What is True Faith? Q & A

Q- If faith is a gift from God, then why is our faith tested? 

A- That’s an excellent and extremely important question. Unfortunately, faith is one of the most wrongly taught and misunderstood doctrines in the whole of God’s Word. 

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The Enemy’s Tactics

Let us never forget that the enemy’s ultimate tactic is to provide false teachings that fool people into believing they’re drawing closer to God, when all the while they’re actually moving farther into the darkness. 

The enemy of our souls deeply desires mankind to stay far away from the true and living God. To do this, he must remove the key of God’s grace freely provided by Jesus on the cross and His victorious resurrection just three days later!  

Counterfeit Keys

One of the most insidious substitutes for God’s amazing grace is actually false faith. After all, Scripture is clear. We are saved by grace… through faith. Ephesians 2:8-9. We must BELIEVE that what Jesus did. Romans 10:9. We are called and commanded to come to Jesus by grace by placing our faith in His full, free, and finished work on the cross. 

We are called to faithfully believe and humbly receive God’s forgiveness because of what Jesus did 2,000 years ago. So, if the enemy wants men to perish, he must keep them from God’s full and free offer of forgiveness in Christ alone. Men must be kept from what God’s word calls His free gift of grace. 

If the devil wants to keep us from God’s grace that can only be accessed by faith, that is to say, faithfully and humbly trusting in the finished work of Jesus, then why not simply redefine faith? 

Once this is done correctly, people will not only have a misunderstanding of true faith, but they will also have a wrong understanding of God’s grace, hindering many from entering and enjoying the wonderful and eternal life in Jesus which God seeks to freely give all mankind. 

One of the most effective ways to keep men from God’s grace is to present a satiating substitute. And one of the most wildly utilized and attractive substitutes is false faith. 

Consider this analogy. Let’s say a tragic, world-altering storm is soon approaching, and a wealthy and generous man offers you a fortified house that will guarantee life. He says that all you have to do is receive his key to open the door. The man lovingly built the house, the door, and provides the key free of charge. Your job is simply to believe his offer and receive the key. You must simply believe this man. In other words, you must place your faith in him and his amazing offer. 

Along comes a charlatan who desires the house for himself. He also desperately desires for you to be destroyed in the impending storm. The homeowner will not allow the liar to step one foot in his house, so the deceiver is left with only one option… Keep all from entering in. 

One way to do this is mass produce many false keys. However, this takes tons of effort and time. One day, he decides he would capture people’s attention even before the key. 

The deceiver devises an even more treacherous plan. He begins his new offensive, convincing people they don’t even need the owner’s key. He begins enticing people with an even more insidious and seductive idea, teaching them that they, themselves, are actually the key. Instead of trusting in the owner’s offer, he dissuades millions to simply begin putting faith in themselves.

The deceiver correctly knew if he could effectively do this, many, if not most, motivated by their pride, would gladly ignore the owner’s gracious gift for the opportunity to continue focusing on themselves. In the end, the storm would come and destroy many.

Simply stated, redefining and redirecting a person’s faith can effectively prevent him from realizing his desperate need to receive the one, true gift necessary for eternal life. 

And to make things even muddier, not only is faith redefined, it is also repackaged into a variety of differing systems making false faith palatable to a plethora of people. 

False Force- Word of Faith

One of the most widely embraced false faith systems can be generally described as a universal force that must be realized, practiced, and performed through specific patterns, almost like a science. This system says that once one learns to wield his faith, he can “move mountains” and “shape worlds.” This is essentially repackaged witchcraft cloaked in loosely fitting Christian jargon. 

This system is generally called Word of Faith. But over the last couple of centuries, this false teaching has made its way into the whole of Christianity through its worldly counterparts- Hinduism and New Age. Ideas as seemingly innocuous as “Think positive” and “Good vibes” are actively rooted in this ungodly system. 

Much more could be said on this, but suffice to say, this sinisterly self-centered idea of faith was birthed from ungodly darkness and is rooted in witchcraft, not the Bible. 

False Gift of Faith

Another popular idea of faith, which deals more directly with your question, is that of God’s gifting of faith. To look into this area more closely, it must first be said that all too often there is a strange mingling of salvation and sanctification, much in part because of Roman Catholicism’s gigantic and steady influence on Christianity. 

Salvation vs Sanctification

Salvation is a free gift that must be willingly received by the hearer. And once born again, the believer continues to be daily sanctified by reading God’s word and obediently walking in the Spirit by the power of God. Christians begin to learn to resist the devil and deny the flesh, happily and joyfully resting and surrendering instead to the will of their new and eternal Heavenly Father. 

Although this is plainly taught in Scripture, what tends to happen if not correctly preached and taught, is that people will begin to naturally gravitate to a mixture of salvation and sanctification. They may see that their walk is waning. They see how they fall short, and instead of simply returning to the Fountain of Living Water, they begin to question their salvation, attempting to perfect by works that which was begun in the Spirit. Galatians 3:1-3. In the end, they are left on an endless cycle of performance-based Christianity. 

