In this piece, we are going to consider a topic or a title that says “THE SUBSTANCE OF OUR FAITH”. And if you want to add to the topic, you can write “How a Believer Can Cultivate His or Her Faith”. Hallelujah!

Let's quickly open to Hebrews 11 verses 1 to 3, which is our major text. I will read now:

 

Now faith is the ^[a]substance of things hoped for, the ^[b]evidence of things not seen. ² For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. ³ By faith we understand that the ^[c]worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

 

Like we rightly pray, there is a person that God has intended that you and I must become. There is a person of our destiny. And if we will become that man or that woman that we must become, then there is a need that us to understand the substance of our faith. The faith of a believer, out of everything that a believer can ever have, his greatest possession is his faith.

 

In the world, people believe that everything rises and falls with leadership. But in the kingdom, everything in the life of a believer rises and falls on his or her faith. Even if you become a leader in the kingdom of God, it depends on your faith. Faith makes us; any man we will become; any woman will become, in the hands of God, in the kingdom of God is based on our faith. When we check through the scripture, men and women who mounted to great things in the hand of God, mounted to it by their faith.

 

When we talk about Abraham, it is by faith. When we talk about Moses, it is by faith. When we talk about the early part of the life of Adam, it was by faith. So, men rise by their faith. Men in the past rose by their faith. And the lack of it caused many to fall.

 

When the Bible was given an account concerning Noah, the Bible says that he did everything according to the Word of the Lord. He did everything according to the Word of the Lord, which means he believed the Lord. When the word of the Lord came to him, he was not trying to check or negotiate the Word of God; he did everything according to the Word of God.

 

So, the place we read says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,” is the substance of things hoped for. Now, if I am hoping for something, maybe I hope to get a car, humanly, if I'm hoping to get a car, what will make me hope to get a car depends on the resources that I have. If a man is hoping to get a car, in my case, maybe I'm hoping to get a bicycle, another man is hoping to get a car based on the level of our resources. Also, in the kingdom of God, our hope is based on the substance of our faith. You cannot hope to get something beyond your resources. So, in the same way in the kingdom, there is no way we can hope to do great things when the substance of what we are depending on to do that thing is small.

 

A man that is suffering from a chronic sickness cannot be hoping to receive maybe money from a poor man to go to hospital, because he knows the poor man cannot provide it. A man who is looking maybe in search of a wife cannot hope for something that cannot make it happen. So the substance of our hope determines what we can make happen, what we can hope for. So whether a man has a great faith or a small faith it is based on the sentence. We can’t hope beyond the substance that we have. So, the substance defines our hope.

 

That is why we must understand the substance of our faith because it is the sentence that matters; it is what is going to define the degree of faith that we have.

 

Quickly before we continue, I want to mention some things, some facts about this substance. In many generations, we've heard of so many persons that the Bible will say this man had great faith. And we say that what is responsible for that great faith is the substance. Because it is not magic, it doesn't happen suddenly, there is nobody that will suddenly have it. It depends on something.

 

So, one thing about the substance of our faith or the substance of a believer’s faith is that “it is the substance of our faith that is the nutrient that grows our faith”. It is a substance of our faith, of a believer’s faith, that is responsible for or the nutrient that grows the faith of the believer. If you say the child is not growing well, it depends on what kind of food is the father giving the child; and what kind of food is the mother giving the child. If my faith will grow, because we have said that anything we will become or will never become, is based on the level of our faith or based on the lack of our faith.

 

When we don't have faith, we can’t become what God wants us to be. So, it is the substance of our faith that is the nutrient for the strength or the growth of our faith. It is not a product of magic.

 

In Luke chapter 2 verse 14, the Bible says, “The child grew and became strong in the Spirit”. You know, when we're talking about the growth of faith, grow your faith, let your faith grow, it's not as if another height is going to add to us, or there is something in us that's supposed to grow fat. One thing is that, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 13, Apostle Paul talked about the Spirit of faith. So, at our new birth, we receive this Spirit of faith. Then the growth of our faith now means: we growing, that is, our spirits, getting strength, to become one with the Spirits that we have received, with the Spirit of God that we have received. We growing, and we learning to yield to the leadership of the Spirit that we receive. That is how we grow. It does not mean maybe we're 10 feet, and then we now grow to 12 feet. No! it is the strength of our spirit becoming one, the Bible says, “The child grew,”, Jesus grew and became strong in the Spirit; became one with the Spirit that is in Him; with the Spirit of God that is in Him. And that is how God expects us to grow. And that is why we said there is a man that we must become, and that man, or that woman we must become, it’s we becoming one with the Spirit of faith that we received as a gift from the Lord.

 

If we do not grow, though we have the spirit, we will not be effective, we will not be able to command results; will not be able to achieve anything. We are living in a generation, this generation we are today, we have so much, God has given us so much, and no generation is as rich; the church in that generation is as rich as the generation that we are. You talk about human resources, who have more human resources, but when we talk about spiritual impact, result, spiritual impact, spiritual results, we are more destitute of spiritual reality than any generation that has ever gone. And it is because we never become the man or the woman that we must become. We do not grow into the fullness. The Bible says that God expects us to grow into the fullness of Christ: becoming one with His Spirit. When the Bible says, “It is those that the Spirit of God leads them that are sons and daughters of God,” it is only a man or a woman that has become one with the Spirit that the Spirit can direct; that Spirit can lead. If it is two persons in a body: you and the Spirit of God in you, leadership will not be possible.

 

So, when Jesus grew and became strong in Spirit; in John chapter 7 verses 15 to 16, the Jews had an encounter with him. And the Bible says, “They marvelled, how come this man has never studied, but He knows letters”. And Jesus answered and said that My doctrine is not of me. My doctrine is not of this world. My curriculum is not of this world. My nutrient is not sourced in this world. The substance of my growth, of my hope, of my life is not in the academic work of your school. Not like we have different seminary schools and all theological schools and all of that; money that should have been used to build industries and companies to employ believers, we waste them.

 

So, it is the substance of our faith, and this substance of our faith is the resources, the nutrients for the growth of our faith.

 

Number two: The substance of our faith is a constant factor. You cannot say it is because I am in Nigeria, and I've never travelled to Jerusalem which is why I don't have great faith. No! It is a constant factor. Whether you are in Cameroon, you are in the UK, you are in Ghana, you are in Nigeria, you are in Togo, He is a constant factor. The substance of believers' faith is a constant factor. You cannot say it is because apple fruit does not grow well in Nigeria that is why I planted or cultivated apple fruit in Nigeria, and it does not yield fruit. No, He is a constant factor.

 

No matter your level or hierarchy or position in a society, a society that has only one source of water, one source of water, one river, no matter your title, the water you will have at home is dependent on how much water you go and fetch. If you fetch small water, you have small water. If your household members do not go and fetch water or buy, you will be left without water.

 

When we don't have access to the substance, we don't have a connection with the substance, then we don't have the opportunity to grow our faith. Then our faith will remain a baby-like faith. Apostle  Peter was speaking in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 2, he said, “Being babes desire the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby”. So, it is the substance that determines our growth, is the nutrient.

 

The last one: Faith is not luck. Faith is not an item on the shelf, you cannot say My Father as you are going, please; help me buy faith from that market when you are coming. No! It is not an item on the shelf. And it is not a bottled product. It's not what you put inside a bottle. You know how many people will say, ‘It is what you believe that will work for you,’ Sir/Ma, it is not believers’ faith that we're referring to. You cannot be talking about believers’ faith and you are saying, ‘It is what you believe that will work for you’. So, when something or concoction is put in a bottle, and is given to you, as long as you believe, it will work. As long as what you are hoping for, that is, what will bring to pass what you are hoping for, is not this common substance we are talking about, then you are on the other side. You are not in; you are not of the faith of Christ. When Apostle Paul was talking about this believers’ faith, he said the life I live now; I don't live by my power. I don't live by the knowledge of men. I live this life by the faith that is in the Son of God. (Read Galatians 2 verse 20.) So, this faith we are talking about is a faith that has to do with Jesus. Somebody may have faith in other things; may have faith in a particular shrine; that is not the faith we're talking about. We're talking about the faith that has been given to us in Christ Jesus to live as a lifestyle. We trust God absolutely without trying to conjure it with something else.

 

So, the faith of a believer is not luck. It's not if you can shout the loudest hallelujah, you receive your faith. The only thing that can happen suddenly as far as this believer’s faith is concerned is you receiving the Spirit. You can receive the Spirit by men of faith laying hand on you, you can receive the Spirit of faith, but that your faith will grow, or become an adult because somebody lay hand on you or pour oil on you is not possible – it is not scriptural.

