This is another article in the series that addresses how the Word of God changes us. We want to be people of God. How does the Bible get us there? Hebrews 11:1 gives us important traits about the biblical faith God wants to form in us: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (NASB). As we’ll see, faith is very important for those who desire to grow into godly people. What are those two traits?
A person with biblical faith: 1) Has certainty about what he is believing God for. 2) This faith has a hope; that is, an inner conviction of what’s to come, though the believer sees no evidence of it yet.
Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians who were withdrawing to the laws of Moses and traditions of the elders. The epistle shows us the superiority of Christ over all those things.
This chapter showcases people who had so much assurance that they endured despite any obstacles. Noah spent a hundred years building an ark. Moses led hundreds of thousands out of Egypt.
Their faith had a focal point: God’s promise backed by the Almighty Himself. God gave each of them a promise and they ran with it, even though they saw no evidence of its future fulfillment. They heard God promise them something. That was enough. The power of the Spirit accompanied their response of obedience.
God promised Abraham a son though he and his wife were past age for having kids. God promised Noah that He will send a flood to destroy every living thing on the earth. God told Moses to bring the children of Israel back to their land (which God promised Abraham He would do 400 years earlier).
Would you have the strength to believe God and spend the bulk of your life building an ark? Noah did. Would you get up and lead hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to a new land? Moses did. Theirs was a faith that was shaped and formed by the Spirit of God.
Their shaky faith morphed into a firm conviction that kept them on the path toward fulfilling the promise. They were examples of what spiritual faith looks like, how far biblical faith can carry us. The Spirit enlarged their vision to see ahead, even to be assured of realities to come after death.
For instance, God promised to give Abraham descendants as innumerable as the sand; then he learned that the promise will be realized in the next life. His faith was expressed during his lifetime by his praising God as though the promise was already done (Romans 4:13-25). God said it; when they believed the promise, that settled it–in their own hearts.
If you are rejoicing in your resurrection body though you don’t feel it yet, then you have the faith of Abraham. Because God promised it to you.
Today, God speaks to us through His Word. Through ongoing application of His Word, He enlarges our understanding of our work, strengthens our expectations to extend faith into the next life, and helps keep our eyes focused on Him who is faithful.
God has a promise for you (actually, many of them). For example, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” And what is the promise? “That the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Do you believe God can equip you for the good work of being a spirit-filled leader? If you believe God will do so through “teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,” will you not keep yourself immersed in them?
Do you believe that the Spirit can mold you into a person who has a faith to believe God to the end? Do you believe that you can be a spiritual example like Jesus if you believe to the end as the heroes did in Hebrews 11? If not, keep reading and studying the Word. These men are held out to us as examples of what the Lord is willing to do for those who believe and follow Him. This epistle is written to those who were drifting from Christ. They, and we, need to be reminded of where our true strength lies.
Stay in the Word. God is still speaking to us today. Faith is an important trait of the man of God. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith comes by hearing God speak to you, and hearing God speak comes by the Word of God (Romans 10:17 paraphrased).
Faith finds its first cause, its origin, in the Word, not in our feelings, or reasoning and understanding, or strengths. The men were moved as God spoke, not because of personal ideas they thought of. Yes, we can get excited about our own ideas, but after a while we should learn the difference between those and the effect of hearing God speak to us in the Word, and adding conviction to it.
These men and women were heroes of enduring faith. Not heroes of the law, of animal sacrifices, of human potential, of following man-made rules, following their gut, or following the crowd.
Where we are looking at ourselves and our limited capacity, we will faint and fall in all spiritual matters. Do not be constantly checking your faith, for then you’ll take your eyes off of Christ. Instead of looking to yourself, Hebrews 12:2 tells us to be “looking unto Jesus.” Why Jesus? Because He is “the author and finisher of our faith.” Your goal in the Word of God is to hear Jesus, believe Jesus, and follow Jesus. Any man of God would do the same. All the heroes of Hebrews 11 did likewise.
An earlier article I wrote about how a layperson may study the Word using a chapter summary format can help you grow further than just reading random Bible verses. When we are studying it, mentally chewing on it, the Spirit sees that we have open, humble hearts to take the Word seriously, and opens our eyes to the meaning behind the words, and life surges in us. Then we say, “God spoke to me!”
When we hear the Spirit speak to is and open a new avenue of inquiry, hold the horses. Stop everything and start chewing on that thought to develop it. God is leading you to reveal more of Himself. If you neglect it by thinking of something else, it will fade away. We reap what we sow; we grow what we planted. Are you planting seeds of the world or the Word? As the twig is bent, so the tree’s inclined. In what direction are you growing? What is shaping your beliefs?
Through the Word God still speaks. Through the promises He inspires us, stretching our faith little by little to help us go the distance. By our constant application of the Word, God shapes our faith so that hope is born over time (Romans 5:1-5). This firm faith, this conviction, causes us to keep holding on to Him until this new creation in Christ grows into the person God is equipping us to be. Hope means we’ve developed the long view, so present setbacks don’t dismay us as much as they used to.
We need this chapter of Hebrews because we, like the Jewish readers, can slide away from Christ to familiar things. We can be discouraged because the way of transformation is long. We may not yet have seen how powerful the Bible can be in a believer’s life. The Hebrews 11 examples show us what is possible when our reliance is on God and not self and our things.
Keep the Word in mind and take it away with you to apply it; and like a seed, it will grow. Then, like Abraham, we will rejoice in what God has done though we don’t yet see it. That is what a Spirit-formed faith looks like. This is a faith that keeps us on the path to growing into the people God wants us to be.
