So let us start by turning to Hebrews 11:1 and look at the answer to that age old question, “What is faith?”
Many people have answered that in all kinds of ways but the bible gives us a powerful lesson in this verse.

It starts “Now faith is”

In other words faith is for now. It is a present reality. It is not something that happened only in Jesus’ day when he was on the earth. It is not something that we will all have in the future one day when we are all feeling good about ourselves. It is for now.

What is more it is always there to be used in the now situation.
If you need finances you need them now. However we also need to be assured that faith put into practice now will have an impact on and change the future.

It then goes on to say that faith is the “substance”
Personally I have always found this helpful in explaining faith.
Faith is a substance. We can relate to physical solid substances like wood. We can touch it, feel it and see it.
However wood in itself is just a substance until it is fashioned into something else.
The dictionary defines substance as “the essential material reality”
So for example wood may be the essential material reality of a chair but it is only material until it is used to form that chair so that you can then sit on it.
We need to see faith in the same way but as the essential material reality in the spirit realm. A Spirit, God Himself, made the world using the substance of faith just as Hebrews 11:3 tells us. I always see it like this. The spiritual substance of faith is more real and more solid that any physical substance because spiritual things are always more real than natural things. Just because they cannot be seen by our physical eyes does not mean they do not exist.
Faith is not an airy fairy thing that you can’t quite get a handle on. It is very real. It is how God operates and as we have just read it is what He uses to create with.
The problem for us is that we think and act so much on a carnal physical level that we have difficulty overcoming this to “see” on the spiritual level where faith works but we can and must do it. It could be said that faith is the most powerful substance in the universe.

Now that may help some to consider that whenever you start to use faith it is like taking something real and solid to create something else.

We can take the analogy to wood further  because just like wood, faith in itself stays as a basic substance until you do something with it. That is why we have to use our faith or we may say exercise our faith to see the reality of what we are desiring. It is one thing to say you have faith but that makes no difference in your life unless you do something with it.

Hebrews then says “it is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen”

Hoping is important. Like faith hope is an action word.
Godly hope is what gives our faith something to attach to. For example you may be sick but hoping to get well. Your hope, based on what the Word of God says about you, will give something for your faith to attach to. If you never set anything as a goal for your faith it has nothing to work towards.

In the same way faith is evidence. Let me put it this way. You may go into a shop and you are hoping to buy a flat screen TV. You see a model that you like and go to take it out of the shop. However that TV is not yours until you pay for it, or you could say present evidence that it can be yours in the form of money. Then many stores have a system where you cannot take the TV on the shop floor, you have to go to a collection point to get it. When you go to the collection point the member of staff serving there wants evidence as your receipt demonstrating it is paid for and therefore you are entitled to take possession of that item.

Now faith works as evidence in exactly the same way but in a spiritual manner to change things in the physical world. For example you could be hoping or shall we say desiring a change in a physical circumstance because you are sick. It may be there is a desired outcome to something you have been praying about and nothing seems to be changing yet. Faith is what you put down on the table so to speak and hold onto and claim as the evidence that this thing will come about. The current situation will change because you are using the substance that you know that you know will always work when nothing else will.

Finally Hebrews goes on to tell us that faith is the evidence
“of things not seen”

In both the examples I used above we understand that at the start of the process you cannot physically see healing in your life, you cannot see a changed circumstance with your physical eyes.
However faith is the evidence that the desired goal will become a reality when you have nothing else to show for it. You cannot see it yet as an actual completed reality but you do see it as an accomplished result through the eyes of your faith, looking beyond what you see using faith as evidence to obtain what you do not see in the physical. However you do see it in the spirit and what you see in the spirit will cause the desired result to come about in the physical.
So if someone were to ask you “how come you are claiming you are healed when there is nothing to show for it?” You take out your faith and slam it down on the table and declare “ it is because of my faith. I know you cannot see it but it is more real to me than the table I have put it on”

I realise that this is strong stuff but God expects us to use the faith that He has given us in that way. That is exactly what it is for and it pleases Him when we do. It may shock some folk who can’t see it the way you do.  They may not understand what you are doing. You may have to keep quiet about it until you start getting some results and then you will have something to shout about.

In the end God gets all the glory because it is His faith that is working in you. More about that next time.

Have a great month as this holiday season gets under way and remember with faith you can please God.