Exploring True Faith (2 of 2) — Art Katz

Faith as a Gift of Grace

And in fact, in Ephesians, Paul makes quite clear that faith is not of yourselves. In chapter 2, verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

That there's maybe two kinds of faith. The faith that have the faith of the Son of God, which is the divine and heavenly reality, as against the kind of faith that we're encouraged charismatically to develop, as if it's our baby through some kind of exercise.

I'm not stating myself well, because we do grow from faith to faith. It's a gift that's given, but there's a place for expansiveness and increase through obedience. We go from faith to faith, from obedience to obedience.

But the initial gift is from God, and even the going of that new and extra mile is a grace that comes from him in proportion to our obedience. He gives grace. The Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him.

Christ’s Obedience and the Impartation of the Spirit

And remember that we talked about when the woman touched the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed, and Jesus turned and stopped and said, someone has touched me. They said, what are you talking about?

There's a whole crowd pressing in on you. Yes, but someone has touched me, because I felt the virtue go out of me. And that virtue was healing power. So if it could go out, then how did it come in? Did it come with his deity as he was formed into man?

Or did it come into him progressively and cumulatively with every act of obedience? Because even for him as a son, especially as a patterned son, the Holy Spirit was given as he obeyed the Father. Because his obedience were never casual, never convenient.

They were always a remarkable requirement, even unto the obedience unto death. So the Father gave him an enablement. The Holy Spirit is given. That touches the question, how is it we have different, we're in different places of faith?

Because some have a greater measure. They've lived more dangerously. They've opened themselves more desperately. They've cast themselves upon God with greater urgency. And they have received something as Jesus received with every act of obedience by the Holy Spirit.

But what we had not considered, and I had not considered, that the Holy Spirit is more than just an energy and a power. The Holy Spirit is God. So any manifestation of God is the impartation not only of power but of character.

And that the certain versions would use the word virtue, I felt virtue go out of me. Virtue is a moral word. Virtue is almost a synonym for what is moral. Virtue is a kind of moral excellence that has come by a conduct that is in keeping with God's own character.

And he felt a virtue go out of him that must have come into him with every impartation of the Holy Spirit through acts of obedience. And so that Jesus himself had to walk as a Son and grow in grace and grow in faith through the obediences by which he suffered.

Faith as Dependence on the Supernatural

Faith is intrinsic to God himself. Faith is the milieu, excuse my language, the very environment in which God himself lives and has his being. Faith is appropriate to God. Faith is the environment of God.

He gave the gift of faith because faith is appropriate to him. Because the antithesis of faith is action and conduct that issues out of man, out of his knowledge, out of his cleverness, out of his principles, out of his energy.

But faith is a dependency on a supernatural source as a mode of being, of living and being by which obediences are performed that do not make the requirement of what is human but demand and draw from what is divine.

Every good and perfect thing comes down from above. So why is Jesus rebuking his disciples? Because they have not a measure that he thought that they ought by that time to have obtained. And then his answer, this kind comes not out by fasting and prayer, indicates that they had neglected the means by which this faith is to be obtained.

That there is something about fasting and prayer that is profoundly connected with the drawing of God, the milieu, the environment of God into our own being. That we can face unpredictable moments and not fault it nor balk.

So our problem is a deficiency in prayer and in fasting. But prayer and fasting of what kind? It's not prayer as we understand it as petition. Because when we make our petitions we end. But the prayer that I think that the Lord is talking about is the kind that he himself practiced.

Which is to say devotional prayer. Prayer as a devotion, prayer as communion with God who is the source of every good and perfect thing. And that when you have that kind of communion through prayer, something is given by the one with whom you are in communion.

And that builds up in you as faith. So we stop praying when we should begin. Our prayer is too utilitarian. That's so much in the nature of our society and generation. We pray for what we need and we stop.

But we don't pray as devotion. We don't linger, we don't enjoy the presence of God. Or are able to commune and keep with him in prayer if there is an absence of the sense of his presence. We're so sensate, we're so sensual that if we don't have a feeling that comes from God, we quit.

We need a payoff. And yet God is testing to see who will be a lover and a devoted son and daughter who will linger in my presence without a payoff. They're not there for a payoff. They're there because they recognize my majesty.

They recognize who I am as God. And therefore there's a response from them that is totally appropriate and has nothing to do with any benefit that they'll receive by extending themselves in the early morning hours while it is yet dark and before the day has begun.

