by mental awareness, warm emotions, or even intellectual assent. Rather,
it’s “with the heart one believes unto righteousness” (Romans 10:10,
NKJV). Faith deeply believes God will do what He says. Faith produces
words of agreement and actions of obedience. The corresponding words and
actions are simply evidence that our heart has laid hold of what
God has spoken.
Faith has a language. Paul writes, “The righteousness of faith speaks
in this way” (Romans 10:6, NKJV). True faith speaks a certain way.
Jesus says, “Have faith in God. For assuredly I say to
you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into
the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that
those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
(Mark 11:22-23, NKJV)
Notice that Jesus emphasizes that true faith in God will
speak in agreement with what it believes; this is the language of faith.
In fact, the word says is repeated three times in this one
verse, and the word believes is mentioned only once by Jesus. He
puts great emphasis on the language of faith.
Genuine faith speaks in accordance with what it believes, for Jesus
says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew
12:34, NKJV). We don’t prove we have faith by speaking what we know is
correct. Rather, we spontaneously speak what we already believe. As the
psalmist writes, “I believed, therefore I spoke” (116:10, NKJV). Belief
comes first; the evidence of speech follows. Paul affirmed, “We also
speak because we believe.”
Under pressure, or when we are not consciously thinking, what comes out
of our mouths is what we actually believe. This is evidence of our faith
or the lack thereof.
Marked by boldness and passion, John Bevere
delivers uncompromising truth through his award-winning curriculum and
best-selling books now available in over sixty languages. His newest
book is Extraordinary: The Life You’re Meant to Live. More
information is available at www.ExtraordinaryOnline.org.
