How Faith Works: What the Bible Teaches About Living by Faith

Faith works by taking God at His Word and acting on it: believing who He says He is, doing what He says you can do and possessing what He says you have in Christ. Faith is not a gamble or a risk; it is certainty rooted in God’s promise. It is the currency of the kingdom of God, and it is how believers overcome in perilous times.

Faith is obedience, not gambling

We are saved by faith, and living by faith makes God your senior partner and you His fellow labourer. Gideon was from the weakest clan in Manasseh and the least in his father’s house, yet when the Lord said, “Go in this might of yours… Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6:14), he believed and acted, and his life was transformed. Faith lifts the insignificant into significance.

“Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Isaiah 53:1 (NKJV)

The arm of the Lord, His strength and grace, is revealed to those who believe His report. Many voices speak: circumstances, the devil, friends and neighbours. Faith chooses which report to believe. Refuse to talk yourself down, and believe what God says about you.

Faith births the supernatural

At the Red Sea, with the Egyptians behind them, Moses told Israel to stand still. Then the Lord said, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward” (Exodus 14:15). Moses obeyed, stretched out his rod, and the sea parted. Faith acts on what God says.

“Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.””

Mark 9:23 (NKJV)

Every child of God is born into the natural world but born again into the supernatural. Faith is not a place to visit occasionally; it is our permanent home. When Christianity feels dull, it is often because we are living by natural struggle rather than by faith.

“Whatever He says to you, do it”

At the wedding in Cana, Mary told the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5), and water became wine. At the pool of Bethesda Jesus told a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, “Rise, take up your bed and walk” (John 5:8). As he acted on the word, he was healed. You don’t just analyse God’s Word; you do it and see results.

When famine came in Isaac’s day, God told him not to go down to Egypt but to stay in Gerar. Isaac obeyed, “sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him” (Genesis 26:12). If Sarah could bear a child at ninety, there is no limit to what God can do. Each time we fixate on “facing reality” instead of God’s Word, we step out of faith.

“[Looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity]…”

Hebrews 12:2 (AMP)

Know what you have

“Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.””

Acts 3:6 (NKJV)

Peter knew what he possessed: the name of Jesus, “the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). Not knowing what you have leads to powerlessness. Avoid praying in a way that belittles your position, such as “we are just poor.” “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). You are an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ.

Faith overcomes the world

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

1 John 5:4–5 (NKJV)

There are no defeated children of God. You were born again an overcomer, but you must also live like one. Faith comes from the new birth, and there is one victory that conquers the world: our faith.

Fight the good fight of faith

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:12). Jude urged believers “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Your faith will be opposed by circumstances, the devil and the natural world. Contending means persisting, not drifting: claiming what Christ has secured for you rather than settling for less.

We believe, and so we speak

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”

Mark 11:23 (NKJV)

God created by speaking: “Let there be light.” Faith speaks too: “I believed and therefore I spoke” (2 Corinthians 4:13). “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). What you say after you pray should agree with your prayer. Great faith cannot coexist with a vocabulary of unbelief. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

How faith grows and how it sees challenges

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

• Faith grows with continual exposure to God’s Word, and can stagnate without it (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
• Faith doesn’t deny challenges; it sees beyond them: “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!” (Zechariah 4:7).
• Faith is confident in God’s ability: “With men it is impossible, but not with God” (Mark 10:27).
• Faith knows no trial is beyond what God will help you bear, and that He provides a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).
• Faith expects every challenge to become a testimony: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God” (John 11:4).