(Ver 1.0) This is Part 2 in the Bible study series concerning God’s New Covenant commandment to examine ourselves, whether we be in the Faith, prove your own selves (2 Corinthians 13:5). If you have not read the Introduction to this subject, it is strongly recommended that you begin your study with “Part 1” first. From reading our series foundational scripture verse, we learned that “we must examine ourselves, to see if we be in the faith”. This command proves concretely that there are potentially many Christians that believe they are in faith, when they are apparently not in the real type of working Faith, Jesus is looking for when He returns. Otherwise, why else would we need to do a self “Faith” exam? Never forget that this verse was written to saved “Christians” and not to the lost unbelieving world that obviously does not yet even have a faith level to become saved from going to hell. What we have been learning is that God’s true “Faith” ranges from zero (none) to great faith and in varying measures, levels and degrees everywhere in between. But also, we find that there is a feigned or fake type of faith that we see in the Bible.

A fake faith is often a person who says and believe that they have faith yet they know nothing about this subject of faith to determine if their belief is true.  Just because someone says they have faith does not mean it is a true faith that works and receives from God. Perhaps you have asked, “Sister so-and-so had faith but they died, why?”. I don’t know the answers to that question for everyone, but I do know that it was never God that failed and this only leaves the cause of failure upon some aspect found in the natural realm.

Do you remember being in school and learning a subject like math, grammar, science, history, etc.? We would all listen to the teacher’s lecture and then read and study the course textbook. We might all think that we really heard, knew and understood fully what was taught to us about the subject. But when it came down to it, it was the teacher’s exam that proved whether we learned the subject or not. If we have never taken a class on the subject of true Bible “Faith”, why would anyone of us assume we have a real faith? No subject is learned without study (2 Tim 2:15).

If we were given a “Faith” test today, what grade level based upon the standard of our God would be passing? Do you believe you are passing? It might be surprising to know that God’s level of passing is 100% perfect. Uh oh? That sounds like we are all failing, and from the human view point we can never be good enough. But God made a greater way for us than trusting n our own efforts to save us. God’s 100% requirement was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And if we get into Him by faith, we are able to take advantage of His works.

However, there is more to it than this human Grace viewpoint of us having real working Faith. You see, what we need to know is that we may have super great faith in one area of our life, but almost zero faith in another essential life area. This is why taking God’s faith exam is not just a one-time Satan test that if we pass the test, he will never test or try our faith again in any other area of life.

Do you remember Satan’s temptation trail of Jesus found in Matthew 4? Didn’t Satan test Jesus three times in 3 different areas of human life. The first temptation was on the physical human needs for things like essential food. The second temptation involved a test for God’s protection by being asked to jump from the top of the temple and trust the angels to save him. The third temptation was clearly a spiritual test to get Jesus to worship him and in exchange Satan would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.

In ever “faith” test Jesus overcame the devil by quoting scriptures. The answer to every human test in life is the same for us. Therefore, if you do not know scripture and are able to quote it when tested in every area of life it is ordinarily too late to begin to build your faith in that area to win. Jesus never told the devil, wait a minute while I look up that verse. No, He simply quoted it from His heart and that is a true saving faith example.

So, we are learning the devil is persistent. In fact, in the temptation of Jesus, the Bible says Satan left Jesus only to return at a more opportune time. Satan was coming back to test Jesus again. This is the example that Christ set for us to follow in the area of true saving faith for every part of our life.

Today there might be some doubts about our salvation, tomorrow the temptation could come by some sickness, the next day there could be some major financial crisis, and then maybe a test that comes upon our family. There will be many tests and having real faith for each one is not just recommended but we will find it is essential.

What we will soon discover is that living by faith (Hab 2:4), walking by faith (2 Cor 5:7), fighting the good fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12) and overcoming the world by faith (1 Jn 5:4) is a daily requirement. This should help us to understand why a “self-Faith” exam is probably a “best-practice” to try to do every day. It really won’t take as much time as you may think once you know what to ask yourself.

