Simple Faith

Preface

I was sitting on the edge of my bed one evening, about to lay down, when God spoke to me. His voice was not audible in the natural realm, but was nevertheless strong and authoritative. This voice, reverberating on the inside of me with a commanding tone of proclamation, spoke two words: FAITH COMES. Although these two words were not entirely unfamiliar to me, I was still startled at the suddenness of this visitation.

I somehow knew there was more that the Spirit wanted to say, so I quickly reached for something to write with. I had the sense that this phrase was part of a sermon outline, with more points to follow, and I was correct. As soon as I was ready to write, three more phrases – more points to the sermon – were spoken. These last three phrases were spoken in slightly softer tones than the first. Here are all four phrases that the Lord spoke to me that night:

Faith Comes

Faith Says

Faith Moves

Faith Wins 

My spiritual father, Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin, used to say that when God gives you a sermon, you can preach it over and over. He would then add, somewhat jokingly, that when you work up a sermon by yourself, it can hardly stand one preaching. This sermon – woven throughout this book – is based on the outline above, given to me by the Spirit of God. I have preached it many times, and intend to do so for the rest of my life, for the principles contained in these four short phrases have changed my life.

01 God's Part, Our Part

The Bible is a big book, filled with great stories from centuries past, but really, all the stories are one story. The Bible is the story of redemption: man's deliverance from sin and the effects of sin. From Adam's fall to Messiah's death and resurrection, from Israel's deliverance through the Red Sea to the renovation of the earth, the pages of Scripture echo one great theme: We have been delivered. We are redeemed. The reason we have the holy scriptures is to understand how God accomplished our redemption; how He got us out of the mess we got ourselves into.

But why so many stories? Why all the letters and accounts? Because, redemption is not something that works all by itself. It's not automatic. There are components, all of which must work together if redemption is to work as it should. The Bible is our instruction manual, teaching us how God's great plan of redemption works. It shows us how to take our place, do our part, and possess what is ours.

The Bible is big because God is big. That doesn't mean, however, that the things of God are complicated. On the contrary, they are not. The components necessary to access and enjoy the benefits of redemption are few and they are simple, repeated throughout Scripture for clarity and emphasis. (Even with all that repetition, many still fail to recognize and cooperate with God's principles.) The components that make redemption work can be divided into two categories: God's part and man's part.

There's a God-side and a man-side to every spiritual transaction, yet many remain ignorant of this fact. Religious leaders persistently herald the lie that there's nothing we can do about the circumstances in our life but leave them in God's all-knowing care. Well-meaning (but uninformed) people tell us that we can never really know how things will turn out, or how (or even if) God will act. Such beliefs are dangerous, leading many dedicated, God-loving people into defeat. We must renew our minds to God's truth, allowing His Word to form (and, if necessary, reshape) our beliefs. We must become established in the fact that almost everything God does requires man's participation.

We said that redemption is all about man's deliverance from sin and the effects of sin. Just what are those effects? Anything that works death, decay, or destruction. Anything that robs the believer from experiencing an abundant quality of life. Two areas in particular, sickness and poverty, came into the earth along with sin and are part of the curse from which we have been redeemed. Because of Jesus, we can escape the bondage of sin, sickness, and poverty, and instead enjoy righteousness, health, and a full supply.

God's Part

God's part in redemption was to provide all that we need for an eternal relationship with Him, and all that we need for success and victory here in this life. Nowhere is this amazing provision seen more clearly than in one of Scripture's most beloved verses:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

God loved. God gave. God’s giving is the action of His love. (It would be accurate to say that giving is the highest expression of love.) Because God loved us, He gave us all we need. He loved so we could have. Although His love made eternal life available, we see in this verse that His part is not the only part required. Man has a part as well. The last part of this verse shows that he who believes is the one who receives, or possesses, eternal life. God's part and man's part work together so that man can have what God gives.

The giving of God (His part) has another name in the Bible: grace. God's grace is every bit as amazing as the famous hymn states and is a major theme throughout the New Testament. Grace is the flow of God’s love in you, to you, and through you, bringing His ability and blessings to your life. When you think of the grace of God, think of the giving of God. Grace gives.

