How Is Your Faith
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 997 aired on September 29, 2024
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes, you have an invitation to stick around. It’s just a short show, about 30 minutes of
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verify and identify the plan of God for your life. If this is possible, then you have the choice to
orient and adjust to the plan if you’d like to do this. I’m so very grateful you let me have a few
minutes of your time on this Sunday morning wherever you may be. From California to Maine
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God’s Grace In Aging
which deals with getting older and what God gives you in the years as you
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have books on
Christian Problem Solving
,
A Crash Course On Christianity
,
Bible Promises and
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as well as transcripts of the radio shows that we have done in the past. All of these
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Line” and you will find our radio shows right there and the linked transcripts as well. Thank you
for listening this morning. Enough of all the preliminaries, let’s get right into the message
because we don’t have a whole lot of time. We want to talk about the importance of faith in your
life. Hebrews 11:6 says,
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Notice that
without faith, it is impossible to please God. My first question to you today is, how is your faith?
Do you have enough faith to stand alone and trust God to handle the details of your current
situation or do you, like many others, seek out someone of faith to prop you up with their prayers
and their encouragement? Can you please God with your faith? Do you have enough faith to
please God because that is what this verse says. What exactly is the definition of faith? Hebrews
11:1 tells us,
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Things not seen means you have to trust God to provide. The Greek word for hope is an
interesting word. It doesn’t carry the same thought as our word like, “I hope it rains today.”
Where I live we need a lot of rain. It hasn’t rained in about five weeks so my wife and I may say,
“I hope it rains today.” The Greek word for hope is different. It’s the word
elpis
and it translates
to faith in the English but it carries a different meaning. It has a meaning of absolute trust
because God is expecting us to trust Him 100%. For example, you absolutely trust God to
provide a home for you in heaven don’t you? However, you have not seen it yet, but you trust
Him. Jesus our Lord said this in John 14:3,
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
These words that He
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spoke to the disciples required absolute trust, not just hope. They didn’t hope He would come
back. They knew He would come back. They knew He would do what He said He would do.
What a confidence builder absolute trust is. Again,
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Having mature believers as close friends is a good thing
but they cannot live our lives for us because we are evaluated by God based on our own
individual decisions and our own individual actions. 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us,
“For we walk by
faith, not by sight,”
the importance of faith again. Remember this, the true test of your faith is
can you go it alone when things get tough? Will you trust God to handle the situation or will you
get self-absorbed and fall into the fear-panic ploy? Do you remember what the psalmist said?
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with
me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me”
(Psalm 23:4). The mature believer’s faith is much
greater than the attack of adverse circumstances up to and even including death. Your faith has to
be much greater than circumstances. Before we go much further, let’s look at the original Greek
word for faith. The word is a noun pronounced
pistis
. This is the Greek word translated faith in
the English. There is a verb which is
pisteuo.
It’s the same word but it’s a verb and it’s the word
for believing. Believing is the actual act of you using your faith. Do you believe God when He
tells you something? This is faith. For example in Matthew 9:28,
“When He
[Jesus]
entered the
house, the blind man came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to
do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes Lord.’”
This event occurred as Jesus continued to demonstrate
His deity to those who were observing Him in public. He had just left the house of Jairus where
He healed the man’s daughter who was at the point of death and during His travels He was
followed by these two blind men who wanted their sight restored. Our Lord healed many people
during His earthly ministry and these miracles were done for the purpose of authenticating His
claim to be the true Messiah. Make a note of this. Your act of salvation was accomplished
through your faith. It’s your first faith decision when you enter the plan of God. Do you believe
that Jesus is the anointed Son of God? This is why John 6:29 says,
“This is the work of God, that
you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
John 3:16 says,
“Whoever believes in Him shall not
perish but have eternal life.”
The act of salvation is an act of faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells you,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
You have faith in the fact that Jesus Christ is
the anointed Son of God and that He paid the price for your sins on the cross, He resurrected out
of the grave and that He is alive today. He guarantees you eternal life as well. This passage in
Ephesians 2:8-9 simply means you have believed in the true identity of Christ as the anointed
Son of God. It’s His work that justifies and satisfies God’s justice. This is what does it, not our
pitiful attempt to justify ourselves. We can’t justify ourselves. It is the work of Christ. This is
why 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
In John 6:40 Jesus says,
“For this is the will of
My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes
[pisteuo] in Him will have
everlasting life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
This is your faith. You heard the
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words,
“believes in Him.”
This is your faith being expressed by trust in His claim and
demonstrated by His death, His burial and His resurrection. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed Son
of God, who provides redemption for all who believe. This simply means redemption for all who
will put their faith in Him, all who will trust Him to do what He said He would do. If salvation is
the greatest work Christ could do for us and we trust Him to do what He promises to do, that He
would save us, then does it make sense that your daily needs and daily protection can also be
under His control as well? Does this make sense to you? Let me show you how faith works in the
everyday life of the believer. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19,
“And my God will supply
[this is
trust]
all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
It’s not might supply or
hopefully supply. It is
“will supply.”
