Explaining faith

[StaySalty]

Can someone please give a thorough explanation of faith There are so many passages where God says almost magical sounding verses, that I know are true but nevertheless don't understand.

For example:

" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Mark 9:23

14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.
1 John 5:14-15

21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1 John 3:21-23


23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:23-24

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
Psalm 84:11

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

We know that faith is useless in heaven, since then we will see face to face. So, these scriptures are for us now here on earth. Does anyone have a testimony or something they can share concerning these scriptures?

 

[jangnim]

Wow This is a can of worms...

Let's preface this with the admission that mine is but one, possibly ineloquint statement of Christian faith.

Does everyone get hooked on these verses? It took me years to come to grips with it and I still can't fully grasp its content. I think at issue is the world around us. We go through life with the word 'no'. We hear constantly how we can't do this or that. I am going to try this, in hopes of getting my understanding across.

The Bible is filled with the promises of God. Some are subtle, and others simply say, If you do this, God will do that. Faith is 'knowing' that what God has said He will do. If we remind ourselves of His promises, in prayer, He will carry out those promises for us.

Recent example: I am out of work for several years now. I was short of money and was in a bind. My savings account was hit with a 50 dollar charge, a week ago. I recalled that Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given unto you" and told Jesus that He said this and I needed to get past this monetary issue. I also recalled that He said that if the Father takes care of the birds, He will also care for us. I reminded Him of this and then I simply trusted Him, yet again, for my needs. Yesterday I got a check from an unexpected source for nearly the exact amount I had lost to the bank charge.

The short and the long of it is that, we change, but our Father never changes. If He makes a promise He will stand by the promise. However there is a devil, who will make us doubt. When that happens, we must fall back onto the promises and remember that Jesus is Lord, and God our Father, CAN'T lie. Since He can't lie we must trust what He says is true. This is faith, to know something is true, simply because God said it is true.

If we are centered in the will of the Father, nothing we can desire is apart from His will, and so He will give us the desires of our hearts, within those limits. I say this in consideration that Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, did so from a prison cell. I doubt he sat around trusting God to get Him out of prison, but instead bore the suffering, as a gift from God. (May we all find this to be true).

There are many who carry this to extreme, telling people not to speak anything negative even if it is true. For example, if asked how you are, you should never say, "I feel lousy" this they would say is a negative confession.

While I believe that when we say the Word of God, believing, I do not think that our personal words are much of a source of concern, unless they are mixed with faith in Gods word. I would say, if you are quoting Gods word in prayer, and asking Him for something harmful, he isn't going to give it to you either. Finally, I don't think I feel that when I admit to someone that I am undergoing trials, that I am neseccarily going to make them worse.

This is more answer than your question, but I hope it helps you find your path to Christ a little less difficult.

May He richly bless you.

 

[minister_kcc]

Hmmm...faith....

Believe God. Trust God for everything...no matter how hard, bad, frustrating, desperate, or trying a situation gets. God loves when we praise Him no matter what. I find that just acknowledging Him causes Him to smile on me......

 

[StaySalty]

thanks for your replys, they are both very helpful. I know it's a tough subject, and one that I'm working on because I want to have strong faith. Christ says when He returns, will He find FAITH on the earth?? Well, if He does during my life time, I sure hope so.

And I do have faith, but I've heard in church that God can respond to our 'requests' 1 of 3 ways: Yes, No, or Wait.

I'm a young man, and I have had experiences where I've felt the grace of God (usually concerning forgiveness or something), but I'm not sure I've ever heard an audible response...but I have had feelings certainly (especially after pouring out my heart in prayer).

But, my point is, I (like everyone) have things I'd like that I can't accomplish on my own (at least I haven't been able to yet), and yet I know that Christianity isn't about us and our prosperity down here, because Christ tells us to DENY ourselves take up our CROSS and follow Him (Luke 9:23, I think...).

Anyway, I don't expect an exact answer to this, but I do believe that iron sharpens iron, so discussion is always helpful.

thanks

 

[poohmom]

I agree with the above posters. Also remember what it says in Hebrews 11. This whole chapter is strewn with examples of people who lived by faith. For without it, it impossible to please God.

Also remember in respect to God giving us the desires of our hearts, as we become more Christlike our desires come more in line with God's desires for us.

Thank you for starting this thread! It's wonderful!

God bless!

 

[Endure2]

i dont believe faith is a confusing or mystical thing...
its as straight forward as just believing, and sometimes its just hard to believe, and thats why its a struggle at times.

do you simply believe it? then yes, thats faith.

faith isnt a mental struggle... you either do or you dont, though i think sometimes we have the ability to choose which with our heart.

faith comes from the heart, not the mind.

read the word of God, pray, fast, these things allow the spirit of God to change you and work on you, enabling you to believe more and more.
without these things our flesh (which has an evil spiritual power that enclines us to not believe) will dominate us.

i know this about faith too,
and this is what confuses some people.
ephesians 2.8 says that we are not saved by works, but by FAITH... and THAT not of ourselves, IT is the gift of God.

just as salvation is a gift, so is faith, God has give it to you, create it in you... as you obey him and dig deep in the word and prayer and fasting.
this is why david prayed that God CREATE IN HIM a clean heart and RENEW in him a right spirit, becuase he couldnt doit himself. but meditating in the word of God, letting get deep down in your spirit, praying and fasting allow God to give it to you.

alot of people really struggle and try to believe but just cant...
becuase they are trying to have faith, without the word of God, prayer and fasting. but with these things its easy to be bold and clear minded free of the doubts and worries that fustrate people who really try but cant.

