by Pastor James Kimathi
6th April 2025
Faith is absolute confidence in Jesus Christ. The unshakable assurance comes from a heart wholly dependent on the Lord. Faith doesn’t thrive on uncertainty; it thrives on certainty, certainty in who God is, His promises, and His unchanging character. As Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith is not about risks. We only take risks because we are not confident. Faith is not an imagination, a feeling, or a thought; it is a genuine, spiritual substance that resides in the heart of the one who has learned to trust God completely. When we genuinely depend on Jesus, struggling in our faith becomes a thing of the past because our foundation is no longer in our strength but in His.
Faith that is not accompanied by works is dead (James 2:14-26). True faith reveals itself in Action. It is active, visible, and practical. Prayer, for instance, is not just a routine; it is a profound act of faith, an acknowledgment that we do not rely on ourselves but on God. Moreover, giving is an act of faith, a tangible expression that we trust God as He provides for us. Furthermore, when we serve with the understanding that we are first serving the Lord, we walk in faith.
Becoming a man or woman of faith is not a title; it is a journey marked by forgiveness received, a heart that chooses to serve with reverence, and the time spent in prayer. Importantly, faith is not mystical; it is practical, and those who walk by it walk confidently, not because they are everything, but because they have chosen to trust in the one who does.
THE VALUE AND THE WORTH WE ATTACH TO OUR FAITH: How valuable is our faith? What is the worth of our faith?
Faith is like mineral ore. An ore is a naturally occurring stone or solid material from which a metal or a valuable mineral can be profitably extracted. Thus, faith is deposited like a mineral ore. When we receive faith in the Lord at the very onset, the faith is in us. True faith is not for our benefit but a dependency on God for His glory. It is important to note that the end of our faith is a genuine love for God. 1st Peter 1:9 states, “For you are receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
We might think that believing in God for our salvation is enough. However, it is not enough. For instance, when carrying a mineral ore, you can say you have gold, but the whole mass is not gold. You must take the gold through purification levels to obtain the actual gold weighed after its value. For some of us, our faith is like a mineral ore. In this case, the value of faith required to address a challenge does not meet the threshold of what we carry because what we think of as faith is just a mineral ore. What is gold in that mineral ore is very insignificant compared to the challenge, yet we are still believers.
There is a level of faith that we come to that not only saves our lives from sins, sicknesses, iniquities, diseases, and calamities but also changes our lives and the way we think, what we do, where we go, and how we speak. We may have faith that God has forgiven us and healed us of our sicknesses, but we lack the faith to change how we gossip. It is a level of faith that we attain in our lives that makes us hate gossiping. The level of faith comes like a mineral ore and must be purified to be at the place of ‘genuine faith.’ As 1st Peter 1:7 states, “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
When we realize the worth of our faith, we will allow the mineral ore to go through the process of purification, which is testing even through fire, to achieve pure gold, the highly refined gold with more value. Valuable things are not helpful because of their mass or quantity but because of their quality. That is why you need a lot of money to carry one bar of “bullion” of gold. Thus, Jesus says, in Mathew 17:20, that “even if you have faith as little as a mustard seed…” meaning that it is not about the quantity but the quality. That said, increasing our faith is not in its measure of weight but in its purification and genuineness. The purer our faith is, the bigger our faith will be. A pure and genuine faith has been cleared of the world’s impurities. Of importance to note is that testing that comes to purify our faith makes our faith more authentic.
David’s faith was innocent, pure, and genuine. His quality of faith was worthy to handle the challenge of killing Goliath.
We should note that the devil is not afraid of us reading the word, fasting, and praying, but he is scared of these practices changing our lives by eliminating anger, jealousy, etc. Faith increases as the worldly impurities are removed. As the gold shines forth, we become more powerful in our faith because the purity of our faith is the power of our faith.
According to James 1, our faith will be tried, leading to its purification. However, the more our faith is purified, the more value it brings, as portrayed in 1st Peter 1:6-7. What messes us is when the revelation of Christ and our dependency on Christ does not agree with our faith. Therefore, our faith should be purified because although it might be revealed to us that Jesus is the healer, provider, and the one who fights our battles when He comes to heal, provide to us, and fight our wars, our faith disagrees. Thus, our faith should not be wanting when Jesus is revealed to us.
Taking care of our faith more than we care for our property is very paramount. Such will enable us to have another level of purified faith. Although everyone likes gold, no one is interested in unpurified gold. In Revelation 22:1, gold is likened to our faith, as our way in the kingdom is through a street called, ‘the street of pure gold.” Notably, the kingdom of God has one street. Therefore, the purification of our faith is a guarantee of a street of pure gold. Thus, we gain access to the kingdom by the virtual purification of our faith.
Our revelation of Jesus must be measured with our faith in Him. Let us ask ourselves, where is our faith? What is the value of our faith? Where is the faith that merits revelation? We should not neglect our faith (Luke 10:25) & (Matthew 17:19-21). Instead, we should invest in purifying our faith by allowing the word of God to work in our lives. And because faith begets patience, we must give it time.
Matthew 15:25-28 portrays that the woman had pure, innocent, and genuine faith, and as a result, the Lord helped her. Her level of faith was like that of the woman with the issue of blood. That said, there is faith that touches Jesus. In this case, the woman was healed because of the purity of her faith. Such is the faith that Jesus wants in the church. If we operate at this level of faith, our desires will become our answered prayers.
It is essential to return to our first love. We must return to serving the Lord and continue with the little things we did in the house of God. When we serve God, our value of faith will not diminish. For instance, when we value something, it reciprocates its value to us. Daniel valued his faith more than he valued his life. In Daniel 1:18, he held the lives of all the wise men hostage who could not interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Currently, many people, including wealthy ones, are in hospital suffering from various illnesses. Can we purchase them because of our faith?
Conclusively, many believers have suffered because they have attempted to arise in a worldly way. As Joseph preserved his confidence in the Lord, let us be mature sons of God with pure faith. Also, may we not lose our saltiness. Things will begin to work as we do all these and seek to please the Lord. Furthermore, let us note that there is a lot our faith carries that we have yet to discover. It is important not to devalue our faith. Let us acknowledge that there are certain rooms a believer will not be able to access until they are walking in a gold street symbolized by pure, genuine, and innocent faith.