 

The Bible says, “The child grew and became strong in Spirit,” one with the Spirit that is in Him. The same thing God expects us to become, one with the Spirit that is in us.

 

Quickly, let's see what the substance of a believer’s faith is. Let's look at Matthew chapter 8 verses 5 to 10. It talks about a centurion where the servant was sick. I will read now:

Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, ⁶ saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” ⁷ And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

 

 Just go, don't worry, I will come. When I am done with what I want to do now I will come and heal him. Then the man said, “The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof,” knowledge. The man is speaking based on knowledge, from the place of knowledge, “I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, I say to this one go, and he goes and to another come, and he comes and to my servant, do this and he does it”.

 

^“10 When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”

 

“I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, speak a word,” the faith of this man, the hope that the servant will be healed was based on his knowledge of the substance that can do it. And that substance that can do it is Jesus. So, to this Centurion, the substance of his hope that the servant will be healed again is Jesus. Jesus is his basis; he left his home seeking for Jesus, nothing else. He was not doing one exercise or one activity. No, he was looking for Jesus.

 

So, if I want my faith to grow, I shouldn't be running around looking for cheap prayers. I should be looking for Jesus. He said, “Speak a word”. When you also see in Joshua chapter 10 verses 12, you will see another matter there:

 

¹² Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon;
And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” ¹³ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. ¹⁴ And there has been no day like that, before it or after it that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.

 

Men who were there when this sign, of wonder took place, when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, they could say, “What a mighty man; what a great man!” this kind of a thing has never happened in history. This man is great, wow! We have never seen it before. Just like the people were talking about Jesus, “He has made everything well”. But Sir/Ma, it was not just about that, the wonder, it is not just about Joshua. It is not about him at all. The thing didn't just happen. The matter didn't just happen. The matter didn't just start here, that Joshua commanded the sun and the sun stood still, and the moon stood still, did not just happen. The matter has started from somewhere. And if we want to see where the matter started from, it started from Joshua chapter 1.

 

The matter started in Joshua chapter 1 where the Lord said in verse 3:

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. ⁴ From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. ⁵ No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I[YOUR SUBSTANCE] was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

 

And when he was speaking that day, the Bible said, he spoke in the presence of the Lord, that is, in the eyes of the Lord before all of them. So, it is God. The faith of Joshua, or the hope that Joshua had was built on the substance, of God. God was the substance of his hope. So, everything he did, he did not do it by his strength. He did not do it by maybe sleeping under a rock for three days. Bathing with special soap. No! it was a matter that he followed, he obeyed.

 

When God was selling wisdom to him, God sold wisdom to him; what would give him success and what would make his way prosperous, what would make him be able to achieve destiny, to fulfil destiny, God gave him Genesis chapter 1. And he held to what God gave to him. So, if our faith will command results in our days, as believers in the kingdom, one of the things that will make it happen is our faith. And the level of our faith is based on the substance that we have.

 

So, without God, there is nobody that can come and claim faith in Christ. I don't want to maybe look into how one wants to say it, or what one wants to say, God is the substance of every believer’s faith. Whatever hope we have, we have it that it will be because God is the performer, God is the one who will make it happen. So our faith is to the degree of the God that we have; the amount of God; the degree of God in us, is what will produce every degree of faith in our lives. So, when the amount of God we have, or we have known, is small, our faith will be small. When the amount of God we know is little, our faith will be little. But when we know God so much like this man in the Book of Matthew where we read, he said, “I am also a man under authority; you just say a word [I know that you are also a man under authority, say something] and my servant will be healed”.

 

And also, we can check Daniel chapter 3 verses 16 to 18. You will see when the 3 Hebrew men were declaring the substance of their faith, they were declaring before the king, they said, “Oh King, we know that our God will deliver us, the substance of our faith, of our hope will deliver us, our God is the material, the assurance that we have, that when we are in trouble, He will come for us, deliverance will come for us”.

 

So, it is the substance that matters. So, as believers, one thing the Lord is saying to us today is that we should stop running here and there, looking here and there. Let's look unto Him that is the substance of our hope. That's the substance of our faith. Now, let’s see how a believer can cultivate his or her faith.

