There are many religions in the world today, and to the novice, the selection can be daunting. The question quickly becomes, “Which one is the correct one to follow?” Even though society keeps trying to tell us differently, there cannot be two truths. Just look at the law of mathematics. 1 + 1 always equals 2. We depend on the laws of gravity to always be constant. The rule of law was created so that we can know and have confidence in the outcome, or results, of our actions. And when we break those laws, we always reap undesired consequences.

Many people look at laws as being negative and restrictive. But laws are actually meant to be for our good and to protect us from undesired consequences. The problem is that the heart of man is always trying to change or defy the perfect laws of God in order to satisfy man’s lust, greed and pride.

Someone said recently that there is some form of religion for everyone, whether they want to believe in God the Creator or in ‘self’ as a god, to thousands of cults which all have their own dogma and characteristics.

Christianity separates itself very quickly from all the rest because Christian salvation can be received by faith alone and not by the works of man. Christians can-not earn their salvation. Christians must believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alone is the Creator of all that exists, and that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to become a man so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins and redeem us back into fellowship with Himself.

My goal in this article is to help us gain a better understanding God’s Law of faith, and what faith and belief means for the Christian. When I look at scripture and see the results of what faith is supposed to accomplish, I do not see very many similarities between the church [in general] and the teaching and examples of faith in scripture. Let’s start at the top and look at what Jesus said about faith;

Mat 17:20 So Jesus said to them, "…for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Luke 17:6 So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

“Yes!” you might say, “Now that is the kind of faith that I want, the ability to move mountains.” That is the foundation of the ‘Prosperity Movement’, faith for wealth and health. When we look at Hebrews chapter eleven, we find faith at work for different reasons. Not mentioned is the wealth factor, but the ‘struggles of life’ factor, the kind of faith that pleases God rather than an attempt to satisfy the desires and wants of flesh and this world. There is a saying in the accounting profession, that if you massage the numbers long enough, they will say anything you want. The unfortunate problem is that in an age of ‘soft’ gospel, the church is more and more ‘massaging’ God’s instructions through debate, questioning and by redefining the meaning of what God said in the Holy Bible.

The New Age philosophy of the world today has declared that truth is variable, that there cannot be one standard of truth, but that each individual has the right to interpret truth to fit his own needs. Jesus, on the other hand, declared that He alone is the Truth, the Life, and the Way John 14.6. Many so-called Christians today are trying to apply the world’s standard of truth to the interpretation of the Bible by asking: “How can I make God’s instructions agree with my life style?” This happens when our desires are focused on the false hopes, enjoyments and temptations of the world, rather than on how God instructed us to live. But God’s Word is precise. God said what He means – and means what He says. The Christian believer cannot obtain God’s fulfilled promises by creating his own rules in opposition to God’s instructions.

This is why God instructs us to walk in the Spirit and to give our lives over to Him. God never gave us permission to conform His Word to our life style. For the born again believer there is only one option, to become Christ-like through obedience to His Word.

What is Faith?

Is walking in faith merely a ‘profession’ that I have faith without evidence? Or, is the walk of faith evidenced by things being accomplished? Today we have a tendency to simplify our Christian Faith. “Just have faith” they say, “and everything will work out for good”. Yet the bible is filled with examples of men and women who had great faith to go through hard trying times. Jesus spent three years training His disciples to have faith so that they would be prepared for the rocky start of building the foundation of the current Church Age. This was during a time of extreme persecution of the followers of Jesus Christ and all but one of those disciples was martyred. The New Testament is filled with warnings to build our faith so that we will be able to stand during times of deception and the various tests and trials that come our way.

Today, within the Church body, there is a tendency to compare our wealth with our faith. People say “I must have faith, just look at how much I have accumulated”. Yet Christian faith has nothing to do with possessions or wealth. It isn’t that you can’t have Biblical faith and wealth at the same time, but the two are not connected.

