Activate Your Faith

"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." - Hebrews 11:1-2 NIV

This past Sunday's message was focused on the Promise of Eternal Life. What we've learned is that Eternal Life is given by grace and received by faith in Jesus Christ. It's given by grace, meaning it cannot be earned and received by faith, meaning it requires our active belief—faith. Faith is key to our salvation, but it's also essential to the entire life of the believer. Scripture teaches us that we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7); therefore, faith is a principle that we must apply not only to the promise of eternal life, but to every area of our lives. This week our goal is to "Activate Your Faith!" so you can maximize the potential of your life.

In the first two words of our focus text, we discover a powerful truth that gives us an accurate perspective on faith. Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith…” Don’t miss this! It doesn’t say “Past faith,” “Later faith,” or “Future faith,”  but it says “Now faith…” The word now gives us the understanding that faith is for the present and not the past. Followers of Jesus don’t simply believe that he lived, we believe that he lives. Therefore, our hope is not in that which is dead but in that which is alive—our faith is NOW! The same applies to the rest of our lives. When facing a difficult season, we often look back at what Grandma overcame to give us comfort. While we believe in how God brought our loved ones through trials, we must not mistaken belief in what was as faith. Belief in the past does not require faith, as it has already happened. However, faith believes in the NOW even though it cannot be seen. This applies to our healing from disease, financial success, professional success, relational growth and spiritual gains. When we pray, we believe that we receive it and we have it then in that very moment. What’s important to note though is that while we believe it, we cannot see it yet with our natural eyes.

In order to understand faith, we must understand the difference between the spirit realm and the natural realm. Both are real, both exist but one existed before the other—the spirit realm. God is a spirit. Before he created the heavens and the earth, there was nothing present naturally, only spiritually. But when he spoke from the spirit, suddenly it manifested in the natural. We see this with light, the sky, animals and trees (Genesis 1). There is nothing that exists that did not find its origination in the spirit realm. Therefore, it’s appropriate to say that all of creation, innovation and exploration begins in the spirit. Because of this, when we pray in accordance to God’s will, we believe by faith that has first manifested immediately in the spirit and will make its way into the natural. This confidence comes from a combination of God’s word, inspiration of the Spirit and past experience. It’s by faith that we believe right NOW!

Vision boards have become popular in recent years. This is where you’d take images of the things that you desire to see in your life and attach them to a board such as a poster. Once placed on the board, the visionary should begin to take actions that will lead them to the manifestation of that vision. More often than not, those vision boards quickly become museums of hopes and dreams that never came to be. This should not be! It’s God’s desire that we would receive that which we believe (Mark 11:22) but this is only possible by faith. When we involve faith (active belief) in our vision, it transforms our hopes and dreams into something that’s tangible. Our faith is the thing that makes it real.

I’m using the phrase, “Feed your Faith” because every human has a physical diet that consists of food and drink that we regularly consume. We also have a spiritual diet that consists of information we regularly consume. Just as we choose the food we consume; we must carefully choose the information we consume. Because all information has the power to inform, but repeated information has the power to influence. Therefore, we must build our spiritual diet based on the information we value the most.

A life without faith is a life full of limitations. When a person lives without faith, they are subject to whatever happens in life. They wake up every day without expectation, simply hoping for the best (or not). This is a life that is limited by the actions of others and the ceiling of one’s expectations. Whereas a life lived by faith is a life that exceeds our expectations. We should not live a faithless life nor a life of limited faith because of limiting beliefs. We should experience the freedom found in the limitlessness of our faith in God’s word.

There’s a scripture that we love to quote that says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV). God has the power to exceed our expectations, but this power can only be activated by our decision to believe. We say God is able, but do we believe that he is able? It’s our belief that allows us to partner with the limitless ability of God that allows us to experience the “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Faith takes the limits off of our lives.

In today’s culture there are countless people with one ultimate desire and that’s to win. Everyone wants to win as winning is the medallion of success. But what defines a win? In the world, it varies on a large scale. For some it’s their net worth, the home they live in, the cars they drive, their trophy spouse and their credit score. For others it’s the number of followers on Tik Tok, the clothes they wear, the clout they’ve gained, their image and fame. Each of the things mentioned are ways that the world views a win, but how does the believer define a win?

In Hebrews, Chapter 11, the author shares a sizable list of names of influencers from the Old Testament. There’s Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and even Rahab (a prostitute). Each one, highly celebrated, not because of their feats but because of their faith. Hebrews 11:2 NIV says “This is what the ancients were commended for.” I want you to know that as believers, not only do we live by faith, but we win by faith. Our faith is what matters above anything else because “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Did you know that Thryve Church prays together 365 days a year? Join us Monday-Friday at 6:30am & Saturdays at 8am for "Prayer at the Altar" by dialing 339- 207-7471 and then join us Sundays at 11am for Worship Service! Learn more here!