a complilation
Faith has lost its meaning to us today. Today the word faith means kind of a hazy, vague belief of some kind in something or other. It meant more than that in God’s Word. But it doesn’t mean much today to most Christians. It is the substance, it is the hupostasis, it is the title deed.
About that word translated “substance” in the 11th chapter of Hebrews: When they translated the New Testament from the Greek nearly 400 years ago, they were still puzzled by the word hupostasis. Now they knew from the way this word hupostasis was used in some Greek literature that it was apparently something fairly substantial, very sure evidence of some kind, so they translated it “substance.” With Greek classical literature not ordinarily using business terminology, it was very difficult to find this word or what it meant.
But a few years ago archaeologists uncovered the burned ruins of an old inn in northern Israel. There they found a small iron chest containing what were apparently the valuable papers of some Roman noblewoman who had been traveling in Israel at that time. In this little chest they found most of the papers labeled with a big titleHUPOSTASIS at the top of almost every paper. The business of the day was done in Greek because this was the worldwide language of business and culture, even though the Romans were ruling the world.
All of these papers which had the title Hupostasis in big letters across the top were title deeds to her properties! But this was long after the King James Version was translated, so they didn’t have the advantage of that discovery.
If you turn to Hebrews, the 11th chapter, the word “substance” there is just as good and conveys the message and I am quite sure it’s sufficient, but if you want to make it even clearer and more explicit, you can write above that word “substance,” in parentheses, “title deed.” Now faith is what? The title deed!
In fact, you could put it this way: “Now faith is the title deed to things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Perhaps this Roman woman had never seen the properties she’d bought in Israel, but she knew she had them and she could prove her ownership even though she had never seen them.
If you’ve got real faith, even though you haven’t seen the answer yet, you’ve got the title deed to it! It’s yours; your name’s written on it and you will see it eventually—that’s faith. You know you’ve got the title in your hands. Praise God! It’s done! Real faith knows, and it happens. It never fails!
So how do you get such faith? “Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God.”2 Hear andread the Word! The future is as bright as the promises of God!—David Brandt Berg3
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I love analogies. They help me understand complex things using a simple (and usually sorta fun) idea.
Today I have a quick analogy to share about faith. Faith is believing something that you cannot see or touch or taste. It is trusting something beyond your five senses. It is like a title deed.
If you own a car or a house, you have a title deed, a little certificate that says “Josh owns this car.” The title deed is proof that you own that thing, even if you can’t see it or touch it right at the moment. I cannot see my car from where I’m sitting, but I have a title deed, I have ownership of it, and so I know that it is parked outside waiting for me to use it whenever I like.
I live my life based on my ownership of that car, not based on whether I can see my car at any given moment. I make plans to get coffee with someone, or to travel to an appointment, because I know I possess a car that can take me there. I have a title deed that gives me that right and that ability.
Faith is your title deed to the wealth of wisdom, authority, and power that God has given us as His children. Faith is living as God intends you to live, knowing that He has already given you everything you need to be fully capable at it.
Faith gives you the ability to speak against sickness and see God heal it, because Jesus died to give us that right. Faith gives you the confidence to do what God has given you to do, knowing that He will give you the words to speak when the time is right. Faith is making plans to go “get coffee” because you own a vehicle that can take you there, even if you can’t see it right at this moment.
Besides ownership, a title deed also indicates responsibility. My title deed tells me that I own my car, but it implies that no one else is going to put air in the tires when they get low. It implies that if I don’t use it, the edges will rust and the battery will die.
Like my car, if I don’t use the faith that I have, it will grow rusty. Slowly it will corrode away, and I will find myself unable to trust God as easily, or become hesitant rather than stepping out—in faith—to do the things He asks me to do.
If I don’t use the faith that I have, what good is it to me or to anyone? If I don’t allow it to change the way I live my life, it’s just a status on my Facebook page. It’s just a word. It means nothing.
To put it simply, having faith but not using it is worthless. Or even better, dead—like a corpse. Dead things can’t walk or talk or do jumping jacks. They cannot do anything at all.4
So I have to ask myself, what am I doing right now that requires faith? “Faith is assurance about what we do not see.”5—Josh Clark6
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Faith is the title deed. Well, what is a title deed? In a nutshell, a document showing the right of ownership. Faith is your right as a [child] of God to access all that He has for you on the basis of His Word, who He is, and His character. It has nothing to do with how “hard” I try and believe. This takes the pressure off of me, because so many times I feel I can’t believe enough. I feel that I have weak faith. Another mental sigh comes up and says “Ugh, here we go again. I can’t get it together to believe!” But if I begin to reference the Word of God about what faith truly is … my entire perspective changes. I see it really has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the character and nature of God and His Word.—Natalia T.7
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Hebrews 11:1 teaches that faith is the “conviction (or proof) of things not seen.” The word “conviction” was also used literally to refer to title deeds. Faith is the title deed to our inheritance. Just like the title deed to a piece of property, faith guarantees our possession not of pieces of property but of what God has promised us in the unseen, eternal realm—of provision, of healing, of taking nations for Christ. We need to wave the title deed of our faith in the face of the devil and start taking back ground for God and His kingdom. We have authority, through prayer and obedient action, in absolute submission to the will of God, not only to make the declaration, but also to bring about the result of the declaration, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”8—David Campbell9
Published on Anchor October 2013. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
Music by Daniel Sozzi.
1 Matthew 9:29.
2 Romans 10:17.
3 Originally published July 1969.
4 Faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead... A person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone (James 2:17, 24 NIV).
5 Hebrews 11:1.
6 http://www.joshclark.com/2011/03/faith-is-like-a-title-deed/
7 http://nataliat.com/strong-and-beautiful-faith-the-title-deed/
8 Matthew 6:10.
9 http://trinitychristianowensound.com/2012/11/our-title-deed/
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