"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
What does all of this mean? Well, take for instance buying a house. The substance is the title deed and the confirmation of the deal. However, unless you buy the house outright, a trustee will hold the title deed until the loan is repaid. This will be the evidence of something hoped for but not fully seen yet. So the substance is the realisation and the evidence the confidence.
In the same manner, when we pray for something in faith, we don't see it at first but we feed our hope for it on God's Word. This is faith. When we stand in prayer for something, we pray and then believe and receive it although we don't yet actually have it. This is the substance hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.
Scripture tells us that, 'We walk by faith not by sight.' (2 Corinthians 5:7), and 'we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.' (2 Corinthians 4:18). Look at it this way, faith is the building material and hope is the blue print. We need hope before faith can begin building anything. As we feed our hope on God's Word, it can paint a picture within us like we're seeing the finished product. This is a power picture and it helps us to remain in faith until the promise is fulfilled.
Faith is not an easy thing to hang onto. People can defuse our faith by their words. Also, we can be our own worse enemy by being impatient and giving up. When we do this, we usually start saying things such as, 'This is never going to work - it's a waste of time.' When we start going down this road, it never will work because by our own words we have cancelled it out. Therefore, when you're in a faith situation, watch what you say and think and try and bypass people who laugh or scoff. This is why Jesus wouldn't allow anyone with Him when he was ministering to the young girl in Mark 5:39-41. (39) 'The child is not dead, but sleeping.' (40) And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with Him and entered where the child was lying. (41) Then He took the child by her hand and said to her, 'Talitha, cumi', which is translated, 'Little girl, I say to you, arise'. And this is what happened. A miraculous act of faith and healing.
Learn to live and walk by faith. This is God's desire for each one of us.
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
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