THE FAITH LIFE
Habakuk 2:4; the last statement says but the just shall live by his faith, pay attention to the word “his”. The righteous or the just shall live by faith, apostle Paul brought a dimension of the understanding of what has happened to us in christ, our reality in christ.
Romans 1:17; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Galatians 3:11; says but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for the just shall live by faith, lets assume he made a mistake in Romans1:17, he couldn’t have made the same mistake here.
Romans 10:17; says so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The word of God here is captured as the good news in NLT. It is not just hearing the word of God but that which produces faith.
This word is called the word of faith movement which is centred on the gospel. Reading from verse 14, in the context of that scripture, it is about the preaching of the gospel, so it is the gospel that has been preached and heard by the people has a way of producing faith.
Hebrews 10:38, now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
In Ephesians 2:8 we see that we are saved by grace, but grace alone could not save man. Grace was sufficient. Grace is everything the father has done. That’s powerful and fundamental, but you can’t access grace without faith. So as powerful as that grace is, anyone cannot access it outside of faith.
In Romans 4:16 we see that if it is not of faith it can never be by grace. In Galatians 2:20 we see that one cannot experience grace without faith, however, grace is available. For one to experience grace it must be by faith. This scripture is what determined the vocabulary of Paul in writing those scriptures, “by his faith.” There is a life that we are living but is not our life, he lives through us. The faith of the son of God empowers our lives.
Our reality of faith in the New Testament is not the reality of Abraham, Joshua, and the saints of old. The premise of our faith is different from the premise of their faith. His burial is our burial and his resurrection resurrected us. So our confession is “his death killed me, his resurrection raised me, and his ascension is my ascension.” This is the gospel. Understanding this body of knowledge begins to give us a proper understanding of what our faith should be like.
In the New Testament, Paul said “It’s no longer I that lives, I stopped living”.
Galatians 2:20
Christ is the only one alive, we are dead, we died with him. He is the only one that has life. He is the life in us. Our lives are powered, and driven, by the Lord. So trying to live by your faith is a limitation. Faith will fluctuate because there are a lot of factors that determine the level of faith anyone will have at a time. We must come to a point where we don’t live by our faith anymore, we should live by the faith of the son of God, that’s what Paul was saying.
Paul was saying in Galatians 2:20 that what powered Habakkuk’s life was not what powered his. Habakkuk gathered faith through fasting and prayer, his life was powered by his sacrifice, and how much he could give. So if their sacrifice produced faith, there is a higher sacrifice that produced greater faith, which is Jesus.
The premise of Habakkuk’s faith was fasting but that shouldn’t be the same with a believer, because the premise of our faith is in the Son of God. Reading through the scriptures you’d find out that Abel and some other characters in the Bible had their faith tied to the things they did in as much as it wasn’t out of place; but that isn’t the premise of our faith.
What sponsors our faith is the higher sacrifice of Christ. Hence, what produced their faith is not the same thing that produced ours.
Consequently our faith as believers is the main reason why we shouldn’t have fluctuating life because in comparison what sponsored their faith were variables whilst what sponsors our’s is constant.
The premise and focus of our faith happened once and for all hence we don’t build faith but rather exercise faith.
So, we learn faith and as we do so, it keeps on increasing. That’s why the Bible says faith cometh by the hearing of the word of God.
Romans 10:17
This therefore brings to the awareness that faith is a big deal.
We are only saved through faith and as powerful as what God did in Christ and through Christ it can only save through faith.
The completed project of faith is what has the capacity to save lives.
Faith is more of a lifestyle than just a subject.
It’s not what we do once in a while but rather how we live.
So there’s a life of faith. When the gospel was preached to you; receiving and understanding the gospel produced the faith to receive what the Father has done, that is what the bible was referring to as justification of faith.
It is the preaching of the gospel that produces faith in us. It is that faith that made you say “Jesus Save me”. It was the gospel that was preached to us that we get to understand and believe produces the faith of what Christ has done for us because Grace is available.
However, as powerful as all the Father has done in Christ Jesus is, nobody can take advantage of that until faith is produced in their heart.
There is a faith that helps us to receive Grace.
Everything required for our salvation happened a long time ago but it is until each person comes in contact with the gospel that Grace can happen.
Romans 1:16
What will change a life being preached to is when Faith is produced in that life.
Romans 10:17
As we unveil and unfold the righteousness of God, Faith is produced in the heart of men. So from the point of salvation is a life of Faith. The day you accept or receive Jesus in your heart, you have started the journey of Faith.
