Faith (1)

Faith 1: Faith And Believe

There are so many documentations and works on Faith and Believe. Those works have been elevating the minds and status of believers all over the globe, and they sure will continue to do so.

For easy comprehension, I will also be writing on faith in this write up, however, I have broken the write up into sections to help believers in the read, picturing and understanding this crucial subject on which believers are hanging on and by extension on which the entire world is subsisting on. This is because there is no one on earth who does not have faith or believe in something. What individuals believe on varies though, but it is some kinds of faith too needful for their progression in all their undertakings.

I will however be writing on faith as related to the Christian faith, to Jesus Christ, and I am sure that you will benefit there by.

Let us go through the simple documentations I have here in on the word of faith.

Definition of Faith

Greek word commonly used for faith in the New Testament is πίστις, if Romanized it is 'pistis' (pronounced as pis’-tis). Answers.com defines faith as “a conviction of the truth of anything.” Wikibooks while defining faith says it is from the Greek word from which (pistueo) which means believe that pistis which means faith comes from.

This can be deduced about this word, faith (pistis), that it means “belief, firm persuasion, assurance, firm conviction, faithfulness”.

In addition to this, it can be said that faith “is the act whereby a person lays hold of God's resources, becomes obedient to what He has prescribed, putting aside all self interest and self-reliance, and completely trusts in Him. It is an unqualified surrender of the whole of one's being in dependence upon Him. It is wholly trusting and relying upon Him for all things. It is not just mental assent to the facts and realities of truth, it essentially comes from a deep inner conviction”, because James says in his epistle that, “the demons also believe” (James 2:19).

Faith from online dictionary has the followings amongst others as definition: “trust in God and in his actions and promises; complete confidence or trust in a person, remedy; a conviction of the truth of certain doctrines of religion, especially when this is not based on reason”. From the e-Sword bible, faith in Greek is, πίστις called pistis pronounced as pis'-tis which means persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.”

Definition of Believe

Believe in Greek word is a verb. The Greek word for believe is πιστεύω, which if Romanized is called pisteuō pronounced as pist-yoo'-o which means “to believe”.

Biblehub.com says, this word, pisteuo is used as an intransitive verb, which means, to think to be true; to be persuaded of; to credit, place confidence in. Online free dictionary however adds that believe means “to accept as true or real”.

E-sword Bible says, believe (pistueo) means “to trust in and rely upon, commit to the charge of, confide in, have a mental persuasion” of something or someone.

Amalgamation

The above definitions of faith and believe shows that they are intertwined, because it means to be persuaded, to be convicted that something is true, to firmly believe in something or someone that it is true or real, relying on God totally.

Faith 2: Position of Your Heart (Your Thoughts Matter)

Before faith works or work effectually it needs something. It is not enough you stop doubting (you may read my article on doubt for more on this) within your heart. It is not enough you know what the Lord says on something. It is not enough you acted positively on something. Note you must balance your actions with your emotions and balance thine emotions with your thoughts. The seat of your soul matters to God. He wants your actions to be balanced by your thoughts. There is an adage in my land that I will like you to consider, “you shot arrows up and cover yourself with mortar”. This is talking about the intents of mind, what that person is thinking on. Another similar proverb that shows the mind of people says, “there is blood in your heart, but you spit out white saliva”. These two proverbs show how the mind of people is, as the bible says, that the heart of man is desperately wicked who can know it “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) This is what makes man dangerous because they will be saying what they do not mean. Someone says, the heart of man is deep, while somebody else says, “the real man is inside”, the physical man that we are looking outside is not the real man. The real man is the person who is inside, and talking about the person who is inside, it is talking about the thoughts inside of the man. Our thoughts show who we are. That is why the bible says Jesus does not rely on people because he knows them.

“But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,

“And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” (Joh. 2:24-25)

It is the past tense of know that the author of the book of John uses here, which shows that he had known the people before, not that he is just knowing them. The Greek word used for “know” here is “γινώσκω”, ginōskō (pronounced as ghin-oce'-ko) which means be aware of, perceive, understand, be sure. He was and is sure of what is in man always, and when someone is sure of what he can meet at a place he doesn’t need to disturb himself when others are disturbing themselves about the place.

Consider the incident that happened when Prophet Elijah was carried away from the world by the chariots of fire, other sons of the prophets said they wanted to go and search for the man of God but he forbade them, but at their insistence he allowed them to go only to return to tell him that they could not find the man and he told them that haven’t I told you before?

“And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.

“And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not.

“And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?” (2 Ki. 2:16-18)

He was sure of what happened to his master as such he wasn’t disturbing himself, but those who weren’t sure were disturbing themselves. That is how it is with Jesus here, he knows the position of the mind of each person in the world as such he wasn’t disturbed neither would he allow for anyone to give descriptions of man unto him.

Because he knows what is in all, “πᾶς” (this Greek word for all if Romanized is called “pas”) which means any, every, whole, whosoever he, jesus, doesn’t allow anyone to testify, “μαρτυρέω”, martureō (mar-too-reh'-o as it is being spelt phonetically), bearing a witness, give testimony, report, of man for him neither did he commit, “πιστεύω”, pisteuō (pronounced as pist-yoo'-o), to have faith in, entrust himself on any man.

