What Real Faith Is by Pastor Mildred Kingsley-Okonkwo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

What Believing God Really Is

You can be in church your entire life, hearing faith preached at every service, and never really understand what faith is. You can even be using your faith without knowing that what you are using is not faith at all.

For years, the declaration was 'I'm believing God for children.' Every time someone asked, that was the answer. It felt like faith. It was said with conviction. Scriptures were quoted. But a pastor kept saying: 'When you are in faith, I will know.' And that stung — because all the evidence seemed to say faith was already in operation.

The stinging truth came later: believing God for something is not faith. It is hope.

Faith is not 'I am believing for this.' Faith says: 'I believe I receive — and I do not let go until the manifestation comes.' That is a very different posture. One looks forward. The other stands in what has already been given.

What Faith Actually Is

Hebrews 11:1 is the definition: 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.'

The Common English Version renders it: 'Faith makes us sure of what we hope for.' The New Living Translation says: 'Faith shows the reality of what we hope for.' Note the implication: if faith makes you sure of what you hope for, then faith itself cannot be hope. Faith is what gives substance to hope. Faith is what makes hope real. They are not the same thing.

Faith is being sure of what you want to receive because God has promised it. Without a specific promise from God, what looks like faith is actually mental ascent — believing very hard. Believing hard is not faith. Faith requires a word.

Romans 10:17 — 'Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.' The source of a thing is also its sustainer. If faith comes from the word of God, the word of God also grows it and maintains it. Faith cannot exist outside the word. It cannot be produced by prayer alone — prayer is a booster of faith, not its source. You cannot build faith by walking about. You must stay in the word, sit with the word, meditate on the word, study the word until you understand it.

Faith does not make God do what he has not already done. God has already given all things that pertain to life — 2 Peter 1:3 is past tense. He has given. Faith does not persuade God to act. Faith opens your eyes to what has already been provided and shows you how to access it. The day you begin building faith on a specific promise from God, something rises inside — a holy anger: 'This thing is mine. Why am I allowing it to be withheld from me?' That is what faith does. It causes you to come to yourself, like the prodigal who sat in the pigsty and woke up: 'Even the servants in my father's house eat better than this. I am going home.' His father had been waiting the whole time. Until the son came to himself, the father could do nothing.

Why Faith Is Not Working

There are three reasons faith commonly fails to produce:

1. You are in hope, not faith

   The shift that needs to happen is from 'I am believing for this' to 'I believe I receive.' Faith moves the thing from future tense to present possession. It moves from one day to it is done now. Until that shift happens internally — until there is an assurance that the thing is already in your hand — what you are calling faith is still hope. Hope is beautiful and necessary, but it is not faith.

2. You are not standing on the word of God

   If someone asks what scripture they are standing on and they cannot locate it in the Bible — they are operating on borrowed faith. They heard someone say something and adopted the declaration without digging into the word themselves. Borrowed faith is second-hand and will not sustain. The word of God is medicine to all your flesh (Proverbs 4:22). Medicine must be taken consistently — morning, afternoon, night. All the concordance Bibles, all the promises concerning the situation, must be identified, written out, personalised, and confessed day and night until faith rises on the inside. If a doctor can give medicine, why not be as consistent with the medicine of the word?

3. You give up too soon

   Hebrews 6:12 says to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Faith and patience — not faith alone. Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac. Some people are not even 25 years old. That is resilience. That is refusing to let go until the manifestation comes. The journey of faith can look like madness to observers — buying children's clothes with no pregnancy visible, preparing professionally for a role not yet offered, declaring health while medical reports say otherwise. Faith does not deny the fact. Faith superimposes God's truth over the fact. The fact is temporary; the word is eternal. The fact may be true; but the word is the truth that overrides it.

Faith Requires Obedience

Faith requires obedience — even in the face of contrary evidence. Even when it goes against logic. The three Hebrew boys declared that their God was able to deliver them, and that even if he did not, they would not bow. As they said it, the fire was increased — seven times hotter. Their obedience of faith did not produce an immediate sign. God said: enter the fire. And they entered.

There are seasons in the faith walk where everything looks like it is contradicting what God said. Keep going. That is faith.

For five years the word was confessed over barrenness. For five years, nothing visible changed. Medical advice was given and set aside. Family gave counsel and it was received and then laid down. God confirmed: 'Your salvation will come from total dependence on me — the very thing you are unwilling to do.' And so the word was chosen. Day after day, the same scriptures. Month after month, the same declarations. The promise was still there on page one. It did not move. And in year five, Isaac came.

Keeping Your Eyes on Jesus

Hebrews 12:1-2 wraps the entire faith chapter in a relay metaphor. After listing everyone who walked by faith in chapter 11, the writer says: strip down, run and never quit. Then — keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race.

The relay race has two most important positions: first and last. Jesus ran first. Jesus runs last. Whatever happens in the middle — your leg, your season, your part of the baton — the outcome is secured by the one who started and the one who finishes. You are not the author. You are not the finisher. You are in the middle. Your assignment is to carry the baton faithfully and not be disqualified.

This is why the greatest danger in faith is to put your faith in faith rather than in God. Sometimes believers have more confidence in their confession than in the God they are confessing. More faith in their fasting than in the one they are fasting toward. That misplacement is what keeps faith from working.

Abraham was as ready to return Isaac as he was to receive him, because his faith was not in Isaac. Isaac was a token of the promise — not the source of it. The same faith that received Isaac could release Isaac, because in both cases the object of faith was God himself. Put your faith in God. He is both the author and the finisher.

Faith Requires a Personal Walk with the Holy Spirit

You cannot sustain a long faith walk alone. The Holy Spirit leads — whispers, guides, and sometimes gives specific revelation that changes everything. At a certain point the Holy Spirit gave a personal instruction: take communion regularly, and as you receive the body and blood of Jesus, see your children being formed by that same body and blood. Jesus's body cannot be broken — so there can be no miscarriage. Jesus's blood cannot be defiled — so there can be no contamination. That revelation came from the Holy Spirit, not from any book. And those are the kinds of revelations that sustain faith through long seasons.

Faith is not sexually transmitted. Abraham believed for decades, but the promise came only when Sarah herself received faith to conceive. Hebrews 11:11 — 'By faith Sarah received strength to conceive.' It was the moment she believed personally that the promise came. The agreement of another person's faith can join with yours, but it cannot replace yours. You must have faith as well.

Father, thank you for your word. As we go, Holy Spirit, bring to remembrance the promises of God for every situation we face. Open our eyes to what has already been given. Give us assurance — not just hope but faith. And where the enemy has tried to reverse the promise, let your word stand. You are the author and the finisher. In Jesus name.