NOW Faith Is The Substance
Some of the biggest lies the enemy likes to tell believers are: you don’t have (enough) faith, your faith is too small, too weak… or some variation of these. If he can trick you into entertaining any of these types of thoughts you will stumble, and the reason you will get tricked up is not because of a lack of faith. It will happen because you have doubt.
I want you to be very clear on this point: If you are saved, you have enough faith, Period. We were saved by the unearned, undeserved grace of a loving God through faith that was given us by Him.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 (NKJV)
In Romans 12:3, the Apostle Paul wrote, “God has given every person the measure of faith.” It does not say a measure, but rather “the measure.” You have the same measure every other believer has. Every child of God has everything we will ever need to live dynamic, victorious lives through Jesus Christ. The question has never been if you have faith. You do.The real question is, “Are you actively living in and by your faith?
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
For a long time, I had absolutely no idea what that verse really meant and a lot of believers are just like me – struggling to make sense of it too. The version of this verse in the Amplified Bible (which I happen to love) adds a little more in-depth:
Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Hebrews 11:1 (AMP)
Faith is a rock-solid conviction that the things you hope for are yours. No matter what your senses (or the enemy) tell you, your faith says, “It is real, it is done, it is mine. I have it.” Faith does not doubt. When your body, your doctor and the devil tell you that you’re sick. Faith takes the hope of being healed to the next level and says, “By His stripes – I Am Healed.”
NOW Faith places the emphasis on the present which I believe is exactly where faith should be. NOW Faith is the conviction the things you hope for are yours right NOW. It says, “By His stripes – I Am Healed NOW!”
Right now faith gives us the ability to trust God completely; to stand on His promises and the finished works of Christ and “be anxious for nothing.” The fact that you may not immediately see a change in your circumstance with your physical eyes does not change what your spirit sees and already knows is the truth. “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
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