Living by Faith
A Lifestyle
By Dr. Frederick K.C. Price
Romans 1:17 (NKJV)
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
Faith is a lifestyle, a way of life.-- the God-kind of life. Too many Christians try to use faith as a gimmick, an Aladdin's Lamp. "Genie, genie, come out and give me a new Cadillac." "Genie, genie, I want a yacht." "Genie, genie, come out and give me a townhouse." No! No! No! You should be living by faith 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365-1/4 days as the earth orbits the sun. Faith is not something you use as a parachute or a spare tire when you have a problem.
2 Corinthians 5:7(NKJV)
7. For we walk by faith, not by sight.
It is not like seeing with your eyes. This Scripture is talking about the difference between walking by the things of the Spirit of God, which operates by faith, and walking by what your five physical senses tell you. I like to paraphrase this verse like this: We walk by the Word and not by our senses.
Romans 10:17 says:
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
If the Word of God is not heard, faith will not come. If faith comes, then faith was not there before it came, or it would not have to come there.
Faith and the Word of God are synonymous terms. You cannot have one without the other. I like to think of faith and the Word like wet with the water. If you get the water, you get the wet, because wet is a characteristic of water. You can go to a restaurant, order a hamburger and say, "Hold the onions." But you cannot say, "Bring me some water and hold the wet," because wet goes with the water.
Faith goes with the proclaimed Word of God. That is why Jesus said in Mark 16:15, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Why, Jesus? Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If someone does not go preach, faith cannot come. If faith cannot come, people cannot believe. If they cannot believe, they cannot get saved. If they cannot get saved, they are going to hell. It is as simple as that.
Hear the Word Continually
Faith comes by hearing. This principle is true whether or not you are dealing with God's Word. It is just like breathing. People are designed to breathe air to survive, so, whether the person is a Christian or a sinner, he will still breathe air. It is a law, and all laws that have been set into motion in the universe, whether physical or spiritual, will work for anyone.
If you listen to a successful man of the world -- one who goes from nothing to millionaire status -- you will find that person is a positive person. He always talks about victory and success. You will never see a self-made millionaire who started out by saying, "I'll always be poor," because, when you say that, it affects your faith.
Because faith comes by hearing, you need to hear the Word of God continually. This is because everything you believe as a Christian comes by faith. Even when some Christians say they do not believe in something -- such as divine healing, for instance -- it may not really be a case of the people disbelieving in it, but the fact that they have never heard the Word of God on that subject. They may have faith for not believing in it, which they received from their church and reinforced by repeating what the pastor said. This is actually a negative faith. But positive or negative, faith still comes by hearing.
On the other hand, if you keep hearing what the Word of God has to say about healing, you can build up your faith positively for it. Even if you do not understand everything the Word says about it initially, if you keep coming and listening, you will eventually understand it and faith will come.
Use What You Hear
Along with feeding your faith by hearing, you have to exercise it by acting on what you hear. Use it or lose it. Just as with any physical talent, your faith will not work well if you do not continue using and developing it. If you use it all the time, it will be fluid and supple; everything will move well and your faith will work. But a lot of people do not use their faith until some crisis occurs.
James 2:17:
17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
What this scripture literally means is that faith without corresponding actions is dead. It will not work for you, and it will not do you any good. If I say, "I believe if I eat some food, it will keep me from starving to death," and I never eat, I will starve. That is faith without works.
When it comes to "putting feet to your faith," we have this situation illustrated in Mark 5:25-34:
25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years,
26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.
28 For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well."
29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.
30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?"
31 But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'"
32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing.
33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.
34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."
Verses 25 and 26 tell you about this woman's tragic condition, and verse 27 about her coming into the crowd when she had heard of Jesus and touching His garment. Why would she have done a crazy thing like that? Verse 28 tells us why:
28 For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well."
If this woman had stayed home and said, "If I can touch His clothes, I shall be made well," she never would have experienced her healing. It was not enough for her to say, "I believe." She had to do something -- and so do we if we want the promises in God's Word to manifest in our lives.
We need to consistently hear the Word of God being taught and also put action to our faith. That is walking by faith and for the born again, Spirit filled believer, this should be our way of life!
For more information about the ministry please click here.
You can watch Apostle Frederick K.C. Price on LightSource.com
