The Next Life Series, Study 09

THE FAITH OF JESUS

What is faith and how can we have faith in our walk with Christ today? Let us study this most
important topic as we look at the faith of Jesus today.

1. What type of faith do God’s people need?

Bible Text – Rev. 14:12
Ans:
• The faith OF Jesus, NOT just faith in Jesus.
• What does it mean to have the faith of Jesus?
o It means to have the same faith as Jesus. So somewhere in this study we will look
at what type of faith Jesus had.

2. What is the definition of faith?

Bible Text – Heb.11:1; Gal. 5:6; Heb. 11:8
Ans:
• Heb 11:1 – This is the definition of faith.
o Faith is believing in things unseen. We have to see something that you can’t
physically see.
• Gal 5:6 – faith has to work by love.
• Heb 11:8 – faith must be demonstrated through obedience.

3. How can we have faith?

Bible Text – Rom. 10:17
Ans:
• Rom 10:17 – faith comes and grows through hearing the word of God.
• How do we hear the word of God? Well, first through literally hearing it through sermons.
Listen to sermons on audioverse too. For people first coming to the truth, especially if they
are dealing with addiction. We need to help them hear the Word of God anytime,
anywhere. So audioverse is a good place.
• As we grow, we can also hear the word through studying it for ourselves. Sometimes the
word of God will speak to us directly as well. However, it is important for us to know the
Word of God through the word first. Otherwise we won’t be able to recognize who is
speaking to us – Satan? Or Jesus?

4. When did Jesus hear the word of God?

Bible Text – Matt. 3:17; Matt. 17:5
Ans:
• Baptism (Matt 3:17) – just before temptation
• Mount of Transfiguration (Matt 17:5) – just before crucifixion (persecution)
• Why? Every time, Christ audibly heard the voice of the Father or His words to encourage
for the upcoming trials he would face. Why is it important for us to hear God’s words? So
that we can be strengthened to face temptation and persecution.

5. How does the voice of God first speak to us?

Bible Text – Heb. 5:12, Heb 6:1-2
Ans:
• Heb 5:12 – first principles. What are they?
o Heb 6:1-2 - principles of the doctrine of Christ, repentance, and of faith toward
God, doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment.
o These are the fundamentals of Christianity.

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The Next Life Series, Study 09

• But as you do Bible study, Holy Spirit will use the fundamentals as a sword to cut our heart.
This is when we have to put our faith to work. James 2:20.
• What do we call this? Obedience.
• Now, as our Christian life develops, we need to spend more time in the word. Why? It is
the double-edged sword that cuts our heart. It will help us to know what is right and
wrong. But will that alone help us to overcome? When you are having a fight, does it
help you to change? When you are dealing with addiction, or addicted to some secret
sin, how do you overcome?
• We need something more to faith. The word of God will cut our heart, but what else?

6. Besides hearing God’s voice, what else should we do?

Bible Text – Psa. 1:2
Ans:
• Psa 1:2 – We need to learn to delight in the word of God. Not just read it, but to delight in
it. And we need to MEDITATE.
• But what does it mean to meditate?

7. What does meditation consist of?

Bible Text – Psa. 5:1-3; Psa. 77:12; Psa. 143:5
Ans:
• Psa 5:1-3 – What is connected with meditation? Prayer. And at least when should we
pray? Morning.
• Psa 77:12 – What else is meditation connected with? Thinking of the works of God. What
He has done for us. What he WILL do for us.
• Psa 143:5 – Again, meditation is connected with musing. What does it mean to muse? It
means to reason, ponder, imagine.

8. How does meditation help us?

Ans:
• For most of us, our Christian walk consists of praying at night asking God for forgiveness
for all of our sins. However, as we are asking for forgiveness, we are imagining the sin. Eg.
Alcoholic asking for forgiveness – he’s saying God forgive me for drinking, but he is
imagining the bar, the taste of the alcohol.
• What is this doing? It is reinforcing the sinful habit.
• So the next time, when he feels the urge, what happens? He can’t help himself, he just
drinks again.
• Meditation is about positive thinking in our prayer life.
• EXAMPLE: A pole vaulter. Person who jumps over the bar with a pole in the Olympics.
Before he goes to jump over the bar, he is standing there. He closes his eyes. Do you
know what he is imagining? Do you think he visualizes himself hitting the bar and failing?
If he does that, what will happen? He will of course hit the bar. Why? Because of his
negative thinking. So, what does he do? He has to visualize himself getting OVER the bar.
• This is the type of meditation we have to have in our lives. We have to exercise positive
thinking.

9. How does Paul describe meditation?

Bible Text – Rom. 6:11-16
Ans:
• What is the action word in Rom 6:11? Reckon.
o What does it mean to reckon? Reason, ponder, imagine.
o Imagine what? Yourself dead to sin.
• What about in verse 13?

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The Next Life Series, Study 09

o “yield”
o What does this mean. What do you do when you yield? It’s not about
stopping. It is about yielding. At a yield sign, you slow down. Yield means to
slow down enough so that the Holy Spirit can push you in another direction.
• So how does this help?
• ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
o For those who are right handed. If I asked you to use your left hand for the
next 3-5 years, at some point, if I asked you to pick up the pen. What would
happen?
o Your mind would be confused. And you would pause for a second. You
wouldn’t know which hand to use for a moment.
o You see, we need to confuse our mind in a sense, through positive thinking in
our prayer and meditation lives. We have to plead with Christ and the Holy
Spirit to help us come up with a plan to overcome our sins. And we have to
pray about it, meditate about it. Every time we fall, we have to get on our
knees and ask God to reinforce in us what to do. We have to meditate on
how to RECKON ourselves dead and YIELD to God. Meditating helps us to
slow down and it gives us an option to do right because we are constantly
thinking about it.
o And as we continue to do this, we will get to a point, when we have thought
through so much how we are to overcome, tasting victory over sin in our
meditation lives, our minds will be confused.
o It will come to a point things will slow down more when temptation comes
and our minds will be confused enough because we have used our left hand
of faith and meditation so much and the Holy Spirit will be able to remind us
how to overcome and to call on God.

10. What is the importance of having the faith OF Jesus?

Bible Text – Mark 15:34
Ans:
• Mark 15:34 – When Jesus was on the cross, He cried, “My God, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me?” Was the Father and Holy Spirit with Him? NO.
• You see, Jesus had exercised faith so much in His life that when He had to go through
His crucifixion experience, He had developed completely the character of God and
to follow the Father’s will was by instinct.
• Likewise, God’s people will go through a period at the end when they will have to
rely on instinct to follow God’s will.
• They have exercised the faith of Jesus so much, that Satan’s temptations do not ring
a chord in their heart anymore. They have the instinct/faith of Jesus Christ.

Do you want the faith of Jesus? If this is your desire, then make a commitment to meditate on
God’s word so that He can give you complete victory over sin.

Copyright © 2008 Advent Productions For more info, email us at info@adventproductions.com