Faith
Notes # 1
Luke
18:8 I tell you that he will avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on
the earth?
· When the Lord describes faith in this scripture He uses the accusative mood. This simply means that there is a type of faith that rightfully belongs to the earth and because of this, Jesus expects to find it as such.
· It is the “normal Christian life”, Watchman Nee says, for the Lord to find His saints living by faith. For him not to find faith, but habitual unbelief upon the earth, is dysfunctional Christian living at best.
· As the earth contains vegetation, animals, and people, likewise the earth must contain a faith that is pleasing to God amongst His saints.
· As we had observed in our last study on Timothy, the type of faith that pleases the Lord is also the same faith that is the driving engine for all of our administration and management of God’s affairs on earth as stewards of His mysteries.
· This type of faith is God’s faith, and is based upon our hearing, believing and obeying the Lord’s voice. The Lord’s voice contains within it His measure of faith to make the words of His Spirit come to pass. Let us look back at the excerpt from that study.
· Will the Lord Jesus find this type of faith upon the earth amongst His saints?
1Tim
1:4 Neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which
is in faith: so do.
The King
James does a poor job of translating of the Greek. Where the KJV has “godly edifying,” the
Greek says” administration or management” of God’s affairs. The
word is actually defined by two words meaning the law of the house.
·
We are
entrusted with the management, oversight, and the administration of all that
pertains to the affairs of God or to all that involves the economies of the
kingdom of our God (hence we could say that it is the same as the laws that
govern what belongs in the house of God.).
·
A pretty
serious responsibility! Our
management and administration of God affairs can and must only happen in the realm
of faith.
·
As we
studied before, God’s faith always originates with the voice of the Lord
because His Word always carries within it the measure of faith needed to make
the Word come to pass. Therefore if we
are to correctly manage the affairs that pertain to God it can only be done
through a strict reliance to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and our stepping out
in faith and walking on water to fulfill the Word. When we operate like this we
activate the affairs of God upon the earth, bringing them to order and causing
them to come to pass in utter completion. Unbelief, which is resistance to the
voice of the Holy Spirit, is the worst of the manager’s of God goods. A steward
as found in the next scriptures is exactly the same combination of words.
1 Corinthians 4:1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards (The law of the house) of the mysteries of God.
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
· Having our thoughts covered with darkness is the result of been estranged from fellowship and intimacy with the Lord through the ignorance that we have of His ways. The ignorance that we have comes in turn through our rebellion and stubbornness towards God. This makes our spiritual heart to become calloused and thus unable to discern.
· We as believers must be careful not to fall into a life of disobedience. To the degree that we willfully disobey the Lord or draw a line in the spiritual sand to the Lord, is to the degree that our hearts become calloused and we lose the discernment of the Lord’s voice. The loss of discernment bears the fruit of ignorance to the ways of God, thus alienating us from the life of God, and shrouding our understanding of the things of God in darkness.
Acts 3:16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man
strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
· The Name of the Lord is anything that pertains to the desires and the will of the Lord. The Lord puts His Name, which indeed is His presence, upon every act of our obedience to Him.
John 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
· Wherever the Lord’s Name is, so is His faith.
· The Lord’s Name is therefore the Lord’s faith.
· The Lord’s faith, which is activated by the rhema word of God brings perfect soundness. This is the importance for us to live by the rhema Word of God. Obedience to the rhema Word will bring perfect soundness into a number of circumstances where the Lord speaks it.
Acts 14:27 And when they were come, and had gathered
the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he
had opened the door of
faith unto the Gentiles.
·
Literally;
A door that is made up of God’s faith. Every door that
the Lord opens up to us is a door made up of God’s faith. If we treat the Lord’s commands by the
rationale of the mind, or the prognosis given to us by our circumstances, we
shall never get too far.
·
If we are to
minister in the fullness of the power of the Holy Ghost we must only have one
agenda and one program. That program
and agenda is called the Holy Spirit.
We must be always prepared, but have that one agenda that is brought to
us by the door made out of God’s faith.
·
The church
has the whole message of financial prosperity backwards. The Lord never spoke to us about financial prosperity;
He told us that He would supply all of our needs according to His riches in
glory. When the disciples needed tax money the Lord gave it to them in the
mouth of a fish.
·
Our focus
must be always on obedience to the Lord not on financial prosperity, blessings,
or miracles. As the Lord gets us into
our calling (not religious activity), the finances will be there to meet
us. The greater the ministry, the
greater might be the finances.
·
Mother
Teresa of Calcutta who had millions of dollars flow through her hands for the
sake of others had this to say about finances, and I paraphrase her “Money; I never worry about it, The
Lord always puts it there when I need it.”
·
We must be
careful that our seeking financial prosperity from the Lord is really not a shield
to protect us from the cross of Christ.
The Lord will eventually put a larger cross in our path if we run away
from the lesser one by seeking financial prosperity before seeking obedience by
death on the cross.
·
Look with me
at Deut 28:2-3 below. In it we see that God’s blessings will persecute us until
they overtake us if we walk in implicit obedience to the Lord. Why worry then about financial prosperity?
Deut 28:2And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
·
Hebrew: Listen to listen, observe, keep, and do the
commandments
Deut 28: And allthese blessings shall come on thee, and overtake(Reach, overtake, and take a hold of you).the LORD thy God.
Acts 15:9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
·
Our
lives become purified, thus resulting in our liberty in Christ, if our
relationship with the Lord is one of faith.
·
The
word for obedience comes from two words in the Greek
that are defined as “submitting our hearing to something or someone else.” In this case, our hearing must be submitted
to the Holy Spirit.
·
Unbelief also comes from two words, which are
defined thus as a complete absence or void of faith. If true faith is found in our obedience to the Holy Spirit, then
unbelief is willful disobedience to the Lord.
Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
·
Greek: A change of thinking towards God
( this is the true meaning of
repentance; it is not the remorse that killed Judas and sent him to hell) and faith INTO the Lord Jesus
Christ. (obedience into or towards the Person of The Lord
Jesus Christ.)
·
This
scripture describes in one verse, Christianity.
Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
·
Faith is our responsibility. Once that
we know what the Lord expects from us through the revelation of His rhema word,
we must hold faith in our hearts until His rhema word comes to pass.
·
We
hold faith captive in our hearts by a continual moment-to-moment believing in the rhema word that God
spoke to us.
·
Believing
many times demands physical obedience and action and it simply not a passive confession. Please look with me at what James has to say
about faith.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead (Greek CORPSE!!) also.
·
Our
believing God’s rhema word locks faith in our hearts. When the Lord sees our unwavering faith in His Word, He reveals
Himself in our lives. The Lord
forevermore is in covenant with us to bring His rhema words to pass.
·
He
then labors by the faith and power found in the rhema word to bring it to pass
in accordance with our continual state of believing.
·
The
Lord’s labor of faith and power in us is called grace.
·
His
inward grace is manifested as His righteousness
outwardly. The Lord’s righteousness is the externally
accomplished results of the labor of His grace within us.
·
His
righteousness changes us to become like His Son
·
This process is called the righteousness of God, which is by faith.
· This my dear friends is Christianity in a nutshell.
Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Hebrews
10:38 Now the just shall live by(out of faith; as a tree grows out of its system
of roots ) faith: but if any man draw back ( shrink back in unbelief, resulting in
disobedience ) , my soul shall have no pleasure ( Greek absolute negative, will in no way whatsoever,
be well pleased with him or her.) in him.
·
Faith is
God’s system of roots which birth and feed God’s inward labor of grace and
displays His mighty righteous deeds as the end result of His grace, in our
lives.
·
If we choose
any other root system than that which is of faith, we will not abide in Christ
and as the branch that is cut off from the vine we shall shrivel up and
die.
Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
·
We
must have faith in the blood of Jesus and what it does for us.
God Bless You,
Jose
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