The word, faith, seemingly has a lot of definitions to it. Like, you got to have “faith” that you can turn yourself around and stop doing whatever you’re doing. “Imagined faith” is what I call that because 9 times out of 10 (or it just seems like it), you fail at it miserably. Then you have faith based on reality to where you see a little bit in the future (this works best in the immediate family), and based on your own experiences you most of the time get it correct in predicting the future; that’s what I call experiential faith. Or you have what is called “the luck of the draw faith” in which you have a person going out and getting a tattoo of the sports team winning it all and taking home that special trophy several months before a sports season begins. I live in the USA, and that is what happened in the National Football League (NFL) in the United States of America recently.
Over the course of my life here on earth, I can say that I have been bombarded with these false uses of the word “faith.” Unfortunately, there are some churches with spiritually unhealthy leaders who make their living off of those that are fooled by this deception. “Prosperity gospel” runs off of this principle where you have to “believe” you will get what you are looking for, work at it, and have “faith.”
Just recently, I read an article on that word, “faith.” When I was younger I falsely believed that you could have a relationship with God outside of the Holy Bible seemingly the same as this person did on a recent blog I read. They concentrated on praying with an object in one’s hands as the key to finding spiritual enlightenment. When the person landed on the Word of Life or the Holy Bible, the person read it, but it did not make sense to them because the whole Scripture was in King James Version which contains a lot of Thee’s, Thou’s and some words which were appropriate a generation or two ago.
As I went forward at an altar call service at a church to receive Christ when I was the age of seven, several years later the Holy Spirit (which now lives in me) had me open to the book of Luke. In the book of Luke, I found out that it was written by a first-century doctor, so I knew that doctors had the obligation, to tell the truth. First of all, he wrote it to the high priest of the second temple, Theophilus, and Theophilus was one of the wealthiest people living in that time period (Google search). That is to say, if Luke lied about all the happenings that took place in his book, Luke would have an order from Theophilus to take out his physical life.
When I finished that book, I gained a whole new awe for Jesus Christ, and what He has done for me. Luke 9:20-24 says this:
But who do you say I am? Peter said, “You are the Christ from God.” Jesus warned them not to tell anyone, saying, “The Son of man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the Jewish elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. He will be killed and after three days will be raised from the dead.” Jesus said to all of them, “If people want to follow Me, they must give up things they want. They must give up their lives daily, to follow Me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who are willing to give up their life for Me will have true life. (NCV)
That is very similar to 1 Peter 2:21 which says:
For this, you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, LEAVING YOU AN EXAMPLE, so that you might follow in His steps. (ESV)
Yet, where was I going with this? The proper definition for True Faith is found in Hebrews 11 where it not only gives us the definition but also examples of True Faith.
Let us start off with the definition:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. … Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:1, 3 KJV)
That is pretty straight forward. Now on to the examples:
By faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than did Cain, by which he (Abel) obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying if his gifts: and by it, he (Abel) being dead yet speaks. (Hebrews 11:4 KJV)
Or,
It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven so he would not die. He could not be found, because God had taken him away. Before he was taken, Scripture says that he truly pleased God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that He is real and rewards those who want to find Him. (Hebrews 11:5-6 NCV)
Now, it takes that kind of True Faith to actively believe in Christ rising from the dead (John 20:9). No, He wasn’t a zombie as current media shows would have you believe there are such things as zombies. Yet Jesus Christ after He died a physical death on that Roman bloody cross is an actual living, breathing, walk through walls type of being who proved Himself to Thomas (one of the twelve apostles) when Thomas actually doubted in front of ten other apostles (John 20:26-29).
Furthermore, if you closely follow my blog, I wrote a blog a few weeks ago called It’s Time To Start Thinking About Easter I wrote about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how through that it provides a figure of an Easter bunny rabbit who is surrounded by eggs. Christians used an Easter bunny with the eggs to signify God the Father through Jesus Christ and people experiencing new birth as new Christians (Google search-www.history.com/easter). However, it takes True Faith to believe that.
If you feel a stirring inside your soul by reading this, then it is the Holy Spirit who wants you to accept Jesus Christ as the Person who saves you in time of difficulty from this sinful world. Do not be afraid to confess your sin once and for all time to Jesus Christ, then you can join in your first Easter celebration as a new believer in the name of Jesus Christ. If you do so, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY OF GOD!!!
As long as you live on this earth, however, you are going to sin more. Even your awareness of the sin will increase as the Holy Spirit lives inside of you (just take a look at Romans 7). That is natural for believers in His name, yet you have to give the Holy Spirit meaning in His purpose of living with you. Let Him convict you of sin that you may be doing or have already done, and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of any sin that you might commit to keeping your conscience clear.
So, that’s my stance on True Faith… Does anybody join me? Please be sure to like this and/or comment below after the links to music videos.
TrueLifeChristianity.com 