We can have Full, Great, and Strong Faith

In writing this article I found it came to me, as answer to my prayers for help.  I wrote this for all people in need of stronger faith, especially me.

Now faith is the sub­stance of things hoped for, the evi­dence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1.

I know you have heard or read what faith is hun­dreds of times.  But have you ever thought of this:  Can you imag­ine “now faith” as “the sub­stance” of what is “hoped for”?  Sub­stance sounds like a sol­id; the real thing.   Can you see the evi­dence of things not seen that you hoped for, prayed for, believed for?  Yes, see.  After we have believed in prayer we should be able to see, through faith, with our spir­i­tu­al eye what it is we are pray­ing for, hop­ing for, and believ­ing for.  Now hold on to this spir­i­tu­al vision until you receive it.

Patience must have her per­fect work.  Many times when peo­ple don’t see an answer to prayer right away they give up and say neg­a­tive doubt­ing things.  This is where we must let patience have her per­fect work.  If thoughts of doubt come up, don’t accept those thoughts.   Instead speak some­thing pos­i­tive like God’s word.   Thank God for answered prayer.  Thank God for hear­ing your prayer.  Ask the Lord to “help your unbe­lief.” Re:  Mark 9:17–24.

Doubt can­cels your faith.  While doubt is a neg­a­tive belief; faith and doubt can­not coex­ist.  You have one or the oth­er, NOT both.  It might be said this way, you either believe it or you don’t.  But, this belief is not from the intel­lect but must come from the heart.

Sounds great! Right?  Well it is great, and it becomes very pos­si­ble when we devel­op our love and belief in the Lord and His words.  When His words abide in us and we abide in Him, He will abide in us.  Then we shall pos­sess “now faith” as described in John 15:7 and Hebrews 11:1.

How­ev­er, I believe for many Chris­tians, this is the point where their faith often fails them.

Tips for Increasing Your Faith

The Lord describes faith as Full, Great, or Strong sev­er­al times in the New Tes­ta­ment.  Full, great, and strong faith comes from the heart.  A good place to begin increas­ing our faith is rec­og­niz­ing the ease with which we can bet­ter believe what we under­stand.  Then fol­low­ing what God said to Joshua, we can achieve under­stand­ing and increase our faith:  Joshua 1:8

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt med­i­tate there­in day and night, that thou mayest observe to do accord­ing to all that is writ­ten there­in: for then thou shalt make thy way pros­per­ous, and then thou shalt have good suc­cess.

I found in the book of the law the kind of “now faith” one should strive for described as Full, Great, and Strong.  And, hope­ful­ly, we can avoid the less desir­able faith such as lit­tle [small], weak, or to no affect.  As we hear God’s word faith will come.  Full, great, and strong faith like­ly will require believ­ing with no doubt and noth­ing waver­ing as we act on what we believ­ing God for.  Put God’s word into your heart and then act on it.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  Sounds like full, strong, and great faith.  John 15:7

Why did Jesus say “…if ye had faith as a grain of mus­tard seed..”

When the apos­tles asked the Lord to” increase our faith,” he replied, “If ye had faith as a grain of mus­tard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou plant­ed in the sea; and it should obey you.”  Luke 17:5–6 KJV

I believe that the faith of a grain of mus­tard seed is far, far more than just being very small, as many peo­ple tend to believe.  I believe Jesus was actu­al­ly refer­ring to the full, great, and strong faith God built into the DNA of the seed; NOT to lit­tle or small faith.  God cre­at­ed the mus­tard seed to yield fruit after his kind. Re:  Gen­e­sis 1:11.  I believe, there is no “doubt and noth­ing waver­ing” in the mus­tard seed.  I sug­gest that the DNA of the mus­tard seed rep­re­sents, in Jesus words to the apos­tles, full, great, and strong faith.  When it grows it will grow a mus­tard plant.

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yield­ing seed after his kind, and the tree yield­ing fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  Gen­e­sis 1:12

There are NO DOUBTS!   Faith and doubt can­not coex­ist.  You have one or the oth­er, NOT both.  It might be said this way; you either believe it or you don’t.

So, when you speak to the sycamine tree [or the moun­tain] with the same faith as the mus­tard seed the sycamine tree [or the moun­tain] will obey your words.

When Jesus spoke “O ye of lit­tle faith” he was refer­ring to a failed faith.  Re:  Math­ew 6:30, Math­ew 8:26, Math­ew 16:8, and Luke 12:28. I believe “lit­tle faith” to be syn­ony­mous with “small faith.”

Per­haps I, and oth­ers could ben­e­fit from a prayer sim­i­lar to the words of this father.  Re:  Mark 9:17–24.

The father came to Jesus seek­ing help for his pos­sessed son.  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are pos­si­ble to him that believeth.  And straight­way the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbe­lief.

One More Tip for Full, Great, and Strong Faith

The qual­i­ty of our faith is in direct pro­por­tion to God’s word in our heart [NOT in the mind].  God’s word will replace doubts when spo­ken instead of words of doubt.  First put God’s word into our soul [the mind]:  This is done best [but not exclu­sive­ly] by your own spo­ken words which the mind will accept as true when they are spo­ken enough times by us; then the soul con­nects to your spir­it man plac­ing them into your heart.   I believe the soul of man hears what he speaks thru the inner ear and fur­ther that in the soul of man there is a link to the spir­it man.

There are many more sup­port­ing scrip­tures, but here are a few: KJV

Romans 4:20, Matthew 8:10, Acts 6:8, Acts 11:24

Note:  Jesus says over and over to say or speak and not doubt in your heart.  Remem­ber how to get faith:  Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hear­ing, and hear­ing by the word of God.”

Bless­ings to you and yours,

Fol­low me next time as I bring you more of God’s Design for Man