Faith Self-Exam – Real Versus Fake?

Today we are going to further investigate one essential aspect of the subject of Faith. In performing any self-exam to determine if we have God’s defined “True Faith”, we should begin with the basic question “Am I in real Faith” or a “fake pretend Faith” for my situation facing me now? We can begin this exam by asking ourselves some basic faith-based questions? These are our questions.

1. “Have I asked God what to do in this situation?”
2. “Did I ask the all-knowing God to teach and show me how to overcome in this situation?”
3. “Did I ask God for scriptures to help me in my problem?”
4. “Have I heard His answer?” Yes, continue, No, wait!
5. “Have I learned, memorized and meditated upon these scriptures so that I can stand firm in confidence upon them?”.
6. “Now do I have peace in my heart?”
7. “Or am I in fear about anything?”
8. “Or am I worried or anxious about anything?”

Can we name at least two or three key verses and scripture references where God promised or revealed what we are believing and asking Him for? Did we claim these verses as His will for us (me)? If we can’t name the verses and quote them from our heart, we are probably not in faith. If we have a hard time thinking of the verses or saying the verses automatically, we are probably not in faith (Rom 10:8). Real Bible Faith is always built upon a firm foundation of the knowledge of God’s written or spoken Word (Rom 10:17) that pertains to Him meeting our relational, physical, mental, emotional or financial challenge of need which we are faced with currently in this world.

For example, if we are feeling very weak, tired and unable to do what is needed to be emotionally, physically or mentally accomplished today, we can stand upon Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. If we need physical healing, we can claim 1 Peter 2:24, “By whose stripes I was healed”. If we feel like we are losing our mind or our memory we can claim 1 John 2:20 which says “But we have an unction (anointing) from the Holy One and we know all things”. Or if we have been tormented by a great fear, God promises us “I have not given you a spirit of fear”, but rather I gave you “power, love and a sound mind” in 2 Timothy 1:7. These are just sample verses. It is best to be led by the Spirit of God to find the verses that apply to our personal situations.

What we are learning is that there are thousands of scriptural promises found in the Bible and God has claimed that “Every Promise is Yes and Amen” to Christians (2 Cor 1:20). But this implies we need to take fast hold to our promise not letting them slip and go from our hearts, in order to cause them to come to pass.

In other words, God’s promises are not always, easily, or automatically obtained just falling on us without a spiritual fight. These are only taken by “Faith” and “Faith” is only possible when we know exactly what God has said on the subject that we are facing. Remember we have spiritual enemies that are against us and these giants are trying to stop us from possessing the promise land.

Besides the many Christians that believe they are in faith but can’t name one Bible verse by heart, there are other problems that can cause faith failures. If you recall in Part 1, we learned about a kind of faith called “feigned” or “fake”. It was mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:5 when Paul was writing about “unfeigned” faith which represents God’s “Real Faith”. The Real Faith is the opposite of “fake” or “pretend” faith.

This verse clearly taught us about the existences of these two kinds of faith. Paul must have run into the “fake” faith before if he was praising some others for their “real faith”. Hopefully, you recall this but if not, please review “Part 1” because it usually takes the average person at least 7 or 8 times of hearing something to build it into their heart.

This subject today maybe a potentially controversial topic and it has probably caused heated debates between several differing Christian groups and denominations. However, we will attempt to only remain in a fair and balanced view of the scriptures and ignore human traditions. It would be very wise if everyone would take their own Bible to read along with the verses and use these to confirm or reject this topic based upon what the Holy Spirit speaks from His Word while reading.

No Faith or Lacking Faith
 as Contrasted with Real Faith

As we can read from the lesson title, our main subject is about three measures of faith we will call “No Faith”, “lacking Faith” or “Real Faith”. These conclusions are based upon the words spoken by Jesus in Luke 8:25 when He asked His disciples, “Where is your faith?”  This same event in a raging storm is written in Matthew 8:26 where Jesus is recorded to say, “Why are you so fearful, you of little faith”. Either expression indicates a faith level that was lacking the desired effectiveness amount that Jesus anticipated for His close following disciples to possess already.

