What is faith, where does it come from, and how do I get it?

In our life with the Lord, faith is absolutely essential.

But what is faith? Some think it’s just positive thinking, or making up your mind to believe in something, or a trust you place in someone or something.

But what does the Bible say about faith? Where does faith come from? And how can we get it?

Faith is a significant matter in the Bible, but in this post, we’ll focus on verses and notes in Hebrews in the New Testament Recovery Version to answer these questions.

What is faith?

First, let’s see how the Bible defines faith. Hebrews 11:1 says:

“Now faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Note 1 on faith in the New Testament Recovery Version gives us a further explanation:

“Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for. Hence, it is the assurance, the confidence, the confirmation, the reality, the essence, the supporting ground, of things hoped for, the foundation that supports the things hoped for. Faith is also the conviction of things not seen. It convinces us of what we do not see. Hence, it is the evidence, the proof, of things not seen.”

Faith is truly wonderful! It substantiates and assures for us all the wonderful things of God that we hope for. Faith also convinces us of and is the proof of things we can’t see.

For instance, when we were saved, Christ came to live in us. This isn’t something any of our five physical senses can verify, but faith substantiates and gives us the conviction of this unseen reality. Because faith operates in us this way, we simply can’t deny that Christ lives in us. 

Where does faith come from?

What’s the source of our faith? Have you ever struggled to believe in the Lord, especially when you were facing difficulties? At one time or another, many of us have experienced something like this. This is why we need to see where faith comes from.

Let’s now read Hebrews 12:2:

“Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.”

The first part of note 3 on Author explains the meaning of this word in Greek, the original language of the New Testament:

“Or, Originator, Inaugurator, Leader, Pioneer, Forerunner. The same Greek word as in [Hebrews] 2:10. All the overcoming saints in the Old Testament are only witnesses of faith, whereas Jesus is the Author of faith. He is the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of faith.”

Jesus being the Author and Perfecter of our faith means He’s the unique source of faith; our faith originates with Jesus alone. Although we believe, faith doesn’t come from us.

So what about us? Note 3 continues:

“In our natural man we have no believing ability. We do not have faith by ourselves. The faith by which we are saved is the precious faith that we have received from the Lord (2 Pet. 1:1).”

We receive faith directly from the Lord. By ourselves we have no ability to believe. To illustrate, we could say that trying to muster up faith by ourselves is like furiously flapping our arms in an effort to fly. But we fail to fly because we simply don’t have the ability to fly. In the same way, no matter how fervently we may try, we simply don’t have the ability to believe.

If we realize faith doesn’t come from us, we won’t be trapped in the cycle of trying to generate faith by ourselves and then being discouraged when we fail. We’ll see that faith is entirely wrapped up with the living person of Jesus and that we need Jesus in order to have any faith.

How can we get faith?

Jesus is the source of faith, and we have no faith in ourselves. So how can we get faith? How can we experience faith in our Christian life? 

Let’s now focus on the first four words of Hebrews 12:2: “Looking away unto Jesus.”

Why are we told to look away, and what do we look away from?

Consider your day. Family, work, school, relationships, and many other things demand our attention. All day long we get texts, emails, and phone calls. On top of that, a multitude of things distract us, such as notifications about the latest trending thing, or minute-by-minute alerts about news events taking place halfway around the world.

All of these things, both big and small, overwhelm and occupy us. They loom over us, and our faith shrinks. 

God certainly doesn’t want us to exist in such a state. He wants us to live and walk by faith. To have faith, we need to look away! We need to look away from the distracting, faith-draining things and look unto Jesus.

And Hebrews 12:2 exhorts us not only to look away but also to look unto Jesus.

As we behold Him, we discover afresh how present and real Jesus is in us. He dwells in our spirit, and we see Him there, the most beautiful, real One in the universe. Everything else fades away. 

But what does looking away unto Jesus have to do with how we obtain and experience faith? When we look away unto Jesus, something wonderful happens within us. 

