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Faith in a Finished Work
By Dr. James B. Richards
When it comes to faith the main word that I think of is inconsistency. It seems that believers are in a constant struggle for their faith to work consistently. Some things for which we believe happen, others things don’t. This unpredictability of results undermines our faith and is a great cause for wavering!
Because of what we believe about faith we pull ourselves up from the disappointment of a failed faith and try again. The problem is that we try again using the same faulty approach that didn’t work the first time. Because we do not understand the inner working of faith, the issues of the heart, we do what we have seen others do and hope it will work.
In the early seventies I listened to one of my favorite radio preachers explain how he used his faith to get healed. He clearly explained each step he took right up to his healing; then, in so many words, he summed it up by implying, “If you’ll do what I did you’ll get healed!”
I was amazed. I sat in the parking lot taking mental notes so I would know exactly what to do the next time I needed a miracle. As I sat in awe, reviewing my mental notes, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and said, “That’s not how it happened.” At first I thought that was my own criticism, but He continued, “That’s what he did on the outside, but what happened on the outside is not what produced the miracle.” The Lord then showed me how all the emphasis was on behavior and performance.
Although He didn’t use this exact terminology that day, I realize that I needed to see beyond the outer workings. We can be like the children of Israel who observed God’s actions, or we can be like Moses who learned God‘s ways. (Ps 103:7) To have a consistent faith we need to know The Anatomy of a Miracle! Anatomy is the inner workings; it is what occurs at a heart level. What people do, the part we can see, is only what they do to facilitate their heart in believing the truth.
If what I do doesn’t work, I don’t need to keep trying. Trying the same thing with more passion doesn’t make it work; it simply makes me more discouraged when it fails. In fact, Proverbs 13:12 identifies the cycle of deferred hope as a destructive force in the heart! As Jesus taught in Mark 4:25, you tend to get more of what you’ve gotten in the past. If you have inconsistent results, you get even more inconsistency. If your faith works consistently you tend to get more and more consistent.
Believing and experiencing our beliefs becomes an endless cycle of repetition and corrupt logic. Our beliefs create our experiences. Then, based on those same beliefs that created the experience we interpret the experience, thereby, reinforcing the logic that created the experience. Jesus said it like this, For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. In the area of faith we have repeatedly tried the same things that have never worked. But we are convinced that if we try them harder they will work.
Facing and growing through these types of issues would not be hard if it weren’t for the myriad of misconceptions about faith that are so widespread and readily accepted as truth. In the context of the parable of the sower and the seed we realize that the only way to break out of this cycle is to change the beliefs of our heart. Changing these beliefs starts by an attitude adjustment. We have to want truth more than we want to preserve our religious culture. Then we have to know where to look for that truth. People sometimes think they can randomly extract Scriptures from the Bible and find truth; however, truth is no longer true when taken out of context.
Much of what we use as “proof texts” to explain our circumstances are often Scriptures that do not apply to the New Covenant. Old Covenant Scriptures cannot be our source of understanding New Testament truth. My faith should rest solely and completely on the finished work of Jesus; everything else is just details!
When our faith seems to fail there are a host of reasons given, all of which continue to undermine our faith. The most common is, “You don’t have enough faith.” The next is, “There must be some type of sin in your life!” Then there is the old standby, “You have opened the door to the devil and he is hindering your prayers!”
The one thing all of these faulty concepts have in common is that they accuse you! Accusation is the work of the devil. His name means accuser or slanderer. According to Jesus, accusation is the first thing that comes to steal the Word of God from your heart!
The second problem with this type of explanation is its tendency toward works righteousness. It always places the emphasis on something you must do to qualify for your faith to work. According to Colossians 1:12-13, if you are in Jesus, you are qualified for the inheritance and you are freed from the power of darkness. Ephesians 2:8 says we are saved, healed, delivered, blessed, prospered, protected, made whole, and set apart by faith, and that is not of ourselves, it is a gift of God. God has given us all the measure of faith! We have enough faith!
Then there is the acid test: What did Jesus show us? He is our Model. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Captain of our salvation. It is to Him we should look to determine the ideal model. Not once did Jesus try to make a person become qualified before ministering to them. The one thing He did was bring them to the place of believing! Even when He warned them of future destruction from their sinful lifestyle, He healed them first!
We wrongly think that miracles are the reward for living a good enough life, which would mean that it is no longer a work of faith! Miracles are not for the deserving; miracles are for the believing - according to Jesus!
