About

Facets of Fruit: Faith Is it faithfulness or faith? Is there a differences? We'll do a little Greek study and then learn why this facet of the Fruit of the Spirit is more important than any other, how we can cultivate it in our lives, and how it's relevant to our world-wide situation today. Show Notes: Welcome back to More than Milk. I’m Hannah Rebekah. I started this episode back in the fall, but I had a serious case of writer’s block. I wrote about half the episode and just couldn’t get it finished. So I benched it for a few months. But now this pandemic has given me both the time and a little relevant material to finish it. I plan to get back on track and do an episode every other week or more. We’ll see how that goes! As you may or may not remember, we were in the middle of a series on the Fruit of the Spirit. Today we’re looking at the facet of the Fruit of the Spirit known as faith or faithfulness. Here we have another translation oddity. This is not the normal Greek word translated as English ‘faithfulness.’ It’s the word most often translated as ‘faith.’ Even though faith is the English root word for faithfulness, they’ve come to mean very different things. Faith means having trust or belief, whereas faithfulness means being worthy of trust or belief. I think both could be listed with the Fruit of the Spirit, but only one of them actually is. So what is faith? The Greek word is pistis, and it means to persuade or be persuaded. We know that biblical faith, like every other facet of the Fruit of the Spirit, is Holy Spirit given. So to have faith is to be persuaded by the Spirit that what God says is true and worthwhile. The result of having this facet of the fruit of the Spirit in its fullness would be a life lived the way God requires. Because like we talked about back in January, we always live what we believe. So if we are believing and being persuaded that God’s way is best, we will live like that is true. This would mean no fear, no battle with sin, no questioning if God really knows best, perfect contentment and joy, and so much more! We will never achieve this facet of fruit in its fullness here on earth, which really is true of all of them. But when we understand what this facet means, perhaps it is more obvious here that we will always fall short than in other areas. To have perfect faith is to be perfect; every other facet of fruit falls under and flows out of this one. Faith is the first aspect of the fruit of the Spirit that we see in a believer’s life, because it is by Spirit-given faith that we are born again of the Spirit. But it doesn’t and shouldn’t stop there. We need this fruit at every step of our Christian life. Faith in God and His promises is what helps us conquer fear, overcome persistent sin issues, do things other people might think are crazy for the sake of the Kingdom, and so much more. So if faith can only be given by the Spirit, what do non-believers have? Two things. First, they can believe things that are objectively provable. They believe in science and fact. But as we can also see with the spread of postmodernism, even that is a gift from God, though not one that is only for believers. Second, non-believers can have fanciful beliefs that can’t be proven, such as superstitions and other traditional, handed down beliefs. To a person without the Spirit, ‘faith’ is not needed to believe in facts; it’s for believing things that can’t be proven. This means it’s often not seen as a good thing, because believing things that can’t be proved can be seen as a little on the crazy side. That’s not to say, of course, that you can’t have people who have both scientific beliefs and unprovable beliefs. I dare say probably everyone does, though I’m sure many people would argue that they only believe things that can be proven. We know, however, that real faith has little to do with whether or not something can be proved. Instead, it’s all about what God says. To have biblical faith is to know what God says, believe it, and live it out. So how can we cultivate this facet of fruit in our lives? First of all, as always, is prayer. If faith comes from God, then if we want more of it, we should ask. Second, if faith is believing and doing what God says, then we can’t have faith if we don’t know what God says. We should be in the Word daily, reading with the intent to understand who God says He is, how He views the world, and what He wants from us. Finally, we should give those around us permission to call us out on faithless actions. My greatest times of spiritual growth were when I was living and working with people who had permission to call me out when something I said or did was not based in truth. I had the same permission with them, and we made full use of the opportunity. Is it always easy? Certainly not. But it’s always worth it. Surround yourself with people who know the Word and will hold you accountable. This helps to both make the bible practical and to help you know it better. If you’re wondering what faith might look like in the face of a world-wide pandemic, here’s a few thoughts. God has said He will never leave us or forsake us. He’s promised to work all things together for the good of those who love Him. He’s said He will not give us temptations greater than we can bear. He’s promised to supply ever need we have from His riches. He’s told us we can (and should) cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. He’s promised to hear us when we call on Him. The life marked by faith believes these things and is affected to their very core by them. This person doesn’t hoard, doesn’t withhold good they could do, cares for others, is not afraid but instead trusts that God has a plan and is not caught off guard by anything that has happened. This person looks for opportunities to draw closer to God and serve others with His power and love in the midst of a crisis. This person doesn’t take advantage of situations or find loopholes in the rules and seeks to do what is best for everyone around them because they know God will care for them. I hope this is you, and if it’s not, I hope you are praying for God to change you into this person. God does not withhold from us when we ask to be more like Him and how He has commanded us to be. These kinds of prayers are always inside His will, and He will always grant them. Thanks for joining me on the podcast today. I am praying for all of you, that God will give you peace and that He will use this to bring about greater trust in Him. Lord willing, I will be with you again in a couple weeks to study the facet of fruit called gentleness. Hope you’ll join me then.