Of Faith Only

I just want to say a few words today about how we acquire anything and everything we have need of from God. It’s really quite simplistic when it’s all said and done: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). So we plainly see that it is faith in God that alone gets our petitions through to him, and without faith we will be able to access God for nothing. That is what the scripture says. James reiterated this for us with the same mindset: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (Jas. 1:5-8). To ask God for something and to have some doubt in our mind when we ask, is simply double minded, and we can’t get anywhere with God while we are double minded. Faith is singular, meaning it operates by itself, and cannot be accompanied by doubt, fear, or anything else that is contrary. The thing we need is to be assured as to what the will of God is, and what is acceptable to ask God for. For instance, when Jesus was here he healed everyone who came to him for healing, and there is no record whatsoever of anyone who came to him for healing that was not healed. It isn’t there. Not only so, but we also see prophecy from the old testament that is confirmed in the new testament, that tells us that he took the stripes of a horrid beating in order to procure the healing of all our infirmities (Isa. 53:5; I Pet. 2:24; Mat. 8:17). In fact Isaiah 53:5 also tells us, “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” Is there any sin that Jesus does not want to forgive if we confess it to him and want to be free from it? Of course not, and by the same exact token there is no physical infirmity that he doesn’t want to heal if we bring that to him. They were both paid for at the same time, and it would make no sense at all if there were any difference in the two. In fact there is not.

So it is absolutely the will of God to heal our physical infirmities even as it is absolutely the will of God to take away our sins. So how do we get healed? By faith in Jesus to do it, that’s how. We should have no doubt about the fact that he will heal us or someone else when we pray for them, for the simple reason that we know it is his will to do so. I have used healing only as an example here because it is easy to prove from the scriptures that it is God’s will to heal us, but my point is that it is by faith alone that we procure anything from God. God is already God, and Jesus has already come and established the will of God, so we don’t have to talk God into something that is already his will. We don’t have to convince God to heal us, because he has already shown through Jesus that it is always his will to do that. Part of my point about faith is that it is by NO OTHER MEANS that we procure anything from God. We cannot ‘work’ our way to some merit that deserves that we should receive something from God. He wants us to BELIEVE him, because in reality we have nothing to offer God EXCEPT our faith IN HIM! He doesn’t need anything, and we have nothing to give him, only our trust in him by faith. That is the only way that we become a child of God by the remission of our sins, so it has to be the only way that we can continue in the journey with him. We are told that it is the Spirit of God that washes our sins away, thereby sanctifying and justifying us (I Cor. 6:11). We are also told that “that we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:14). Not only so, but Jesus clearly told us, “He that BELIEVETH on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that BELIEVE on him should receive] (Jn. 7:38,39). On this same note about receiving the Spirit by faith in Jesus, the apostle Paul told us how to continue our walk in Christ thereafter: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the FAITH” (Col. 2:6,7). He told us the same thing in another place by plainly saying, “The just shall live by faith” (Gal. 3:11).

To live by faith means that we do all that we do by our faith in Jesus, continually drawing life from him into ourselves, producing the fruit of his Spirit in the deeds and words of our lives (Jn. 15:4,5; Rom. 8:2; Gal. 5:22,23). So what it comes down to is that we can do absolutely nothing for God on our own that will gain favor from him, except abiding in his Son by faith, with he and the Son abiding in us thereby (Jn. 14:23; Jn. 17:21-23; Eph. 4:5). Many people have received the holy Ghost with the sign of speaking in tongues upon being water baptized, yet water baptism was fulfilled by Jesus and his baptism, and is not even an active element of the Gospel in God’s eyes (Mat. 3:15; Mat. 5:17; Eph. 4:5). So how did they receive it like that? Because they BELIEVED they would receive it when they were water baptized! It wasn’t the act of water baptism that did it, but rather their faith that got the job done. Otherwise everyone would receive the Spirit when they are water baptized, and NO ONE could receive it apart from that work. Water baptism is something that MAN CAN DO ON HIS OWN, so it is not of faith. If we gain anything from God by water baptism, then we are saying that God is rewarding us for our own 'works,’ and thereby we are 'boasting’ therein (Eph. 2:8,9). The only thing that is of faith IS FAITH! That is very important to consider and remember because the apostle Paul informed us of the following: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham… So then they which be OF FAITH are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:7,9). The point that Paul was making in the preceding passage was a point he continually made, and that was that we cannot become righteous or remain righteous with God any other way than by faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work. Period. If we can’t be righteous in God’s sight any other way than by faith in Christ, than it is certain we can obtain nothing else from God but by the same means. Our hearts are literally “purified by faith” in Jesus through the baptism of his Spirit when we come clean and entrust ourselves to him initially (Acts 15:8,9; Acts 10:44-46). That is the only standard by which we can live our lives acceptably unto God after we are born again. It really is that simple.

Someone will say, “Well, some things can’t get done except by fasting.” There is a scripture that says that, but the 'fasting’ part was inserted by the Catholic church and was not in the earliest Greek text. That would be Matthew 17:21, and the same is the case with 1 Corinthians 7:5 about husbands and wives abstaining from sexual relations shortly for the sake of prayer. I don’t care how long you fast, if you get anything from God it will be because you BELIEVED him for it. If we believe that fasting will produce more results, then obviously we will build up our faith by doing it. But in the end it is still faith alone that gets what we need from God. So if we SIMPLY BELIEVE him to begin with, we can have the same results. Otherwise we are saying that God recognizes something that WE ARE DOING, and answers us according to our 'works.’ Understanding that everything with God is by our faith should GIVE us the faith to just believe for what we need. When Jesus cursed the fig tree and the apostles saw it withered the next day, and marveled, he told them; “Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall NOT DOUBT in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, BELIEVE that ye receive them, and ye SHALL have them” (Mk. 11:13,14,20-24). It just doesn’t get any easier or any simpler than that. We need only let every thought and 'belief’ go that is not strictly of faith, and go ahead and believe God for EVERYTHING, doubting nothing. God wants to do much for us that we are limiting him from doing, because we just don’t simply believe him for it. Jesus told us with plain clarity, “If ye then, being evil [imperfect], know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven GIVE GOOD THINGS to them that ask him?” (Mat. 7:11) For the sake of covering every GOOD THING, I’ll close with this crystal clear statement from the apostle Paul: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power [by faith] that worketh in us” (Eph. 3:20). I think that says it all. Amen.