Do you have fake faith?
I don’t mean the faith the led you to salvation, I mean the faith that drives your prayers and expectations.
Fake faith is led by emotions, real faith comes from the word of God.
I’m not just talking about the Bible either. If the words of the Bible brought faith then no one could touch the faith of today’s theologians and yesterday’s Pharisees. Real faith comes from the voice of God. While that voice is most often displayed through scripture, it isn’t limited to scripture. It also comes through the internal voice of God, dreams, visions, or prophetic words.
The danger of exercising fake faith is that it conditions us to believe God doesn’t answer prayers.
I have a friend who wanted God to heal his vision. In response to his faith, he threw his glasses across the room vowing not to pick them up until he was healed. Two hours later he walked across the room and put his glasses back on.
I have another friend who was running and heard God say, “before the end of the year you will marry [his ex].” In December of that year they got married. They’ve been married for over 20 years now.
Fake faith is built upon our desires rather than God’s promises.
- “God I pray and believe in faith someone will give me $10,000”
- “God I pray and believe in faith to marry Taylor Swift”
- “God I pray and believe in faith to lead 100 people to Jesus today”
But when God does make a promise we have real faith — and His promises always come to pass. However God will likely not answer our prayers founded upon fake faith, no matter how noble they are.
Here’s Two Alternatives To Fake Faith
1. Cultivate Hope
Hope is the confident expectation of good coming. It’s an overall optimistic attitude about the future based on the goodness of God. When we know the character of the God, we no longer have to put our faith in specific desires because we know God has our best interest at heart.
Cultivating hope will also position you to receive kingdom promises — prosperity, healings, miracles, etc. This is because our focus becomes God centered rather than self centered. And living a God centered life style will produce hope and peace while eradicating worry and anxiety.
2. Steward Your Faith
Each of us have been given a measure of faith. What you do with that faith determines how much it will grow. If you’re not careful you can shipwreck your faith by constantly believing God for the impossible.
However, we can grow our faith by praying stretching prayers. These are the prayers that stretch just beyond what you’ve seen God do. So rather than trying to raise the dead, how about you pray for a headache or sore throat? Rather than praying for God to help pay off your mortgage, car loan, and credit cards, how about praying if He would help you with just one of the cards?
I know Jesus responds to faith but you first need to steward your faith. The nature of stewardship is increase. And if you steward the measure of faith you’ve been given it will grow.
Cultivating hope and stewarding your faith will position you to live a God centered life and see the actual promises of God come to pass.
