How You Can Obtain Strong Faith

 By Tom Brown

An old woman in her eighties gave birth to a child as a result of the prayers and faith of her husband. Her name: Sarah. Her husband was Abraham. Their incredible story is told in the Bible.

The reason God performed this amazing miracle was because Abraham had “strong faith” (see Romans 4:20). God will do almost anything for the person who has strong faith.

All you ever need in life is in heaven. Heaven is the treasure chest that contains all the blessings you need for successful living. And faith is the key that unlocks the storehouse of heaven. Jesus often mentioned “little faith” and “great faith.” When He saw great faith in people’s lives, then He would help them. If you want God to help you, Jesus must see great faith in your life.

If you will possess strong faith, God will heal you, prosper you and bless you in every way. You may admire certain saints and wish that you could have the strong faith that they had. Isn’t it time you quit wishing and started to do what these strong, faith-filled Christians did to get their strong faith?

A diamond is the strongest mineral in the earth. It is strong because it is nearly pure carbon. Yet graphite is also carbon, but why is the diamond strong while graphite is soft and rubbery. It’s because in a diamond the carbon atoms form and bond differently than in graphite. Same substance, but strong or weak forces between the carbons cause either the carbon to be diamonds or graphite.  The same is with our faith, if we allow certain truths (carbon) to bond strongly in our lives, our faith will become strong. Other wise if we hear the truths of the Word but do not allow the truths to bond into our spirits, then our faith will become soft and weak. God wants your faith to be pure and strong like a diamond, not weak like graphite. Pure faith is strong faith!

Strong faith comes by combining several spiritual ingredients. These ingredients come in the form of spiritual realities that you must know are absolutely true. Getting a revelation of these truths will make your faith strong.

THE REALITY OF GOD’S WORD

The most important ingredient for obtaining strong faith is this: You must know the reality of God’s Word. You must be convinced that the Bible is God speaking to you today.

2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed…” Not just some Scripture…all Scripture. One of Satan’s favorite tactics in order to destroy the believer’s faith in God’s Word is to convince him that certain promises that God made are not for him.

Religionists often say, “We know that God promised this, but that promise is not for us.” I’ve heard many well-known preachers try to talk Christians out of believing that healing is in the atonement, even though Matthew 8:17 says, “[Jesus] took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”

They deceptively teach, “The only infirmities that Jesus took away were for the people in Jesus’ day, not for our day. Jesus did take up their infirmities, but not our infirmities.” Yet the Bible says that He took up OUR infirmities and diseases. Not just THEIRS. “Ours” includes “us” as well. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Whenever the devil tells you that a certain promise that God has made is not meant for you, remember this Bible verse: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ…” (II Corinthians 1:20). Notice this. No matter how many promises God has made, they belong to you. You are not excluded from any of God’s promises!

SPIRITUALIZING THE BIBLE

Satan has a backup plan, just in case he can’t convince you that a promise is not meant for you. His other tactic is to spiritualize the promises of God. He will come to you and say, “Yes, God did promise that to you, but He really did not mean exactly what He said. You are misunderstanding God by taking Him literally. You need to learn to interpret God’s promises spiritually, not literally.”

Let me show you how Satan does this. The Bible says in II Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” This scripture explains the reason why Jesus became poor. He became poor so that we might become rich. But the devil will come–sometimes through preachers!–and say, “Yes, Jesus became poor so that you might become rich SPIRITUALLY, not materially.” You see how we often mistakenly spiritualize God’s promises.

I find it interesting that people will use this verse to prove that Jesus was poor materially. Yet when they try to explain why He became poor, they say it was so that we can become spiritually rich. This doesn’t make sense! Since the word “poor” means “materially and financially poor”, the word “rich” should mean the same thing– “materially and financially rich.”

This scripture promises the believers material and financial riches!

Someone may argue and say, “You’re taking the Bible out of context!” No, I’m not. The context of this verse is concerns money and giving. Read it yourself. It is true that some verses of the Bible must be taken spiritually, rather than literally, such as the beast with ten heads in Revelation. But where the context is dealing with practical matters, we should interpret the scripture in a strict sense. This is true concerning II Corinthians 8:9.

TRADITION VERSES GOD’S WORD

The other tactic the devil uses to destroy your faith in God’s Word is to use tradition to contradict God’s Word. Tradition is probably Satan’s most powerful tool.

Jesus said to the religious leaders of His time, “You nullify the word of God by your tradition…” (Mark 7:13). It is amazing that people would rather believe in their traditions rather than believe in God’s Word. Yet they do!

Tradition is Satan’s most powerful tool because tradition does not need any facts. This makes it hard to fight against. It doesn’t matter how many verses of scripture you show some people, they are not going to believe the Bible as long as tradition says something else. They don’t care about facts.

They will argue, “I don’t care what the Bible says! This is what I have been taught!” They never consider that the teachings may have been wrong.

Most people are like the newlywed bride who was proud to cook her first pot roast for her husband. She took out the defrosted roast and cut off the two ends before placing it in the oven. Her husband asked, “Honey, why do you cut off the two ends?”

She answered, “That’s how my mother did it.”

“But, why?”

She scratched her head, “Well, I don’t know why. She must have had a good reason.”

Out of curiosity, they called the mother and asked her why she cut the ends of the roast. The mother answered, “That’s the way my mother cooks it.”

So they called the grandmother and asked why she cut off the ends of the roast.

She answered, “Because my cooking pan is too small.”

Are you like this new bride, believing and doing things just because that is the way others believed and acted?

The only way you can win over the traditional ideas you may have is to be teachable. You must be willing to reject tradition when you see that God’s Word says something different. This takes humility!

Accept God’s Word as speaking to you today, and your faith will become stronger.

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