Faith didn’t just come into existence when mankind was created.  Faith isn’t a created thing.  It didn’t come into existence as a method for mankind to be saved from sin and death.  It’s not something God came up with for man to do, so He can bless us, or be happy with us.  Faith always was, and always will be.  Faith is from everlasting.  It’s part of the fabric of God.  It’s part of the dna of God Himself.  Paul says in 2nd Cor 4 that God called forth light out of the midst of darkness by the Spirit of Faith.  Faith is the declaration or revelation, really it’s the substance of the trinitarian life and fellowship.  It’s the substance of the life and communion in the Godhead. 

because we’re created in the image of God, and we’re made for the trinitatian life and fellowship, faith is one of the most important aspects of our union and communion with God.  When I talk about Faith I’m not talking about an action we perform.  I’m not talking about a belief we conjure up ourselves.  When I talk about faith I’m talking about something we behold; something we look on that carries with it the power to persuade us God is our friend.  We awaken, or you can say we are given eyes to see the life and fellowship in the trinity through the faith.  We awaken to the trinitarian life and communion by beholding the faith … Faith isn’t an ethereal thing.  It’s not like the wind that can’t necessarily be seen. if we wanted to give a face to faith.  Its Jesus.  Just as we say grace is a person.  Faith is also a person, and the person is the Lord Jesus.  The word faith in the scriptures is a noun.  In the Greek it means the gospel truth itself.  Jesus says he is the truth that is the way unto life. 

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Paul talks about the faith of him, meaning Jesus, in Ephesians 3.  He talks about the faith of the Son of God; the faith of Jesus Christ in his letter to the Galatians.  He says faith is a gift from God in Ephesians 2.  He says God gave to every person the measure of faith in his letter to the Roman’s.  

Jesus is the beginning and end of the faith.  Theres no faith, or truth outside of what is revealed in Jesus.  He is the author and perfector of faith.  He brought faith into the earth, and he is the one who perfects faith in our hearts.  Faith is given to all people as a gift in the person of Jesus, and that faith is able to have its perfect work in us, which is to immerse us in the life and fellowship in the Godhead, as we continue to look unto Jesus. 

Theres a faith that is of Jesus.  His life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension …. Just as we can say theres a painting called the Mona Lisa that is of Leonardo davinci, we can say there is a faith that is of Jesus.  Faith is like a painting.  It’s like a work of art.  It paints a picture of God.  It paints a picture of the Father in the earth.  It paints a picture of the life and communion the Father, Son, and Spirit share in.  

Faith isnt something we do or perform or work up.  It’s something that happens to us as we look to Jesus.  Faith is something presented to us; that’s why Paul says faith comes by hearing.

The faith authored by Jesus is full of the nutrients of life.  It’s full of strength; it has the comfort we need; the peace; the love; the joy; the rest; the quieting and stillness we long for; the healing we long for.  Everything that pertains to life and godliness are found in the faith Jesus authored in the earth.  The substance of all our desires are contained in the faith Jesus authored in the earth.  

Paul says in Roman’s 4 that Abraham was strengthened by faith.  Faith gave Abraham eyes to consider God, and the life God has in Himself, instead of the deadness he saw in himself and Sarah’s womb.  The letter to the Hebrews says all the people who received strength to do what they did in the Old Testament received strength from faith.  Jesus himself was strengthened by faith when he was in the cross.  The Father and the life and fellowship he shared with the Father from the beginning was his faith.  

Jhn 16:32  Behold, the hour comes, yea, is now come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
Jhn 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Theres a lot of things I can say to describe the faith Jesus authored in the earth …. Simply put the faith of the Son of God; the faith of Jesus Christ; the faith he authored in the earth is that we’ve never been alone.  Even when it looked like we were alone, The Father was with us, His face was always shining on us.

