Focus: Faith Toward God Part 2
Greetings Sons of God:
Hebrews 11:1 - “Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen”
If we are to have faith toward God we must know what faith
is and Hebrews 11 tells us that. Now if
it was this simple why are so many people struggling with faith. Maybe what they think it is, is not. So let’s break the Scripture down and get an
understanding. There are three major
words in this scripture that we need to define: substance, hoped and
evidence.
Substance is simply what it is or reality. So plug that definition in for
substance: Now faith is the reality
(Substance). Now let’s look at hoped.
The word hoped is
past-tense so it lets us know of a past situation or condition. Now hope is not wishing. Wishing has uncertainty attached to it but
hope is certain and will happen. What we
hoping for? We are hoping for the
fulfillment of the spoken Word of God.
This why God would say this:
Isaiah 55:11: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my
mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
So our hope is in the Word of God knowing that the thing
that God has said will come to past at the appointed time. But in the Scripture
the word hope is hoped so it denotes a past situation or circumstance so let’s
plug our definition in for hoped.
Now faith is the reality (substance) of thing that God said
He would do (hoped).
Now evidence is simply proof. Let’s connect the dots now and see our
Scripture:
Now faith is the reality (substance) of the thing that God
said He would do (hoped) the proof (evidence) of God and His Kingdom (things
unseen).
So how do we mature in our faith toward God? Well according to the definition the center
of faith is the Word of God and us hearing it.
Hmmm!
Romans 10:17: So then
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God
Makes sense now? The way we mature in pointing our faith
toward God is by training our ear to hear the Word of God and being obedient to
that word and waiting in many cases for the manifestation of God’s Word. How many of us ever though about training our
ear. Well be looking at the state of
many, not many. Religion has made faith
so complicated to a point people just say believe and to this generation it is
not enough but when we can accurately define something and the Lord makes it
practical we can begin to see many mature and understand how our relationship
should function between us as sons and God the Father.
So, faith toward God is simply lending your ear solely to
the Word of Lord and obey His word. When
we grow in the aspect of being sons we can then begin to see the character of
God (Seven Spirits of God Isaiah 11:1,2) being manifested within the sons of
God.
In the next message we will
examine the doctrine of baptisms.
Peace, Love and Grace,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.