Devotion, Israel’s Deliverance, and the Secret Place

If that's true, and I believe that it is, I'm seeing that truth in my own life and practice. The issue of Israel's deliverance in the last days, as I've said many times, is not the issue of heroism, of last moment heroism.

It's the issue of devotion. Isn't it remarkable that the whole destiny and the fulfillment of God's eschatological purposes for Israel through the church is not through the church's heroism, but the church's devotion.

Its relationship with its God in the secret place, in the prayer chamber, in the quiet. That there something is formulated that when you come to the place of confrontation, you've got something out of which to meet it.

Here we have another instance where, in two of the three accounts, this kind comes not out of faith but by fasting and prayer. And in another account, in Matthew, this kind is the issue because of your unbelief.

So how do we reconcile these divergent statements? Or are they coming at the same truth and the same issue from different angles and aspects? Is the issue of faith and belief the issue of devotion? Will you give God time in devotional communion through prayer except that you believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of all who diligently seek him.

That that reward need not be now. It could be postponed and future or even not come as something that we experience a feeling. So you'll not give God a devotional attention unless you believe that he is and is deserving of that consideration.

So again we come back, what is faith? Faith is an appropriate knowledge of God as God. And once you have that knowledge, how can you just use him for your petitions? Lord I need this, I need that, my boyfriend, girlfriend, health, body, and then stop.

What is he, your errand boy? Is he around just to take care of your immediate needs? You have an inadequate knowledge of God. He's much larger than the way in which you're employing him. In fact your employment of him is actually disgraceful.

It's making God less than what he is. He's much greater than your errands. And he's not there for your convenience. He has purposes of his own. That has to do with cosmic redemption and the glory of God forever of which your little petty concerns are a minute little beep.

So how come you're not coming before him in sympathy and identification with him in the things that pertain to himself? Why is it always you, you, you? Lord I, I, me, I, my ministry, my need, I, I, I.

What about his? See communion is rising above your egocentric concern, valid though it is, into the larger place of God himself, his glory and his honor to hallow him. So that's an issue of faith. And evidently the disciples failed here.

Maybe because they saw Jesus in his humanity in such a way as to deflate their appreciation of him in his total person. And they didn't take note of how he himself had a significant and continuous devotional life with the father.

That if he required that devotional life, not just to be instructed, but to give to the father the consideration of a loving son, how much then do we need some measure of that same devotion?

Adoration and the Believer’s Relationship with God

Yeah. As you were saying that he gives with respect, and develops from God.

I'm pioneering, I'm on the first rung of this ladder, but I suspect and intuit that the word adoration is the ultimate statement of a believer's relationship with God. And it's one to which I confess I've not yet myself come.

In fact, everything in me from my Brooklyn origins and my history in life and in the world militates against adoration. Adoration is almost too ethereal, too feminine for a masculine consideration. Interesting that the church should be known as the bride of Christ eternally.

Unless we come into this feminine configuration exemplified by the woman who brought the alabaster box and broke it against the indignation of his own disciples and was extravagant in her love, Jesus commemorates as being a good work.

So there's something about feminine love, extravagance, affection, devotion and adoration to which we're called. And we can't fabricate that. We can't take a deep breath. We've got to grow like I'm admiring the Lord in his faithfulness even in these days.

Doubting though I have been and somewhat tinged with unbelief and questioning. And I look back now, I'm seeing the Lord's unfolding, the divine logic, I'm admiring him for it. I admire him for what he did in Africa and the places that preceded it.

So my knowledge of the Lord grows as I see his faithfulness. And there's not a morning that I'm talking to the Lord that I don't begin first by citing his attributes. How do you begin praying? When you go down in that corner of the bedroom or wherever your prayer chamber is and it's still dark out, how do you begin?

What do you say? For me, invariably, I rehearse with God his own attributes. I'm telling him how impressed I am with his unceasing faithfulness and his integrity and his love and his mercy as I'm experiencing it as a piece of dust that I am.

And then I go on from there as the Lord leads and sometimes I'll pause and all of a sudden what comes out of my mouth is no longer English. It's something in a heavenly language that only he understands.

So it's good to rehearse God and the knowledge of him, his attributes, what he's showing every day more, his grace, the goodness, the kindness of God. And I'll tell you, I was telling somebody the other day, I'm so spoiled.