 

How Can I Cultivate My Faith

We have seen or seen that the substance of our faith or hope is God. And we say that God, this substance is not a matter of luck, is not a matter of magic, is not a matter of what we can put inside a bottle and say, Just drink it that is all; this one is imported, drink it. No! God cannot be put inside a bottle. And God is not something that can just suddenly happen. The building up of faith is not something that can just suddenly happen. It is something that we must be conscious about; it is something we must be deliberate about. And we say that the substance of our faith is the nutrient for the growth of our faith. And we also mentioned that this substance is not a product of luck. You cannot just wish it, you cannot say let me keep on following this general overseer. As long as I keep following if for any reason, it is not the God in him you are following if it is the vessel, the container, the one that can just fall and the next thing is to go and put him in a mortuary. If it is that one you are following, it can happen.

 

Elisha didn't follow the container. It wasn't the container he was following. When he was asking Elijah, he said, “That the double portion of your spirit comes upon me,” Elisha knew what he was following. So, it is not by mere association in the flesh. You can't grow your faith; your faith cannot grow by mere association in the flesh. It's not possible like that; rather it is what we must partner with the Holy Spirit in the Spirit.  It is a work we must do, it is a spiritual responsibility.

 

So, we have said that God is the substance of our faith. And three basic things we can say about God are that: God is revelational, God is a relationship being, and God is purposeful, intentional, God has Will. If our faith will grow, then we must be ready to engage God through these three cardinal truths about God. God is revelational, God is a relationship being, and God is purposeful and intentional, He has Will.

 

How can we grow our faith or how can this happen?

Number 1:  Fellowshipping with the Spirit of the Word through the study of the Word of God.

When we come to the Word of God, when we carry our Bible, the truth is this; we are not coming to the letters, letters of the word. We're not coming to the letters of the word, we are coming to the spirit of the word. The best thing that the letters can do for anybody is to keep the person busy, is to just give you activities. So, studying the Word of God is not the same thing as reading. The Holy Bible is not a literature material that will read or will say, let me read it for leisure, no! We engage the Spirit of the Word.

 

Let's see what Jesus said in John chapter 6 verse 63. See what Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life”. So, when we come in contact with the Word of God, we are coming in contact with the spirit of the world. And it is when we fellowship with the word that we can have access to the revelation of God or who God is, that the person of God can be revealed to us; that the person of Christ can be revealed to us.

 

Jesus said, “When the spirit comes He will lead us into all truth”. So, the word of God is not what we just read, because we want to say, that we also read the Bible; we studied the Bible. So, a man who says, I have studied my Bible, and you cannot tell that a message drops on your spirit. No, that is not study, because when you study, which we say is fellowshipping with the Spirit, the Spirit drops a message in your spirit, and that becomes your subject of meditation, you can't be meditating on nothing. You don't meditate on letters, you meditate on revelation, and that can only come through fellowship, you fellowship with the spirit of the word, then the counsel of God, and the will of God can be related or revealed to us.

 

In Romans chapter 10 verse 17, the Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” That is revelational. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. God is His word and His word is Him. So, whether we are saying the substance of our faith is God, or the substance of our faith is the word of God, we are saying the same thing. He is the substance of every hope and is the reason anything will happen as far as this kingdom is concerned. Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing,” and this is the absolute truth. There is nothing we can amend about it. So, it is the message that dropped in our spirit that forms the basis for our meditation, and that is the only reason when can say, ‘I have studied the word’.

 

It's not something you read through, I have been there before. Painting the Bible is not a new thing to me. But I know that the best that can do for anybody is to give you activities to do, is to give you head knowledge.

 

Number two:  Fellowship and building a relationship with God through prayers.

When we pray, let's see one thing about prayer that Jesus taught us and is the basis for any prayer that will be effective. If we pray right, what Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew chapter 6 verses 9, must be taken seriously. If not, we'll just pray in vain. Look at what Jesus said in verse 9,  “In this manner, therefore pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come”. “Our Father in heaven,” in other words, ‘Our Father, who is always on his throne, hallowed be your name’. And the first thing we see there in that prayer is nothing but a relationship.

