Based on the Alpha course. Faith is acting on what we believe is true and will happen. Three factors enable us to have faith, the promises of God in the Bible, the reputation of God in the past and the testimony of others and personal experience. Small steps of trust lead to bigger steps.

1. How CanWe Have Faith?
Bible Readings:
1
Saturday, 11 April 2015

2. What Is Faith?
✤ In 1860 he was the first to walk
a tight rope over the Niagara
Falls.
✤ Faith is acting on your belief.
✤ Faith is acting in the present on
the expectation of a future
outcome.
✤ We exercise faith in many
different ways in our daily life.
2
Saturday, 11 April 2015

3. How can we
have faith?
✤ What was the process that
enables us to change belief into
action?
✤ Three factors that can change
belief into action.
✤ Believing the promises.
✤ Reputation and testimony.
✤ Personal experience.
3
Saturday, 11 April 2015

4. How can we have faith?
✤ First: the promises of God.
✤ God's promises cover every
aspect of life.
✤ God's promises are always
conditional.
✤ We have to believe and act
on the promise before we can
enjoy the fruit of the
promise.
4
Saturday, 11 April 2015

5. How can we
have faith?
✤ The promises to answer prayer.
✤ “He shall call upon Me, and I will
answer him; I will be with him in
trouble; I will deliver him and
honor him.” (Psalm 91:15, NKJV)
✤ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be
given to you; seek, and you will
find; knock, and it will be opened to
you.” (Luke 11:9, NKJV)
5
Saturday, 11 April 2015

6. How can we
have faith?
✤ The promise to forgive.
✤ “But if we confess our sins to him, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all
wickedness.” (1 John 1:9, NLT)
✤ The promise to save.
✤ “because, if you confess with your
mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe
in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be
saved.” (Romans 10:9, ESV)
✤ “And it shall come to pass That
whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’” (Acts 2:21, NKJV) 6
Saturday, 11 April 2015

7. How can we be sure the
promises of God are true?
✤ God’s Reputation
✤ We can know what God has done in the
past for other people recorded in the Bible.
✤ We have the assurance of what Jesus did.
✤ We can believe the promise that God loves
us. God sent His son to suffer and die for
us.
✤ “Furthermore, we have seen with our own
eyes and now testify that the Father sent his
Son to be the Savior of the world. All who
declare that Jesus is the Son of God have
God living in them, and they live in God.
We know how much God loves us, and we
have put our trust in his love. God is love,
and all who live in love live in God, and
God lives in them.” (1 John 4:14–16, NLT) 7
Saturday, 11 April 2015

8. How can we be sure the
promises of God are true?
✤ God’s Reputation
✤ “For this is how God loved the world:
He gave his one and only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him will not
perish but have eternal life.” (John
3:16, NLT)
✤ “For God made Christ, who never
sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so
that we could be made right with God
through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:21,
NLT)
✤ God has shown how much He loves us
by His past actions, we can have
certainty that He will not deceive us
with empty promises. 8
Saturday, 11 April 2015

9. How can we be sure the
promises of God are true?
✤ Testimony of Others
✤ People who have experienced God's
trustworthiness and the reality of His
promises.
✤ Friends who know they have
received God's forgiveness.
✤ When you hear about the experience
of others who have believed God's
promises and acted on them it helps
us to overcome doubt about God's
promises.
9
Saturday, 11 April 2015

10. How can we be sure the
promises of God are true?
✤ Personal experience
✤ You prayed to God and asked Him
to show you His love for you and
God answered your prayer.
✤ This experience gives you confidence
to believe and act on other promises.
✤ Each small step of faith gives us the
confidence, to take another bigger
action of faith.
10
Saturday, 11 April 2015

11. How can we have
faith?
✤ At some point in our lives each of us
will face the decision to commit our life
to Jesus.
✤ The risk taker:
✤ Hear, believe, pray and act.
✤ The careful:
✤ Small step by small step they come
to the point when they are ready to
pray that prayer of personal belief
and commitment.
11
Saturday, 11 April 2015

12. How do you know God has answered
your prayer of commitment?
✤ Some have an amazing feeling of joy and
freedom.
But not every one.
Feelings can change.
✤ The promises of God. Jesus said, “I am
with you always.” (Matthew 28:20)
✤ Changes in your life;
A new love for God
A desire to read the Bible
A Sense of forgiveness
A new concern for others
Enjoyment of worshipping God
A desire to meet with other Christians.
✤ All these are the work of the Holy Spirit
in you. 12
Saturday, 11 April 2015

13. Your journey.
✤ Where are you on this journey
of faith?
✤ What's the next step of faith
God wants you to take?
13
Saturday, 11 April 2015