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WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life. AN INVITATION TO YOU: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________ t  Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/WWW_05_10_21_How_to_Have_Faith.mp3 ______________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is May 10, 2021, and this is Episode #14 of Series 2021. This episode is titled “How to Have Faith." _______________________________ Have you ever wondered why your prayers have not been answered despite your begging and pleading with God to answer them? Perhaps the problem has something to do with faith. Let's take a look today at what faith is and what faith is not. First, let's take a look at what faith is NOT. __Faith is not an attempt to make something exist that does not exist. Faith always rests on something that does exist. We place our faith in a chair as we sit down. The chair exists. We place our faith in God. He also exists, although we cannot see Him. __Faith is not something we need more of. In Romans 12: 3 KJV, the Bible says that "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (underlining mine). This means that every person receives from God the same amount of faith when that person is born again. Just as we all receive the same number of bones and muscles when we are physically born, so do we also receive the same amount of faith when we are born again. __Faith is not something which some people have more of and some people have less of. The Bible makes clear that God is not partial toward people. He treats us all with equal love. The Bible reveals this truth in Acts 10: 34 NKJV: “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: ’In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.’”  Now that we've looked at what faith is not, let's take a look at what faith is. __Scripture defines faith as follows: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  This verse tells us that faith presupposes hope. No hope. No faith. Hope is the blueprint on which faith builds. Hope is the inner picture in one's imagination to which faith gives substance. If we have no hope, we can have no faith. In other words, faith transforms hope into reality. Faith makes what we hope for a reality as long as what we hope for is based on God's promises. For this reason, we must know God's Word! __Faith is the currency of the Kingdom of God. It is the medium of exchange between God and us and between us and God. God gives us the promise--whether it be of healing, or provision, or peace--we give Him our faith in exchange for the fulfillment of the promise in our lives.  Faith receives the promises of God. Faith reaches out to the spiritual realm and brings the promises of God from the spiritual realm into the natural realm. __________________________________ Faith makes what you hope for a reality. __________________________________ There are two kinds of faith: Natural Faith and Supernatural Faith. What is the difference? Natural faith believes only what the five senses tell it. In other words, natural faith believes only what it can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste. Natural faith is also called "sense faith."  An example of natural faith occurs when we sit down in a chair. We place faith in that chair to hold us up.