What faith is not: Avoiding the pitfalls
Champions Assembly March 2024 Note.
What faith is not: Avoiding the pitfalls
Last month we talked about the Building Blocks of Faith. And we defined faith as having absolute confidence in whatever God has revealed, manifested in appropriate words and actions.
Or Faith is confident obedience in words and deeds to the revelations of God and His word
The Focus this time is in What faith is not: Avoiding the pitfall
Hebrews 11: 1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
1. Faith does not stand alone. Faith works with other spiritual forces and laws like love and hope. Hope gives faith its anchor. Love motivates faith. While faith activates hope, love and all Christian virtues.
1 Cor 13:13 But now these three things abide: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.
James 2:17 So too, faith, if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective].
2. Faith is not hope. Hope is an expectation of a better future. But faith believes that things can change now. Hope is the anchor of faith. Without hope, there cannot be faith. There can’t be faith if there is no hope that is expectation that something good exists out there. Hope is the powerhouse. Faith is the switch. Faith gives substance to Hop
Heb 11:1 NLT Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
3. Faith is not trying and its not static like a one off thing. Like saying if it does not work, I will leave and do something else. It must be built and worked every day as a life style, not a one-off thing.
Heb 11:13NIV 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
Heb 11:39 NLT All these people earned a good reputation (commended NIV) because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.
4. Faith is not doubt
James 1:6-8 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
5. Faith is not denial. It does not mean you should deny the presence of the problem. What faith does is that you will not give the problem the power to control or limit you. You don’t deny the problem but refuse to consider it. What you should consider, think deeply and thoughtfully about is God and His promise. Then use that conviction to face the problem. The issue will eventually bow.
Rom 4:19-20 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
Rom 4:19 NKJV And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
6. Faith is not baseless confidence
Heb 11:1KJV Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Rom 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ
7. Faith is not imitation. It is not blind/baseless. It must be personalised and come from your heart. Faith sees what God says as its anchor.
Acts 19:11-16 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
8. Faith is not reckless or irresponsible. Faith does not necessarily mean you should put yourself in harms way or do something illegal or fail to make adequate preparation. You cannot neglect your responsibility for God to do it for you.
9. Faith is not arrogance and it is not just a mental assent. Know if you are speaking faith or just being proud or disrespectful. Faith is not just confessing or memorising bible or positive confession. It must be anchored in the revelation of God and His word.
Matt 15:18 These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
10. Faith is not feeling or hearing, understanding or based on senses/emotions.
John 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
11. Faith is not on a single level for everyone. We all have same faith but some have developed theirs more than others. So know what your faith can handle.
Rom 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
12. Faith is not a problem-free life. Problems will surely come but it will help you to overcome them.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Next Champions Assembly, Topic:
How faith is released