 

[jangnim]

i dont believe faith is a confusing or mystical thing...
its as straight forward as just believing, and sometimes its just hard to believe, and thats why its a struggle at times.

do you simply believe it? then yes, thats faith.

faith isnt a mental struggle... you either do or you dont, though i think sometimes we have the ability to choose which with our heart.

faith comes from the heart, not the mind.

read the word of God, pray, fast, these things allow the spirit of God to change you and work on you, enabling you to believe more and more.
without these things our flesh (which has an evil spiritual power that enclines us to not believe) will dominate us.

i know this about faith too,
and this is what confuses some people.
ephesians 2.8 says that we are not saved by works, but by FAITH... and THAT not of ourselves, IT is the gift of God.

just as salvation is a gift, so is faith, God has give it to you, create it in you... as you obey him and dig deep in the word and prayer and fasting.
this is why david prayed that God CREATE IN HIM a clean heart and RENEW in him a right spirit, becuase he couldnt doit himself. but meditating in the word of God, letting get deep down in your spirit, praying and fasting allow God to give it to you.

alot of people really struggle and try to believe but just cant...
becuase they are trying to have faith, without the word of God, prayer and fasting. but with these things its easy to be bold and clear minded free of the doubts and worries that fustrate people who really try but cant.

Nicely said Endure2

 

[jangnim]

thanks for your replys, they are both very helpful. I know it's a tough subject, and one that I'm working on because I want to have strong faith. Christ says when He returns, will He find FAITH on the earth?? Well, if He does during my life time, I sure hope so.

Trust and Obey my friend, for there's no other way.

And I do have faith, but I've heard in church that God can respond to our 'requests' 1 of 3 ways: Yes, No, or Wait.

I think this is a stumbling point for many. I have actually heard some preachers say that Jesus always says yes. And yet I find it hard to think Jesus would say yes to something He knows is going to harm us at some future point. I think you're on the money here.

I'm a young man, and I have had experiences where I've felt the grace of God (usually concerning forgiveness or something), but I'm not sure I've ever heard an audible response...but I have had feelings certainly (especially after pouring out my heart in prayer).

Stick with it brother. You are on the right track. God is a God of very few words in my experience, yet I have heard Him through His word and His miraculous peace.

But, my point is, I (like everyone) have things I'd like that I can't accomplish on my own (at least I haven't been able to yet), and yet I know that Christianity isn't about us and our prosperity down here, because Christ tells us to DENY ourselves take up our CROSS and follow Him (Luke 9:23, I think...).

I think the issue is not prosperity, but understanding why God prospers us. Our money is supposed to be used for those in need. This is a bit of information often forgotten by us, and leads to fleshly indulgence. We have a fine line here however since the scriptures also tell us that our every need and the desires of our hearts will be met. Yes we should Deny ourselves, which is accomplished by sacrificing personal desires in favor of the good of all. This by the way does not mean we are to live in poverty either. It is a much bigger thing than we have said here.

Anyway, I don't expect an exact answer to this, but I do believe that iron sharpens iron, so discussion is always helpful.

thanks

I look forward to both sharpening and being sharpened by you friend. May our Lord richly bless you.

 

[Endure2]

thankyou.... friend.

 

[Dmckay]

I posted this originally in answering an individual's question about Faith and why God had to have Jesus die. This portion of that post is still germaine so I will plagerize myself here:

Faith is not the, "Blind step of" thing that it is so often referred to as, even by Believers who should know better. The Christian faith is not some foggy sweet-by-and-by thing. God gave us minds and He expects us to use them. Many times we read, "These things are written that you might KNOW" John closes his Gospel with these very words.

You see, if you do a study of the use of the word faith throughout Scripture one thing becomes clearly evident, Biblical Saving Faith is nothing more and nothing less than Biblical content in action. By this I mean that we are NEVER asked to believe or act on anything that God has not said. The opposite is also true, if God has said it we are not only to believe it, but also to act upon it. The definition of Faith found in the great faith chapter Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." to our western way of thinking is rather nebulous. But actually what it is saying is, "If God said it, you can believe it, and that should settle it for you!"

The assurance of things hoped for-Pray believing you have already received. Conviction of things not seen—I don't have to understand or see it because if God said it it is true or it will happen. If you read through chapter 11 everyone who is commended for their faith Acted upon what God said believing that it was a given that what He said He will do. We don't have to understand all we have to do is act upon whatever it is the God has said.

Many of the verses that you list as sounding almost magical in nature are because you are looking at these verses out of context. Perhaps not he immediate context of ajoining verses is a couple of cases, but rather the larger context of the Biblical teaching on prayer. There are many passages that add to the knowledge of prayer and give guidelines which govern the answer to prayer. This isn't a magic formula that gets the believer anything that they want.

There are specific things which hinder prayer: Not asking in faith without doubting–James 1:6; asking with the wrong motives–James 4:3; not praying according to God's will–1 John 5:14; not honoring and loving your spouse will hinder your prayers– 1 Peter 3:7; having unconfessed sin in your life–Psalm 66:18;not believing that the prayer will be answered–Mark 11:24.

Basicallly, the secret to answered prayer is having your heart and mind closely attuned to the Lord's Mind and Will. Our prayer of faith is claiming the promise that God has already granted us in His Word. The more we know the Word the better we know His Will and we will ask accordingly.

You mentioned the context of the Mark 11:24 passage. I know of a small church that was having problems with parking. Their property had a rather large hill on it that was useless to them. They couldn't afford to have the hill removed and the area paved. At their Wednesday night prayer meeting they claimed the promise of Mark 11:23 and Matthew 17:20 That the Lord remove the hill that was in their way. A few days later they were approached by a construction company that needed fill-dirt for a project. They had figured that the hill was just the right amount for their project. They offered to buy the dirt and paved the parking lot that the church was praying for.