Not too long ago, I came across a Christian blogsite where a heated argument was going on about the meaning of ‘healed‘ in ‘By His stripes you were  healed‘ of 1 Peter 2:24.  While some persons supported the idea that ‘healed’ as used in this verse referred only to a spiritual healing with no physical manifestation, others thought it was totally a physical experience. Those who felt strongly that it should be purely spiritual, came from the standpoint that healing and salvation came as one package. And so if salvation is spiritual then healing must be too.

So money is used to intermediate the exchange of goods and services, as a standard unit of measurement of market value of goods, services and other transactions and as an acceptable store of value. Additionally, money is also seen as a standard of deferred payment (for settling debt) and as a measure of value

You know it is very tempting to read Psalm 110 and think in futuristic terms, because David was speaking of the manifestation of the Christ in the future. Well, that future is NOW. Today is the Day of His Power and your situation can turn around for good if you believe.

You Can Grow Your Faith (B)

This is part 20 of this study series.

We learnt from the last part that although everyone receives the same measure of faith at the new birth, faith operates in levels (Romans 12:3, Mathew 8:5-13, Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 4: 35-41). Looking at the instances where Jesus graded faith as little, great faith or no faith at all, we saw that upholding the integrity of God’s Word by believing and professing same does move someone’s faith level upwards. On the other hand, fear, doubt and unbelief stifles faith.

I promised that in this part of this study, I was going to share on ‘Ways to Grow/Develop and Boost our Faith’. Just before we move into that, the following is a summary of some of the important points we’ve seen about faith from this study;

1. Faith is the assurance, confidence, conviction, confirmation that we have the things we desire and hope for (Hebrews 11:1).
2. Faith Is Now: Every split second, every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, every time is the time to act in faith (Hebrews 11:1).
3. Faith Is like air to the believer: We were saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8) and we continue to live by faith. Faith is a way of life for the believer; the righteous lives by faith (Hebrews 10:38). Indeed, the righteous without faith shall die. But Jesus came to give us life, and life is what God wants for us.
4. Faith reveals the righteousness of God: Every time we act in faith we will find out that God is true, just and faithful (Romans 1:16-17).
5. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God(Romans 10:14-17).
6. The stimulus for faith is the Word of God: Faith is not positive thinking, it is not common sense, faith is based on the Word of God (Romans 10:9-17).
7. Faith is activated through words and powered by love (Mark 11:22-24, Romans 10:9-10, James 2:26). Unforgiveness is a strong hindrance to faith (Mark 11: 25-26).
8. Faith is active not passive: Faith believes the Word of God, speaks the Word of God and acts on the Word it believes. Faith without corresponding action is dead (James 2:26, Hebrews 11:1 ).The victory that overcomes the world is faith.
9. Faith Pleases God: Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6, Hebrews 10:38).
10. Love, Faith and Hope are interdependent and are 3 essential elements for victorious Christian living (1 Corinthians 13).

Ways to Grow and Boost your faith

In Part 9, we mentioned 3 ways we can develop our love nature; 1. Practice love, 2. Affirm to yourself that you are born of love, 3. Crucify the flesh/Be led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:24, 1 John 4:8, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Romans 12:20-21, Luke 6:27-32).

Below are 5 ways we can develop and boost our faith

1. Feed on the right food

Faith is of the spirit and the food of the spirit is the Word of God (Matthew 4:4). So when we feed our spirit, we feed our faith.

Faith comes by continually feeding on the Word of God (Romans 10:14-17)…..

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “ Lord , who has believed our report?” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:14-17 NKJV

You want to grow/develop your faith? Give time to the Word. Faith can only be exercised based on one’s knowledge of the Word of God. Study the Word. Meditate on the Word.

If you are someone who gives little or no attention to the Word of God, great faith may never be an experience for you because you cannot have faith beyond the knowledge of the Word of God you have.

2. Live a life of faith

Practice faith. Hebrews 10:38 says that the righteous/just shall live by by faith… as a lifestyle.

“Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” Hebrews 10:38 NKJV

God has no pleasure in a faith-less believer. Faith pleases God, and it is faith in His Word that does that.

Faith is now, it is for every time and season. We never take vacation on expressing faith. Faith is for every day. And we practice faith everyday by believing the Word, Speaking the Word and Acting on the Word(Mark 11:22-24).

In the Bible story of Mark 4:35-41, Jesus described the disciples as having ‘No Faith’, because they did not consider speaking to the storms themselves. Instead they woke Jesus up from His restful sleep. There are actions in life Jesus expects us to take by ourselves through faith in Him (selah). The disciples could have exercised their faith. But alas, they did not believe they could stop the storm supernaturally. They tried all they knew to do naturally but it didn’t work. They did not think to exercise their faith.

The Christian walk is a walk of faith, not of the senses (II Corinthians 5:7), and NOTHING shall be impossible to him who believes (Mark 9:23). Amen!

So we have seen that the primary way we develop our faith is by hearing and hearing the Word of God. And the more we practice faith; the more we grow from faith to faith. Every faith victory is a boost for another one. Halleluyah!

