Understanding faith

faithRev Sarah Nyathi Open Heavens
DURING one of my Bible study sessions I encountered a very interesting scripture which left me pondering and meditating deeply a question posed by Jesus Christ in the gospel of Luke. He was curious to know whether mankind could persist in faith until the advent of his second coming.

Luke 18:8 (b) . . . when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith in the earth? (KJV). The Amplified version translates this same portion of scripture as “however, when the Son of Man comes will He find (persistence in) faith on the earth? Did Jesus not know the answer to this question? I contend that He did as He is Omniscient (He possesses all knowledge of the past, present and future). It is my contention that He asked this question so that He could alert us to the fact that we need to constantly nurture our faith and ensure that we are strong in faith towards Him to the very end. Christ could see into the future and knew that a time would come when people would divert faith in Him and shift their focus onto all sorts of things.

In order for us to be strong in faith in God, we need to understand what faith is and also how we can nurture and increase it and maintain steady faith levels until the very end. The following scriptures share some light into what faith is and its importance in the life of every believer. All believers must possess strong, active faith as without it we cannot please God or be satisfactory to Him, hence the question posed to mankind “will He find faith when He comes, not just faith but strong, consistent, persistent faith”.

Defining faith is simple. Faith is the substance (material evidence) of things we cannot perceive by our natural senses. Yet we know these things to be true as these have been promised to us in the scriptures. There are many things that have been promised to us yet we cannot see, feel or touch them, yet this lack of physical, material evidence is not proof that they do not exist. These things exist and are true to the believer through faith. It is interesting to note that both believers and non believers express faith in various ways. It dawned on me that purchasing funeral assurance was faith expressed. We believe that the insurance company will honour the agreement and premiums paid by you to your family when you have departed this earth. You will no longer be around to ensure that the agreement is honoured, but you continue to pay your premiums anyway by faith in the organisation’s ability to honour their promise to you.

Both professing Christians and others practise faith daily. When you entered your vehicle this morning you did not first call the manufacturer to confirm the safety and security of the vehicle, nor were you up at 0400 hours examining the vehicle. You just put the key in the ignition and drove away to your destination by faith. As you read this you are in a building or shelter of sorts, you didn’t have to call the structural engineers and surveyors to verify the safety of the building. Neither do you know the architect who designed the building, nor are you familiar with the construction company that erected it. You are sitting in your office and house by faith, confident that the walls will not collapse on you, yet you have no tangible proof in your hands currently that this is true. This is faith in action.

This in a nutshell is the essence of faith. It is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things we cannot see or touch, yet fully understanding these things to be true. Faith circumvents the five natural senses.

Who should we have faith in? Lately it is highly fashionable to have faith in men of God, our faith has been transferred from God to having faith in men. All our faith is invested in having a particular servant of God minister to you in order for desired changes to take place in our lives. Instead our faith should be in the God of man. Men are merely channels or vessels that God can use to lay hands on us for miracles to be activated as noted in James 5:14-15, the book of Acts and some of the gospels. Our faith as believers should be in God. Mark 11:22 – And Jesus answering saith unto them, have faith in God.

When exercising faith there are no mediators, each person has to exercise their faith and believe God directly for themselves. People who experienced miracles at the hand of Jesus did so because of their faith and He would often comment or marvel at their faith or lack of it. I encourage believers to cultivate their faith and learn to go directly to God in faith for anything they may want or need. We are encouraged in the book of Hebrews to focus our faith directly on Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. We are also chided to remember that there is only one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ Himself, Hebrews 12:2 Looking away (from all that will distract) to Jesus, who is the leader and the source of our faith (giving the first incentive for our belief) and is also its finisher (bringing it to maturity and perfection) (Amp). 1 Timothy 2:5 — For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (KJV).

I assert that if this doctrinal truth could be imprinted in our hearts it would avoid much of the law suits that have become commonplace in the media recently. If we were to examine the body of Christ from the 1970s through to the early 2000s the few lawsuits that received media attention consisted of faction fighting, squabbles for positions, succession issues and petty jealousies (not that these were justified). The church did not feature in the media with regularity, these instances were uncommon. Though this made believers look like a bunch of buffoons, church leaders were not branded as robbers, crooks and charlatans as is now the case.

Church leaders then were innocent and had not yet developed an appetite for material possessions so lawsuits did not involve huge sums of money and property (a recently reported lawsuit worth $2,000,000 against a man of God). It would appear that when huge offerings, or transactions (I refer to them as transactions as they do not meet the criteria to be classified as offerings) are exchanging hands the giver apparently places his faith fully in the recipient’s ability to ensure that the promised miracle or harvest will occur. Conversely, if the giver would have given with a heart of full faith in God, trusting and believing that God alone will perform the expected miracle it would greatly reduce the number of lawsuits. If God delays in His answer to the giver, which court in the land could sue God?

I was gratified and blessed to hear the great servant of God Apostle Dr Ezekiel Guti, speak a word of admonition to the younger generation in the Sunday News of 17th May 2015. With fifty-five years of ministry experience under his belt he is more than qualified to address issues that he may find disconcerting in the body of Christ. I merely paraphrase and emphasise his point herein. He encouraged younger ministers to examine their motives for starting ministries or churches. He stated that the motives should not be financial gain rather ministries should be spawned by a love of God and His people. As ministers of the gospel let us teach our congregants to have faith in God and preach the gospel with pure motives.

Let us remember that without faith that is focused on God we cannot please or be found to be satisfactory to Him. God hates unbelief and so encourages us at all times to build our faith. Faith building is easy but can just as easily be neglected. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, not words about God. Every person that is serious about building strong faith should consume large portions of scripture on a daily basis.

Reading Christian literature and listening to sermons should not take precedence over reading the scriptures themselves. I encourage all men and women of faith to increase their intake of the word of God and build strong faith.

Learn to focus your faith on Jesus Christ the author and perfector of your faith and the only mediator between God and man.

When the Son of man returns, will He find faith in earth . . . or will our faith be focused on everything else except Him?

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