Faith Fake?

Do you have fake faith or real faith?  There is more than one kind of fake faith. 

We previously discussed imitation faith, or imitating someone else's faith without actually having it. 

God can do anything, but can we believe Him for anything?  Faith does not come by praying, but by hearing from God personally through His Word by His Holy Spirit. 

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

How can you know what to do, and how much to do?  Faith does not work by maybe.  

We don't receive according to what God can do, but by what we can believe Him for. 

It's kind of like lifting weights.  Our faith grows by exercising it, and receiving what you can believe God for. Be honest with yourself for what you can believe God for.

We don't receive what God can do, but what we can believe God for.  We ask God for it, but we must believe that we receive it.

Mark 11:24 (NKJV)

Jesus speaking: Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)

12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

It's not all or nothing.  Ask God to show you what you can put your faith on.  Ask God for what you can believe Him for in increments.

Here is a story about the Children of Israel under Moses.  It sounds like faith, but it was rebellion.

 

 

Numbers 14:40  (NKJV)

Moses writing: And they (the Children of Israel) rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!”

Deuteronomy 1:41  (NKJV)

Moses writing: “Then you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

This sounds like faith, but it is rebellion.  Satan perverts rebellion to appear like faith.

Faith is the force that overcomes the world(1 John 5:4).  Satan tries to deceive our understanding of faith to overcome us.  

The first fake faith is imitation faith.

The second fake faith is presumptuous faith.  

We have to go back and look at what God had told them and when He told them to do it.

Numbers 14:25  (NKJV)

Moses writing: Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.”

After the people refused to go in, God told them to return back by the way of the Red Sea. Then, they decided to go in anyway in rebellion to God's word through Moses. 

Numbers 14:40 (NKJV)

40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!” 

God changes direction based upon how we respond to previous directions.  We have a free will; therefore, God bases His directions based upon our decisions.

If you won't do what God has told you to do, He'll tell you to do something else. God doesn't change, but when you disobey.  That changes the situation. 

A lot of people do the opposite of anything that God directs.  

This story is an example of what I'm talking about. We need to hear from God throughout the day about what we need to do now.

What sounds like faith may be blatant rebellion.  You can try to use your faith to defy the direction of the Lord. It sounds like faith. It looks like faith, but it is really presumption.

Numbers 14:41-42 (NKJV)

41 And Moses said, “Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed. 

42 Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.

When God says to go up, it takes faith to go up.  When God says to not go up, it takes faith to not go up. 

You can't use your faith to do disobey what God has told you to do.

Afterward, Satan will attack by saying "where is God?" when it was your fault for disobeying Him.

If you go against God's direction, it will lead to a defeat by your enemies.  Recognize the spirit of defiance in you and others.  

Deuteronomy 1:8  (NKJV)

8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.’

At this point in time, they should have had faith to go into the land to possess it.  They refused to go in at this point.

 

Deuteronomy 1  (NKJV)

26 “Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; 

32 Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God,

After the people refused to go up to take the land, God gave them this instruction...

40 But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.

Then the people refused to turn back, and rebelled a second time.

41 “Then you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

You have to overcome what you want to do and when you want to do it to walk in harmony with the Spirit of God.

  

42 “And the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.” ’ 

43 So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the Lord, and presumptuously went up into the mountain.

You aren't walking in faith if you're walking in disobedience. 

Gripping and complaining are symptoms of disobedience and unbelief. 

Psalm 19:13 (NKJV)

13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

Don't believe everyone who says that God told them to do something.  Sometimes, God told them the opposite. 

Ezekiel 13:6-8  (NKJV)

6 They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord!’ 

But the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may ]be confirmed.

7 Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? 

You say, ‘The Lord says,’ but I have not spoken.”

8 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,” says the Lord God. 

 

We must believe God's Word and the internal witness of His Holy Spirit within us.  

Don't try to believe for someone else.  Believe what God has told you!

It hurts your faith to believe God for things that He has not promised.  Stay away from presuming and assuming.

Presumption means to be proud and lifted up.  It means to do something you don't have a right to do. 

Don't believe God for everything that comes across your mind.  Assume means to believe something to be true that you don't know is.  Don't presume or assume on God.  This won't work.

1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will (as revealed in the Bible), He hears us. 

15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Here is something that you can believe God for which is written in the Bible for you.

 

Romans 10:13 (NKJV)

9 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. 

10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Keith Moore, Faith Life Church

https://flcmedia.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/productvideo/0808-RealFaith-02-PresumptuousFaith-HD.mp4