Great Faith.  I think we all want great faith.

I remember when I was a young guy and I would see people ministering and I would read books about people and how great their faith was and the exploits they did because of their great faith.  Honestly, I think I had faith envy almost.  I was like check out the faith on those guys.  Man I wish I had faith like that.  I didn’t know God gave THE FULNESS of faith to everyone as a gift in Christ Jesus.  

We can read in the scriptures where people have great faith.  We can see the people mentioned in the hall of faith.  You know we have the hall of fame for the the giants in the earth.  In the scriptures we have the hall of faith.  Where it talks about the people who had great faith.  We can see the people mentioned in the hall of faith in hebrews 11 and find ourselves thinking if only I had the faith these guys had.  Jesus said if you have faith as a mustard seed you will say to this sycamore tree be removed.  Jesus brings up the smallest of all the seeds to make the point it isnt about the amount of faith you have its about the substance of the faith itself. 

Looking back the emphasis was on the great ability of these people instead of the great ability of God.  When we think of great faith it ought to cause us to think of God and not a man or a woman.  When we think of faith we don’t want to think of our ability to believe.  We want to think of getting to know God.  

The way you get to know someone is by seeing their heart.  Well faith is the deepest part of God’s being.  Faith is God’s heart.  He lives and moves and has His being within the Spirit of Faith.  We can even say Faith is God just as the apostle John says the Word is God.  So when we think of Faith we want to think of God Himself.  We want to think of it as the heart of God and us getting to know God by beholding His heart.  To live by faith is to live by the knowledge of God. 

Mat 8:5  And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
Mat 8:6  And saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Mat 8:7  And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him.
Mat 8:8  The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
Mat 8:9  For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it.
Mat 8:10  When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

Mat 15:22  And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
Mat 15:23  But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she cries after us.
Mat 15:24  But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Mat 15:25  Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
Mat 15:26  But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Mat 15:27  And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
Mat 15:28  Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto you even as you desire.  And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Both accounts occur in Matthew’s Gospel and both accounts involve people who were not jewish, they were Gentiles.  Keep in mind Matthew’s gospel is written from the perspective of Jesus coming to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as the prophet that Moses said would come to explain the doctrine in the law and teach them the way to inherit the promised kingdom.  

Jesus says, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.  

In that day, and leading up to that day the faith that was in Israel, and in the world, said the power to inherit the kingdom of God is contained in the strength of the flesh.  That’s why Jesus says to the Canaanite woman he is come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and ought not take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs.  Jesus didnt think this woman and her daughter were dogs.  He was reciting the faith of the world.  

Israel’s trust was in the strength of the flesh.  They thought the power unto a righteous life, and the power to inherit the kingdom of God was found in them being jewish after the flesh, and in their ability to perform the works of the law. 

The faith in the world and the faith in israel said gentiles were outside of the promise of God.  To be a Gentile in that day meant you were considered to be a sinner.  Meaning you were not seen to be a partaker of the promise of God because of the filthiness and uncleaness of your flesh being of gentile descent, having not been circumcised in the flesh of the foreskin.

Physical circumcision was never about declaring one people to be clean and another people to be unclean.  It was all about declaring the inability of the flesh to cleanse itself from death.

So if you were jewish after the flesh that was seen as your flesh containing the strength that is needed to attain to the kingdom of God.  If you were a gentile after the flesh you saw what was in your flesh and all you saw was weakness, and an inability to partake of the ministry of God’s kingdom.  

Now the Centurion and the Canaanite woman werent living by the faith that was in the world.  They had a different kind of faith that wasnt of the world, that Jesus describes as being great.  They saw a faith in Jesus that made the faith of the world foolish in their eyes.  

The Centurion and the Canaanite woman received the circumcision that was of the heart.  They didn’t consider the strength of the flesh when they thought of the power to be made whole.  They didnt think well because I’m a gentile there is a weakness in my flesh that leaves me outside of God’s promise.  They didnt consider their flesh.  They didnt say to themselves what can we get from God; what will God give us seeing the sin that is present with us and this palsy that is come upon my servant and the demon that is come upon my daughter.  They didnt judge Gods heart for them by their flesh, or by the palsy and the vexation that was present with them.   They saw GOD eyes were full of mercy towards all people.  

Romans 4 says Abraham didnt consider the deadness of his body or the deadness in sarah’s womb but he glorified God.  He considered God and the strength of the life God has in Himself.  

When Abraham thought of being fruitful he thought to himself that sounds very nice.  But when Abraham thought of the power to be fruitful he didnt consider what he saw in his flesh.  He didn’t consider the strength that was in the world.  When he thought of how it could happen that he could be fruitful he didnt consider the deadness he saw in himself or in the world around him.  He didnt see those things as a stumblingblock to him being fruitful because he saw the life of God isnt subject to the weakness in his flesh.  He said the power for me to be fruitful is contained in God and the strength of His life, and the deadness in my body and the deadness in Sarah’s womb cannot keep me from being made fruitful.  And the scripture says Abraham received strength from that faith to be made exceedingly fruitful.  

The centurion and the Canaanite woman didnt consider their sin, they considered the life that was in Jesus, seeing it had authority over sin in the flesh.  They looked at Jesus, they saw he was the Son of man, they saw he had authority over all flesh because he was the son of man.  They saw Jesus has a life in himself, that was from above, and was greater than the sin and death in the world.  They saw the life in Jesus was not at the mercy of sin and death but that sin and death bowed down to his life.  They saw the sufficiency that was needed to overcome sin in the flesh isnt found in themselves its found in the God who forgives sin and raises the dead.   

When Jesus says the faith of the centurion and the Canaanite woman is great, he saw the faith of God at work in them.  He knew they had seen into the heart of God; that they were knowing the love and compassion in God’s heart for all people; that God is not ashamed of the weakness of their flesh or to call them His own. 

It wasnt about look how much they were able to believe.  It wasnt about look how much faith they worked up in themselves.  Its not that they had a faith in and of themselves that was great.  Its that the faith they looked to is great.  They didn’t come up with the faith that is great they cooped it from God.  They beheld it in the person of Jesus.  

There’s a faith that is great.  There is a faith that can fill you with a life that is greater than the sin and death thats in the world.  There is a faith that is precious and tried and true, that even in the midst of being encompassed by tribulation and corruption, can overcome the effect of the corruption you see and bring comfort to your life.  

Great faith is that there is a faith that can bring forth light out of the midst of darkness.  It can make straight that which is crooked.  It can even resurrect the dead, and when it raises the dead it even raises them in incorruptible human flesh.

There is a faith that can strengthen you with a life that can overcome the sin and death in the world.  There is a faith that can strengthen you with a life that overcomes the world and the weakness in the world and in your flesh, and this faith was revealed in Jesus ........ When you think of the sufficiency you need to be fruitful and have a good life dont consider what you see in yourself, or what you see in the world and its governments and systems and whether it be good or evil.  Rather consider the love God has in His heart for you, and how it is greater than the strength of sin.  Consider God and the life He has in Himself, and how He has intertwined you with Himself and His very life that raises the dead, and fills all the dry places with His life.