A Primer on Faith

Mark 11:22  And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have  faith in (Have the “God kind” of faith, or the faith OF GOD!) God.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith, of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

• Greek: The life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, this being the faith which dwells in the Son of God. The faith flowing through Christ; even the faith that comes out of Christ living continuously in me.

Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Rhema word of God.

• Greek:  So then faith gets its life from hearing, but the type of hearing, which describes faith, must be exclusively one which comes through the rhema word ( voice) of God.

John 1:1  In the beginning was the LOGOS (word), and the LOGOS(word) was with God, and the LOGOS(word) was God.

Matthew 12:36  But I say unto you, That every idle RHEMA (word) that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

• The “logos” describes “the word of God” as an idea or a concept, usually in written form.
• The “rhema” however is a personally spoken word of revelation, prophecy, or knowledge, through the mouth of God, by the Holy Spirit to us, in regards to a particular circumstance.
• We have all said at one time or another, “this scripture really leaped out at me”!  This is a “rhema word” given you by the Lord to minister to you in a particular situation.
• Gross misunderstanding and ignorance of the distinction between these two types of “words”, lends greatly to the weak state of our church today.  Let us look at some examples that will help us to learn.

Matthew 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every RHEMA that proceedeth (from moment to moment) out of the mouth of God.

Romans 10:8  But what saith it? The rhema word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the rhema word of faith, which we preach; (Dative relationship)

• Every rhema word represents an itemized description of God’s measure of faith, as He has tailored it for every situation in which He speaks the rhema word into.  It is an account of what the Lord can carry out within a particular circumstance.

Luke 1:37  For with God nothing (Rhema word) shall be impossible.

• The English is a poor translation:  Greek: For with God every rhema word has the (indwelling) dunamis power to come to pass.

John 17:8  For I have given unto them the rhema words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

• Thirdly, every rhema word reveals the Person of Christ.  As Christ is revealed, the faith and power that He possesses, is manifested along with Him.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

• Without faith there is a vacuum of dunamis power to please God.

Mark 10:27  And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

• Greek paraphrase: God is capable and able, and mighty and strong, to successfully carry out His will in every affair in heaven and upon the earth.

Luke 18:27  And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

• Greek paraphrase: In all those things that people find impossible to accomplish because they have no power, God is able and capable, and strong and mighty, to carry out.

Mark 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible  to him that believeth.

• If you have the ability to believe for something, without allowing for a chronic pattern of doubt to set in, that very thing that you believe for becomes transformed into something, mighty and strong, and powerful and capable, to get what you are seeking for.

Matthew 8:13  And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

Matthew 15:28  Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

• The word “as” has a powerful connotation in New Testament scriptures.  It is defined by some of the following terms;  As, like, even as, just like, in the same way, and a carbon copy of.
• In Matthew eight and thirteen, Jesus in fact tells the centurion, that in the very specific thing that he has targeted his belief for, that very targeted thing he will receive.
• When we ask in Jesus’ Name, our request must be very specifically targeted to what we want.
• From the rhema word that Jesus grants us, we find ourselves with a host of things that we can ask from Him, within the sphere of the rhema word.  Any specific point that we target our request for, believing, which is void of the two types of doubting taught above, we will receive as a specific carbon copy or reduplication of what we requested. The specific thing that we ask for believing is the specific thing that we receive.

Matthew 9:29  Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.( LET IT BECOME OR BE CREATED FOR YOU)

• In Matthew nine and twenty-nine the “according to your faith” is very similar to the word “as”. We will receive from the Lord in proportion to our faith.
• Receiving is a matter of degrees. The more is the proportion of our faith, to believe without doubting, the greater will be the proportion of our receiving.
• Our faith, or lack thereof, directly limits what we will receive or not receive from the Lord.
• A very important quality of God’s faith, is that resident within it, lies God’s authority to cause circumstances and situations to submit to the faith itself, change them, and line them up to God’s rhema word. Let us analyze three scriptures below.

Matthew 8:13  And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

• The so be it done unto thee” is in the Greek imperative mood, or the mood of command.  The faith of the centurion has God’s inherent authority to command circumstances to change and line up in accordance to what the centurion specifically targeted for in his request.

Matthew 9:29  Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

• The “be it unto you” is in the Greek imperative mood.  In reality faith commands the circumstances that kept them blind to change and line up into God’s normalcy for vision.

Matthew 15:28  Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

• Your faith has commanded the future circumstances to line up and submit to and finally give to you what you want.

Matthew 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove (FUTURE MIDDLE INDICATIVE “it will happen without fail by the inherent power resident in faith”)  and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

• The indicative mood is the mood of certainty or fact.

Matthew 21:21  Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done (FUTURE MIDDLE INDICATIVE “) (it will happen without fail by the inherent power resident in faith”)

• In the beginning of our study, we dealt with the Greek perfect tense.
• We discussed that the Greek perfect tense defines an event completed in the past, but its results and impact are eternal, affecting and influencing us today, and in our future.

Matthew 9:22  But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

• “Hath made thee whole” is in the Greek perfect tense.  The faith of the women completely healed her with the results that her healing is secure from now, the future, and until the time of her natural death, unless she sins and opens up a door to the enemy.

