The so-called "Great Quest" (as Billy Graham calls it) commences when one realizes his life is a vacuum and void of meaning and purpose, and he is searching for answers (sometimes one seeks the benefits and not the Benefactor, though). Only God can fill this emptiness that man has and one has to want answers and to believe--no amount of evidence will convince one who is unwilling or just doesn't want to believe. The inception of faith is when one is willing to listen, whether initially agreeing or not, and to not turn a deaf ear to the gospel message--this is receptivity.
Faith grows as one understands the message due to enlightenment by the power of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who is at work in the heart. One then agrees with the message intellectually or acquiesces, and the Roman Catholic Church stops here, as to its definition of faith--this is the step to acceptance of Christ. But there must be a surrender of the will and willingness to obey.
The person has to want to believe in his heart for God to reveal His will and that person can come to Christ as he is, but he will not stay that way. A changed life is the only validation of salvation. One must accept Christ as He is and that means in His lordship, not just head belief. Believing in the heart changes you from the inside out and involves a penitent faith and turning from the old ways and decided to follow on to know the Lord in discipleship--following Him.
Faith consists of knowledge of the true gospel message, assent to its validity and appropriateness, and trust and reliance on its precepts. We must trust in the person and work of Christ. That is, that He is the unique one and only Son of God, the God-man and that He accomplished our salvation in toto, on the cross, when He pronounced, "It is finished." It's a done deal and we accept it as a gift, not doing any pre-salvation work to qualify us for grace--it would be justice if then, but we do not earn it, nor do we deserve it, and we can never pay it back--we're forever in God's debt. We were debtors who couldn't pay our debts. The qualification for salvation is to realize our state of being unqualified!
Saving faith commences when one can unashamedly confess Christ openly before man, for if we are ashamed of Him, He will not confess us to the Father--Christ condemns the lukewarm pretender who stays neutral and doesn't make his stand known--it is better to be wrong than neutral, for then Christ can have something to work with. But this is not all: we must progress to a serving faith, which is when we begin to truly follow Him as Lord and Savior. When we are mature we truly have a living relationship and fellowship with our Savior and own Him as our personal Lord. We must be willing to speak out for Christ as his mouthpiece and as ambassadors of reconciliation because He has no voice through which to speak but ours. Note that genuine faith is a living faith that grows and is not stagnate, static, nor inert. It progresses from giving up, to surrender, to commitment.
The mature Christian serves Christ through his spiritual gift and is both mission-oriented towards non-believers and ministry-oriented towards believers. A non-serving Christian is a contradiction in terms. The mature Christian life is one of faithfulness, not success in the eyes of the world--neither worldly success nor lack of it is a calling card of a believer. The key is to attempt great things for God, but expect even greater things from Him--it's not what you do for God that counts, but what He does for you. All the works we do are simply God working through us as vessels of honor ("... [You] have done for us all our works," according to Isa. 26:12, ESV). Thank the Lord that we are not called to success, but to faithfulness, according to Mother Teresa of Calcutta (now canonized).
Faith is simply knowledge put to work and we don't achieve it, we receive it! Faith must be seen and visible to be real, because the heroes of faith were men of action. Anyone can say he has faith, but it must be demonstrated to be real. Faith and works can be distinguished, but never separated: James would say, "I'll show you my faith by my works," while Paul would say, "I'll show you my works by my faith." If you don't have good works, your faith is suspect; however, works are no substitute for faith. We are not saved by works, but unto works, which are foreordained (cf. Eph. 2:10). We are not saved by works, but not without them either, because James said that faith without works is dead, and that kind of faith cannot save: the formula of the Reformers was that we are "saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone."
In summation, faith isn't necessarily something you have, but something you show; it is seen! It is said we must turn our creed into deeds. Works confirm our profession, or it is a bogus profession and we are Christians in name only or nominal believers--there's a difference between the profession of faith and the reality of faith. Bonhoeffer said that "only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes"--true faith manifests itself in obedience only! It has been wisely said, that "faith is not believing despite the evidence, but obeying despite the consequences!" The purpose of faith is to produce fruit: No fruit, no faith, period! Soli Deo Gloria!
