The Holy One calls to me this morning. The time for our conference call is like a bell ringing in my head or the sound of an alarm clock but more pleasant. I hear Him speak from the darkness, "You have faith IN Christ but you need the faith OF Christ".
The frustrations of what seem to be impossibilities of living a peaceful life here on earth are being experienced by most all of us today. Great problems to our health and welfare and for some even survival represent life and death on planet earth. We look to our government with the hope that it would protect us from terrorists, plagues, and abject poverty. Sadly, to a reasonable mind, it seems that government represents more of a problem than the resolution: mismanagement, misconduct, and mistakes are a daily reality and fear rules most of our lives.
For those who are called "Christian", and as followers of Christ, we know that fear and faith are incompatible and that fear is a form of disobedience to our Commander-in-Chief. We may argue the point that we have faith in Christ and are awaiting His return to rescue us from these dark days and evil threats, but to live in fear while we are waiting is antithetical to our faith.
The words of Holiness this morning draw me deeper into His presence to question what He means when He says, "You need the faith OF Christ". With that He takes me to Hebrews 11:1, "Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".
When Jesus came into the natural world that, by the way, He created, He left His Divine privilege at home. Everything Jesus did, as is recorded in the history books and the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He did as a flesh man. He modelled a way of life and impacted the natural world of our humanity by and with a power that had never before been felt or seen.
This morning I am compelled by the Holy One to consider His life, especially since He told His followers (and I am one) that we would do even greater things than He did because He was going to his rightful governing Throne wherein originates all the power and authority of creation.
His connection to His heavenly Father was the guiding relational principle of Jesus's life here on earth. He prayed long and often, we are told, and even declared that His mission was to show us the Father and bring glory to His Name. That glorification of the One who sent Him was completed when He walked out of the tomb as the Resurrection Savior of the world.
Miracles and supernatural intervention into our earthly circumstances are elusive to most of us today, yet Jesus is alive and has not changed nor withdrawn His word or His promises from His followers throughout all the generations.
Each one of us could stand to see and experience a miracle of Divine intervention even just one time. But as I look at the life of my Lord, I know that miracles were part of His full time mission and ministry. On a daily basis, Jesus met the desperate needs of the people He encountered with compassion and brought miraculous relief.
If faith, as it is described, is "Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see", then Jesus lived out a life of faith here in this temporal world. The deep question for me to ask is, "Where was Jesus's faith placed? The ultimate conclusion is that He placed His faith in the One who sent Him. It was His faith in God, the Father, that provided the miracles that have been recorded.
Everything Jesus did, up to and including raising Lazarus, the human, from the dead, rested in His faith that the Father God would move in Divine intervention upon His request. John 11:40-42 NIV, "Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed , you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. (from Lazarus's tomb) Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father I thank you that you have heard Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me."
Oh the mystery of the Trinity. When I ponder the relationship that Jesus had with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost (Spirit), it is apparent that The Son's life on earth was bound up in faith (as in belief) that each would do what was needed to Glorify the others in the Trinity, for the hearts and minds of humanity to be able to see and know God.
Faith is a believing trust. Jesus trusted the Father to do what He was asking so that the created would come to see and experience the Creator and in that, the Son brought glory to the Father. Upon His own death on the cross, Jesus trusted the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to raise Him up according to the written Word and prophecy about Himself, to bring Him out of the Tomb alive. The Resurrection of the Son was to the great Glory of all Three in the Trinity.
I am beginning to grasp what the Holy One is trying to teach me. It is starting to make sense to me as to why I need the faith OF Christ and not just faith IN Christ. Faith in Christ as my Savior will be needful on the day I leave planet earth for my eternal destination , but the faith OF Christ, as in His faith operating through me, is important for my days here on earth.
We look at the hard circumstances and resign ourselves their reality. Jesus looked at the same hard circumstances and worked to change their reality. He did so with complete trust that the Father would do anything He asked, whether it was to give sight to the blind, feed 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, change pitchers of water into the best of festive wine, so the celebration of a marriage could continue with joy, or even raise His friend Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus came to bring Glory to the Father by and through alleviating human need or suffering as He lived out His flesh life, and He seized every opportunity to do just that.
If I am to appropriate His great promise and all it's potential to do what He did in calling down miracles, I must have the faith He had in the One who provides them from Heaven. "Apart from Me you can do nothing" John 15:8 and "if you have the faith of a mustard seed.....nothing will be impossible for you". Matt 17:20. Faith based on inter-dependency and unity with our Triune God, is the baseline for miracles.
Today I find myself in desperate desire and longing for that quality of faith. I see how the world needs what that depth of faith can provide: real life experiences that shriek of the love of a Father, and demand the reverent respect for the Son, Jesus, who brought the truth of that great love into the world.
Jesus has said, "Even if you do not believe my words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." John 14:11 NIV In this passage Jesus points to the miracles so we can believe, rather than shaming His beloved for needing them.
My commission is to share the Gospel, the Good News of God's love with everyone who crosses my path. Does it ever occur to me to ask Him to send forth a miracle to punctuate the message I am to share? Miracles all have a purpose bound up in Praise and Glory and Honor due the One who provides them.
