In Your Bible Read This
Hebrews 11

Here Is Your Memory Verse
Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if anyone
says to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt 
in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, 
it will be done for him. Mark 11.22 - 23.

Afterwards Practice This In Prayer
Name the mountains that stand against you, stopping your progress.
Speak to them in prayer. Command them to move.

Something To Do Before Next Time
Write a list of all the promises that God has given you. Examine your heart
to see if you are still believing God despite every adverse
or contrary circumstance. If you need to, repent and believe him again,
thanking God by faith for his answers.

Diploma Work
Write 2 pages describing the different kinds of faith found in the Bible.

Meditate On This Passage
Philemon 6

Spend a Minute to Change the World

Pray For Japan - 126,000,000 wealthy, lost people

Mainly ancestor worshippers, 250,000 evangelical believers

 

Be sure to teach this lesson to others.

Always pray and prepare well adding

 your own verses and stories to bring it to life.

 

1. What Is Faith?

The simple answer is found in Hebrews 11.6 which says that you must believe that God is real, and he is a rewarder of those who seek him diligently.

In Africa I met a man who had been born in the bush, in total poverty but today owns a factory, a good house and a car. He is an employer and a church elder, enjoying a God given prosperity with responsibility, in a land of appalling poverty.

How Did It Happen?
He said, "One day many years ago a missionary preached the gospel in my Muslim village. As a child I believed in God, received Jesus and I began to pray for God’s help to go to school, then to university, and onwards. I put my faith in the promises of God."

2. By Faith . . .

From Hebrews 11.1-39

We can understand the world and where we come from. 3
We can worship as Abel did. 4
We can please God. As Enoch did. 5
We can avoid disasters, so saving our families. As Noah did. 7

We can receive the call of God and obey. As Abram did. 8
We can do what is physically impossible. As Sarah did. 11
We can know the end of the age is near and play our part in it. 13-16
We can sacrifice our best knowing God is faithful. As Abraham did. 17
We can walk away from sin and see the invisible. As Moses did. 25, 27

The Bible says that, "All these people were still living by faith when they died." and that, " these were all commended for their faith, although none of them received what they had been promised." 11.13, 39

Why Not?
"God had far better things in mind for us that would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize at the end of the race until we finish the race."

3. What Then Is This So Essential Faith?

Faith is simply believing that God is real, and that he will keep his word." Numbers 23.19. A sister was told by her doctor that there was little chance of her having a baby. She refused some experimental treatment and put faith in God’s promise in Exodus 23.25. Years went by, many tears were shed and faith grew weak. One month after a special effort in prayer at last she became pregnant. The same doctor who said "impossible" delivered a miracle daughter, Elisabet, which means God has kept his promise.

Faith Is Calling Out To God
What happened to the people who
were lost in life ? Psalm 107, 4-9
And to the people lost in sin? 10-16
And to people lost in sickness ? 17-22
And even to the people who got lost and in peril on a journey? 23-31

4. Where Does Faith Come From?

There is Saving faith, the gift of God, Eph. 2.8, and
Serving faith, Rom. 12.3, 2 Tim. 1.6
Faith that forgives, Luke 17.5
Faith comes by ‘hearing’ what God says, through the Bible,
preaching, tapes and books. Romans 10.17
There is the gift of faith, 1 Cor. 12.9.

5. Faith Means Believing In Your Heart

We are body, soul and spirit, 1 Thes. 5.23, but because God is Spirit, John 4.24, we believe him in our spirit, a bible word for our heart. The heart is the home of warm living faith, and as such is God's foundation for our mind which is a reservoir of learning and human knowledge, Mark 11, 23-24; Romans 10.10.  Proverbs 23.23 tells us to buy the truth and not sell it, meaning that truth has a price, and that price may be believing God's promises against all contrary circumstances.  Sometimes an educated but unspiritual mind will sell God's truth and grasp for a human alternative, when in fact that alternative should be put in its place behind active believing faith in God's word. Paul, an intellectual genius of his day declared we are to live by faith and not by sight. 2 Cor. 5.7

For many years a brother borrowed a car, but the owner fell into hard times and the blessing had to end. He read in Deut. 28.31 that one curse of the law is that your donkey is taken away and not returned. He said, "In Jesus I am blessed," so he refused the curse and asked God for a new donkey. He walked everywhere for weeks thanking God in his heart for a new ‘donkey.‘ There was no logical hope but suddenly with one phone call he was given a good car which God had quietly led a prayerful man to buy for him.

6. Faith Is Now

In Hebrews 11.1 you find ‘Now’ faith. Faith believes not that God can, or even that he will, but that he has done it. Real faith believes that the answer already exists in God ‘now’ and the blessing is mine ‘now’ - even before it is seen or held. For example, it is not that God can save me or will save me. Of course he can!

The truth is that:
Jesus already saved me on the Cross.
I discover this by revelation,
I receive him, I give thanks,
And his salvation becomes mine.

Equally, the door to healing, deliverance, blessing and prosperity is not in the future believing that Jesus can, or even will meet your need. ‘Now’ faith receives from the Cross where his finished work met my every need 2000 years ago ! Believe, praise him, thank him, and wait in faith.

7. Faith Faces The Facts And Believes

As Abraham the father of our faith did as an example to all who would follow him. He is the father of our faith. Read the story in Romans 4,19-21.

After Thomas said, " I will not believe."

Jesus came and said to him, "Thomas, stop doubting, start believing." Thomas confessed, "My Lord and my God," repented of his unbelief, and went to preach in ancient India. Who would you prefer to be, Abraham or Thomas? John 20, 24-29.