The other component to this false faith has to do with what is commonly called Calvinism. Calvinism essentially teaches that all mankind is so separated from God that we are “dead”, that is to say, incapable of having faith.  

Calvinism basically teaches that men are incapable of believing the Gospel, despite the multitude of verses that say otherwise. Once Lost Ministries has produced many articles, excerpts, and videos on this subject, so for the sake of this article, we will simply say that this teaching is biblically incorrect. 

All men are capable of exercising their faith. We do it every day. We trust the cars we drive, the phones we use, the chairs we sit on, etc. To teach that men are incapable of having faith is simply false. This premise, though, does directly contribute to the original question. 

If men are incapable of belief, then it would stand to reason that God must give us faith in order to believe the Gospel. But embracing this doctrine lends itself to issues, most notably that of works, which again essentially replaces God’s grace. 

Grace vs Works

The line of thinking tends to go something like this… 

If I think I’m a Christian and believe God gave me the faith needed for salvation, and if my daily obedience is struggling, then I’m left with a nagging notion that maybe I’m struggling because I’m not really saved. Maybe God didn’t actually give me faith. 

At this point, the discouraged soul usually travels down one of two roads. First, he decides he’s not really saved and turns away from God. Second, he concludes he simply must work more and try harder to prove he’s really a Christian. The first leads to despair, the second to deeds-based deception. Neither of these are from God. 

God’s Word has much to say about faith. The disciples asked Jesus to increase, not give them faith. Jesus rebuked people for having little faith, not for having no faith, since this is impossible. When he did speak of people having “no” faith, He was not saying they literally had no faith, but rather that they had no faith placed in the right direction. 

All people must have some faith to function. Jesus, however, consistently focused more on paying attention to the direction rather than the size of our faith. If the direction is right, our faith will most certainly increase. 

Some teach that Ephesians 2:8-9 is saying that both grace and faith are gifts of God. That is neither consistent with the Greek, nor the whole of Scripture. All men are called to believe, to repent and receive God’s grace. Jesus constantly declared, “He who has ears, let him hear.” We, not God, are responsible for what we do with our faith. 

Perhaps the confusion, in part, has to do with us thinking of faith as something we can manipulate. Faith is not a power or force. It is not a wand. It is more of a rudder. Faith always takes us in the direction our heart and mind desire for us to go. 

God’s Gift of Faith

So then, what about the Bible verses that talk about the gift of faith? There are two clear sections that speak of God gifting faith to believers through the power of the Holy Spirit. One is 1 Corinthians 12:8-9,

“For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit.” 

The other is in chapter 13,

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing” 1 Corinthians 13:2. 

Neither of these, however, refer to unbelievers. Certainly, God equips believers. He also increases the faith of faithful followers, entrusting them with more. 

“His lord said unto him, Well done, you good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your lord” Matthew 25:21.

God can also gift believers with faith (trust and strength) to serve Him in particular areas of ministry. This is also evident from the above-mentioned verses. 

We could also argue that just as God graciously gifts all men with the ability to move and breathe, He also saw fit to design mankind with the gift or ability of faith and trust. God could’ve created robots, but instead, He lovingly chose to create mankind to reflect Himself. He created us with the ability to willingly choose to give Him our hearts and follow Him. What an amazing gift indeed! 

While we can say from Scripture that God gifts believers with growth and special instances of faith, and He has gifted all mankind with the capacity to believe and trust, we do not believe God must first give men a special kind of faith to believe in the Gospel. That would mean billions are in Hell because God chose to withhold faith from them. This is both unbiblical and a direct attack on the very character of God! 

Lastly, we need to carefully consider the purpose of faith. Even though this does not directly deal with the question, this final thought will hopefully add clarity to the overall answer and possibly prevent others from falling for any doctrines of false faith systems. 

What Faith is Not

The purpose of faith is not to make us more powerful. When the disciples marveled that they could do many miraculous works, Jesus rebuked them, saying,

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” Luke 10:20. 

Faith is not a power fueled by mind science or “God” allowing us to create new realities. That would make us little gods. Faith is also not a power through which we can “pull down Heaven”. Nor is it to be mistakenly applied in hopes of constructing an earthly dominion for some sort of mystical Christ-consciousness to inhabit. All these purposes are ungodly and cause adherents to focus on themselves and this fallen planet. 

In stark contrast, Jesus clearly said,

“My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from here” John 18:36.

To understand the true and godly purpose of faith, we don’t have to attend the latest conference. We don’t have to buy the latest book. We simply need to open our hearts as we open the Book of books. 

In Hebrews, God says,

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” Hebrews 11:1,3. 

In verse 6 of Hebrews, the true purpose of faith becomes even more crystal clear. 

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” Hebrews 11:6. 

The purpose of faith is to truly understand and know God.
To do this we must make sure our faith is directing us toward our Creator and Savior, not to ourselves, and certainly not to creation or worldly and devilish doctrines. 

May we diligently decrease, seeking instead to sincerely understand and know Jesus by faith now and forever! 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” Romans 1:16-17.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” Romans 5:1-2.

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God” Ephesians 3:17-19.