Faith: An Important Ingredient in Life
By Adesegun Olowu
Why is faith so important in life?
The importance of faith to the believer’s life cannot be overemphasized. Throughout the Bible, we see that faith is essential to the believer. As a matter of fact, there can be no believer without faith! In the following scriptural passages, we will look at what faith means to the believer:
1. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that it is through faith that we are saved. The Greek word for the word “saved” is the word “sozo”, which means wholeness, healing, preservation. It gives the idea of shalom, which means peace resulting from nothing missing and nothing broken.
2. In Habakkuk 2: 24, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:13 and Heb 10:38, we are told that the just shall live by faith. So, we cannot live the Christain life without faith. Everything we do as Christians should be by faith.
3. Corinthians 5:7 admonishes us to walk by faith and not by sight.
4. From Hebrews 11: 6, we see that without faith we cannot please God. So, if we must please God, we must understand faith and walk by it.
5. In John 5:4; faith is the victory that overcomes the world. So our victorious living in based on our faith. Jesus has given us the victory in his death , burial and resurrection but we sustain that victory by our faith.
If faith is this important as listed above, what then is faith?
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
According to the above scripture faith is the substance of things hoped for. To further explain it, a substance is that of which a thing consists. It is the actual matter of a thing. If faith is the substance of things hoped for, it means hope has no substance to it. Hope is important, no doubt. Because without hope, there is nothing for faith to give substance to. The substance of a table
could be wood, metal or glass or a combination of all three substances. Just as these are the substances of a table, so is faith to what we hope for.
Hope lies in the realm of the unseen; it is not tangible but faith is what gives it substance for it to become tangible. Hope is not faith and faith is not hope. But each has its place in our lives. Hope is futuristic whereas faith is always now. It is always in the present.
The passage we read says “Now Faith is” , and not “faith was”. “Now” is always in the present and “is” is always present continuous. If we do not understand this difference, we cannot understand faith. When we talk in future tense, we are not in faith but in hope and since hope has no substance, nothing will manifest. The word manifest is to make perceptible. Something manifest is something that has substance.
Hope has its place. Because hope is the thing we desire. It is the goal setter. Without it, there is nothing for faith to give substance to. When we say for example, “God is going to heal me”, we are in hope and not faith. It is a statement of the future and we will never get there. Because, every time we make that statement, we are always talking in the future and it always remains in the future.
Faith always considers the things we hoped for as done now. Faith never speaks in the future, it always speaks in the now or present. Faith gives substance to that invisible thing we hope for and makes it visible.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3)
It was faith filled words spoken by God that gave substance to the world, which we see and not by the things which appear and are perceptible.
The evidence of things not seen
Faith is also the evidence of things not perceptible to our senses. What is evidence?
1. That which tends to prove or disprove something;
2. Ground for belief;
3. Proof that something exists.
4. Something that makes plain or clear
How do we have ground for belief for something we cannot see or perceive by our senses? How do we prove that something we cannot see or perceive by our senses exists ? How do we make plain or clear something we cannot see or perceive with our senses?
An answer to all the questions above is that because an invincible, invisible, reliable, loving, all powerful, all knowing God said it is there. The fact that we do not see something with our physical senses, does not mean it is not there. For example, there are plenty of radio signals in the air around us but, we cannot perceive them until we tune into their frequency with a radio set and make them perceptible.
Faith is tuning into the frequency of God. Faith is of the spirit and not of the head. Faith is based on what God said. Faith is having confidence in what God has said concerning the things that you hope for. Faith begins when the will of God is known. The will of God is expressed in his word.
So our evidence of the things that we do not see is the assurance that if God said it is there, then it is. God does not deal in the realm of time so, God is always in the present continuous. He dwells in eternity, so God is always in the now. That is why faith is always now.
Because faith begins when the will of God is known, it means faith begins with the word. So the question is what has God said concerning the things you hope for?
Adesegun Olowu is a graduate of Rhema Bible Training Centre, Nigeria. He is among the first graduating set of the PHC campus. He is currently the team leader of the PHC campus of Rhema Alumni association. He is an Engineer, farmer and Bible teacher. He is married to Chibuzo Olowu and they blessed with three children, Oluwamayomikun, Ebunoluwa and Oluwademilade.