So You Think You Have Faith?

Find out what the bible says about faith as we continue our series on the fruit of the Spirit.

The next fruit of the Spirit that is mentioned in Galatians 5:22 is faith. Faith is defined as complete trust or confidence in someone or something. It is further defined as a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof (Dictionary.com). The bible tells us that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). It also explains that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). This gives us our foundation. From these verses, we can tell that faith is not a feeling or something that we can visibly see, it is an inner-knowing and assurance for the believer. It stretches us and forces us to look beyond what we physically see.

The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is mistrust and self-sufficiency.

The Holy scriptures confirm that without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). This seems to be a running theme, doesn’t it? We cannot operate in faith being disconnected from the Lord. Now we know that we cannot even please God without having faith. This is because we cannot visibly see God while we are on this Earth, but when we trust the words of Jesus and we enter in to a covenant with Him, we can be sure that we have what we need to bring God glory and to operate at the highest level in His kingdom. As believers, faith helps to develop things in us. The bible tells us that the trying of your faith worketh patience (James 1:3). We see that faith develops patience in us. One fruit is developing another.

The opposite of faith is not doubt, like so many believe. The opposite of faith is mistrust and self-sufficiency. This is because faith is to have complete trust in someone or something so when we do not have complete trust in the Lord, that means we must have taken that trust from God and placed it in our own abilities, and we are operating from a place of mistrust toward our Father. We cannot have faith in anything that we do not trust. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard see, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Faith can move mountains! It gives us the blueprint we need to conquer obstacles. Faith causes living water to flow because of our belief in Christ Jesus (John 7:38). We can conclude that it is hard enough trying to live this life, doing it without faith makes the journey more difficult than it needs to be. If you’ve lived for any length of time, you are fully aware that in this life we will have trouble – the bible echoes this – but faith helps us to not focus on that trouble. Faith ultimately changes our perspective about the things that we may go through and makes the seemingly impossible possible.