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A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Mavenb0x(m): 6:39pm On Jan 14, 2010 |
The Word of Faith is the driving force of the universe. It is an economy and a determinant of God's Fiscal Policy. Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible. It is the operating system by which the will of God is done on the earth. Men of faith in the Bible interacted with the promises of God by faith and brought forth dimensions, dispensations, seasons, policies and events alien to their environment, culture, economy and status quo. The incontrovertible truth is that, through the substance called faith, events have taken place on the earth that have altered the course of nature, government, economy and human development. Inexhaustive Highlights of the Word of Faith among men: -A man walked with God -A ship built by a family to preserve mankind -The Red Sea opened -An insurmountable wall came down -A world power was defeated (Pharaoh and army) -Economic and political emancipation after 400 years of slavery -Global sustenance through corn for 14 years -Nonagenerian conceived -Incessant blood-flow due to haemorrhage dried up -Economic fortunes in a period of Global Economic Recession (Abraham, Isaac) -Kingdoms subdued by a small, relatively non-military nation, Israel -A persecutor became an apostle What is that something, the spark that ignited these events in the annals of human history? It is important to note that faith is not a biblical doctrine deployed occassionally when one is faced with a difficult situation. The Bible in Rom 1:17 and 3 other places declares that the Just lives by (his) faith. i.e. anyone justified lives by faith. The just is the new creation in Christ Jesus, he is created to live by faith, he has been programmed this way and for this to happen he has to learn faith, know faith, develop faith, talk faith and thus live by faith. There is a line joining people of equal faith, who hear the Word of Faith, receive it, meditate on it, increase in learning and grow thereby. So we want to study faith as it is seen in the Word of God, we want to understand it, conceptualize it and importantly, we want to apply it. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by PastorAIO: 7:34pm On Jan 14, 2010 |
What do you mean by the 'Word of God'? |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Mavenb0x(m): 7:35pm On Jan 14, 2010 |
Inherently, it takes the scripture to interpret the scripture. See Hebrews 11:1 below: Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (KJV) The Word has spoken and no one can come up and say that "this is my own understanding of faith" or "this is how my own faith works". Here is the singularity of faith's definition, knocking out all speculations: Faith IS the substance, . Faith is not hope (1 Cor 13:13), belief, faithfulness, stubbornness, mystery, fiction, facts, religion, fate or waiting. Faith is the substance of things. There is only one definition of faith (since Eph 4:5 and 2 Cor 4:13 affirm there is only one faith). Faith is NOT a substance, it is THE substance, a definite article showing that there is only one substance in the scheme of things. So, no matter what you are involved in, spiritual, secular, economical, even for desired things; faith is THE substance. And that's why it's impossible to please God without Faith. Without Faith, there is no substance of things, and when there is no substance of the very thing you are involved with, God is not pleased! Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him, FAITH IS HYPOSTASIS In metaphysics, hypostasis is the essential nature or underlying reality, the constituent and very make-up of things. That's faith! Faith is hypostasis because it is what articulates things; it is the blueprint of things. Faith is the substance of your life, the substance of your health, business, career, prayer and walk with God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Did you notice that hope is the only word in the past tense? For every hope you express to God: hope for a good business output, a superb marriage, the development of an enterprise on earth, you hope in God for something to happen to you or for you that would lead to the fulfilment of your aspirations. Hope alone can never bring your aspirations to pass, but hope will do these two (rather similar) things for you. 1. Hope helps you keep you head up Rom 5:5a And hope maketh not ashamed; Rom 5:5a In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. . . Rom 5:5a Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us. . . 