Genesis 8:22 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased}
22 {The Lord says}
"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest...shall not cease".
Faith Is...
Faith is in God and faith is believing God's promises will happen. This means that you know that what God says through your words in prayer will come to pass. For example, sowing and reaping. God uses planting seed in the earth to illustrate faith in His word. Everytime you plant seed in the ground you expect a harvest. You know a harvest is coming. That's what faith is. Faith is knowing that planting seed in the earth will grow a plant. You believe that planting produces a harvest. To believe that what you plant will grow, is faith in God and His word. The same word that makes plants grow from seed, is what you pray. When you know that God's promises are going to come to pass just as sure as planting seed in the ground will bring a harvest, then you'll have faith in God and His word.
Faith is certainty in God's word. God wants us certain that His promises will create what we say just as planting a seed produces plants. God's word created the seed, the earth and the harvest. The same word of God that we pray, created the seed to plant and the harvest it brings. So, that's what faith in God is. It's knowing His word works.
Faith in God is knowing that when you plant a seed that you're going to get a crop. Faith in God gives you assurance of this. Faith does not make your harvest come. The planting does. Faith is that you know you will get a crop once you plant a seed. You don't have to try hard enough to believe that it will happen. Believing doesn't make your harvest grow. Planting the seed does and faith is in the growing of the crop after you plant the seed, not trying to make it happen by believing. You will believe in your crop once you plant your seeds.
Solid Faith
Luke 8:11-B
Authorized (King James) Version
11 {Jesus said}
"The seed is the word of God".
Mark 4:26-29 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased}
26 And {Jesus} said, "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, 27 and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up. He knows not how. 28 For the earth brings forth fruit of herself. First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest is come".
When you know that God's promises will come to pass just as sure as sowing seed in the ground will bring a harvest, then your faith is solid. This is what God wants. It's called assurance and confidence in God. This means that whether you believe it or not, God's word is going to come to pass just like sowing seed in the ground is going to bring a harvest. All you got to do is sow seed in the ground. God's word is going to happen once you speak it. God wants you to have confidence instead of doubt until the harvest come because it's going to come just as sure as planting seed brings a harvest.
Mark 11:12-14; 20-26 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased} 12 And {the next day}, when they were come from Bethany, {Jesus} was hungry, 13 and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon {to eat}. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves. For the time of figs was not yet. 14 And Jesus answered and said to it,
"No man eat fruit of you hereafter forever".
And His disciples heard it.
20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter calling to remembrance says to {Jesus},
"Master, behold, the fig tree which You cursed is withered away".
22 And Jesus answering says to them,
"Have faith in God. 23 For verily I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, "Be removed, and be cast into the sea". And shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, {that} what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.
25 And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any. That your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses".
Believing doesn't bring the harvest. God's word does. You don't have to try to believe to make it happen. God wants us to believe in Him and His word of promise so that we rest in faith and assurance until the harvest comes and will not doubt because He wants us in peace.
When Jesus spoke this, He wasn't commanding us to believe in order to receive. He's speaking from the mentality of one who knows God and the way it is in His kingdom and is teaching us unspecifically about faith. He had solid faith in God and told us that whatever we pray for will happen when we speak God's promises about it without being specific.
Apply the sowing and reaping principle to this passage to get that mentality from the words of Christ so that you'll have the same faith as He does.
Galatians 6:7 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased} 7 Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
What you plant will grow. To get the harvest all you got to do is sow, not believe. Believing that God's word will come pass without a doubt doesn't make the harvest grow. God's will word will go to work and bring your harvest whether you believe it or not. We don't know how a seed planted grows food to eat. The Bible says God gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6, 7). Faith, assurance and confidence in God are to give us peace of mind until the harvest comes. Knowing that you got a harvest coming because you planted seed makes us smile and that smile is what is valuable to God. That's why He wants us to believe in Him. God doesn't want us frowning and wrestling with His word because it's going to happen just as sure as planting seeds brings crops. You don't have to believe, you have to sow, to get the harvest. God does the rest. We don't know how God makes the earth bring forth fruit of itself. We just plant and rest in faith as sure as a farmer does after he's planted his seed on his farm.
Put that faith about planting seed into the foundation of faith in what Jesus said in Mk. 11:22-24. You'll understand that when Jesus says that if we will not doubt in our heart but will believe that whatever we say will come to pass, that we will have whatever we said, and that whatever we believe for we will have, He's talking about seedtime and harvest. That, knowing that it is God's word that makes a seed grow into food. We do not know how a seed makes the earth bring forth fruit of itself. But we know that when we plant a seed, it grows into a plant. Faith in God is knowing just that. Knowing that when we plant a seed, it turns into a plant. The same word that makes that happen is the same word of God's promises we speak in prayer. The same word that makes the earth bring forth fruit of itself without the farmer doing it, is what we pray and will bring the harvest when we plant God's promises.
So, believing doesn't make the harvest grow. God's word does that. We just plant the seed in faith knowing that it will grow into a harvest. If you know the seed will grow, there's no doubt that it won't. If you do not doubt in your heart that the word of God that you say will come to pass, you will have whatever you said.