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17

God has made abundant provision for our lives by His grace, but notice that His grace must be received. When we say that grace gives, we mean exactly that, yet God's giving doesn't make His provision a reality in our lives. Giving is just one part – one side – of the equation. What God gives must also be received. Only when God's giving is received do His blessings become a reality in our lives.

Our Part

Someone can buy you a gift and ship it to your house, but their giving doesn't place the item inside your house. You must receive the gift by opening your door, picking up the package, and bringing it inside. You didn't pay for it or send it, but you did have to accept it. You had to receive, or take, what was given. That's the way it is with the things of God. Everything God gives must be received. If we want His gifts to become a reality in our lives, we must discover what's been given and take those things into our lives. We must receive.

Religion doesn't recognize the receiving side of our redemption. Religious-minded Christians choose to believe that God will do it all; that His blessings will just fall upon us, magically appearing in our lives. The religious person's beliefs are more aligned with superstition and fantasy than with the principles of Biblical Christianity. Yes, God has a part to do. In fact, His part is by far the hardest part. He paid the price to make redemption's benefits eternally available. He has done everything except our part, for He cannot force His blessings into our lives. We must do our part. We must receive.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

God's part – giving – is called grace. Our part – receiving – is called faith. Faith is how the believer receives all that God has given. It's the act of picking up the blessings He has delivered to us and taking them into our life. Our salvation, indeed, all the blessings of God, are given by His grace and received by our faith. Grace gives. Faith receives.

Redemption's benefits are ours for the taking. In many respects, God's part is done. He has stocked the shelves of our lives, so to speak, with His many blessings. Now it's up to us; it's time for our part. We must, by faith, receive all that He's given. God's great blessings are sitting at the doorstep of your life, waiting for faith to reach out and bring them inside. Your job, for the rest of your life, is to become skillful at receiving what God has given. Your job is to learn faith.

02 Contenders

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 1:3

Jude's lone chapter in the Bible contains some of the most forceful, no-punches-pulled language in Scripture. He speaks, not casually, but with urgency, exhorting the Body of Christ to listen up and get things in gear. He begins his letter with a passionate plea about one particular subject: the subject of faith.

Here, we see the author speaking of the faith. (We often use this phrase the faith to speak of Christianity in a general sense. Many have heard someone talk about another person, saying, They have come to the faith. All of us have heard the phrase Keep the faith). We use this phrase the faith to paint Christianity with a broad brush, as it were, but that's not how the phrase is used in this passage.

The word the is not even present in the original Greek language. (This is true, not just of this passage, but in many of the passages where the phrase the faith is found.) It should not read the faith, but simply faith. Let's discover what Jude was really saying here:

Contend for faith, as it was originally delivered to the saints.

Jude was speaking, not about Christianity in general, but specifically about the subject of faith: the believer's part in receiving from God.

Jude was saying, in essence, Guys, I wanted to write to you in a more general fashion about our common beliefs, but I was arrested on the inside, compelled to write to you specifically about faith as you originally learned it. For Jude to have sensed such an urgency, there must have been something askew in the Body. For him to specify faith's original teaching (once for all), there must have come a replacement teaching: a false version of faith masquerading as the real thing. Indeed, there was. Jude, in the next verse, gives us a peek into the circumstances which threatened to wipe out the purity of the believers' faith.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4

Bad Grace

When referencing the believer's tainted faith, Jude understood the cause to be people who crept in with wrong teaching and twisted beliefs. These people didn't focus their teaching on the subject of faith, however, but on the subject of grace. Jude told the believers to contend for faith because certain individuals had come in and perverted the grace of God.

At first glance, this doesn't make much sense. Why didn't Jude tell the Church to contend for grace as it was once delivered to the saints? Why did he talk so urgently about faith in one verse and then point to errors surrounding grace in the next? Because grace and faith are connected. Wrong thinking about grace will lead to wrong thinking about faith. 

Remember, grace is God's part in redemption. Faith is our part. Our part is a response to His part (receiving what He has given). If we fail to correctly view God's part, we will misunderstand our part. For someone to pervert, or twist, the grace of God means that they believe incorrectly about God's love and giving (the essence of grace). Regrettably, many do believe wrong about these things. The Bible warns of two major