The Fruit of Faith
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Faith Works in Terms of Ministering to Others
YouTube Great is Thy Faithfulness:
Faith is a huge subject in God’s Word.
God has given us, in Christ, the nature of Christ. In that nature is all of Jesus Christ’s faith. If you ever want to have more faith, remember that you already have it. You have the faith of Jesus Christ.
Everything that has to do with faith, we already have in the nature of Christ within us.
Fruit speaks of results. When you plant an apple seed, you expect to get an apple tree, not a pumpkin vine.
When you plant the seed of Christ within throughout your life, then you’ll get the same fruit that was in his life, in your life.
The Hebrew word picture for faith or faithfulness is made up of three letters, Aleph, Mem, and Nun.
We get our English word “amen” from it.
The word pictures for the letters, together, mean:
The strong leader who brings water to the seed.
The strength that brings water to the seed.
The strong leader is God, but it can also be people; we can all be strong leaders in this sense.
God, the strong leader, gives revelation to the seed, which is the Spirit, and that causes it to grow and produce life and fruit.
He gave us Holy Spirit. So we just need revelation (written word, spoken word), and that waters the seed, which has life within itself. Then the seed sprouts, grows, and produces fruit.
Making the seed grow is God’s job.
Our job is just to allow the water to come in and to nurture and facilitate the ground around it so that it can grow.
Romans 10:17 APNT:
Then, faith is by obedience and obedience by the word of God.
Romans 10:17 KJV:
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
In the Eastern way of thinking, “hearing” always has the idea of obedience.
Faith always works by hearing what God says and believing it. Believing God, believing God’s promises, believing God’s Word.
Faith Synonyms
1. Support, nourishment
Proverbs 13:17 ESV:
A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing.
A strong leader bringing water to the seed supports, and nourishes.
Matthew 9:20–22 ESV:
20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.
Never underestimate the power of your words when speaking to people. When you speak God’s words, you’re watering them.
We make believing and faith too complicated. It’s easy. Just take God’s faithful words, put them in your mind, and believe them. Amen—let it be so.
A related word to “faith” is “pillar.” A pillar gives strength to a structure. There’s an idea of “strength” with faith. It’s a strengthening. The foundation is always God’s word.
2. Make firm, constant, sure, reliable, confirm, establish, verify.
Isaiah 11:5 ESV:
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
Base every decision on God’s faithfulness, our source of strength.
3. Cause to stand firm, steadfast, true, cause to trust.
God promised Abram that he would be the father of many nations long before he had children. Abram trusted God’s Word to him, so Abram obeyed, step by step.
Acts 27:5–11 APNT:
5 And we [Luke was with them] crossed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia and arrived at the city [of] Myra, of Lycia.
6 And there the centurion found a ship from Alexandria that was traveling to Italy and they settled us on it.
7 And because we were sailing under heavy [seas], after many days we barely reached the island [of] Cnidus. And because the wind did not allow us to proceed by a straight course, we kept a heading near Crete towards the city [of] Salmone.
8 And after we had sailed around it with difficulty, we arrived at a place that was called Fair Havens, [that] was near to a city by the name of Lasea.
9 And we were there a long time until even the day of the fast of the Judeans [feast of Tabernacles] was past. And it was dangerous for anyone to travel by sea and Paul counseled them
10 and said, “Men, I perceive that our voyage will occur with calamity and with much loss, not only of the cargo of our ship, but also of our own lives.”
11 But the centurion listened to the shipmaster and the captain of the ship, rather than the words of Paul.
Paul received the “water,” the revelation, and he spoke it out. But they did not obey; they did not “hear” it. In terms of sense knowledge, the shipmaster’s plan was very logical, as we’ll see. Many times, though, the Word of God contradicts what we can see by our senses.
Acts 27:12–22 APNT:
12 And because that port was not suitable to winter in foul weather, many of us wanted to travel from there and if possible, to reach and winter in a certain port that was in Crete and was called Phenice and looked to the south.
