True Faith

 

Christians probably hear more teaching about faith than they do about Jesus. During my walk with Jesus He has taught me many things about faith, but in all my struggles to learn about faith, faith has never taught me anything about Jesus. 

When you think about it, we all have faith. Believers and unbelievers, even blasphemers have faith. Most humans have faith the sun is going to rise every morning, but does our faith in its rising cause the sun to rise?  Actually, we have faith the sun will rise every morning because the sun has risen so many mornings. Because of all the sunrises we experience, on cloudy days we do not panic. We know the sun is still there.

I've struggled with many teachings I have heard about Christian faith but with none so much as the concept that faith is something that we speak which leaves scores of Christians thinking that finding something in The Bible that is true and saying it over and over and over is going to make it happen because they believe it is true. Well, a parrot can repeat something it's well taught, but we all know that isn't going to make it so.

Parroting verses and repeating after a Pastor from the pew on Sundays is not going to bring about anything. Faith is a Heavenly substance; Heavenly evidence of hope and things not seen!  Only Jesus can teach us what faith is. Only Jesus can recognize Faith in us. Until we think of faith like Jesus thinks of faith we are going to be like a puppy chasing its tail.

In a previous blog I shared what God had shown me concerning Peters lack of faith as he walked on the water to Jesus. Jesus said Peter had 'little' faith because trust that exists only during a supernatural experience is 'little' faith. Jesus longed for Peter to trust He would not let him drown when he started to sink.  

Let's look at a Biblical example where Jesus actually tells His disciples they have NO faith.

In Mark chapter 4 there is a story of a boat trip Jesus and His disciples took across the lake.  A fierce storm whipped up and battered the boat with waves until it was filling with water. Terrified, the disciples woke Jesus who was sleeping peacefully in the chaos shouting at Him, "Hey, how can you sleep? Don't you care that we are all going to drown here?!"

 "How is it," He said, "That you guys have NO faith?"  This always puzzled me. I mean, they went to Jesus, called on Him when they realized they were in deep trouble, isn't that the right thing to do?  Was Jesus saying, because I told you we were going to the other side of the lake you should be able to go through a near-death experience along the way without freaking out and calling on God? He didn't just reassure them until they touched shore saying, "See, didn't I tell you we'd go to the other side?" as if they were three years old learning to trust mommy when they were frightened.  

As I looked closely at the story and listened to The Spirit speaking to my heart, I saw what Jesus saw. The disciples accused Jesus of not caring if they died! They were angry that He was there, but did not do what they thought He should do to save them. They decided He didn't care.Their fear of the storm and what it would do to them exposed their true heart belief-that Jesus could sleep on comfortably as the boat sank and they all died in the storm! 

Can you imagine Jesus standing on the shore later shrugging His shoulders thinking, well, I sure wish they had more faith?  

 Faith in you knows the character of your Father in Heaven. Faith is God-stuff created in your heart by experiencing the heart of God. Faith is the trust produced by knowing God's heart toward you even when you may have no evidence of it in your human experience. 

Faith is not believing in an outcome because we believe a Bible verse is true. Faith is not speaking something The Bible says like a mantra. Jesus said that out of the abundance of what is in our heart our mouth speaks. Jesus, The Fruit of the Holy Spirit within us, bubbling forth from our heart, is Faith.

Jesus-all He is, is both the seed and the fruit of what we call Faith.