Mark 5:34  And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

• Here Jesus tells the woman “Thy faith has cured you now and forevermore.” The faith itself accomplished it with a completed and everlasting result.
• Jesus then tells the woman; “Immediately go into a constant and enduring state of shalom peace brought about by being whole and sound from your plague.

Exodus 8:5  And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.

Luke 17:5  And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

6  And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

• Mustard seed faith is three-dimensional faith. A grain of mustard is three-dimensional. In Hebrews eleven and one we are told that faith must have substance.  In John one and fourteen we are told that the Word of God must become flesh.
• In these instances we see that faith must become a reality to us.  More than that, faith must become our ONLY reality. The reality of faith and the rhema word of God must become OUR ONLY REALITY.  It is what must become three-dimensional to us.  Our circumstances must all become two-dimensional and our UNREALITY.

Hebrews 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

• Being divinely instructed and admonished about the things that he could not see with human the human eyes.
• “The things yet not seen” what was what well-known to Noah, or what had a three-dimensional substance to him.   The physical world acquired no reality or became simply two-dimensional.

8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

• He was called was in the present tense.
• He obeyed   Greek: “a military submission to hearing”
• He went out; As we go out with the word of God.
• Not knowing ‘Having nothing in the physical realm which was set and standing before him so that he could grasp and follow.  He had no acquaintance with what God had called him to do.

10   For he looked(was expecting) for a city which hath foundations, whose builder (technician or craftsman)  and maker ( “the worker for the people,” as technician and craftsman of the new foundations which only faith builds) is God.

27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

• Moses dominated and endured by seeing in the Spirit what was invisible or void of discernment in the natural or to the human eye. His substance was the rhema word of God.  The natural world was not a reality to him.

The Faith of Abraham

Romans 4:12  And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk (Greek: march as a soldier ) in the steps ( footprints) of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

Romans 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead (corpses), and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

• Greek translation and my paraphrase; Abraham once and for all, (aorist tense) believed God.  Who is the God whom he believed in?
• Abraham believed in the God whose nature is to continuously give life to the dead i.e. (Greek; Circumstances which are so dead that they are corpse like).
• He is also the God who continuously calls the things which are not, as if they are.  (The word “as” is a very interesting word.  It means in the same way as, or having the same content).

Romans 4:19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead ( now in a permanent state of a corpse) , when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness  (the corpse-likeness) of Sara’s womb:

• He considered his own body now in a state of a corpse and the corpse of the womb of Sarah.

11    Through faith also Sara herself received strength(received dunamis power) to conceive( to lay down a foundation of) seed( spermatos), and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

• Greek paraphrase: Therefore also from one were born (many) though that specific one is a corpse; and these many, in relationship to the stars of heaven, equal to the number of the fullness of their multitude; and just as the sand by the side of the shore of the sea is so much in number that arithmetic cannot calculate it.
• Mat 8:8  The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word ( Greek: a word)) only, and my servant shall be healed.

9  For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go (aorist), and he goeth; ( present ) and to another, Come,( present) and he cometh;( present) and to my servant, Do this(aorist), and he doeth it(present).

• In verse eight of Matthew eight, we find the centurion dialoguing with Jesus and acknowledging that His rhema word spoken in regards to the sickness would result in his complete healing.  The phrase “shall be healed”, is in the indicative mood.
• If you can remember, this Greek mood describes a statement of fact, an absolute certainty, a done deal.  The centurion is relaying to Jesus that he is aware that the Lord’s rhema word will carry out with certainty all that it intends to do.  This is what deeply touched the Lord.
• The “aorist tense” in the Greek, can be compared to our “past tense” in the English. Simply speaking, it describes a past occurrence.  However, the aorist tense is stronger than the English counterpart.
• This verb tense has the element of “punctiliar action.” This means nothing more than a “punctuation” or “punctuation mark” in the succession of time.  Can you see the similarity between punctiliar and punctuation? Whenever we place a question mark, a period, we insert one mark in the sequence of time and go on writing.
• This one single event jotted down in one moment of time, is called punctiliar action.  I call the use of the aorist tense, “punctuation in time.”
• The present tense describes action which is presently and continuously occurring in “the hear and now” i.e.; “at this very moment.”

Mark 11:22  And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith(Present) in  (Have the “God kind” of faith, or the faith OF GOD!) God. (God is in the genitive Greek case of “ God possessing something”, hence His possessing faith).

23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed(Aorist), and be thou cast(Aorist) into the sea; and shall not doubt(Aorist) in his heart, but shall believe(Aorist) that those things which he saith shall come to pass(Present); he shall have whatsoever he saith.( future indicative).

24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe(present) that ye receive them(present), and ye shall have them.(future indicative)

Hebrews 11:29  By faith they passed through(A thorough stepping through) the Red sea as by dry land: ( just like if going through dry land) which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. (Were swallowed up; the outcome of having no faith)

Hebrews 11:30  By faith (The domain and instrumentality of faith ) the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about ( encircled upon) seven days.

Hebrews 11:31  By faith the harlot Rahab perished not (In absolutely no way was destroyed together; the outcome of faith)  with them that believed not (non-compliant or in persuadable to the voice of God; non-Christians and Christians alike), when she had received the spies with peace.