13 And after the south wind blew and they thought that we would arrive according to their desire, they followed a course on the side of Crete.
14 And shortly after we left, a sudden blast of wind [came] on us that was called a typhoon Euroclydon.
15 And the ship was caught up and was not able to bear up against the wind and we yielded control of it.
16 And as we passed by a certain island that was called Cauda, we were hardly able to keep hold of the longboat.
17 And after we had taken it up [on board], we undergirded and prepared the ship. And because we were afraid, lest we should fall in the downward rapids of the sea, we pulled down the sail and so we drifted.
18 And as the violent storm raged against us, the next day we threw goods in the sea.
19 And the third day, we cast overboard the ship’s own riggings with our hands.
20 And as the tempest continued more days and the sun was not visible nor the moon nor stars, all hope of our living was completely cut off.
21 And as no one had eaten anything, then Paul stood up among them and said, “If you had been persuaded by me, men, we would not have sailed from Crete and we would have been spared from loss and from this calamity.
22 And now, I counsel that you should be without distress, for not one of you will be destroyed, but only the ship.
Now it’s different; this is a further revelation (more “water”).
Acts 27:23–25 APNT:
23 For there appeared to me in this night, an angel of that God whose I am and whom I serve.
24 And he said to me, ‘Fear not, Paul, it is prepared for you to stand before Caesar and behold, God has given to you [as a] gift, all who sail with you.’
25 Because of this, be encouraged, men, for I believe in God that it will be so even as it was communicated with me.
It wasn’t about those people having faith; it was about Paul’s faith.
Acts 27:26–31 APNT:
26 Nevertheless, we have to be thrown on a certain island.”
27 And after fourteen days that we were wandering and were buffeted in the Adriatic Sea, at midnight, the sailors thought that they were coming near land.
28 And they put out the anchors and found twenty fathoms, and again they went forward a little, and found fifteen fathoms.
29 And being afraid lest we should be found the places where there were rocks, they put out four anchors from the stern of the ship and prayed that it would be day.
30 Now the sailors tried to flee from the ship and they lowered the longboat to the sea on the pretext that they would go in it to secure the ship on the land.
31 And Paul seeing [this], said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “If these do not remain in the ship, you will not be able to be saved.”
Further “water,” more revelation. We’ll see an example where the strong leader inspired someone else to have faith.
Acts 27:32–44 APNT:
32 Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the longboat from the ship and allowed it to go adrift.
33 But Paul, when it was almost daybreak, convinced all of them that to take [some] nourishment, saying to them, “Behold, today [it has been] fourteen days since you have eaten anything on account of the danger.
34 Because of this, I beg you to take food for the strengthening of your life, for not a hair from the head of any of you will be hurt.”
35 And as he said these [things], he took bread and praised God before all of them and he broke [the bread] and began to eat.
36 And they were all comforted and they received sustenance.
37 Now there were two hundred and seventy-six people in the ship.
38 And when they were satisfied with the food, they lightened the ship and took the wheat and threw [it] in the sea.
39 And when it was day, the sailors did not recognize what land it was, but they saw by the shore of the dry land a certain bay of the sea, where they thought that, if possible, they could thrust the ship.
40 And they cut off the anchors from the ship and they left them in the sea. And they released the bands of the rudders and hoisted the small sail to the wind that was blowing and they proceeded toward the dry land.
41 And the ship struck on a place that was high between two deep [parts] of the sea and it was stuck on it. And the forward part of it stayed on it and was not to be moved, but the back part of it was broken to pieces by the violence of the waves.
42 And the soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners, so that they would not jump in swimming and would escape from them.
43 And the centurion prevented them from this, because he wanted to save Paul. And those who were able to jump in swimming, he commanded to swim first and to pass over to the land.
44 And the rest crossed over on boards and on other wood pieces of the ship. And so all of them escaped safely to the land.
They did not rescue themselves.
We don’t have to beat ourselves up thinking that we need more faith, more trust. No! Just water and keep watering. Speak God’s Word with each other.
Scripture References
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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