Like I said, look, I don't need that. Oh yeah? I'm seeing that you have that. You have a desire for me beyond my own thought or intention. You've been lavish. Where I thought I had was adequate. You know me, I'm a depression baby, just enough to meet the need.

You are lavish. So I'm growing in the knowledge of the extravagance of God's love, his faithfulness, how he gives. And that will lead to the place of adoration. And when we come to the place of adoration, it's like water turning into steam.

The nature of the thing changes its form because we've hit a temperature that transforms the one element into another. I've never said that before. I've never seen that before. I'm going on record and I'm saying it now.

Adoration, when we come to the place of adoration, we have come into another dimension. We've turned water into steam by the heat of love. And steam is power. Steam is power. It moves locomotives. So I think that there's a conjunction between adoration and authority and power in ministry and in life.

Adoration, Authority, and Spiritual Power

And I can see reasons for it. How can God trust us with the spirit without measure and power if there will be any danger of a misappropriation, of touching or stealing his glory, or exalting ourselves through that provision.

We have got to be sons and daughters utterly selfless without any concern for what redounds to us by the grace of the authority and power God allows us to express. And there are not many sons who have come to that.

When we come to adoration, God can trust us. Because the adoration is so blinding, so overwhelming, we wouldn't dream in a multitude of eternities to misuse that power or authority in any way that would have redound to our self-aggrandizement.

It's always for the Father. It's always for his glory. It's always for his honor. We are hollowing the name of God and therefore we can be entrusted. And didn't the disciples see that? Who were walking with him, didn't they observe that?

Didn't they know that he was getting up early every morning to seek the Father while it was yet dark? Didn't they know he needed his rest? The man was exhausted. The press of crowds and dealings. For myself, it's easier to preach than to minister to the saints after service.

The exhaustion comes with the saints. A word that they want, or need, or a prayer. Giving the message is much easier than tending to the flock afterwards. But he was continually tending to the flock. So he was exhausted.

And they were tired. Didn't they recognize, and yet he's up early, without fail, finding a place of part, while it's yet dark to seek the Father. Didn't they get the message? That if it's necessary for him, who is the Son of God, true man and true God, what's necessary for them?

But what were they doing? Sleeping. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, could you not watch for me for one hour? They slept. Flesh overruled them. So, watching, we were just sharing before the break, is analogous to fasting.

Fasting is the denial of the flesh to the denial of food. Watching is the denial of sleep. The body craves both, more than they should, because the body wants to be spoiled and indulged, and tells you that you need eight hours, or at least seven, or three square meals a day, though Elijah only needed two.

And so, the body will always overexpress its need, as if it is the most vital claimant to your attention. And if you neglect it, it'll howl. You get headaches. And you feel like you're going to die. And certainly you've got to eat, because you're dying.

And what happened to Esau? Esau gave up his inheritance, as the firstborn, because of the need for pottage. He was ruled by his appetite. That's why God loves Jacob and hated Esau. Esau was ruled by his flesh, even to the point of giving up his legacy.

So we're in that contest. This is what we're struggling. Body and soul. Body and spirit. Flesh and spirit. The purposes of God, our own demands, our own needs, our own security, our own pleasure, our own gratification.

This is why Paul cried out, in Romans 7, Woe is me! Who will save me from this death? But praise God for Jesus Christ. Even as an apostle, he's struggling in the contest of flesh versus spirit. Why is the issue of faith the issue of righteousness?

Without faith, there's no righteousness. It's only a righteousness by faith, and in no other way. Because the alternative is a righteousness by works, by human conduct, human energy, our own ethical mindedness of what we can do or say.

But that's unrighteous. Why do you call me good? Jesus said. There's no man good. There's no man righteous. So then why is faith and righteousness synonymous? Because it is not of yourself, lest any man boast.

Faith is a gift, given of God. It is God. It's the milieu that he occupies. It's intrinsic to his own Godness. And he gives us this mode for obedience. It's called faith. And by it you can act and perform something pleasing, because the issue is not you but him.

He gets the glory. Isn't that remarkable? And so in the last confrontation it's the very same thing. It's not just taking a deep breath, and I'm going to face this demon, and I'm going to show him who.

Faith, Spiritual Warfare, and Resurrection

And you know what the demon says? Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you, Hachad? He yawns in your face, even while you're reciting the formula. In the name of Jesus, come out in the name of Jesus.

He's not at all impressed, because he knows your faith is not the divine substance, but a human equivalent by which you have learned to agree while certain doctrines, certain confidences, you even quote the scripture to God, and ask for the payoff because the scripture says that you deserve a Cadillac.

That will fail. So now let's get to the point of what is at stake in this final confrontation, and how must it be met if God is to be glorified, and the demons are to release their captive before they kill him.

And if they do kill him, can we like Jesus, by faith, stretch forth our arm, and raise him up? Here's the remarkable analogy that this son represents Israel, that has to be not only delivered from oppression, but delivered from death.

That we have to have a faith that not only can rebuke the devil to let him go, but having let him go, he leaves him as dead, that our faith will raise him up unto resurrection. That the glory of Israel is the restored and resurrected nation, not just the one delivered from persecution.

So ultimate faith is resurrection faith that raises the dead. That's what's demonstrated. Jesus performed that, but the disciples could not. So here's the way I like to see it. This confrontation is a showdown, and it has its inception from time immemorial, comes to a final conflict at the end of the age, where the issue of the son is Israel, hanging in the balance, now brought to death.

And it's a confrontation between realities. The reality of the false usurper, the liar, the deceiver, Satan, who has created a whole mirage of things that are false, illusory, stinking values, the wisdom of below, to which the whole world subscribes as being real.

It's make-believe, and it's aided by fantasy, and movies, and films, and stories, and all of that crut and junk, that even the cartoons that our kids watch are infused and shot through with that whole make-believe of seeming power of explosions.

That's visible. That seems to have the marbles, seems to have the authority, seems where the action is. As against an invisible God, who resides in heaven, whose throne is in eternity, and that somehow we've got to bring into the valley that reality that is reality, because God is reality.

The throne is the nexus of reality. What comes down is what is real and sane. This is life and health. What is below is disfigurement and grotesque caricature, and devastation, and foaming at the mouth, and power unto death.

And the two things come together, and the question is, which reality will triumph? In that showdown, which reality will have all the marbles? The reality that is visible and even flings the victim down as dead, or the reality that you bring by faith when you command that devil to let go?

And your command is not just I hope, I hope, I hope, but your command rings with the authority of God, which you bring by faith in the knowledge of him that you've obtained from faith to faith, and now the measure is what will triumph?

The disciples failed, and Jesus reprimanded them severely. And the question is, when we come to this, we're moving toward this confrontation. If you have eyes to see, and can read history aright, and understand the eschatological faith, and the issue of Israel as represented in that sun, and the hatred of the powers of darkness against that sun, not content to molest, but to destroy.

Because if that sun is destroyed, they continue in their false usurping rule over the nations. They can only be defeated when that sun is made alive, and occupies the place of God's intention, and Zion becomes the center of the universe out of which the law goes forth, and the glory of God, and all nations come unto it.

The sun is that issue. That's why to destroy the sun is to set back, if not permanently, destroy the prospect of such a kingdom and such a rule. The issue is rule. The issue is government. And you know how even men, once they taste the benefits of authority and rule, will not let go?

Like the guy in Zimbabwe? He's now pushing 80. He's been the ruler since Zimbabwe came out of colonialism, and the country is being devastated by the madness of this man and his arbitrary rule. And anyone who opposes him is called a traitor, and they're sent to prison.

You can't even have journalism that's honest. And the elections are fraudulent and faked. And he continues in power. He will not let go. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And once you enjoy its benefits, especially as these men from Africa, they will not let go to be enriched.

They're garnering the whole wealth of nations to their own persons. I told you, I mentioned many times, driving in Switzerland and passing a baronial property with high walls, and you can glimpse over and see such remarkable buildings.

We're driving for five minutes. We've not come to the end of it. And I turned to my companion and said, whose place is that? Well, that belongs to the president of Congo, Zaire, the guy who died of cancer and is rotting in hell right now.

But how did he afford, and this was only one of several of his estates, because he has a fortune of fortunes in Swiss banks. They garner, they usurp, they take to themselves while their people are perishing for elementary nourishment and their children are beggars.

Cosmic Conflict and the Reality of God’s Kingdom

So, why am I saying all that? If that's man usurping through a rule, what about the powers of the air? Because who is it in Psalm 2 that rages against the Lord and against his anointed and want to break their bands asunder?

The rulers and the kings take thought together against the Son of God because they will not submit to his rule. This is a conflict, saints. If you don't know this, if you don't have this as the cosmic overview in which the church is set, you are nowhere.

You don't understand anything. And church then is a succession of Sunday services and an occasional programmer or speaker. This is the context, a conflict between darkness and light of what is going to prevail over God's creation.

And what's at issue is the Son. How long has this been going on? Since childhood. Why could we not cast it out? Because this kind, this ultimate kind cometh not out except by fasting and prayer. So, we need to consider what is Jesus saying?

That one account says faithlessness. You're faithful because you had not faith. If you had faith, you could have moved mountains. You lacked faith. What is that? A technique? A method? Or a knowledge of the majesty of God that is greater than all darkness, though it's invisible.

That you can come against what is visible by your inward knowledge of what is really real, although it is immaterial and not seen. That that which is not seen is greater than that which is visible. That you have the same mentality as Paul who counted the things that were invisible as being eternal and the eternal weight of glory that made his present suffering both momentary and light.

He had such an appropriation of God in the invisible realm that it affected his present condition. He did not feel his suffering in the measure that you would think because he wasn't living in his body.

His citizenship was in heaven. He was in the eternal and invisible realm as being more real than that which is visible. Because that visible stuff is going to decay, turn to dust, go up in smoke, and will dissipate away.

But the word of God endures forever. Believe us on this? So this is the conflict, you guys. Everything's up for grabs. To come to that confidence in the invisible God and his majesty as eclipsing and greater than the usurper.

And that we know that that usurper has been defeated, that Jesus made of him an open spoil at the cross and disarmed him. That though he can bark and growl and make noises, he has no power. Of what shall we be afraid?

Greater is he who is within us than he who is in the world. And now we can prove it by our commanding of those things to recognize themselves as defeated and flake off. Let go of that guy. Right now. This is immediate.

Authority, Discipline, and Spiritual Watchfulness

No option. And do you know that we were tested even in these days? With our little brother Chad? You guys weren't even aware that yesterday morning at the prayer time as I'm sitting in my seat, he was at the door with a puppy in his arms.

So fetching. Wanting to be readmitted. After all, let bygones be bygones. Even though we've had our differences and even though you have required of me that I leave. Can't I be readmitted? And when he came to the door and I saw him, though you didn't know what was going on, I stuck my finger out and I said, Out!

We have, the reality, the authority in this place has agreed and come together that you are required now to leave. And if you slip in again in your subversive cutesy way, well, so we retract our command and the authority that we exercise to make allowances for brother, give him another chance.

The whole issue of authority would have been affected and been betrayed. Got what I'm talking about? A little thing that a man at the door desiring to come in in a fetching way was a test of how we would insist upon the authority that we expressed in the Lord for the conduct of the school for which we're responsible.

And that if that man will receive that expulsion as a discipline needful for his erratic, egoistic behavior and receiving it for the good, he's welcome back at another time as a changed man. But if he tries to slip in now, subversively and cutely, and to evaporate the issue of authority, he will suffer loss and we will suffer loss.

So we need to be jealous in these regards because the issues are great. And any compromise in that area will be recognized by the powers of darkness. And the one mock that I cannot stand to hear is Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are you cats?

So these are the realities that we need to take very seriously and grow in. Don't care what your profession is, what your business, what your obligation, you can find time. You can get up earlier. You can go to bed earlier.

You don't have to frit away your evenings in mindless chit-chat and light things. Go to bed at an hour at a time that you'll wake up early and be with the Lord at that early, undistracted time before the world begins.

There's not one of us who can have an excuse, I've got a job, no, find time. This is the fasting. Fasting means self-denial. It's an emblematic word. It's not just the denial of food, it's the denial of sleep.

It's the denial of bodily comfort. It's the denial of yourself as first. Getting up early at the ridiculous hour when your body is clamoring for more rest is a denial. And somehow there's a principle that works in the cosmos that both God and the powers of darkness recognize that self-denial is contrary to the ethos and rationality of a world that says take care of number one first.

See to yourself. After all, if you don't, who else will? And your number one and your body and your rest and your food and your energy and your complexion and your clothing you, you, you, you is the logic of the world.