2. Hope is the steadfast anchor of your soul Heb 6:19a Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast. . . Heb 6:19a [Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whoever steps out upon it--a hope]. . . Heb 6:19 It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline. . . Hope is good. These two verses mean that when you are hoping in God, you are not ashamed and you are stable. Your soul is anchored, so you are not wandering, you are not drifting from the assured promise. Hope helps keep your will, emotion and intellect together and at the same time it makes you have a right attitude (an attitude of not being ashamed while waiting for the fulfilment you desire). Summarily, I believe this verse sets it out this way: You start out hoping for a thing (maybe you are praying for it, fasting for it, or simply believing God for it). As you express that hope to God in prayer, fasting, worship or the study of the scriptures, a time comes when God in His sovereignty communicates to you the substance of that hope you had expressed to Him. It is this substance of the hope you expressed in God, communicated to you directly by God, that is called FAITH. Once this substance of the hope you expressed has been communicated to you, hope becomes the past. You are now in faith, you no longer hope for it. FAITH IS NOW THE SUBSTANCE OF THE THINGS YOU HOPED FOR. This is the story of everyone who worked or did anything by faith. FAITH simply means someone responded to God by practicing the substance of the hope that WAS in them. The substance of that hope is a revelation borne out of God's Word. Until you get a definite word concerning the hope in you, you are still in hope. The substance of the faith in you is born when God communicates to you through His Word or Spirit. Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Until God speaks to you on a matter you cannot express faith for it. [b]Simply put, Faith is the substance of your hope, that comes by hearing what God has to say about the hope! Whatever God says is the substance of that hope. [/b]Faith signifies the expression or the practice of the word that was given to you as the substance of your hope. Before we consider Biblical examples, I want to buttress the points above: The Greek word used for "evidence" in Heb 11:1 is elegchos meaning "Title deed". When you purchase a land, a document is issued to certify that you are the owner of the said land. So it tells that faith is a title deed, signed, sealed and delivered to you. All you need to do is to go out there with the faith to possess the property allocated to you. The reason it can't be a fake paper is because God is the allotter. The land, wherever it is, is no more a reality than what appears on paper as a title deed. The Word of God communicates to your spirit the title deed or the occupancy of a property you have not seen. We know that every title deed for land shows ownership, size and location of the property. So faith at this level shows you the ownership, tells you the size and indicates the location of a property not yet seen. It is specific! Unlike the one that is seen, faith delivers to you the title deed on an unseen property. Once you have the title deed, the job is done. Heb 11:1 says "not yet seen", meaning it will be seen eventually. faith does not wait for it to be seen, it takes hold of unseen realities and uses it in the PRESENT time. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Mavenb0x(m): 7:41pm On Jan 14, 2010 |
Pastor AIO:Pastor AIO, the Word of God is the Code of Conduct by which he carries out all that He does. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Enigma(m): 11:17pm On Jan 14, 2010 |
"Word of Faith" theology is heretical nonsense. Google "word of faith theology" or "prosperity gospel" and let your eyes open. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Mavenb0x(m): 12:25am On Jan 15, 2010 |
Enigma: If I get you clearly, Enigma, it means that because an Enigma, asides referring to a secret that baffles understanding, is also considered to be an abstruse problem that we would do anything to do away with for peace and sanity to reign, it is a necessary definition of your personality? I don't need to google anything before I speak my own mind. There are many voices in the world and we can't all say the same thing, so I don't care what people are saying out there. My own voice will be heard by whoever wants to hear it. Best Regards. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by viaro: 1:43am On Jan 16, 2010 |
@Mavenbox, A great thread, and kudos. Let me add a few things to help balance your posts. Mavenb0x: Perhaps there's not 'only one', but several definitions of faith. While there's only one Faith (ie., 'the Christian faith' as distinct from other worldviews like the Jewish faith, Muslim faith, the Bahai faith, etc), yet there are various definitions and distinctions of the word 'faith' in the Bible. Ephesians 4:5 makes an objective case that there are no 'two Christianities' but only one Christian faith in the Lord. It is in this sense that Jude 3 speaks of 'the faith' which was once delivered unto the saints, and which we should earnestly contend for. Acts 13:8 says that Elymas the sorcerer was seeking to turn a deputy away from "the Faith", and the sense is the same - the 'Christian Faith'. In this regard, Rom. 1:5 seeks our 'obedience to the faith' among all nations, because it is a set of distinct principles identifying us as Christians rather than as anything else. In a subjective sense, one could have faith to be healed (Acts 14.9), or to be made whole (Luke 8:48), or yet to do certain extraordinary things (Heb. 11:33-34). This subjective meaning of faith is multifaceted and is used more often in cases where people possess that operative element in them to bring about those results. In yet a third meaning, it could have reference to a standing with God. Romans 4:5 & 9 tell us that Abraham's faith was counted for righteousness . . . 'faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness'. The climax of this is found in verse 18 in a situation where even against hope one can believe in hope. It is not so much a matter of producing certain miraculous results, but rather of identifying with what God has spoken in His dispensation concerning a person or group of people. In a fourth sense, faith is defined as one of the charismata of the Spirit - 1 Cor. 12:9. This 'faith' is not what is given to everyone as a gift of the Spirit, just as not everyone is given the gift of healing. This particular 'faith' as a gift or charismata of the Spirit points to ministry in the Body of Christ where the assembly of believers is in view. Of course, there are several other definitions of 'faith' in the Bible. While Hebrews 11:1 gives only one definition, it should not necessarily be the only one that the Bible speaks about. Ephesians 4:5 says there is one faith; but that is not to say that there is only one definition of that word either. Besides "elpis" (Heb. 10:23 - 'hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering') and "pistis" (Matt. 21:21 - 'If ye have faith, and doubt not') as principal examples, there are other meanings of 'faith' that might be helpful to consider in your treatise. Just my observations. Blessings. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Mavenb0x(m): 2:05am On Jan 16, 2010 |
Thanks Viaro! Yes I was wrong with that, I concluded that there is only one definition of faith because there is only one faith. Thanks for weighing in! |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by viaro: 10:00am On Jan 16, 2010 |
Keep up the good work. . more posts to grow the thread. The subject itself (faith) is an interesting one that believers should benefit from, even as Jude 20 admonishes us to be building up ourselves on our most holy faith. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Nobody: 10:03am On Jan 16, 2010 |
Mavenb0x: Faith demands a [b]greater courage still: to reexamine one's convictions and reject them if they do not fit the facts — Anthony De Mello |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by viaro: 10:16am On Jan 16, 2010 |
^^Another beautiful way of looking at it. I was also thinking of the necessity of faith to make choices between tough alternatives - to choose between what is 'easier' (though not sinful) and what is 'weightier' (though far more glorious). Such weightier choices are made at very high costs to the believer, but these have set their eyes at 'the end of their faith' so to speak (Heb. 11:13-16). |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by PastorAIO: 12:44pm On Jan 16, 2010 |
(Pistis, fides). In the Old Testament, the Hebrew means essentially steadfastness, cf. Exodus 17:12, where it is used to describe the strengthening of Moses' hands; hence it comes to mean faithfulness, whether of God towards man (Deuteronomy 32:4) or of man towards God (Psalm 118:30). As signifying man's attitude towards God it means trustfulness or fiducia. It would, however, be illogical to conclude that the word cannot, and does not, mean belief or faith in the Old Testament for it is clear that we cannot put trust in a person's promises without previously assenting to or believing in that person's claim to such confidence. Hence even if it could be proved that the Hebrew does not in itself contain the notion of belief, it must necessarily presuppose it. But that the word does itself contain the notion of belief is clear from the use of the radical, which in the causative conjugation, or Hiph'il, means "to believe", e.g. Genesis 15:6, and Deuteronomy 1:32, in which latter passage the two meanings — viz. of believing and of trusting — are combined.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05752c.htm http://www.answers.com/topic/faith Faith and reason are both sources of authority upon which beliefs can rest. Reason fundamentally is understood as the principles used for inquiring subjects from a methodological standpoint, whether it be moral, intellectual, or religious. Once demonstrated, a proposition or claim is ordinarily understood to be justified or authoritative.http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Historical_Introduction_to_Philosophy/Faith_and_Reason |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by viaro: 1:05pm On Jan 16, 2010 |
^^The above is beautiful. However, though they were sourced from various places (which I had seen sometime much earlier), there seem to be a few problems with some of them. An example: (Pistis, fides). In the Old Testament, the Hebrew means essentially steadfastness, cf. Exodus 17:12, where it is used to describe the strengthening of Moses' hands; hence it comes to mean faithfulness, whether of God towards man (Deuteronomy 32:4) or of man towards God (Psalm 118:30). Indeed. But "pistis" being rather Greek and not Hebrew, you also provided another source to balance out on the Hebrew equivalents: 'ĕmûnâh (אמנה / אמוּנה). In this regard would Exodus 17:12 be understood - '. . . and his hands were steady ('ĕmûnâh) until the going down of the sun'. However, I think that readers should be aware that the source with reference of Psalm 118:30 is the Catholic Bibles; seeing that our English Bibles have only 29 verses in Psalm 118. Rather, both are reconciled in checking up Psalm 119:30 in our English Bibles and then Psalm 118:30 in Catholic Bibles. [list]Douay Rheims (Catholic Bible) - Psalm 118:30 30I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments I have not forgotten. King James Bible (KJV) - Psalm 119:30 30I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.[/list] 'Truth' is those verses is the translated word of the Hebrew 'ĕmûnâh (אמנה / אמוּנה). |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by PastorAIO: 2:49pm On Jan 16, 2010 |