Faith grows as one understands the message due to enlightenment by the power of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who is at work in the heart. One then agrees with the message intellectually or acquiesces, and the Roman Catholic Church stops here, as to its definition of faith--this is the step to acceptance of Christ. But there must be a surrender of the will and willingness to obey.
The person has to want to believe in his heart for God to reveal His will and that person can come to Christ as he is, but he will not stay that way. A changed life is the only validation of salvation. One must accept Christ as He is and that means in His lordship, not just head belief. Believing in the heart changes you from the inside out and involves a penitent faith and turning from the old ways and decided to follow on to know the Lord in discipleship--following Him.
Faith consists of knowledge of the true gospel message, assent to its validity and appropriateness, and trust and reliance on its precepts. We must trust in the person and work of Christ. That is, that He is the unique one and only Son of God, the God-man and that He accomplished our salvation in toto, on the cross, when He pronounced, "It is finished." It's a done deal and we accept it as a gift, not doing any pre-salvation work to qualify us for grace--it would be justice if then, but we do not earn it, nor do we deserve it, and we can never pay it back--we're forever in God's debt. We were debtors who couldn't pay our debts. The qualification for salvation is to realize our state of being unqualified!
Saving faith commences when one can unashamedly confess Christ openly before man, for if we are ashamed of Him, He will not confess us to the Father--Christ condemns the lukewarm pretender who stays neutral and doesn't make his stand known--it is better to be wrong than neutral, for then Christ can have something to work with. But this is not all: we must progress to a serving faith, which is when we begin to truly follow Him as Lord and Savior. When we are mature we truly have a living relationship and fellowship with our Savior and own Him as our personal Lord. We must be willing to speak out for Christ as his mouthpiece and as ambassadors of reconciliation because He has no voice through which to speak but ours. Note that genuine faith is a living faith that grows and is not stagnate, static, nor inert. It progresses from giving up, to surrender, to commitment.
The mature Christian serves Christ through his spiritual gift and is both mission-oriented towards non-believers and ministry-oriented towards believers. A non-serving Christian is a contradiction in terms. The mature Christian life is one of faithfulness, not success in the eyes of the world--neither worldly success nor lack of it is a calling card of a believer. The key is to attempt great things for God, but expect even greater things from Him--it's not what you do for God that counts, but what He does for you. All the works we do are simply God working through us as vessels of honor ("... [You] have done for us all our works," according to Isa. 26:12, ESV). Thank the Lord that we are not called to success, but to faithfulness, according to Mother Teresa of Calcutta (now canonized).
Faith is simply knowledge put to work and we don't achieve it, we receive it! Faith must be seen and visible to be real, because the heroes of faith were men of action. Anyone can say he has faith, but it must be demonstrated to be real. Faith and works can be distinguished, but never separated: James would say, "I'll show you my faith by my works," while Paul would say, "I'll show you my works by my faith." If you don't have good works, your faith is suspect; however, works are no substitute for faith. We are not saved by works, but unto works, which are foreordained (cf. Eph. 2:10). We are not saved by works, but not without them either, because James said that faith without works is dead, and that kind of faith cannot save: the formula of the Reformers was that we are "saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone."
In summation, faith isn't necessarily something you have, but something you show; it is seen! It is said we must turn our creed into deeds. Works confirm our profession, or it is a bogus profession and we are Christians in name only or nominal believers--there's a difference between the profession of faith and the reality of faith. Bonhoeffer said that "only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes"--true faith manifests itself in obedience only! It has been wisely said, that "faith is not believing despite the evidence, but obeying despite the consequences!" The purpose of faith is to produce fruit: No fruit, no faith, period! Soli Deo Gloria!