 Yeah. Okay. Welcome back students and feel free to, if you have any questions, put them in the chat and I'll look at it from time to time. All right. So let's continue from where we stop. We are, we're just talking about what, let's get some water here. Thank you. All right. So we're talking about what faith is, right? So faith is the substance of things, hopeful. Right. And we said that word substance is the confirmation, it's the title deed, or some versions would say it's a proof of ownership, a proof of ownership of things we hope for. It's also the foundation, the groundwork of things. Right. So our faith in God brings what we hope for, what we desire for, brings those things out of the realm of hope into the realm of reality. It brings it from the being in the future into the present. Okay. So faith in God, continue on that verse. It says it's the evidence of things not seen, the evidence. The evidence means it's the proof. It's the conviction of things not seen. That means you can't see it to your physical senses. It's not there. It's not seen. But faith is the conviction. It's the proof of things not seen. So like how the Amplified Bible puts it, the second part of this verse, it says being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of the reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. So notice what? Faith is the evidence of things not seen. That means faith is convinced about things that our senses cannot touch or cannot realize. For example, we have never seen God. I won't see. We haven't seen God. But you know you're convinced in your heart and said God is. So that conviction is faith. Faith is the proof. It's the conviction of things not seen. Can't see. You convinced. So in our walk of faith, as we live by faith, there'll be many things you can't see. The the senses are not saying it's not there. But in your heart, you're convinced about it. That is faith. That conviction in your heart, that assurance in your heart is faith. And that's what we're talking about. And that is what God responds to. And that is what causes mighty things to happen. Now, in the New Testament, like I mentioned, there is faith and there is also the word believe. And just this is just as a matter of interest. So when you look up the Greek, the word for faith, it's a noun. Whereas the word believe is a verb. Now, that means faith is something, you know, it's something you have. But when you put it into action, that's believing. Okay. So believe is always an active thing. It's a verb. It's action. And so your faith is a noun. believing is a verb. Verb is something you act to do. It's an action. Just, you know, just for us to understand, but we will use them interchangeably. So when we say believing, believing is the act of having faith. It's the act of having faith, believing. You believe God. That means you're putting your faith into action. You're doing something with your faith. That's believing God. It's the act of having faith. Okay. So, you know, there are many other words we can use, you know, we can say conviction, we can talk about persuasion, assurance, confidence, all of these words, you know, can be used to talk about that, what you have in your heart concerning faith. Right. That is, you believe that something is true with conviction and constancy. So faith is believing that something is true with conviction and constancy. That means you continue to believe it. So that's faith. Right. Now, faith is different from knowledge, just knowledge, which sometimes we call it, you know, just mental asset. Knowing something, you can know something in your head. That's knowledge. But faith is of the heart. That means it's an inner conviction. Some people, you know, they know, I know God is good. God is powerful. God can do anything. You know, meaning it's knowledge, it's information you have in your head. But that is not faith because if you know something, but you don't act on it, you can't do something with it. Then you don't really believe it. Example, if I had a chair here next to me and I said, the chair has four legs, the chair is very strong. The chair can hold my baits. I can say wonderful things about the chair. But if I'm afraid to sit on it, I don't have faith. I only have knowledge. But if I really believe what I say, I will sit on the chair. I'll put my whole weight on it. Let the chair hold me up. But many people are like that. They will admire the chair. Yes, the chair can hold me. Chair has four legs. Chair is very nice, very colorful. They'll say, come and sit on it. No, no, I don't want to sit on it. I have no faith. So there's a difference between knowing something, saying that it is right, and then actually acting on that knowledge. So what is faith? If you're so convinced in your heart, you'll go sit on the chair. So I'll sit on it. I know I won't fall. I know the chair can hold me. I'll sit on it. So you're acting your faith. So there's a difference there between intellectual knowledge or mental ascent and faith. So don't confuse it too. Because some people can say nice things mentally. Oh, I believe in God. I believe God is powerful. I believe God is great. I believe God can do this. God can heal. Okay, then come on. Let's, let's believe, let's act on it. Let's do something with it. Oh, no, no, no, I cannot. Then that is not real faith because faith is acting on it. Doing something. If you really believe, act