Miraculous Faith

Real bible based faith, is believing, accepting and doing what God says,
as revealed in the bible. The only way to know true faith is by the fruit
it bears.
"Without faith "we are told, "it is impossible to please God", because
anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards
those who earnestly seek him; Heb.11:6.

A bible definition of faith is given to us in Heb 11:1 Now faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Our faith stretches from the 'infinite', believing that God created the
universe, which I call easy faith, to the 'intimate', believing that God
loves me more than I could possibly imagine, which appears to be a much
more difficult faith to grasp faith.

To have faith in God means that we trust him and are certain that what he
says is true, that we believe in him and rely on him and are assured that
he has the truth of eternal life, and it is his great joy to share it with
us.

Not only does faith give us confidence in God for eternal things, but it is
a day by day, moment by moment walk with God and Jesus, knowing that we are
actually the temple of the living God ; 1Cor 6:19 God being always present
with us through the power of the Holy Spirit, therefore we are able to draw
on him for help, strength, courage, guidance and comfort. WOW!

Good, strong, healthy, vibrant, overflowing, unwavering, courageous,
growing, active, sharing, Joy Filled, rejoicing, Christ focused, Bible
based, God honouring, Obedient faith, with a solid foundation of love and
hope (1 Cor 13:13) is indeed one of the most important and precious goals
of every single seeker of truth, In Gal 5:6 Paul tells us that " neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts
is faith expressing itself through love", and in the book of James we are
told that " faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead ."

Faith in general, is indeed a miraculous quality. With faith our lives are
a joy, filled with hope and very much worth living, we tend to have a deep
inner peace, knowing that things will end up being OK even if we are in the
worst of situations. Without faith our life is a very sad place, a misery
without joy and hope, feelings of not being good enough, not measuring up
and all that 'lousy feeling' stuff, combined with a feeling that things
will end up bad, even though the circumstances that we find ourselves in
are very fortunate and we may even be the envy of many, the only one to see
a problem looming is Mr. Doubt sneaking around within our hearts and minds.
Who wouldn't want faith in their lives, and plenty of it, the choice is
ours. Bible faith is far more powerful than every day faith, as it's focus
is on the eternal God with eternal rewards.

We can speculate on what 'faith' is, and does, but the bible helps us to
really understand it's essence by giving us many examples. In Heb 11 We
have a list of friends who did various things by faith in God. We are
greatly impressed by this list of faithful and could even find it a bit
discouraging as we are reminded of their great victories, But surely any
thought of discouragement must be turned to hope as we realise that they
were very fragile humans, their faith in God was the source of their
amazing victories. This is the very reason we have the record, God is
saying, they did it, you also can believe and do what is required of you.

We read in Heb 11 That by faith, by faith, by faith these people DID
various things . I would just like to look at two of these characters. In
vs:11,12 it says "by faith Abraham, even though he was past age-and Sarah
herself was barren-was enabled to become a father because he considered him
faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he was as
good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky..etc,
Romans reinforces the hopelessness of Abrahams situation in cha. 4:18-21
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many
nations....:!9 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his
body was as good as dead..Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver
through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his
faith giving glory to God, (Now the crunch line), being fully persuaded
that God had the power to do what he had promised. Could any of us find
ourselves in a more challenging situation than this, God was there for
Abraham, he is there for us. Also in the case of Moses Heb. 11:24-29 tells
us of the remarkable feats that Moses accomplished through faith, leaving
Egypt and not fearing the wrath of Pharaoh, Keeping the Passover and
crossing the Red sea, how amazing, . But what we find from the book of
Exodus is that Moses didn't feel that he was the man for the task, he felt
it was beyond his capabilities Exod. 3:11But Moses said to God, "who am I,
that I should go to Pharaoh 4:3...What if they do not believe me or
listen".4:10 I can't speak.4:13"O Lord, please send someone else to do
it"..

What a changed person Moses became when he finally stopped arguing with God
and making excuses and put his faith, his trust in God. In fact there are
many examples of faith that started out as weaknesses but the weaknesses
are over come when the eyes are focused on the solution, which is God,
rather than on the problem, which is ME.

As we look at the encounters that Jesus had with various people during his
ministry we see faith at the very front of his teaching, He was very
encouraging to people who demonstrated faith with such statements as, "your
faith has healed you, Mat 9:22, or "According to your faith" Mat 9:29,
again "Woman you have great faith, Your request is granted "or Mat 21:21
"If you have faith and do not doubt".:22 "If you believe you will receive
whatever you ask for in prayer".

On the other hand Jesus was extremely unhappy when lack of faith was
displayed, "O you of little faith", Jesus often groaned Mat.6:30, or "He
was amazed at their lack of faith". Jesus had such responses to lack of
faith simply because the lack of faith meant that the people didn't believe
and trust God, but that they actually find more comfort in limiting him.

