I have heard many Christians express a view that they have no faith for this or that situation. No doubt many are affected by Jesus remonstrating with Peter who had just walked on the water to Jesus and then failed when he saw the wind and the waves. So they think to themselves, “Well if Jesus said Peter had no faith and he walked on water what hope is there for me?” Jesus was really saying to him that he had up and down faith that only lasted a short time. As a result people rob themselves of living a life of faith.

Who has faith?

This is an important question for us to take in and I believe it is fundamental to the Christian life.
Romans 12:3 gives us the answer. It tells us that each Christian is given a measure of faith. As God has no favourites we can trust that it is the same measure for each of us.
The basic measure of faith is given to all of us when we get born again. It is part of the package that comes with forgiveness, eternal life, righteousness and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to name a few.
So every believer has faith. You have faith, I have faith. To say you have no faith is a lie. After all you are a believer. Now that is a whole different thing to having the reality of its power working in and for you. However, you do have it.

How did it come?

Romans 10:17 gives us the answer here. It says:

“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

Faith always comes when you hear the Word of God. It comes to fulfil and enact what that Word is saying. Many say faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing until one day it is received. Most will agree with this. For example it may have been true about your salvation. You may have heard the speaker say the same salvation message many times. However, one day the truth of it hit you so strong like it is just for you and you accepted Jesus into your life.

Colossians 2:6 gives us a clue how this process should continue to grow and develop in our lives. It says:

“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith.”

A baby will only grow and develop through exercise, which of course is why you see them kicking about and moving all the time and then get the strength to walk. Before you know it that  “baby” of yours is running in the Olympics.
In the same way our faith will only grow and develop by exercise so we are built up and established in our faith.
Webster’s dictionary defines established as settled permanently, fixed firmly and enacted.
We do that by being rooted and built up in Christ. We are rooted in Christ as we hear the Word and act on it. We begin to walk and get stronger in that walk. Peter walked on water for a time by faith but his faith was not established enough on Christ then and so he began to sink. We forget that later it was clear that his faith had changed when in Acts 3 Peter boldly tells the lame man by the gate of the temple to get up and walk and the man leaps up healed. I think there had been some establishing going on don’t you?
So every believer has the measure of faith but not every believer has established themselves so that faith is working for them.
For example if you are sick and need to believe for healing in that area, you must establish yourself in what the Word of God says about healing You do that until the truth of it is so real deep down on the inside of you that you cannot be shaken from it. You know the truth of God’s Word on the subject despite anything that your physical body is telling you. You then begin to boldly act on that established faith to declare healing in your body or for anyone else for that matter.
Which leads us on to the final part of this months article

Releasing your faith
I guess this is jargon for what to do to get your faith to work for you. Faith only develops by using it or putting it into action.
The key to this is found in 2 Corinthians 4:13 where it declares

”I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak”

So you become established in the Word of God and you believe what it says then you begin to speak it out.
Speaking is the releaser of your faith. It is what puts the substance of it into operation.Alternatively you could say it is how we get faith to work
We believe in our heart and say with our mouth.
In Genesis 1 and 2 we see that God created the earth by releasing His faith with words such as

“Let there be Light and light was.”

Jesus Himself also provides us with the principle for this in Mark 11:23. He tells us that using our faith in God or having the God kind of faith we have to believe something in our hearts and say it with our mouth believing that we receive it. In other words believe that it is ours in reality when we say it and we shall have it.

That brings me to the final point here. We ultimately must take possession of what faith obtains. Going back to the example last month of the retail shop. What would be the point of buying an item and having the chit that allows you to take possession of it if you then walk out of the shop without going to collect it? It is there for you but you miss out.
You have to be ready to receive and so many Christians have a problem with that. However, consider what would you do if you have been using your faith to believe that a work colleague would begin to open up to the things of God? Suddenly one day he or she begins to listen and asks you questions. That is a key time. Do you hold back and feel ”Oh no I can’t do this. I’m not worthy to receive” or do you boldly possess what faith has broken through with and start sharing the gospel with that person and perhaps ultimately lead them to the Lord.

So get ready, get established in the Word of God and begin to exercise your faith and never again will you declare” I just don’t have any faith.” You do and you will find a difference as you use it to change not only your life but many others out there who are hurting and need a touch from God.