What Does Your Faith Look Like?

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ² For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. These two verses starts the faith chapter. You will realize that everyone spoken in this chapter never moved from what God has told them or shown them. This is the substance of things hoped for. Faith can never be shaken or moved if it’s built on a rock.

There are those who say they have faith, pray for someone and nothing happens. Then they use the excuse that it isn’t God’s will or the person who they prayed for doesn’t have any faith. Instead of taking the blame that you only have faith of the flesh but not of the Spirit. It’s always God’s will to heal as Jesus healed them all. When you pray for someone and nothing happens, Jesus called that faith unbelief. Matthew 17:¹⁴ And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶ So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. ¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” ²⁰ So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. ²¹ However, this kind (of unbelief) does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” The boy could not be healed because of their unbelief. This unbelief is of the flesh. If you have faith, which is of the Spirit, as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for you.

When people uses the excuse that the other person didn’t have any faith is unbelief. Lets look at a time when Jesus told a man to get up and this man didn’t even know who Jesus was. John 5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. ³ In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴ For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. ⁵ Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” ⁷ The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” ⁹ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” ¹¹ He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ” ¹² Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³ But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” ¹⁵ The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. So it was Jesus’ faith that healed the man.

When the disciples finally got it and were baptized in the Spirit and power, Peter healed the man by the gate Beautiful in the Name of Jesus. People marveled at this but the Apostles were not anyone special. They were chosen and they had the power of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 22:¹⁴ “For many are called, but few are chosen.” If you still consider yourself a sinner in which you have not turned from sin, then you will only ever be the called and not chosen. As Jesus said Luke 5:³¹ Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. Sinners are called but the righteous are chosen.

Your faith is to look like Jesus so watch who you are following or you will be just like your teacher. Paul did say 1 Corinthians 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. Does your faith look like Christ as He is in you? Hebrews 13:⁷ Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹ Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. This is why we follow Jesus. If the one who is teaching you doesn’t look like Jesus, why are you following them and not Jesus as you should be following the Christ together.

If you are crated in God’s Image then you look like Christ. If your faith doesn’t look like His, as he is the head of the church, which church do you belong too? Colossians 1:¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Romans 1:⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Is yours?