The Purpose & Power Of Writing: Faith According As It Is Written
Study The Word
2 Corinthians 4:13
“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.“
Mark 11:22-23
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God (Note: the faith of God). 23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Romans 10:8-10
“The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Over the years I had the opportunity by the grace of God to pursue, research and study every faith message as I could get my hands on, reading almost every faith book I could find, and listening to as many faith teachers and faith teachings for years, because my desire was to please God. I had read that without faith it is impossible to please God; so this clearly is a serious requirement in having a relationship with God. So I was relentless in trying to understand what this faith thing is.
πιστεύω pisteuō believe – to think to be true, believe, believed
I learnt so many beautiful things but in my spirit I still had a nudge that there was more; so I was never really satisfied with all the beautiful things I had been learning from the many books and teachings I was studying on the subject; so I kept asking the Holy Spirit questions particularly – I wanted to know what the Spirit of God defined faith to be. And then the day came and I was directed to where? – the Written Word – the scriptures. The spirit of faith is according as it is written.
I have devotional that I shared some weeks back titled “The Holy Spirit: The Author Of The Scriptures”. The Spirit of God directed me back to the scriptures and this time with one determination: forget everything that I thought or heard before and focus on seeing what the Spirit of God had actually had Written there. What I discovered changed everything! When I looked at 2 Corinthians 4:13, certain words leaped out the pages: “spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, therefore speak;” and presenting to us the complete order of the spirit of faith: write, believe, speak.
The spirit of faith starts with writing! It says “according as it is written”—so the spirit of faith has its foundation in writing. But notice the progression: first it’s written being transferred from the spirit realm into the physical world, then it becomes belief by being read and being accepted as true in your heart, and finally faith manifests when you speak it!
ῥῆμα rhema word – spoken word, vocalized logos, the word when it is spoken
Here’s what revolutionized my understanding: Paul clearly distinguishes between two different words, believe-pistueo and faith-pistis; and that is—pistueo has to do with the word in your mind which is the Word in your heart. And then there’s pistis which has to do with persuading with your mouth; which is the Word in your mouth – persuasion. The dormant Word in your heart, dwells in your heart as belief. It will not become faith until it is spoken.
The Lord Jesus teaching on faith said faith starts when you “..say unto this mountain”! In His differentiating between the word in your heart and the word that you “say with you mouth” in Mark 11 said “shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe”; Apostle Paul’s teaching of faith corresponds in Romans 10 as he said “shalt believe in thine heart”. This means that believing and doubt is a function of the heart.
And faith is a function of your mouth.
Look at how Paul explained it: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus”—that’s the word in your mouth, that’s faith-pistis. “And shalt believe in thine heart”—that’s the word in your heart, that’s belief-pistueo.
Then he says: “For with the heart man believeth… and with the mouth confession is made.”
Without speaking, what you have is either belief in your heart or doubt in your heart, but there is no faith yet! Faith starts when you speak, and faith stops when you stop speaking. The Word of God that you have memorized, that you have written down or in written form and have accepted to be true, and that you think about now and again—when it’s in your heart, in your mind, the Word resides there as belief. But the moment you open your mouth and begin to speak that word, that’s where faith begins!
πίστις pistis faith – persuasion, assurance, persuaded, spoken persuasion,
This is why when you study the miracles of Jesus you’d discover that they all involved Words. There is no miracle that Jesus performed that did not involve speaking! Either Jesus would be the one to speak, or if it was a miracle that someone received, you discover that the recipient had spoken the word to receive their miracle. As you study them you’ll discover the Lord Jesus speaking: “Peace be still.” “Rise up and walk.” “Stretch forth thy hand.” “Be thou cleansed.” Every single one! And when it was someone else’s faith, it was always based on what that person said, not what they did.
This is how the written Word describes faith; and you can see how faith is the spoken word. That’s the clearest definition scripture gives us. When there’s no speaking, there is no faith. Faith comes by hearing, and there can be no hearing unless there has been some speaking! It is not by not by seeing, it’s power is not by mere observation—the power of faith is by confession. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God;” (Romans 10:18) and you can only hear something that has been vocalized, something that has a voice. From the Word vocalized can one be persuaded – pistis – faith! This is faith as defined by the scripture, what I call: The faith of the Word of God.
And from this understanding, we can now see how this works with writing. And now we can now move on to see how faith works also with the name of Yeshua.
Pray The Word
Heavenly Father, I thank You for this revelation of faith as the spoken word. I understand now that faith starts with writing Your word, becomes belief in my heart, and manifests as faith when I speak it. Help me to be consistent in speaking Your word over every situation in my life, knowing that faith only operates through the spoken word, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Speak The Word
Faith is the spoken word! I speak God’s word with authority and power! What I have written becomes belief in my heart, and what I speak from my heart becomes faith that moves mountains! I am not silent in the face of challenges—I speak God’s word! My faith is activated through my voice, and every word I speak in alignment with God’s will produces supernatural results. Faith speaks, and I speak faith!