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.


If faith does not have or receive it now, whether it is manifest physically or not, it is not faith.

For instance, When a believer is sick and trying to receive his or her healing by faith saying, "By His stripes I am healed",and after this confession he or she still see themselves as sick, expecting to be healed maybe tomorrow or a later time, they are not acting in faith. There are only hoping. This is not faith.

Faith is "NOW".

If I confess, "by His stripes I am healed", believing that I have now received the healing whether I feel healed or not, the healing will manifest sooner or later. I am healed regardless of the physical symptoms that may still persist for a while, but no longer.

Not can stand against a believer in faith.

But if I see the healing happening on a later date, and not now, I will stay sick. I really should go get some medication beause I am not in faith.

Hope expects for it tomorrow. Faith wants and receives it now.

Abraham received Isaac when he switched from hope to faith as seen in this verse,

Rom 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body NOW dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:

Abraham shifted from, "that he might become" to "now".

He moved from believing in hope to believing in faith, which is now, now, now.

Faith is always now, now, now!

Faith is not wishful thinking.

You can wish all you want, but you will never receive anything from God by wishing.

God wishes for us to be healthy and prosperous,

3John 1:2 Beloved, I WISH above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

But we will never receive His Wishes for our lifes by wishful thinking or by wishing it in;we will do so only by faith.

God cannot Wish His desires on us any more than we can wish our desires on ourselves. If He does, He is violating man's will, and we know that He will never never do so. We would only recieve His Wishes for us by acting in faith, in line to the Wish.

Jas 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For LET NOT THAT MAN THINK THAT HE SHALL RECEIVE ANY THING OF THE LORD.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

We receive God's blessing, promises and Wishes for us only through faith.

You can get all excited all you want, bubbling with optimism and yet without faith.

Notice that the verse say, "let not that man THINK that he shall RECEIVE anything of the Lord". The problem is not with God giving, but with the man receiving.

The Lord is a giver, and would willingly give us all things we ask of Him. But the problem is with us; can we receive?

He wants to give, but we won't receive without faith.

Can we dare believe we have got the petitions we asked of Him after praying? John 5:14-15.

Faith is not optimism.
It is not mental accent or agreement.
Faith surely aint hope.
It is neither wishful thinking.

Faith is being fully persuaded that you have received now, the thing you've asked from God, demanded or commanded, whether you see it happen immediately or not.

Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE THEM, and ye shall have them.

So faith believes that it receives them now, and shall have them.

Where you blessed?

Confess This:I am the blessed of the Lord. I receive faith so as to receive all that has already been provided for me in Christ. My mind has been opened and my understanding illuminated with light, I therefore now walk in the newness of faith.