Purpose Of Faith

Purpose of Faith 

What is faith?

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

There are two words we can pick out from this verse:

·         Hope: Desire accompanied by expectation

·         Substance: The confidence or assurance

Where does faith come from and how can it be obtained?

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. | Romans 10:17

·         Faith is obtained through the hearing of the Word of God 1^st.

o   You may hear the Word of God through preaching, reading scripture, people, music, and a number of other ways.

o   God must speak the Word over your life. This is also known as a promise. We need the Word of God to become the promise that He’s spoken over our lives to reach our destiny.

Ø  Promise: An agreement to do or not to do something; Indication of a successful future. (Jeremiah 29:11), (Joshua 21:45). – God always keeps His promises because He’s faithful

Ø  Destiny: The seemingly inevitable succession of events.

What is our destiny?

·         Our destiny is to ultimately come into relationship with Jesus Christ. Then from there, God promises to us that we will have life and have it more abundantly. (John 3:16)

Take Abraham for example.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. | Hebrews 11:8

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” | Genesis 12:1

·         This in an example of faith. Abraham trusted God so much that he left his place a comfort to a place he didn’t even know where he was going!

1.      Notice that God spoke to Abram and said go from your country. (Promise)

2.      Then God gave him his destiny although not being very specific, there was still a destination. (Destiny)

·         Notice that he was called Abram before becoming Abraham. This is who he was before he reached his destiny, the destiny that God had in store for him! Therefore in order for him to become Abraham or toe become the very thing God promised that he would be, Abraham had to first hear the promise, and the be obedient.

·         Abraham had to have faith to be obedient. He literally had hope for the thing God promised by trusting in Him even though He couldn’t see God. The evidence is in the one he can’t see because God is invisible to man.

·         The literal or tangible evidence of God’s very existence is the fact that Abraham was alive, he was in his right mind, there was air to breathe, the sky was still blue, the trees were still growing and even in the extremity of hearing God’s voice.

Why do we have faith?

·         So we have faith to trust in someone we can’t see hanging on to the hope that He promised us.

·         The hope that we have is not in the hope of this world, but that through Jesus Christ, we will be able to experience eternal life even after death!

By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. | Hebrews 11:9

·         What’s interesting about the 10^th verse is that Abraham almost as if knew that his destiny was in God’s hands. He knew it was although he didn’t have visual or tangible evidence to prove so. But what he did have was faith.

·         He trusted God enough to live under conditions in which he did in order to become or enter in to his destiny. From Abram to Abraham

o   The name Abram = High Father

o   The name Abraham = Father of many

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God wants to change your name from defeated, to more than a conqueror. 
From broken to healed. From ashamed to confident. From death to life. From lost to 
forgiven....