Faith, such an interesting word. How do you know if you have faith? Have you ever had someone tell you when you are going through a struggle that you just need to have more faith! Ever felt frustrated and wondered why your faith is not working?

I used to be like that. I taught faith, quoted all the Scriptures on faith, but inside was really frustrated because I could not identify where my faith was or what it looked and felt like. Of course, I was taught to deny my feelings so I would just suppress those as they were the “enemy” to my faith. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit has since led me out of that nonsense. Your feelings are vital to everything you have to deal with in this life – good ones and bad ones. But emotion is another topic 😊.

So, what is faith really? And what does it mean to believe? I’ve been told faith and believing are the same thing, but they aren’t. Remember, Jesus taught one parable, the farmer and his seed, and that if we don’t understand that one, we will not understand any of the parables He taught. In the farmer and his seed, we saw that the farmer is you and the seeds you sow are the words that are planted within you. (See Kingdom Secrets)

As I lay in bed thinking about that parable last night my thoughts again wondered to the heart. I thought the words have to be sown in my heart, but the truth is that words are sown in the thoughts, in your conscience. From there they may migrate to deeper levels within you – put down roots – and become belief systems. To believe something is to be totally convinced that what you think and feel is the absolute truth and nothing can persuade you otherwise. Simply, your mind is the soil in which words are sown.

Therefore, if we are always dealing with words and thoughts, faith is a thought pattern which develops into a belief system. In Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus shares a parable about the mustard seed. He said that if you have FAITH the size of a mustard seed, which is a small seed, once it is sown it grows up to become the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree in which the birds can take refuge.

The mustard seed is very small in comparison to the tree that it produces. Your thoughts begin very small but as you cultivate, nurture and protect them they grow larger than any other thoughts that oppose them, till they become so well established that others can find rest in your presence. This is true of all thoughts; however, Jesus was teaching a parable about His kingdom.

Faith then is a thought that originates from Jesus, who is THE WORD. Once you have a thought that comes from Him, it may be very small and go through much struggle to break ground and grow, and you nurture and protect it, it will become so strong that it will override anything and everything that comes against it. Over the process of time there is nothing that the accuser can say or bring your way that will defeat you, because His thoughts have now been firmly established in your own mind and heart. Once the roots have gone deep within you, your reactions become automatic, because they have now become a belief system.

When it comes to your armour and taking up the shield of faith it means take up the thoughts of God and set them up around you like a shield. Hide yourself, your thoughts, within the WORD of GOD. Cover yourself with them by placing them in front of every thought that opposes what Jesus has said. Keep your thoughts on the side of THE TRUTH and as you do, you will be able to silence every harsh and critical word (voice) that comes against you and who you are in Christ Jesus and as God’s beloved.

The words of accusation that come against you are the fiery darts of the enemy. All he has as a weapon against you is his voice. The voice of the accuser is easy to silence when you are conscious of the VOICE of the LORD within you. As you consciously take a position in your own mind against anything and everything that exalts itself against what you know to be TRUE IN CHRIST JESUS, you will win, and you will grow, and you will bear much fruit.

Take thought, brave one, and be bold in your battle!