The Law of Faith

When you think about laws, you may think about civil laws. You may think about traffic laws or criminal laws. You may not think so much about natural laws or scientific laws. The truth is that laws exist all around us. They govern the universe. They govern society. Laws are things that hold true every time. They don’t suddenly change. Unless a civil law is repealed, that’s it. It hold true every single time in that particular situation regardless of other factors. Laws are meant to be neutral. They aren’t personal. After all, justice is supposed to be blind.

When you think about the universe, you may think about how it’s governed by laws like gravity, motion, and thermodynamics. The universe is a place of order. It’s a place of method. It’s something we can observe and study and understand to some extent. This shouldn’t surprise us. After all, God is a law giver. He is a God of justice and mercy. He makes Himself known. He shows us how to observe and study Him, and on some level He communicates with us in ways that we can understand, even if we will never fully understand Him. It makes sense, then, that in addition to physical laws that govern the physical world, there would be spiritual laws that govern the spirit realm. God is unchanging. If He’s a lawgiver in the physical, He’s a lawgiver in the spiritual.

When we drop something, we know that gravity is going to pull it toward the center of the earth. Every time we drop something, that’s what’s going to happen because gravity is a natural law. Well, the spiritual law we’re going to look at today is the law of faith. Just like gravity behaves the same way every time in every circumstance, faith is also predictable. When the law of faith is at work, the outcome is known just like with gravity. Romans 3:27 (NKJV) introduces us to the law of faith. It says: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” Faith is a law. Faith works all the time. Every time. It’s not personal. God doesn’t answer one person’s prayers because He likes them more than the next person. No, He answers the prayer because of the law of faith.

PRINCIPLE #1: FAITH OPERATES IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOD’S WILL.

We all have faith in various things. When you wait at a bus stop, you have faith that the bus will come to that stop. You have faith that it will arrive on time according to the schedule. So faith isn’t some foreign concept that is limited to spiritual things. Faith is in operation all the time, even in people who claim not to have religious faith. But when we’re talking about prayers and answers to prayers, we know that God is not going to give us something just because we say the right words and pray the right prayer. God answers prayers of faith. According to James 5:15: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.” Why will the prayer of faith make a sick person well and forgive sins? Because these things are in accordance with God’s will.

Faith begins where the will of God is known. How do we know what God’s will is? Well, Jesus is the exact representation of God’s nature and God’s character. If you want to know what God’s will is in a certain area of your life, look at Jesus. He does exactly what He sees the Father do. Hebrews 1:3a says: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” So what we see Jesus do, how we see Jesus respond is the will of God.

Jesus has the authority of God. It’s an authority that He has given to us as believers. We have the authority to use His name in order to put our faith into action in accordance with God’s will. John 14:13-14 says: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” When we ask for things in Jesus name, it is understood that we are asking for things in accordance with His will.

PRINCIPLE #2: FAITH COMES BY HEARING

Romans 10:17 says: “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” We have to know about Christ. We have to understand His nature and His character. We have to understand exactly what He purchased on our behalf. 2 Peter 1:3 says: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” God has already provided everything we could need for life (physical life) and godliness (spiritual life). It comes through our knowledge. God wants to move on your behalf more than you want Him to move on your behalf. He has already done everything necessary, but we have a part to play. God has moved. Now it is our move. God has provided (grace), and we need to respond (faith).

This is best illustrated by the story of the woman with the issue of blood. In Mark 5:25-34 we read of this woman. She has struggled for a number of years with an incurable condition. She went to doctors. She sought out treatments, and nothing worked. But then….she hears about Jesus. Verse 27 tells us that it’s when she hears about Jesus that she decides to go up to him and touch his cloak. She thinks if she can just touch his cloak, she will be healed. We know the story. She touches him and is healed, and Jesus tells her it is because of her faith. That faith came when she heard about Jesus and about the wonderful things He had done.

PRINCIPLE #3: WE SPEAK WHAT WE BELIEVE.

In Mark 11, Jesus is talking to His disciples about faith. He tells them: “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.” Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples to pray about their mountain. He doesn’t tell them to tell God about their problem. He tells them to speak to the mountain. Why? Because we carry power in the words that we speak. We speak what we believe. If we are constantly speaking negative things, we can hardly expect to have positive results. We have to line our words up with our faith!

Hebrews 11:3 (TPT) says: “Faith empowers us to see that the universe was created and beautifully coordinated by the power of God’s words! He spoke and the invisible realm gave birth to all that is seen.” God’s creative power is in His words, and we are created in His image! This is best illustrated in the story of the centurion. We find his story in Matthew 8:5-13. The centurion approaches Jesus because his servant is ill. Jesus offers to travel to his home to heal the servant, but the centurion refuses. He tells Jesus that he is unworthy to have Jesus in his home. Instead, he asks that Jesus merely say the word to heal his servant. Jesus commends the centurion faith. It was his faith that prompted him to speak.

Belief and unbelief can operate at the same time. God can not work in an atmosphere of unbelief. It isn’t because He isn’t capable. It’s because the law of faith does not permit it. We receive from God only when we believe it. In Mark 6:5 and Matthew 13:58 we read about a time when Jesus was in Nazareth. The Bible says that He could not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. The law of faith meant that Jesus could not overcome their unbelief. We also see this in the story of the man with the epileptic child. In Mark 9:14-29 we find Jesus returning to find his disciples with a father and his epileptic son. The father brought the son to Jesus’ disciples to be healed, but the disciples couldn’t heal him. The father ask Jesus if he can do anything to help. Jesus tells him that all things are possible if he can believe, and the father makes this reply: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”

There are times when each of us operate in belief and unbelief at the same time. It’s up to us to tip the scales in favor of belief so that the law of faith is fully operating in our life. When we approach God according to the law of faith, we know we will receive whatever we stand in need of. For additional resources on tipping the scales in the balance of faith, check out Andrew Wommack Ministries. He has some incredible teachings on receiving by faith.