In Matthew 6:31-32,
“Do not worry then saying, ‘What will
we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly
seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
He knows
that you need them. He knows what you need and your faith is required in these two simple
verses. Do you absolutely believe that God will do what He says He will do or do you just hope
that He will do what He says He will do? Are you just a hoper not a truster? Is there some
condition tied to these two verses like, “If we are good, if we don’t do bad things then He will
meet our needs?” No, there are no conditions here. Paul doesn’t say, “If you’re good, He will
supply your needs.” He will supply the need of every believer, yours, mine and anyone else who
is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Living faith, faith that you use everyday requires you to
believe that God has unconditionally promised to provide your logistical needs since you are His
child. You are His child. I am His child and what parent would abandon their child? Don’t you
understand this? You are a child of God. He will supply every need of yours. Trust Him.
“Be
anxious for nothing,”
Philippians 4:6 says. Trust Him. This is your faith. Can you make faith
stronger? Someone asked me one time, “My faith is kind of weak. Can I make it stronger?”
Romans 10:17 says,
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.”
Yes, you
can make your faith stronger but only as you acquire information in your soul. The more you
know, the more you trust. As you learn God’s Word, cycle it into your soul, store it in your frame
of reference, it builds your faith. The Scripture, the Bible doctrine in the Word of God is our
confidence builder. Listen to Psalm 119:105,
“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my
path.”
Right here is a promise for you that the Word of God will direct your life. The Word of
God will keep you from stumbling in the darkness. The Word of God will light the way to your
life. Do you trust God for this? Do you believe God with this? Do you have faith about this
because as you learn God’s Word, it will direct your feet and be a light to your path so you don’t
stumble in the darkness, so you don’t make a mistake. Most people make mistakes because they
are impetuous, because they don’t understand what the will of God is for their life. They go off
half-cocked saying, “Oh, I prayed about it.” That prayer probably isn’t even answered. You
probably jumped off and did it. You are impetuous. Scripture is the confidence builder. The only
way you can increase your faith is to build your Biblical inventory of divine provisions and
divine promises. This is the only way you can increase your faith. The more you learn, the more
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you apply, the more you trust. This is why it’s essential for you to have a well-qualified pastor to
teach you these things. You can’t teach it all to yourself. You can read the Bible, sure you can, but
God equips men who have the gift of pastor-teacher to instruct you, teach you, guide you and
shepherd you. This is what Ephesians 4 says. The only way you’re going to increase your faith as
I said is to build your Biblical inventory of divine provisions and promises. These are the
backbone to your faith. Faith has to have an object and in the believer’s case, what is the object
of our faith? It is the inerrancy of God’s Word preserved for us by means of God the Holy Spirit.
This is the object of our faith. For example, in order to use effective prayer you must have faith.
Did you realize this? Matthew 21:22 says,
“And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will
receive.”
This is faith or trust. You hear these four words,
“Believing, you will receive.”
When
you pray intercessory prayer for others, do you actually believe that God will provide what you
request or are you just hoping that He will consider your request? I have advice for you. The
advice is to go ahead and thank Him in advance, believing that He absolutely will, unless of
course it’s some kind of foolish request. We’ve all done stupid prayers and I’ve done a few of
them myself that were not in His will. They didn’t get answered. If we pray a prayer of petition,
that’s praying for ourselves, do you really believe God will answer it? Do you really believe God
will provide what you are requesting from Him? I can tell you from experience that believing is
in fact expecting. This is what believing is, it’s expecting and this is the final step to trust. You
trust and you expect. Faith in action is believing and believing is the act of trusting. Do you trust
God with the most intimate details of your life? The faith-rest drill is what we call problem-
solving device #3 on the FLOT line of your soul. You cannot faith-rest if you do not trust and
you cannot trust without knowing Whom to trust. Listen to Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust
[have faith]
in
the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways
[first
and foremost]
acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Trust in the Lord with
all your heart. Have faith, believe, expect and He will direct your path. In Psalm 37:5,
“Commit
your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”
This is the confident expectation of
your prayer petition. When you go to the Father in prayer, do you have trust that He’s going to do
what you ask Him to do? Do you believe He will do what you ask Him to do? Do you expect it
to happen? You should because both of these verses say,
“He will make your paths straight”
and
“He will do it.”
He will, how many more times do you need to hear it? Not He might, He will.
Both of these verses are conditional. Both of them say trust in Him and He will. This is the act of
spiritual confidence. This is the mindset of the mature believer like you should have. Faith-rest
starts with a divine promise and this allows you to stabilize the situation in your life so you can
orient to the circumstances and adjust your thinking from fear to faith or as we say, to trust.
Faith-rest must be you adjust to your circumstances from fear to trust or faith. Let me ask you a
question. If you have an unexpected difficulty, what verse would you claim in order to control
your emotions? The inability to think clearly under duress is where most of us get into self-pity
leading to anxiety, leading to stress overload. I know there are thousands of verses in the
Scripture where God promises that He will not abandon you and He will provide for you even
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during those tough times simply because He loves you. After all, you are His child. Listen to
Isaiah 41:10,
“Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your
God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous
right hand.”
Do you believe this? Do you expect this? Do you have this confident expectation?
