Aggressive Faith.

Rom_1:17…The just shall live by faith.

Aggressive Faith. Real Faith. Living Faith. True Faith.

Surely you all know what I mean. Emphasizing - aggressive, real, living, true because there is passive faith, unreal faith, dead faith, and false faith, yet it is still called faith.

Living faith or dead faith, which do you have? Perhaps you're thinking you have a faith that is half living, half dead- do you know what that really is? Dead faith in disguise. Half-hearted faith is not living faith. New faith, now there's a thing that is very real and in its newness it can hold the qualities of being weaker than a tried and true, aged faith. A new, weak faith is not at all half living, it is fully alive but it is a baby in need of sustenance to grow.  Maybe your seemingly half-faith is a baby faith and if so, praise God because you know you need to grow in faith and you aren't content to live with the pretense of faith never intending it to become aggressive and real, a way of life faith.

Faith grows.

2Th 1:3 .. your faith groweth exceedingly

How faith grows.

Rom 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

1Pe 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby

Help from the Lord.

Luk 17:5  And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 

Mar 9:24 Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith

Faith is…

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

A fiery faith is believing, hoping without seeing, hoping without an explanation based on the tangible. Faith is the SUBSTANCE. 

Substance… (Dict. Def) matter or material, physical reality able to be touched, real-practical value, importance, wealth in the form or money or possessions, the essential meaning of something said or written, philosophy - something that is individual and caused

Webster's -

Substance

SUB'STANCE, n. [L. substantia, substo; sub and sto, to stand.]

1. In a general sense, being; something existing by itself; that which really is or exists; equally applicable to matter or spirit. Thus the soul of man is called an immaterial substance, a cogitative substance, a substance endued with thought. We say, a stone is a hard substance, tallow is a soft substance.

2. That which supports accidents.

That which subsists by itself is called substance; that which subsists in and by another, is called a mode or manner of being.

3. The essential part; the main or material part. In this epitome, we have the substance of the whole book.

This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.

4. Something real, not imaginary; something solid, not empty.

Heroic virtue did his actions guide,

And he the substance, not th' appearance chose.

5. Body; corporeal nature or matter.

The qualities of plants are more various than those of animal substances.

6. Goods; estate; means of living. Job's substance was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, &c. Job 1.

We are--exhausting our substance, but not for our own interest.

FAITH is the substance-  the REALITY of THINGS HOPED FOR- THINGS we can't see.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- You CAN'T see the air you breath, you know it exists. You CAN'T see love- but rather the results of love- a look, an act. You can't see tomorrow, it exists as today proves yesterday's tomorrow is today. 

HOPING for the KINGDOM OF GOD, it is REAL and it will be revealed in time. The water set to boil hasn't boiled yet, we know it will, we have faith that the fire beneath the water will continue to burn to heat the water to that point of boiling. Until the water actually boils as we suspect it is going to, it's not boiling. If the fire was snuffed out by some unexpected means, that water would not boil. Our surety of it boiling is based on a set of circumstance to get it to the boiling point. You may say that we've all seen water boil but we haven't all seen heaven and you'd be right. But some of us have seen heaven. Jesus Himself saw heaven, John the apostles saw heaven, these have seen heaven it is real.  Now you say it is just hearsay so you can't be sure it's real unless you yourself can see it and touch it and then you'd believe. That is NOT faith.  Faith is the reality of the kingdom of heaven without seeing it. Faith is believing the love of my husband will continue on through tomorrow. Faith is believing a friend will be there when they say they will. You are hoping in the reality of those things happening in the future without knowing they will. You are having faith in another person. You can have faith in a plan to work out according to its details. You are believing in something unproven, unrealized. The substance of your hope in the unseen is there.  EXTENDING that same faith towards the Kingdom of Heaven, towards God, towards Jesus, towards the Holy Spirit is believing in the unseen by us personally… and TIME will reveal the faith to be realized.  Just as time reveals the faith I had in my husband's love for me to have that love today has come to pass, he loves me today, my faith has been realized. And if that love continues that faith will continue to be realized. In time the plan I have faith in will come to pass and if my plans works my faith was realized. If my plan fails then the faith did not meet the realization. It didn't keep me from having the faith until the expectation came to pass.  Having faith in the Kingdom of Heaven lets the hope live for the reality to come and it will come to pass.

Faith. Living by faith.

Living for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Living for God.

'We can meet this successfully only by the exercise of an aggressive faith.

We must offer all our acts to God and believe that He accepts them.

Then hold firmly to that position and keep insisting that every act of every hour of the day and night be reminding God in our times of private prayer that we mean every act for His glory; then supplement those times by a thousand thought-prayers as we go about the job of living.

Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration.

Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there.'

A.W. Tozer

Faith- making God a reality in all we do! This faith is the Kingdom of Heaven faith. Faith that as that faith meets the reality and the two are merged into one the transition is one of complete and utter joy beyond our ability to truly comprehend.