Faith is:

• To state firmly God is not with you when He is not (even against evidence);

• To state God is with you when He is, even against evidence;

• To assume God as He is only;

• To reject God when preached and put forth as He is not;

• To accept any curse as well as one accepts any blessing if those come from God;

• To reject any blessing as one would a curse if those do not come from God;

• To be able to find grace;

• To be able to read the Bible in time of some other need or even beforehand;

• To close the Bible in times one should be doing;

• To grow in doing as one grows in knowing;

• To make sure of things, unafraid, knowing truths (and us) are never afraid to be questioned;

• To be sure of things when all questions are fully answered;

• To be unsure when questions are not answered (Yet, without doubting the Person of God Himself);

• To not even take time to figure out how to answer the devil (to let him talk alone);

• To be free to think before God, even in error, knowing God will correct mind and heart which bends and is easily moulded;

• To have a kind of heart which only God moulds, even if it is accomplished through a man’s co-working;

• To be able to hear when people are of God;

• To wrestle in yourself when people are not sent by Him and are able to say wise and convincing things;

• To have faith unfeigned since God is real and so are the issues and promises from Him;

• To assume any promise as a sure curse if one is not clean before God;

• To assume a promise or any prophecy (concerning ourselves) as impossible to be fulfilled while having sin within;

• To assume that to be strong is to be natural and not to be strong minded about something;

• To assume things must be or become real since God is real;

• To put doctrine aside as Peter put serving aside to fulfil a greater need;

• To assume sin as sin;

• To assume holiness only such as is from God and breeding into us;

• To be able to do more than Pharisees and pastors and not less – to exceed them easily in the sight of God;

• To assume sin as a real stumbling block and never as an impediment;

• To assume holiness as part of the means to achieve in and through God;

• To remain loyal when deceit knocks;

• To refuse an idea of God if and when we can have Him for real;

• To accept that reality in God is the only natural way to live and stick by;

• To reject holiness when it is not natural and simple; if holiness is an accomplishment, it might never be a living issue;

• To overcome the world as easily as one is able to breathe; it is sick people who find it hard to breathe – so does faith in sin;

• To assume always a better way if it comes from God;

• To be able to loose if it does not mean humility;

• To reject an escape if it is sent to deviate from peace and holiness;

• To have the solemn need to be in peace with God above all else;

• To be able to find more about what faith is so I do not have to make an endless list here! Amen.

José Mateus