What Is Faith?

Do you believe what the Bible says?

If you are a Christian (a “believer”), then there is only one answer to this question: of course you believe! Why? Because the Bible is the word of the all-powerful, all-knowing, unchanging God. Hebrews 6:18 tells us that God cannot and will not lie. It is impossible for Him to do anything other than tell the truth. So then, the following statement is reasonable: If God will not lie, and if the Bible is His word to us...then everything in the Scriptures is true. Because of that, we must believe it!

So let me ask you that question again...Do you believe what the Bible says? Really?

What about this passage from 2 Corinthians 5:21? “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Do you believe this? Do you believe that (according to Romans 4:6) every believer in Jesus has been made righteous?

But what about all the things you’ve done wrong? What about all those times you told lies….even after you were born again? What about that bitterness you felt toward someone else? What about those sins you’re too ashamed to even admit? Clearly those weren’t righteous things to do, were they? Does this mean that God was wrong when He called you righteous?

How do you handle it when the things you see and the things you feel don’t match up with what you read in the Bible?

It’s in situations like this that faith kicks in!

Faith is Believing What God Says

This is the most basic definition of what faith is. Faith is simply believing what God said in His word. That’s it! It’s so simple; if God said it in the pages of Scripture, faith is making the choice to believe it!

We can see this concept when we read in Genesis 15:1-6. This is the first time faith is mentioned in the Bible:
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Where do we see faith in this passage? It was when Abram heard what God said and then chose to believe it! This is the “first mention” of faith, and it is the definition that carries throughout the Bible. Faith is believing what God said. Faith always believes God...no matter what!

It’s easy to believe what God says when you can see what He's saying. If God said, “The sky is blue”, that would be an easy thing to believe. If He said, “Fire will burn you”, you would agree, right? But here’s a secret...that is not faith! Faith only kicks in when you can’t see what God is saying.

Faith Believes God No Matter What You See In The Natural

2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Just because you don’t feel righteous, doesn’t change the truth of God’s Word in 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Just because you don’t see your family members saved, doesn’t change what Acts 16:31 says. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Just because you don’t feel healthy, doesn’t change what 1 Peter 2:24 says. “...by Whose stripes you were healed.”

It’s only faith when you have the opportunity to disbelieve what God said. Look back at 2 Corinthians 5:7, and you can see two distinct choices...living by faith or living by sight. As long as you’re only believing what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell - then you are not living by faith.

We need to be like Elisha in 2 Kings 6:14-17
Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Surrounded by an enemy army, it would be natural for the servant to be afraid. The question is, why wasn’t Elisha afraid? Nowhere in this passage do we read that Elisha saw this angel army protecting them. No, Elisha and his servant both saw the same thing...naturally speaking. They both saw the enemy soldiers about to attack. So why was Elisha so calm?

It was because Elisha had faith in what God said. Long before Elisha was born, this scripture was written: Psalm 34:7 “The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.” Elisha didn’t need to see that angel army to know they were there. He had faith in God’s Word! Elisha then asked God to let his servant see what he already knew by faith.

Let me ask you this: Who, in this story, do most Christians identify with? Do we tend to be more like Elisha or like his servant? Whenever we’re faced with problems in this world, do we usually panic over what we see….or trust in what God said by faith?

Faith believes what God said...no matter what we see, hear, or feel!

Faith Believes God No Matter What Other People Are Saying

Romans 3:4 “Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.” If God told you “Yes”, then you can believe what He said...even when the whole world tells you “No”. There is no man or woman on earth that deserves your faith more than God. So faith believes what He said, in spite of what anyone else is saying.

Let’s go back to our first story - God’s promise to Abram

God told Abram that he would be a father of many nations. The promise was this: He would have so many descendants, that they would literally make up the populations of “many nations”. What was the natural problem with that promise? Abram had no kids!

He was already an old man when that promise came...and he only got older from there. He was seventy-five years old when God first spoke to him, and his wife Sarai was sixty-five. They were already old enough that it would take a miracle to have kids. But Abram believed that God could do what He said.

Twenty-four years later...he still believed it. Even though he and Sarai had no child. Even though he was 99 years old. Even though his own wife didn’t stand with him in faith. Abram still believed God’s word to him. He believed it so much that he changed his name to match that word! Following God’s instructions, he changed his name to Abraham (“father of many”) and his wife’s name to Sarah (“princess of the many”).

Imagine this!
A 100-year-old man who said for over twenty years that he would have a child with his 90-year-old wife.
After claiming to be a “father of many nations” for twenty-four years, he then announced that he was literally changing his name to match that claim.
And what’s more, he announced to his wife that he was changing her name as well!
I wonder how well that went over…

But, after believing God’s promise for two decades, Abraham’s faith proved right! When he was a century old, Abraham and Sarah had a baby boy. Abraham believed God’s promise no matter what people said about it, including his own wife. And in time, his faith in the promise was justified!

This is where Christians miss it sometimes. They want the baby first, and the faith later. But that isn’t living by faith, that’s walking by sight! Faith believes what God said when you can’t see it.
In fact (we’ll learn more about this in the next few posts), it’s only faith that will bring the promise to pass! Without it, the promise will just be empty words to you.

So make this decision now: “No matter what I see, no matter what I hear, and no matter what I feel like; I will trust what God said!”