Lesson #6 - Walking by Faith

The cross tells you it is finished.
The empty grave tells you He has risen!
The curtain that was torn tells you a way has been given.
Grace is the door that lets you in and
Faith is the key-- me.

Faith is so many things but let us take a look at just a few of them for now.

First we will look at faith that leads to salvation and once you are saved then the three stages of faith.

Most discussions about faith center around the question of faith vs. works.  Is it faith or works that we should be concerned with? Well, I say both!

We do not serve an either/or God. Our God is an AND God. If we limit our discussion to whether it's faith or works, then our God is only as great as our faith and only as big as what we believe. We ultimately as Christians only do what we believe. However, God is so amazingly more than what we will ever comprehend in this earthen vessel of clay. He has no boundaries.

First things first, you must only be concerned as to whether your faith leads to salvation. Without salvation nothing really matters, does it? Jesus says you are either for me or against me.

Therefore, for or against is your first decision not faith vs. works.

If you chose against, stop here! The remainder of this blog does not apply to you. If you reconsider then great, keep reading.

If you chose for, good choice! Keep reading.

Remember, do not get into conversations in regards to faith without first stopping to ask if you are  talking about the saved or the unsaved person. Remember, if the person is unsaved then faith that leads to salvation is always first. If the person is saved then feel free to discuss the type of faith that the person currently has.

So let's take a look at faith after a person has been born again and clothed in Christ Jesus.

There are three stages of faith after salvation, dead, little and great.

Dead faith is a faith that believes there is a God yet that belief is not allowed to manifest itself neither for the believers benefit nor for anyone else's. It is a faith that does not take possession of the land so to speak. It will not cross over. It often finds itself refusing to give in to the will of God. It insist on living in the old life and strangely enough believes that that is enough. In the parable of the talents it believes that burying the one talent that has been given will do. But as we know the outcome for this type of faith is equivalent to the faith of the unbeliever. Not good.

Little faith believes there is a God but the person who they were and believe themselves to be is so much larger than the new person God has made them to be that they can barely function. Little faithers are in a constant struggle between the good they want to do and the bad they keep on doing. They live a life of Romans 7 moments. In the parable of the sower they find that they are choked out by the cares of this world and their harvest is surely lacking. They are unsure of who God really is and what they are supposed to be doing about it.

Great faith believes there is a God and that in Christ all things are possible. Great faithers have an image of God that is larger than any circumstance. They don't ask why they ask what. What lesson is being taught to me through this circumstance? They run to their bible and look for the example that was given. Their bible is a sword and their faith a shield. Everything that happens good or bad in their lives are held up to their ever increasing knowledge of who God is. They walk by the power of the Spirit and not by their own understanding. What you do not know can not set you free. To keep from stumbling you must increase your knowledge of who God is and have a faith that is unquenchable.

Great faith leads to great works! Your hands are the hands that say I believe that my God lives and your feet are feet that bring peace to a world that is suffering in their own beliefs.
 
To the world it is a strange thing that we believe in a living God. To us it is the other side of normal.
Find what you have been given to do and have a faith that is willing to do it!

Whatever faith you have right now you are witnessing and testifying to what you believe.

Peace












 

Roll Call

The lost, the unsaved and the prodigal.

The unsaved are people who have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Remember that Jesus was given as a gift of God to save you from His wrath that is coming. He accepted the plans of the Father and has completed the work He had been given.

Often times we think in terms of the lost just being people who don't believe in God. But for every one person that openly declares there is no God there are probably 10 that don't care, don't know, don't think that it matters if they know or not, don't think it's possible to know and know but haven't accepted yet. These are the unsaved.

When Jesus said you are either for me or against me then he divided the world into those that believe that he is who he says he is and those that don't.  The question then is not whether or not you believe there is a God but whether or not you believe who He says He is.

Therefore, there are only two types of people in the eyes of God. We commonly refer to them as the believers and the unbelievers.

Now of course to muddy the waters so to speak there is lots of fighting amongst the unsaved because they have been blinded to the fact that they are in the same boat. They are all fighting on the same sinking ship.

The Prodigal is a believer who has demanded his inheritance from the Father. In the bible it says that we have an inheritance. The prodigal has demanded the inheritance before it's appointed time, taken it and squandered it, and then realized that they would be better off as a servant of the Father's house than they are with the pleasures of the world. The Father of course did not consider the son of the house on his return to be a servant.

When the believer returns to God he is still just as much a son as when he decided to leave in the first place. His position in the family is not set by him but by the Father. If you return to the Father he will return to you.

The Lost are believers who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior but then have no idea what to do next. Because they don't know what God's will is in their lives they are stuck in a living hell. They know they can't live the previous life and they don't know what the new life looks like. So they wander in the darkness without the wisdom of God, unlearned, untrained and without joy. ( See Sidebar below).

Because they are not sure how to stay in the light where Jesus is, they are subject to false teachers, lies of Satan, and deception of every kind.

They have a hard time understanding the Bible because they read it like a book instead of like a manual. A manual gives user instructions and can be referred to as much as needed until you reach the desired results.

They have a hard time reading the Bible and often times say things like, "I don't think I can feel God." However, God doesn't need to be felt, He needs to be known.

Great stress and anxiety comes with the lack of knowledge of who God is. So, what shall you do?

If you are unsaved, believe!
If you are a prodigal, come home before the door is shut!
If you are lost, ask for wisdom, and get understanding!

If you don't know where to get started then start by following along with this blog. These messages are meant for you. Share them with someone who needs encouragement.

Sidebar: Joy and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness is temporal and based on circumstances. You might say I'm so happy today and then slam you get into a car accident. That's something that can ruin your happy in a moment. You may be happy one minute and then get bad news the next. Christians often times lead very happy lives but never really find joy.

Joy comes from the peace that the Father has given us. It lives outside of your circumstance.

Peace I leave with you, peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you, do not let your heart be troubled nor be afraid -- John 14:27.

Isn't He lovely? Now that's joy!

Joy is unending and if you have it then it will be with you through every circumstance and every kind of news. Joy is knowing that God is faithful.

It doesn't mean He is faithful to remove all of your bad circumstances, no those are necessary for the testing of your faith, but He is faithful to instruct you through them in love, peace and joy.

Count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds--James 1:2