Belief is a Requirement of Faith

I know, this sounds so obvious right? But I wonder if we believe as much as we think we do. To believe is defined as having confidence in the truth, existence or reliability of something.

If my brother called me and told me he was flying into Ft. Lauderdale airport tomorrow @ 5pm and needed me to pick him up, I would be there because I believe he is coming. If I believe there is going to be a downpour of rain tonight and I know I have a long walk from my car to my front door, I will remember to keep an umbrella in the car especially for tonight. The fact of the matter is simple; when we believe we act accordingly. If we do not act according to what we believe, we really don’t believe as much as we think we do; instead we merely accept it as possible but without any real conviction.

This is a big pitfall in our faith because possibility without conviction causes us to be passive, while belief because of conviction pushes us to be active. We already know that the Bible says in James 2:17 that faith without works is dead, but not just any kind of ‘works’ will do; it must be works corresponding to what you believe. If you think about it, it would benefit nothing if I decided to pick my brother up from Miami Airport even though he told me he was flying into Ft. Lauderdale. My belief could be misguided if I wasn’t listening properly.

This is why spiritual discernment is so important to living a victorious life of faith. The greatest example for understanding spiritual discernment is Jesus Christ Himself. He made one simple statement over and over. “I only do what I see My Father do.” So before Jesus could “do” anything, He had to see and believe that it was from His father first. Jesus had the mind of God, therefore God’s thoughts could flow through Jesus even while He was on earth in the flesh. This is why we pray Philippians 2:5 which says, “let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.”

As I close, I just want to say that having the mind of Christ strengthens our faith because we now have an assurance that the thoughts we are believing are actually the thoughts of Jesus Himself. In addition to this, I again encourage us to move past accepting what is possible, to believing it with conviction and acting accordingly. It is then that we will be able to say, “I only do what I see my Father do.”