How to Develop a Christian Worldview of Faith - Gloria Copeland

Worldview. While not a new word, it’s a concept gaining popularity in the Body of Christ. It asks the question: How do you view your world? What defines you, your perceptions, your opinions and your belief system? Many Christians promote having a Christian worldview—or a biblical worldview—but I want to challenge you to have a Christian worldview of faith, one that trusts in Jesus and God’s Word to answer every question you’ll ever have and to help you through any situation you’ll ever face.

Why a Christian Worldview of Faith?

God framed the worlds by faith. Everything God made, He made by faith. Everything He does, He does by faith. For you and me, it’s no different. What works for God will work for us.

The key to shaping our everyday world is understanding faith—and living by it. We must know what it is, how to get it, and how to use it.

By faith, we choose to receive the promises of God. We receive financial prosperity by faith. We receive divine health and supernatural healing by faith. We receive our spouses, our children, our homes, our food—all our earthly needs and desires—by faith. Our faith is an opening through which God can save us, deliver us, baptize us in His Spirit and anoint us for ministry.

In short, faith is heaven’s window into our lives.

Where Do You Find a Christian Worldview of Faith?

Given the right conditions, faith always comes, and it is the only way to have a Christian worldview that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is always available when we need it. It’s “on call” to anyone who will give attention to the Word of God (Proverbs 4:20-22).

We receive God’s Word into our hearts by reading it, speaking it, hearing it, meditating on it and acting on it. His Word causes faith to rise up within our spirit to draw the promises of God into the natural realm (Romans 10:17).

So faith comes by hearing the Word of God—and when it is released from our hearts with our mouths, it brings the fulfillment of God’s promises. Faith gives the blessings of God natural reality or substance. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

A Christian Worldview of Faith Acts!

Looking to God as our Guide, we find in the book of Genesis that faith is released with words. Faith words demand results.

In Genesis 1, we read an account of Creation that goes something like this:

“In the beginning God said, Let there be light…and there was light. God said, Let there be a firmament…and it was so. God said, Let us make man….”

Do you see the pattern?

“God said…and it was so. God said…and it was so.” God literally spoke all of Creation into existence. Hebrews 11:3 says that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. That is the very same way we frame our world. We are created in God’s image to live like Him!

Notice that Genesis doesn’t say “God thought…and it was so.” No, God spoke. That’s how He operates. That’s how faith operates. What’s more, God has never stopped speaking.

Down through the Old Testament and into the New, we see how God continued to pour His Word into the earth, primarily using prophets to speak His Word. The reason God released all that Word into the earth was to give substance for when the time came for Jesus—the ultimate Word given by God—to appear in the flesh. He brought Jesus into the earth by His Word!

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Faith is the heavenly materiality, or tangibility, of those things for which you and I hope. But now, here’s where we need to be aware of being deceived.

Oftentimes, believers think they’re walking in faith when in reality they’re not. They’re actually walking in unbelief. In the first place, they really don’t have true, Bible hope. All they have is a wish list. They’re wishing God would do this for them, and wishing He would do that. They heard how He did it for Brother and Sister So-and-So. And now they’d like Him to do it for them.

I cannot tell you how many people I’ve known in 45 years of ministry who thought they were “faith people.” For years, I watched them hang around the faith teaching, yet never did I see any substance, and never did they see any real changes in their lives and circumstances. What was wrong?

Well, I’ll tell you. When it came to God’s Word, they didn’t use any faith. They merely gave mental assent to it. They didn’t put faith in it enough to act on it. They only agreed with what they read in the Scriptures. (Read James 1:22-26.)

Remember, “God said…and it was so.” God’s act of speaking released faith to that which He believed. When He said, Light be! He fully expected light to be. His faith took action. It spoke.

Likewise, our faith must take action, and it must take action based on the Word of God.

A Christian Worldview of Faith Speaks!

I like to describe faith like this: Faith is movement. It’s a mouth in motion.