These two statements of Jesus represent God’s expectation for all humans is not to live in fear or doubt and to choose to remain in faith despite the observable circumstances. Remember these statements were made before the disciples were born again and yet Jesus still expected them to believe what He said and act like what He said was true, which it was. This substantially teaches us that being born-again is not necessary to possess faith. In fact, it is having real faith that causes us to be born-again.

What this further teaches is that all humans have the potential to have real faith for salvation even before they are saved. This is actually confirmed in Romans 10:9-10. These verses claim “If we believe God has raised Jesus from the dead, and we confess Him as Lord, we will be saved”. So “Faith” is a requirement to become saved and this implies it is a further requirement to remain saved, especially since the New Testament commands us “To Walk and Live by Faith” (2 Cor 5:7, Rom 1:17).

Another key to understanding “real faith” is that believing for your salvation to become “born-again” was the most incredibly important step in your believing God journey. As we know now, our spiritual new birth required our contributing and participating “real faith” (Eph 2:8) to receive God’s Grace gift of salvation. This salvation consisted of His working great power to save those that believed (Jn 3:16) when He raised Christ from the dead (Eph 1:19-20). We can also conclude from this information that real faith or even faked faith can still exist in anyone regardless of being saved or yet unsaved.

With this in mind we can recall the Old Covenant nation of natural Israel. These people were written as examples for the church to learn from according to 1 Corinthians 10:11. Then we find two contrasting examples of people with faith and those without in this same nation. For example, Hebrews 11 provides us a long list of names that were illustrations of “Real Faith’ samples for us to follow. But in Hebrews 4:2 there were people in the wilderness that heard the Word of God but did not mix any real faith with God’s words to release His power. All of these people never received the promises of God. Wow! Which group are we in? This is our part to decide in the faith exam for today’s lesson.

A Modern-Day Extreme Grace Messages to Avoid

These statements cause some extreme Grace teachers to raise their eyebrows in shock. Some of these types of people will quickly turn this lesson off as a false teaching, without even reading everything that is revealed from the Bible. This extreme Grace belief is being taught by several grace teachers that believe when a human is born again, they were given God’s gift of faith to believe and therefore have obtained all of the fruits of the Spirit as a gift from God.

According to these teachers, they believe the fruits of the spirit included the completed “full” and “mature” fruits of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal 5:21-22). But is this true? If it is then it appears that God can be accused of “favoritism” by giving those that will be saved the “beliefs” needed to be saved. This strongly implies that all of the people that are already in hell, were not given this faith to be saved. This is a belief that is parallel with extreme “election”.

Hopefully, you can see this cannot be a true belief, since it contradicts with 2 Peter 3:9 which says, “God is not willing any should perish” and John 3:16 that teaches us “whosoever believes will be saved”. This belief reverses human involvement in their salvation and any participation of “a human’s freewill choice to believe”. This belief also completely ignores the statement made by Jesus claiming when He is lifted up on the cross, He will draw “all men” to be saved according to John 12:32.

Notice the KJV translators placed the word “faith” in their list of spiritual fruits and too many teachers believe that this spiritual fruit is the same as our “faith” or our choice to believe during salvation (Eph 3:8). According to all of the scriptures that we should know on this subject of faith, does this make sense? Or are there contradictory verses that disagree and claim they are different types or categories of “faith”?

Remember what Jesus said to us in John 3:12. In this verse Jesus said, if I tell you of earthly things and you do not believe, how then can I tell you of spiritual things?” Jesus has just connected the truth that naturally created things are parallels into understanding spiritual things. God confirms this belief in Romans 1:21 when He declares the “unseen spiritual things concerning the Spirit of God are clearly seen in the things that were created, even His eternal power and Godhead”. That was a simple paraphrase, but the essence of the message is solid. We are learning and confirming “naturally created things” are windows into understanding unseen greater spiritual realities. In other words, understanding the created natural fruit processes are essential to understanding any and all spiritual fruit developments.

