Faith

How to Make a Faith Transaction With God — Part II

by J.W. Phillips
06/19/25
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How to Make a Faith Transaction With God — Part II

The mountain of faith has more than a few casualties at its base, valley-bound people who in the morning light began their climb with zeal but after a stumble and a near frightening fall, they’re not all sure they will ever attempt the climb again.

Are you in this number? Is there some experience related to faith that has hurt you? If so, consider the possibility that the disillusionment that now threatens you may be the result of not understanding how faith works. 

In the Old Testament there is a verse three times repeated in the New Testament, “... the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). 

What a critical, foundational concept! All the blessings of the new life—every privilege, every power, every success, every satisfaction—can only be secured through faith. According to A.W. Tozer, “Every benefit flowing from the atonement of Christ comes to the individual through the gateway of faith.”¹ 

So, do you know how to release faith? In churches all over our land the exhortations to do precisely that are routinely given. Yet people can sit in these churches for decades and never once be taught the biblical methods for releasing faith. 

Be clear on this: Faith isn’t confidence in a formula, even if that formula is found in Scripture. Jesus said we’re to have faith in God; he did not say we’re to have faith in faith. According to John White, “Faith in God comes before faith in the promise.”² And that makes sense, since a promise is only as good as the one who made it. 

There is a subtle error our very sneaky enemy will use against us unless we flag it down with warning. To focus our minds on the methods of faith, and our hearts on the victories of faith, can result in our own personal peril if we don’t at the same time, and with greater devotion, look with a steadfast gaze on the Lord Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). 

In the previous post we examined the first three steps for releasing faith. Adding to this effort, we will next examine the fourth step in a faith transaction, and this involves the words we verbalize.  

Speech 

F.F. Bosworth declared, “Nothing will establish you and build your faith as quickly as confession.”³

Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God ….” It is here we learn that the word of God activated the Spirit of God—and thus the whole world was created.  

German theologian Erich Sauer asserted, “Speech is the instrument for the manifestation of the spirit.”⁴

We are to verbalize before fulfillment of what we’re trusting God to perform. Therefore, upon forming a faith image in our mind from Scripture, the next step is to profess it with an audible voice.  

Abram, who is said to be the father of our faith, is a wonderful example of how extending faith through one’s speech will work. 

You will recall that more than two decades passed after God promised Abram and his wife a child. Yet, no child had been given to them—and the century mark in their lives was fast approaching! Given this problem of sagging faith and sagging body parts, too, God decided to instill faith in this couple by giving each of them a new name. 

So Abram became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah. The name Abraham meant “father of a nation,” and the name Sarah meant “mother of a multitude.”

By getting Abraham and Sarah to start speaking these names several times a day, every day—and to hear these names when addressing each other and when conversing with their more than three hundred employees—faith rejuvenated to such an extent that within a year the miracle happened. Isaac was born.

Functioning this way is also how we were born again. According to Romans, chapter 10, the sequence in our salvation was this: First, the spoken word makes contact with our mind (verse 17); second, the heart believes (verses 9a, 10); and third the mouth confesses unto salvation (verses 9b, 10).

Emphasizing the importance of this third step, A.B. Simpson wrote:

Faith is not only believing, but confessing its confidence … So we must not only claim, but confess our blessings, and regard the things which are still future as accomplished in God’s purpose.⁵ 

The sequence that began our Christian life is the same sequence by which we are to continue the Christian life (Colossians 2:6): The Word is received, the heart believes, the mouth speaks.

Oswald Chambers wrote:

Confession means we have trusted God for this thing and we believe on the ground of God’s Word that the work is done. We realize by confessing that we have no one except God to stand by us.⁶

But isn’t he enough? 

There’s nothing at all magical about confession. When we speak Scripture-consistent words in extended faith, those words don’t just drift off in the air like a little plume of smoke. No, these words go directly to Jesus, whom Scripture calls the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1).

Like a hand-off in a football game, or the passing of the baton in a relay race, Jesus secures our verbalized confession, then immediately begins to advance it. In such a way, Tozer said, “Faith takes us straight into the Presence of God and goes behind the veil where also our Lord Jesus Christ, our Forerunner has gone for us and engages God Almighty .…”⁷ 

Verbalizing our faith is the Scripture-stipulated way of placing our faith in the hands of Jesus. And by placing our faith in his hands, something very significant occurs. This handoff to the Son of God means that it is no longer our faith. It is now his faith, in that he assumes responsibility for it.

