man thing that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" James 1:5-8. We are told to "Hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering: (for he is faithful that promised)" Heb. 10:23. Again. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently, seek him" Heb. 11:6.
This is faith refusing to doubt, wonder, question, or reason about one detail of what one has asked for from God. It has absolute confidence that what was asked is according to the Word of God, and therefore it knows that prayer is answered. It rest upon the promises as the basis of the answer, instead upon feelings and things seen. It refuses to act contrary to what it has ask or to question in the least any delay in an answer. It counts the thing done regardless of all outward evidence to the contrary. It laughs at impossibilities and goes on in the utmost confidence that what God has promised He is able to perform. It gives thanks for the answer from the moment it asks and looks forward in the child-like expectation of getting it.

 

[gordon 2]

UNWAVERING FAITH Heb. 10:23; 11:6.

This is faith taking God at His word without any question. God commands us to "ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavererth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man thing that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" James 1:5-8. We are told to "Hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering: (for he is faithful that promised)" Heb. 10:23. Again. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently, seek him" Heb. 11:6.
This is faith refusing to doubt, wonder, question, or reason about one detail of what one has asked for from God. It has absolute confidence that what was asked is according to the Word of God, and therefore it knows that prayer is answered. It rest upon the promises as the basis of the answer, instead upon feelings and things seen. It refuses to act contrary to what it has ask or to question in the least any delay in an answer. It counts the thing done regardless of all outward evidence to the contrary. It laughs at impossibilities and goes on in the utmost confidence that what God has promised He is able to perform. It gives thanks for the answer from the moment it asks and looks forward in the child-like expectation of getting it.

Taking God without any question and yet God commands us to ask in faith...?

Unwavering faith is carnal because it assumes the possibility of wavering. Mind you it is a kind of faith. A milky faith perhaps. It's like marriage vows with a prenup that I might cheat as this is the faith I have in marriage and our relationship in general. I don't think that Paul as an example had a wavering faith. Do you have any other kinds of faith to share? PS the double minded man is a piece of work. He speaks from both sides of his mouth. No to the left yes to the right depending what day it is.

Faith that is "getting" or needs "to get" is not faith that has. Maybe. Unwavering faith is like driving a bicycle and struggling to keep your balance.

 

[BanjoPicker]

HUMAN FAITH Mk. 11:22-24.

This is simply the exercise of human faculties in having confidence and conviction that he can believe God, and that God is true to all that He has promised. All men are capable of faith in themselves and faith in anyone else that makes any statement of promise to them. Faith is an attribute of man's created being. It was natural for man to believe God before the fall. There was no such thing as a doubt, a question, or any unbelieving reasoning on the part of man before this time. It was the devil that injected doubt and unbelief into man's moral and spiritual makeup. And since man's fall and because of the almost total depravity of his being, it becomes one of the greatest struggles of his redemptive career to have that same simple and unwavering faith that was natural before the fall. It was doubt and unbelief that cause the fall, and it is of the greatest importance to get rid of all such in redemption.

 

[gordon 2]

Excellent way of saying perhaps:

Quote: "it becomes one of the greatest struggles of his redemptive career to have that same simple and unwavering faith that was natural before the fall." end quote.
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This faith " natural before the fall" is not a faith of belief. It is a faith of being. I have heard it said this way: ,

"It is being God's image on the earth, or God's representative on planet earth." Fully being and doing as God's representative is a kind of faith.

Faith in prophecy as to getting something or some place seems an Old Testament faith to me. The saints today prophecy from a very different faith.

Ours is a faith of what God is doing now perhaps. From what God is doing now we can know what God will do, because Jesus is God. And his instructions to the apostles are plain. Jesus is our prophecy. Jesus is gathering with love. His prophets gather with love. We are God's new prophets in Jesus Savior. We are "his representative in his image on earth" perhaps. This is a kind of faith.

The term " redemptive career" is interesting. I personally understand that for Jesus, for the Holy Spirit, we can have in our times the opportunity to meet with God especially by the Holy Spirit with his ways of teaching which is not our ways. We tend to teach with our minds and call this work to prove our faith.

