9.) All We Get from God We Get by Faith
By Rev. Oliver W. Price
We are saved by faith; we are healed by faith; we walk by faith; we die in faith. All we get from God, we get by faith.
We do not get things from God because we are saved, but because we believe for those very things. It is "according to your faith" (Matthew 9:29), from the hour we look to Jesus for forgiveness until we enter the coming kingdom. Asking is the law of getting. The reason so many get little or nothing from God is explained by James when he writes, "Ye have not because ye ask not."
Our faith is the basis of our asking. If we believe, we ask; and if we ask believing, we receive. (Mark 11:24). Therefore, it is most important to know how our faith may be increased, for God not only works according to faith, but He works only within the bounds of our faith. Faith is the channel on which the boats of answered prayer sail. Whether it is only a sampan or a great ocean liner that anchors in your harbor depends on your faith.
Read to Feed
"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
(Romans 10:17)
The study of the Word of God begets faith in the soul. If faith is weak it is because we are not reading the Word of God as we need to read it. To get faith, read the Word of God, chapters a day. Ponder it. Study it. Memorize it. Dig deep. Read to feed. Be diligent in these things.
"Give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may be manifest to all."
(1 Timothy 4:15)
Thus faith in God will spring up in your soul. Faith is simply taking God at His word.
Prayer Puts Fuel on the Fire of Faith
Are we to pray for faith? As we pray, faith is born. God draws near. Heaven seems very close. Spiritual realities heave into view like mountains rising from mists. The unseen is unveiled. The glory of God comes on us. It is then easy to feel God, to believe God, and to get from God.
A praying man is a believing man. Little faith means little prayer. We believe little because we pray little. Prayer puts fuel on the fire of faith. When the defeated disciples came to Jesus to find the cause of their inability to cast the demon out of the boy, He truthfully told the trouble,
"This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
(Matthew 17:21)
They had been arguing rather than praying, talking to man rather than talking to God. Go alone and earnestly and honestly spend but thirty minutes in real prayer and you will come forth with more faith that you had when you went in. Your faith life is the index of your prayer life.
Fasting Sharpens Faith
Fasting is a help to faith. Jesus declared, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." A praying man is a fasting man, and a fasting man is a believing man. When we fast we cut ourselves off from food, we separate ourselves from the outer world as to nourishment. In spiritual fasting we walk apart. Fasting is separation from this evil age. We leave the world that is devil-dominated and hell-bent, and walk with God. We expect nothing and receive nothing from this wicked world. This is real fasting. Abraham never saw the city in the heavens until he had turned his back on the mud plains of Chaldea. Fasting for God's work is a holy business. If you fast strongly you will believe and work mightily. Amen!
Attempt Great Things for God and Expect Great Things From Him
Do something. Go at it. Believe something. Claim a promise and plead it. Undertake for God. Launch out. The disciples prayed,
"Lord, increase our faith."
(Luke 17:5)
His reply inferred, "Use what you have. Let it go to work." If you have as much faith as a grain of mustard seed, you may remove mountains, and that is more than most people are doing in these days of unbelief. Hitch your faith up to something and make it pull. If lazy, make it work. If weak, feed it on the promises of God. A grain of faith as big as the point of a pin can work miracles.
Undertake something for God, beyond your own resources, ability, and human needs. God will come to your rescue. When we do what we can do, God gets no glory. Let the Holy Spirit mark out a pathway of faith for you. As you walk in it, timidity will give place to courage, and fear to faith.
If you want faith, read the Word, pray, keep separated from the world and sin, and undertake something for God beyond yourself. May Jesus say of you as He did of the Syrophoenician woman,
"Great is thy faith."
(Matthew 15:28)
If you set yourself to use these ways to get more faith, it may be that the Lord will bestow upon you the gift of faith as described in 1 Corinthians 12:9.
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"Renewed faith is the key to revival." Rev. Oliver W. Price
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This article was copied from "Herald of His Coming" P.O.Box 279, Seelyville, IN 47878. Used by permission.