IS GOD FAITHFUL? To live by faith, you must first judge and esteem God to be faithful. Before you can release your faith in His Word, you must settle that question in your heart.

God’s Word is settled in Heaven, and He has forever bound Himself to His Word. If it appears that His Word has failed us, He is not the cause of the failure. He has never failed and He never will. Some people hide behind their “faith failures.” They say, “Well, it must not have been the will of God for me to have that.” But God didn’t cause His Word to fail. The Bible says, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13 NKJV).

The Particulars of Faith

God never changes His mind or His methods. Because of His character, He is not capable of denying Himself. God is love, and out of love come all the characteristics of love. Faith works by love’s characteristics. Once we find out what they are, we are to live by them.

2 PETER 1:4 (NKJV)

4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature.

The characteristics of love—or particulars, as I call them—are the characteristics of the divine nature we received when we accepted Christ. Our new nature is made up of the particulars of God’s nature. Those particulars are found in Galatians chapter 5. They are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (vv. 22–23 NKJV). These characteristics are essential to our faith walk. They comprise the particulars of Who God is and what He has. Our faith works by love (Gal. 5:6). So our faith works by these characteristics. And we’re to live by them each day. They energize the faith that we receive from God’s Word.

Maybe you’ve thought, “How come I’m not experiencing what God says He’s given to me? I’ve prayed, asked Him for it, and made confessions over it, but I don’t see anything.” If that’s your experience, more than likely there is a kink in your faith—a breach in the flow of the particulars of God’s nature in you.

When it seems as if our faith has failed, it’s not God holding something back to teach us patience. Instead of blaming someone or something else, we must look inside ourselves and ask, “Where’s the breach?” Once we find it, we can get back into alignment with God’s characteristics, which are our new nature as Christians. Then the exceedingly great and precious promises that God says belong to those who partake of that new nature will begin to show up at our house. The characteristics of our new nature combined with our faith bring us to a level where God’s promises can manifest in our lives.