Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
Some people erroneously believe that faith is fake and that it is not real. Our opening Scripture describes faith as the substance and the evidence of things one hasn’t yet perceived in the natural realm. Substance is essence of some kind, and evidence is confidence or assurance of some kind. So, faith is not vague; it is tangible. If you truly are in faith, you are not faking it. Deep within you, you already have substance for what you are in faith for, though you haven’t seen the physical manifestation yet, but you know and believe that you already have it according to the Word of God. To presume that something is, that is not, is fake; that’s not faith. You cannot birth such a thing because the substance is not there in existence in your heart already. Some believers just confess the Word of God, but they don’t do their homework well in interacting with Scriptures so that their confession is born out of a revelation of the Word in their heart which they have received. They want to lazy around and just do a formula of faith: ‘you just say it again and again’ and believe if they say it long enough, it will happen. No, it doesn’t work like that. In the realm of the Spirit, we spend faith, in the natural, we spend money; therefore, if you don’t have the substance for what you are saying, that thing will never come to pass. There must be substance for it in your spirit or heart, that is, the core of your being.
For example, a believer can say “I am going to achieve this feat next month” without his faith having substance for that confession. Someone might hear that and say that such a person is speaking faith, whereas it is mere positive thinking or an ordinary desire that has not been properly channeled to God in the place of prayers. That is not faith, it is fake. Faith only begin when the Word is revealed to you, not when you see where it is written in the Bible, but when the Word is revealed to your spirit, to your heart. The moment that Word comes home to you, faith has come. So, when there is a desire in your heart, confession is not the first thing, it is prayer. You go to God in prayer and present your request to Him, asking Him to open your eyes to see His perfect will for that situation. Now, having prayed and believed that you have received from God, you then open up to the Word – the teachings of the Word, wherein God shows you the Scripture for that expectation or desire. That particular Scripture is the substance and evidence needed to birth that very expectation into physical being. You can then confess the Word and walk in the light of it. That’s your faith speaking and acting; it cannot be denied.
MY SOLID FRONT (YOUR CONFESSION):
In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I declare that I walk by faith and not by sight. By the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, my eyes of understanding are illuminated to see what God is showing me!
Further Meditation:
Mark 11:24; Colossians 1:9-11.