Is Faith A Feeling or A Conviction?

Recently, meaning in the past couple of decades, teachings on the meaning of faith have been twisted from their actual meaning. Many revivalists and traveling evangelists have taught that faith is the belief that Jesus can do something. Whether that be Jesus heals you, performs a miracle for you, washes you clean of sin, etc faith is still the belief that Jesus can and will do something for you.

Jesus has and can heal you, perform miracles, wash you clean of your sins, lead you away from temptation, give you strength, deliver you from demons, etc. But it is not faith that allows Jesus Christ to do that in your life. Jesus Christ can do those things whether or not you have an overwhelming feeling that Christ is capable of such things.

For instance, Moses and the Israelites when they left Egypt and fled across the parted sea where chased by Pharaoh and his army. But God protected the Israelites and defeated Pharaoh's army. Afterward, the Israelites praised God with a song and at the end of that song they prophesied,

Exodus 15:25-26,

"Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.""

If we have to have an overwhelming feeling that Jesus Christ or God can heal us in order to be healed, why then did God said He would heal the Israelites without a condition on them believing to be healed? The only condition was to listen carefully to the voice of God, do right in His eyes, and keep His commands and decrees. Not to have an overwhelming belief that you can be healed. The sermons you listened to and believed that said, "If you don't have faith to be healed then you won't be healed," are false! They are a lie! And you can easily substitute healed with provided for, cured, redeemed, etc and it would still be a lie.

What then do we have to do in order to be healed? There are many cases historically where God healed someone who was not even a believer and then they put faith in God and Jesus Christ. Being a person who lives righteously is not a requirement in order for Jesus Christ to heal you or do other things.

There is no requirement in order to have Christ heal you, provide for you, redeem you, etc. But Jesus Christ did commend certain people for the great faith they had. Again this was not a faith where they had an overwhelming feeling that Christ would heal them. Instead their faith was this, they were convinced that Jesus Christ was the Messiah; the One whom would save them from their sins. For instance the story of the centurion in Matthew 8:5-10,

"When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."

Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."

The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

1When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith."

The centurion knew that Jesus Christ was the Messiah because he recognized Jesus as a man of authority. God has put all of the earth and Satan underneath Jesus Christ's feet as scripture teaches us. This man had great faith because he was convinced that Jesus Christ was the Messiah which meant He had all authority and power.

In fact later in the chapter we see Jesus rebuking His disciples for having little faith. Matthew 8:23-27 tell us the story of the storm,

"Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"

He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!""

The disciples had no understanding of who Jesus Christ was at the time. According to prophecies in the Torah Jesus Christ was supposed to be nailed to the cross, die for all their sins, and raise three days later. The disciples believing that they were going to drove along with Jesus Christ was proof of their lack of faith in who He was. Not only that but even after seeing Jesus Christ calm the storms they still did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah. That is why Jesus told them that they lacked faith.

In fact, faith is the Greek word is pisti which means, "A strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God." In fact this type of faith is what Jesus mentions in each situation.

Believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and our savior from our sins and eternity apart from God and you will have great faith! It is not an overwhelming feeling of believing that Jesus Christ will heal you or do something else. It is simply be convinced that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and has saved you.