Source/Author: Dr Michael Dalseno

What is faith, and what isn't it? When the Lord speaks to us to make a faith step we should not hold back. But never act in presumption, and certainly never in unbelief.

FAITH: The Foundation of Christian Living

Dr D

The Christian life is one of faith. In fact it is a contradiction, or oxymoron, to say we are a believer and yet fail to live by faith. When the writer to the Hebrews penned “without faith it is impossible to please God” (11.6), he intended to impress upon the suffering Christians to whom he was writing that faith is the essence, the foundation, the worldview by which a believer lives. The writer achieves this by citing example after example of persons who lived by faith, from Abel to Abraham to Rahab (Hebrews Ch 11).

From this crucial chapter we also get to understand what faith is and what it isn’t, and we can achieve this by comparing faith, presumption, and unbelief.

        i.            FAITH is stepping out on what God has said

      ii.            PRESUMPTION is stepping out on what God has not said

    iii.            UNBELIEF is failing to step out on what God has said.

1. FAITH was supremely demonstrated in the episode of the Roman Centurion in Matthew Ch. 8 where we read that Jesus was ‘amazed’ with the faith response of the Centurion, claiming He had not seen such ‘great faith’ from anyone in Israel.

2. PRESUMPTION is very wonderfully illustrated in the closing verses of the classic Old Testament narrative following ‘the bad report’ (Numbers Ch 14). Here, some of the Israelites ‘presumed’ that God would give them victory and stepped out to attack the Amalekites and the Canaanites when not even Moses or the Ark of the covenant went with them.

3. UNBELIEF was the prevailing condition earlier in Numbers Ch 13 when 10 of the 12 spies said the task of taking Canaan was simply too tough, even impossible. Joshua and Caleb saw the ‘milk and honey,’ but the majority saw only ‘giants’ and ‘fortified cities.’

And then, of course, some of us don’t even know what to step out on and not what to step out on because we don’t take the time or space to sit before God, wait in His presence, join in prayer, or patiently listen to His voice.  If we don’t hear from the commander of the army or from the captain of the ship concerning what his orders or instructions are, everybody is going to be running around doing their own thing or doing what they consider is best; perhaps akin to the Book of Judges when ‘every man did what was right in his own eyes’ (Jud.21.25).

Today, as we worship God and sit in His presence, let us be people who move forward in FAITH, not PRESUMING or assuming God is going to do something which He never said, and especially not holding back in UNBELIEF when He clearly says to move forward. This applies to us individually as well as to our ‘community,’ the local church. Faith can ‘move mountains’ (Mk.11.23) if we know what the mountain is, and to not hold back from moving the mountain when God says it is time.