That's how Satan rules and jerks whole nations for jealousy envy careers prestige property value that's false. And God says all that will pass away but my word and my way endures. But do we believe that?

So by fasting and denial of sleep we are making a statement both that is honoring to God and threatening to the powers of darkness because it's a statement of our earnestness. We're not just flaky vocabulary bearing saints who say the right things.

But our life is earnest and real and on the line because no one is seeing us. This is entirely private and personal and you can get away with it and no one observes except in the public expression of your faith you don't get away with it.

What you are publicly in your prayer and witness and authority is altogether the statement of what you are privately and hiddenly in your relationship with God. It's the audacity and arrogance of man that sees himself as first and God catches whatever few crumbs he can in a second hand way.

That's what's perverse. Unbelief and faithlessness and unwillingness to give God the devotional attention that he deserves is a willful disrespect and it's perverse by its very nature. How many of us are willing to bite the bullet and say our neglect of God is willful and perverse?

It puts us above him that our sleep, our food, our contentment is the number one priority and if there's anything left over we'll show up on Sunday. That this is a perverse rejection of God's priority.

That he's holy. This is the living God the creator of the heavens and the earth. We don't have breath except by his willingness but we don't give him the attention and honoring that he deserves by our unwillingness to get out of bed.

Our unwillingness to make time for him. That we put our pleasure and our fortune as a higher priority than the honor that is due him. We need to see this as perverse because the Lord is not speaking that arbitrarily.

That unbelief is perverse. It's a willful disregard of that God who deserves faith and trust and admiration and devotion even adoration. Unbelief itself is sick. Well the scripture says that which is not of faith is sin.

Unbelief is sin. It's as if God is saying to believe is the most natural and logical and right response to the reality that I am. If you're not in that place you're in a sinful place. That by every reckoning you should be in the place of faith.

But your unbelief is a statement that you're in a perverse place. So the issues are so great that we have every reason to be faithful and not perverse. Look at the rendering in Luke at the end after Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit verse 42.

Healed the boy and gave him back to his father. Isn't that a remarkable statement? Do you see the analogy? Do you see the spiritual resonance of this? He healed Israel and gave him back to the father.

Israel has been out from the father all through its history but this healing, this restoration this lifting him up as dead is to give him back to the father and the purposes of Israel by the father. This is not just the actual physical thing oh here's your son.

No. It's much more. This is allegorical language. This is charged with extreme symbolism. And look at what follows. And gave him back to his father and all were astounded at the greatness of God. Mamma mia.

Israel’s Restoration and the Glory of God

You know what you dear saints? When Israel will be given back to the father after a lifetime of falling into water and fire and raised from the dead all the world will recognize and honor the glory of God for the so great restoration from the dead.

And that is hinted at in this very text. And all were astounded at the greatness of God. You might almost say that the whole thing is set up for that very revelation. The issue in the end is God's greatness as is to be recognized the world over.

That the praise of him should be from one end of the earth to the other which he deserves. But he's making it the issue of Israel's restoration. Because the issue of Israel will be visible to the world.

They'll see this son who has become demoniac and infested with devils and foaming at the mouth and epileptic and a caricatured deformed son capable of nothing and they'll watch this victim be brought out through the faith of the church and his relationship with God to defeat the powers of darkness and set him on his feet to be returned to the father for his glory.

All the world will be astounded. So the issue is even more than Israel. The issue is the world. Because this is going to be the factor that brings the acknowledgement of Israel's God to the consideration of Hindus, Muslims, Confucianists and every variety of heresy and paganism that exists worldwide.

There's only one God and he's the God who raises the dead. But raises the dead through whom? Jesus will not be there in that day. We will be there in that day. And it's a day that we need to anticipate and welcome every provision from God to bring us from faith to faith.

On what basis? That he's not a man that he should lie. That his promises will be honored. His word will be vindicated. Because the trust is the trust in the character of God as holy and as righteous. Has God said?

Yes. And because he said it, he will perform it. Right? So faith is trust in God and his character. But how do we know that character? Do we just assume? Or do we know it in different degrees? Do some know God better than others?

How so? And their faith grows in proportion to that knowledge so also is their trust. Because they have been led from faith to faith. And he has shown himself faithful. I have to say in my 76th year and my 41st year in the Lord I don't remember and know of a single instance in which God has ever failed.