 

When we come into the place of prayer, three basic things happen there. 3 basic things that happen in the place of prayer are fellowship, conversation, and the building of relationships. These 3 things, any prayer that is void of relationship, there is no answer, you are just wasting time, I am just wasting time. Any prayer we pray, because it is the attitude that we bring to the place of prayer that will determine the results we get from there. The place of prayer is the place where we come to seek to know the will of God for us, what to do and what not to do. So, the place of prayer is not a place to bring a long list, we are listing them for God. No! It is a place of relationship, it is a place of fellowship, it is a place where we seek the will of God. So, you can be the initiator, God can be the initiator, but for the fact that you are the initiator of the prayer, or you initiated or kick-started it, you know that a man can decide to come to the presence of a king, and a king can also decide to invite somebody to his presence, both for the fact that you, you are the one that comes into the presence of God do not mean that you should hijack the process, and it is only you that is talking; no fellowship, no relationship, nothing. You are just talking. That is not an effective prayer.

 

In 1 John chapter 5 verses 14 to 15, Apostle John talked about what happens in the place of prayer. He said, “When we pray according to His will, He hears us,” when we pray according to His will, He hears us. That is a relationship. “He hears us,” and because we know that He hears us, we have the confidence that we receive anything that we ask. So, prayer is, first of all, a relationship, it is the life we live, Jesus introduced the people to a lifestyle they should live in a relationship with the Father.

 

Number 3: Living the lifestyle of the word, living by the word of God.

We started by talking about fellowshipping with the spirit of the word, and we said God is revelational. Living the lifestyle of the Word talks about the revelation that we receive in the place of studying the Word, plus the revelation we receive in the place of prayer. What these things are meant to do for us is to form the basis of our lifestyle. Revelations that we received, are not to be kept in the pocket. They are supposed to become our lifestyle. We cannot go to God and after we are done with God, we receive revelation, and then we put them aside and we are now living another lifestyle. It is not right. For us to be able to grow, or for our faith to grow, we have to live the lifestyle of the word.

 

The revelations we received have become our lifestyle. You cannot say it doesn't matter. Even my pastor is doing it. My elders are doing it and it doesn't cause problems. That doesn't guarantee that if you do it, it will not cause problems. Look at the days of Samson in the book of Judges. Everybody in that generation used to barber his or her hair. But the revelation that came to Samson (through his parents), in the place of prayer, in the place of waiting was that razor must not touch his hair.

 

Our lives will become less stressful when we begin to live our lives based on revelation. That is when our faith will begin to gain stamina, and gain roots and no situation will just come and hijack it, push us down, or knock us down. Living the lifestyle of the word.

 

In the case of Sister Mary too, we're living in a generation that the young ones think that virginity is no longer important. But in the days of Mary, one of the things that qualified her for the fulfilment of her life’s destiny was that she was a virgin. You know, in the book of Ezekiel, the Bible says, that God was seeking a man who would stand in the gap. The Bible does not tell us how many times God sought a woman who should give birth to Jesus. But if Mary had not been a virgin, at that time and said, virginity does not matter, that destiny, she would not be the cast for that destiny, she would not be able to fulfil that counsel of God.

 

So, as believers, let's have the understanding that the substance of our faith is the nutrient; is the basis that will determine whether our faith will be small, or it will be big – it is the real thing. And we must always seek for the real thing. Let’s always go for the real thing. And the real thing is the substance which is God.

 

Whatever we hope for, all is in Christ for us to receive is not outside Christ, except we are seeking something else. As far as it is God, His kingdom, His Christ, our Lord and our Saviour, the substance of our life, the life we live, is Christ. And He is the source of everything for us. If we will fulfil destiny, it is based on our faith. If our faith cannot carry it, we will not be able to fulfil or step into that destiny, we will not be able to fulfil or step into that reality.

 

This generation we are or live, this generation we are is bankrupt of spiritual reality. The only thing we have more than the people that have gone ahead of us is that we have more halls, more buildings, and more people than them. But when we talk about spiritual reality and spiritual impacts, these people are highly ranked, ahead of us. If we don't fulfil our unique purpose in our lifetime, we will not have a story to tell on that day. By the time we are given a chance to tell how we overcome: our labour and good fight of faith on earth; before you know it, the saints of old might have finished everything we want to mention because our unique purpose was abandoned.  (‘Na watin I want talk dey done talk am’.) But if we fulfil our destiny, it is unique. No matter how great the work of Moses is, when you see the work of Joshua, you know that there is still uniqueness in the work that Joshua did. See the apostles.

 

So, we also have a unique purpose in God. And to fulfil this, our faith is required. We must grow our faith. And I will pray that God will help us to grow our faith in Jesus’ name!

Thanks for the gift of your time, We are John Ojoagbene and Apeh Francis Abah!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!