A Nugget from New Life Network
(by Dr. Larry Ollison)
Scripture for the Day – January 9, 2020
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
For years, as a faith teacher, I taught faith with the following definition: “Faith is believing God will do what He said He would do.” As the years passed, I realized that faith is not believing, but faith has believed. So, I revised my definition to be: “Faith is believing that God has done what He said He would do and everything you say and do is based upon
that belief.”
Teaching something difficult is made easier with a simple definition. Likewise, I discovered that something simple can be complicated by making the definition too complicated. Even though my definition was accurate, I decided to make it easier to understand.
So here it is. Faith is: hear the Word, believe the Word, speak the Word, and do the Word.
Let’s take a moment to look at each part of what faith is.
1) Hear the Word
Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing. Hearing is the first step, but not the only step. Without knowledge, we perish, because without knowledge we do not know what to believe (Hosea 4:6). Hearing the Word affects our souls. The soul is the mind, will, and emotions, and hearing brings the Word of God into the realm of the soul (in this case, the mind) so that we can decide what to do with it.
2) Believe the Word
Once the Word is in our mind, we must decide what to do with it. Believing is the result of a decision. We decide what we are going to believe and what we are going to reject. The choice is ours. What we decide to believe sets the pattern of what we say.
3) Speak the Word
Second Timothy 1:13 says, “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” We will develop a pattern of words determined by what we have decided we believe and what has developed in our heart as a result of that belief. Jesus said out of the abundance of our heart our mouth will speak (Matthew 12:34).
4) Do the Word
Faith without action is not living faith. James 2:26 says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” We must act on what we believe and we must daily reinforce that belief by renewing our minds with the Word. Through the daily hearing and believing of the Word, our words and actions will be more accurate.
To summarize: Faith is important. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Through faith we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). Anything that is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Faith moves mountains and activates our prayers (Matthew 17:20; James 1:6). Faith is vitally important in our lives. All that we do must be based on the God-kind of faith (Mark 11:22-24).
So, hear the Word, believe the Word, speak the Word, and do the Word and you will please God.