There are several steps to developing our Christian Faith and we should understand all levels of God’s Belief / Faith System; [1] how it works, [2] where it comes from, and [3] how we interact with it. I want to say up front, that while there is a lot of information to digest, walking in Faith is very simple. But I often ask this question, "What is the easiest thing you will ever do, while at the same time the hardest thing you will ever do?" Of course the answer is 'Walking in Faith'. Jesus said that “unless you are converted and become as a little child, you shall not enter the Kingdom of God”. Matthew 18:3 What Jesus was saying here is that unless we are willing to be trained by Him, through obedience to ‘all that He instructed us to do’, that we fail the test.

I mentioned above that Christian Faith must be developed. It is true that anyone can have faith to go forward in this world's system, but our topic is Christian Faith that meets the biblical standards that pleases God. Hebrews 11:6 Prior to Salvation, our faith is placed in our money, possessions and drugs/steroids, but mostly in our own abilities to accomplish whatever we desired to do. But this type of faith is NOT pleasing to our Creator and Lord Jesus Christ.

When we are first 'born again' into the family of God [true salvation] there are steps that allow us to be able to become Christians. 1- It is an Act of the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sins and makes us realize our need for a Savior. This step cannot be bypassed or eliminated. 2- In order for us to accept that conviction and to pray the prayer of Faith, we need a measure of Faith that is outside of our own abilities. That measure of Faith in given to us by the Holy Spirit. The whole act of Salvation is very transparent to the convert, but we MUST NOTE that the process of becoming a born again believer is an Act of God working through His Holy Spirit and not an act of our desires, but of us humbling ourselves under the conviction and power of the Holy Spirit and submitting to Jesus Christ. Being ‘born again’ is not just a random phrase of Christian jargon, but a re-birth into a new and powerful life, serving a new Lord and becoming a new creation and a citizen of another Kingdom. It is a new spiritual eternal life that is to supercede our temporary physical life.

However, after the point of Salvation, the new believer must then get onto a process of learning to Trust God. This process of learning to Trust God is what we call the 'Sanctification Process'. This third step in the process of Salvation is the weak link in the lives of many Christians and the Church Body as a whole. This third step is a critical part of the Great Commission given to us just prior to His ascension Matt 28:19-20 to 'Make disciples of all... teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...'. Biblical Christian training requires two way conversations such as a Sunday School class or Small Group settings where questions can be asked, needs can be met and each person becomes an active participant. This is NOT to take away from pulpit ministry which I believe is a necessary part of corporate worship, but it is not the complete part. Pulpit ministry at best gives a 'overview' of our walk with Christ, but does not get into the trenches of application and integration of Biblical principles into the daily routine of dealing with this world's system. This is why we have the various offices of church leadership which include both pastors and teachers Eph. 4.11, plus the other offices, to keep the whole process accountable and biblical.

Three Steps of Faith

Now I want to use the old story of a tight rope walker as a point of reference for the parts of faith. If a friend of yours, Walker by name, came up to you and said "I have been practicing tight rope walking in my backyard for the last six months and I believe that I am ready to walk across Niagara Falls, do you believe that I can do that?" "Well", you respond, "based upon that fact that you have practiced so much, yes, I believe you can". You see at this point I can believe anything because I am not involved in the experiment.

As we observe the world today, people believe in anything and everything from space travelers to tree hugging. However, Walker responds with this question, "But do you have faith that I can do it without slipping or falling?" At his point, I would not be sure that I could have enough faith that he would not make some sort of mistake since he has never actually walked a tight rope in such perilous conditions. So, Walker decides to prove that he can actually do it, and for the next week, twice a day, he walks the tight rope across the falls and not once does he slip or make a mistake.

At the end of that week of observing Walker transcend the treacherous falls, you say "OK, OK, I have faith that you can safely walk the tight rope across the falls." Walker immediately wants to take this experiment to the next level and says "Tomorrow, will you get on my shoulders and let me take you across the falls on the tight rope?" Now Walker has involved me, and this matter of faith has to be completely re-thought. It is one thing for me to have faith in someone else doing something that doesn't involve me, or for me to have faith in my own abilities, but to put my faith and trust in someone else to the point that I have no safety-net of my own, is completely a different matter.

