Except faith comes by hearing and by hearing the word of God so unless one somehow hears his words or he stirrs thir hearts they will not have faith because faith as the scriptures say comes from hearing the word of God.
The flesh does not produce faith because faith is spiritual
Hi Blain,
I'm not super interested in the topic of this thread, i loosely follow it once in a while.
But when you said, "the flesh does not produce faith because faith is spiritual," i felt bound to reply.
My reply isn't just for you only, its for all of us that has been deceived into thinking this way because of the mistranslation of pisteuo into the English.
Lets start with the first part of your statement, " the flesh does not produce faith."
In the Greek, we have the word pistis, which is where we get our english word "faith." But the Greek also has a corresponding verb to pistis, and that's pisteuo. Pisteuo, couldn't be translated into the english, because the English has no corresponding verb to our noun Faith. Pisteuo used 248 times in the Nt, is a verb, an action word, and communicates to us how Pistis or faith is applied.
Pisteuo and every other verb is an act, based upon a belief, sustained by confidence. So with that in mind let me ask you some questions.
1) When you ate your dinner last night, did you check and make sure your food was safe to eat? No, you fulfilled an act of Faith or pisteuo or what should have been called faithing when you chose to eat the food, based upon the belief the people who are invisible to you did their job correctly, sustained by consuming the meal even though there's a chance you could die from eating it. the hanging of your life on that meal was part of the equation.
2) When you went to sleep last night, did you check to make sure the air in your room was safe to breath? No, you fulfilled an act of pisteuo or what should have been called faithing when you chose to get into bed and fall asleep, based upon the belief the air was safe, sustained by a confident sleep that if the air was not safe, and your life was at risk.
3) When you got into your car to go to work, did you check your car for gas leaks or if the brake line was working right? No, you fufilled an act of faith and faithing when chose to start the car, based upon the belief your car was safe, sustained by confidently driving the car, even though if you were wrong your life was at stake.
4) When you drove your car through that busy intersection, did you make sure that guy getting the red light was doing what he was supposed to be doing? No, you fulfilled an act of faith and faithing when you drove through the intersection, based upon the belief everyone getting a red light was doing what they were supposed to be doing, sustained by confidentially driving through the intersection, even though if you were wrong you life was at risk.
I could give examples of this all day long, we fulfill (in the flesh) hundreds of acts or faith and faithing everyday. In fact, I'll go so far as to say we were created (in the flesh) to be faithers. But because the english doesn't have a word to correctly communicate this activity, it's virtually unknown. And what makes it worse, is the translators chose the words "believe, believer, and believing" to communicate this important word.
So, like i said, i'm not just calling you out, but trying to highlight a major problem in how we look at faith and faithing.
As faith and faithing relates to the living God. the vines Greek dictionary gives the best definition of this activity. "A personal surrender to Him, and a life inspired by such surrender." the act, making a personal surrendering of our lives to Him, based upon the belief that He will accept the surrendered life, sustained by the many little confident decisions we make everyday that show God we really do consider our lives to be His now, not ours.
I don't really care about how these daily choices play out in the topic of this thread. i just felt compelled to share this.
As for the spiritual component you highlighted, Faith and faithing are always based upon something we can't see. once our specific act of faith or faithing is fulfilled, it's not faithing anymore , it becomes a fact.
