Skip to main content

 

FAITH...WHAT IS IT?

Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes by hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.”

Faith is not “wistful thinking”, it is not grounded in what we may want to see happen. Faith is not grounded in us at all. Faith is grounded in what God has already said and already done. Faith is grounded in the Word of God, in God Himself. God is eternally faithful to His Word; He does not change; therefore, it does not change. God’s Word is not altered by cultural norms. It is neither modified by human opinion nor by what “trend setters” declare to be in vogue.

I have faith because of what God has said. If God had not spoken long ago through His prophets and in these last days through His Son, Jesus Christ, I could never have faith. Faith is a response of trust and belief in what God says, in what God has done. Faith is not grounded in some philosophical concept, it is grounded in a Person, eternally true, eternally reliable, eternally unchangeable.

God has said that having begun a good work is me, that HE will bring that good work to competition. God has said that I am His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance to actually be my way of life. If anyone is actually in Christ Jesus, they are a new creation. The old life has passed away and all things have become new.

THAT is “the truth” that is being lived out in any follower of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit Who lives the very Life of Jesus Christ in them. That Life living in them is transforming them from the inside out and will be lived through them to demonstrate to the world that Jesus Christ IS risen from the dead and IS Lord of all.

The follower of Jesus Christ, the one who has believed Him, has been given a new heart and a new spirit, a new life. They are NOW a new creation living in resurrection life by the Holy Spirit. If you had not been made holy within, the Holy Spirit would never dwell within you. Your heart is no longer the issue. It is your mind that needs to be renewed, your will reoriented, your emotions harnessed and even your body with its urges and passions subdued to operate in TRUE life. That work is the work of the Holy Spirit in you, enabling you to repent, to trust, to believe, to obey and to follow Jesus rather than the world, the flesh or the devil.

I have yet to “see” all that it means to be a “new creation in Christ Jesus”, but my “not yet seeing it” can never invalidate what God has said He has done and is doing. My hope is not wistful thinking, it is grounded in what God has already said and already done to make all His promises to me, for me and in me, “YES”. God will complete in me what He started. God will give me the discernment and the power to cooperate with Him in the process. God will perfect in me the obedience of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The world is soon to be shaken in ways no one has yet to see. Things will become darker and more perilous on the earth as lawlessness increases. In these last days, as the Apostle Paul prophesied, “there will be very perilous times.  For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.” 

All that was not only prophesied, it is the atmosphere we now live in; but it has never and will never alter what God has said. I have assurance that as the darkness grows darker, the Light of Christ, the life and ministry on the Holy Spirit manifest through His people will shine brighter and brighter. What God has already done and finished in and through Jesus Christ is the basis of my hope, the immovable ground of my faith.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  OUT IN THE OPEN God has not hidden what He has done to redeem humanity. He offers us the only way of true repentance, faith, forgiveness of sin and a new life that is unending. Truth is, though, He never forces repentance, faith, forgiveness and a new life on anyone. He desires a relationship, not the programmed responses of humanoid AI. His love for us has exposed the utter ruin of humanity because of our rebellion and sin. He doesn’t want us to be deceived into thinking that at the end of our lives here on earth we will all get a “participation trophy”. We have all personalized and internalized our rebellion against God. Humanity’s rebellion against God can be shocking horror or the civilized folly or relying on our broken moral compass to bring ourselves back into a state of wholeness. We want to be the ground of truth. We want our emotions enshrined and worshipped by all. The root problem is that humanity is spiritually dead and separated from Life, Himself. Both pride and ho...
Post a Comment
Read more
  PSALM 119:132 “Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your Name.” Here is the cry of an understanding heart. The Psalmist is acknowledging that life in all its fullness, the life God intends for us to live out here on earth is only found by God’s pursuit of us, His turning to us that we might turn to Him. The Psalmist knows that “Salvation is of the Lord.” He cries out for the Lord’s mercy to cover Him. He acknowledges that those who know the Lord, those who are known by Him and who love His Name, always find God’s mercy and grace to live out the life that God commands. God provides the wherewithal to do what He has commanded. He gives us the indwelling Power and Person of the Holy Spirit to BE Life within us. It is the Holy Spirit who conforms us to the Image of Christ Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who perfects in us the obedience of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who makes God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He enables us to cooperate w...
Post a Comment
Read more
 UNDERSTANDING GOD'S MERCY Matthew 13:58 “ And so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” I have heard it said that somehow the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the Lord Jesus Christ was somehow limited by the unbelief of the folks in His hometown of Nazareth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nothing limits the power of God nor His grace give to sinners to redeem, heal, and restore them to God. What we see is the mercy of God towards broken people. He will not reinforce unbelief. If someone refuses to believe who Jesus Christ is and what He has done, the Lord in His mercy will not reinforce that unbelief by manifesting His healing and delivering power upon the one who does not believe. Otherwise, we broken humans might come to think that we can get from God what we want because we want it, not because we have surrendered our lives to Him in faith. Christianity is not refined paganism where we get God to do what we want because we h...
Post a Comment
Read more