There is so much, so quickly ignored about the simple facts of what natural fruit is, how natural “fruit” grows and matures, where natural fruit comes from and finally how this information applies to discussing spiritual fruits. According to the Law of Moses in Genesis, all created natural fruit comes from fruit bearing trees that bring forth their fruit in season. Moses further describes these fruit trees saying, “they yield fruit whose seed is within itself”. This is a basic law of “seed time and harvest” (Gen 8:22) where everything God created reproduces after its own kind.

But notice how fruit is described to occur. God spoke in Genesis 1:11, “Let the earth bring forth trees yielding “fruit”. Do you see the natural process of seed planting, tree growth and finally fruit production?”  The fruit was not automatically fully on the tree. In fact, there was no created tree, only a planted “seed” of God’s Word spoken to the soil. The growing and sprouting tree had to increase from God’s seed to maturity in order to produce eatable fruit. If you understand this process fruit normally begins as a flowering type of bud, and then little by little it grows into maturity over the course of time before it can be eaten. This is why God created fruit trees long before He created the man to eat from them. Remember what we are learning is that spiritual fruit growth is almost identical to physical fruit production. Jesus taught us this concept in John 3:12 saying understanding earthly things helps us to understand unseen spiritual things like fruit.

Therefore, these extreme Grace teachers, teach since the “fruit” of “faith” is part of the new creation requirement for salvation and of being born again, they conclude too quickly that we must also already have all of the “faith” that we will ever need. This thinking is usually based upon beliefs in certain scriptures like these:

2 Peter 1:3 – According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

Galatians 5:22 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 

Romans 12:3 –  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 

These are just a few scriptures that are being misapplied to the subject of faith to attempt to make them say things that they do not actually say. We will be covering a lot of other scriptures besides those that we have mentioned about “fake faith”, along with the verses of “no faith” and “little faith” verses that we have already seen and are being ignored like Jesus and Paul did not know what they were talking about.

And these belief conclusions do not balance with countless other scriptures that must be ignored or explained away. However, many teach from scriptures like these, that when we are born-again of the Word and the Spirit of God, we have become new creations and we are now “wholly complete” in our human spirits. We can all see this clearly from 2 Corinthians 5:17 where God says, “all the old things have passed away, and everything has become new” but don’t forget this only applies to those “in Christ”.

Praise the Lord we can all agree so far. But this is where things are beginning to be taken to an extreme position of potential great error. Some of these ministers teach that “faith” is a fruit of the Spirit of God and therefore, we have all the faith in our spirit that will ever need since we are now one “spirit” with God according to 1 Corinthians 6:17. We hopefully can agree upon the verse being referenced is true, but are some jumping to conclusions without the supporting evidence?

Also notice that some might be able to use the verse in 2 Peter 1:3 to help confirm this belief because God has written to us that He has already given to us “all things that pertain to life and godliness”. This appears on the surface when taken out of context to confirm the belief that we already have all the faith ever needed for everything in life we encounter. But is this belief really true?

Then some may take Romans 12:3 that also appears in the KJV Bible translation to say God has given to “every man” THE measure of faith. Some may begin to be more convinced that this automatic faith possession is actually true, and that all Christians already have all “the” faith they need?  

Notice teachers who teach this belief many times use our “faith” used to believe for receiving our salvation, mental or physical healing, natural or spiritual aid to be the same type of “faith” as used in Galatians 5:22-23 as if “salvation faith” in Christ was the same as one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit. That is absolutely not true! Why?

