I have just a couple of things I would like to say about faith today

I have just a couple of things I would like to say about faith today. For starters let's take a close look at an integral scripture on the topic: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). We've all heard that one and we've all read that one, but let's look at it point blank for what it really says. First of all faith IS a SUBSTANCE. Faith is not some mystical something that we put our own defining to. It is already SOMETHING, without what we choose to think. A substance is tangible, not mystical. Next we see that faith IS an EVIDENCE. Anything that is evidence is evidence of something else, and it is ALWAYS tangible. There is no such thing as a whimsical, mystical evidence, and the same is true for any substance of anything. So faith is something that is tangible to our inner man, and it is the actual substance of things that are hoped for, and it is the actual evidence of things that we cannot see. Now let's remember that we're taking this from the Bible, so these things that are hoped for and not seen certainly have to do with the kingdom of God, which we know that God and his kingdom are invisible to us (Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:15; I Tim. 1:17; Heb. 11:27). So what this means is that true faith in Jesus is something that is absolutely tangible to our inner man, because it is the actual substance and evidence of God and his kingdom. With these few simplistic things in mind, let's see how this adds up in the scriptures: "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]. So Jesus said that true faith in him is synonymous with receiving his Spirit, which he describes as "rivers of living water;" something which shows to be tangible to our inner man. And again he said the same thing in just a slightly different manner: "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water... But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:10,14). Yet again Jesus describes this same living water, which he said comes by faith in him, as a tangible SUBSTANCE to our inner man; which can be drank, and which also "springs up" inside of us WHEN we drink it. And what did he say that this living water springs up INTO? "Everlasting life!" Is everlasting life not the HOPE of the gospel, and that which we cannot at this time SEE? "For we are saved by HOPE: but hope that is SEEN is NOT hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we SEE NOT, then do we with patience wait for it" (Rom. 8:24,25).

Now in keeping with the truth that we have seen established from the scriptures so far, that having God's Spirit is synonymous with true faith in Jesus, and that this experience is a tangible substance to the inner man; let's look at another saying of Jesus on the matter: "But ye shall receive POWER, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1:8). If power is not a tangible substance then we have nothing left but the opinions of man and the confusion and emptiness that accompanies those opinions. But the power of the holy Ghost IS a quite tangible substance indeed, and that reality can be witnessed by anyone who has received it and gone forward with it. That power is in fact the very evidence of that which is of God that we do not see: "For the KINGDOM OF GOD is not in word, but in POWER" (I Cor. 4:20). And that power is indeed the very substance of that which is hoped for by every true believer: "And [believers] have tasted the good word of God, and the POWERS of the WORLD TO COME" (Heb. 6:5). So it becomes more than evident by more than ample confirmation of the scriptures, that the "take it by faith" gospel of modern Christianity is nothing more than a mystical, powerless, religious fairy tale. The whole "take it by faith" ideology is just part of "another gospel" about "another Jesus," which is contrived by "another spirit" other than the Spirit of God (II Cor. 11:4). True faith in Jesus produces a powerful experience from heaven that purifies the heart from sin, literally (Acts 15:8,9; Acts 10:44-46; I Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:5). The "take it by faith" mindset of Christianity produces the belief of a lie which leaves the would-be believer powerless against sin. That is why the Christian gospel also upholds the "sinners saved by grace" school of thought. It has no other choice BUT to come up with a religious lie like that. It CERTAINLY can't teach the truth that believers "put on the new man, which AFTER GOD is created in righteousness and TRUE HOLINESS" (Eph. 4:24). There is one new birth experience that truly removes sin from the heart and gives the believer POWER to literally overcome sin. That experience of faith is the baptism of the holy Ghost, which has always been witnessed initially by the sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance when it comes in. And that is the one experience that produces the tangible substance and evidence of the kingdom of God and of the glory world to come. It is this experience alone which produces the living water that Jesus referred to, when he described true faith in him: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to DRINK into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13). Everything else that is projected by Christianity to be the new birth or the remission of sins, is merely a lie that is void of divine substance AND void of any evidence of the world to come. Amen.