How Do I Know When I Have Faith?

MATTHEW 17:20 NKJ 20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

I used to think it was hard to be certain about faith because it was something like a feeling or state of being. But now I understand that once we make the decision to believe, we are in faith, no matter how we may feel, unless we make another decision to stop believing.

Because at its heart, faith is always a decision. No one can force you to believe in anything. The choice is yours.

(Remember that, in the New Testament, faith is the noun form and believe is the verb form of the same word.)

A definition of faith is: a decision, based on some evidence, resulting in some action.

Faith in God is a choice to believe what God says is true. It is accepting God's Word as evidence worthy of acting upon.

LUKE 17:6 NASB 6 And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you.

(Jesus did not say "faith the size of a mustard seed" as some modern translations say, but "faith like a mustard seed." The size of a mustard seed is only one of its characteristics.)

Jesus said if you had faith you would say, so faith speaks. Faith is not silent. We express what we believe by our words and our actions.

Faith is not a mystery. You never have to wonder whether you have faith. You know what you believe by what you say and do.

SAY THIS: I can know when I have faith by what I say and do.