{"id":35,"date":"2026-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/?p=35"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:35:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T14:35:53","slug":"from-similar-vocabulary-to-christian-faith","status":"publish","type":"faithco_working_note","link":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/working-notes\/from-similar-vocabulary-to-christian-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"From Similar Vocabulary to Christian Faith \u2014 9\/30\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Speaker 1:<\/strong> I actually think a lot of this context involves faith and Prayer. Although, I think while the language may be similar, Hill and Goddard may be starting from a different starting line and arriving at a completely separate finish line apart from Christ and Him Crucified.<\/p>\n

OK -GO<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

Speaker 2:<\/strong> I think your notes are converging on a much clearer thesis than \u201cpositive thinking\u201d or even \u201cthe power of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

The central issue is agreement: What has become so true inside of me that I live, feel, speak, pray, and act from it?<\/p>\n

And I think your Christian correction to Hill\/Goddard is crucial:<\/p>\n

Faith does not make something true. Faith comes into agreement with what God says is true.<\/p>\n

That distinction can hold the entire article together.<\/p>\n

Possible title<\/h3>\n

Faith: Living From the Unseen<\/p>\n

Or:<\/p>\n

Faith Is More Than Believing: Learning to Live From What God Says Is True<\/p>\n

Or, a little more provocative:<\/p>\n

What If Faith Is Not Trying to Believe?<\/p>\n

Central thesis<\/h3>\n

Faith is not intellectual agreement with a doctrine, positive confession, emotional enthusiasm, or an attempt to force reality to conform to our desires.<\/p>\n

Faith is an inward agreement with God and His truth so complete that we begin to see, feel, speak, pray, rest, and act from that truth even before it is visible in our circumstances.<\/p>\n

That gets very close to several recurring statements in your notes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u201cBelief is not intellectual agreement.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • \u201cWalk by faith, not by sight.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • \u201cRemain loyal to the unseen.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • \u201cFaith is imagination aligned.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • \u201cRest is inner agreement.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • \u201cFaith is the recognition that the burden was never yours.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • \u201cThink from freedom,\u201d rather than merely hoping to someday become free.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cSpeak from the promise,\u201d rather than endlessly describing the problem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Your notes on worry sharpen this further: worry assumes that responsibility for the outcome rests on us, while faith releases that responsibility to God. <\/p>\n

    Faith begins with truth, not desire<\/h2>\n

    This is where I would establish the dividing line between what you are taking from these teachers and where you depart from them.<\/p>\n

    Goddard often effectively begins with:<\/p>\n

    What do you desire? Assume it is true.<\/p>\n

    Hill often begins with:<\/p>\n

    What is your definite purpose? Believe it, emotionalize it, repeat it, and act upon it.<\/p>\n

    But Christianity begins somewhere entirely different:<\/p>\n

    What has God said?<\/p>\n

    That changes everything.<\/p>\n

    The Christian does not have autonomous creative authority to declare whatever he desires into existence.<\/p>\n

    Faith isn’t:<\/p>\n

    I desire this, therefore I will believe it into existence.<\/p>\n

    Faith is:<\/p>\n

    God has revealed Himself and His truth, therefore I will allow His truth to become more real to me than every competing appearance.<\/p>\n

    That gives you a critical distinction:<\/p>\n

    The unseen is not trustworthy merely because it is unseen.<\/p>\n

    It is trustworthy because God is trustworthy.<\/p>\n

    Therefore the object of Christian faith isn’t faith itself, imagination, consciousness, vibration, feeling, or even \u201cspiritual law.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The object is God.<\/p>\n

    And ultimately:<\/p>\n

    Christ and Him crucified.<\/p>\n

    That line you wrote near the end is important enough to become part of the article:<\/p>\n

    Hill and Goddard may sometimes use remarkably similar language, but they can begin from a different starting line and arrive at a completely separate finish line apart from Christ and Him crucified.<\/p>\n

    Exactly.<\/p>\n

    Faith is more than intellectual agreement<\/h2>\n

    This may be the biggest point running through all your notes.<\/p>\n

    We can intellectually know:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • God provides.<\/li>\n
    • God loves me.<\/li>\n
    • God is with me.<\/li>\n
    • I am a new creation.<\/li>\n
    • I have been reconciled to God.<\/li>\n
    • I am seated with Christ.<\/li>\n
    • God works all things together for good.<\/li>\n
    • I have authority over the power of the enemy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      And simultaneously live internally as though none of those things are true.<\/p>\n

      That creates the strange Christian condition of believing something doctrinally while disbelieving it functionally.<\/p>\n

      Our mouth says:<\/p>\n

      \u201cGod will provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

      while our inner conversation says:<\/p>\n

      \u201cWhat if there isn’t enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

      Our theology says:<\/p>\n

      \u201cGod is with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

      while our body, imagination, internal dialogue, and decisions say:<\/p>\n

      \u201cI’m alone and I have to figure this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

      That is why your notes on inner conversation matter so much. You observed that someone can say all the correct things outwardly while an underlying internal conversation continues in fear, doubt, or defeat. <\/p>\n

      Perhaps:<\/p>\n

      Faith is when what I say I believe becomes what I actually believe.<\/p>\n

      Or even:<\/p>\n

      Faith is truth that has migrated from doctrine into being.<\/p>\n

      Faith sees the unseen as more authoritative than the seen<\/h2>\n

      This may be the bridge between Goddard’s language and biblical faith that interests you most.<\/p>\n

      Goddard repeatedly returns to:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • don’t be governed by appearances;<\/li>\n
      • remain loyal to the unseen;<\/li>\n
      • live from the end;<\/li>\n
      • persist despite contradictory evidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Strip away his metaphysical conclusions and there is a fascinating question underneath:<\/p>\n

        What determines reality for the believer\u2014the visible circumstance or the Word of God?<\/p>\n

        That gives you Hebrews 11.<\/p>\n

        Faith concerns things not seen.<\/p>\n

        And Paul:<\/p>\n

        We walk by faith, not by sight.<\/p>\n

        That does not mean denying that visible circumstances exist.<\/p>\n

          \n
        • A doctor’s diagnosis exists.<\/li>\n
        • A bank balance exists.<\/li>\n
        • Pain exists.<\/li>\n
        • Opposition exists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          The storm was real when Jesus slept in the boat.<\/p>\n

          Five thousand hungry people were really standing in front of Jesus when the disciples said there wasn’t enough food.<\/p>\n

          Faith isn’t pretending the circumstance isn’t there.<\/p>\n

          Faith refuses to grant the circumstance the authority to define God, His character, His promise, our identity, or the final outcome.<\/p>\n

          That’s much stronger than positive thinking.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          A Christ-centered distinction between faith and positive-thinking systems, focusing on agreement with what God says is true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[3],"tags":[6,8,12,9,31],"faithco_speaker":[],"class_list":["post-35","faithco_working_note","type-faithco_working_note","status-publish","hentry","category-faith-prayer","tag-faith","tag-identity","tag-prayer","tag-renewing-the-mind","tag-unseen-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/faithco_working_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/35\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"faithco_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faithco_speaker?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}