Faith Is Not Mental Assent - The Contrast

The ABCs of Faith 8

We have been discussing "What Faith Is." Understanding this concept opens to you the treasure-house of the full blessings of God.
I said that we can often learn what something is by studying what it isn't. In using the law of contrast we can become better at analysis. Contrast is actually a study tool. For example, I could just say to you black is a very dark color. Believe me black is a dark color! But to get you to see how dark black really I could show you how to contrast black with white. When you use the law of contrast, you see how really black or dark the color is in contrast with white. So, the first thing we said faith was not is not hope. Hope is "future" confident expectation, FAITH IS ALWAYS NOW!

Today I want to continue to use the law of contrast to show you the second thing that faith is not, to help you in your understanding of faith. My goal is to make faith as simple as possible so that you can start enjoying what God has already provided for you in His Word.

Here is the second thing that faith is not; Faith is not mental assent or mentally agreeing with the Bible.
Mental assent would have never rolled the stone away at the tomb of Lazarus, that took faith! I think you got it!
Mental assent is a tricky one that we need to analyze. It sounds so much like faith that many are deceived into thinking they are operating in faith. Most American Christians are mental assenters.

MENTAL ASSENT
Mental assent agrees 100% that the Bible is true (like most Americans).
Mental assent agrees that Jesus is the Son of God.
Mental assent agrees that Jesus was raised from the dead (celebrates Easter and Christmas).
Mental assent will say I believe the Bible from Genesis to Revolution! LOL (Revelation)
Mental assent is beautiful, BUT IT WILL NOT ACT ON THE WORD.
The devils agrees that God is God and shakes in his boots, but he will not act on it.

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. James 2:19 (King James Version)

Faith is acting on the Word. Faith is really a verb and not a noun. Remember what you learned on your little painted chair in elementary school (esp. you baby boomers), a verb is an action word.
Mental assent looks so much like faith that you will not recognize it if you do not have keen spiritual discernment.

MENTAL ASSENT EXPOSED
For instance many say they believe in healing, but they act on sickness. That is mental assent, not faith. When you run to get the medicine before the Bible or to the doctor before getting the Pastor to pray, you have only mentally assented to a belief in healing.
Have you ever acted like 1 Peter 2: 24 (which says by His stripes ye were healed) is true like you would act on the word of your doctor? What would happen if you went to your doctor and he said; John, you only have three months to live? You would probably act on his words.
Chances are strong that you would start setting your affairs in order getting ready to die. You are acting on the word of the man. Why not act on the Word of Almighty God? God said you are HEALED by the wounds I put on his my Son's back for you on the cross. But you choose not to act on what you believe; that is mental assent.

MENTAL ASSENT IS NOT FAITH!
Well, brother Smalls, I don't know if I can act on that without any physical evidence. You see my friends many today that say they are believers are just mentally assenting to the Word and calling it faith. Even many " Word of faith" people are only mentally assenting to the Word. Then they get mad at God when they don't receive. Get mad all you want, God is not the problem! He will still be God even after you get over it and be there for you.
It will not work if it is not Bible faith, I don't care what you call it. You can get up from this lesson and go out into your garage and start calling yourself a car, but calling yourself a car won't make you one. Get real folks...Mental assent is not faith.

MENTAL ASSENT UNDERESTIMATES THE WORD
Now, I want to share a part of an article written by E.W. Kenyon that makes our point clear. This article can be read in totality at
http://peterwade.com/articles/kenyon/underest.shtml

"One cannot conceive of anything that will cripple faith and put the believer in bondage more quickly and surely than underestimating what He is, and what we are in Him. Along with that will come an underestimation of the Word.

We will say right out, "Oh, I believe the Bible is the Word of God." And yet we turn to the arm of flesh for help. And when we pray, we do not come with that quiet assurance that we would if some banker had given us his word in regard to our financial standing at the bank.
This is an unconscious underestimation of the Word, and it is an unconscious underestimation of the integrity of the Master Himself, who is the Author of this Word. This leads to weakness, to doubt and fear. It makes a vacillating type of faith. We become what James calls "a double-minded man that is unstable in all his ways." What will change it? When we realize what He has done for us in His great Substitution and in the New Creation.
We should meditate on the fact that we are partakers of the divine nature. "These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life, even to you that believe on His name." (I John 5:13).
If we say over and over again to our hearts: "I am a partaker of God's very nature. I have in me His faith nature. This makes me a child of faith. I have been begotten of the Living Word through the Holy Spirit. The real me was recreated in Christ. I have the very nature of the Father and the Father is love, so I have in me the love nature of the Father," if we meditate on this, we will no longer be "double-minded men." Repeat it over and over again. Hold it as a constant affirmation before your mind that you are what He says you are; that you are a partaker of His very nature as He has declared. And you remember that "greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." That Greater One is the Holy Spirit."
Now act like the Word is true! Mental assent agrees with the Word, but refuses to act. Mental assent is not faith. Faith is acting on the Word!

________________________________________________
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11: 1

Live Well, Live Blessed!
Bernard

Reference: http://peterwade.com/articles/kenyon/underest.shtml


Author's note:
These lessons are written "daily" like as the fresh manna fell daily in Israel. No left-overs for God's people! Often I am up late or early seeking the mind of God for the fresh Word which I seek to share. What an honor to be able to share with God's people. PLEASE, excuse me if there is an occasional typo. The fresh nature of the newsletter does not allow time for me to have them proof-read. The time is short!
Bernard