What the Holy Spirit can teach in a few minutes perhaps a redemptive career will not learn in 10,000 lifetimes. In our times God is able to offer his heart ( which was promised in the Old Testament) as the image of what ours might be. The faith download is remarkable. We struggle to see it because we don't go where God is, we don't go where God is present, where salvation is what God does for us in our times and not what we do for ourselves in order to get to him. Who has asked God what do you want from me? And when the answer came concerns and determination of an unwavering faith was still on the table?

"And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures." James the Just.

 

[BanjoPicker]

DIVINE FAITH Heb. 11:3; Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 13:14.

Faith is not only a natural attribute of man. It is an attribute of God. It is God's absolute confidence and conviction in His own being and Word. The first passage listed above teaches that the ages were planned by faith through the Word of God and that things were brought into existence that never existed before. God had faith in Himself when He planned the worlds. He believed that He could do what He commanded, and He counted those that were not as though they were Rom. 4:17. The second passage listed above speaks of "the faith of the Son of God," thus proving that He also has faith as does the Father. In fact, He is the author and finisher of faith Heb. 12:1, 2. The last passage mentioned above speaks of "Faith" abiding along with hope and love, which means that these three qualities are eternal as attributes of God.

Men will have to exercise faith in the infinite throughout eternity, for there will always be the necessity of having confidence in God and His eternal plan concerning those matters that the finite has not yet comprehended of the infinite Isa. 32:17. If faith will be necessary in eternity, how much more is it needed now when we do not know as we are also known. This life is the probationary period of the eternal existence of human beings, and it is necessary to learn faith and obedience to carry out God's plan for man both now and forever. Faith is acting on the Word of God, and this will be necessary throughout eternity because God will eternally give the saved His Word and make known His will concerning all things to come.

Thus it is clear that God has Faith, Christ has faith, the Holy Spirit has faith, angels have faith, demons have faith James 2:11 and men must have faith in order to please God Heb. 11:6. Faith is absolutely necessary in the carrying on of moral government. If moral agents cannot have faith in the Moral Governor of the universe, they will not trust Him. Lack of faith on the part of subjects in human government tends to create anarchy and rebellion. When doubts, questioning, unbelief, dissatisfaction, and lack of confidence are manifest in subjects of a government of any kind it cannot long endure. Faith is an absolute necessity. Child-like faith and confidence in God with utter abandonment of self-interests, trust in Him to leave everything in His hands for the common good of all, is not only demanded by God but it is the only reasonable attitude to take on the part of man.

The history of mankind and of angels and demons proves that God has been good, merciful, loving, kin, and consecrated to the best good of all creation. Nor one person in moral creation can point a finger of accusation that God has dealt with him unjustly. No one can today testify that God has been unfaithful to him if he has done the will of God and conformed to the Word of God in faith. Not one free moral agent can accuse God of the least degree of unfaithfulness in any dealing. Not one will be able in all eternity to accuse Him of being a respecter of persons. God has been and always will be good to all. He longs to bless all men today. He will heal of every disease, save from every sin and bad habit, deliver from failure and poverty, and answer every prayer that is prayed in faith in the name of Jesus Christ. He longs to do what He has promised to do. He desires to supply all needs of men, but He will not break His own law by blessing those who do not have faith. He has laid down plain laws of faith whereby any and every man can get what he wants in life, and He is going to hold man to obedience to these laws before He grants the desires of man. If man wants the benefits, then let him intelligently obey the laws of God to the letter, and by so doing he will get what God has promised. If the benefits are not worth the price, then let him not complain that he is not supplied. If they are worth the simple effort to get them as God has made clear, then don't doubt or waver one moment as to the outcome. It is already settled that the benefits are guaranteed and sure if true, simple, childlike faith is exercised. There is no longer any question about this if we believe the Bible.

 

[gordon 2]

1.Catechism of the Catholic Church - PART 1 SECTION 1 CHAPTER 3 ARTICLE 2. 166 Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself.

1. In the Protestant tradition, faith is generally understood to be closely associated with ideas of belief, trust, and reliance. This understanding is founded in the doctrinal statements of the Protestant Reformers.

Wikipedia, Google, Social Media et al.

