Believing/Faith Healing School July 31, 2023

(Knowledge/Understanding Revelation)

Insights into Why people believed Jesus, why some did not, why you cannot have eternal life without it, faith and believing, a spoken word and the written word, pride opposes the Word, fear and faith, faith for healing

Why people believed Jesus, why some did not

When the Son of Man burst into the public scene of life as an Israeli, not many knew Him except by the family He was in, or the trade of carpenter He engaged with. This seeming commoner with a lowly background soon would be asking people to believe in Him as One with the Almighty God, the creator of Heaven and earth. If His earthly mission was to be a success He would need many to believe in Him. Telling folks he is the one sent from God, the only begotten of the Father (His Father), and the Son of God, caused some to believe and some to be angry! It was mainly those who had position and power (that were angry)! Much of Jesus' follower base came initially from His cousin, John the Baptist, who called Him publicly the Lamb of God and the Son of God! So what did He do to convince His disciples and others that He was who He said He was? He put out a sign that said, "signs, wonders, and miracles to follow," and many saw the miracles and believed! John 2:23 "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did."

Wouldn't you know it, there was also a contingent of professional religious people, Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and theologians who were kind of like the modern news media, and felt it their duty to discredit this Jesus by arguing religion with Him. Their attempts failed miserably and more people kept coming to the outdoor revivals. Pretty soon the followers worshipped Him "the King who comes in the name of the Lord." Luke 19:38

So the religious crowd of a very large denomination, had a huge big fire to put out , after all they were losing control and many of their people defected to the Jesus Movement! This translated into anarchy and couldn’t be tolerated. All this over the Word "believe." Why all the commotion?

Let's take a look at the term "believe" and find out!

Websters definition believe, To credit upon the authority or testimony of another; to be persuaded of the truth of something upon the declaration of another, or upon evidence furnished by reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by other circumstances, than personal knowledge.

Strongs 539 O.T. - believe- to confirm or to support N.T. - Strongs 4100 to believe or entrust ( to give someone a thing or duty which they are responsible for) comes from 4102 faith, derived from 3982 persuade, or be persuaded.

86 times Jesus talked about believing God in the book of John. Want to know how to have a John the apostle experience with God? Listen and believe!

Why you cannot have eternal life without it

Another radical statement Jesus made to the Pharisee, Nicodemus was John 3:36 "He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him." Jesus also said that He is the Way, the Truth and the life and no one can get to see the Father except through Him. Did you ever think, "That Jesus sure is cut and dried?" No arguing with Him. He is the Son of God Almighty! Heaven and Earth exist because of Him. He was also God and wasn't about to lie!

Faith and Believing

Is there a difference between faith and believing? As described above, the Old Testament version means believe, to confirm or support. The NT is the same but believe is coming from the words faith and entrust (to give something over to another for care, protection or performance)

The short version is this. You can believe in Santa Clause. But you wouldn't and shouldn't say, "I am fully persuaded in Santa." When it comes to the Lord, we say we trust in Him. Never say that to Santa! Did you realize that Satan and Santa both use the same letters, only arranged differently! We never let Santa take credit for our kids Christmas presents! Just a thought. Happy Holidays.

Here is what happens in the English language that may bring some confusion. We interchange the usage of words and say something like, "You know what I mean?", "You catch my drift?" "You see what I'm saying?" Unless we define things we can easily fall into equating Words of God with slang or worse that don't represent things which are Holy.

Yes faith and believing are very similar in the Strongs as well as in Websters. So to become clear is to know what you are doing with your faith and believing God. We have to go to the scriptures to become more clear. Shall we?

