The Stuff of Faith

Faith is substance. Hebrews 12 says so. In fact, it uses nouns to describe the essence of faith. In other words, it’s not a verb. The verb part of faith (the action part) is belief. I can have faith that God can heal me, but if I don’t take action – the verb part of the equation – I may not see the results I’m looking for.

If faith is stuff, then we might be interested to know more about this “stuff” of faith. I discuss this in my book in the chapter entitled “The Power of Faith.”

Think about it this way…

If God created everything that exists, including all of the seen and the unseen (“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible,” Colossians 1:16) then everything that has been created – including the stuff of faith itself – is part of His character, breathed into existence at the creation of the universe by His mind and will. So faith, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” is as real and tangible as the chair I am sitting on, and it’s holy, infused with God Himself.

So if you’re a disciple of Jesus, you already have the same faith that Jesus told you could move mountains. So why don’t we all see mountains moved every day?

I think it might have something to do with getting plugged into this same eternal, omnipotent force that pervades the entire cosmos, visible and invisible. If God’s presence is everywhere (Psalm 139), then so is His miracle-working power and His faith. In the passage in Mark where Jesus implores us to “have faith in God,” some commentators have said it’s more accurate to read the translation as “Have the faith of God.” Doesn’t that take the pressure off? It’s not about what you do, it’s about what you believe! It’s there, just take some! “Have the faith of God.”

If God’s presence permeates the entire universe, and by association every aspect of your life, visible or invisible, then His faith does also. And if God’s faith – which must be an awesome and perfect faith, capable of moving your mountains – is freely available to us, then it’s available to us any time we need it and in whatever quantity suits the task. It’s not a verb, which means it’s not something I have to DO. It’s something I ALREADY HAVE and can act on it at will. Isn’t this consistent with the whole message of salvation being a gift and not something you can work out on your own?

Paul called the Galatians foolish because they thought, although the gift of salvation was a free gift, that the act of becoming more like Jesus was an act of their own effort (Galatians 3:3). No, he says, the “working it out” part of faith is just as much a gift as the initial gift of salvation. In other words, you’ve already got it! Just act on it!

Now, as with many promises in the Bible, there are some conditions. God’s love is unconditional, but His provisions are often quite conditional. But it’s not conditioned on our working: it depends upon our belief. If you have inherited ten million dollars from a rich uncle, but you don’t know it, then you can’t act on it. If you do know that you’ve inherited a fortune but you don’t have the bank account numbers, you can’t make withdrawals. God is telling us that just as much as our gift of salvation was a free gift, ours for the asking, so is the substance of faith if we’ll just accept it. Then we can make withdrawals any time we want.

We don’t have to try to muster up a huge faith. The point Jesus was making when He told his disciples about a mustard-seed faith is that even if you have a tiny bit of faith that’s enough, because it’s not about the faith. All the faith you need is there under your nose for the taking. It’s about in Whom your faith rests.

Yet we don’t see the results we want. I think that’s because Jesus does not want to hand this stuff out freely unless He can trust us to deal with it properly. He first wants a relationship with you. That’s really what it all boils down to. All of the gifts, provisions and love of God that He wants to pour into your life is to cause you to come close to Him. It’s that simple. “All the law and the prophets,” Jesus said, boils down to “Love God and love your neighbor.” That’s all He really wants. Love God, love others, and this will plug you into the power source – into the wall outlet – that is God’s amazing and limitless faith.

Then you’ll be able to move your mountains!