Faith

 Luk 17:5  And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 

Luk 17:6  And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. 

Have you ever truly considered these verses? The Disciples asked Him to increase their faith, The disciples, you know the ones who saw all the miracles, the dead raised, some of whom heard God on two different occasions speak out loud. Those guys, asked for their faith to increase.

Remember also that they didn't just witness Jesus do the miracles, they also were given power to do these miracles, to cast out demons, to heal. They went out in the name of the Father and the Son and they did miracles. They had the power of God in them, flow through them, and they just asked Him to increase their faith.

And what did He say to them? If you had faith the size of a mustard seed. They did not have faith the size of a mustard seed. They, the disciples, the very ones who walked and talked with Christ had no faith, in His opinion. His opinion is the one that matters.

So now let's break out the verse we always quote:

Rom 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

Well if faith for the disciples did not come from hearing God (Jesus) speak and teach then how much of a chance do we have?

You say " but we have the Spirit and the Word of God."

They had Christ, The Word, they had the Spirit of God, they had the Word straight from God verbally, they had miracles they witnessed, they had miracles they had done!

Ok now that we know the problem is lack of faith, now that we understand that faith is a hard thing to come by, now that we get the depth of our faith (when we are not lying to ourselves that is), how do we grow our faith? Yes I know by hearing, but let's try to understand it, not just quote verses that we have been told to.

James the brother of Christ wrote a book, we have that book and what does James say about faith? James the one who did not accept his brother as God until after the resurrection. James the one called camel knees from praying so much, after the Spirit came to Him and the others on the day of Pentecost.

James says Faith is patience in tribulation. 

Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 

Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 

James says Faith without works is dead. He is not saying works for salvation, he is saying that if there is faith then there will be works that show and grow that faith.

Jas 2:17  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 

Jas 2:18  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 

James says Faith worketh patience in tribulation, why? Because our tribulation and persecution may be of God, that the working of our faith might give a glorious testimony to the world as we remain faithful in our trials. We must have enduring faith in the face of troubles and trials.

Faith if there is no works is dead, that's what James said. Therefore we must have works, to testify of our faith. We can say we have faith all day long, we can say we believe, but if we do not put that belief into action, that faith into motion then what good is our faith? We are the same as the one that has no faith if we are just sitting on it.

James gives us the example of Abraham, who believed God, who showed his belief by sacrificing his son on the altar, yes God stopped him but not until that knife was in the air ready to strike.

Abraham had the promise of God, he was to be a great nation but he had to go, so he went.

He was to sacrifice his only son, the heir that was to make him a great nation, and he set about to do just that.

Abraham had faith, but Abraham had to show he had faith by doing what God asked of Him despite the fact that he did not understand it at the time.

So how do we grow our faith? We grow our faith by doing the things God has asked us to do.

Jas 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. 

We often use the example of Elijah praying and the rain drying up just as James does here for a show of what faith can do.

Jas 5:17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 

Jas 5:18  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 

Elijah heard the Lord, and he prayed according to the will of God. He prayed for what God told him to pray for and it was so. Of course God made it happen, He is God right? Well, what if Elijah had not prayed? What if Elijah, knowing what this would cause, the pain, the thirst, the drought, had not prayed for the rain to stop?

Elijah had faith, but we know it because he did (DID) what the Lord said. Despite his personal feelings.

Faith without works is dead. 

Faith is evidenced by the works we do, you can say you have faith all day long, but no one knows it until you show faith.

Going to church shows faith, witnessing shows faith, praying publicly shows faith.

You say you have faith but you never show any? then there is no faith.