15th of October, 2023

THEME: UNDERSTANDING FAITH  

LESSON: Six

TEXT: Mark 11:23-25, Romans 10:8-10

MEMORY TRACK

In our last lesson, we learnt in our last lesson by the grace of God that our faith is established and built upon the promises of God in the New Testament.  

WHAT IT MEANS TO BELIEVE WITH THE HEART

 The heart is not just a physical organ that pumps blood. It is an invisible part of the soul that God gave for us to relate with Him. It is the organ of the soul designed to believe the word of God. The heart is different from the mind.

The mind can both connect to the heart by renewing it with the word of God and it can also connect to the physical environment. Unbelief is generated in the heart when it gets its conviction from external factors and not on the word of God. 

It is good to note that God doesn’t want us to believe with our mind but with the heart. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE WITH THE HEART (Prov 3:5): 

It means to believe on the word of God regardless of seeing, hearing, or feeling. Heart believing does not depend on sense knowledge; It depends on the Word of God.

Believing with your heart is believing independently of your sense knowledge, irrespective of the physical evidence. To believe in the Lord is to trust the Lord with all our heart and not leaning on our own understanding, wisdom or natural human knowledge. 

For believers to walk by faith, the word must be superior to everything else and anything else. 

HOW TO KNOW YOU HAVE BELIEVED (Isaiah 28:16, Hebrews 4:3) 

Rest: We must know that when we trust God with all of our hearts, there would be quietness and peace into our spirits. Hebrews 4:3 says, “For we which have believed do ENTER INTO REST… ” 

No Anxiety or Fear: If we have anxiety, over anything we seem to be trusting God for, then we are not believing. Our hearts take courage as we read the word. As we meditate on the word, our assurance and confidence become deeper. This assurance in our spirits is independent of our human reasoning or knowledge. That assurance may contradict human reasoning or physical evidence. But to believe God with your heart means to believe apart from your body or mind anyway.  

Thanksgiving (Romans 4:17-19, Phil. 4:6): One of the indications that there is faith is that the heart is the flow of thanksgiving from our heart even at the face of opposing evidence. Abraham’s sign of strong faith in what God promised was thanksgiving. 

Jesus had a need to feed 5,000 people but He needed faith to do this. All what He did was to give thanks, break the bread and there was a miracle! Jesus gave thanks to God and confessed God consistent readiness to answer His prayers. 

CONFESSION IS MADE UNTO SALVATION  

We learnt by the grace of God in our previous lesson that, salvation means deliverance, provision etc. All the provision of God in the New Testament is a form of salvation to man. From milk to strong meat of God’s word. 

So, what activates salvation is confession. The cycle of faith is not completed without confessing what we believe in our heart. Believing plus Confessing equals Activated Faith. Notice the latter part of Romans 10:10: “…with the mouth confession is made UNTO…” The text says that with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But that’s not only true concerning salvation. 

It is true concerning anything else a man can receive from God. Everything you receive from God comes the same way – through believing in the heart and confessing what we believe. For example, it is with the heart that man believes when it comes to receiving healing. And it’s with the mouth that confession is made unto healing etc. 

Faith is activated by believing with your heart and confessing with your mouth. 

WHAT IS CONFESSION? (Col 2:1-3)

According to the dictionary, “to confess” means to acknowledge, own up to or acknowledge faith in a thing or God.” To confess something opposite from faith means salvation will not come. Actually, Christianity is called “The Great Confession.  

Confessing is actually three things:

Confession is stating something we believe. 

Confession is declaring something we know to be true. 

Confession is proclaiming a truth we have accepted wholeheartedly. 

In other words, your confession is a proclamation of what you know to be true. Your confession states what you believe. 

Your confession declares something you know. And your confession proclaims a truth you have accepted wholeheartedly.