"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24) GRACE is God's free provision of abundant life - FREE; FOR US; and WITHOUT OUR HELP! Grace ALONE will not ensure us the pleasure-filled abundant life on a daily basis that salvation has to offer to it's maximum (although every person tastes of His grace daily without even realising it), it is grace receive through faith that takes us consciously deeper into His fullness...your fullness.
However, it's important to understand what faith is, otherwise abundant life remains a shallow-hidden treasure within easy grasp - not hidden FROM us, nor even hidden FOR us, but rather, and ironically, hidden BY us ourselves. Faith is NOT something we do to move God. It's not something we do to get God to do or release something otherwise held back by Him. Faith is not something we learn to do in order to get God to perform for us.
If we have this concept that faith is something we do to make God move, that's what the bible calls "dead works", and this "work of faith" becomes the obstacle to physically manifesting what God has already provided for us in Christ. So what is faith, then? FAITH is our PERSONAL, INDIVIDUAL response, birthed out of a personal revelation of what God has ALREADY provided - to personally TRUST in a finished work.
If our faith is not a personal, revelatory response to what God has ALREADY DONE by grace, then it's not faith. If our perception of faith is something we are trying to do to make God respond to us, then it's not faith. Faith doesn't move God, because God has already moved unto completion in Christ, who is now seated beside him.
An adequate measure of faith has already been FREELY GIVEN to each of us as a GIFT (without effort or prayer etc at all). From then onwards in life faith becomes stirred and grown by a consistent, personal revelation to what God has ALREADY done - for, in and through us even before we were created and needed it.
If we are getting bored with the gospel, then it's no longer the gospel we're hearing.
It's when our free, mustard-seed measure of faith begins to realize this good news, that even greater faith begins to grow.
Testimonies of a fruitful and obedient lifestyle are very encouraging and motivating, for sure. But if that testimony leaves people wanting to strive and change their behaviour in order to get breakthrough, then we aren't giving them the gospel.
Am I saying that it's wrong to change behaviour when we realize its potential harm? Hahaha, not at all! That would be...stupid.
My emphasis here, is living this life while tasting and imparting the maximum benifits of the Kingdom. Applying 'Kingdom principles' will not give us the satisfaction that we have inherited in Christ, it'sknowing the King personally when those flood gates will begin to break open - that's my heart.
To build someones faith by trying to motivated them with it's [faith's] rewards alone, may motivate some...for a while, but abundant life is not fully accessible to the ambitious, but rather by grace to those who will simply trust that ultimately the good they desire, already is in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment