The Substance of Faith: Faith Is the Means of Transferring the Promises of God Into Your Heart.

By Dave Lombardi and Dr. M. Dana Gammill

Faith liberates, fear incarcerates. Faith focuses, fear distracts. Faith advances, fear retreats. Faith imagines what could be, while fear is paralyzed by the thought of the future. Faith is a substance that requires an action. When faith is fully activated in your life, you will have access to all you need to accomplish your God-given assignment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9780996653640

Book preview

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Introduction

We all have heard or read volumes on the subject of faith. Conventions and seminars are held around the country, where for a large sum of money, thousands of people flock to each year. They are for the most part centered around positive awareness, magnetic attraction or on how to improve your sales technique. While many swear to the benefits of such meetings, for the Christian there is a quintessential biblical premise that is sagaciously designed especially for us. Hebrews 11:1.

The reason it is difficult to develop biblical faith is that biblical faith runs head on into human logic. The Bible warns that the natural carnal mind is at enmity with God Romans 8:7.

It is not that faith is illogical, but rather human logic, unaffected by scripture, is based upon convoluted information and therefore becomes contaminated. Juxtaposed to contaminated human logic is pristine biblical logic untainted by fallible human misinformation.

When this principle is applied to spiritual truth, biblical faith is imperative in order to derive success in downloading God’s promises into our lives. Hebrews 11:6 unequivocally states that without biblical faith it is absolutely impossible to access biblical promises.

Many Christians are not cashing in on God’s promises to them simply because they either are ignorant of them or they have never learned how to access them.

I will do my best in this book to enlighten you as to how to develop biblical faith, enabling you to avail yourself to God’s promises.

I pray that God will assist you in solving this menacing challenge and that your faith level will soar to new spiritual heights, resulting in success in having your prayers answered.

Sincerely,

Brother Dave

What is Faith?

The title of this book is The Substance of Faith because if you don’t get this basic concept, you’ll never understand faith. Faith isn’t only about salvation; everything comes by faith.

Let’s go to Hebrews 11:1. That will be our place of beginning. As you know, that’s called the faith chapter. It’s a powerful portion of scripture that is sometimes called the Book of Heroes because of how they’re described as making it through many difficult challenges.

Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, and that’s what makes faith different from anything else you know. Within these pages will be a quintessential study of the paragon dynamism. You can refer to it as the dynamism of faith. It will deal with this impervious truth.

Faith is impervious because, without the Word of God, it won’t work. You can’t erase it. These are basic principles of this life-changing phenomenon and in order to avoid being vacuous (empty-headed) on the matter of faith, we must acquiesce, or give into, the intended benefits God promised us. We must be prudent and appropriate them by faith.

This faith is the means of transference. For example, if I transfer a sofa from my house to a condominium, I’ve moved it from one place to another. We think of God as being faithful. He makes the promise and keeps it! It’s all about Him and His promises to us.

The second thing is how you feel about one place as compared to another. God doesn’t force Himself on you. So, approbation relates to sanctioning something. In other words, God’s Word is true whether you believe it or not. If you want to go to hell, that’s your choice. I don’t mean to be insensitive about where you’re going to spend eternity because I’m trusting you’re going to spend it in heaven.

You can see that it’s plain what God is trying to get us to do, so it’s up to us whether or not we’re going to accept. Acts 16:31 says, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. This has to be approbated (or sanctioned). That doesn’t mean that you make it right, as it’s already right. You sanction it or allow it to impact your life. That’s an amazing truth.

I would underline the scripture that says, Faith is the means of transferring or approbating the promises of God. You’re transferring His promises from the biblical reality. They’re already a reality in the Word of God, but if you’re going to get them into an empirical experience, you’re going to experience it personally. It will have to be transferred from the Word of God into your heart. It will affect your life.

Now, let’s look at this beautiful word that we found in Hebrews 11 that we’re going to exegete, or explain. Today, all that means is that we’re going to break it apart and examine it closely. In this case, the original Greek language is where this first appeared. Many would be surprised to learn that the Old King James isn’t the original translation of the Bible. It’s a translation, but not the original one.

I can’t read Greek, but what I can do is get help by going into the interlineal and getting the transliteration. Simply worded, the Greek is transliterated into the English language so that you can learn how to say it in order to squeeze all of the morsels and droplets of blessing that God gives you in the scriptures.

The amplified, or interlineal, version of Hebrews 11:1, is the one we’ll exegete. I just go online and ask for the scripture I need, and it will take me there. Plus, it’s free. I can see the original Greek transliterated into the English. I can see the meaning and all of the different twenty-six transliterations. That’s why the Bible says to study to show thyself approved. I read the Bible two ways: for entertainment and for edification.

Now, when I say entertainment, I mean spiritual entertainment after asking God to show me passages that speak to my heart. Generally speaking, I’m just reading it to be blessed by the Word, but when I study it, I break it apart and examine it. I don’t have my own agenda.

You ask, Brother Dave, what is your agenda? The last time I tried to look for an agenda, I couldn’t find any. I just have the Bible. I do the best I can to present it as truthfully as I can. This method breaks the message down in nuances that you can’t get by reading the original King James or New King James versions alone.

Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed, of the things we hope for being the proof of things we don’t see, and the conviction of their reality. It’s faith perceived as real fact of what isn’t revealed to the senses." That is profound truth. If you don’t understand biblical faith, you don’t get that. Faith is faith. The amplified version says that faith is the assurance that we have right away. In the New King James, we learn that faith is the substance we have right away. It isn’t some whimsical notion that comes and goes with the wind. You can always see the action that comes from having faith. We can’t see faith itself. It’s an abstract noun.

Again, when you look at this idea closely, there is a word for faith: hupostasis in the Greek. It implies the assurance that faith isn’t only a noun but also an action. In other words, faith is both a fact (noun) and an act (verb). Without works, faith without works is dead.

For example, imagine that as a born-again believer, you can trust God when you ask Him for something that’s within His Will. How do you know what His Will is? By simply being knowledgeable of His Word. It isn’t His Will to allow you to own a casino, to bet, or to pray, Lord, help me win the lottery. But the assurance that comes with faith is like holding the title to my car. Having it means it’s my car. I hold a copy of the title from the bank that loaned me the money to buy the car. When I finish paying for it, then I have the title deed that proves its mine.

Now imagine being able to have that kind of confirmation ahead of time before you receive something. It’s like a man who was so eager for a new car that, even though he didn’t have the money to buy it, he wanted to prove his faith. So, he got the hose and turned on the water.

The neighbors, curious at his actions, asked, What in God’s name are you doing?

I’m washing my car, he responded with confidence.

They look around, confused. Are you kidding me? There’s no car there!

I know, but there will be, he said with a smile.

There will be! Praise God! Even though that might be a childish way to explain faith, that’s exactly the way it works. Faith is the things we hope for now. Remember there is a difference between hope and faith. Hope is like dreaming. Faith has to be tied with hope because faith puts legs on that dream, that aspiration, that desire that you have so it’s the title deed of the things we hope for being the proof.

For you, faith is perceiving as a real fact what isn’t revealed to the senses. That is why it’s difficult and why only a few believers truly understand biblical faith instead of merely applying positive thinking. Perceiving as real that which has not been revealed to the senses means that you can’t see it, touch it, or feel it. Yet, in that faith eye, you have seen the substance of faith.

Faith has to replace what you see. You need to believe what the Bible says is faith. So, you’re hoping for healing but don’t have it yet, but in my faith life, I have two sets of eyes: physical eyes that show me that what I actually see, and spiritual eyes that say, Don’t you worry about what it looks like. Walk by faith.

Oh, Hallelujah! I have to allow faith to heal. I have to allow faith to see my bills being paid. I have to have faith. I don’t look at the fact that my business is going down because of dwindling sales. It’s obvious because it’s right there in the books. I look at faith. Faith is the proof of things we don’t see. I have proof in my heart. It’s mine.

Are you understanding this? I’m trying my best to help you.

The conviction of the reality is that I have faith, that I’m perceiving as real fact that faith has taken the place of my pain. That faith has taken the place of that bad report I got from that doctor who told me my test results. My faith has taken the place of my empty bank account. My faith has taken the place of my hopelessness and helplessness, not knowing which way to turn.

My faith begins to perceive something that others can’t see or might think are foolish. I can’t worry about what they see. I can’t worry about their logic and their experiences and someone they knew who tried that but said it didn’t work. I don’t care what they know, what they did, or what they said. I know only one thing: the Bible is true. It doesn’t matter how many people say it’s not. It will work if we let it work in the name of God.

Look at the man who can hardly walk, claiming he has divine health when he is so miserable with pain. The doctor told him that there was no pain pill that would take care of his pain.

Have you heard people say, I’ve tried everything; my Lord, I tried Percocet, but it made me see people who weren’t there.

Then Vicodin will help you, the doctor suggested. So you try Vicodin. One lady took ten Vicodin a day. She reported that she got up at one in the morning and cleaned her whole house in fifteen minutes.

Then the doctor said, Okay, I’ll give you Oxycontin.

I don’t know what Oxycontin is, but people take it. There are some things pain pills won’t help. There are some things in life that strangle you until you feel you’re going under. You have heard those good things in the church, but my Lord, it doesn’t seem as though they’re working. But there is something inside you. God has sown some seeds in you that are starting to grow. You may be one of those people of little faith.

But, oh! you say. I’m aspiring for some big faith. I’m not where I’m going to be, but I’m on my way. Hallelujah! I will be able to see faith obstacles with my own eyeballs, and even though I see what I do, I’m going to look beyond what I see. I’m going to see something in the spirit, and I’m going to believe that faith has taken the place of my weakness, financial need, and marital problems.

Notice, please, that there is a present-tense word on either side of the word faith. How many remember their dad saying, Come here now. He didn’t mean next week. If your mom said, Get over here now, you know she didn’t mean after a while. Now is a present- tense word. That makes faith, which is a both a noun and a verb, a fact and an act. Faith means right now.

Faith takes the place of your sickness, disease, trouble, sorrow, confusion, financial lack, or whatever else it happens to be. You’re not living on what is happening because you’re a man or a woman of faith. You’re looking at that scripture that tells us that now faith is so, even though you don’t have the evidence. It’s the proof of things we don’t see. What is that proof? The proof is in my heart. I know if God said it, then there can be no debate about it. He means what He says, and He will do what He promised.

If it’s not working, take another look. Start digging. Faith is biblical. It’s always now, or it’s not faith because if you can already pay your bills, then you don’t need faith for that. If you’re well, you don’t need faith to stop a headache you don’t have. Do you see what I mean? Faith is inactive when it isn’t needed. But faith steps into the place of what is good when you’re going through something bad.

Faith is always now while hope is future. See the difference? Hope and faith are twins. Each one plays a different role. If you don’t have a dream, there is nothing for which to have faith. If you don’t have a hope or an aspiration, if you don’t have something to pray about, then you know you can pray generic prayers. But most of us pray specific prayers. God, I have a test to take; I have a payment to make.

Lord, I have to go back for blood work because the doctor can’t figure it out.

You go to the doctor and ask, What do you think it is, Doc?

I don’t know, but it’s not good.

Now, that’s a doctor you don’t want.

Hope is a future, a dream upon which we base our faith. Faith is perceiving real fact of what is not revealed to the senses. Hope always looks to what God is going to do in the future. It has a different commodity to it. It’s not just hoping that something happens. Faith says it happened.

Faith is washing the car in the driveway before you buy it. Listen to the Word. If I’m off, then the Word is not saying what it says because I’m just seeing what it says. Hope is always looking at what God is going to do in the future. Faith accepts that it has happened. Faith is perceiving a real fact as something you can’t see.

The promises of God have already been written. Don’t think God is going to write something new just for you. If you want something new, you’ll have to go to the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons or Mary Baker Eddy and her Christian Scientists. I have no traditions. I have no agenda. All I know is what the Bible says, and that’s good enough for me. The promises of God have already been written.

I don’t need some other tradition. I don’t need someone else’s opinion. I don’t need your new revelation. I have the truth, and the Bible says the truth shall make me free.

Paul talks about being brought into Christ by faith. That’s why I say that without faith, you can’t get anything from Christ. Entering into His promises is by faith.

If it were not for the blood of Jesus Christ, it means nothing. A person trying to overcome an addiction by himself or herself find it almost impossible…He or she may have overcome it by sheer willpower but when we try to overcome it on our own, we feel helpless.

What we need to boast in is the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross for the remission of our sins. Then He can wash them away and make us clean. It’s not by our merits. It’s by faith in God’s grace. Faith grabs us when our faith is strong. It grabs the power of God and His promise and puts it in our spirits. Then we can stand up and say the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

Next, let us look at Romans 8:6. When people are carnally minded, they judge me on the basis of logic. They base their logic on what seems true to them. Being carnally minded is death because we don’t see things as clearly as we should. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. There is a dichotomy between the two, according to Romans 8:6-7. The carnal mind is at enmity against God. It’s not subject to the law of God nor can it be.

Those who are in the flesh can’t please God. I don’t care how smart you are. I don’t care how good-looking you are. I