We have had many wonderful pioneers of the faith without whom we would not be where we are today. We stand on the shoulders of all who have gone before us. It is by their help we look into the Kingdom of God, hoping to look farther than they were able to see. Most of the erroneous concepts of faith did not come from our pioneers of faith; they came from those who followed them, those who had not walked the path as a way of life but merely sought to repeat the information.
Those men and women who led us down the path of faith gave us all they discovered in their lifetime; but my question is this, Why would I want to stop at there? Hebrews 11 gives us what is known as the “roll call of faith.” It clearly says these all died not having received the promise. We didn’t stop where they stopped; we built on what they showed us. Likewise, today we build on what those who have gone before us have shown us. There is no dishonor for those who went before us when we go beyond where they were!
The problem with faith is not so much that what we were taught was wrong; it is that the missing pieces cause us to misunderstand. Those missing pieces help us to deal with the inner workings of the heart instead of to simply duplicate external behavior! I think a great place for understanding the most basic part of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1-2, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I want to touch briefly on some of the nuggets buried in this passage!
Faith means to fully believe something. I like the term “fully persuaded.” When we function in faith there is no wavering because we are absolutely sure. Until we become absolutely sure, we are not yet in a place of faith. In fact, to launch out prematurely will put us under the pressure that causes us to waver. It is impossible for us to take hold of (receive) what God has given when we waver! So, to have faith is to be “fully persuaded!”
The word substance presents a couple of very interesting concepts. In common usage the Greek word for substance means “title deed.” A title deed is what you receive when you purchase land. It is your proof of ownership. Although the land or the object purchased may be in another state or country, far beyond your ability to physically see, you know it is yours because you have the deed - the proof of ownership! So when a person is fully persuaded they have the proof of ownership! They will not waver!
Another interesting aspect of this word’s meaning is “sub-structure.” The ancients understood what scientists now explain in technical terms that all matter emerged from the invisible, subatomic world. We know that God spoke and His faith provided a sub-structure to arrange the subatomic world into those things for which He believed. Likewise, when we believe, those beliefs become the sub-structure that is able to go out into the invisible realm and bring into existence that which we cannot presently see. So, Hebrews could read like this: Being fully persuaded is the proof of ownership that provides a substructure…
The word “things” has very interesting implications. This is not things in a general sense; this word can mean “things that have been accomplished.” This is where we have to be established in the finished work of Jesus or our faith can become more presumption that anything.
I can’t just decide to believe for a particular kind of car based on the finished work of Jesus. (I do believe that we can utilize the laws of the heart for believing for things. But this is not the place to go into that.) If I believe based on the finished work of Jesus I can only be fully persuaded if I know the object of my hope is included in His death, burial, and resurrection.
I have to be sure of the things that have been accomplished for which I hope, or confidently expect. By now you’ve probably noticed how the idea of being “sure,” even the word hope, literally means confident expectation. In order to be confident about those things I expect, I must have some basis for my belief. The basis of my belief is not my belief! The basis of my belief is the finished work of Jesus. What did Jesus do through His death, burial, and resurrection? He freed me from all the curses of the law. (Gal. 3:13) He qualified me for all the promises. (2 Cor. 1:20) He stripped the devil and put him beneath my feet. (Col 2:15)
Then Hebrews goes on to say that it is the evidence of things not seen. Here is one of the greatest realities of faith: FAITH IS NOT BLIND! Faith is always based on evidence; however, it is not evidence that comes to us through the five senses, but evidence that at this moment is invisible. It is not non-existent! It is non-visible!
In Hebrews 11:3 we are told, By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. In Mark 11:22, Jesus tells us to have the God kind of faith. Operate faith in the same manner as God. God spoke into this realm and He created all that we can see from the subatomic energy we cannot see. His faith and His words brought the invisible into the visible form. That’s exactly why the writer includes this.
For us to bring something into being from the invisible world we have to know that it already exists in invisible form. For us to know that we must have evidence! When you are fighting the fight of faith which always occurs in the realm of the soul (thoughts, feelings, and emotions) the question is, what will you believe? I can tell you without hesitation, you will believe that for which you have the most evidence!
In my new series, Faith: The Missing Pieces, you will learn how to gather evidence that will make your heart fully persuaded. You will develop the capacity to perceive the invisible. I want to walk you through the five simple steps of the God kind of faith and help you come to a faith that never wavers. See the ad on page 2 or go to our online store at impactministries.com and download your series today!