We can also boost our faith through the following ways:

3. By Sharing our Faith

We read in Philemon 1:6, that our faith can become more effective as we share every good thing we have in Jesus Christ

“that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.“
Philemon 1:6 NKJV

How do you share something? By speaking about it, professing and testifying about it. We should speak regularly about our belief; speak on everything good thing we have in Christ Jesus. We are to make faith-based confessions of who we are in Christ Jesus.

Refuse to allow that feeling of depression and helplessness that creeps in from incessant complaints. Complains of how bad/terrible things are with us or around us, etc do not help our faith. We should rather choose to share faith-based and faith-inspiring testimonies. Because faith confessions always creates realities; we can make our faith effective by our confessions.

Let’s meditate and speak on who we are and what we have in Christ…and that not just during prayers but also in our everyday conversations.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 10:23 NKJV

4. By Speaking In Tongues Regularly

Praying in the Holy Ghost by speaking in tongues edifies the believer; it charges up and strengthens the spirit-man (Jude 20, Ephesians 3:14-19, 1 Corinthians 14:4). It is also boosts your faith (Jude 20)….

“But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit..”
Jude 1:20 AMPC

We already know that the primary way faith grows is by the Word. Well, praying in tongues promotes spiritual strength and boosts faith.

Speaking in tongues of itself doesn’t really grow faith, however a charged up human spirit is more spiritually sensitive and alert and so can hear, be inspired or bring to mind the Word and this is what builds up faith during praying in tongues.

So make speaking in tongues a lifestyle. You can find other benefits of speaking in tongues in one of my recent study series; ‘The Whole Armor of God (X)’

5. By giving Glory and Thanksgiving to God always

Luke 10:17-21 is an interesting portion of scripture that captures Jesus giving thanks ahead of His victory on the cross over Satan….

“And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” Luke 10:17-22 KJV

Jesus gave thanks ahead of His victory on the cross. He rejoiced in the spirit and gave thanks to God. He saw the victory ahead. He saw Satan defeated before He even went to the cross. That was faith; He saw it, He believed it, He spoke about it. He was full of joy in the Spirit.

An experience I can liken this to is receiving a revelation on a particular Word that brings great joy and peace to the spirit-man. You feel elated in spirit, charged up and with a boost on your faith.

Thanksgiving boosts faith. Choose to be thankful always and in all things.

Abraham also stayed strong in faith through thanksgiving as we see in Romans 4:18-20….

“Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Romans 4:18-21 KJV

Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God. And that kept him persuaded that God was able to perform what He promised.

Prayer

Thank You precious Father for the gift of faith. Help us Father to remain strong in faith, strengthened in the spirit-man; steadfast with our confessions of faith, always full of praise to You, and fully persuaded about all Your promises in Jesus name. Amen!

Well, thank you for joining me again. Next time we will start looking at the last section of this study; ‘Victory Through Hope’.

Remember that you can access previous parts of this study as follows; Part 1: Study Background. Part 2: The Scope of the Christian Victory. Part 3: How Christians Gained Victory. Part 4: How Faith, Love and Hope Mix Together for Victorious Christian Living. Part 5: The Nature of God’s Love. Part 6: Characteristics of God Kind of Love. Parts 7 and 8:  Winning Through Love. Part 9: How to develop our love nature. Part 10: Giving Is Not (always) Love. Part 11:Victory Through Faith: Understanding Faith. Part 12: Victory Through Faith: The Righteousness of God. Part 13: The Stimulus for Faith. Part 14: The Faith of Abraham (A). Part 15: The Faith of Abraham (B). Part 16: The Blessing of Abraham. Part 17: Activate The Blessing. Part 18: Abraham’s Righteousness. Part 19: You Can Grow Your Faith (A).

The reason Lazarus was located at the rich man’s gate was because those that dropped him there knew the rich man had the required resources to help him. You can help someone in genuine need today, and that someone is located at your gate (around you).

We can be more. We can put lust, greed, strife, hatred, and everything evil which doesn’t identify with our identity in Christ under control. We can choose to by wisdom observe more and speak less, to choose to ignore and disregard inflammatory and annoying remarks, we can choose peace and calmness of spirit over claiming to be right or smart. We can be more.

Everyone has a ‘baseline’ level of faith that when rightfully applied yields results. However in scripture, we also hear Jesus grade faith on different levels- little faith, faith, great faith (Matthew 14: 22-33, Mark 4:35-41, Matthew 16:8, Matthew 8:10, 26, Luke 7:9). In some other portions of scripture we also find faith ‘classified’ differently- Growing faith (2 Thessalonians 1:3), Strong faith (Romans 4:20), Weak faith (Romans 14:1-3), etc. James chapter 2: 14-26 also talks about dead and living faith. So faith has grades/levels. Point is; you can grow your measure of faith and the question is; how?

So assuming we were to interchange mind with brain, science teaches that an intensively damaged brain becomes incapacitated. One way brain damage is expressed is as irrational behavior.

When I heard the story it sounded both dumb and ridiculous. What a dumb thief he must be! I mean people already saw him and being a closely-knit and cliquish neighbourhood, words would soon go round. Wouldn’t be long before someone identified him and pointed him out to the security parading the streets. Dumb thief.

“God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore.