The mountain of faith has more than a few casualties at its base, valley-bound people who in the morning light began their climb with zeal but after a stumble and a near-frightening fall, they’re not at all sure they will attempt the climb again. Are you in this number? Is there some experience related to faith that has hurt you? Consider the possibility that the disillusionment that now threatens you may be the result of being victimized by a peddler of faith. The wide-eyed fervor where the goofy and greedy lead the gullible and needy will find no support from Scripture. God hasn’t sanctioned a fascination with the bizarre or an enchantment with the wacky and weird.

The reason many people miss it when it comes to faith is because they confuse faith with hope. So like the song says, they go through life “a-wishin' and a-hopin'”. But that isn’t faith. Hope leaves the blessings on a distant horizon, and often in another world. Faith stakes a claim now and takes the blessing with anticipation before it becomes manifestation.

Many people have a very formidable belief in the God of yesterday (all that the Bible reports that he said or did), and great hope about the God of tomorrow (all that the Bible says about heaven and the wonderful life that will await us there). But as strong as their confidence is in these forward and backward perspectives, it is, in the present perspective, just as weak.

It is crucial to understand what faith is and isn’t. Do you know how to release faith? In churches all over our land, the exhortations to do precisely that are routinely given. Yet people can sit in these churches for decades and never once be taught the stipulated scriptural steps for releasing faith. The failure to offer this teaching is inexplicable, and the consequences of not receiving this teaching are incalculable. Since the Bible says we are to live by faith, we must learn how to make a faith transaction with God.