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Maybe, just Maybe, my perspective of faith to yours Banjo is due to culture alone. Our yogurts are from two different bacteria, but yogurt just the same.

 

[BanjoPicker]

IMPORTANCE OF FAITH

The Bible definitely declares that faith is all-important: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" Heb. 11:6; "Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen" Heb. 11:1; "But let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man thing that he shall receive any thing of the Lord" James 1:5-8; "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" Rom. 14:23; "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" Eph. 6:16; "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. . . . Now the just shall LIVE BY FAITH: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10:35-39; "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" Mt. 21:21; "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth "Mk. 9:23; "Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore, I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" Mk. 11:22-24.

These Scriptures, which clearly set forth the importance of faith, need no interpretation. They plainly promise all men that they can get whatsoever they have for faith. There is no limitations or qualifications concerning known needs of this life or the life to come; so do not limit them. They are clear that faith is absolutely necessary to get what is desired in life. No man should expect to get anything from God if he refuses to have faith. There is no such thing as the impossibility of having faith; so the fact that one does not have faith is his own choice and responsibility. Jesus commanded men to "Have faith in God," and such is possible, or it would not be mandatory.

 

[gordon 2]

When Jesus says " Have faith in God," it is stated as being opposite to faith in the temple culture of the period which is as a fig tree with nothing to eat which God makes to wither.

Jesus says that the Temple culture is " a den of robbers" and that what is wanted is a house of prayer where there is forgiveness, which is an element of love, which is just not evidently found in the now rigid doctrinal cult. What is wanted is prayer with a faith that is forgiving and real faith in God. Faith in God instead of Faith in the god culture and its temple culture is what God wants and what he ever wanted. " It is not sacrifice I want but mercy." The baseline for mercy is not the temple but God.

I doubt that "Have faith in God" was meant as a command. It was just a way of pointing out where the problem with Hebrew spirituality had gotten to.

It is not unlike the put-offs that people understand today with the religious spirit judged within the Catholic faith whereby observance and prayer is judged opposed to the "real" faith especially for the observable hypocrisy of the believers and ditto the bible based believers who from "Word and so Scripture" deeming to have their faith right also suffer the slings and arrows of being labelled "Den of robbers".

The remedy is simple. Have faith in the real God as opposed to everything else.

I would suggest that this is a commandment rather that " Have faith in God":

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

If faith indeed is a commandment, how much more is love a commandment. And "real" love has only one source, God from which issues forgiveness frank.

If there is a commandment in Mark 11 it is that one needs to forgive. And the possibility for forgiveness, to forgive, will get much easier when in Jesus Christ we are made as Paul says, " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Thus God's fix to the problem.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." seems to come to my mind from my heart as more equally saying, "Have faith in God."

But I might be wrong. People judge people for their works. Sometimes people do good works and yet believe falsely. But more than not love that is in works visible as hate, fear, insecurity and carnal pride is not of God. Christians live under occupation, the world's dogs are always at the door, it is easy, too easy to play the Babylon card (When in Babylon not only make yourselves Babylonians, think like the Babylonians.) in the name of God, with consequences to follow.

Scripture might indicate that love is "all-important". "I may have the gift of prophecy, I may fathom all mysteries, know all things, have all faith — enough to move mountains; but if I lack love, I am nothing."

"Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]. But as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for the gift of special knowledge, it will pass away."

 

[BanjoPicker]

It is all important to have faith, because no prayer will be answer without it; God cannot be pleased without it, man will not get anything from God without it, and he will be disobedient to God without it. If faith is commanded, then not to have faith is to break the law of God and commit sin. If believers would realize this fact they would become desperate about this law-breaking, as much as they are about breaking other laws of God. If they could only realize that it is sin to have unbelief and to doubt God they would at least become moved to point of action against such law breaking. The trouble all along has been that most men consider unbelief and doubt as part of human nature and something to be expected and not to be changed. The attitude has been that of being indifferent about it. When it is easy to believe there is no problem, but when it becomes a struggle and hard to believe it is hard to passed it off as something that cannot be help at all. This is where the devil has got the upper hand of men who pray. He makes them think that not all men can believe God and that if one cannot do so, then it is perfectly right to live in unbelief and to doubt and waver all that one pleases.