And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

Matthew 21:22

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1 KJV).  It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (NAS).  Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (NIV).

Faith is God’s standard to reject the status quo, to step Beyond what society tells you is right and wrong and to listen to God’s standard.  Faith in God and in Christ is what causes division.

So long as you live in a mediocre level of faith, you will be forever tossed about by every thing.  You will continue to be wishy-washy until faith comes.  After faith comes, it is a straight bee-line, no matter how long it takes, to the object of your faith.

Faith demands a stand.  As Psalms writes,  “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” (Psalm 116:10 portion).

So long as you do not have faith, you will always have only an opinion.  You will have likes and dislikes, things will rub you the wrong way about church.  Things will seem off, but you will not have any surety to stand nor object except when Faith comes (Matthew 7:25).

Faith is the assurance.  Faith is the surety.

The word for “substance” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV) is the Greek word “hypostatis”.  The prefix “hypo” means “beneath” and “stasis” means structure, state, nature of a thing.  Hypostasis could be rendered “foundation”, or “underlying structure of a thing” in a spiritual sense.

To have faith in something is to have its underlying reality, in spiritual dimension, even though the natural may not be possessed.  In practicality, you cannot have true faith in a lie.  You cannot have faith in something that is not there.  Even in the midst of many different interpretations of Scripture, the part that is actually true is believed by faith.  Unfortunately, it is often added to by supposition, assumption, or other things.  What we know by faith is true.  What we add to it in our confidence, ignorance, pride, etc, may or may not be true.

But, Faith, true substantive faith, cannot be faked.  It can be mistaken for about as long as it takes a storm to blow up.  In the midst of the wind and the rain, it’s true nature is quickly revealed, even to the human spirit and soul.  In the face of what looks like certain death, only True gospel faith, as described above, is enough to “sell all” for, including your own life, and “step out of the boat”, as Peter did, to grasp the impossible, the supernatural.

Faith, when it is grasped, compels the occupant, out of complacency.  Faith without works is dead.  For the person with faith, it is impossible to do nothing.  As faith is active, and as love for Jesus is real, as Jesus said, if we love Him, we will be doing His commands (John 14:15).

You can forever have opinions.  You can voice your opinions and have discussions.  But, when faith comes in the room, whether anyone else agrees with your or not, you speak with authority, just as Jesus did (Matthew 7:29).  It is not a human-based discussion at this point.  It is God, His government, His authority, or it is the devil.  You can have a discussion until that point, but after that faith comes, there is no discussion, it is only obedience or disobedience, heaven or hell.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

John 15:22

Faith demands action or dis-action.  According to Hebrews 11:1, it is the proof we need to stand true to our argument, to win our case, it is the evidence of things not seen.  How do you know it is so?  Because it is of true, gospel, spiritual faith.  This is the realm of believing.  Anything else does not cure sickness, and it certainly doesn’t move mountains (Mark 11:23).

Faith is the plumb-line of Christianity.  It is no coincidence that today, in a day when faith is such a by-word in our churches, that we have so little clarity of revelation.  Revelation only works by and through faith.  It is no shock that in a day that is caught up in the externals of religious service, that the inner man of the heart is not built up to recognize and respond only to Faith alone (John 10:5).

Because faith is the assurance, the conviction, the proof and evidence, and the very nature of the thing hoped for, because it is possessing now in a spiritual context, just as real as the visible if not more so, it is not disappointed.  True, Bible faith does not have faith for something that doesn’t happen.  If it turns out we believed wrong, then we mis-identified what we had as true faith, and we must simply learn discernment.  Faith is having the item.  To stand in faith once you have really it is simply not to get off.

To have true Gospel faith draws a line in the sand, from which you cannot go back.  Just as saving faith brought you into a being a New Creation through the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, the greater and greater faith brings you into greater and greater gospel light and glory.  It is divisive.  It does separate.  This is how Jesus could stand, with no unrighteous judgement in His heart, and pronounce woes upon the lawyers and teachers of His day, because judgement begins at the House of God.  True faith sees the difference, must differentiate, even as a man that gives way before evil is as a polluted well (Proverbs 25:26).

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Matthew 10:34

A unity on a false premise is an abomination unto the Lord, just as a false balance is.  God’s righteous standard has never changed in all of time, even with the advent of the cross (Matthew 5:17-20).

It is in this context, of a truth tested by faith, that proves the truth as a faith with action that produces fruit, that faith expressing itself through love is the only thing that counts.  It is a faith that divides, even as a surgeon separates the tumor from the healthy tissue.  Our weapons are not scalpels, and they are not physical swords, but they are the swords of the Spirit, they are the spiritual anointings, they are the truth, the heart of God, the peace of Christ, the fire of the Spirit, that devours, and breaks the rock in pieces.

The difference between the man that stands and the man that falls, according to Jesus in Matthew 7:24-27, is whether you have “dug deep” (Luke 6:48) to the rock, and built upon it.  It is not on our abilities, but on something that lies beneath.  It is on the substance of the Holy Ghost, on the words of Jesus which are the absolute Truth, because He was.  The soul built on these will never be moved.