Topic: FAITH CLARIFIED
THEME SCRIPTURE:
Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
MESSAGE:
In our previous devotion, we established that our theme Scripture seems to give us the best definition of faith. To bring clarity to this definition, let me illustrate faith to you. Let’s say, one is in an ill-health situation, and is hoping to be healed. Being mindful of the ill-health situation and hoping to be healed is not what brings healing. What brings the healing is faith - Faith in the Word of God!
You first have to find out what the Word of God says about ill-health as against healing and health. For instance, 1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV ) says, “Who Himself (Jesus) bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” The Scripture says, you were healed by the stripes of Jesus! Hoping for healing, then, will be a waste of time. You may probably wait for healing, forever.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Having heard such a Word of healing, what you’d need to do with your faith, is to embody healing as a substance and position it in your mind as a clear and vivid image of a healed you! In other words, see yourself healed on the screen of your mind, and doing what you’d do when the healing finally manifests in your body. Faith is in the NOW! So, there’d be no point waiting for healing in the future. This practice is what the Scripture refers to as the substance of things hoped for. Secondly, once you’ve seen yourself already healed on the screen of your mind, the natural response would be joy, gratitude and thankfulness. You’d need to open your heart with gratitude for the healing, even if you feel otherwise. Feel the joy of the healing in your heart, and be grateful to God for it. By so doing, you’re embodying the evidence of healing, even before it becomes evident in your physical body. This is the evidence of things not seen, as stated in our theme Scripture.
This means, even before the healing becomes evident in your physical body, you already have the substance of it in your mind, and its evidence in your heart, by faith. You don’t need any external evidence again, once you have it in your heart. And it’s just a matter of time; what you embody in your heart and mind, will ultimately cloth itself in a physical form in your body as healing and health.
Is this illustration of faith now clear to you?