Let’s return to note 3 on Author to read the next part: 

“When we look unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) transfuses us with Himself, with His believing element. Then, spontaneously, a kind of believing arises in our being, and we have the faith to believe in Him. This faith is not of ourselves but of Him who imparts Himself as the believing element into us that He may believe for us. Hence, He Himself is our faith. We live by Him as our faith; i.e., we live by His faith (Gal. 2:20), not by our own.”

Jesus transfuses Himself into us as our faith. We don’t even have to ask for faith. Spontaneously, faith arises within us because the Lord Jesus, who is imparted into us, is the One who believes for us. Many of us can testify we’ve experienced this very thing. One minute we may be very weak in faith, but when we turn to and behold Jesus, we sense a living faith rising up within us, and our entire outlook is changed.

Note 3 concludes:

“As the Author and the source of faith, Jesus is also the Leader, the Pioneer, and the Forerunner of faith. He cut the way of faith and, as the Forerunner, took the lead to pioneer it. Hence, He can carry us in His footsteps through the pathway of faith. As we look to Him as the Originator of faith in His life and in His path on earth, and as the Perfecter of faith in His glory and on His throne in heaven, He transfuses and even infuses us with the faith that He originated and perfected.”

The Lord simply wants us to turn to Him in our spirit and behold Him. Then He can infuse us with Himself. This is how we obtain and experience daily the faith He originated and perfected so we can continue on the pathway of faith.

Practical ways to look away unto Jesus

Let’s consider some practical ways we can look away unto Jesus and be transfused with Him every day.

1. By turning our heart—Our heart is easily distracted from the Lord, but 2 Corinthians 3:16 assures us: “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Then verse 18 says, “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord.” When we turn our heart to the Lord, we can inwardly behold His glory.

2. By dealing with sins we’ve committed—Any sins we commit become a barrier to our fellowship with the Lord, so we must deal with them by confessing them to the Lord. This is how we can be forgiven and cleansed to enjoy beholding the Lord in fellowship again.

3. By calling on His name—Calling on the name of the Lord is the easiest way to look away from everything else unto Him. We can cry out, “Lord Jesus! Oh, Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus, I need You!” Calling on His name helps us to look away unto Jesus any time, anywhere. The more we call, the more we sense all other things fading away as He becomes nearer and dearer to us in our present situation.

4. By praying—We can bring every matter to God in prayer and tell Him about the problems we face, big and small. We can pray short prayers throughout the day, such as, “Lord Jesus, I don’t know what to do. But Lord, I just look away right now unto You. I want to gaze at Your beauty. Lord, You are the most lovely One.” We can contact Jesus by prayer in our spirit even when we have no problems!

5. By reading His Word—We can behold the Lord Jesus in His Word. For example, by reading the Gospels, we see the details of Jesus’ wonderful life on earth. The Word of God reveals to us the way Jesus lived, how He treated people, His words of grace, His faithfulness to God, His death and resurrection, what He did to save us, and so much more. As we read the Bible and behold Jesus there, we’re filled with love and appreciation for Him. We can also pray using the words of the Bible, to allow Him to infuse us with Himself even more deeply.

6. By spending regular time in His presence—A major reason for our lack of faith might be that we haven’t spent much quality time with the Lord lately. Instead, we’ve spent our time beholding social media, looking for entertainment, or fixated on so many other things. We need to devote regular time to look away unto Jesus; the best time for this is in the morning. Instead of waking up and immediately checking our phones, we can first look away to the wonderful Jesus who lives in us by spending time in prayer and the Word. It’s good to be transfused with Him and absorb Him before we do anything else. 

We can tap into the source of faith every day by looking away unto Jesus and beholding Him, the Author and Perfector of faith. He dwells in us! He’s so near; at any moment we can turn to Him in our spirit and let Him transfuse us with Himself. He will be our believing ability and the faith we live by. 

If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here so you can read all of the notes on the verses cited in this post with their cross-references.