Spiritual and/or Moral Articles

Living By Faith & Not By Sight

by: Janie Baer

Your ability to live by faith has nothing to do with:

Who you are, where you were born, or where you live.

The amount of money you presently have in your bank account, billfold or purse or don’t presently have in your bank account, billfold or purse.

Amount of time you have or don’t have. (Faith has no time, it is always “now” Faith. Faith is always present tense. – I have _____ now. I can do _____ now. I am _____ now.)

How much something costs.

Has nothing to do with your ability or inability. (Remember: Faith is God’s ability working on your behalf. If you could do it yourself, you wouldn’t have to use your faith.)

If you have planned well financially or if there has been lack of financial planning.

Job or no job.

Paycheck or no paycheck or income or no income.

The number of educational degrees you have or a lack of education. (The fishermen who walked with Jesus were men of faith and yet they were just “fishermen” and not highly educated men; but yet they told Jesus when He sent them out to minister on their own that their every need was met.)

Your five physical senses (They only relate to the physical realm and will only tell you what is going on in the physical realm, but faith is of the spirit, a higher realm. You’re actually living in a higher realm, not subject to the natural realm when you live by faith.)

Natural limitations. (Faith is supernatural ability and there are no limitations with faith. If there were limitations then we could say God is limited, but that will never be.)

A person’s intelligence or lack of it. (Actually intelligence can get in the way of faith by trying to figure out how it is going to happen. Faith is working when your heart and not your head is fixed, established, trusting in the Lord.)

Your ability in any matter. (Faith is God’s ability working on your behalf.)

What is faith?

Faith is substance of things hoped for needed and desired, evidence of what cannot be seen by your physical eyes, your assurance, your confirmation, your title deed of things, proof of things not seen, conviction of their reality, perception as real fact what is not revealed to senses, leaning of your entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. KJV

Hebrews 11:1 NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. AMP

Hebrews 6:12 In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith ( by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises. AMP

Faith is always now, present tense. You talk like it is done.

Faith is a law, spiritual law:

Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. KJV

Faith and patience are power twins:

Hebrews 6:12 ….faith ( by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises. AMP

James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. KJV

Acting in faith, you just believe and act accordingly; staying Holy Spirit connected and He will guide you through the whole process. How easy is that? We make spirit things complicated and really we are more spiritual then we are human or carnal since God lives in us and we are now born again of the Spirit and have the ability to operate out of our spirit rather than be limited and controlled any more by our intellect or what the five physical senses tell us.

How do we receive faith?

We received the faith of God when we got born again. Faith is a gift from God. (Romans 12:3) We have the faith of Christ Jesus. (Galatians 2:20) Faith also comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. (Romans 10:17 So hear and hear again the Word concerning what you need; healing, prosperity, etc.) Building up your faith by praying in the Holy Ghost. (Jude 20)

To remain in faith or as the Word of God calls it, “established heart”, we have to guard the gates to our heart (our believing), which are our eyes gates and ear gates. Don’t keep looking at, paying attention to or listening to what is the opposite of what you want by faith.

Faith is not what we see or hear. Faith is not having faith in you and faith in your faith. Faith is having faith in God, His Word and the faith He has given to you which always does its work in any and every situation.

The Word of God is the written and spoken Word of God to us. The Word of God, itself, has enough power in it to bring things to pass; the Word just needs to be spoken out of your mouth for your situation. The Word needs you to be the receiver as well. So you are the spokesperson and the receiving person for faith. So don’t get so afraid you are going to fail in your faith for it is God’s faith He has given to you as a gift, just use it. And you are not the person to make it happen or you would be already doing it with your natural ability. You are just the believing person enough so that you speak it and act like it is done, finished. You receive it with speaking it is already reality. Speaking only the Word of God and speaking words that mean, “I received it.” Then acting like, “Okay, there it is. I’m glad that’s over with. It’s done, finished, over with.” When we speak in line with the Word of God we are not lying although in the natural we look like we are. Can we be lying when we speak what God has spoken about us. “We are healed by the stripes of Jesus.” No, that is not a lie, it is the truth about us. And we are not speaking it to make people believe we are healed. We speak it because we know it is the truth about us or our situation.