When Jesus instructed the apostles to have faith in God when they speak to the mountain (Mark 11:22-24), the dynamic of speaking was repeated six times; so we should not overlook this. 

Commenting on the exact content of this passage, A.T. Pierson wrote, “… it is not ‘pray’ but ‘say,’ not the word of petition but of direction, not as a suppliant but as a sovereign.”⁸ Faith-filled speech will turn petition into decree and add voice to vision until there’s an actual doing of what had been only a viewing.

Service

Still another way to increase and release faith is through faith-consistent, faith-inspired, faith-energized deeds.

James 2:17 says, “... faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” 

So what does this mean? It means that not only are we to talk as if what God promised is done, we are to act as if what God promised is done. Acting with anticipation of fulfillment completes faith.

Does God seem to be denying you what you’ve trusted him for? If so, don’t misread what’s happening and forfeit your faith. Just keep serving God and acting on what his Word tells you to do, knowing that this delay, and seeming denial, is necessary for your faith.

Consider the alternative to this arrangement: What would happen if God always fulfilled your faith two seconds after you first exercised it? Or, to insert a little more reality, what if fulfillment came after two minutes, or two days, or two weeks?

Under those circumstances, your faith muscle wouldn’t stretch very much! And where would that leave you? As someone has well put it, “The faith that can’t be tested, can’t be trusted”—which is certainly true. Faith without a test is as meaningless as victory without a battle, or rewards without work.

We need to keep acting in a way consistent with our verbally-released faith.

Son

Chances are, as these faith-building principles concerning sin, strength, scripture, speech, and service have been presented, you have thought to yourself, “I can never do all that”—which is true; by yourself you can’t! But listen to what Paul says, “… and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.”

Wait a minute! Whose faith? Not Paul’s because he, being in a crucified state, wasn’t around anymore! Notice how revolutionary this is. Instead of Paul’s faith, it was Jesus’ faith that was being exercised—and what an awesome difference that makes.  

Wouldn’t you agree that if somehow it wasn’t your faith being tested but instead it was Jesus’ faith, there could be victory every single time? But how is this even possible?

Hebrews 12:2 explains how when it says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith....”

So to grow in faith, and thus find our faith effective, requires an ongoing intimacy with the Lord. Luther said faith is a steadfast beholding that looks upon nothing else but Christ. 

Significantly, the word for “looking” in the Greek, aphorao, means looking away from all else and having a fixed gaze in one direction. This is a call to intimacy.

Consider this question: Because faith is so critical to all that God wants to give, do we really think God would leave it up to us to produce it, or even to exercise it?

No, Jesus is both the author and the perfector of our faith. Consequently, we must steadfastly look to Jesus—and not faith formulas, no matter how valuable these might be.

When misery compounds and all our sources of help prove to be insufficient, we are to do as Paul did when such circumstances seemed to conspire against him. Explaining his eventual victory, Paul said: “… we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen…” (II Corinthians 4:18).

Paul acknowledged the problem, but because faith focuses on reality, not on pretense, Paul also saw the Lord—and that made the difference. 

These six steps of faith should be repeatedly viewed and exercised throughout our life. These are seeds from God’s Word.

The seed that remains in the barn—never taken to the field, never sown into the soil—may be the finest money can buy. But if that seed stays in the bag—packed and stacked with other bags of seed—there isn’t going to be a harvest.

The seed of God’s Word must be used, or else we won’t change, and our circumstances won’t change.

So now that you know how to make a faith transaction with God, where will you first sow the seeds of your new-found faith?

Notes:

1. A.W. Tozer, Man the Dwelling Place of God, (Camp Hill, PA., 1966, Wingspread Publication, 1966), p.26.

2. John White, When the Spirit Comes with Power, (Downers Grove, IL, IVP, 1985). p.223.

3. F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, (Old Tappan, NJ., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1973), p.146.

4. Erich Sauer, The King of the Earth, (Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p.141.

5. A.B. Simpson, TheChrist in the Bible Commentary, Volume 1, (Camp Hill, PA., Christian Publications, 1992), p.80.

6. Oswald Chambers, Our Brilliant Heritage, (Grand Rapids, Discovery Publishing House, 1998), p.134.

7. A.W. Tozer, Tozer: The Mystery of the Holy Spirit, (Grand Rapids, MI., Zondervan Publishing House, 1964), p.177.

8. A.T. Pierson, Lessons in the School of Prayer, (Dixon, Mo., Rare Christian Books, n.d.), pp.59-60.