“From the Heart” teaching by Drs. Rodney & Adonica Howard-Browne.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23 KJV

The Greek word for faith means a firm persuasion, belief, believe, trust, trustworthiness, confidence, acceptance, fidelity and moral conviction. It means reliance upon Jesus Christ for salvation. Faith has to do with what you believe and also the strength of that belief. The word faith is also used to refer to your belief system.

Simply put, faith means believing strongly in God and believing strongly that everything that He says is true. It means to be firmly persuaded. We must have faith in the grace and mercy of God. The only way we can obtain God’s grace and mercy is by faith – we cannot work for it. If you could earn God’s grace then you would not need faith in God. Our faith is essential – not only to ensure our salvation, but in order that we may receive the fulfillment of every promise of God that has been made to us.

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring– not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.      As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed– the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead– since he was about a hundred years old– and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Romans 4:16-21 NIV

Faith is not believing in God only — faith is believing in God without wavering. Faith calls those things that are not as though they are! Faith agrees with the Word of God and not with what we see or feel. Faith speaks the Word of God only — not doubt and unbelief. If you swing between faith and doubt then you don’t have faith at all. You can only have one or the other – not both. Doubt neutralizes your faith. Faith is only faith if you don’t have a plan B.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:6-8 NKJ

We don’t get from God the things that He has promised just because He promised them, we get them because we believe that His promises are true.

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

16      But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  Romans 10:8-17 NKJ

When we believe God’s Word in our heart then we will speak it out of our mouth. Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing the Word of God. You will only be full of what you meditate upon. Luke 6:45 says that we speak out of the overflow of what is in our heart in abundance. And our confession must be in line with our faith or we will not get what we say we are believing for. The fruit of the work of the Spirit in our life is an increase in our faith and trust in God. The more we learn of God, the more we learn to trust Him, because He is faithful who has promised (Hebrews 10:23)!