What Faith Is Not

Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, THE WORD OF FAITH, which we preach;...
10 For WITH THE HEART MAN BELIEVETH unto righteousness; and WITH THE MOUTH confession is made unto salvation.

Faith has become many things to different people due to a lack of proper understanding of the subject.

To some, faith is a mental agreement.
To others, it is positive thinking or optimism.
Suprisingly, to others, it is hope.
And yet to others, it is wishful thinking.

Faith is non of these things.

Faith is of the heart. It is not a thing of the head.

Although hope is of the heart too, it is yet not faith.

Faith is not mentally accenting or agreeing to something or anything; it is a thing of the heart, not of the head.

Faith is not optimism, and optimism is not faith. One can be optimistic about something and yet operate without faith in regards to getting that "something".

Optimism could be dashed, whereas faith can never be dashed or aborted; it is ever living.

In faith, there is exitment as well as in optimism; whereas optimism hopes to possess, faith believes it has already possessed.

We often time confuse hope for faith. Faith is faith; hope is hope. They are often confused because both are closely related and are a thing of the heart ; as well as love.

Here is what makes faith and hope closely related, yet not the same. Faiths believes, yet hope believes too.

Yes, there is "belief" in hope.

Rom 4:18 Who against hope BELIEVED IN HOPE, that he MIGHT BECOME the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

Hope believes for the future. Faith believes now.

Abraham in this passage was in hope, not faith. For he believed God will do what He had promised him only in the future.

The phrases, "believed in hope" and "that he might become" shows that Abraham was hoping, believing to possess in the future. He was not in faith.

At this point he would never have received his son Isaac.

Whenever we are believing for something, but expecting it to happen in a future date, then we are operating in hope, not faith; and ee will fail to have them.

For example, the believer in Christ hopes to be clothed with a new body when he or she exit the earth. See? This is good. It is hope. It is a future thing promised to every believer at the coming of Christ.

Faith believes, but faith believes for the present, not the future.

The Two kinds of Faith

John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, BECAUSE THOU HAST SEEN ME, THOU HAST BELIEVED: blessed are they THAT HAVE NOT SEEN, and yet HAVE BELIEVED.

There is faith that believes only what it had seen or perceived to be feasible by the senses. And there is the faith that believes without seeing.

The one is human faith, that depends on visible information; physically tangible stuff. The other is God's faith- bible faith, that depends on invisible information ; spiritually tangible stuff.

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE THEM, and YE SHALL HAVE THEM.

Jesus in this verse is telling us that the Father expects us as His children when we pray to Him, to believe right there that we have received from Him whatever it is we have asked for. He expects us to receive it in faith before we see any physical manifestations of it.

Really there can be no physical manifestation without receiving by faith first in thanksgiving.

It is actually like this because He has already provided us with this things already even before we ask of Him but will only materialize when mixed with our faith; the faith of a human.

You see God is all powerful, and in all His splendor and power He gave man this earth, and if anything is to be achieved in this earth, it most flow through a living man. So God has the power but He in His mercies gave man the sole authority to use that power on earth.

This is why Jesus when He was on earth said His disciples should pray like this, "thy[the Father's] will be done in earth, as it is in heaven", mtt 6:9-13.

You see the Father's will will never be accomplished on earth without a man enforcing it in prayer; in faith. He gave us this privileges. This is why faith is very crucial for the believer here on earth.

But this faith requires one to believe what is foolish to natural men and women. It requires one to believe what is not real to the senses; contrary to human faith.

Faith that appeals to logic is not the faith the Bible teaches. Bible faith is impossible, it is not possible to natural man. It is supernatural and requires God's help. This is why Bible faith is not of man or by man, it is a gift of God to man.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves: IT[Faith, Grace] IS the gift of God:

It is evident that it takes the ability of God in man to walk by faith(Bible faith) and not by sight(human faith).