Jesus looked like he was alone but he was never alone.  He saw the Fathers face shining on him in the midst of the cross; the Holy Spirit immersed him in the Fathers likeness, clothing upon him in the midst of his affliction, comforting him; strengthening him; casting down the strength of the tribulation from the high places of his heart, interceding in Jesus’ heart, lifting up His union with the Father.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 

Jesus loves us so much he layed down his life gave his life, so we can see the presence of the Father with us, serving us with life, while we are in the midst of the valley shadowed with death … that’s the struggle.  We struggle to see Gods face shining on us, with His likeness, in the midst of hard times …. Trauma tries to blind us to the presence of the Father; it tries to blind us to His likeness shining on us …. One of the things that torments our lives is the idea that God wasn’t there with us 

Isa 53:1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

We all inherently know.  Theres an inherent knowing in all of us that there’s no death in God.  We all know there’s no fear or darkness in God.  We all know in God is only light and life and love … even athiests …. the reason they say they don’t believe in God is because how can there be a God if the world is filled with so much suffering and death … they see the presence of suffering and death as the absence of God.  

When we encounter trauma .. the trauma says Where’s God?  I’ll tell you where He is, right in the middle of the hell that came upon our lives; taking vengeance on it by absorbing it in his body on the cross; and consuming it in his flesh; in the body of his resurrection … we’re supposed to see God on the cross; a sign we’ve never been alone; He’s always been there as our David; warring against the giant of death that tried to wage a war against us; the Holy Spirit being poured out opening our eyes ….. we’re supposed to see God with us at the cross; in the midst of the darkness and the death that comes upon our lives; so we can live by the faith that we are never alone …. It’s not that we’re bad people … It’s that we’ve been taught by the world … the world sees death as a sign Gods not there …. The thing we need when we encounter hard times is to be able to see God there with us in the midst of it; His facing shining upon us; not abhorring ….

The faith heals our blindness;  the blindness is we couldn’t see Gods face shining on us; in the midst of our affliction; we couldn’t see him there because of the thick darkness of death and hurt and trauma and tribulation; so we weren’t coming to Him to commune with Him and His likeness; His life …. In the midst of our deepest; darkest hurts and traumas; God was there; with His hand stretched forth towards us; resting upon our heads with His life … you were never alone .. the father was there with you; His face was shining on you.  I know it looks like God was scattered from you and you were all alone, but God was there with you in the midst of it … the world was blinding you to His presence … Everything you’ve always needed was with you in the midst of the trauma … the trauma was working to try and blind you to the presence of the Father … it was tryimg to persuade your heart, that you were alone …

put simply it’s the truth that God is with us; everywhere; even should our bed be made in hell; when should we ….. David ….

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

The faith here isn’t your faith.  You may have grabbed ahold of the faith Jesus authored.  But this verse doesn’t say your ability to believe is the substance of things hoped for, and your ability to believe is the evidence of things not seen.  This isnt a quantum physics kind of thing, talking about you manipulating your design to get things to manifest.  

Faith is the substance of things hoped for … example of my Siberian husky buck … couldnt live inside … he was too much of a dog … he chewed everything up .. he tore up the house … so he lived in the backyard …. It was a huge backyard … he had a dogloo …. No matter how nice it was out there, he always wanted to be included in the family, and everything in the house … he groaned, wanting there to be a place prepared for him at the table inside .. 

Paul says in Cor for in this we do groan, not that our nakedness be uncovered, but clothed upon.  And he explains what that means when he says that mortality be swallowed up in life … we wanted to be included in the life and fellowship in the Godhead … we can see there’s such a sweet communion there between Father, Son, and Spirit, we desired to be found having been clothed upon in them; clothed upon in their likeness; dwelling in them and with them; immersed in their presence; them dwelling in us and us dwelling in them … we wanted to be unioning … faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen 

when we experienced trauma and tribulation in our lives; the world was uncovering our nakedness, and we were groaning wanting to be clothed upon; wanting the death there to be swallowed up with life …. Faith is the substance of what we were groaning for .. we see Jesus, and we see the Father was there with us; in the midst of the trauma; His face shining upon us … as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the presence of the Father there with us, and we awake to His likeness shining on us; mortality is swallowed up in His life; the trauma; the tribulation that comes against us; is swallowed up in the Fathers life.  We desire to be found in the likeness of the Father because we are his image; the faith authored by Jesus, at the cross and resurrection, clothes us in the likeness of the Father.  It’s the evidence we are alive to God and His indestructible life, now, even though we don’t yet see our mortal bodies clothed in immortality.  It’s the evidence of our union with the Father, Son, and Spirit.  It’s the evidence the Father is in us, and we are in Him.  

Prayer ….