Authentic Bible Faith : Part III of V
By Mark Stidham
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Heb 12:2)
This verse says to look to Jesus who is the author and finisher
or developer of our faith. Well first of all how do you look to
Jesus? How many times in how many sermons have we heard that we
need to do just that. Yet in sermon after sermon you never hear
exactly how to. Jesus is in heaven and unless you have a vision
we cannot look at him in person, he is not physically present on
earth. So how do we look to Jesus?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. (John 1:1) And the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John
1:14)
Jesus is one with the Word. If we are going to look to Jesus we
are going to have to look to His Word. That is how you look unto
Jesus. You can see his life, how he walked, how he carried
himself, and you can see what he did in certain situations. Then
you can read in the epistles exactly what it his death burial
and resurrection means to us now. So looking to the word is
looking unto Jesus.
The power or strength of your faith is relative to the amount of
Word you feed it. Weak amount of the Word will produce a weak
faith; a strong amount of the word will produce strong faith.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Jesus told his
disciples, when they asked him to increase their faith, that if
they would plant what they had it would grow. He also went on to
tell a parable about a servant and after it had done all it was
to be fed. This brings us to the realization that faith is a
servant and it has to be fed (see Luke 17).
Our natural bodies need certain vitamins and minerals to operate
at optimal perfromance. The spirit man is the same, and you can
take all you want, you won't ever overdose on the Word. The Word
is medicine to all our flesh (Proverbs 4:22).
So looking to Jesus is as simple as looking to God's Word,
making it your priority and giving it the final say in all of
your life. And the amount of 'looking' into the Word is going to
determine the strength of your faith.
Mark L. Stidham Th.D. is an Ordained minister, a life coach,
a motivational speaker, a preacher, a pastor, an evangelist, a
web site publisher, a writer, a songwriter, a singer, a
photographer and a musician. Mark has been married to his wife
and valuable life partner, Patty Stidham for 19 years.