We are often very fragile and a little bit on the weak side when it comes
to displaying faith in God. Who can't relate to the man who said to Jesus,
" I believe, help me overcome my unbelief" Mk. 9:24, or to the disciples ,
when challenged by Jesus, on forgiveness, responded, "Increase our faith"
Lk. 17:5.

Fortunately there is an amazing treasure chest of faith at our disposal, if
we just take the time to prayerfully

Lift the lid and sift through the contents, it is in the Bible. We are told
that " faith comes by hearing , and hearing by the word of God/Christ" Rom
10:17. The bible is Gods word, it is the way he has chosen to reveal his
plan and purpose to people, and his plan and purpose just happen to be
based on FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. Gods Spirit speaks to us mightely through
his word directing and growing our faith. It is indeed a tragedy that most
people pick up their faith second hand, from what others say and write and
think , rather than trusting God to speak directly to them through his
word.

As we seek God through the pages of his word we get an idea of how, all
powerful and immense God is, being the creator and sustainer of the
universe, Gen 1.... and not only this, but also this creator God reveals
himself to us as a loving Father, who loves us more than we could possibly
imagine, Jn 3:16....as we come to see God more clearly through his word and
his creation how could our belief, faith and trust in him not fail to soar
higher and higher.

For a short time after the creation was complete, man and God were living
in harmony but, this was short lived, as we know the man failed a fairly
simple test, the man disobeyed God, being aware that the consequences of
this would bring death into the world and destroy his wonderful
relationship with God. Just how devastating the result would be, for him
going against God, I don't think he could have really imagined. We can't be
critical of Adam, because anyone of us would have done the same thing, and
we prove this every day by making choices, like Adam did, that, to varying
degrees are against the will of God, sometimes knowingly, sometimes in
ignorance. One of the most appropriate bible verse for us all would have to
be Rom 3:23 "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Indeed
this is a humbling place to find ourselves, and we rightly deserve the
wages of our ways, ie. "The wages of sin , is death" Rom 6:23. This is the
harsh reality of our situation.

Fortunately our father in heaven loves us so much that he doesn't want us
to stay dead, in fact he wants us to have a restored relationship with him,
Rom. 5:9-11., and wants us to live with him for all eternity. He has taken
it upon himself to work out a way by which we can be reconciled to him, Rom
5:15-20, by providing a way to be forgiven of all our wickedness, the
result of which is that we are able to live at peace with him, now, and
have the sure hope of eternal life, and be able to approach him as our very
own loving father, confident of his love for us, 1John 3:1...Heb 8;11,12.

The end result of this reconciliation, this forgiveness, this peace, is the
wonderful gift of eternal life, that we have through faith, as we are told
in Rom 6:23 ".....The gift of God is eternal life". In Jn. 3:16 We have in
summary the Good news, I think that "Good News" is a fairly tame way of
describing it, it is the unimaginably, fantastic, wonderful, and however
else you can describe it brilliant news, this hope is described in the book
of John..."For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life". If
these thoughts don't bring tears to the eyes, or at least fill you with joy
and overflowing hope, may we pray, Please Lord, "Increase our faith".

This is the answer to a changed life, A trusting faith filled existence
rather than a lifeless life without faith. Take God at his word. In Christ
you are forgiven, You share in that wonderful promise to Abraham, Gen
12:3"...In you all nations on earth will be blessed" see interpretation at
Gal 3:8,9 "The scripture foresaw that God would justify (To count them as
OK before him, his friends, forgiven, set free from sin) the gentiles by
faith and announced the gospel to Abraham: "all nations will be blessed
through you".

We also have this hope expressed in Acts 3:25"....He said to Abraham,
"Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed".:26 When God
raised up his servant, he sent him first to bless you by turning each of
you from your wicked ways." We cant really Know God until we know him as
the one who has forgiven our sins and wickedness, Heb 8:11,12. Until we
reach the point in our faith walk when we can say, my sins are forgiven,
Christ died for me, and really believe it, all our thoughts on 'the truth'
and 'Gods ways' are merely speculation, not good news, but doubtful news.

In Christs death we share with him in his victory over sin, in his
resurrection we share with him in his victory over the grave and death, at
his return we will share with him in his divine nature, The epistle of John
tells us at cha. 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we
will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when appears we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. :3 Everyone who has this hope
in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

We have been saved by a Gracious and Almighty Loving Heavenly Father, Our
faith response to what has been done for us is to extend our hand in
kindness to others, It starts with the golden rule of ".doing to others as
we would have them do to us" Mat 7:12, which is really the least asked of
us to do ," and grows, to "Love others as I have loved you" Jn 15:12.. this
is where we are called to go and keep growing until the Lord returns. We
can only grow as we, by faith, live out the words of the inspired writer,
In Heb 12:2 We are encouraged to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before endured the cross
scorning it's shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. :3 Consider him
who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow
weary and not loose heart."

As you fix your eyes on Jesus, as you meditate on the wonders of his love
for you, as you accept, through faith the promises of God as being for you
personally, May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in
him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit;
Rom:15:13.

Praise God for his kindness, mercy, grace and love, received by faith, for
what he has done for us.