Faith That Works

The Fantasy-Faith of Church Religion

The art of communication is being understood, and words are a form of communication. However, there needs to be a common understanding of the meaning of the words used. In linguistics, when two words from different languages sound the same but have a different meaning, these words are called false friends. False friends lead to confusion. The religion of Christian tradition taught in modern churches is full of false friends but because the theologically trained teachers of religion are so convinced that their orthodox belief system is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, no-one is any the wiser. Take for instance the word faith. The faith taught in many modern churches is doctrine, theology, the articles of religion, and of course creed. The word creed is from the Latin “credo” and means, “I believe”. The faith of religious tradition doesn’t work. It is faulty. It promises something great when people are dead. They find out when it is too late that their faith was merely fantasy faith, it wasn’t true.

What is Biblical Faith?

Within the ancient Hebrew culture of the Bible, the words commonly translated “believe” or “faith” meant to establish something practically, the words did not mean any form of intellectual belief in something religious, imaginary, or conceptual, concept was not part of their culture or way of thinking. The Hebrews lived from their hearts and not from their heads. True faith is how people live, not what they think or say they believe. The same Hebrew word for “faith” is often translated “truth” and it means the same thing, something built or established – something real like a pillar or support. Faith in God meant to respond in humility and obedience to the amazing grace of the unmerited favour of God by catching the breath of the word spoken personally by the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God into their grace-humbled hearts. Through this, they received the fulfillment of God’s great and precious promises in their experience.

Amazing Faith

At the time of Jesus, the Jews hated the Romans who amongst other things forced them to pay taxes and carry their bags which made them feel small, and full of resentment. However, the Romans represented outwardly the slavery of being imprisoned by pride and selfishness that, apart from the sovereign blessing of Abraham, naturally subjected them to the curse of being enslaved by the father of lies. In Luke 7, there was a Roman centurion who, although he was a gentile, loved the Jews and showed it practically by establishing or building their synagogue. The centurion did not suddenly say in his heart one day “I am going to love the Jews, I will build their synagogue, I have got great faith”. God had sovereignly chosen the centurion by the election of grace to receive the blessing of Abraham, the life’s breath, or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. Within ancient Hebrew culture, sons are the reflection of the behaviour or name of their father. As a reflection or Son of God, the centurion loved the Jews because God loves them. He wanted to be a blessing to the Jews because God wanted to bless them, and in Genesis 12:3 God promised to bless those who blessed Abraham. God chose the centurion to be a blessing to the Jews but also to stand as a testimony against those who imagined that God considered them righteous. This was because they were descendants of Abraham and because they believed that they kept the Law of Moses. They considered themselves in covenant with God, God’s “special”, holy, or favoured people, and therefore superior to everyone else. The centurion had received the blessing of a grace-humbled heart. Although in the natural world he was someone important, he knew by supernatural revelation the truth that in reality he was nothing in himself and that all of his power and authority came from above and not from him. His servant who was possibly a Jew, whom he loved, was sick and at the point of death. In humility he sent the elders of the people, who had to humble themselves, to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant. It says in Luke 7: 6-10 (KJV) “Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou should enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick”. Hebraically, the “amazing faith” that Jesus found within the centurion could be better described as a “believing response to grace”. The centurion’s faith was a response to the amazing grace of God and not the cause of it. It was truly remarkable, but what was really significant was the work of the amazing grace of God in the centurion’s heart. The centurion’s faith was not a “work” because a “work” of faith that merits the gift of grace cannot receive it because it is no longer a gift but an obligation. He did not work up a religious “I believe” sweat that obliged Jesus to heal his servant. His faith was the blessing of grace, and he simply responded to Jesus with a grace-humbled heart. The centurion knew how faith in grace really worked. Natural words are spoken with natural breath, but natural words even scriptural words, have little effect without the personal manifestation of the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s life. The centurion was a man who by God-given grace lived in obedient submission to authority and as such knew by revelation that Jesus was a man who lived by faith in submission and perfect obedience to the truth of the living word of the supernatural authority of God. He also knew that unless Jesus spoke the word of grace, a man under authority like himself, a man of truth who spoke living words with the divine power of supernatural breath, a man within whom by faith (or establishing) the word of God and the life’s breath, personality or Spirit of God were one and the same, nothing would happen. Within ancient Hebrew culture, to believe or to have faith meant to establish. The time to believe was when Jesus spoke the unmerited grace-inspired living words of God for him personally. That is why it says in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God. Real faith is an obedient response to the amazing life-changing grace-filled blessing of the God-inbreathed immediate present tense living word of God. Real faith is not an intellectual agreement with religious tradition, dogma or creed. Real faith is not something that “merits” a miracle or earns a work of grace. It is not a “believing” stick used to prod God out of a presumed persistent vegetative state. When Jesus freely spoke the word of unmerited grace, as a man under authority with a divine mandate to release the power of God’s grace, that was the time that by faith everything changed. The centurion’s servant was of course healed the moment Jesus spoke the word of truth. For the centurion, his “after the fact of grace” amazing faith was the victory

Amazing Grace

God offers unlimited revival power. He is willing to open the floodgates of heaven and pour himself out upon hungry hearts but so often the grace of God is hindered because people are already filled with the unbelieving words of natural breath, religious tradition or doctrine no matter how noble or sincere. So often, people put their natural trust in the religion of tradition in the place of grace-inspired faith in the living God. Religion teaches people to believe; people can believe until the cows come home, but the cows never will. When the amazing and unmerited grace of God sends the cows home, faith simply responds to the unmerited grace of God by opening the door to welcome them. Grace is not God’s response to faith but amazing faith is the heart’s response to grace. Grace activates faith, faith does not merit grace. That is why Paul says in Romans 10:17 “… faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the [living, inbreathed, active] Word of God”. Within ancient Hebrew culture, to hear meant to “see the name”, to establish or obey, the disobedient were too proud to listen. True faith has got nothing to do with the affirmation or creed of the tradition of religion. The goodness and unmerited grace of God activates faith, an amazing and limitless faith that responds to amazing grace. As such, true faith is the effect of grace, not its cause. True faith is an inspired response to the dynamite of the almighty power of the living word of God that surges through the hearts and personalities of God’s Sons. True faith is the restoration of the absolute sovereign authority and power of the word of God lost by Adam and Eve at the Fall.

The True Faith of Relationship

Jesus did not come to establish the faith of the Christian religion of tradition but rather relationship, a Father-Son relationship with God that all peoples everywhere can enjoy. If you would like to know how to escape the false-friend shackles of the Christian religion of tradition, experience the mountain-moving power of God-inspired faith that prevails, and enjoy a Father-Son relationship with Almighty God that lasts forever, then click here. Those whose hope is truly in the Lord, will not be disappointed.