Does Faith Really Matter If God Is In Control

When life is uncertain or challenging, many people will say, “God is in control.” Those words often provide comfort to the believer in difficult times. Yes, God is sovereign. He is omniscient and all-powerful. Yet Scripture repeatedly emphasizes another vital element in the believer’s life: faith.

If God truly is in control, why does Scripture place such a strong focus on faith?

The answer is found in the way God designed His relationship with humanity. God is in control of His promises, His power and His purposes, but He invites believers to participate in His plan through faith. God reveals His will, but individuals must respond by believing His Word and acting on it.

God’s Plan Requires Faith

According to Scripture, every person is created with a purpose. When God created humanity, He designed each life with intention and meaning. No one else can fulfill the exact plan God has prepared for another person. Yet discovering and walking in that plan does not happen automatically.

Faith is the key that unlocks the door to God’s purpose. Without faith, many believers never fully experience what God intends for their lives. Faith connects people to God’s promises and empowers them to step into the life He has prepared for them.

The Apostle John wrote, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4, KJV). Victory comes through faith because faith aligns a believer’s life with the God who is in control.

When God Is In Control Replaces Faith

While it is true that God is in control, that truth can sometimes be used as an excuse for passivity. Instead of engaging their faith, some believers step back and assume, “God will take care of it.” Though that may sound spiritual, it can actually be a way of avoiding the responsibility of faith.

Jesus didn’t say, “Do nothing because God is in control.” He said, “Have faith in God.”

God’s sovereignty does not remove responsibility; it requires a response. Because God is in control of His promises, believers are called to believe, speak and act on His Word. This leads to an important question:

Where might someone be replacing faith with spiritual laziness?

• Accepting situations instead of standing on God’s promises
• Waiting on God when He is waiting on their faith
• Saying, “If it’s God’s will, it will happen,” instead of believing they receive.

Faith doesn’t step back; it reaches out. It takes hold of what God has said and refuses to let go. Yes, God is in control, but believers are still responsible to respond to Him with faith.

Learning the Power of Faith

Early in their ministry journey, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland became deeply interested in biblical teaching on faith. When they moved to Tulsa, they eagerly attended meetings where Kenneth E. Hagin taught the Word of God.

Their desire to understand faith was so strong that they often drove through ice storms to attend services. Morning and evening for weeks at a time, they listened as Kenneth Hagin repeatedly taught from Mark 11:22–24, NKJV, where Jesus said:

“Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

At that time, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland were facing many challenges. Their lives were filled with what felt like mountains—financial struggles, unanswered questions and personal limitations. They believed that God is in control, but they were still learning how faith connects believers to His promises.

Through studying the Word and hearing teaching on faith, they discovered something life-changing: Faith activates the promises of the God who is in control.

Faith Bridges the Ability Gap

One of the first lessons believers often learn when stepping into God’s plan is that they may feel unqualified for what God is asking them to do.

Gloria Copeland experienced this personally when she and Kenneth first entered ministry. During Kenneth’s first speaking engagement, the pastor asked her to stand and say a few words to the congregation. Traditionally, the preacher’s wife would greet the audience.

Her response was simple: “No.” She didn’t mean to be rude. She felt ill-prepared and unqualified to speak in public.

Later, she prayed and told the Lord that the next time she was asked to speak, she would stand up by faith and trust God to give her the words.

That decision marked a turning point. Over the years, Gloria Copeland would go on to preach to thousands of people worldwide. The ability did not come from natural talent but from relying on God’s grace through faith.

This experience illustrates an important truth: God may be in control of the calling, but faith allows believers to step into it. When people trust Him, His strength fills the gaps where their natural abilities fall short.

Abraham’s Example of Faith

Throughout Scripture, there are many examples of how faith connects believers to the God who is in control. One of the clearest is the story of Abraham and Sarah.

When God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would have a child in their old age, the idea seemed impossible. Sarah had been barren for years, and both of them were well past the natural age for having children.

At first, they laughed. But eventually, they chose to believe that God is in control, and placed their faith in His promise.

Romans 4:17 explains that God calls things that do not exist as though they already exist. Abraham followed this example by speaking in agreement with God’s Word.

Even their names reflected that faith. Abram became Abraham, meaning “father of many nations,” and Sarai became Sarah, meaning “mother of multitudes.” Every time they spoke their names, they were declaring God’s promise. Their story demonstrates that faith can overcome even the most impossible circumstances.

Believing You Receive

Jesus emphasized another important principle of faith in Mark 11:24: “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (KJV). To believe you receive means to take hold of what God has promised.

Some people believe that if God is in control, everything will happen automatically without their involvement. Yet Scripture teaches that God has already fulfilled His promises through His Word, and that believers must receive them by faith.

This is like receiving a gift. A gift may be purchased, wrapped and offered, but if the recipient never reaches out to take it, the gift remains unused. In the same way, God is in control of the promises He has given, but faith is how believers take hold of them.

Faith Speaks

Another important lesson from Scripture is that faith has a voice. Jesus taught that faith speaks to mountains. According to Mark 11:23, believers are instructed to speak God’s Word and believe it in their hearts.

Faith is not passive. It expresses itself through words that agree with God’s promises. Many believers hear the Word and develop faith in their hearts, but they never release that faith through their words. Yet Jesus made it clear that faith becomes active when it is spoken.

Romans 10:17 explains that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. But according to Jesus’ teaching, faith goes into action when believers speak what God has said.

The Power of Consistency

During their early years of studying faith, Gloria Copeland once experienced a moment of clarity while listening to a teaching about the power of words. The Holy Spirit impressed a simple but powerful truth upon her heart: “In consistency lies the power.”

What people say continually reveals what they really believe. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Words of fear and doubt can undermine faith, but words that agree with God’s promises strengthen it.

The Copelands realized that speaking words of faith only occasionally would not be enough. They committed to speak God’s Word consistently—not only in church or during prayer, but in everyday life.

Walking In God’s Plan

Looking back over their journey, the Copelands recognized that learning to live by faith was essential to stepping into the future God had prepared for them.

If they had continued speaking doubt and focusing on their limitations, they might have remained stuck in patterns of defeat and discouragement. Instead, by speaking God’s Word and acting in faith, they began to experience the life God intended for them.

Yes, God is in control of His purposes. But He invites believers to participate in those purposes through faith. When people believe His promises, speak His Word, and act in faith, they begin to walk in the plan God designed for them. The question is not only whether God is in control.

The deeper question is whether believers will respond to Him in faith. Take that step of faith today and respond to God.