Skip to content
Life Cartography is written by Dr. Charles Porter.
Life Cartography is written by Dr. Charles Porter.

Culture. Coaching. Leadership. Creativity.

  • Home
  • Contact
  • The most important thing
  • Blog
  • Training Programs
  • Lifecartography- on life and leadership, culture, and coaching
Life Cartography is written by Dr. Charles Porter.

Culture. Coaching. Leadership. Creativity.

Faith and Constipation are not the same thing

Charles Porter, September 22, 2014September 22, 2014

I haven’t had much faith lately. I know, I shouldn’t say that. I haven’t lost my faith. You can’t lose something you don’t have.
Faith
“Don’t confess that. “

But you can’t fake faith.

You can’t hype yourself up.

Faith that is faith is real.

It isn’t conjured up on some sentiment, or wishful thinking. Faith is none of those things.

Faith is a supernatural conviction that a supernatural God will supernaturally supercede all circumstances.

In reality, most of what we see as faith is actually wishful thinking. Of believing harder. A case of overcoming spiritual constipation.

I want my son to be healed. And on good moments, I believe that it will happen. But at other times, I doubt. I despair.

Which lead me back to the scriptures. And what I discovered may surprise you. I know it did me.

I discovered that there are actually three different kinds of faith in the scriptures.

  1. Faith that every believer in Jesus has.

Without faith, we can not come to him. We can not receive salvation except by faith. It was the great cry of the reformers. SOLA FIDE. By faith alone. We all have some measure of faith, whether we believe it or not.

2. Supernatural faith.

Miracle working faith that is a gift for some. Here is where some get into trouble. Faith is listed as one of the 9 manifestation gifts in 1 Corinthians. No all have the gift of prophecy. Not all work miracles. And not all have this kind of faith. It is a GIFT that God gives some for the accomplishment of building up his church and his purposes on earth.

3. Borrowed faith.

And this one brings me so much comfort. This is faith that someone else has and uses not on their behalf, but on the behalf of others. The 4 men who drop Jesus down through the hole in the roof loaned their faith to their friend.

Funny thing is, I sometimes have faith for others than I don’t have for myself. An outsiders perspective is often useful when it comes to engaging your faith. Borrowed faith, or shared faith, or communal faith, is when we don’t ask brother or sister in Christ to pretend, but rather we walk with them, lifting up their burdens. Sometimes we can have great faith in one area and struggle in others.

Jesus called his disciples “little faiths.”

Then he entrusted the entire future of the church, and through the church, the entire planet, to them.

I have faith. For lots of things. Just some of the situations that are too close to me, I’m going to need to borrow yours.

So what is faith? Maybe you could loan some of yours to me, or a friend who seems to have lost theirs.

Instead of faking it.

Life Lessons Relationships Sermons faithfriendsfriendshipreality

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Dig into the history

  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • July 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • December 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • December 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013

Popular

  • Losing credibility in life
  • The reason smart people are dumb…
  • Why you probably didn’t grow up poor, even if you think you did.
  • The one scripture that has killed more marriages than any other
  • There is no weather, there is only walking the dog. Part 2

Search

©2023 Life Cartography is written by Dr. Charles Porter. | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes