The purpose of this text is to help those that are struggling to develop their faith. It is not intended for the purpose of exalting the contained methods over any other methods, or to suggest that other methods are inferior. For those that believe they already have a system that builds faith, this information is not intended for them, and I suggest they not try to incorporate any of the methods mentioned, as I believe it will only "water down" your own personal system. Should you use this text, I think it should be for a different purpose, perhaps to be encouraged in knowing that others are also trying to do their part in the Great Commission.
These are the beliefs of one who I believe does not have the "gift of faith" ( 1 Corinthians 12:7-12 KJV), and is explained based on what I believe I understand and on my own observations in people. It's also being explained by one who is still learning, but I believe I've seen my faith helped drastically by using this information. I think this is good news for anyone who thinks that only a certain type of person can have faith that's real or that faith requires a shutting of the eyes to anything they've known to be true.
When it comes to faith, I believe what you start with is what I call "belly faith", which is the natural amount you're pretty much born with. I think this amount varies from person to person, but in some people it is much larger than everyone else's. These individuals I believe have what the Bible calls "the gift of faith", which is a larger amount of belly faith than many others have. The effect will be that those with this gift will always have more faith than those around them, even when the effects of practice are removed. I believe there is a certain amount of faith that God forcibly reserves to always have a testimony of himself in the Earth, regardless of what man does, and I think this has been most often seen through these kinds of people. I think these are the types often called "religious" nowadays, historically known to be spiritual leaders (preachers, priests, etc.)
But I don't believe these are the only types of people that can have faith or should be concerned with it. What the Bible calls the "fruits of the Spirit" I believe means spiritual progress, so I think that our faith is one of the things that can and should be continuously growing, and I believe we are justified in how much we gain and not how much we start with.
This makes a lot of sense and seems most fair. I think a relevant comparison to this would be judging one's muscular development. Some are pretty much born with more "natural" muscle development than others and this can often impress people, even if the person wasn't working as hard to improve as the others. But the correct way to judge between this person and one that was born with less development would be to judge only the progress made. I think God's system works the same way (Acts 10:34-35, Romans 2:10-11, Galatians 2:6). This is good news for any who have started with a small amount of faith since by this system, you are at no disadvantage to anyone else.
I believe that those who struggle with faith have a set of characteristics that makes it hard for them to "get" faith, perhaps because they have a gift of a different nature. An equivalent would be how a shy person doesn't "get" being bold, meaning it's not how they normally think. *I believe they are able to understand boldness, but the process of explaining it must be carefully spelled out. For example, if a bold person was showing a shy person how to be more bold, the attempt may go like this:
Bold: "Ok, crush that soda can, drop it on the ground, and walk away. Shy: "Oh, I couldn't do that: that's littering!"
The bold person may have little success unless he explains more thoroughly:
Bold: "Ok, crush that soda can, drop it on the ground, and walk away. *This conveys a sense of masculinity and shows others you aren't afraid to make a mistake."
The shy person will probably never be as bold as a practicing bold person, but he can improve and make progress that is respectable, considering his characteristics. In this text, I will assume the reader has similar difficulty when it comes to understanding faith and will try to explain it "from the ground up".
I believe the truths of God can be seen everywhere (Romans 1:20) and should not be thought of as only being contained in the Bible, though it is an excellent compilation of them and will be referenced in this text. For many, I think their struggle to have faith is often associated with this, being told that they must have a rigid image of what God is. The amazing amount of flexibility possible for one's image of God is mentioned in the Bible itself ( Ephesians 4:6, Colossians 1:16-17, Philipians 2:13). It's not necessary to pin down what is called God, since each person can have his own image. But what we can see from these verses and others is a tone of inescapability and transcendence about God, that he is in all things 100%. From the perspective of trying to escape God, the effect I think this creates is like being entirely submerged under water.
When it comes to believing something, there's a concern about making sure our beliefs go in the right "direction", as if shooting an arrow and hoping to hit the intended target. But considering the inescapability of God, we can understand that God is basically an unmissable target.
Paul describes faith as "the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). In this verse, I believe he is merely jumping to the end of an inevitable conclusion: that your believing direction will always hit, so faith always leads to a hit target; therefore, faith is a hit target. From the aforementioned information about God's system, this makes sense. The only way you could miss the target of God is to not believe (equating to not shooting your arrow). Many places in scripture explain that one of the main offenses with God is disbelief, and Christ also echoes this message as do the early apostles and Christians, who speak of the necessity of faith and the problem of doubt ( Hebrews 11:6, James 1:6/8, 1 Timothy 2:8).
This system works in complete contrast to the system we all know, what I will call "man's system", which says you should believe in nothing until you see proof because of the risk that the target could be on the right and you could believe "to the left" and therefore miss it. But since God is an unmissable target, this risk doesn't exist. By God's system, there is no reason to doubt because doubt is the only reason you would miss your target. And since God is in all, it means he is also attainable for us in all the situations we enter in our day-to-day lives. So for faith to be applied to our personal beliefs and faith-based decisions in matters, I believe there is an identifying of the hopeful aspect of a situation, followed by a decision to believe that your choice (which is based on the spiritual growth it gives, and what you can handle) is accepted of God. And I think an indicator that your faith is improving is that you increasingly look to it as the solution for new situations. This is merely faith at work, which I think could be applied to any lifestyle, but I think the main difference with the Christian is that the goal is to live life entirely by faith, rather than by man's system of half-faith/half-sight. This also is most appropriate, as most of us probably believe you should do nothing halfway.
If these things make sense to the reader so far, I think this is good, but it's often another matter to act on what you understand. For example, the shy person can still have "shy problems" which can emerge even after how to be more bold has been explained to him. The Bible speaks of the conflict between our desire to do what's right and the temptations of our physical bodies, and I believe explains that the process of making our bodies do what is right involves a forcible and consistant submitting of it to the truth ( 1 Corinthians 9:27, 2 Corinthians 10:5, 1 John 3:20). I feel that the most notable part of the body to undergo this process is the mind, which I believe we are to allow to be changed by "feeding" only on the truth and, as much as possible, resisting anything our minds produce that conflicts with the truth. I believe the process of building real faith is not about adding to what you already think, but quite literally involves gradually "losing one's mind" for Christ's sake ( 1 Corinthians 3:18).
Paul believed that our natural bodies cannot be trusted in doing what's right and other scripture also speaks of this ( Romans 7:18, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Philippians 3:3, Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 21:2). This sentiment we've also heard from people, testifying of the instability of all outside of God ("People will let you down/change on you, but God won't", "To err is human", etc). This is not as strange as it may seem, after considering some things. Before coming to Christ, we all lived in a state of a subjected mind, being full of negativity, disbelief, pride, and what-have-you, and we also fed off of things of this nature and lived in them daily ( 1 Peter 4:3). So similarly, the Christian also constantly submits his mind to an influence, but it's the influence of God. *But what's most notable about our past lives is that what remained in us before the change was the desire to do what's right, even in a worsening sinful condition, and I think this is why we eventually decided to change. I don't believe the state of one's mind will change the most important part of the person: the intents of the heart.
So as we are living support for this argument, I believe we will always be left with our purpose of heart at any point in our Christian progress. Even as a believer's mind is completely changing, I believe each of our steps will be made the same way as the previous, being able to freely choose to make progress in God or turn back if we chose. I believe we'll always have this choice, as we did from when we first believed; I don't think there should be a concern about becoming "trapped in one's own body". This approach builds on a foundation of truth shared by most people and one the Bible mentions: that whatever our condition, we'll always want to do the right thing ( Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38).
For me, these methods have changed my life a lot and have taken me through situations that I couldn't have dealt with at all before, and the reality of my faith has been dramatically increased and still stands at the time of writing this text. Hopefully this information can help some people at least begin to develop faith that is real for them.
These are the beliefs of one who I believe does not have the "gift of faith" ( 1 Corinthians 12:7-12 KJV), and is explained based on what I believe I understand and on my own observations in people. It's also being explained by one who is still learning, but I believe I've seen my faith helped drastically by using this information. I think this is good news for anyone who thinks that only a certain type of person can have faith that's real or that faith requires a shutting of the eyes to anything they've known to be true.
When it comes to faith, I believe what you start with is what I call "belly faith", which is the natural amount you're pretty much born with. I think this amount varies from person to person, but in some people it is much larger than everyone else's. These individuals I believe have what the Bible calls "the gift of faith", which is a larger amount of belly faith than many others have. The effect will be that those with this gift will always have more faith than those around them, even when the effects of practice are removed. I believe there is a certain amount of faith that God forcibly reserves to always have a testimony of himself in the Earth, regardless of what man does, and I think this has been most often seen through these kinds of people. I think these are the types often called "religious" nowadays, historically known to be spiritual leaders (preachers, priests, etc.)
But I don't believe these are the only types of people that can have faith or should be concerned with it. What the Bible calls the "fruits of the Spirit" I believe means spiritual progress, so I think that our faith is one of the things that can and should be continuously growing, and I believe we are justified in how much we gain and not how much we start with.
This makes a lot of sense and seems most fair. I think a relevant comparison to this would be judging one's muscular development. Some are pretty much born with more "natural" muscle development than others and this can often impress people, even if the person wasn't working as hard to improve as the others. But the correct way to judge between this person and one that was born with less development would be to judge only the progress made. I think God's system works the same way (Acts 10:34-35, Romans 2:10-11, Galatians 2:6). This is good news for any who have started with a small amount of faith since by this system, you are at no disadvantage to anyone else.
I believe that those who struggle with faith have a set of characteristics that makes it hard for them to "get" faith, perhaps because they have a gift of a different nature. An equivalent would be how a shy person doesn't "get" being bold, meaning it's not how they normally think. *I believe they are able to understand boldness, but the process of explaining it must be carefully spelled out. For example, if a bold person was showing a shy person how to be more bold, the attempt may go like this:
Bold: "Ok, crush that soda can, drop it on the ground, and walk away. Shy: "Oh, I couldn't do that: that's littering!"