He couldn’t entrust himself neither allow anyone to give a report about man unto him because he knows the depth of the hearts of men, he sees what people cannot see, what cannot be seen with physical eyes he sees it and it is the soul, the depth, the thought of men.

It is this seat of the thought of man that is the composition of man, it is this that makes up man, not the physical body that we are seeing. The physical body is like a building that people are seeing its outside, no one can know what is inside the house except they enter the building.

Who can say that Lazarus the beggar would inherit the kingdom of heaven while the rich man wouldn’t when they were both living in the world? No one could say this because they were looking at the outside. They were looking at their supposed works of service for humanity, but they were not seeing what the depths of their hearts were, what their compositions were. Assuming people living with them then could see what the composition of their hearts were they would have extrapolated and say that this is where the beggar would end his life and that is where the rich man would end his life, but because they couldn’t see this, no one could predict what would become of them in the life beyond. The God who however sees the depths of the hearts of men, judged them accordingly allowing each to end up his life where he deserved to end his life in. (Luke 16:19-31)

It is the heart that God sees, knows, deals with and searches for “deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” (Psa. 42:7); “They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.” (Psa. 64:6)

Irrespective of what your actions are after you have received that word of faith, what your mind does on the heard word matters.

Consider Genesis chapter 4, God said unto Cain, “sin croucheth at thy door”

“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” (Gen. 4:7)

On closer examination of what God said unto Cain here with what apostle John wrote in the book of Revelation 3:20 we shall likely draw a conclusion that God is not talking about the physical door when he was talking to Cain, but he was talking about the door of his heart.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20)

What you are thinking on, on that situation or problem matters a lot, that is why gospel according to saint Mark chapter 7 verse 20-23 says,

“And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

“Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

“All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (Mark. 7:20-23)

Before anyone begins to act contrarily, one would have thought about what he wants to do first before carrying out those actions. Before one steals, the person would have thought it over before carrying out the act. In the same vein, before anyone gives his or her life to Jesus Christ, the person would have thought it over within himself.

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19)

“But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” (Acts 26:20)

God wants us to be saved, however, before anyone can say that he has been saved the person would have to repent of his sins, one cannot genuinely repent if the person hasn’t thought about what he heard and taken a decisive step on what he has heard.

God wants our actions to be balanced by our thoughts, by our emotions. This is what God wants to see in our lives before vindicating us before people. Before we can enjoy faith to the fullest, we need to balance our thoughts with our actions, we shouldn’t be thinking about something and be acting on another thing.

Some of us are yet to experience God’s miracles because what we are saying or demonstrating is yet to be balanced by our thoughts before him. And it is this seat of the mind, it is this soul that the Lord notices and pays attention to most. He sees less of the physical actions, note, I am not saying he is not seeing our physical actions, but what I am saying is he weighs our thoughts.

In the book of first Samuel chapter 16, God told his servant Samuel that he should neither look at their countenance for man looks on the outward, but God looks on the inward.

“And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD'S anointed is before him.

“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (1 Sa. 16:6-7)

He knows when our actions are not balanced by our thoughts and that is why so many people do not receive pass mark before God; that is why so many people have not been promoted; it is for this same reason that only few people would make heaven at the last days.

Hannah has been going to Shiloh for long, but the day her thoughts balanced her actions by faith that was when she received the most anticipated blessings.

“So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.

“And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.

“And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.” (1 Sa. 1:9-11)

“And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth.

“Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

“And Eli said unto her, how long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.

“And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.

“Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.

“Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

“And she said, let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.” (1 Sa. 1:12-18)

Some would be hammering the vow that the woman made here to be the reason behind Yahweh’s answering her prayers, but I do not so believe. What made Yahweh to answer her was that she balanced her thoughts by actions that day, she puts her thoughts into practice, she puts her faith into her action, she shows that she has a God whom she could also talk to directly. Not until our thoughts are balanced by our actions, we may not make appreciable progress in this matter of faith.

On another case we need to consider another man of faith in the bible, the unnamed prophet (small prophet) from Judah. This small prophet (unknown prophet) in the book of first Kings chapter 13, God sees that his thoughts were yet to balance his actions that was why he was left for the enemies to “attack” him. Literarily saying, assuming he was the type whose thoughts have balanced his sayings this would have been revealed by his actions when he was confronted, by the second prophet, older prophet, for he would flee, he will not stay nearby. If we agree that he made a mistake by saying the God given secret of his itinerary out when talking with the King, but he still had the opportunity of fleeing that place, he had a chance of running for his dear life as Joseph did.

We shall see that in the account on the life of Joseph the great patriarch in Genesis 39, his actions were balanced by his thoughts, he was not merely saying I do not want to sin, I do not want to commit adultery, he was not merely saying, “how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9c) No! he acted it out. He balanced it by his thinking, and he fled.

“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Tim. 2:22)

He did not wait, I have the premonition that he would have fled out of the place, room half-naked, that is he probably left with a pant on him, he was not ashamed. Have you fled sin?

