Faith: by the Word

Wrap up

Gonna wrap up the three part series on faith here this week as we look at the third aspect: faith is...an understanding that God spoke the cosmos into existence. If you want to catch up on the previous writings about faith please visit the archives.

By the Word

The last element of faith for us relates to the first two, in that the commonality between all three elements is "the word." Meaning, that faith is established upon the Word: what God is speaking (his voice), and what God has spoken (the Scriptures). 

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

We get this third element of faith from verse three as it describes how faith is able to agree with the truth that God literally spoke creation into existence; thus, once again, rooting our faith in the Word. There is an inherent value within faith that says I will trust before I understand. It takes trust to believe that the very air we are breathing in was spoken into existence by a God who we cannot see.

This is not to say that faith is ignorant; rather, faith is very informed, but faith will always require our logic and experience to take a back seat to our trust. This is the major problem with intellectualism, it wants to understand before it can believe, but God is asking us to believe and trust before we understand. We are informed of who to trust, but we are still left with the mystery of how. How did God create the cosmos? There are theories, but we do not know for sure. Intellectualism wants to answer the how question before belief and trust. Faith is the prerequisite to understanding. Faith is confident in the Word, not its understanding. Faith has the ability to trust the who before understanding the how. Faith refuses to lower its belief to its experience; rather, it trusts that God's spoken word (his voice and the Scriptures) are true above all things.

About three years ago my wife, Haley and I felt that the Lord had told us to move to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to work at a local church there. This was an unexpected move for us, but we, and others praying with us, heard the Lord speak to us about moving. During that time I was going to school full time and working at a local church as the Director of Student Ministries. We are the kind of people that when we move somewhere we think we will die there; meaning, we are always planted somewhere as if it will be for life. So, when we felt the Lord calling us to move we did not expect it, or know what any of that would look like. We did not know where we were going to live, what our job would be, or how much we would be making. I remember us packing our living room before we knew when we were going to move, or where we were going to live--we felt crazy! But we had a word from the Lord--move to the Outer Banks.

I remember telling this story to our former Pastor saying, "I know this doesn't make sense by reason, but it does make sense by faith." We had all kinds of questions that were unanswered, but we were living off of a word that God had spoken to us--we were living off his promise to us that he would take care of us (Matt 6:25-34). The summer my wife and I moved to the Outer Banks I worked four jobs so that we could live and eat. It was hard work, but the Father's provision within his promises were there for us.

This is how faith works--it believes the Word that's spoken, then sees the promises and reality of those Words manifest, just like it did at the creation of the world. God spoke a Word and the earth moved and formed under his command. We effect things as we practice our faith through the command and Word of God. The reality of our faith is that things have to adjust to the measure of our faith; it's not us adjusting to our experience, but it's the world around us adjusting to the exercise of our faith.

So, what has God spoke to you? What promises is he speaking to you through the Scriptures? The key to exercising your faith is what we have already looked at--hope and assurance. Hope that doesn't disappoint and assurance that what God says is real and will happen. Walk by faith and not your experience, because faith will bring our experience into the reality of God's word.