There are many definitions of faith. And one definition is “Faith is acting as if it were true.” If we really have faith then our attitude and outlook towards our problems would change. We would start looking at them in a different light now since we have faith. If you had faith you would consider it done. The problem is solved. So you would act different now. It is not about the evidences presented before you but the Word of God that counts. So you now act as if it were true and it becomes true because it was already true. Once you know the will of God, you have to believe it and act as though it were true because it is true. Your acting does not make it real but you act because it is already real. More than two thousand years ago, Christ purchased your salvation and you have to appropriate everything that Christ won for you. You have freedom, peace, joy, health, success and life. Your needs are met and you are abundantly blessed. Do not look at your circumstances. By faith you have to thank God because He has promised to supply all your needs. Giving thanks is one way we can act as if it were already true. If you don’t have peace, thank God that He has given it to you in Christ. Do the same for everything else that you need because God cares for you and He wants to give every good thing to you. But you have to have faith because without faith no one can please God. And everything that is not of faith is sin. Faith does not look at the circumstances but at the Saviour who has changed the circumstances in the invisible world. Your faith will make it real in this world. Faith is not expectancy but assurance that the thing promised has come to be true so you act as if it were already true. You are not expecting it to happen in the near future. It has already happened, so when it really happens, you are not surprised but it is all very natural. The blessings of God come very naturally to you because you already believed them to be true before they were really true in the natural realm. If the bank gave you a check for a thousand dollars, you would consider yourself to be a thousand dollars rich, even though you do not have the money with you. It can be considered as if you already had the green notes because you can encash the check from the bank. It the same with God’s facts. They are what Christ has already won for you. You only need to encash them with your faith. So, once you know what is yours, you act as if it were already yours even though it may take some time to be really yours. This is acting as if it were true.
The Key to Victory Over Sin
It was for the salvation of men from sin that Christ came. When He was to be born, the angel of the Lord declared that the child would save His people from their sins. From time immemorial men had struggled with sin. Laws and edicts were passed but they could not change the heart of man. The Apostle Paul later declared, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There was no man who could claim that he was free from sin. Sin had entrapped everybody and we all needed a Savior. The Bible declares that at the fullness of time the Son of God appeared to save humanity from its sins. But why is it that after we do everything that we know that we still fall short of victory. The sins which beset us are many and salvation becomes a word without much meaning except as applied for the time when we will be in heaven. We become hypocrites in this world for we see that we profess something but practice another. We become whitewashed tombs like the Pharisees of old whom Jesus vehemently condemned. We are like the fig tree that Jesus cursed which appeared to have fruit from afar but when He got near it was a dry tree. People like us when they first get to know us but when they draw near they see the dirt and filth in us. We forget that God is not looking at how many souls have been saved by your life but whether the life that He has given you is being lived as He desires and wants. It is not your works that He desires but your heart. He wants to know whether your heart is right before Him or not. You cannot cover the dirt in your heart by the various missions you run or the charities you do. He came to set us free from sin and give us salvation and it was not just so that you and I could have fun in church. We have to take it seriously. There is too much sin in the church and we cannot just say that we are all imperfect. Of course we are imperfect but the imperfections should disappear as we progress in our Christian walk. Being imperfect is no excuse for sin in your life. You cannot resign yourself to it. On the other hand there are genuine people longing for deliverance from the things that as the Apostle Paul said ‘trip us and slow us down’. To these people would the key to victory be like a life saver.
The Bible says “By grace are you saved and not of works.” Deliverance from sin is by grace. It means that it is not from you. You are not saved from your sins by what you do but by what God does. So what is the first thing that you need to realize? You need to realize that you should stop trying to help God save you from your sins. Our pride makes us think that we need to exert some effort in the matter of our deliverance. But God wants no help from you. That requires faith. So two things arise in the matter of deliverance – surrender and faith. The one cannot go without the other. Surrender without faith is not surrender and faith without surrender is not faith. Jesus surrendered His life to death because He believed that God was able to raise Him up. So, he laid in the grave for three days until He rose up victorious. It takes faith to surrender. We are so used to doing things ourselves that we cannot resign ourselves for God to do everything. You have to give up trying and start trusting. But then again we tend to make trust or faith a matter of works. One thing you have to realize is that salvation is not a struggle. Anything that comes with self effort is not of God. Surrender is saying, “I am not able. I cannot do it. I give up.” And faith is saying, ” God, you can do it and you have done it in Christ 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross for me. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Believe that when you give up God will take over from you and He will do a much better job than what you have been doing. Faith sees the victory that has been achieved by Christ and ignores the facts that are presented before you. But it does not struggle in the course of doing so. If you cannot surrender, take the matter to God. If you cannot have faith, then take that matter too to Him. It is a relationship we are in and He will give you the strength to surrender and to believe. Trust me, He will do it.
Tagged victory
Handling Pain In Our Lives
If anyone thinks that the Christian life is a life free from pain they are terribly mistaken. It is a life with as much, if not more, pain as any other normal life without Christ. What marks the contrast is the way we handle pain as Christians. When Christ is with us, pain takes on another meaning. For now we overcome through pain. We return good for evil and love for hate in and through the pain. We learn not to retaliate and we endure pain as a good soldier of Christ. So, we never give in to despair. Our situation never becomes hopeless even though the pain may be great. In all things we overcome because we have learned to handle pain.
Tagged pain