What is faith? It’s very simple really. It’s just knowing in your heart Who God is and how much He loves you. Once you have a true revelation of His great love for you, you will be able to believe for anything! Be like John. Remember throughout the Gospel of John, it says “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Most Bible scholars suggest John is referring to himself. Think of yourself in the same light. Let that reality sink in. YOU are the ONE God loves. He loves you like you were the only child He ever had. He has such a great capacity for love that He can love everyone at the same time as though they were the only person whom He ever created. How can He do that? He can do that because HE IS LOVE! He is love by definition. He can’t be anything else but love.
Have you ever stopped to think about what the Scripture “Perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn. 4:18)” really means? It doesn’t mean you have to have perfect love for God, although as you get to know Him, your love for Him will grow stronger and stronger. It means, His perfect love for you, when it becomes a rhema revelation in your heart, will chase every fear away, and you will be able to know and understand how precious you are to Him, how He cares intimately for you, and His love will replace every fear! You will be able to walk free from fears, and guilt, and insecurity, and oppression, and distress, and sickness of every kind because you will know that you know that you know that His love overwhelms and replaces all of that. Because God loves you so much, He will do and has done everything for you! He has provided everything you will ever need. He is not an angry or selfish father. His love for you commands Him to be your provision in every area of your life. Dear one, meditate on His love for you, and you will be able to believe for ANYTHING!
So then why does Scripture say that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God? Well, that’s because as you read, hear, and meditate on the Word, which is the very life and love of God, you grow in relationship with God. Faith is trust. Can you truly trust someone you don’t really know? Of course not. So, as you read God’s Word, His love letter to you, you get to know Him more and more. When the Scripture tells us to have faith in God, it is telling us to build a relationship with our Father. To do that, we read the Word. We study. We pray. We listen to Godly counsel. We receive teaching from our pastor. What does relationship do? It builds confidence in another person. So, as we spend time with our Father, we build confidence. We get a deeper and more intimate understanding of how much He really loves us. As we understand more and more His love for us, we trust Him more. Our faith grows. We understand more and more how deeply He really cares for us and how His heart yearns to take care of us. As we do that, we can enter into His rest and have faith in Him, and His promises, and in His love for us. As we develop our love relationship with the Lord, our faith grows, and it is easier to stand upon the Word in difficult situations because we KNOW, through relationship, that God is with us.
So, you see, faith is not a formula. It is a relationship based upon God’s great love for you. It is simply knowing God in your heart. You trust those that you know love you and have your best interest in mind. That’s why perfect love – God’s love for you – casts out all fear. Faith exists where fear is defeated. Faith comes from rhema revelation not ritual. It is a matter of the heart, the spirit. Faith will be established when you understand the perfect love that your Father has for you.
Rejoice in His perfect love for you,
Pastor Lisa Marie Tihen