In this simple story, we have the ‘steps of faith’ that occur in the life of a maturing Christian. The first step of course is the step of salvation. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, we realize our need for a Savior and we pray a prayer of repentance. Nothing hard so far, it was totally the work of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. But after the ‘point’ of salvation, we discover in Step two, that Christ wants us to walk in a new direction, on a Narrow Path, a path of obedience to His Word. The example in our short story is that we allow Jesus to do all of the balancing by doing exactly what he tells us to do. We can’t panic; we can’t take over Walker’s job. Obedience, a word that strikes fear in many Christians that God might ask them to do something they don’t want to do. At first it sounds so daunting, so restrictive, but after a little training we discover that the ‘freedoms’ that the world gave to us was really bondage to destruction and eternal death, while our ‘obedience’ to Christ is really freedom to eternal life. We also discover that obedience is learned process that is possible only through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us, as we submit to Him through the knowledge of His Word.

Step three is the trust required to sit on the shoulders of the tight rope walker as he slowly balances his way across the speed, volume and thunder of Niagara Falls many feet below. In Step two, we were becoming familiar with God’s Word and His ways. We were learning that Jesus does indeed have the power and authority to make the promises He gave us in the Bible, and that He also has the power and authority to complete what He started in us [Phil. 1.6]. Our trust is developed as we daily renew our minds by the Word and we can confidently say that “…for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded the He is able to keep what I have com-mitted to Him until that day”. 2 Tim 1.12

Belief, Believe - From G4102 pistis; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), put in trust with. Our Greek word here is pistis, which is used interchangeably between believe, belief, and faith throughout the New Testament.

Three Kinds of Belief

1. Passive Belief
2. Deceitful Belief
3. Pro-Active Belief

Passive Belief - The Christian belief system is not meant to be passive. Before exploring what a passive belief system is, we need to understand that God’s word is filled with examples that describe the new Christian life, and the required actions on the part of the ‘believer’ to take on the attributes of following Christ. God’s Word is filled with instructions on spiritual growth, growing in faith, putting on the full armor of God, and increasing in the fruits of the spirit. A passive belief system is one that ‘claims the name of Christianity’, but neglects the Bible study required for spiritual growth. The passive Christian is not convicted when attending ‘R’ rated entertainment and he has a very profound excuse system in place for attending to the cares of this world prior to taking care of his spiritual needs. Jesus spoke to this issue in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 and in Luke 18:22, when individuals start to worry and place the cares of this life prior to following Christ.

Deceitful Belief – allows you believe in anything, real or imagined. The Word says that the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it? James, inspired by the Holy Spirit said that even demons believe and shudder James 2.19. But that does not do them any good. The ‘flesh’ side or our earthly nature is prone to believe the deceits and enticements of this world. Paul said in Galatians 5.17 that “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish” [Gal. 5.17]and it is only by drinking in the Spiritual Water of the Word can we become effective overcomers of this world’s system. So belief by itself is useless. Belief by itself is passive.

One big problem that Christians have with passive or deceitful Belief Systems, is their inability to monitor their connection and relationship with Jesus Christ. A passive belief causes our ‘love for God to grow cold” [Matt. 24.12] and paves a path for backsliding [Gal. 4.9; James 5.19-20;] or to develop a hardened heart [Hebrews chapter 3]. Salvation through Jesus Christ is for the express purpose of being saved from sin (and the consequences of sin which is eternal death), and to be restored into fellowship with Him. Our ONLY foundation for monitoring our relationship with Christ is our involvement in the study of the Word (the Bible) which is “inspired by God and [it’s express purpose is] for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training us in righteousness”. [2 Timothy 3.16 NASB] Jesus gave a stern warning on this in His letter to the Laodicean Church [Revelation 3.16 NASB]. Paul, also, in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians said, “[continually] test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?” [2 Corinthians 13.5 NASB]Pro-Active Belief occurs when it is combined with faith that is alive unto Christ and is energized by the Holy Spirit living in us which we will discuss in the next section.

