👉 Indicators of faith – part 1: joy! 💫

How do you know if you have faith or not? If you’re trusting for healing, for example, your faith should eventually result in healing but that’s the fruit of faith not the evidence of it. What is the evidence of faith?

Romans 5:1-2 New King James Version (NKJV)
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

The first indicator of faith that I want to take out of this verse is that of joy! Real faith is followed by real joy! “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”  If we’re in faith we will be full of joy because faith is confident that the outcome is settled – faith isn’t hoping that things will work out. Faith is a confident expectation of a guaranteed outcome.

Mark 11:24 New King James Version (NKJV)
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Faith believes before it sees the result in the natural. Faith is not a thing of mind-power or positive-thinking; faith is a confidence in God and a receiving from His provision (grace). If you desire something, when you pray you must believe that it’s yours and then you’ll get it – that’s faith! The problem is that the majority of people will only believe when they see it and that is the essence of a carnal Christian.

Hebrews 11:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1 Amplified Bible (AMP)
“Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].”

Faith is the title deed, confirmation or proof of whatever you’re hoping for. The evidence isn’t in the result but in your faith! The Bible is full of promises from God for us. Faith believes those promises before it sees those promises manifested. The carnal Christian will see the healing as proof of the promises concerning healing but the spiritual Christian takes God at His Word and believes that what God says is true. That’s faith – believing God at His Word. Faith is the evidence of your promise and faith will bring the manifestation of your promise. If you are surprised or shocked when you see the manifestation of your promise, it shows that you weren’t truly in faith because faith rejoices before the manifestation. I am not saying you shouldn’t rejoice when you see your healing manifest; what I am saying is that real faith rejoices in the outcome before it comes out.

Psalm 119:162 New King James Version (NKJV)
“I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure.”

A lot of people won’t believe it until they see it (like Thomas – John 20:25); they won’t rejoice at a promise – they want to see the promise fulfilled. I understand that but if you know God’s true nature and that He is good and He is faithful, then when you see a promise in His Word you will rejoice because you know that God’s Word is surer than anything!