It is because the “fruits of the spirit” are all human choices we make daily. For example, having the fruit of “Love” while it is found in our spirit internally because God’s Love has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as revealed in Romans 5:5, is not the same as us choosing to demonstrate it externally as seen “fruit” that is shown to the lost world? How many Christians demonstrate the wrong reactions when confronted by evil people that is far from “Love”.

This is called the conflict between the “flesh” and the “spirit”. God speaks of this conflict extensively in Romans 8. Every Christian is dealing with these opposing choices each and everyday and we all can easily slip to choose incorrectly. Therefore, having a fruit of Joy is not inward, it is being joyous outwardly even when the world is throwing evil at us. So, it is the same as saying we have “Peace” inwardly then when chaos comes to try to destroy us, we suddenly in turmoil unable to have the ability to remain calm. We must learn to develop outward fruits like showing and being “peaceful” and this is a spiritual growth process.

The same is true for our primary subject of “examining our faith”. Saying we have “Faith” is not the same as being “faithful” to God, His Word and each other. No, saving “faith” is an internal experience from God’s Word (Seed) being planted in our spirit. Real Faith only comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). This is not the same as showing God that we will be externally faithful to Him in your external actions, choices, words, and lifestyles. Therefore, the fruit of Faithfulness is not internal “Faith” no matter what anyone tries to teach you. We must have true and living “Faith” to receive anything from God which has been given to us by His Grace. How then do we get this faith? Is it automatic like some teach? Have you “heard” every verse taught and found in the Bible? If the answer is no, you do not have all the faith that you could have.

Please let us quickly learn how to study the Bible. The Greek word translated as “Faith” occurs in around 244 verses of the New Testament. Did these Bible teachers that teach some of these verses mean that we already have all the necessary faith, look to see what else is written about the subject of Faith? All the verses must be balanced together correctly. We will hopefully get into this later in more detail.

But let us consider just one verse that contradicts for this part of the lesson. If these isolated verses on “Faith” were really truly interpreted for their application faith exists completely after the new birth, then why would God command us to examine ourself to see if we be in the faith? Remember this is the key verse in 2 Corinthians 13:4 for this series. Can we all agree this verse alone is a clear contradiction to their teaching?

To be told specifically to do our own self-examination of our faith to make the determination, “if I have the Faith that is necessary”, would cause God to look stupid in the light that people now say God has already given us “All Faith”? But also, do not forget that “IF” God has already given to all Christians “the Measure of Faith” that He requires, why would Jesus say in Luke 18:8, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith?” Jesus is God in the flesh and He can’t and won’t contradict Himself! Otherwise, God becomes a “liar” like Satan.

It appears that there are too many Bible teachers embracing “selective scripture theologies built in isolation of other scriptures on the subject”. This is a very dangerous way to study and teach the Bible. By taking specific verses ignoring contextual content and related verses anyone can try to make the Bible say anything they like.

It is very easy to think one verse says something it does not say and then go and twist other verses to conform with the wrong belief. This occurs when we teach only the verses that fits our belief narratives while ignoring the many other Bible verses that potentially have direct content that proves their beliefs not to be actual balanced truth. When these teachers become locked into their beliefs and are unwilling to see other Bible verses on the subject of “faith” they become practically impossible to reach or teach. Perhaps you have heard some refer to them as “Concrete Believers”, meaning their beliefs are thoroughly mixed up and firmly set.

People who follow these kinds of Bible teachers must not be good “Berean Bible” students as God called the “more noble” people found in Acts 17:11. In this verse Paul was speaking of two types of people. One type in Thessalonica who were not very receptive to the teachings of Paul, and others like those in Berea that were considerably more opened minded to hear the new Words being taught. But then they did their own study in the Law to confirm if they were true.  Today, please let us all make the decision to become a true “Berean” open minded type of follower of Christ.

