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Faith Is Substance in the Spirit Realm

For we live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

My friends, I submit to you that faith is a spiritual reality. That seems paradoxical, doesn’t it? You may ask, “How can faith be both spiritual and real? Well, with faith one moves from the sphere of the world’s circumstances and situations into a  sphere of God’s kingdom (spiritual reality). Faith is the opposite of the world’s reality. It is not the circumstances as we see in the natural—what we see, feel and hear with our senses. We are spiritual beings; we have souls and we are housed in earthly tents (bodies). (2 Corinthians 5:1)   Therefore, as believers, spiritual reality should become our tangible existence.

The writer of Hebrews 11:1 states:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Here is how the Amplified Bible puts it:

“Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen (the conviction of their reality) . . .”  It goes on to explain that—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].”

So faith is a spiritual guarantee (title deed in the spirit realm) of things hoped for (in the natural realm). It is the evidence of things not seen (or experienced in the earthly realm). Hebrews 11:1 notes that there are realities beyond what we see—our circumstances—in the world system. As believers, that reality (the kingdom realm) should supersede the natural and we should be able to come against and speak healing to natural circumstances, such as sicknesses, mental pain, trauma, the past. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 puts it, we should be  “walking by faith, not by sight.”

We are spiritual beings—God is spirit—and he made us in his image. (See Genesis 27.) The Fall separated us spiritually from Father God, but Jesus, through his sacrificial death on the cross bridged that spiritual gap between a Holy God and his creative beings. As believers, our reality should no longer be based on the world’s system, but on the realm of God’s kingdom which is spirit.

Our faith journey from the world’s system to the kingdom/spiritual realm begins at salvation. It is by faith that we receive salvation and eternal life through Jesus’ atoning, sacrificial death and resurrection. Jesus’ crucifixion bridged that spiritual divide between God and his creative beings caused by the Fall. Our spirituality is activated upon salvation and we are reunited and restored to a right relationship with our God! (Hebrews 11:1)

That salvation process transcends our earthly reality and circumstances. Salvation is a spiritual conviction deep down in the heart!  With repentance from sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, believers encounter, with certainty,  the Living God! Faith has become a certainty that has transcended the divide between the spiritual and the natural worlds. After salvation is when natural evidence  begins to manifest in the lives of born-again Christians.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) Knowledge of the gospels and the rest of the New Testament will then begin the transformation of our belief system from a worldly, earthly perspective to a  kingdom, godly perspective. It is then that we are able to  “call those things that are not (in this realm) as though they were” because  they are reality in the spirit realm. (Romans 4:17) That is, God’s enabling power will begin to come into existence for us in the natural, worldly system and the seemingly impossible can become the possible.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus heals a man’s son who has been tormented by demonic seizures. He rebuked his disciples for their lack of faith in being able to bring healing to the man’s son. The man told Jesus that he had brought his son to the disciples for healing from seizures, but they could not cure him. Jesus then casts out the demon and healed the boy. The disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast out the demon. Jesus told them that it was because of their unbelief, that is, their lack of faith.   He tells the disciples in Matthew 17:20 that they could not cast out the demon from the boy because:

“. . .  you have so little  faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  The disciples were operating by their senses—the circumstances.
  
Some translations note in verse 21 that: “However, this kind (deliverance) does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Other translations omit these words in verse 21 of Matthew 7.)

As noted earlier, at salvation, believers have to have faith in order to accept that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for the sins of all. That “grain of a mustard seed of faith” is at work in the salvation process and it should expand and grow in the lives of Christians over the years. However, it requires the following:

1. A knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3:18) which comes with the reading and studying of his Word. (Romans 10:17)
2. Prayer and fasting as noted in Matthew 17:21 of some translations.

It is essential that believers mature in their faith.  The Old Testament patriarch Abraham, had that kind of transcending faith. He is known as the Father of Faith. Out of obedience, Abraham left his home in Ur in Mesopotamia when God called him to leave. God told Abraham to, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great. . . .”  (Genesis 12:1 and 2) Abraham obeyed God. (Genesis 12:4)

Abraham’s faith was tested in many ways, but perhaps, one of the most spectacular occurrence in the Bible was when God told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on the altar! God had promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation; however, he and Sarah remained childless for many years. In fact, Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety when she bore their son of promise, Isaac. A supreme test of Abraham’s faith, one that went far beyond human, natural comprehension was when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on the altar to him in Genesis 22:1-5:

“Take your son, your only son, whom you love —Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you. . . . On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.’”

As Abraham and his son, Isaac continued on the journey, Isaac asked his father where was the lamb for the burnt offering. Abraham told him that God would provide the lamb for the burnt offering.

Abraham reached the place designated by God and placed his son on the altar. As he took the knife to slay his promised son, the angel of the Lord stopped him! God was testing Abraham. He saw a ram in the thicket and sacrificed it as the burnt offering. Indeed, the Lord had provided.

Abraham called the place The Lord Will Provide.  It signified his utter supernatural faith in God’s provision—it transcended the earthly reality and natural comprehension. Abraham knew that the Lord would provide. His faith was unshakable because he saw beyond the earthly realm into the kingdom realm! He had told his servants that he an Isaac were going over to the place where God had designated for the sacrifice (of Isaac). He knew that he and Isaac would both come down from that mountain because he told his servants in Genesis 22:5: “We (he and Isaac) will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham saw beyond the natural circumstances and into the kingdom realm. He had a history of obeying God and he supernaturally knew that God would provide and would not take his son of promise.

Hebrews 11:6 states, “. . . without faith it is impossible to please God.” So, that should be our goal, too, my friends—to please God in all that we do.

Be blessed.

Scripture Reference:

Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast.

2 Corinthians 5:7  For we live by faith, not by sight.

Mark 11:22-24  Have faith in God, Jesus answered. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Matthew 21:22  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

Romans 1:17  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

 

 

Published inCultivating a Devotional Life

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