I don't know what is more heartbreaking: that my faithless failure to ask and believe does rob God of the glory He would receive in the answers He would send or the tragedy that my unbelief might seal the world in a place of unnecessary suffering that the Father awaits to relieve if only I would ask and believe. We all need the antidote for unbelief. The faith OF Christ is just what the Dr has ordered.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The frustrations of what seem to be impossibilities of living a peaceful life here on earth are being experienced by most all of us today. Great problems to our health and welfare and for some even survival represent life and death on planet earth. We look to our government with the hope that it would protect us from terrorists, plagues, and abject poverty. Sadly, to a reasonable mind, it seems that government represents more of a problem than the resolution: mismanagement, misconduct, and mistakes are a daily reality and fear rules most of our lives.
For those who are called "Christian", and as followers of Christ, we know that fear and faith are incompatible and that fear is a form of disobedience to our Commander-in-Chief. We may argue the point that we have faith in Christ and are awaiting His return to rescue us from these dark days and evil threats, but to live in fear while we are waiting is antithetical to our faith.
The words of Holiness this morning draw me deeper into His presence to question what He means when He says, "You need the faith OF Christ". With that He takes me to Hebrews 11:1, "Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".
When Jesus came into the natural world that, by the way, He created, He left His Divine privilege at home. Everything Jesus did, as is recorded in the history books and the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He did as a flesh man. He modelled a way of life and impacted the natural world of our humanity by and with a power that had never before been felt or seen.
This morning I am compelled by the Holy One to consider His life, especially since He told His followers (and I am one) that we would do even greater things than He did because He was going to his rightful governing Throne wherein originates all the power and authority of creation.
His connection to His heavenly Father was the guiding relational principle of Jesus's life here on earth. He prayed long and often, we are told, and even declared that His mission was to show us the Father and bring glory to His Name. That glorification of the One who sent Him was completed when He walked out of the tomb as the Resurrection Savior of the world.
Miracles and supernatural intervention into our earthly circumstances are elusive to most of us today, yet Jesus is alive and has not changed nor withdrawn His word or His promises from His followers throughout all the generations.
Each one of us could stand to see and experience a miracle of Divine intervention even just one time. But as I look at the life of my Lord, I know that miracles were part of His full time mission and ministry. On a daily basis, Jesus met the desperate needs of the people He encountered with compassion and brought miraculous relief.
If faith, as it is described, is "Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see", then Jesus lived out a life of faith here in this temporal world. The deep question for me to ask is, "Where was Jesus's faith placed? The ultimate conclusion is that He placed His faith in the One who sent Him. It was His faith in God, the Father, that provided the miracles that have been recorded.
Many of us today get derailed by a counterfeit and end up having faith in faith and not faith in the One who Rules and governs all things. "Help us in our unbelief (faithlessness) is a prayer of weakness but as Paul has said, in my weakness His power is made perfect.
Everything Jesus did, up to and including raising Lazarus, the human, from the dead, rested in His faith that the Father God would move in Divine intervention upon His request. John 11:40-42 NIV, "Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed , you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. (from Lazarus's tomb) Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father I thank you that you have heard Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me."
Oh the mystery of the Trinity. When I ponder the relationship that Jesus had with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost (Spirit), it is apparent that The Son's life on earth was bound up in faith (as in belief) that each would do what was needed to Glorify the others in the Trinity, for the hearts and minds of humanity to be able to see and know God.
Faith is a believing trust. Jesus trusted the Father to do what He was asking so that the created would come to see and experience the Creator and in that, the Son brought glory to the Father. Upon His own death on the cross, Jesus trusted the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to raise Him up according to the written Word and prophecy about Himself, to bring Him out of the Tomb alive. The Resurrection of the Son was to the great Glory of all Three in the Trinity.
I am beginning to grasp what the Holy One is trying to teach me. It is starting to make sense to me as to why I need the faith OF Christ and not just faith IN Christ. Faith in Christ as my Savior will be needful on the day I leave planet earth for my eternal destination , but the faith OF Christ, as in His faith operating through me, is important for my days here on earth.
We look at the hard circumstances and resign ourselves their reality. Jesus looked at the same hard circumstances and worked to change their reality. He did so with complete trust that the Father would do anything He asked, whether it was to give sight to the blind, feed 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, change pitchers of water into the best of festive wine, so the celebration of a marriage could continue with joy, or even raise His friend Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus came to bring Glory to the Father by and through alleviating human need or suffering as He lived out His flesh life, and He seized every opportunity to do just that.
If I am to appropriate His great promise and all it's potential to do what He did in calling down miracles, I must have the faith He had in the One who provides them from Heaven. "Apart from Me you can do nothing" John 15:8 and "if you have the faith of a mustard seed.....nothing will be impossible for you". Matt 17:20. Faith based on inter-dependency and unity with our Triune God, is the baseline for miracles.
Today I find myself in desperate desire and longing for that quality of faith. I see how the world needs what that depth of faith can provide: real life experiences that shriek of the love of a Father, and demand the reverent respect for the Son, Jesus, who brought the truth of that great love into the world.
Jesus has said, "Even if you do not believe my words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." John 14:11 NIV In this passage Jesus points to the miracles so we can believe, rather than shaming His beloved for needing them.
My commission is to share the Gospel, the Good News of God's love with everyone who crosses my path. Does it ever occur to me to ask Him to send forth a miracle to punctuate the message I am to share? Miracles all have a purpose bound up in Praise and Glory and Honor due the One who provides them.
I don't know what is more heartbreaking: that my faithless failure to ask and believe does rob God of the glory He would receive in the answers He would send or the tragedy that my unbelief might seal the world in a place of unnecessary suffering that the Father awaits to relieve if only I would ask and believe. We all need the antidote for unbelief. The faith OF Christ is just what the Dr has ordered.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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