FAITH-FILLED WORDS
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to IAUE must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Let me begin by saying I had no intention, today, of writing a post to this blog; but I was so strongly impressed by the Holy Spirit to share this message, today, that I could not refuse. Please read this post to the end before drawing any conclusions.
Not long ago, I lost several life-long friendships over the matter of “faith.” These friends were all members and/or ministerial staff of a church in a nearby city. A couple of years ago, one of these friends (with whom I had had very little contact in years) out of the blue, as-it-were, emailed me a video and asked me for my opinion of it. The video was of a preacher examining the ministry of another preacher. After having admitted he had not even listened to the entire presentation of the man’s message, he began raking him over the coals declaring him to be false teacher presenting blasphemous errors. Well, I had viewed scores of hours of this man’s teaching, including the message in question, and I had the benefit of knowing the context of the things that were said; and there was no blasphemy, no error, just good faith-filled exposition of the Scriptures. When I replied to my friend who had asked my opinion of the video, I simply said, “He has no business opening his mouth. He doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about. He even admitted to not even hearing the entire message that he was so confidently tearing apart.”
That reply earned me an undeserved identification with the “name it, claim it” preachers that my friends apparently had determined were false teachers and dangerous to the gospel; who, just for the record, we had all cut our teeth on over 40 years ago; but had long since moved on from there. Without so much as a question about what I actually believe, now, I was cut off and relegated to the ranks of the hopelessly deceived. I have not heard from any of them, since.
Now, I could use this story to spring board into a discussion of the love of the brethren and what that’s supposed to look like, or of church discipline, or of forgiveness and reconciliation; but I will leave those to another day. What I want communicate, today, regards the truth about faith.
The Scripture provides what virtually everyone believes to be its own definition of faith:
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So many preachers use this text to preach all manner of things about faith: what it is, what it isn’t, how it works, how you can work it, how to think about it, how to exercise it; and (with the “name it, claim it” people) how to get what you want with it. The problem is, the Scriptures were not written with chapters and verses. This verse is always taken out of context; and in context, it isn’t really a definition of faith at all; but rather an explanation of our reason to hold fast to our confidence in the hope of the gospel which is the resurrection of the righteous and the appearing of our King, the Master Yahushua Messiah, in glory and power. Much of the letter written to the Hebrews is supportive of this need to maintain our confidence to the end, hold to the expectation of our faith without wavering, know that our hope is sure and that what Messiah began, he will finish unto the end. This is the context of Hebrews 11:1.
The following record of what is often called the Faith
Heroes Hall of Fame, is not about people who used faith to work miracles or
obtain glistening new gold-gilded chariots or better paying jobs. It is about
people who believed what Elohim promised them even unto death.
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
They all died having Hebrews 11:1 faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED the manifestation of the expectation of their faith. They will eventually receive the reward; but the kind of faith that earned them a place in this chapter is one simple thing. They believed IAUE; and they held on to that belief even in the face of death.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to IAUE must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
If you have followed this blog, you understand that we have laid out a detailed explanation that we are a created people; and our Creator made us with a designed function. For us to be fulfilled in life, we must identify and satisfy that design function; which, simply put, is to please IAUE by doing His will. In this verse, we have what could be called a basic “entrance exam” to fulfilling our design function. If we pass this exam, we may begin to do our Father’s will. We MUST have faith. We must believe IAUE is. Secondly, we must be confident in the reward He promises. Without these it is impossible to please Him
Let’s look at this in human terms. If, when growing up as a child, we constantly let our father know either by words or actions or inactions, that we did not believe what he told us, how pleased with us do you think our fathers would be? Also, if we did not believe him, there would be little likelihood that we would do what he asked or expected of us. Voluntary obedience to our father’s will would be predicated upon our trust in him, which would necessarily be based upon our ability to believe in him. Now let’s elevate this to our relationship with IAUE Elohim. If we do not believe IAUE’s word to us is trustworthy, why would we bother to commit our every action and decision in life to His will for us? It wouldn’t happen.
The entrance exam, however, is very simple; and all of the people listed in Hebrews 11 passed the exam even though they did not received the fulfillment of the promise. One might reflect on this and say they were all fools. They should have just gotten on with their lives and sought to achieve success in their selfish endeavors. Their names, however, would never be found in Hebrews 11. I don’t know about you, but I can think of no greater honor than to live my life in such a way before IAUE that it would receive His personal recognition.
This brings us back to faith. Faith is simple belief in IAUE and in the trustworthiness of His words. Such simple belief causes us to live and to behave accordingly. For example, IAUE told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Later he assured him this would come about through his son Isaac. Then IAUE asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham did not hesitate to proceed to do as IAUE requested. To Abraham, killing Isaac before he had children (which would be necessary for Abraham to be the father of many nations) was more IAUE’s problem than his own.
Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:19 Accounting that Elohim was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
If we perceive of faith as a force that we release in prayer or in commands (as is taught by most faith preachers) then we will become focused on “our“ faith as something that is either big enough or too small to accomplish an objective rather than having confidence in IAUE that His word is trustworthy. This will absolutely become a factor when we are asked to pray for something that seems either impossible to us, or is just currently too large a task for “our” faith. Where, in that consideration is belief that what IAUE has said is true and reliable? What is the difference in commanding a headache to leave and commanding cancer to leave? Are we able to make a cancer leave by our own power? If not, then we are also incapable of making a headache leave by our own power. Thus, the only difference between the two has nothing to do with how big our faith is; but whether or not we believe IAUE.
I realize I am covering huge concepts in a single paragraph; but you can always re-read and meditate on what has been said, and listen to the Holy Spirit about it.
This brings us, finally, to faith-filled words. When I was a child, my father would drop me and my siblings off at the local swimming pool and before leaving he would say, “I will be back to pick you up at 5:00 PM. Be ready and waiting for me, right here.” My brothers and sister and I would proceed to have the time of our life enjoying the pool and our friends for hours. Not once did we ever say to each other, “We probably should see if one of our friend’s parents can give us a ride home.” We never said, “Dad is sure to be late. There is no telling how long we will be standing outside waiting. We should just keep on swimming until he gets here.” No, we believed our dad. We were always ready outside the pool at 5:00 PM; and he was always there.
Our words to each other and to our friends, or to anyone else for that matter, were never inconsistent with what our dad told us to expect. Why? It is because we believed dad’s words; and we acted and we spoke accordingly. Now, was our belief or our words the force that caused our dad to show up at 5:00 PM? Of course not! It would be absurd to think that. I can tell you, though, that our belief in his words which resulted in our corresponding actions to be out of the pool, dressed and waiting at 5:00 PM, very much pleased our dad.
This is exactly how our words should be. They aren’t vehicles through which power is released in order to make things happen. They are a consistent testimony of what we believe about our Father and what He has said; and with that belief, our corresponding actions are able to please Him. So, when we speak of faith-filled words, we are just speaking words that convey that we believe IAUE.
If we have doubt, and we speak our doubt, it is impossible
to believe IAUE; and our words actually testify against us that we do not
believe our Father. Intellectually, we
may know and have settled it academically that IAUE’s words are Truth and can
be trusted; but it takes renewing the mind to overcome programming to the
contrary. It is far better to doubt our doubts, than to doubt the word of
IAUE. Instead of giving voice to our
doubts we should recognize the offense to IAUE that doubt represents and recite
whatever IAUE has said regarding the matter until doubt is replaced by belief. This isn’t a mind game (like what is often
taught by faith preachers) unless you really do not believe that IAUE is and is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. Perhaps what is needed is to
diligently seek Him; because once you really know Him, you cannot doubt His
words.
