Operating by faith is a necessity for the success of believers. Just as money is the currency of earth and necessary to purchase goods; likewise, faith is the currency of heaven and necessary to receive from God. Many of us can recite the definition of faith (“..the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen” – Hebrews 11:1); however, the majority of Christians do not live their lives governed by faith. Two hindrances to faith are feelings and sight, which are produced by experiencing things through the senses, and are not at all related to faith. You can learn to operate by faith even when it contradicts what you feel or see.
Faith has a process. The process of faith is hearing God’s promises, believing them, confessing them, and acting out on them. God’s Word is essential where operating by faith is concerned. It is not possible for you to develop faith if you do not know what God’s promises are. Foolishness (that which is unwise) and presumption (something assumed that has not been validated) are both elements that affect faith negatively. Hope is also important to the faith process, but it is not the same thing as faith. Hope provides faith with what it needs to accomplish any task.
Faith also has a time factor. Faith and its relation to time is that faith is always now and present tense. To say, “God is going to do something” is future tense and not faith. You have to believe “I am healed (Now)…I have the job, I have a house, I have a car (Now).” Even though you may not yet see it, feel it or touch it, by faith, right now you have it (you may still need to go to the doctor, fill out the job application, or talk to a real estate broker). Faith is also progressive and is developed over time. You can build your faith just like you can build your muscles. You can develop a lifestyle of faith.
