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To believe is to commit or put confidence in or to trust. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved. Faith is putting this belief in action. Faith is a substance, a power, a force, a presence, and a gift of God. We are saved by grace through faith and that faith is a gift. Now all unbelief is sin. To not put your trust in God is sin. To trust in your job, your wealth, your beauty, your intelligence, other gods is sin. It is the sin of idolatry. Similarly that which is not of faith is sin. To act from self or selfishness, to be motivated by pride or willfulness or to not act because of unbelief is sin. God says without faith, this substance, power, force, and gift, without faith you can not please him. To act independent of God is not pleasing to God. To not believe that God is or that He does not reward those who diligently seek Him is to show a lack of faith. Now faith comes by hearing, believing what you hear, and hearing or believing by the word of God. The word of God is spirit and life and by hearing with confidence and trust our faith grows. This substance or power can change the course of nature, heal the sick, and raise the dead. We activate our faith by speaking the word to the mountain or circumstances of our life that need to be changed. Faith can move mountains and if it can move mountains, it can move anything that needs to be moved that is not of God. Abraham, the father of our faith, believed God and it was accounted unto him as righteousness. With the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. What converts a sinner into a saint is not willpower but God power, that is to say, faith. A born again Christian has the same faith as Abraham because just as Abraham believed unto righteousness so does every born again Christian. We receive a deposit of faith the moment we our born again. This faith works by reading and hearing scripture and keeping it in our hearts and acting upon it as we are led. The more we believe, the more we apply the word of God to our lives, the more we grow in faith. The less we believe, the less we trust, the less we put our confidence in God the less we grow. All the saints of God grew in the hard times. Trial and tribulation try our faith and test our belief. But if we endure to the end we will be saved. Be people of faith. Put your trust in Him and act. Faith without works is dead. A living faith is an active faith that cares for and has concern for those in need. Faith works by love. Be people of love. All things are possible to those who believe. Nothing is possible to those who disbelieve. The work of God is to believe in Him who God sent. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. It is a life of faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus and receive the gift of faith. That faith turns a sinner into a righteous person. Be righteous and perform the works of God. Convert head knowledge into a living faith and you will always succeed. Amen |