🔑 The key that fits the door of God’s heart and realm and the saving of our souls is faith in God. Yet for the untrained and inexperienced Christian mind there are as many other expectations of what faith is to do for us as there are books in the New Testament.

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Listen :

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As I look back over my journey in following Jesus, I see at least two important aspects of our faith. On the one side is the faith God gives us as a gift to believe the Gospel and for the grace through faith to receive all the other things that He makes available to us beginning with our new birth.

On the other side is what Christians make of their faith in God, which in its purity and true purpose is a powerful force, yet on our journeys we can allow faith in the often issues of our lives to begin to contort into something that is not pure and true.

In these two weeks of discussions, we will look more at how many of us have unknowingly allowed our faith (in a fashion) to grow suckers on the fruitful branches of the tree of our redemption process regarding the things in our lives that arise [the audio explains "suckers"].

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† Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

† Psalm 52:1 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.

† Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that [it is] the goodness of God [that] leadeth thee to repentance?

† Romans 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. . . 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all. . .

† Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

I PROCLAIM THIS : ✝ As to the first and foundational applications of our God-given gift of faith to be saved, I proclaim this: It is faith to know that you know that Jesus was a real person that lived in the early years of the first century A.D., that He is the only begotten Son of God, that He was and by His sacrifice continues to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that He was crucified and died on a Roman cross, was buried and three days and three nights later was raised from the dead and that He soon returned to His Father in Heaven, sent us the Holy Spirit, and will return to the earth at the end of the Great Tribulation—all things that we are at least to believe by faith. ✝ Other things that we must wrap our heads around are to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin woman and that His Father is God in Heaven and not an earthly man, and that He never sinned or He would have been disqualified as the required sinless sacrifice that He had to be in order that His shed blood would cleanse us from our sins before a holy God. ✝ And one other critical faith issue needed is that we read and believe the written Word of God is inspired by Him and that it is both inerrant and timeless. These things are what we are to have faith regarding and maintain all the days of our born again lives to hold on to the promise of eternal life beyond. Amen! ✝ This is a very broad statement about faith to be saved but I think it covers the critical points of what your and my faith in God must include.

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† 1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

† 1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Now let’s move onto the issue of what many “contort” or transform their faith into that can cause it to eventually catastrophically fail.

So many today have attached other aspects about what their faith will do for them that may or may not be true or true in every circumstance or will provide for us what we believe we will get in this situation or that.

One statement that I heard someone say is the title of our present discussion: In this physical realm, “faith doesn’t make you safe”, which we will more focus on in part two.

We are having this discussion today because a day is coming when a Christian’s personal perception of what faith is about may not measure up to his or her belief about their belief, their faith!

If what you believe your faith promises you fails you in a specific and important situation, what happens to your faith?

If everything a Christian believes His faith will do for him is not entirely biblical (meaning the Bible never says one’s true faith is), and it doesn’t come through for him, a man or woman will question what else it may not be any good for.

The subject of faith is really focused on as a New Testament thing although we see it critically birthed in Abraham way back in Genesis; the Old Testament KJV Bible only uses the word “faith” twice, and both times it is in a vague sense involving man’s trustworthiness (in general) and not so much his trust and confidence in God (Deut. 32:20, Hab. 2:4). How are we to view faith?

FAITH: (A general modern-day definition) Strong belief and trust in someone (God) or something (God’s Word), often without requiring proof or evidence [even through God has given us proof through fulfilled prophecies that we can trust both Him and His written Word]; belief, confidence. (The New Testament’s definition) is the Greek word “pistis” and other slight variations, which mean: persuaded, a moral conviction (of the truthfulness of God), reliance on Christ for salvation, constancy in that profession, trust in the Gospel truth itself; assurance, belief, fidelity

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† Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good report. 3 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. . . 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Now you can have faith in some man or woman’s integrity and promises, which confidence usually comes about by first experiencing things a few times that show his or her word is good.

But that can change under duress or negative conditions or come to find out that you have been set-up for some kind of fraud.

However, faith in God is not like playing the Las Vegas craps table—that is taking chances that you will throw the dice of what you think faith is and win every time.

Faith in God comes with rules that having faith in a man does not necessarily live by nor can we expect of men. Faith in God may disappoint us at times but He does not fail you or me when we operate by Heaven’s rules about faith in God.

Let Me Give You Three Examples

Let me give you three examples of how faith is not to be used generally involving asking prayer; we may pray:

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✗ “God, I ask You to give me this great job; I give my money into ministry and this job would help me a lot”—but you don’t get the job. Praying about such a thing is okay but with God’s wisdom and response respected.
✗ “Lord, Your Word says ‘by His stripes we are healed’, by faith I ask you to heal me (or my spouse, child, friend) and thank You now for this healing,” but healing does not come—and there are reasons why that are beyond the reach of these present discussions.
✗ “Lord, if it’s not Your will to (divorce my spouse, have a same-sex relationship, have an abortion, file bankruptcy, etc.) please let me know”—well, He will not speak to your heart since those answers are already in His written Word. His silence was not permission as so many assume!

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I said that faith in God comes with rules, in a fashion. As a few things to know that are on the wrong side of praying in faith or what we think is faith, I offer these thoughts:

I Offer These Thoughts: 1. Faith is not a lever to pry something out of God. In our praying, calling it faith by setting your mind on a presumed future-fact to happen that you absolutely resign yourself to believing God will do this or that, but He does not, is setting oneself up for disappointment, discouragement and spiritual depression with the erosion of the ability to believe God for the truly important things and things He will provide for. 2. God is God; He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He knows the future and all outcomes and He knows best regarding things that we ask Him for by faith. We must always bow to this aspect of praying in faith or we are presuming on God, which is not a good thing; more on this in part two. 3. We should not pray in ways that sounds like “Let’s Make a Deal”, offering God this or that if…or reminding Him of our good deeds. 4. God is not constrained by our timetables or urgencies—He knows all about such things. If He does not answer a sincere prayer in your time or how you ask that it be answered, it doesn’t mean He will not do something. Keep in mind that prayers may be answered in one of four replies: “Yes, yes but not how you are expecting the answer, yes but not yet, or—no”. 5. In your mind and heart, allow God to work outside the box of your situation and thinking processes. He must be given the latitude to answer our prayers in ways that do not fit how we think they need to be, or when they need to be. Allow God to move in the wisest and best ways and you will be surprised at how well He does things for you and at just the right time. 6. Prayer should be a regular thing and not only when you need something from God—like parents hearing from their children only when needing help. 7. Prayer that is asking for legitimate needs may be hindered or His favor blocked because of sin in the believer’s life.