Chopper
Member
- Aug 11, 2013
- 7,193
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Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (ESV) I really like how the English Standard Version changes these two words, substance & evidence in the KJV to assurance & conviction. To me, the change makes more sense.
I love it when the Holy Spirit teaches me something that goes deeper than my surface knowledge on any given section of Scripture. Sometimes the word "faith" is so elusive that it's hard to really get a handle on it. I see a problem in that....Hebrews 11:6 "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." (KJV)
Notice how important "faith" is to our every day life. First, without this faith, we cannot please God, and all true believers in Christ Jesus wants to please God, it sure is to our benefit. Secondly, faith brings rewards into our lives when thru faith we seek God's help thru prayer.
Lets nail down a solid foundation on this thing called FAITH....2Peter 1:4 "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Ah, "Divine Nature." Do you know that if you know what the Nature of God is, He will respond? He will respond because it's His Nature to move in that direction.
My advise is to make a study of God's Divine Nature. That is found in His Names. His Names start with Jehovah. Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-rophe, Jehovah-nissi, and so on. Jehovah-rophe means Jehovah heals. Since that's true, faith comes alive because we know that it's God's Divine Nature to heal.
The author of Hebrews defines faith (Gk pistis) as assurance and conviction so biblical faith is not a fairy tale, or something vague like wishful thinking, no, faith is confident that something is coming in the future. Something that's not seen, but has been promised by God. Ok, now we're getting some good facts. Faith simply looks at a promise of God that fits with our needs, we pray and have the confidence that we'll receive what we've asked God for because He promised. Men go back on their promises, but not so with God.
Obviously, we must know what God's promises are. There is actually a formula for answered prayer. It's found in....1John 5:14 "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
5:15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."
So we ask, "what is God's will?" His promises, that's His will. If we are asking God to fulfill His promise because it meets a need in our lives, He will answer that prayer. It behooves us then, to know God's promises.
I love it when the Holy Spirit teaches me something that goes deeper than my surface knowledge on any given section of Scripture. Sometimes the word "faith" is so elusive that it's hard to really get a handle on it. I see a problem in that....Hebrews 11:6 "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." (KJV)
Notice how important "faith" is to our every day life. First, without this faith, we cannot please God, and all true believers in Christ Jesus wants to please God, it sure is to our benefit. Secondly, faith brings rewards into our lives when thru faith we seek God's help thru prayer.
Lets nail down a solid foundation on this thing called FAITH....2Peter 1:4 "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Ah, "Divine Nature." Do you know that if you know what the Nature of God is, He will respond? He will respond because it's His Nature to move in that direction.
My advise is to make a study of God's Divine Nature. That is found in His Names. His Names start with Jehovah. Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-rophe, Jehovah-nissi, and so on. Jehovah-rophe means Jehovah heals. Since that's true, faith comes alive because we know that it's God's Divine Nature to heal.
The author of Hebrews defines faith (Gk pistis) as assurance and conviction so biblical faith is not a fairy tale, or something vague like wishful thinking, no, faith is confident that something is coming in the future. Something that's not seen, but has been promised by God. Ok, now we're getting some good facts. Faith simply looks at a promise of God that fits with our needs, we pray and have the confidence that we'll receive what we've asked God for because He promised. Men go back on their promises, but not so with God.
Obviously, we must know what God's promises are. There is actually a formula for answered prayer. It's found in....1John 5:14 "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
5:15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."
So we ask, "what is God's will?" His promises, that's His will. If we are asking God to fulfill His promise because it meets a need in our lives, He will answer that prayer. It behooves us then, to know God's promises.