on it. So we shouldn't confuse the two. Right. And so here in the bottom of that page, I give you the Greek word for substance. You know, what I've just explained in the earlier session. It's the groundwork. It is also used to refer to title deeds. And this is a Greek word for evidence, which means conviction or proof. And a lot of what I've spoken already is in the notes. I would encourage you to go and read it just to refresh what I've said, but you know, I've covered most of these points here, you know, that we must have things hoped for in order to have faith. B, faith is the groundwork. It's a solid foundation. Otherwise, what we hope for would just be fantasy. C, faith gives substance or brings into reality. What you're hoping for, faith is a proof of ownership. That's D. And then E, faith is the conviction. Right. So let's move on to another. So we're just looking at introducing faith. What is faith? Faith connects us to God. Faith connects us to God. So if you want to imagine, you can imagine faith like a switch, a switch. Okay. So there are switches around in this building somewhere here, there. So you can imagine this on one side of the switch, there is power coming electricity is coming. It's connected to power source. Other side of the switch, you put in a device. Right. So for example, right there on that switch, there's a fan plugged in there. Power is coming through those wires till that switch or what is there till that point, you put the fan, plug the fan in. Fan is not working still. It's like this, almost connected. Fan is not working. That doesn't mean there is no power on the other side. Power is there. You have plugged it in, almost connected. One thing we have to do, switch. When you turn the switch on, it connects the fan to the power. Then the fan starts rotating. So faith is like that switch. This is an example. It's like that switch. God is on the other side. He's full of, He's powerful. He's mighty. He's holy. He's good. He's the healer. He's everything. God, there's no shortage with God. We are on this side. We need something to happen in our lives. The fan needs to rotate. We need something to happen in our lives. Maybe healing. Maybe something else. We are there. Almost there. One thing has to happen. Faith. Faith connects us to, I mean, the connection happens. Then whatever is in God, His healing power, His provision can flow into our lives. How do we say that? Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6. It says, without faith, Hebrews 11, 6, without faith, it is impossible to please God. But if you put that same statement in a positive way, we can say with faith, we please, without faith, impossible. God is not pleased. But with faith, you and I, please, God is pleased with faith. And He who comes to God must believe that He is, that His God exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And you seek Him. In faith, what does He do? He rewards you. So you are going to God in faith because that's the beginning of the verse. So with faith, we please Him because we believe that God is and God rewards those who diligently seek Him with faith. So when you diligently seek Him with faith, what does He do? He rewards you. That means He gives Him to you. He does something in your life and mind. But you must have faith on that. So faith connects us with God. Very important. Very important. We must keep that in mind. And remember this, one more thought, one more thought. God is spirit, spiritual being. We are in the natural world. We are natural beings in the sense that we have a body. But we are also spiritual beings. We are spirit, soul and body. So we have the capacity while we are living in this natural world to also connect to the spiritual world. Because we are spirit, soul and body. God is spirit, spiritual being. So how can we connect with God? It is through faith in our spirit, in our heart. Through faith in our heart, we connect with God, spirit to spirit, we connect. And then God works through our spirit into the natural world. Okay, very important. So faith is of the heart. We'll talk more about that as we go along. Third important thing, faith is required to please God. We already explained that. So without faith, we can't please Him. But faith pleases God. So you and I, we want to live lives pleasing to God. We want to live lives that are pleasing to God. How can we do that? If we live by faith. Now, if you are living by faith, God, I believe you. I believe your word. I believe what you have spoken. I believe your promises and I'm living by your word. I'm living in line with the expectation of your promises. As we live by faith, God is pleased with it. Amen. So God is pleased when we live by faith. Another important truth, is this, that faith is in the person of Jesus Christ. So faith is in the person. Whom are you trusting? Whom are you believing? You are believing Jesus Christ. So Hebrews 12 verse 2 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So who is Jesus? He is the author. I mean, he is the originator. He is the one who gave us the faith. Our faith comes from Him, the author, the source, the founder. And He is the finisher. He's the completer, the perfecter of our faith. So our faith starts with Jesus and is completed in the person of Jesus. So I must remember, our faith is in Jesus Christ. Now, He will never fail. His word is always true. You know, who He is, our