YouTube: The Substance of Faith
For many, a declaration of faith is an affirmation of belief in the truth of a religious system. When they say they have faith in God, they are likely referring to the concept of God portrayed in that particular belief system.
Faith, as a faculty, is active even if we adopt no religious preferences. The atheist, for example, has faith that there is no God. Let’s look at this familiar statement from Jesus to illustrate the point.
Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Mark 11:23
The mountain, of course, can be any seeming unsurmountable challenge. We can just as easily have faith that nothing we say to the mountain will make any difference. How we exercise our faith, however, makes a major difference in how we behave and what we expect in terms of an outcome. The substance of faith is, therefore, our own attitude, our degree of expectation.
How do we know our degree of expectation? Our first response is usually the best indicator. If there is doubt in our heart, it will show itself immediately. Like the man seeking healing for his son, we say, “I believe, but help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Faith pointed in two different directions is better described as hope. Hoping a thing works out is not the same as releasing all doubt.
We may wonder if our faith affects the way conditions unfold. While there is no record in the Gospels of mountains being cast into the sea, there are plenty of instances where a person’s long-standing condition of ill health changed by their change in faith. For twelve years, a woman suffered with an issue of blood that was cured the instant she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. The faith and money she had previously put in the medical help of her day was apparently diluted with doubt. As she made her way through the crowd to Jesus, her doubt disappeared, and the full force of her faith took over. For the first time in twelve years, her expectation was in her wholeness, and her wholeness is what came through.
We should not concern ourselves with how the substance of faith will manifest, only that it will.