viaro: That is a good and interesting point that you have brought up about the translation of Emunah to Truth. What is the relationship between Truth and Faith? What is Truth? Ultimate Truth? Is it not the unchanging? Is Truth not what Was, Is, and Ever Will Be? Is Truth not the paragon of Faithfulness, or steadiness? What is here today and gone tomorrow is not to be considered the truth, but rather an apparition. An apparition derived from Truth but not 'The Truth' in and of itself. All things that have a temporal span can not be considered absolute Truth. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by viaro: 4:20pm On Jan 16, 2010 |
Well Pastor AIO. Good points, especially the connection between 'truth' and 'faith' - and perhaps by extension akin words like verity, etc. To be honest with you, viaro does not make any claim to understanding 'ultimate truth' in essence. I clearly do not; and two texts that have always been my guiding principle in this are - [list]](a) Psalm 139:6 - I cannot attain to the knowledge of things that are too high for my finite mind to grasp; (b) Deuteronomy 29:29 - there are 'secret things' which belong to God, and we only deal with what is revealed and not what is beyond our grasp.[/list] Be that as it may, truth has many dimensions - so, IMO, it could not just point to the paragon of faithfulness, or steadiness. There, is in some sense, the idea of absoluteness in things with a temporal span - absolute in themselves for the specific issues they address in both their time and perspectives. Think about it, maybe some examples would begin to light up . . and we could share further. _____________ * I forgot to say those verses (Psalm 139:6 and Deut. 29:29) were my own paraphrases, not direct quotes as they appear in the Bible. Apologies. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by viaro: 4:21pm On Jan 16, 2010 |
Hey Mavenb0x, I apologise if it seems we've unintentionally highjacked your thread. That would be awesome if it rings true. . but it just seems we could not resist progressing the thread. Please feel free - and be encouraged - to make additions, or further posts on the original point you had in mind in raising this thread. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Mavenb0x(m): 5:55pm On Jan 16, 2010 |
Wow!!! Viaro, Imhotep and Pastor AIO on my thread?!! All I need now is for Deep Sight, M_Nwankwo and Krayola to join as well! LOL. Please go ahead and "derail" if necessary (I will simply restore the thought-flow when you are done), you guys are always a bundle of knowledge! P.S> What you have here is so deep, I will need to take time to ingest it all! Busy, be right back. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Nobody: 8:09pm On Jan 16, 2010 |
Faith is the fearless search for truth. . . So it is not lost when one questions one’s beliefs. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by PastorAIO: 3:18pm On Jan 18, 2010 |
Mavenb0x: I like this a lot. I could paraphrase it as The Word of God is the Way of God. Mavenb0x: Talking about various definitions of Faith what do you think about Augustine's definition that Faith is the acceptance of an authority etc . . .
http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/August.html It is worth reading the whole page, I think. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by JeSoul(f): 4:05pm On Jan 18, 2010 |
Anyone who isn't as smart or articulate as all the gurus on this thread, I propose a very easy, simple, fun way for us laymen to understand faith: watch the new movie just out called "The Book of Eli". Talk about a very simple, yet powerful movie. So many biblical parallels and concepts are captured in cinematic fashion. You will be entertained and blessed. Not to give away any spoilers but quik teaser: Post-apocalyptic earth, young girl, uneducated, born in recent times who never knew the former world Girl to Denzel: So how do know you're supposed to go west? Denzel: "I just know" Girl: "How do you just know?" Denzel: "By faith" Girl: (confused) "what is faith?" Denzel: "its something you know even though you don't know" go watch the movie for the rest of the conversation, its deep like dat yet shallow enough to be grasped by the average joe. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by Googler(m): 6:07pm On Jan 19, 2010 |
Mavenb0x: I love this. Something rooted in will rather than passion. Something superior to positive thinking. |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by LordReed(m): 11:25pm On Jan 21, 2010 |
Pastor AIO: In other words all we know now is garbage? |
Re: A Treatise On Faith And The Word Of Faith by lonelydude: 11:10pm On Oct 28, 2010 |
PLEASE, THIS THREAD SHOULD CONTINUE. I GOT REVIVED BY READING IT. mavenbox and viaro, where are you guys? Please, continue this thread. |
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