Now Faith Is...

Hello brothers and sisters!

I wanted to take a moment to share with you an awesome insight that I received on Hebrews 11:1-2 in recent days.

I was studying Hebrews 11, which is known as the “Hall of Faith” among many scholars. This chapter reminds the believers it was addressed to about the testimony of the giants in the faith from all of their ancient scriptures. The Lord highlighted to me the very first two verses, which say…

    “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. “ - Hebrews 11:1-2 NKJV

At first glance you may not catch what this verse is saying because the English translations do not express the underlying meaning of the original Greek language well.

Let me show you what I mean, But bear with me as I take a bit to expound on some of the words in this passage. I will pull it all together for you at the end.

If you take the word “substance” in this passage and look up it’s meaning in the original Greek you will find that it really was intended to convey ownership of something, just like a “Title Deed” conveys the fact that you own a piece of property. That deed declares that you are “Standing under agreement of ownership of a particular piece of property”, that you are literally standing under guaranteed title to the property, or under a guarantee of a promise of something.

The next one to look at is the word “hope”. In our modern culture we use the word hope much differently than they did in Bible times. In our day and culture we might reply to the question “Did you turn off the stove when you left the house?” with the statement “I hope so.”... and from that reply the person asking the question would get the sense that there is an element of doubt in the response, wouldn’t they? In Bible times this connotation to the the Greek word that is translated here as “hope” did not have that sense of doubt attached to it. It is the Greek word “ἐλπίζω – elpizo” and conveys the idea which is exactly the opposite. It conveys an absolute surety about the thing ‘hoped for’… a ‘confident expectation’ that whatever thing is ‘hoped for’ will definitely become a physical reality.

The word “evidence” here in this passage is intended to convey what we would call a very strong “Proof” or that thing by which invisible things are proved (and we are convinced of their reality).

Let’s assemble all of this into a cohesive understanding of what the author is saying in this particular passage. I think if you really let this sink in… and meditate on it… you will be extremely blessed and challenged by what it is saying.

Let's apply what we just learned about the passage and fill it in with our new understanding...

    “Moreover, (your) faith is the title deed and the guarantee of ownership of those things which you confidently expect to come to pass, it (your faith) is the proof and the thing which assures you that you already have those things even when you can’t yet see them.

    For by it (their faith) the elders obtained a good testimony. “ - Hebrews 11:1-2 NKJV

Did you catch that? Our faith should not be caught up in just wishing for something to come to pass and just hoping (with some doubt) that it might… our faith should be confidently expecting and visualizing the reality of the promises we know that we have from the Lord… what we are believing! And since faith is a verb, not a noun, we need to allow that confident expectation to govern how we act and think… we need to ACT like we are assured that we have those things even though they have not manifested into our physical realm of perception yet!

Oh man! This approach to walking by faith is absolutely opposite to what most are taught in this western Christianity today! I truly hope that you seek to understand and really apply this understanding to your walk today! It will revolutionize the way you interact with the things of this world… and it will completely eliminate many of the anxieties and stresses that you deal with daily!

Did you notice that last part of the passage above? “For by it (their faith) the elders obtained a good testimony.” I encourage you to read the rest of Hebrews 11. You will see firsthand what these real people accomplished on pure faith alone… and how their faith caused them to stand firm in the face of adversity, no matter what they saw in the natural realm! Because of their faith they saw amazing, supernatural things happen in their lives and those miraculous events gave them their good testimony!

How would you like to have a testimony like one of them? You can! If you practice the same kind of faith that they did!

There is so much more to harvest from this passage, but I think what we have covered here is big enough for now! I pray that the Lord would open the eyes of your understanding to the truth of this Word and that He would help you begin to practice walking in this faith today! We will talk more about this in subsequent articles and I hope you will tune in for more!

In His matchless love and mercy,

~The Viking