It’s all about FAITH!
In 1 Pet 1:5, we read that we have “an INHERITANCE INCORRUPTIBLE and UNDEFILED…reserved in heaven…for us, WHO are KEPT by the Power of GOD through FAITH unto Salvation…”
“your FAITH, Much More Precious than gold that perishes…may be Found to Praise, Honor and Glory at the Revelation of Jesus Christ”.
1 Pet 1:8 tells us that the OUTCOME of our faith is, “Believing Jesus Christ, we REJOICE (there’s a reaction from genuine believers in Christ) with Joy Inexpressible and Full of Glory, Receiving the end of our Faith – Salvation of our souls”.
As I continued meditating upon these awesome truths of Faith, I was led (a “flow” was already beginning to flow!)to Heb 11:1-3; “NOW FAITH IS the Substance and Evidence of THINGS (watch out later how “things” are associated with God’s Word, as the Heb word, “dabar” shows us) Hoped for and Not Seen. Can you see how eventually this stream of thoughts and revelation will be connected to the Savior who is coming as prophesied by God Himself in Gen 3:15, and the Savior who has come (we are already at Advent!), and the Savior who will come bodily in His resurrection body again?
Heb 11:1-3 talks about how “BY FAITH we Understand that REALITY is Framed by the Word of GOD!”.
Since this IS the TRUTH of GOD and HIS WORD, the only thing that matters for believers of Christ is to MEDITATE upon GOD’s WORD, as this passage goes on to say that “By this (faith), the elders obtained a good Report, or a good Testimony”, as the rest of Hebrews 11 will go on to show. A good Report or a good Testimony before God is regardless of earthly circumstances, whether heroic deeds counted heroic in men’s perspective, or not. Faith is also involved in both passive and active means of living before GOD, whether circumstances are good or adverse. Faith in Christ, faith in God and His promises looks to God alone. Faith in God defines the believer, not his or her circumstances. Faith in God is the believers’ reality that defines all of reality!
I then came up (and I’m sure it’s the “flow” from faith’s flow of the Spirit) with some acronyms that can help us or at least help me reinforce these truths:
- Meditate, Intake, Partake of God’s Word (MIP)
- Verbalize, Internalize, Personalize God’s Word (VIP)
- Sustained, Insistent, Persistent (SIP)
And as I experienced this wonderful “flow” (thanks to Mihaly Csikszentmihaly https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/), I also reflected whether this is what Calvin and Luther and the early church fathers, patriarchs and pietists down through the ages experienced and wrote of?
I came to see that Faith is about SEEKING to BELIEVE first, then to let Understanding follow. We and especially I, should NEVER reverse the order.
As Heb 11:3 says, “By FAITH” we receive Understanding, by FAITH the elders obtained a Good Report, a good Testimony, before God, “coram DEO”, and before the world.
“By FAITH” IN and BY “the WORD of GOD” we Understand that THINGS TANGIBLE were made or created or realized by the THING INTANGIBLE, “the WORD of GOD”.
The Fabric and Reality and Air of Heaven, of the Kingdom of GOD is FAITH. Faith in GOD is Belief, Trust, Confidence and Fidelity in GOD alone and above anyone and anything else.
FAITH is total Persuasion in GOD and in being totally Persuaded in GOD’s Word as the Chief Reality that makes Real, Reality!
And type of Key and Ultimate FAITH is “always” a GIFT of GOD’s GRACE through union with Christ which is affected at the moment and instance of conversion and regeneration, of being “born again”, John 3:3-7.
The LORD “continuously” births FAITH in the Yielded Believer through His WORD empowered by His Spirit through His grace for the believer in union with His Son, Jesus Christ. This is what is referred to in Eph 5:18, as being “filled continuously with the Spirit”.
The WORD, the SPIRIT and FAITH can never be split, divorced or divided.
That would be dividing Christ and the Godhead!
The 1st order therefore of the day for me, for the believer, every day, is to come “coram Deo”, before GOD, before His WORD, in utter humility, recognizing that the primacy of FAITH before we allow the workings of the mechanics of our Cognitive processes get the better of us and our emotions and feelings.
It is the bowing down of the primacy of cognitive thought processes to the primacy of FAITH in GOD and His WORD, the “dabar”. Perhaps this is what inspired the Apostle Paul to say in 2 Cor 4:13, “I BELIEVED and therefore I speak”, “and since we HAVE the SAME SPIRIT of FAITH according to WHAT IS WRITTEN, “I BELIEVED and THEREFORE I SPOKE”, we ALSO BELIEVE and therefore SPEAK”.
