“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”(Heb 11:1)

As believers we need to understand what faith is and how it works. I have discovered that people fail in their faith work as they give evidence to it. The bible says ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’; which means you are giving evidence to the things that are not seen; so you are standing as witness in a court of law, so to speak, to give evidence to certain things that nobody within that place saw except you. Therefore, there is cross-examination just like the court of law where the opponent begins to ask questions to try to find out whether you are a worthy witness to testify to those things or not. Recently there has been a very popular case concerning a South African athlete and while I listened to that particular case I came to understand better what Satan does when we say we have faith. And what he does is that he cross examines the witnesses of God on the earth. The purpose of cross-examination is to hear the story; which in the case of faith is declarations. So the crossexamination of the declaration is to find out whether those declarations are really true and most times the entire testimony can collapse if you are not careful. Thus, a lot of people hear the word of God but when life begins to cross examine what they say they know in God, then the entire testimony can collapse. We might not find results if people are not taught and trained right on how to handle and use the word properly. It is therefore imperative that if a person is going to be successful in giving evidence, then that person has got to be taught, trained and coached in giving the right responses when under cross-examination or else the entire story can get weaker and all fall apart. This is because under cross examination there are two things your opponent is trying to create:

1. He wants to show that you are confused as to the facts of the matter.

2. He wants you through your speech to contradict yourself and to change your testimony.

So there are two areas in which the devil attacks; are you sure as to the facts of the matter? And have your words been consistent? Therefore it’s one thing to hear God; it’s another thing to be taught and be coached by God. It is how you respond to cross examination that will determine the final outcome. In Ephesians 4:21 it says, “If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:” even according to the scriptures you can see that it’s one thing to hear what God is saying and another thing for Him to teach you about that truth that is in Jesus Christ- He has to coach you so that you respond rightly to the events of life. In conclusion, I have made the point above as to what the enemy tries to do; which is to show your confusion and to make you contradict yourself. This will simply show you are not sure about your testimony. So the two things that you need to get to succeed in the faith work is to be clear about the facts of the matter and you must never under any circumstance demonstrate any form of inconsistency through the words that come out of your lips.

‘Poju Oyemade