Three Kinds of Faith

1. Dead Faith
2. Works Faith
3. Pro-Active Faith

Biblical Belief / Faith System In the New Testament there is only one Greek word that is translated both believe and faith; [pistis] which the Greek 'grouped' the concept of the two English words and it is understood that both words act together as one, not independent of each other. But because it takes two separate English words to define the concept we tend to incorrectly hold them as two separate concepts and therefore relax the necessity of the faith that was given to us by God.

Works from Dead Faith

James, Jesus’ half-brother, gives us some insight into dead faith. “What good does it do, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but does not have any works? This kind of faith cannot save him, can it? Sup-pose a brother or sister does not have any clothes or daily food and one of you tells them, "Go in peace! Stay warm and eat heartily." If you do not provide for their bodily needs, what good does it do? In the same way, “ faith by itself, if it does not have any works, is dead.” (Jas 2:14-17)

“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (Jas 2:24) “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.” (Jas 2:26)

One of the big controversies that is dividing the body of Christ is this issue of dead faith, primarily be-cause the English word ‘faith’ is viewed as a separate entity that is not dependent upon any other spiritual fruits or attributes. However, when you take a close look at the doctrine of faith, you will quickly learn that a believer’s faith is fully dependent upon spiritual growth which is the process of maturing in the Fruit of the Spirit. For example, love (which is a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22) is a vital key ingredient in the actions of faith. Our initial step of faith to salvation was given to us by the Holy Spirit because of God’s love for us, and because faith and love are fully integrated, God transferred His love to us and that love then enables us to love God with all of our body, heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbor as our self. The natural man does not have the capacity to love God, or even see his need for God. "But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso ever believes [same Greek word for faith] in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." [John 3.16] The faith part of that love is what allows us to see our need for a Savior, and to accept Him as Lord. Paul covered this topic in detail in Galatians chapter 5. “For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.” (Gal 5:6 NLT) James says, “How foolish! Can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless? (Jas 2:20 NLT)

This is the same issue that Jesus warned the church about throughout the New Testament. [see: Matt 24.12; Rev 2.4-5] God, in His wisdom also gave us many instructions on how to prevent our love from growing cold eg: 2 Peter 1:5-10. Jesus addressed this issue adequately in Matt 7.21-23, by answering those who believe that works alone is sufficient by saying “I never knew you.” So we find that faith without works is dead and works without faith is dead, but the combination of faith and works produces eternal life [Rom 2.7-11; 1 Tim. 6.12 NASB]. We will explore how to produce works which are acceptable to God, works that will not be burned in the judgment of the saints.

Works from Pro-Active Faith

The pro-active person is one who understands that sin always separates us from God and therefore does not take his/her salvation for granted, but pursues the ‘narrow path’ of obeying God’s Instructions . He under-stands the great price Christ paid to redeem us back to a right relationship to Himself, and he is going to actively take action to cause change in his life, instead of merely reacting to change when it happens. He understands that God has a plan for his ‘good’, and not for his harm [Jeremiah 29.11]. God, in His Word, has laid out in detail, the path that we are to follow.

An understanding of the word pro-active is important to be able to fully understand the concept of our biblical belief / faith system. I use the phrase 'biblical belief / faith system' because when it comes to spiritual things and walking in the Spirit, you cannot separate these two English concepts which are vital in the new life of the believer.

Two Parts of the Belief / Faith System

First, Belief is (a) being fully persuaded that the Bible is Truth, that it is inspired by God through the Holy Spirit, and that it testifies of Jesus Christ, (b) that the object of your belief in Jesus Christ lines up with the Word, and (c) that the Word of God is sufficient in all areas of life.