Faith in the Parable of the Sower

One of the most important parables ever taught from the mouth of Jesus is called the “Parable of the Sower” by many. But the main focus of the parable seems to be the “Seed” which is the Word of God. Since we are focused upon the subject of “Real Faith” and we should now know that this only comes from “Hearing the Word of God” (Rom 10:17), we should easily understand this parable is designed to teach us about “real faith” that only appears in 1 out of 4 types of human heart. Therefore, we know the other 3 soil types of the human heart were no faith or lacking faith that did not allow God’s Word to take root and produce “fruit” in their spirit. In other words, only 1 type of soil called good ground produced positive ending fruit and then sometimes only 30-fold, another time only 60-fold, and yet another 100-fold. Do you see the connection to varying degrees of human faith to receive?

In this parable Jesus said plainly, if you do not know this parable how will you know any other parable. Jesus places such important emphasis on this teaching that He claims us understanding the “Parable of the Sower” correctly is the key that unlocks all other parables and even other subjects of the Bible:

Mark 4:13 – And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

Mark 4:14 – The sower soweth the word.

We need to know that Jesus was the original “Sower” in this parable. The “seed” that was being “sown” by Jesus is the “Word of God”. This makes God’s Words spiritual seeds that produce “New Life” when correctly received. This is because the “soils” in this parable are human hearts. But notice that this “Sower” (Jesus) in this parable never forced God’s “Seeds” (Words) into any human heart. In fact, Jesus the “Seed Sower” never even plows, cleans or prepares one heart soil type. He is simply sharing the Words of God to everyone equally and fairly.

This clearly implies it is the human’s responsibility to prepare, guard and protect their own heart’s soil. For example, the soil type 1 called the “Way Side” heart, has been trodden down so hard that the seed cannot enter it. This causes the “Seed” to be easily stolen by “birds of the air” a clear type of satanic spirits (Ephesians 2:2).

What we are learning in this beginning parable is that humans have been given personal responsibility to guard God’s Garden (the human heart). God commanded the first Adam to “Dress” and “Keep” the Garden (Genesis 2:15). The Hebrew word translated as “Dress” means to “work”, “till”, “prepare” the soil. The Hebrew word translated as “Keep” means to “Hedge”, “Guard”, and “Protect” the Garden soil. This was God’s unremovable human responsibility concerning our heart, mind and soul.

What does this Garden soil preparation and guarding from enemies have to do with our “Faith Exam”? Much more than many know right now. We will apply this concept to our self-examination of our faith, because “true” God like faith is of the heart.

Romans 10:8 – But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

As we can read “Paul” preached the “Word” (Seed) of faith concept that Jesus was teaching us in the Parable of the Sower. Paul was quoting Deuteronomy 30:14 insuring what was being taught now in the New Covenant had firms roots already established from the Old Covenant to build upon.

However, notice that there is a connection being reaffirmed between the hearts of humans and their mouths. God is building upon how a human heart is “Born-Again” through the entrance of God’s incorruptible “Seed” spoken by the mouth of humans. Paul speaks again of this process in 1 Corinthians 3:6 saying, “I have planted and Apollos watered, but God gave the increase”.

What we are being introduced to, is an important fact of Truth. According to Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by Hearing, and Hearing by the Word of God”. Hearing God’s Word either by someone else’s mouth or your own mouth is how we obtain faith. But did you notice the Bible is a huge book? Have you ever heard the entire Bible taught at one time? The answer is probably, no! This means there is still new amounts and levels of “faith” that can be obtained by hearing a new subject which has never been heard before. Do you see this? There is practically a never-ending supply of new “Faith” producing “Seeds” available to plant and water in our heart.