To illustrate this, imagine my body is being attacked with symptoms of sickness.

Thousands of years ago, God spoke a promise about healing into the earth. He spoke through His prophet Isaiah and said: “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Many years later, Jesus came—God’s promise in the flesh—to fulfill that Word. Galatians 3:13 describes the results of Jesus having come to this earth: “But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

Looking back on Jesus’ ministry, the Apostle Peter also wrote, “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.” (1 Peter 2:24).

Now, here I am with symptoms of sickness attacking my body. What do I do?

Remember, faith is what gives substance to that for which you and I hope. In this case, I’m hoping to be delivered from this sickness.

Faith also gives God the opening necessary for Him to pour His favor and blessing into our lives, bringing the manifestation of that promise from the spiritual realm into the natural realm—which is where my body needs it at the moment.

But now, how does faith make that draw on God’s Word?

By taking action.

And how does my faith take action?

By speaking the Word and then acting as though it is done.

Romans 10:6-10 describes the process like this: “But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” In fact, this passage is telling us, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 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. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

A Christian Worldview of Faith Gets Results!

The provision for all that God has promised us—health, healing, salvation, protection, prosperity—has already been established in heaven and earth. The work was completed 2,000 years ago. It is like having money in the bank, but to spend it, you have to make a withdrawal. Receiving that provision is up to us. That’s where mouth and motion come into play.

In Isaiah 55:10-11, we read, “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”

Our new hearts, like the earth, are good ground for the Word of God. They are the abiding and functioning place for His Word.

Likewise, our mouths are the implements of faith that speak the words out of our hearts to enable us to reap the harvest we desire. We reap that harvest by believing and thus speaking the promises of God into fulfillment. That’s why we read in James 2:14 and 17, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”

Our faith must act. The faith stored in our hearts must come out. Otherwise, it is dead and of no use. You release faith with your words.

When the Pharisees tried to back Jesus into a corner concerning His true source of supernatural power, He told them, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things…” (Matthew 12:34-35).

Then, as Jesus explained faith to His disciples, He said, “I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24).

You and I have the responsibility of getting our hearts and mouths in gear, speaking and acting as though we’ve already received the fulfillment of our desire. We believe we receive when we pray. From the moment we release our faith, we must talk and act as though it is done. We must take action by speaking as God spoke and give substance to His promises. As we do, we give substance to something we can drive, something we can eat, something we can wear, something that can heal our bodies. We give substance to our world. That’s when our Christian worldview of faith gets results!

A Christian Worldview of Faith Forgives!

The final principle you and I must understand about developing a Christian worldview of faith is that it works by love—that is—faith forgives.

Returning to Jesus’ teaching on faith in Mark 11, let’s read the rest of what He told His disciples on the road to Jerusalem.

“I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.  But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too” (Mark 11:24-25).

Now, I understand that when we’ve been hurt and the Holy Spirit reminds us of this verse our flesh wants to say, “Yes, but, Lord, You heard the terrible things those people said about me…. Yes, but, Lord, You know how that person abused me….”

While the hurt we suffered may have been a cruel and ungodly act against us, nonetheless, we have to walk in love toward those people. After all, God had to forgive. Jesus had to forgive. You and I are no different. We must forgive if we want to walk in faith and in the full favor of God.

Besides, if someone is against you, why do them a favor? Why let them ruin the rest of your life by short-circuiting your faith through unforgiveness?

Don’t let anyone keep you sick, broke, mentally tormented and without joy because of unforgiveness. Don’t help people close the door to God’s blessings in your life and open the door to every curse loosed in this world. No, forgive them. Stay in the flow of God’s love.

So as you commit to developing a Christian Worldview of faith, remember to avoid taking or living with offense. Don’t carry around hurts. Release them to the same blood of Jesus, which cleansed you, redeemed you and set you free. As you do, you will free yourself to live out your Christian worldview of faith successfully, completely and happily!