Faith

Faith is the act of believing in order to see something manifest in your life. Seeing before we believe is not faith for we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus said,

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)

“If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Believing you have received comes before it being yours. Knowing the truth comes before it sets you free. Faith is believing something is true before you experience it as truth.

Super Bowl champion NFL coach Tony Dungy believes that “the first thing you have to do when you’re trying to turn a football franchise from a loser to a winner is create the belief that you can win.” Before the team ever experiences actually winning, the team must believe they can win. The experience of winning comes after believing they can. Coach Dungy concludes “It is this expectation of success that defines championship teams.” Faith comes before experiencing even in football.

Faith is knowing the truth of God’s Word before we experience it. Our experiences will begin to match up with our faith, but faith comes first. Just like the football team trying to create an expectation of winning so that they can win, we need to create an expectation of receiving from God so that we can receive from Him.

How do we create this expectation and grow in Faith?

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
(NAS) (Romans 10:17)

Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Faith grows by training our minds to hear the word of Christ in every situation we face. Renewing the mind is creating instincts in our minds that represent the word of Christ in every situation. We grow in faith by hearing the word of Christ and by training our minds to hear this word all of the time. To the point where our every thought is God’s thought.