It was by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God! Jesus commanded us to have faith in God. Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Galatians 3:11“the just shall live by faith.” Philippians 3 "not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ",James 5:15 "And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up." Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,"

Okay, so the bible can define its own terms and who knows better than the Word Himself, Jesus, as to what He means. 304 times in the New Testament faith was mentioned. 229 times believe was mentioned. These 2 terms are at face value synonymous definition wise. To believe, in my view is to mentally ascent to something stated in the bible. Ones' mind is usually the first to contact information presented to it as knowledge. The mind "mulls" it over, or slops it around, however you do it! We look for corroborating evidence to affirm this "knowledge" as true but we can accept evidence both ways depending on how we process things. Since we believe that God cannot lie we tend to believe the Word as written. What if the word definitions don't make sense? Ask yourself this: Does the Bible confirm or define it's usage of words in other scriptures or throughout the entire Bible? Yes is the appropriate short answer. Believing something in scripture at times is connected to seeing something happen and believing afterwards. Hmm opposite of faith. Mark 15:32 "Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe."

To characterize a word in scripture is legit if you are trying to understand it. In what context is it being used? Believing in general can change. Santa, for instance ceased being anything but a fairytale after age 4, the age of enlightenment.

So did you believe, "God so loved the world (me) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," (John 3:16) or did you put faith in it? Well if you simply agreed with the statement as truth, then you believed. But when you said I wish to be baptized and made an appointment, then something else came into play, known as faith or God inspired faith!

So faith has a spiritual origin and belief could be God inspired, or just mental agreement. 1Cor 12:9 identifies faith as a gift of the Holy Spirit given to people. If to believe in something is God inspired, then it will produce that type of outcome. Acts 4:4 However, many of those who heard the Word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. They believed and then joined the first church! Looks like believing and faith acted together being both God inspired. James 2:17 Says, "faith without works is dead." Is your belief dead in the water or is it alive through the action of faith? Believing comes first. Then faith inspired by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God joins believing, goes into an action of faith to produce the Word of God result. I had to treat this as a new paradigm to get it, so I hope you all got it too.

The Spoken and Written Word

2 Chronicles 20:20 "Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper."

Genesis 15:6 "And he, (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."

Psalm 78:21-23 21 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; 22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven

I see no difference in where the Word of God originated as to whether people believed or not. The word was first spoken and then written. We become responsible to it when we hear it. You may not act on it right away but at some point you will accept or reject it. I would think it's more difficult to believe a prophet just because you may not know him. In the Bible, God spoke directly to people, He spoke indirectly, as in a second party or a donkey, He had His word written by scribes and monks for all people in the ages ahead.

People have always responded to the truth in one way or another, Belief or unbelief (disbelief). Refusing to believe in God was usually after conscious thought, and will bring the person into damnation if they don't change.

We are in a so called enlightened age and there are many who are refusing to believe. There is an understanding that the Word of God has the power of God within to bring itself to pass… even the Word on a page! We can then, speak, talk, write, broadcast, demonstrate, and maybe sing the Gospel Truth so that others will have a better chance of believing and receiving whatever they need that it can supply. Psalm 116:10 I believed, therefore have I spoken.

Pride Opposes the Word

From the beginning of mankind, satan has opposed the truth of God's Word because of pride (a deadly sin). "It" even tried to oppose Jesus, the living Word of God by tempting Him. The thing you need to know is that all sin is of self and pride that stands behind it. If you feel you are being tempted to not believe the Word you can be sure of what is behind it. Temptation can undermine our believing God Luke 8:13"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away".

Take your God given authority over the unbelief, and pride then run it out of town! It has to bow to God's authority!

Fear and Faith

Fear is there because no faith is opposing it. You may have a questionable belief that hasn't progressed into faith, and the enemy is causing you fear to oppose that belief. Don't give in! Feed yourself a good dose of the Word you need and then start speaking it until Faith comes. You were born again a victor in Christ. You will overcome!

Faith for Healing

Remember God is on your side! He is with you wherever you go. Whatever the challenge, God's Word is the answer.

Isaiah 53:1-5 says, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm (force) of the Lord revealed?

2 For [the Servant of God, Jesus] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.

3 He was despised (with contempt) and rejected and forsaken( thrown away) by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.4 Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses, emotional pain of mind by loss, depression) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

Ex 4:31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

Matthew 8:13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the same hour.

Mark 9:23

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believes.

Mark 11:24

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them

Mark 16:17

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

John 11:40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God?