Gotta Have Faith

I have named this post "Gotta Have Faith." If you've been a music listener for any amount of time I think you know where I borrowed this title from. In 1987 George Michael wrote the tune and later in the early 2000's rock band Limp Bizkit decided to give it a go. However the faith I'm talking about here may be of a different kind. The faith I'm referring to here is faith in Jesus Christ. You see, the Bible has a ton to say about faith. In a moment I'll walk you through some practical elements of faith as told by Jesus, as well as what faith looks like when in abundance and when we're lacking it. Before we begin, let's get a clear Biblical definition of faith by looking at Hebrews 11:1:

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1(NIV).

Last week I was talking with a friend of mine about some things I was praying about and expecting God to act upon in my life. He said something to me while not overly profound that have had an enormous impact on my walk with Jesus. He told me that Jesus does not respond to need, he responds to faith. Since then the Holy Spirit has revealed to me some important things about having sufficient faith. You see too often we wonder why God is not moving in our lives. We keep praying the same prayers, going to small group, attending church, etc. However we seemingly miss the element of strong faith all the time. I only felt it fitting to share with you the journey the Holy Spirit has taken me on the last week or so in regards to my faith. Before we dive in let me tell you this: faith has nothing to do with how much head knowledge you have. Seeing God work through your faith is not conditional based on how good of a person you are or how often you do a good deed for the homeless. Faith is seen by God when he looks at the inner workings of your heart. It's quite simple - God moves when we don't doubt him and know he will always follow through on his word.

1. We all have needs, but we don't all have faith.

Mark 6 tells us the story of Jesus returning to his hometown where he was met with offense and unbelief. Because of their lack of faith the Bible tells us Jesus couldn't any miracles there. You see, the need was there but the faith was not. We see a similar situation in Luke 9 when the disciples could not heal a demon possessed boy. Jesus responds in Luke 9:41 with "you faithless and corrupt people!" Again - the need was there but the faith was insufficient. However in other areas of scripture we read the same types of needs of people were present and when accompanied with faith, Jesus showed up and people were healed. Faith is more than just believing in Jesus. Faith is saying, "God I don't understand how, but I know you will." Faith is less about us being religious and more about us being vulnerable and dependent upon someone greater than ourselves.

2. Steer clear of "faith" road blocks.

Fear and doubt are certainly two of the major kinks in the hose of faith. In Luke 8:50 as Jesus goes to heal the daughter of Jarius, Jesus tells him "don't be afraid, just have faith and she WILL be healed". You see, we doubt God alot and fear what will happen if our worst nightmares come true. In the case of Jarius his daughter was dead. Jesus steps in and says no, no, no. This isn't the way it's suppose to be - just have faith and she WILL be healed. Yes, you read that right. There is no over complicating this story. We must steer away from the fear road block because when we encounter that we are literally blocking Jesus out of fixing our situation. Picking up in verse 51 we read that Jesus took Peter, James, and John into the house along with the girl's mom and dad. The house was filled with weeping and wailing (lack of faith perhaps?). Jesus told them all to stop weeping, she isn't dead! The crowd laughed at him and still did not let their guards down for Jesus to revive her. I can assume Jaruius took comfort in the words of Jesus and had faith because his daughter was brought back to life! Here's what I know: Don't let the world shake your faith when they laugh at you for believing God to do something impossible. Instead lean on Luke 1:37 (nothing is impossible with God) and know that all God wants is for us to believe in his promises.

3.We receive our faith when we live in the spirit.

If you're not a regular attendee of Church you may not be sure what I mean when I say "live in the spirit". To put it simply we are triune beings (meaning we have a body, soul, and spirit). The spirit in us is from God and is the only perfect thing about us. As a matter of fact - the same spirit that rose Jesus from the grave is in us (Romans 6:10-11). Here's my point: our soul will lie to us if we allow it to and the flesh will always fail us in the end. However the spirit is true and perfect and it abides in us so we must live in the spirit and not in the flesh. If we rest on the finished work of Jesus in our lives we can be assured good things will follow. We must meditate on practicing a strong faith despite difficult trials and know that God WILL be victorious over our circumstances. If we can get to the point of renewing our minds and living in the spirit, our faith will grow exponentially and I believe we will start to see God moving like never before.