Do you have the faith to trust what God says here?
Again,
“I will strengthen you, surely I will
help you, surely I will uphold you.”
Not, “I might.” Here’s another good verse to claim during the
tough times you go through in your life. Proverbs 3:25-26,
“Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor
of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep
your foot from being caught.”
Here it is again, a promise He will do it. Do you believe this? Do
you have enough faith to trust God in these areas of difficulty in your life or do you like getting
into the fear-panic ploy and running around full of self-pity. Here’s your answer, He will provide
for you. He’s not going to abandon you. He will keep your foot from being caught. This passage
says the Lord will be your confidence. These divine promises are what give us the ability to
maintain what I call a relaxed mental attitude, an RMA. My pastor taught me to have a relaxed
mental attitude years ago due to the fact that faith in His provision gives us this strength. Don’t
be afraid of sudden terror. Listen to this passage again, Proverbs 3:25-26,
“Do not be afraid of
sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your
confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.”
Do you have the ability to trust Him?
Trusting God is faith expressed and without this attitude of faith expressed which we call
believing, you will absolutely never be able to fully glorify God with your life. You will always
be complaining about bad things that happened to you. You will always be whining to someone
else about the raw deal and unfair circumstances you have in your life. Hopefully you know the
faith-rest drill, problem-solving device #3 on the FLOT line of your soul. There are 10 unique
problem-solving devices beginning with: rebound #1; the filling of the Holy Spirit #2; the faith-
rest drill #3. Do you know these? If not, get in touch with me. We have a bookmark that you can
put in your Bible that has all 10 of them listed and we have a book called
Christian Problem
Solving
that will explain each one of the 10 unique problem-solving devices that make up the
FLOT line of your soul. Trusting God is your faith expressed and without an attitude of faith,
you will never be able to glorify God with your life. The faith-rest drill as I just said uses
doctrinal rationales. You might wonder what’s a rationale? It’s a fundamental reason for
something. For example, do you know the essence of God rationale? If so, you might be able to
conclude that the strange things that happen you do not catch God by surprise. He’s sovereignty,
He is absolutely King. God is righteous. He’s justice. He’s love. He’s immutable. He’s veracity.
He’s omniscient. He’s omnipotent. He’s omnipresent and of course He’s eternal life. If you have
something unexpected happen in your life that is a terrible difficulty, the first thing you do is you
go to a promise and what do you do? Again, Isaiah 41:10,
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not
anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I
will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
You claim a promise to stabilize your thinking so
your mind doesn’t get like a dog’s tail wagging when the master comes home. You want to
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stabilize your thinking. You have to trust God and this is faith. Once you stabilize your thinking
and don’t let your emotions take over, then you stabilize your mind and go to the Biblical
rationale. If God is sovereign, does He know this? Yes He does. If God is righteous, does He
treat me fairly? Yes He does. Does God love me? Yes He does. Does God change His mind about
anything? No He doesn’t. He is immutable. Is He telling me the truth? Yes, He is absolute
veracity. Is He with me? Yes, He is omnipresent. Can He make it go away? Yes, He is
omnipotent. He can make anything go away. Is He omniscient? Did He know this would happen
in eternity past? Yes He did. If you understand these things, then you can trust God that He is in
control and whatever happens to you, there is nothing to be afraid of. Again,
“Do not be afraid of
sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your
confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.”
Knowing these central doctrines like the
essence of God rationale allows you to relax and come to a Biblical conclusion as to why you
experience these difficulties. Listen to 2 Timothy 1:7,
“For God has not given us a spirit of
timidity
[fear]
, but of power and love and discipline.”
This verse is a description of the true
believer’s lifestyle when he lives by faith, no fear. Trouble knocks at the door and faith answers
saying, “Nobody’s home.” No fear. You are not supposed to live in fear. Again, what does this
verse say?
“God has not given us a spirit of timidity
[fear]
, but of power and love and discipline
[sound mind]
.”
What’s the power? The two power options in your life are the filling of the Holy
Spirit and the Word of God metabolized and circulating in your soul. These are your two power
options.
“For the Word of God is living and active
[powerful]” (Hebrews 4:12). God gives you
power from the filling of the Holy Spirit and from the complete trust in His Word, and what else?
He is giving you love. He is not a God of fear but of power and of love. Virtue love is a great,
tremendous problem-solving device for us, personal love for God and impersonal love for others.
Personal love for God is your motivational virtue and impersonal love for others is your
functional virtue. You can even love a jerk. God loves you doesn’t He? This proves it. Then Paul
says
“Discipline
[a sound mind].” The original word in the Greek language for a sound mind or
discipline is
sophronismos
and it means to have self-control. This means having the ability to
contain your emotions so they don’t get out of control. These divine assets are yours. No fear,
power coming from the two resources of the filling Holy Spirit and Scripture, virtue love and the
ability to control your emotions or self-control. How’s this for a great promise from God? These
assets are yours. They are part of your faith-rest drill. Are you going to live by faith? Do you
understand what faith is? Then operate in faith. Trust God, believe God and expect that He will
answer. Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for being with me here
on The FLOT Line this morning