It is not everyone in the world who wants us for good, even those who we think are our friends, some of them if their hearts are revealed unto us, we shall know that they do not want us for progress in life. Therefore, it is imperative that we guide those things that God has given us jealously. For a gift not jealously protected would be lost. If you do not protect your children jealously, they could be murdered by enemies. Dreams we do not guard; the enemies could tamper with it. That is why it is important that we protect those things that God has given us, our spiritual gifts, our salvation and other things of the spirit inclusive.

The small prophet’s thoughts did not balance his actions, sayings. Peradventure, he was already hungry, wanting, desirous to eat something by the time the older prophet gets to him.

In the book of Numbers chapter twenty we read of what happened between Prophet Moses Israelites and God. And if we can closely examine the basis of Yahweh’s judgement, we shall see that it was the contents of the hearts of Prophet Moses that God judged but not the actions.

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

“Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

“And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

“And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

“And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

“And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” (Num. 20:7-12)

What was in his heart that God sees and judged was unbelieve, for the writer says, “because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Num. 20:12b). what God saw was unbelief in his heart, he did not believe that ordinary word to the rock could work wonders, he did not believe that speaking to the rock alone would bring about the needful changes, and because he did not believe this, he failed to sanctify Yahweh before the people of God. God by telling him to speak to the rock wants to use that to promote himself, elevate his name among the people he wants to use that to show the people that he can work in divers ways, he wants to show them that he cannot be cornered, that he owns the entire world and he does whatsoever he pleases in the midst of men.

Prophet Moses however fails in bringing this to the people of God because of what has been in his heart, because of the unbelieve in his heart. Because his heart wasn’t in tandem with what God expects of him, he was disallowed from leading the people of God into the promised land though he earnestly asks for a reconsideration, but he was turned down by God.

“I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

“But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.

“Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

“But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.” (Deu. 3:25-28)

Check yourself, what are your thoughts? What are those things in my heart? Am I one of the pretenders? It is this thinking that people call dreaming, you must dream it before you have it, you must dream it before you receive it. What are your dreams? Have you not considered why some people’s miracles do not last long? Some people’s miracles do not last long because of their dreams, because of their thoughts.

That is why Jesus told the man in the book of John chapter 5 that “go and sin no more”.

“Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (John 5:14)

Untoward thought (thinking) is a sin, it makes evil things to enter one’s life, even terrible things than the ones that have happened to the person before. What are your dreams? What are your thoughts?

Beloved, our thoughts must balance our actions and our sayings before God sees us as a serious man, as a man who says what he means, as a man who is committed to what he says. Some children use to sing a song, that says, “where-ever you go, where-ever you be, do not say yes, when you mean to say no”

There are so many people who are saying yes when in fact they mean no. some are saying yes to clarion call to be saved when in fact they meant no. Consider the case of Ananias and Sapphira. God judged their thoughts, their intentions. (Acts 5)

“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,

“And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

“Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

“And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.

“And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.

“And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.

“And Peter answered unto her, tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.

“Then Peter said unto her, how is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.

“Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.” (Act. 5:1-10)

Bible students will recall that the devil used Balaam to instruct King Balak’s people, the Moabites, to lure the Israelites to sin if they really want to get hold of them. This they did and God became annoyed with his people as he sent troubles into their midst. While this was ongoing, and the people were looking for means of pacifying God’s anger one of the Israelites brought into their midst his concubine. This grieved Phinehas such that he arose in fury and killed the man and the woman and the anger of the Lord against his people was stopped.

He moved God with his actions on his throne, and Yahweh decides to make a covenant with him and his generation forever because his actions was in tandem with his thoughts.

“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

“And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.

“And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.

“And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

“And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;

“And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

“Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

“Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace.” (Num. 25:1-3, 6-8 & 11-12)

Beloved, our thoughts matter before faith works, he, God, wants our thoughts to be balanced by what we profess.

What more would I say about the thoughts of the three Hebrews in the land of Babylon? There thoughts were balanced by their actions in standing for their God even at the impossible status and position. They told the king what they believed would happen but, in the case, such did not happen they said, they are ready to go to God, go and rest from this dangerous world.

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

“But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (Dan. 3:16-18)

However, in the case of Samson we shall see that his thoughts were not in agreement with the word and the promises of God for him, because his thoughts weren’t standing on the promises of God, he suffered for it. (Judg. 14-16). It is when our thoughts agree with the words of God that we shall be able to make impact, positive impacts in this path of faith, this path of Jesus that we have been called to.

Some would say they are not doubting what the Lord can do, of a truth they aren’t, but their thoughts are polluted, like that of Samson the mighty, and since their thoughts are polluted, they wouldn’t be able to make appreciable progress in this path of faith.

Because of the thoughts that have been polluted that is why some of us when we pray still think there may be recurrence, the sickness may relapse after being healed by God. God does not want us to allow such iota of thoughts in us again, he wants us to always rely on the word of God.

Do our thoughts balance our actions? I want to encourage you that you should let your thought balance your actions from thenceforth.