There is a wonderful life of faith in Jesus Christ. The life of faith is a life of victory and happiness. It is a life of purpose and discovery. It is a life of love and compassion. The life of faith is a life of revelation and experience. It is a life of adventure in the spirit. It is a life of achievement. By faith, we are restored to our original nature, and more than that, we are renewed into the image of the Son of God. The Bible says that we reign in life by Jesus Christ. It is a life of fellowship with God. It is a life of true reason and power. We are able to walk in intelligence and dominance in the likeness of God.

There is salvation in faith. Sin had broken our connection to God, but Jesus Christ came to bring us back to him. He is the Great Shepherd that came to gather his chosen ones back to the Father. This is what we do when we preach the gospel in his name. We call out with our voices and with our words to raise up those who are dead in sin and those who slumber in unrighteousness. Then the Spirit of God injects life into them, and they are reborn as children of God. How should the children of God relate to him? We relate to him in worship, in humility, and in love and truth.

The word of God also teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God. It says that anyone who comes to God must have faith that God is who he says he is and that God is a rewarder of those who seek him. God is a rewarder. True faith must believe that God rewards. If you have faith, you must believe that following God will benefit you. You must believe that seeking God will bring rewards for you. You are not going to reward God. He is going to reward you. This is a basic principle of true faith, and it marks a distinction between revelation and tradition, between true piety and false piety.

There is righteousness in faith. God creates faith in us by his word, and through this faith he credits the righteousness of Christ to our account. This is a perfect righteousness. If we believe that God accepts Jesus Christ as righteous, then we believe that God accepts us as righteous, because we are followers of Jesus. He is our guarantee in the presence of God. As long as Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, we will always have a place in heaven. And if we believe that Satan cannot accuse Jesus of unrighteousness, and that he can never condemn Jesus before God, then we believe that Satan can never condemn us before God.

The righteousness is a gift from God. It is God’s own righteousness appearing in us. The faith in our hearts is the evidence that he has chosen us and that he has established a relationship with us. You can trust in this relationship. It was decided before the creation of the world, and secured by the righteousness of Christ himself. It cannot be broken. This brings us to a life of righteousness, not only in status, but also in conduct. We do not have to try and fail and cower. But Jesus has already succeeded, and we have succeeded in him. Now we live out his righteousness in our own lives.

There is freedom in faith. Faith enables us to walk by a different set of rules. The law of decay and death is at work in sinners. They are constantly rotting, constantly dying. They are in bondage to the world and to the devil. But because we follow Jesus Christ, we walk in the law of spirit and life. We walk in the law of love, grace, and joy. We walk in the law of power, success, and glory.

I declare my faith in God, and Satan loses his hold over me. He cannot control me. He cannot coerce me. But instantly, I have power over him. I say, “I believe that Jesus suffered and died in my place, and I believe that he was raised from the dead for my justification and victory.” The moment I say this, the chains fall to the ground. Anxiety dissipates. Depression disappears. Confidence wells up in my soul. Peace floods my heart.

Faith is not a feeling, but faith is something that you can eventually feel, or it is something that will determine what you feel. Faith is not generated by your circumstances, and it is not diminished by your circumstances. It is not a reaction to your circumstances, but it is an effect of God’s word in you. By faith, God enables you to dominate your circumstances. Faith reverses the operation of sin in your spirit and your body. You do not have faith only after you are happy, but your faith will cause your spirit to remain happy and in peace. You do not have faith only when your body feels good, but your faith will cause your body to feel good. Faith brings God into your situation, and enables you to rule over it.

Faith comes from God, not from the church. Faith has direct access to God, and it has this access apart from the church. The church is supposed to be a congregation of people who are full of faith, not a gathering of faithless and worthless losers who comfort one another with lies and platitudes. You do not belong to the church, but to Jesus Christ alone. Jesus Christ owns you. He bought you with his own blood. The church does not own you. Nobody in the church died to save you from sin and hell. The church will often misuse the name of Christ to manipulate you and to keep you in bondage to their control. They will force you to comply with their faithless doctrines and human traditions. If you do not have faith, you might succumb and become ensnared to men, just like you were ensnared to the devil before you believed in Christ. But when you have faith, you know that they are imposters. When you have faith, you will throw off their control and follow Jesus. When you confess Christ, they lose their power over you. When you confess Christ, you can damn them to hell and walk free.

Faith sets you free from the sickness mindset. Faith sets you free from the poverty mindset. Faith sets you free from the spirit of defeat. It sets you free from phony piety. Faith inspires you to overturn the false gospel of religious suffering. This false gospel teaches suffering for its own sake, as if suffering is our religion. It tricks people into suffering things that they should never tolerate. It does not teach us to suffer for Jesus, but to suffer things that are the effects of our transgressions, and to suffer things in our circumstances that Jesus already defeated by his death and resurrection. This kind of suffering comes from weakness and unbelief, and it dishonors our Lord. If there is any suffering, let us suffer as witnesses for the gospel of Jesus Christ and as heroes for the kingdom of God. Even then, we can have victory in every situation, because God is with us.

There is power in faith. There is purpose in faith. And there is power to carry out the purpose. In faith, power and purpose are united. In faith, hope finds its fulfillment, and it is not disappointed. Jesus taught his disciples about the power of faith. He said that by faith anyone can speak to a mountain and make it throw itself into the sea. And by faith, anyone can ask for whatever they want in prayer. By faith, we can move mountains. By faith, we can pray and change our lives and change the world. It seems that faith alone already possesses unlimited power, but Jesus said that they would receive even more power when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

By faith, we have the power to heal the sick and cast out demons. By faith and by the Spirit of God, we can speak in tongues and prophesy. We have the power to confront dead and perverted religion. This is the kind of religion that adds so much man-made burden to Christians that they are eventually in a worse condition than the unbelievers. But Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Faith in God makes life easy and light, not hard and unbearable. Jesus is the answer to all your problems. And by faith, he will take you from dealing with problems to thinking about progress. Then you can have purpose in life. Then you can help other people. Then you have something to offer them. Faith makes you a treasure to God and to humanity.