Hebrews 11:1 - Faith

(CREDIT NOTE: edited from an e-mail I received through a friend)

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Our Christian life is a life of faith.
 

With every genuinely saved Christian, they have been given this wonderful capacity called faith. With every child born of God, they have been allotted equally precious faith. So we don't need to ask God for faith. Faith is already in us!   

 

Faith is not just hoping that God will do something for you. 

Rather, faith is seeing what God has already done for you and what God has already given to you. This is where the genuine growth in life is. The exercise of faith is related to our human spirit. Our spirit is a spirit of faith.   

This faith is also infused into us by God's Word. 

 

Faith is solid and substantial because it is founded on the Word of God. Whenever we feel that we are lacking in faith, we just need to stand on the Word! 

 

We know that God is true, we know that we are saved, we're cleansed by the blood and forgiven by God because the Word tells us so. 

Romans 8:24 For we were saved in hope. But a hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

All things hoped for are things not seen. As people of hope, we should aim our life not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Romans 4:18 He beyond hope believed in hope in order that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, "So shall your seed be."

We don't say, "I hope God will forgive me." That's not faith. Faith is saying, "Thank You, Lord, that You have cleansed me, You have forgiven me, and You are living in me."

Hence we walk in faith.

Gen 9:11-13

Gen 9:11-13 ...I establish My covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living animal that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My bow in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

God Himself is faithfulness. He is faithful to His word, and His word is His covenant. His faithfulness will remain forever.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; / and He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised.

In this verse, Paul does not speak of living for the Lord, by the Lord or with the Lord; instead, he speaks of living to the Lord. To live to Christ is to take Him as the aim of our living. In everything we do - at home, at work, or in the church life - Christ should be our unique aim.

Psalms 73:26 My flesh and my heart fail

Psalms 73:26 My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.

"When we have God as our portion, we have not only light, life, water, and all the benefits these bring us, but we have the very God Himself." (Crystallization-Study of Exodus Vol. Three p. 362)

Colossians 1:17 And He is before all things, and all things cohere in Him;

When we declare God as our portion, we gain him in our spirits. He becomes a part of us as we eat the Word, and keep it. When in doing so, we can have a great revelation that everything is in God, and God is everything. 

As long as we have Him, we have everything. It's such a blessing to have God as our portion; because of this we are able to receive the many rich blessings through our eating of the Word. When receiving God as our portion, we come to realize that the world has nothing to offer to us, but in God we gain everything.

Psalms 73:25 Whom do I have in the heaven but You?! And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth.

He must be practical to us. We must be near, and open up to Him. In order for God to be our portion, He must be very practical, present, enjoyable, and available. We need to see that He is everything, and everything is God. We need to know that He is with us and available in our spirits. He just wants us to enjoy His blessings, to be near to Him, to abide in Him.

In our inner beings, we believe unto Him, and He will be our portion. Though we cannot see Him with our own eyes, in our inner beings, when we declare such a thing, He will become very real to us. We can enjoy and touch something very real.

2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

We may have God as our portion today, but if we do not continue to keep the Word, we will fall back into the fallen man. The outer man, our flesh, is weak. Our hearts may fail, but like the psalmists, if we declare that God is the rock of our hearts and our portion daily, He becomes our reality and from Him we receive light and life. By our reading, eating of, and breathing in of the Bible, can we gain the Lord in our inner being and gain Him as our daily portion.

Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
Psalms 119:103 How sweet Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Simply enjoying the Word, is all we need. From the morning when we wake and cry out to Him, "Abba! Father!"  He must be practical, present, enjoyable and available to us so that we may gain Him and He may gain us, moment by moment, day by day. 

Lamentations 3:24 Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; Therefore I hope in Him.