faith is in Him, in Jesus Christ, you know. Mark 11 verse 22, Jesus said, have faith in God. So your faith is not in some human person. Your faith is not in some organization. Your faith is in God. It's in Jesus Christ, the person. So the more you know Him, the more you can have faith in Him. When you understand who is Jesus, how powerful He is, how great He is, the more you can have faith in Him. So get to know Him, get to know the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith. Another important thing is this. Faith is based on relationship. Now, faith is in the Word of God, but it is based on a relationship we have with God. So example, you know, suppose there is a man, suppose I just think, imagine, I am living in some other country in this world where I don't know who Narendra Modi is. I don't know. I'm living in some country. I don't know who Narendra Modi is. Somebody came and told me, Narendra Modi said, I'll give you a chocolate. It will mean nothing to me. I don't know who Narendra Modi is. So somebody came and told me he'll give you a chocolate. So who is he? I don't know. But if you're somebody who knows, say, you're living in India, you know who Narendra Modi is. Somebody can say, hey, he's giving chocolate to every Indian citizen in the country on his birthday, whatever. This is making up a story. Then you'll believe, yeah. And he told everyone, you go to your nearest store, you'll get your chocolate. You'll go there with the expectation. Why? Because you know the person, or at least in this case, you know who the person is. You may not know him personally, if you don't know him personally, but you know who the person is. So you believe whatever he has spoken. And then you can go with expectation and get whatever he has promised. So faith is based on relationship, knowing the person. When you know Jesus, when you have a relationship with Jesus, then you believe his Word because you know him. You believe whatever he says. So faith is based on a personal relationship with God. So, you know, although we use examples like a switch or you know, sowing a seed, other things, most importantly, we must know that we, if you have a relationship with God, a personal relationship with God, you know who God is, then you can have faith in what he said. So when you know God as Jehovah Rafa, then you can believe when he said, I will heal you of all your sicknesses, all your diseases. So when you know him as a person, then you can believe in what he has spoken. Another important aspect about faith is that faith is of the heart. Romans chapter 10 verse 10. We will study Romans chapter 10 in detail a little later on. But I want us to just look at the first part of the verse. It says, with the heart, one believes, with the heart, one, so do you believe with your mind or do you believe with your heart? With the heart, one, the mind is important. With the mind we understand, we think, we have logic. But your heart can believe beyond what your mind knows, your heart can believe beyond your mind. See, in my mind, my mind says, I have never seen God. But God never came and shook hands with me. Hello, I say, how are you? So in my mind, my mind is saying, you've never seen God. But my heart says, I know God is there. So my mind, my heart is going beyond my mind. Now, mind is important. It is how we talk, we communicate, we learn, we understand. All that God gave us our mind, but God is bigger than our mind, our brain, our understanding. And so with the heart, we believe. My mind recognizes fact, my heart embraces truth. So, example, my mind can tell me your body is feeling pain, the body is hurting, the body is not well. My mind recognizes that. It's a fact. But then your heart says, the Lord is my healer. Your heart says, Christ took my sicknesses and bore my disease by his tribes have been healed. So your heart can go beyond just what your mind says. The mind is telling you your body is sick, but your heart says, I believe God is my healer. So with our heart, we believe. I understand, right? So why is this important? Because Second Corinthians 5 verse 7 says, we walk by faith, not by science. That means my mind uses my five natural senses. What I see here is my taste in touch. It uses my five natural senses, but we live by what we believe, by faith. We are not limited to the five senses. So we live by faith, we walk by faith, not by sight, not by the limitations of the five senses. So there can be times, and I'll say this, there can be times when you have questions in your mind, but you still believe in your hearts. There can be times when you have unanswered questions in your mind, but you still believe in your heart. For example, I don't know everything about how this universe came into existence. I don't know. I know something, but I don't know everything. In fact, no scientist knows everything. Every scientist is studying little piece here, piece there, piece there. So no single person knows everything, how this universe came into existence. Somebody asks me, can you explain everything? How come there are so many billions of stars? And how come there are so, how did it all come into, I see, I can't explain I believe God said and it happens. That is enough for me. Can I explain it with my mind? Do I understand all the equations, mathematical calculations? No, I don't. So there are unanswered questions in my mind, but I can still believe in my heart. My heart does. I'm convinced God is there. God is so powerful that when he spoke the words, this big universe came into existence. So big. I believe it's enough for me. I don't understand all the equations and the physics and the chemistry and the astronomy. I don't understand. It's okay. I have questions, unanswered questions in my head, but I believe in my heart. So understand the difference. Okay. With the heart, man believes. The mind we think, we reason, we study, we analyze, which is fine, but it is limited. The heart can go beyond that. You believe with the heart. Okay. And so we live by what we believe in our heart. God calls us to live by. So don't limit yourself to your mind. Of course, we use our mind. Of course, we think, we understand all of that. Of course, we use our mind, but the Bible repeats many places that just shall live by faith or the person who believes in God, who lives before God. We live by faith. Romans 1 17 and in many other places. So the way we go about our life is that we live by faith. Now here is the challenge for all of us. How to use our mind and at the same time how to live by faith. We have to use both. Example, when you walk down the stairs, you have to use your mind. You can't just say, I'm by faith. I'm going to class. You carefully have to come down the stairs. Otherwise you might hurt yourself. So we have to use our minds for many things, but then we also have to be able to switch over to move in faith anytime we need to. So we're doing both. Many times we're living according to our mind, which is correct. But there are times you switch over and you're living by faith. You're moving by faith. That means you're moving by what you believe in your heart. It's beyond your mind. Are you with me? You understand? So that's how we live a life. So not everybody understands us. If we live only by our mind, they will fully understand. But we're not only living by our mind. We're also moving by faith. And when we move by faith, they don't understand. That is different. We move by faith. Okay. And God has called us to live by faith. So how does faith come? How is faith developed in our lives? Romans 10 verse 17, again a familiar verse, this says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Or to put it simply, it sounds this English sentence structure is a little confusing. But to put it plainly, what the apostle Paul is saying is, faith comes by hearing the word of God. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. So because you know who God is, when he speaks his words and you believe that word, then faith, faith, that word gives faith in our hearts when you hear the word of God. So when you hear the word of God, God says, I will supply for all your needs. I will supply for all your needs. And God says that you believe that then you have faith in your heart. My God will supply because God said it. So faith is based on the word of God. So whatever you and I, whatever we want to believe or receive from God, first very important thing, we must have the word of God. Right? Don't go based on just an imagination. You have to go based on the word of God. God has said it in the Bible. God has spoken it. That's why I have faith. His word gives, produces faith in our hearts. You've understand so far, right? So faith comes through the word of God and therefore it is also nurtured by the word. So we constantly hear the word. We constantly feed ourselves with the word of God and that will continually build our faith. Now, there are times that God may speak a specific word. That means he may give you a specific word in your heart by his Holy Spirit or through prophecy, so on. And that word, that specific word will also produce faith in our hearts. Okay? So the example, in Acts 27, when Paul was in the middle of a storm and the ship, an angel of God came to him and he said, Paul, don't be afraid. You will come before Caesar and God will also protect those who are sailing with you. And so Paul says in Acts 27, verse 25, he says, I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. So here his faith is based on a very specific word God has spoken to him in that situation, right? So there will be times when God, by his Spirit, will give you a word very specific in your situation. You believe it, God spoken to me, that'll work out, it'll happen, you know? And so that also builds faith. So faith comes to the written word of God, it also comes through a word, a specific word God has spoken to you in your heart. Okay? Any questions so far? You all with me? Okay? Let me just check the chat. Any questions here? All right, those of you online, all good? Okay, feel free to type your questions if you have any questions. All right. Now, faith in the word is faith in God. So when you believe the word of God, you're actually believing God. Right? That means you're trusting God when you trust his words. So some people say, God, I believe in you. Okay? But do you believe what God said in the Bible? No. How then how can you say believe in God? Because to believe in God is to believe his words. If you don't believe his word, then you're not really believing God. Or to put it in a positive way, faith in the word is faith in God's. Because you're really believing the one who spoke that word. Say, God spoke it. I believe he is true. I believe he cannot lie. I believe whatever he said, he will fulfill. So