Real Faith is Measurable

There are many that may be confused by the term “Faith is Measurable”. What we must understand is that everything in the natural garden is measurable. This is the area of the soil, the amounts of seed planted, the amounts of crops expected based upon the seed planted per section, etc. This simply means spiritual things are all measurable also. Some may not believe this but this is what the created things of God teach us applying them to understand their spiritual counterparts. We can easily see that this is what the Bible says over and over using various measurement descriptions. Let us list a few of them on the subject of “Faith” to help us see it:

1. Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please God. Without is a clear measure indicator of zero faith. It is like never having heard the Gospel of Jesus ever.
2. John 20:27 – “Be not faithless but believing”. Here Jesus is rebuking Thomas for having heard about the resurrection, but choosing not to believe it. This is clear rebellion and defiance since Thomas had heard Jesus said He would be raised up after three days. This is completely different than not being told the good news yet the net result was still “a zero faith” level.
3. Matthew 8:26 – “Why are you so fearful, ye of little faith”. Here Jesus rebukes the disciples for thinking they were about to drown in a storm. Jesus had already told them, “Let us go to the other side” and Jesus went to sleep. Therefore, we see how the spiritual force of “fear” nullifies or reduces one’s faith level to become weak.
4. Matthew 14:3 – “Oh thou of little faith, why did you doubt?” Here Peter gets out of a boat to walk on water and is almost to Jesus when he looked at the wind and the waves and began to sink. This clearly teaches us that when we begin to doubt what God said, our uncertainties reduce or remove our confident faith. This type of information strongly suggests that a human “faith” level could vary greatly from day to day based upon new circumstances or changing thoughts and focuses that are attempting to cause new “fear”. It could even involve new words heard that are counter to what the Jesus or His Word has spoken to us. We find this is believing the evil report rather than the “good” report of the Lord.
5. Matthew 9:22 – Jesus speaking to a woman who had touched the hem of His garment and received her healing said, “Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has made you whole”. This is an important story. This woman snuck up and received her healing without asking Jesus’ permission. She simply touched His garment and was healed. Jesus turns and asks “Who touched me” proving it was her level of working “faith” that produced the miracle to receive His power. You can read more details in Mark 5 about this same account. This woman appears to be in the middle ground of “Faith” measurements. She definitely did not have little faith. She could have been stoned in her condition yet was fearless to touch Jesus.
6. Matthew 8:10 – “I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel”. We jumped to the “Great Faith” level of measurement. Here a gentile under authority told Jesus He did not have to come to his house, but speak the word only and his servant would be healed.

There are many other examples like these in the Bible but this is a good introduction to our faith is measurable subject. Please notice again the last verse Matthew 8:10. Again we see a clear reference that Jesus is looking for certain levels of faith. This is another confirmation that when Jesus returns to the earth, He is still looking for qualifying levels and measurements of “Faith”.

Perhaps this measurement concept will make more sense to many in the light of our previous subject of the Sower, the Word Seeds and the hearts being God’s Garden designed to produce “fruit” unto salvation (Romans 6:22, Romans 7:4). Have you ever planted a physical garden using “seeds”? If you haven’t, you should. The concepts of farming, planting, watering, protecting, guarding, and eventually harvesting are essential to the spiritual concepts of “Faith” and “Salvation”.

When preparing a natural garden, it involves plowing work which involves a blade that cuts through the soil.  This work includes removing all the rocks and stones. Plowing further removes all of the weeds and other growths that will try to take away life from any new seeds that are about to be planted. Plowing removes any hardened packed soil softening the ground to allow new seed to enter easily into the soil. From this information we can further see there are measurable levels of work that can be observed in the gardening process.

Let us see how these physical tasks can apply to preparing a spiritual heart for receiving God’s Word? We will only list a few today:

