Faith

For more information on faith let us turn to a unique faith-book. Whether one has a positive opinion about the Bible or a negative one, there is something about it that cannot be argued: the Bible is above all a Book of Faith. All Biblical stories have one common denominator, namely, faith. Everything we find in there starts and ends with faith either in God, or in the words of a prophet, or simply in oneself. To quote here all Biblical passages on faith would mean to transcribe the whole Bible. We find the effects of man's faith in most narratives of the Old and New Testament. For the purposes of this article I shall quote a few representative ones.

What is Faith? The Apostle Paul gives us a brief but very comprehensive definition of Faith: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb. 11: 1) Faith, then, is the essential energy to bring to pass things we hope for. Hoping and believing go together. They are both born in the soul of man. First comes hope and prepares the heart for the birth of faith. Faith is the conviction, the firm persuasion that things, which don't exist as yet, will come to pass. Faith is beholding with the eyes of the spirit what our physical sight does not see yet. Faith is the greatest force in Universe, the foundation of all creativity, and is planted in the soul of man by the grace of the Creator. Further, and most important, faith is the inward acceptance of divine Revelation. We grasp ultimate reality, i.e. truth that has dawned on our minds, by faith.

"For by it (faith) the men of old received divine approval." (Heb. 11: 2) The ancient believers, the seers, the prophets of the first ages of the world, little by little perceived by faith God's sovereign laws. They 'heard' God in their spirit and accepted by faith what they understood to be his Word. Thus they passed down to humanity that which they had received by revelation, gaining divine approval and a good report in history! It is worth reading the rest of the epistle to Hebrews where we are given a comprehensive list of the most renowned events of the Old Testament - events where the protagonists were giants of faith! Those men and women, whether they received revelation by a vision, a dream or simply by the "still small voice within", they believed and acted upon the information. And they were rewarded for it, for faith always rewards the believer!

How many times have we not received a personal revelation through intuition, on finances, property, relationships, etc., but we hesitated to believe in it and make the first step accordingly! We heard the inner voice, but we doubted its authenticity. Then, we went out seeking an expert's advice in our dilemma. Alas, more often than not, the "expert" gives us an advice different to our intuition. The result is invariably total failure... We are "punished" for not acting by faith on our own revelation!

Furthermore, how many times have we hesitated to make the first decisive step towards a revealed plan, because we had not received at once the full details of the entire project? Indeed, how often have we not missed God's blessing for lack of faith! Worse still, after missing a blessing, we tend to turn around and accuse God that He did not protect us, or we blame our 'fate' that does not want to smile at us! The ability to discern the voice of our inner spirit in everyday life is, in my opinion, the highest spiritual development of human beings. Blessed is the person who is able to clearly hear the voice of God-within and act on it by faith!

Paul's list of men of great faith and the miraculous stories of the Old Testament are well known. Whether the events are historically verified or not shouldn't overly concern us. If these stories are read simply to strengthen our faith in man's inherent powers, they can prove beneficial. In any case, the power of great faith is unlimited and miracles, similar to those listed in the Old Testament, could happen any time among people of every race, provided that people have faith. Today our society is in great need of mighty prophets who will challenge with signs and wonders the corrupt rulers of the nations and call them to the path of peace and righteousness.

"The righteous shall live by his faith." (Hab. 2: 4b) Here the prophet Habakkuk underlines the benefit of faith for the righteous. According to him, the righteous people do not have to worry about anything in life. Their faith will always sustain them. This, of course, does not mean that the righteous do not have to work for their living. If they sat back doing nothing, they would no longer be righteous, anyway! It only means that they trust Divine Providence. They totally rest in God, while they conscientiously perform their daily duties toward themselves, their family and the society. Here, of course, comes the torturing question: how about all these starving people in Africa and other countries? Are they lacking in faith from birth? I do not pretend to have any convincing answers to these sore questions, but this should not make us doubt the proven power of faith and act accordingly.

Here are some great examples of faith from the New Testament:

---"For she said to herself, 'If I only touch his garment, I shall be made whole.' Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, 'Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you whole.' And instantly the woman was made well." (Matt. 9: 21-22) The sick woman had already decided in her heart what she needed to do in order to be healed. All she needed was to touch Jesus' garment! Her plan was precise and her faith had been fully activated. Therefore, as soon as she did this she was instantly healed. It was her faith and not Jesus that did the healing. What God can do for us is determined and limited by our faith. Our willingness to trust him will release his blessing towards us exactly to the proportion we believe. No more, no less.

---"But the centurion answered him, 'Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. (...) When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, 'Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. (...)' And to the centurion Jesus said, 'Go; be it done for you as you believed.' And the servant was healed at that very moment." (Matt. 8: 8, 10, 13) Apparently the Centurion was a man of great faith. He, too, knew exactly what he expected Jesus to do for him. He only wanted him to speak the word! And what was the word that Jesus uttered? "Be it done for you as you believed". Immediately the servant was healed! We must be careful, then, to be specific and precise when we speak a word of faith or submit our requests to God in prayer. Our faith will bring us exactly what we have asked for, even if, in our ignorance, we might have asked for something harmful.

---"And Jesus stopped, and commanded him (the blind man) to be brought unto him; and when he came near, he asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?' He said, 'Lord, let me receive my sight.' And Jesus said to him, 'Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.' And immediately he received his sight (...)." (Luke 18: 41-43a) Surely Jesus knew what the blind man needed from him. Yet he asked him to spell out what he wanted, because he had to be certain that the blind man had enough faith to be healed. And the blind man responded in faith: 'Lord, let me receive my sight'. And, sure enough, his faith made him well. He immediately received his sight, just as he had believed!

---"In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and said in a loud voice, 'Stand up on your feet!' At that, the man jumped up and began to walk." (Acts 14: 8-10) In this case we have the apostle Paul commanding a crippled man to stand up and walk. He didn't ask him any questions in advance. However, the scripture tells us, Paul discerned that the crippled man "had faith to be healed". The Apostle had inner information that this man would be healed, and he promptly acted on this information. Had he doubted, he would have failed.

"For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you." (Matt. 17: 20b) The law of faith works even if it is not attached to any particular god, saint, or angel of a religion. Faith is a universal creative force that originates in the spirit of human beings. Potentially, a strong faith can remove the 'mountain' of any problem in man's life. It is comforting to always remember this. "If you have faith!" - Jesus did not specify in whom. Of course, there might be situations in the life of a believer, where no matter how much one prayed, no matter how much one believed in receiving what one needed, the answer never came... This indeed is a bitter truth that must not be overlooked, if we want to be realistic. There are so many other factors that influence one's life and circumstances, that to say that our faith will remove any 'mountain' is presumptuous. However, it does not serve anyone's interests to indulge in negative experiences and not continue to believe and exercise 'faith'. No failure should be allowed to undermine our faith.

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge." (2 Pet. 1:5) Faith is the first step of spirituality, but the next thing we should do is to add virtue to it. Then we must add knowledge to virtue. Faith does not mean believing in every wind of doctrine that is passed down to us. Not-at-all! We have to obtain knowledge in order to discern what is of the Truth. To have discernment, however, knowledge is not sufficient. We need to be virtuous. The more virtuous and sincere we are, the better our reason and logic function, and so we will be less prone to deception.

How could we increase our faith and get rid of fear? Here are a couple of tips:

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." (1 John, 4:18)

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." (Galatians 5:6)

In other words, when we catch our faith withering, we better search our heart to find out if there isn't a pocket of hatred there. Resentment, bitterness, vindictiveness, and anger undermine our faith. On the contrary, LOVE provides a fertile ground for faith to grow!