Jesus' Faith is a paramount principle within Grats. That probably doesn't surprise you. We discuss some of the genesis of Grats and it's "Jesus Faith" here - https://www.gratsllc.com/post/living-by-faith.
But what does "Jesus Faith" even mean?
Maybe our mind goes to the passage in the book of Hebrews that says:
"Now faith is the [a]assurance of things [b]hoped for, the [c]conviction of things not seen." (Hebrew 11:1 NASB1995)
Footnotes
Hebrews 11:1 Or substance
Hebrews 11:1 Or expected
Hebrews 11:1 Or evidence
I don't know about you, but I have always felt that I never truly understood what this passage meant. It may not help that the potential, variable translations of certain key words, can seem to adjust what was intended to be stated. I mean, what I hope for at times can be VERY different than what I expect. Don't believe me?
Have you ever disciplined your child for not doing what you had hoped? I hope you haven't.
However, parents often, rightly discipline their child for not adhering to what is clearly expected of them.
That difference is certainly not just word play or semantics to the person being disciplined.
If you line up the 6 potential variant words together: Assurance, hoped, substance, expected, conviction, and evidence - hoped seems to be the wrong choice of translated word to use here.
I believe that Hebrews 11:1 is telling us that:
"...faith is the assurance/substance of things expected, the conviction/evidence of things not seen." (Hebrew 11:1 NASB1995).
So, faith is when you fully know that what hasn't happened yet, is going to happen. Faith is when you fully know something is, has happened, is taking place, that you cannot see is, has happened, or is taking place.
Our lives are filled with faith every day. Faith in the sunrise and sunset. Faith in the seasons changing. Faith in what people are doing, even though we aren't there to see them do it.
So, faith is trusting what we don't see and/or what hasn't happened yet, as if we saw it and it was already done.
Oh, but do we trust the words of Jesus with the same unconscious trust that we have in the sun rising and setting?
And notice how faith is always surrounded by action. That isn't by mistake.
In fact, faith is most clearly seen in the action that takes place out of truth revealed.
If the sun wasn't ever going to set, we would all buy heavy curtains for our bedrooms. The fact that we don't all have heavy curtains in our bedrooms is a testament to the faith that we have that the sun will set.
But notice that if the truth became that we were told the sun would never set, and we trusted that truth, then the action of that faith would be to go buy heavy curtains for our bedrooms. If we didn't make any adjustments in our actions because of this altering truth, then it is often evidence that we don't really believe it... we don't really have faith that it is true.
This is why "Jesus Faith" is the currency of heaven while we are here on Earth.
This is why God has implicated Himself to be moved to action by "Jesus Faith". This is why Jesus constantly said it will be done for you, according to your faith. And this is why I have been placed on a mission to invest in, pray for, seek out, and stockpile as much "Jesus Faith" as I can. The days are coming and are already here, when you and I will need as much of that currency as possible saved up, to pay the bills that get put in front of us.
So, what does your faith bank account look like these days?