See the reinforced repetition of FAITH, BELIEVING and SPEAKING GOD’s WORD?
We BELIEVE first to Understand, that we “BELIEVE and therefore SPEAK” and it follows that holy and faithful WISDOM that we BELIEVE and therefore ACT, with the progression that we BELIEVE and therefore Live a Life of Faith!
FAITH IN and BY GOD and His WORD precedes Life, and Living.
As I continued to enjoy and be thrilled by GOD’s revelations of Himself through His WORD this morning, I also realized that I spent quite a bit of time yesterday, praying in the Spirit-in tongues-and I’m already receiving the immediate benefits this morning from a heightened sense of being on the wonderful and delightful end of revelation of God’s WORD, that which every heart longs for; the Presence of Christ through His Word empowered and energized by His Spirit as that heart “waits upon the LORD” (Isa 40:31).
There is a “flow” of Faith and the Spirit happening I realized currently, IN and AROUND me! And boy I don’t ever want to short-circuit, or “quench” or “grief” the Spirit who dwells in my faith by faith!
His indwelling Presence is currently a reality within me right now as I write. It’s exactly as Christ, “a well of water springing up into eternal life” to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar (John 4). And again, I realized that it must have been this experience that led Calvin and Luther to write so prodigiously! The Spirit and Faith and the WORD OF GOD present-Christ dwelling in hearts richly with wisdom through His WORD (Col 3:16), that’s the secret to what Jesus referred to in John 7:37 & 38, “out of his inner most being-heart-will flow rivers of living water”. This refers to indwelling presence of God by His Spirit as the believer dwells in His presence by faith.
We are to “fight” the “good fight of faith”, like Abraham, in Rom 4, ver 18, “who CONTRARY to Hope, IN HOPE (of GOD who had Promised His Promised Word of inheritance to him) BELIEVED , so that he Became the father of many nations, ACCORDING to WHAT WAS SPOKEN-what GOD has SPOKEN-GOD’s PROMISED WORD to Abraham.
Abraham BECAME the father of many nations BEFORE the Promise of GOD materialized!
And that’s the secret of God; BELIEVING in the Realization and Materialization of GOD’s PROMISED WORD in our hearts as ALREADY Realized and Materialized BEFORE it is Realized and Materialized!
Isn’t that EXACTLY what Jesus Himself said in Mark 11:24. “Therefore WHATHINGSOEVER you DESIRE, WHEN you PRAY (coming continuously to GOD in prayer) BELIEVE that you RECEIVE IT (believing that we already REALIZE and MATERIALIZE the prayer answered in our hearts as answered) and you SHALL HAVE IT”.
Oh how this revelation from God should revolutionize our prayer lives! My prayers must be centered upon Christ, His will and His WORD. “If you ABIDE IN ME, and MY WORDS ABIDE in you, you will ASK WHAT YOU WILL, and it SHALL BE DONE FOR you.”
So this is how I ought to pray moving forward; seeing with the eyes of faith through GOD’s WORD and Promises, the Realization and Materialization of GOD’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth, in the earthly realm, as He has willed it in heaven, in His realm, and over all His dominion in Christ.
Isn’t this what Jesus intimated or was referring to in John 5:19? “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can no NOTHING of Himself, BUT WHAT He SEES (by the eyes of faith in the Spirit and through the WORD) the Father DO; for WHATEVER HE (the FATHER) does, the SON ALSO DOES IN LIKE MANNER!”
So how then would I pray from this moment onwards?
Isa 66:2 provides a response; My order of prayer and worship MUST begin here, “But on this will I look: on him who is POOR and of a CONTRITE SPIRIT, And who TREMBLES at MY WORD.”
God scans, looks intently, has regard (the Hebrew for “look” in the aforementioned verse) to the human, or the person in grace covenant with Him in union with Christ, who comes to Him recognizing the human and earthly position of poverty, affliction, broken, bankrupt, nothing, stricken and smitten by sin and rebellion, in spirit, and simultaneously, Trembles, Fearful, Reverent, at GOD’s WORD, JESUS CHRIST, the Dabar from Heaven, the Word, the Speech, the Command, the Matter, the “Thing” (Heb 11:1-3), the NAME above ALL names, worthy alone and only to be worshipped, holy, holy, holy before the throne of GOD forever and ever!
(Franklin Morais worships at https://www.htbb.org/home, a Christ-centered and Spirit filled and Christ exalting, and outreach oriented (Alpha) body of believers. He is a passionate believer in Christ and eager of more of God’s Spirit, through GOD’s WORD. You can contact him at fjcrm@icloud.com)
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