The moment you received him, all that happened to Jesus on the cross happened to you. So it is no longer you that lives.
To stay saved is not that you are going to undo what God did, but it is that you stay conscious in the understanding of the word of God. This is what it means to grow in faith.
As we keep teaching people, faith is rising, we are growing in faith.
Not praying is not the reason why you are powerless. A prayerless Christian is not a powerless Christian. Because we didn’t pray to be saved. Praying did not make us a child of God. Until you understand what Christ did, you won’t understand that our salvation is everlasting.
If salvation is by fasting and prayer, no one by now will be interested in it. This is also why our salvation cannot expire.
And you think our Father is like the earthly leaders. Until we understand what He did we will not understand that salvation is eternal.
Until we begin to understand that the product is not on the conduct of men but about the believing of the gospel.
It is centered on who did it, how He did it. The way to understand is that the premise is not us. It is about who did it, how He did it and what He did.
He used the blood of the son of God. He did it once and for all. In Habakkuk’s days animals were used. It is renewable. It was subject to renewal. This is what produces our faith. Until we understand this, our faith will be fluctuating.
In fact the economic situation may affect our faith if the faith is not well understood. In the midst of the harsh economy, our faith is rooted beyond what the government can do and cannot do, we will do wonders and valiantly.
When men say that “there is a cast down, we will rise up.”
Job 22:29
The Bible says, if we say to the mountain to be moved, thrown and cast to the sea, that we should believe we have received and have what we say.
Mark 11:23
However, we do not live by sight. We live by faith. From which faith are we standing on? From which faith are we acting on. Despite the instability and shaking powers of the world, and change in the policy, there is a saving faith of God. It is that faith that opens to receive what the Father has done and completed. Grace has come. Grace has appeared. However, not everyone has taken such grace. It is the day that the person have faith in their heart.
Faith comes by hearing of the word. Paul said in his epistle that how can they hear if there is no going.
Romans 10:5-8 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
The ones that bear the gospel of Christ are those that have beautiful feet. We should unveil the righteousness of God. If we do not go there will not be the saving faith.
This what gives us access to salvation. Some people have not come to agree with this. This is because they only have head knowledge.
This is because salvation is the work of the Holy Ghost. As we preach the gospel casually in all our regular places we meet with people we must keep relying on the Holy Ghost. It is not about how lengthy the preaching may take but about the work of the Spirit.
The Spirit pierces the heart of men. The fruit there is seen when they start believing. This is synonymous to a ripe fruit that requires no effort to be plucked unlike the unripe ones.
The Holy Ghost leads us to the prepared heart. As we preach to these very hearts, they receive Jesus. Nobody can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
The scripture uses the word “measure” in connection to Spirit. However, the faith we have received has no proportion. If it is in sizes, then we would be having different levels of salvation. This salvation is not all about size.
Romans 12:1 is not in the context of salvation, however, Paul in his letter was writing about service.
Romans 12:3-8
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
Paul was talking about the grace for service that was given to him from the Lord. He was personalizing that part for the service for the Lord.
The word measure is used in this way to imply sizes. Our function and role determines our capacity. What we are supposed to function as is determined by scope. In the assignment being given to us, there is a grace that would drive it.
Vs 5
The word proportion talks about…measure, there are things the Holy Spirit will put in our hearts that we may not know how to express and others may receive the same revelation and will be bold to express it.
The lepers woke up one morning and decided to go into the city because of hunger. Their movement brought about fear that the Syrians absconded from their city. At that point no one questioned them because they brought good news about food. That was how the prophecy get fulfilled.
2 Kings 7:3-20
We need to think of what dimension of faith Elisha operated from when he prophesied surplus food in the land.
Many can doubt just like the King’s Lord when they receive a prophecy like this. The young man’s reasoning was justifiable since there has been no rain in the land but it didn’t take God anything to materialise the words of the prophecy. We should see the tool God used to fulfil this prophecy.
We should get to a point where we’d believe God regardless of obvious facts that can counter the word.
The scope of what you are able to minister to your generation is dependent on your faith. The faith required for salvation does not have size, just believe. To accomplish the mandate of God requires a proportion of faith.
That the holy Spirit will minister something to a man and he is able to utter it, such is a proportion of faith.
The context of the measure of faith is about giftings and ministering this gift to others. It’s not about salvation here but service.
This is why many don’t do much for God.
Many are saved but will not get to fulfil the calling on their lives. There is a measure of faith. We also have the living faith, which encompasses our day to day life. We are to follow the example of those who lived this life through faith.
Hebrews 6:12