The 7 Faith Applications
Strong’s Concordance [4102], and Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words define faith as “a firm conviction of the truthfulness of God.” Romans 1:17 says you go “from faith to faith.” This shows a progression of degrees to a person’s faith.
If there exists a progression, it means you can go up or down. This same progression can be seen in the Tabernacle with steps from the Altar of Sacrifice to the Holy of Holies.
There are, in the Word of God, seven levels of faith that allow you to climb the rungs to the ladder of trust. These seven levels are:
1. Common Faith
2. Little Faith
3. Temporary Faith
4. Strong Faith (also known as “Great Faith”)
5. Creative Faith
6. Active Faith
7. Divine Faith
It also has seven life applications that can be applied to the believer in Yeshua. The life applications are:
1. Conversion or Repentance,
2. Separation,
3. The study of God’s Word and Fellowship,
4. Your Testimony,
5. Prayer,
6. Complete Surrender, and then
7. The Anointing, which produces victory in a person’s life.
As a believer, you can climb your ladder of trust, moving “from faith to faith,” going through the Tabernacle, and applying these seven life applications in your life. “Common Faith” is your first level to start your climb.
THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE / COMMON FAITH
The purpose of common faith is to bring you into the kingdom. It represents conversion or repentance. The prooftext is found in the book of Titus. “To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Yeshua HaMashiach” (Titus 1:4).
The first rung on your ladder of trust is called common faith. It lines up with the Altar of Sacrifice in the outer court of the Tabernacle. The first article of furniture after passing through the eastern gate, called “the whoever gate,” was the Altar of Sacrifice. The word “altar” signifies “to lift up.” The altar was the place of the substitute sacrifice and the place where a person meets God.
The priests sacrificed various offerings to God. Some offerings were for their own sins, and some were for the sins of the people. The blood of the animal was poured out at the base of the altar, and, depending on the type of offering, the body was consumed upon the altar itself. It was a place of death. It stood between the gate and the approach to the Tabernacle. It barred the way to everyone who would come.
There was no approach to the Tabernacle except by the way of this altar. Until a person stops at this altar, applies the blood, and accepts the sacrifice as a substitute, there is no further progress.
The altar served as both the way to God and a barrier to God. Please understand God’s perspective in the Bible. In Ezekiel 18:4, God says, “All souls are Mine... the soul that sins shall die.” The penalty of sin is death. This is also recorded in Romans 6:23.
Here is the legal position: you belong to God. He made you, and you are His by right. But you have done your own thing, attempting to live your own life without God. You have sinned. You can and will rationalize that you are not so bad and compare your lifestyle with others, but God does not grade on a scale. In God’s eyes, everything matters, every little sin.
According to the righteous requirement of God’s instructions in the Torah, you should die for your sin. However, God, through His grace, gave a provision:
“The Life of the Flesh [of a burnt offering/sacrifice] is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement” (Leviticus 17:11).
So, either you must die, or the offering can die in your place. It is a life for a life. If the offering dies, then through its lifeblood, there is atonement (at-one-ment) for your soul and restoration to the God to whom you belong.
“He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to made atonement on his behalf” (Leviticus 1:4). This is God’s way, His provision.
Was this undeserved to the animal? Yes, but it is because you have been unjust towards God that this offering becomes necessary. This is the meaning of faith: believing in God’s provision when you can do nothing for yourself.
You are called “sheep.” A lamb was burnt at the altar of sacrifice every morning and every evening (Exodus 29:38-42). The normal destiny of any sheep entering the Tabernacle was certain death. However, Yeshua laid down His life in your place, His sheep.
This altar was made by man but designed by God. When completed, the Torah says that God ignited the wood upon the altar by fire that fell directly from heaven and not by human hands as found in Leviticus 9:24.
The Book of Jonah (Jonah 2:9), read on the fast of Yom Kippur, shows us salvation is entirely and exclusively in the hands of the Lord. No human effort, human help, or human contribution was made to start the fire on this altar; so, also, salvation must be by the grace of God, apart from any human help, merit, religion, or works.
To do otherwise means certain death, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu, who, in an act of religious zeal, died during the actual act of worshipping God. This was God’s method of showing His approval, or disapproval, upon an acceptable sacrifice.
The Altar of Sacrifice had four horns mounted on its four corners. Horns, in Scripture, are symbolic of great power. These horns pointed to the four directions. The first letters of the four directions are “N-E-W-S,” good news.
Not only was the Altar of Sacrifice the largest piece of furniture, but also it was the first in the order of seven as the priest entered the Tabernacle to worship. It was the starting point, the beginning of man’s approach to God. Ignoring this Altar of Sacrifice barred all further progress.
The first step in your walk is the conversion for the Gentile, and repentance for the Jewish person. This is accomplished by trust in God, through faith. This is the first and bottom rung of the ladder of trust. It is called common faith, and it is used to bring you into the kingdom of God. You cannot continue until you reach this first rung.
Once here, after your offering, your trust increases, and you can move to the next rung of your ladder of trust
Shalom