The bold person may have little success unless he explains more thoroughly:
Bold: "Ok, crush that soda can, drop it on the ground, and walk away. *This conveys a sense of masculinity and shows others you aren't afraid to make a mistake."
The shy person will probably never be as bold as a practicing bold person, but he can improve and make progress that is respectable, considering his characteristics. In this text, I will assume the reader has similar difficulty when it comes to understanding faith and will try to explain it "from the ground up".
I believe the truths of God can be seen everywhere (Romans 1:20) and should not be thought of as only being contained in the Bible, though it is an excellent compilation of them and will be referenced in this text. For many, I think their struggle to have faith is often associated with this, being told that they must have a rigid image of what God is. The amazing amount of flexibility possible for one's image of God is mentioned in the Bible itself ( Ephesians 4:6, Colossians 1:16-17, Philipians 2:13). It's not necessary to pin down what is called God, since each person can have his own image. But what we can see from these verses and others is a tone of inescapability and transcendence about God, that he is in all things 100%. From the perspective of trying to escape God, the effect I think this creates is like being entirely submerged under water.
When it comes to believing something, there's a concern about making sure our beliefs go in the right "direction", as if shooting an arrow and hoping to hit the intended target. But considering the inescapability of God, we can understand that God is basically an unmissable target.
Paul describes faith as "the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). In this verse, I believe he is merely jumping to the end of an inevitable conclusion: that your believing direction will always hit, so faith always leads to a hit target; therefore, faith is a hit target. From the aforementioned information about God's system, this makes sense. The only way you could miss the target of God is to not believe (equating to not shooting your arrow). Many places in scripture explain that one of the main offenses with God is disbelief, and Christ also echoes this message as do the early apostles and Christians, who speak of the necessity of faith and the problem of doubt ( Hebrews 11:6, James 1:6/8, 1 Timothy 2:8).
This system works in complete contrast to the system we all know, what I will call "man's system", which says you should believe in nothing until you see proof because of the risk that the target could be on the right and you could believe "to the left" and therefore miss it. But since God is an unmissable target, this risk doesn't exist. By God's system, there is no reason to doubt because doubt is the only reason you would miss your target. And since God is in all, it means he is also attainable for us in all the situations we enter in our day-to-day lives. So for faith to be applied to our personal beliefs and faith-based decisions in matters, I believe there is an identifying of the hopeful aspect of a situation, followed by a decision to believe that your choice (which is based on the spiritual growth it gives, and what you can handle) is accepted of God. And I think an indicator that your faith is improving is that you increasingly look to it as the solution for new situations. This is merely faith at work, which I think could be applied to any lifestyle, but I think the main difference with the Christian is that the goal is to live life entirely by faith, rather than by man's system of half-faith/half-sight. This also is most appropriate, as most of us probably believe you should do nothing halfway.
If these things make sense to the reader so far, I think this is good, but it's often another matter to act on what you understand. For example, the shy person can still have "shy problems" which can emerge even after how to be more bold has been explained to him. The Bible speaks of the conflict between our desire to do what's right and the temptations of our physical bodies, and I believe explains that the process of making our bodies do what is right involves a forcible and consistant submitting of it to the truth ( 1 Corinthians 9:27, 2 Corinthians 10:5, 1 John 3:20). I feel that the most notable part of the body to undergo this process is the mind, which I believe we are to allow to be changed by "feeding" only on the truth and, as much as possible, resisting anything our minds produce that conflicts with the truth. I believe the process of building real faith is not about adding to what you already think, but quite literally involves gradually "losing one's mind" for Christ's sake ( 1 Corinthians 3:18).
Paul believed that our natural bodies cannot be trusted in doing what's right and other scripture also speaks of this ( Romans 7:18, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Philippians 3:3, Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 21:2). This sentiment we've also heard from people, testifying of the instability of all outside of God ("People will let you down/change on you, but God won't", "To err is human", etc). This is not as strange as it may seem, after considering some things. Before coming to Christ, we all lived in a state of a subjected mind, being full of negativity, disbelief, pride, and what-have-you, and we also fed off of things of this nature and lived in them daily ( 1 Peter 4:3). So similarly, the Christian also constantly submits his mind to an influence, but it's the influence of God. *But what's most notable about our past lives is that what remained in us before the change was the desire to do what's right, even in a worsening sinful condition, and I think this is why we eventually decided to change. I don't believe the state of one's mind will change the most important part of the person: the intents of the heart.
So as we are living support for this argument, I believe we will always be left with our purpose of heart at any point in our Christian progress. Even as a believer's mind is completely changing, I believe each of our steps will be made the same way as the previous, being able to freely choose to make progress in God or turn back if we chose. I believe we'll always have this choice, as we did from when we first believed; I don't think there should be a concern about becoming "trapped in one's own body". This approach builds on a foundation of truth shared by most people and one the Bible mentions: that whatever our condition, we'll always want to do the right thing ( Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38).
For me, these methods have changed my life a lot and have taken me through situations that I couldn't have dealt with at all before, and the reality of my faith has been dramatically increased and still stands at the time of writing this text. Hopefully this information can help some people at least begin to develop faith that is real for them.