faith in the word is faith in God. A great example is in Matthew 8. It's about the Sancturian. You know, the Sancturian comes to Jesus and he's, you know, Jesus says, you know, for a servant and Jesus says, you know, I'll come to your house and I'll heal your servant. He says, Lord, just speak the words and my servant will be healed. He said, only speak a word and my servant will be healed. Only speak a word. Just say it. Just speak the word. It's enough. And Jesus said, this man has great faith. This man has great faith. Jesus says, I have not seen such great faith. So what is great faith? It's just believing the word of God. Just believe. You just got, you said it. I believe. It's enough for me. And Jesus called that great faith. We will study more on this. So faith in the word is faith in God itself. Faith is like a muscle. I'll just one more point in the week. Then we'll stop for today. Faith is like a muscle. We said this earlier. It grows as it is exercised. The more you use it, the more it'll grow, the stronger it'll become. See Romans 12 verse 3, it says, you know, through the grace Paul says, so the grace given to me to everyone who's not among you, not to think of himself more highly than you ought to think. But it thinks so, believe as God has dealt or given to each one a measure of faith. Notice it says God has given to each one a measure of faith. So you as a believer, God has given you a measure of faith. He gave us all equal measure starting example. Just example. To all of us, he gave one cup of faith. Take, start with this. Then as you keep using it, it's going to become more and more in your life. So God has dealt to each one, every believer a measure of. So you have faith in your heart. God gave it to you when you got saved. So we were saved by grace through faith, that faith God gave. So each one of us was given a measure of faith. But that measure of faith can grow. It can become become more and more as we use that faith. Okay. We look at this verse. We'll stop here. So Paul is writing to the Thessalonians. He says, we are bound to thank God always for your brethren as it is fitting because your faith grows. Your faith grows. So God gave them a measure of faith, but they were using it. So Paul is saying, Hey, your faith is growing. He's excited. I mean, they didn't keep this one cup, put it in the fridge, make it cold. No, the faith is growing. So he's excited. He's saying, brethren, I'm thanking God for you. I'm so happy about you because your faith is growing. So we must learn how to grow our faith. They're going to learn. They're going to learn. Okay. So God has given to every believer the same measure to start. But then some of us grow our faith. We can all of us can grow our faith, make it stronger and do mighty things through faith in God. Okay. So we're going to pause here. I know you still have time. Any questions on what we discussed so far? What's your question, please? Can I pronounce the Greek words? I can try. But I'm not a Greek scholar, so I don't even know if I would pronounce it correctly. Let's give it a try. Just for some fun. All right. So we go back to what faith is. Faith is, yeah, I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right. And then believe the word pistio. Right. And what else? What are the other Greek words here? Hupostasis for the word substance. Hupostasis. Evidence. Elencos. Elencos. So I'm just making it up. I don't know whether it's right or wrong. Okay. But if you want, you could go online and tell Google to pronounce it for you. Okay. Any other questions? Yes. Sean. Yes. I'll learn all your names soon. Right. Sorry. Faith is, oh, credence. Oh, faith is credence. Yeah. It's in the notes. So the word credence is to build something that is true. Okay. Faith is credence. And so Sean's question is what, what does, what do you mean by credence? So credence is to believe something as true. That means faith is believing something as true with conviction and constant. So, so for example, if I give credence, that means I am saying that thing is true. Give credit to give credit to something means I'm saying that this true. So faith believes something as true with conviction, fully convinced and constancy. That means through time. That means days may come and go, but I still believe that is true. So faith is to believe something is true with conviction and constants. That's what we meant. Any other questions? Let me check online. If any questions here? All good? Krishnam? Prabhu, Deepika, Nina? Oh, good. Let me see here. Basta, can I ask you a question? Samuel, Surya. Okay. Yeah. All right. Am I? We'll pause here for today. Next week, right, as we journey on faith. And like I said, just take time to practice whatever you're learning. Begin to put it in your life. Okay. Let's take a moment to pray together and then we will close this class. Father, we thank you for this two hours, almost two hours, where we could start our journey learning about faith. I pray the Holy Spirit will be our teacher. I pray the Holy Spirit will give revelation. I pray the Holy Spirit will give understanding God to each one of us and maybe get a good understanding, a good grip on how to live by faith. Maybe put it into practice in our lives and maybe see the mighty works of God. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. We'll have a 10 minute break and get ready for your next class. Thank you.