Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. ~ Hebrews 11:3
I love this verse! First it tells us that faith understands. We know through Paul’s teachings that the faith we live by is not our own but it is Jesus’ faith in us. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Our faith is His faith. His faith in us understands! What does faith understand?
That the worlds were framed by the word of God. God spoke the worlds into existence. Genesis 1:1-2: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. There is so much in these verses! Some rabbi’s spend their entire lives studying Genesis 1:1. That’s what I love about the Hebrew language, it is a rich, meaningful language with layers and layers of meaning.
In Hebrew there are four levels of Scripture interpretation called Pardes. Pardes in Hebrew means orchard or paradise. It is an acroynm spelling: peshat (simple or direct meaning); remez (meaning hint — the deep, hidden meaning just beyond the literal sense); d’rash (meaning inquire or seek — drawn out meaning of the verse, interpretive meaning; and finally sod (meaning secret — a mystery hidden and only revealed by revelation of the Spirit). As a rule, the remez, d’rash, and sod interpretations never contradict the peshat – the simple, plain, direct meaning.
Today I don’t want to get in a deep study of it, I just want to look at the surface level of it. What I believe is the peshat of this verse.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and we know from later accounts of creation, ALL that He created is good. But in verse 2 we are told that the earth was without form and void. Without form and void in Hebrew is “tohu v’bohu.” It refers to something with no shape and no definition. Living Bible say “a shapeless chaotic mass.” The Voice translation says it lacked shape, was totally empty and had a dark fog. Then in the rest of Genesis 1 God takes the chaos, the dark fog, the formless and emptiness and brings order to it. Makes it into what He purposed for it. He takes it and makes it what He “created” in Genesis 1:1…. what He chose (bara in Hebrew). He did that with words…. Genesis 1:3: And God said! He commanded, He declared.
Faith understands that! God spoke order into the chaos, the fog and the emptiness… into the tohu v’bohu. Speak is rhema in Hebrews 11:3. We are speaking spirits, created in the image of our Daddy. Co-speaking just like Him. Forming our worlds just like Him. He formed the world to look like what He created it to look like… taking the not (the tohu v’bohu) and the dark and making them seen. Forming them from the Light He spoke into them.
I love that the Greek word for formed in this verse is katartizo. It is two words… kata meaning down and artizo meaning to adjust. It is to adjust to be in good working order (which is tov in Hebrew! Everything God created He said was tov.. it was good!). It is to adjust to make fully functioning… to mend and to restore. The root of this word is my favorite! It is viewed in terms of the present… the here and now! Complete, perfect, ready NOW!
Romans 10:8 connects the rhema to faith just like here in Hebrews 11. It says the rhema is the spoken word (rhema) of faith. Sometimes our worlds do not look like what God created them to look like. They don’t look like what He has said about us… that in Christ we lack no good thing. That we are saved: healed, delivered and made whole in every area of our life (spiritual, physical, mental, social and financial.) Sometimes, our lives look chaotic and empty. Lacking. It seems like we’re in a fog sometimes and can’t see the promises of God.
But faith understands! It understands that God spoke to and formed out of nothing what we can see with our eyes. Faith understands that just like our Daddy we are speaking spirits and can do the same thing. Speaking His words (rhema) of faith… calling forth those things that be nought as though they were.
We don’t have to wait til someday when we get to Heaven to see the manifestation of things like healing, abundance, restored relationships, wholeness in every are of our life, etc. Faith is NOW! And according to Hebrews 11:3 forming our worlds by our words (like our Daddy) also results in NOW!
Our words are powerful… and faith understands that. Jesus said in Luke 6:45b out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. He said that after he just said that out of the treasure (storehouse) of your heart you will bring forth good things. Bring forth is prophero meaning to move something to necessary manifestation! How do we move something to necessary manifestation? Through our words which speak and Heb 11:3 tells us that forming is rooted in the NOW… we can see it here in our lifetime.
Our words speak forth what is stored in our hearts. His faith is stored in our hearts! We don’t have to rely on our own faith… we simply, like Paul, live our new lives by the faith OF the Son of God. Resting in His faith! Speaking forth His faith! Saying what He knows to be true about us. Forming our (NOW) world by speaking words of faith that say…..
I am righteous
I am holy
I am complete in Him
I have abundant life!
I am filled to the FULL with the FULLNESS of the Godhead!
He is the Health of my body!
I have ALL things that pertain to life and godliness!
I am saved – healed, delivered and whole in all the 5 areas of life… physical, spiritual, mental, social and financial!
I have NO lack!
I walk in favor!
This is what faith… His faith in you.. understands! I challenge you to go find out what God says about you and begin to speak it forth and watch the manifestation of His abundant life begin to form your world in this lifetime!
Because faith understands that just like Abba framed the worlds by His words….we also frame our world by our words!
~ Robin
It Is Finished 