The trouble with many of today’s teachers is that they have followed the secular world’s system of reducing our belief and faith to a ’30 second sound-bite’. They try to explain what they believe into a couple of sentences or a paragraph, and expect the hearers to understand the full meaning of Christianity. The inspired Word in Psalms 119:160 says that ‘The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” God inspired 40 different authors over a 2500 year period, to write 66 books so that we today, for this particular time, can have a full understanding of the God and Savior Jesus Christ that we believe in, and why we believe in Him. Our belief system must go back to creation to see why God created us, (for a personal fellowship with Him), what caused our separation from Him (sin), the consequences (death / hell) of sin in our life, and how we are restored back to a personal relationship with our Creator and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Learning to love our Lord and Savior is a lifetime commitment.

Our ‘Belief / Faith System’ does not mature on its own. Our flesh and the world will always try to pull us away from walking in the Spirit. But Christ overcame the world, and He gave us His Holy Spirit to allow us to also be overcomers. We must choose a pro-active faith which is produced as a by-product of our love for Him. There are two aspects of the Christian’s act of faith that needs to be talked about today. First, to have faith that God’s Word is Truth – it is amazing to me how many so called Christians are debating the Truth of the Word, and claiming that they have the right to determine what Truth is. They go on to say that “I can interpret the Bible to mean what ‘I’ want it to mean, and you can interpret the meaning of truth differently, and they say that we can both be right.” Many want to accept the explanation of science or philosophy as a better truth than what God’s Word says. What they are saying is that God the Creator had a problem communicating, and that man, the created, can do a much better job at deciding what is right and what is Truth.

Second, to have faith that God will actually do what He promised. In Proverbs 3.6 God says “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths”. But our pride wants to do the directing. God is more than willing to supply all of our needs, to give rest and peace, to give protection, and all He asks is that we humble ourselves, call out to Him, and be obedient. But that kind of Faith (belief) only comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.17. This is why the Word says that “…everyone who practices righteousness [or is obedient to God’s instructions] is born of Him” 1 John 2.29, and with that we come back to an earlier verse about the ‘testing ourselves to see if we are of the faith’. We test ourselves against the Truth in God’s Word alone, and not against the standards of this world. We want to test our marriages, our personal relationships, our work ethics, our habits, our focus in everyday life, the places we go, the amount of time we spend with God in prayer and bible study. Our belief / faith system must adhere to the ‘narrow path’ Jesus described in Matthew chapter 7.

Now that we have learned that our faith needs to be pro-active, how do we produce ‘good works’ that are acceptable to God? Many times the born again believer is instructed by various church leaders that we should just go out and be a witness, or do one of a thousand other acts of kindness, believing that just doing [something] fulfills the works requirement of faith. This is almost correct, but it is missing a key ingredient. Paul said that when we stand before Jesus Christ, our works will be judged, “the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. 1Co 3:13 In my mind, I want as many of my work efforts as possible to please God, to be acceptable to Him. This is where the sanctification process and spiritual growth come in. We are instructed to walk in the Spirit, and to add the various fruit of the Spirit to our portfolio as Christians. It is the Fruit of the Spirit that empowers us to produce good works that is pleasing to God. It is the Fruit of the Spirit that empowers us to be light in this darkened world, and to be overcomers of all the fiery darts of satan’s temptations and the lusts of the flesh. Spiritual growth is the enabler of good works.

Our Lord loves us so much that He became a man to die as a sacrifice for our sins. He paid the price in full! All He wants in return is a pro-active faith that is obedient to His Word. Anything less is telling Jesus that His sacrifice wasn’t good enough. In Luke 18, Jesus told His disciples a parable that we should always pray to God, and He said "I tell you that God will bring about justice [answers] for them quickly.” Then Jesus concluded His parable with this question: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8 NASB My prayer is that you will be found faithful when He returns. He will return. His return will be soon. Watch!

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√ Unbelief is when God has spoken and you do nothing.
√ Presumption is when you act when God has not spoken.
√ Faith is when you act upon God’s instructions.
√ Truth Demands a response.