Abraham became fully persuaded in his faith to become a father when it was humanly impossible when He started speaking the name God gave to him, “Abraham”, which means “Father of nations”. When he spoke his name, “Abraham,” he was saying he was the father of nations. He never got fully persuaded in his faith he would become a father until God changed his name and he started speaking it and hearing it over and over by his family, servants, etc.

Stealers of Faith:

Being around natural, carnal thinking people and natural, carnal speaking people will steal your faith. They are always speaking what is, what they can see, hear, smell, taste or touch. So stay clear of them and seek to be around people who think in line with the Word of God, speak in line with the Word of God and act on their faith in the Word of God. (A good example of this is Abraham. When he was still named Abram, God told him to leave family and all that was familiar to him. If he had not done this, then he would not be known as our Father of faith, Abraham.)

Another stealer of faith is always looking, hearing, meditating, considering and speaking what is going on in the natural circumstances in your life. (If you want change, you have to change what you look at, listen to, meditate on, consider and speak. If you don’t, then you will only perpetuate the problem. What you focus on will expand.)

A good thing to remember in faith is to establish your heart in the Word of God about a particular thing you want to receive from God and then when the Word of God gets bigger on the inside of you through meditation then the problem or thing needing changed or brought to pass; that is the best time to speak it. That is when it is easy to speak the Word in spite of every thing and everyone that says, “That’s impossible.” Meditation plus speaking your faith brings possession. Faith’s actions can sometimes mean just speaking the Word of God or words of having received it or “It is done.” Then there are promptings of the Holy Spirit to do a certain thing. Acted upon will bring results no matter how ridiculous it may seem.

Some good examples of faith we can meditate to help establish our heart in faith are: Read about Abraham, the Father of our faith, Romans 4. The Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. And to see the New Testament Church with faith in action read the book of Acts.

To make faith simple:

Faith is trust or confidence in Jesus and His finished work. How simple is that? Jesus has said, “It is finished.” Now He has seated Himself on the right hand of the Father not because He is tired from all His work. No, He is telling us He has done all that He needs to do for us to receive all that we need and all He has promised us. And we know Jesus would not lie to us. So we can say, “By the stripes of Jesus I am healed and made whole.” (1 Peter 2:24) “Jesus became so very poor in order that I could be enriched, abundantly supplied. I am rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9) “I have been made righteous by Jesus.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Let’s make this confession of faith:

God has given me the gift of faith. I actually have the faith of Jesus. Faith is the substance of things I hope for, need and desire. It is the evidence of what I cannot see by my physical eyes. Faith is my assurance it is mine. Faith is the only confirmation I need to know that it is mine. Faith is the title deed to the possession of it. Faith is proof to me this is all done and taken care of. Faith is the conviction of the reality of this thing. With faith I perceive it is real fact in my life no matter what the senses tell me. With my faith I lean my entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in Father God, Daddy’s power, wisdom and His goodness to me. I live by faith and not by sight.

About The Author

Janie Baer has produced a CD called God’s Spoken Word and her website http://www.godswordalive.com offers products to help Christians use Bible scriptures in every day living finding the secret power of god’s word and to help find the unconditional love of Father God. Janie also has a blog, http://www.godswordalive.com/blog.

See Also:

Finding True Happiness: Part One
What does it take for man to find true happiness in the world that we live in? How can a person be content in this fast-paced, drive-thru society that we are a part of?

Finding True Happiness: Part Two - Four Sources of Divine Contentment
There are four sources from which we can experience true divine contentment. Contentment, as defined in part one, is a plateau of the Christian life that every believer must reach in order to be fulfilled spiritually, mentally and emotionally. That being said, let’s look at these four sources of divine contentment in which are sure to provide ways to reach a state of fulfillment.