1. We must develop a plan on how we are going to handle the devil’s thoughts that are going to try to distract us away from hearing the Word. This may be the first time or even after the fact to cause us to forget what we have heard spoken by a “Seed Planter” (teacher) sowing the Seed/Word of God. Satan will give everyone first person thoughts like, “I don’t believe this trash”. Or “I should would like to be home watching sports rather than sitting in church”. Or, “I am so hungry, I can’t wait to get to that restaurant”. Or after believing the word, “I didn’t really get saved”, “I must be crazy to believe this stuff”, etc. Anything that comes into our mind that tries to get us to turn back or away from the Word comes from evil spirits in the world. By preparing an attitude to focus and not to get distracted will cause the word a better chance at remaining strong to grow. Make a plan to value the Word of God and make it our daily priority!
2. Remember to listen again and again to review the Word of God that we have heard and do this frequently. This represents the process of watering the seeds that were planted into our hearts. This is an essential part of sowing and reaping a fruitful outcome. The continual watering of the “Seed” will cause the roots to grow deep and strong and will be very difficult to be removed by Satan’s deception tricks.
3. What are the things in life that are rooted into our lives that are consuming our focus away from pursuing the Words of God? These could be good or bad habits, addictions, desires like (seeking fortune, fame, drugs, food, alcohol, exercise); all of these are types of consuming desires that could represent some of the “evil weeds” that will work to choke out all the positive growth of God’s New Life Seed.
4. What are some of the stubborn hard-hearted parts of our attitudes, values, or priorities that could be there to distract us from applying our time and attention to focus on the Word of God?
5. Are we prepared to lose all of our worldly friends and family relatives who are not interested in the Words of God? The world will be coming after their friends to begin to try to influence all of our free-time we have decided to spend in God’s Word. When we refuse to act and be like them, then suddenly these old friends turn into enemies. These former friends and former friendly relatives will bring pressure upon a new Christian many to sway a them back into slavery and bondage of darkness.
6. How are we going to handle the pressures from these friends and relatives when they persecute us and call us stupid for loving the Word of God? We must remain in “Love” to hopefully help them see how God has changed us. Being nice to the unsaved world and refusing to do what they do, speaks loud enough. If they walk away from us, then we continue to pray for them.

Conclusion – Do I Have Real Growing and Working Faith?

In conclusion let us ask the key question of God’s Faith Exam. Am I in real faith? To determine this we may need to review God’s created process of natural “Seed” planting, growing and harvesting steps to help us determine if we have begun the spiritual process of obtaining real faith needed to develop fruitful results. We have already seen how the amount of “fruit” produced is variable from zero to 30-fold, 60-fold to 100-fold. This means literally the words that were planted and watered could have varied tremendously from zero to 100% of the Words available to sow. Not to mention the time we spent to prepare the ground, keep and guard it from being destroyed or eaten up by our enemy.

The soil of course is our spiritual “heart. This is the garden of God and it must be prepared. Preparation involves cleaning, clearing including hard places to be made soft, and then weeded areas to be removed. Weeds are the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of fortune, fame and all the other distraction designed by the enemy to choke out and keep our faith from bring forth fruit.

This does not mean that we are saved by our works, but our attitudes, focuses, participation and choices greatly affect the success or the failure of God’s Word to work and bring us the increase. All of this is analogous of an open minded, broken, soft, humble human heart void of all pride in our spirit. We must be tender and even openly desiring to hear the Word of God at every opportunity. A humble open person is eagerly craving and willing to receive the Word of God “Seed” as if it was the most very valuable item available. If someone is bored with reading the Word of God, they are hard-hearted and have no seed entering to produce faith that will produce saving fruits, because there is no Word planted in their heart.

Even after soil preparation and receiving the incredible Seed in the heart ground, it may look or feel like nothing is working or changing for a long time. This is when a lot of people are easily deceived by Satan into believing his lie that God’s words don’t work. But this is just a major part of the process that is working only in the unseen supernatural spiritual “Faith” realm. Natural seeds must develop roots long before you see any fruits. So, it is also in the spiritual dimension.

Thank you for reading, liking and sharing these Bible lessons with others. The Word of God will work if we do not let it go out of our heart. In John 15:7 Jesus says we must abide in Him and His Words abide in us…”. This simply means the word is alive in our heart and remains watered. If there is ever a spiritual drought of not receiving the Word of God, for whatever reasons, the lack of watering will cause the roots, plants and fruits to whither dry up and die. That is not a positive outcome of any beginning faith amount.

God Bless you and keep you and never forget, Jesus is returning very soon!