Faith. You can’t get saved without it. You can’t walk the Christian walk without it. You can’t win the victory without it. You can’t please God without it. Faith is a spiritual force that, when fully developed, subdues kingdoms, works righteousness, obtains promises, stops the mouths of lions, and quenches the violence of fire (Hebrews 11:33-34, NKJV). And faith doesn’t just deliver the victory into your hands – faith gives glory to God.
Not just any faith, but the kind of faith that honours God as trustworthy, faithful, powerful, and loving. It means acknowledging His glory – His manifested presence, power, and goodness. And it is also connected to love (Galatians 5:6). So, faith in God is expressing love to God. Imagine saying to your spouse or good friend, “I love you, but I don’t believe you.” That doesn’t sound much like love! “Love…always trusts” (1 Corinthians 13:7, EXB). If you aren’t trusting God – taking Him at His Word – are you really loving Him?
Faith works for the people who will put it to work. And it gives God glory in front of a cloud of witnesses. Faith that gives glory to God is faith that is fully persuaded, doesn’t consider the circumstances, acts on the Word and stays out of strife. Find out if you fit the bill, and if not, how to get there.
“Being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to perform.” – Romans 4:21 (MEV)
Society is rife with scepticism these days. Negative sayings abound: “Don’t believe it unless you see it,” and “If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.” Couple that with endless statistics about the low likelihood of success in any given area, and it’s easy to see why people struggle to have faith! So, if you’re going to church and hearing encouragement one day each week, but you fill up on cynicism the rest of the week – your faith is in trouble!
You’ll want to believe, and you’ll even feel like you have faith – but you won’t be fully persuaded. If you’re fully persuaded, you don’t have one foot in faith and the other in fear. Fully persuaded faith is all in – there’s no middle ground. When you’re fully persuaded, you aren’t wishing or hoping – instead, you know that what God said is true and for YOU.
That seems like a high level of faith, so how do we get there? By renewing our minds. To renew means to “rebuild and re-energize.” It’s a continual process of rebuilding the truth of the Word of God into a mind that is constantly exposed to things of the world. One way you can help is by limiting that exposure!
Fully persuaded faith gives glory to God because it honours Him as trustworthy, faithful, just, and final authority. That’s what Abraham did when God told him that he and Sarah would conceive a child in their old age. He could have come up with a lot of “logic” and “common sense” and medical data, family history, what happened to the neighbours, and so much more to counter this promise and let doubt creep in. But he didn’t. Instead, “he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20-21, KJV).
Being strong in faith is giving glory to God by being fully persuaded that He’s able to do what He promised (verse 21). It’s putting more trust in God and His Word than in anything else on this planet. God said, “I have made you the father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5, AMPC). For Abraham, what God said was enough.
“He considered not his own body….” – Romans 4:19 (KJV)
Abraham “considered” not the circumstances. Consider means “to use the mind.” That’s using reason, natural facts, scientific studies, what happened last time or anything else you can think of. Instead, he chose to tune in to his heart. That’s where belief comes – in the spirit man.
You are a spirit, you have a soul (mind, will and emotions), and you live in a body (flesh). Your spirit is the born-again, re-created part of you with the Holy Spirit dwelling within. Your soul is the intellectual side of your being, and your body is the flesh, or carnal side.
So, when symptoms of sickness, for example, show up in your body, your flesh is very in tune with those symptoms. The spirit knows the truth about the matter, so that leaves your mind. Whichever way your mind goes – it’s two against one. So, if your mind sides with your flesh, you’re going to give more weight to your circumstances than anything else. But if you have a renewed mind – one that has been trained to come into agreement with God’s Word – you have two against one on the other side because your soul is now agreeing with your spirit. That is how you become fully persuaded.
So, when symptoms show up declaring sickness, lack, decrease, family failure or anything else against the Word of God, faith that gives glory to God won’t consider them. It won’t ignore them, but it won’t give them first place. When you say, “Yeah, but the doctor said…” or “Well, just look at my bank account,” you’ve already fallen off the faith line.
Does your faith honour and praise Him? Or does it question His goodness and His grace? Does it magnify Him, or does it believe symptoms, bank accounts and trouble in this world over what He has to say? Faith that gives glory to God says to God: “You said it, and that’s enough for me.” Don’t glorify your circumstances – give glory to God!
"Stop trying to make God’s Word work and start acting on the Word."
“They went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.” – Luke 5:19 (NKJV)
Faith without action isn’t really faith at all. Some people might think they have faith, but they’re really just wishing or hoping. Real Bible faith will step out and act like what God says is true. That’s important because if we don’t give authority to His written Word, then even when we need Him to be on the scene right away, there are situations where we have blocked Him from helping us.
That happened in Jesus’ own hometown. He was just as anointed in Nazareth as He was anywhere else, yet “He could do no mighty work” (Mark 6:5, NKJV). Why? “Because of their unbelief” (verse 6, NKJV). Unbelief ran Him out of town. A refusal to believe what He said prevented the miraculous from taking place. They refused to believe Him. They gave His words zero place – none. And He left town and went to Capernaum, where they gave place to His Word and His life.
So, whatever you’re believing for, ask yourself, “Am I acting on that belief?” If you believe you’re healed, do you still tell people what you can’t do because of your condition? If you believe God is your Provider, are you staying up at night worrying about paying your bills? Whatever you’re wanting to receive by faith, find out if you’re really acting on it. If not, start today!
When we act on God’s Word, we give Him honour and glory. Faith in the absolute authority of the Word of God requires no other evidence. What God has already said and what God has already done, believe it in your heart, say it with your mouth, then act like it’s true. That’s faith that gives glory to God.
“Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” – Proverbs 10:12 (ESV)
What does strife have to do with faith that gives glory to God? Faith won’t work without love (1 Corinthians 13:2), and as long as you’re in strife – any kind of strife – you’re stepping out of love. Is it possible to go through life without strife? Yes! That doesn’t mean you won’t feel frustrated with someone now and then or disagree with others, but it does mean that you will work to keep out of strife. There’s an effort involved.
Why is this so critical to your faith? Strife is a blessing blocker. That’s why if the devil can’t get you any other way, he will work to get you in strife or unforgiveness. It’s how he brings confusion to your life and situation. It distracts you, gets you off that love line and out of position to receive what you’re believing for. “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:16, KJV). That doesn’t sound like miracle-working ground!
That’s why the devil pushes strife so hard. Don’t tolerate even a little bit of strife. You don’t want even a tiny bit of dirt in your fuel tank because over time, it will blow your engine. Strife is the same way. One grain of sand, one bit of strife every day or two, will cost you.
That’s the reason you have to be on guard – be watching for it all the time. Don’t even get in strife with the news commentator on TV. Don’t sit there and fuss back at the news. If you can’t be trusted with the news, cut it off. As far as it depends on you, stay out strife, stay in peace, stay in God’s rest.
Don’t let other people get under your skin and cause you to lose your love walk. Say, “No. I’m not getting off my love walk.” Then, pray for them right there. It’s worth the effort, and it produces the kind of faith that gives glory to God.
Now you can develop your faith to the place where you are fully persuaded, don’t consider natural circumstances, act on the Word, and stay out of strife, to achieve the kind of faith that gives glory to God! Living by faith will achieve wondrous and miraculous things in your life. It will bring victory! More importantly, it will give glory to God. Isn’t that worth pursuing?
