How Do We Get The God-Kind of Faith?

How Do We Get The God-Kind of Faith?

Have faith in God. There is faith in the sense realm concerning natural things which is common to man. But to receive answers to our prayers we must have the God-kind of faith. It is faith in the heart or spirit of man that “comes by hearing; and hearing by the word of God". Jesus, the Living Word, is the author and developer of the God-kind of faith.  He has given us specific instructions on how this kind of faith comes, which include: 

1. It comes when we hear the word spoken or preached,
2. It comes by our hearing what Christ has spoken, and
3. It comes when the word of God comes alive (arises and develops) in the heart or spirit.

When the God - kind of faith is developed in our heart, the word of God becomes a reality to us– it becomes like a personal promise to us that is already done. It becomes a “Rhema” word. This means that God has anointed it with His power to come to pass. It is at this point that we “believe”. In our heart, we have become absolutely certain that God has already given it to us. We believe that God has done His part and has released the answer to our prayer. Mark 11:23 and 24 says that “when we believe” or “when we have no doubt in our heart”, it is precisely at this moment that we “tell the mountain to move”, or “pray”. Mark 11:23-26 is telling us that we should make certain that, before we pray for anything, we must build up our faith to receive according to His instructions on how to pray.

     So, how do we build up our faith in God's promises until the word comes alive in our heart? Before we can have faith in God's word, we have to have knowledge of Him.

2 Peter 1:3-4

“According to His divine power God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness,

through the knowledge of Him Who has called us to glory and virtue, (W)hereby are given to

us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of His divine

nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

We must read, study and meditate on God's word and seek to know Him.  We have to establish a relationship with Him. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal and help us to understand the scriptures. Early in our relationship with Him we must come to understand how much He loves us because only then can we understand what He did for us and why He made such an extreme sacrifice for us. It is only when we believe and know the love that He has shed abroad in our hearts that we can believe His promises. We have to come to know Him as One Who keeps covenant and is the Loving Father who loves to give good gifts to His children. It is only through His word and the help of our Teacher, the Holy Spirit, that we can believe and receive that great love and believe His promises.

In Joshua 1:8, God told Joshua:

Never stop reciting these teachings. You must think about them night and day so that you will

faithfully do everything written in them. Only then will you prosper and succeed. (God's Word

Transl).

Proverbs 4:20-24

My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine

eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and

health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are the issues of life.

These two scriptures explain that reading and studying the word of God alone is not enough. Meditation on the word is required. We have to seek revelation, wisdom and understanding of the word that is obtained only by spending time with the Lord, and allowing Him through His Holy Spirit that is in us, to teach us and reveal to us what God is saying and how to apply it in our lives. Just as an emergency-room nurse keeps her eyes on the monitors that could make the difference in her patient's ability to recover, we have to keep the word before our eyes, continuously reading, studying, and thinking about it, rolling it over and over in our thoughts, walking in the light of it, and seeking revelation of what God is saying to us personally. There is Spirit, power and life in the word to manifest our inheritance, but it is not easily obtained because these things are not for the world. There is power in the word to bring itself to pass – the anointing to change us and to change our circumstances. There is life in the word to heal and deliver. There is prosperity, protection, provision, peace, and all that we need to live an abundant life in the word for those that believe, but it takes diligent faith to see them manifest in our lives. As we meditate on God's promises to meet our needs or to have our desires fulfilled, our faith in His promises is built up, the word becomes real to us, and we believe it.

At the very moment that we “believe”, we must “receive” what we prayed for. (Mark 11:24). So, how do we receive something that is not yet material? We do it by faith. We express that faith by confessing that we believe we receive it. We can confess something like, “I believe that this promise of God is a reality in my heart; that God has quickened it and made it alive in my heart, and made it a personal promise to me”, and as Kenneth Copeland suggests, add “By an act of my will, I receive it. I take hold of it. I have it. I thank You for it, and I have no unforgiveness in my heart”. After receiving it by faith, we should then worship God for Who He is and for His goodness, and praise Him.

When we pray in this manner, we have prayed according to the way God tells us to pray in Mark 11:22-26. When we follow His instructions on how to pray, we are being doers of His word and not hearers only, and we “shall have what we say.” While we can get others to agree with us according to Matthew 18:19-20 that we have it, we don't need to ask lots of people to pray for us because as in 1 John5:14-15, when we pray according to His will (which is His word) on how to pray, we know without a doubt that He hears us and we can have confidence that we have the petition which we asked. 

However, it does not end there. Now, we must walk by faith. Faith has a job to do. God has granted our petition. We believe we have it, but we can't see it. It has not materialized, but we must act like we have it just the same as we would do if it was in our physical possession at that moment. Faith without works is dead, so faith has to do the work of “standing” until the answer manifests. Faith has to remain strong, not only to cause the answer, which is already done in the spirit realm, to come forth into the natural or physical realm, but it must also stand against the attacks the enemy will make in an effort to derail it. 

1 Peter 5:8-9

Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, whalketh about,

seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same

afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

It is now that we fight the good fight of faith.Even after we get the revelation of a promise, it becomes a Rhema word to us, and we receive it according to Mark 11:22-26, we have to carefully guard our hearts against the enemy who comes, as described in Matthew 13:3-23, to steal the word from the believer's heart with unforgiveness, offense, tribulation, persecution, cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches. This is how the enemy blocks our blessings.

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