YEAR OF FLOURISHING AND THRIVING SUPERNATURALLY
How Faith Works
By Rev (Dr) Sam Oye
Romans 4: 17-22 (Msg)
“We call Abraham ‘father’ not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because
God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read
in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, ‘I set you up as father of many peoples’? Abraham was first
named ‘father’ and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God
could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything
was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he
couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of
peoples. God himself said to him, ‘You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!’ Abraham didn’t
focus on his own impotence and say, ‘It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never
father a child.’ Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around
God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up
strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said,
‘Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.’”
Faith is positive response to God’s word with corresponding action. It is not faith if you say you
believe what God says and do not act on it.
The proof of faith is action. In order words, the proof that you believe in what God says would be
demonstrated in what you do. It is how we act that truly demonstrates what we believe. Saying
that God will give you a child is not necessarily the proof of faith; but going to the market to get
baby stuff is your physical demonstration of eternal belief. God is constantly moved when He
sees faith in action. He loves to be believed and hates to be doubted.
Another word for faith is confidence and trust in God and the reason we have that in God is
because of His ability and faithfulness. God deserves our confidence in Him because He is faithful
and able, it is a rare thing to have in human.
Our God is eternally consistent to all men when it comes to being able and faithful. It is loss to
find a man who is faithful and able to some people but God is faithful to all men who will believe
in Him.
Five things to remember about faith
1 Faith sees the impossible It sees what others cannot see. Practically, a man built an ark even
when it was yet to rain. The proof of his faith when God told him that there would be rain is that
the man went ahead to build the ark. God told Elijah and Elijah also told Ahab that there would
be rain; the proof of his belief was that this man began to run even though he knew that there
had not been rain for past years.
2 Faith sees the invisible
Our necessary response to God is demonstrated by our action. What do you see? In the Bible,
Jeremiah had to see also from the frequency of God.3 Faith believes the incredible
God always speaks the incredible so that it could be miraculous. Walked on water, turned water
to wine, fed five thousand people with just five loaves and two fishes; these things do not make
sense. There are results you cannot see when you reduce all things only to the realm of sense.
4 Faith declares the unthinkable
When faith talks, it does not make sense. If you must walk with God, you must learn to speak of
things that seem impossible or out of sense.
5 Faith receives it before it happens
The proof that you will receive anything would be demonstrated by your praise. People rejoice
most times because of what they believe that they have received. It is by this demonstration of
faith that we possess the unimaginable.
How does faith works?
1 It must be born in you When we give our lives to God and hear the word of God, faith is born
in us.
2 Faith must grow: Our faith level is not the same and because of this, what we command and
the results we get cannot be the same. Result is not by age. Also, how long you have been in the
Kingdom of God does not determine your result but your level of faith.
3 Faith must be exercised for it to produce result: Faith that is not engaged will not produce
results or grow. What are the proofs that you are a believer? Mark 16: 17-18 (KJV) “And these
signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with
new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
We do not see result most times because faith has been secularized. It has been brought to a
case of ‘by sense’. The Bible says the just shall live by faith because faith is superior to sense. It
hears what your ears cannot hear and what your eyes cannot see. In essence, faith goes beyond
where sense has stopped.
Know that fasting kills the flesh and destroys your doubt. Food and pleasure dulls the spiritual
senses. One of the reasons you are blinded to your spiritual realities is your secret desires. If you
have inordinate secret desires for anything, the enemy uses that against you.
Who has therefore penetrated into your circle? Who are you exposing yourself to? The Bible says
that for days a particular woman followed the ministry of Apostle Paul even to the place of
prayer. One day, Paul was grieved in the spirit and the Lord opened his eyes to the woman in his
midst. Paul turned to the woman and challenged her until the spirit came out of her. It was until
then Paul realized that there are even other strange spirits amongst them. Prayers is not enough
but sensitivity to the spirit. If you function in the intelligence realm and not spiritual realm, you
are easily pulled down.
Proximity comprises your faith. It comprises your ability to believe God. One of the strategies of
the adversary is to get closer; the more helpful or empathetic they are towards you, the more
you find it difficult to believe what God is saying about them to you. Paul, after coming out from
a ship wreck, was cold and then he gathered sticks around him. Then he set a fire and the fire
fetched out a viper amongst the wood. It is at your lowest moment the adversary gets you. Watch out for what you normally need to depend on people for. The only reason you could be brought
down is due to proximity; it is always somebody close to you; therefore, be friendly from afar.
