Faith formulas

   

     You know, the Bible says the just live by faith, going from "faith to faith".  Some think this describes levels of faith, and we can and do move to higher levels of faith, but actually this is about kinds "kinds" of faith, or faith that requires different actions in different situations.  Ignoring that sometimes reduces us to robotic, formulized little one dimensional saints. We grab hold of one concept, one little formula, start working it, have it work for us and then attempt to apply it to everything under the sun.  Sooner or later, we go bust.  Sooner or later we hit an area of life where those little rules we were applying, don't fit any more.  For example, among us faith folks, many of us only seem to think faith works one way.  We speak to the mountains, don't doubt, they move and we have what we say.   However, what if you encounter a situation where those rules do not apply?   Like a parrot, do you just keep squawking at the mountain?  Or, do we go from "faith" to another "faith"?

    To have the God kind of faith means you have the same convictions, producing the same desires as God about things.  Through your whole life, living in the Spirit, you come to places where God's faith rises up in you and orders your steps.  Yes, at the mountain of hindrance, you command.  But, what about at the altar of the worship of Jesus?  What does your faith demand there?  You stop talking to mountains and "rejoice with unspeakable joy full of glory".  That is what faith, at that moment requires you to do.  If you believe in Him, though you have not seen Him you love Him, you rejoice, you laugh, you give Him glory,  (1st Pet. 1:8).  Are you too busy commanding mountains that are hindering you to offer up the faith that rejoices in Him?

   What is the point?  I am so glad you asked!  Faith is a relationship with God.  It doesn't just produce a relationship, it is the relationship.  It can't be reduced to a singular formula.  At the mountain it requires one thing, at the fiery furnace perhaps another.   Our fathers in the faith lived by faith.  Some, walking in faith, subdued kingdoms and others walking in faith the same way, were sawn in half.  God's convictions about eternal destiny, a city not made with hands, drove them forward to pay whatever it cost to make it to the end.  It was not victory in that one battle or that other battle, but staying on the journey, walking with God, that brought them the prize.  Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him.  He didn't have to.  He could have called ten thousands angels and destroyed the world and all the human population.  He could have dropped back to His own formula of Mark 11:22-24 and commanded the mountain of murderous people around Him to just drop dead, and they would have.  But, faith asked for something else.  This time faith did not ask for cursing trees or moving mountains.  This time faith took Him past Mark 11:22-24 to Mark 11:25 and asked of Him, "when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any..." Mark 11:25.  Come on now, are you not glad He was not restricted by formulas?   Had He acted on a different faith formula, my friend, you and me would be lost.  Are you not glad, that from the cross He could say "Father forgive".  Whew!  "Oh, say but I'm glad, I'm glad"

Your Faith and God's Faith. Are they the same?

    

   You know, sometimes I get bothered by so many little faith formulas.  Just about everybody has one. Some good, some not so good.   For example, this faith formula which is a good one.  "If you have the faith of God, speak to the mountain, don't doubt, and you will have whatever you say".  This one work,  but do you know the context of this verse?  A lot of those who use this formula miss the context in which Jesus spoke it. The context is about having the same faith conviction about something as does God and in this case, the house of prayer being a place where He could make us joyful.  The context is about wanting that so bad you will speak to mountains, curse fig trees (empty religion) and do whatever you have to do to be able to pray the desire borne of your conviction.  The mountain moving was about getting to where you want what God wants, getting to where you can pray your "desire" (craving), which is also His, and then receiving it.    

     How many, using the above mentioned formula are using it in order to have the Father's house become more than a den of thieves?   Let's assume we all went to work on the above mentioned formula, took those actions, but never got the context:  we would move a lot of mountains but still miss the purpose of God revealed in the context.  Would we be any better off?  What if we moved all mountains and cursed all the barren fig trees?, Oh, we would have smooth sailing, but still going nowhere!  Oh, for the Fathers house to become a place where whatever we bring Him is accepted and He makes us "joyful" in the house? (Isaiah 56:3).  That is a desire we should share with our God.

    You see, there is more to this than merely dealing with things that hinder you in some way.  There are things that hinder the will of God that this little formula has a great bearing on.  True faith produces deep desires.  When you have the same faith (conviction) as God, you will have the same desires.  Prayer becomes so much more powerful when our faith, our convictions, our deep craving desire is the same as the Father.

God In The Box!

    Many people have a fixed idea of what God must be like and anything beyond that idea is rejected.  When God shows up in a different way, they quickly say "Oh no, that can't be God".   They have, so they think, God in a box and that is sad. They are cheating themselves out of so many wonderful things.   How about you?  Could you accept God the wine maker?  Wouldn't you love to see the wine maker show up on Christian TV, see the host get looped on wine, start dancing like King David with wild contortions of the feet and a certain pink wig go flying off?  How about God the water walker?  The disciples thought he was a ghost. Today, if it happened people would say "Look, he can't swim".  To Moses He appeared as a burning bush, a snake on a pole, a rock in the desert, a cloud by day,  a fire by night and a staff in his hand.  He came as a baby when so many were expecting a king.  Mary, at the tomb thought He was a gardener.  The disciples on the road to Emmaeus didn't recognize Him at all. Their eyes, like so many today, were "holden".  To the early church He came like the wind with tongues of fire and then as intoxicating new wine.  Isaiah saw Him high and lifted up.  John saw Him and said His eyes were like a flame of fire.  On earth to some He manifested as a deliverer, healer and provider. To others He showed Himself to be One who could say "peace be still" and the wind and the waves obeyed.

How many of the forms, these manifestations could, or would you accept?  Where would you have turned back, as have so many along the way.  Eventually, only accepting God as you have him boxed in, or as you might dream Him to be or even seen Him to be previously will cut you off from God.  He does not stay in boxes!   He comes as He wills to come.  Sadly, a huge portion of the church pines for God as He was, manifestating in flesh form among men.  Folks, that is over.  He left.  But He sent the Comforter.  Many are those who will not accept God in that form, simply because He does not fit in box they have molded for God to fit in. Too bad!   He is wonderful!

Are you a "concept" worshipper?

  
    You know, as the revelator,  the Holy Spirit uses illustrations, analogies, allegories and concepts to communicate a truth.  However, the way of man is to fixate on the concept or allegory, etc., and miss the point.  He so fixates on the concept that it becomes the whole truth to him.  The resulting cost is that he generally rejects all other concepts and thereby misses any further truth revealed.  When and where this happens the concept you love becomes a problem rather than a blessing.

     There are many examples of this, the most common one being that "Jesus saves". There are those so fixated on that concept that no other truth ever enters their head.  There are those so fixated on that truth that they reject divine healing, Holy Ghost baptism, gifts of the Spirit, etc.   How about the "new birth"?  Or, the "family of God"?  Push those concepts too far, commit to them exclusively, and then you will have eliminated, even rejected a lot of other truths that are not expressed in those concepts.  You may even arrive at a spoiled child viewpoint, thinking you can do no wrong, you can't be lost and you can have or do anything you want - you are family. There are other concepts that so elevate who a Christian is, his blessings, his authority, etc., that they consume people and turn them totally inward, yet every word may be true. All those and many other concepts, allegories, illustrations, etc., can be true, yet without understanding the truth being communicated, can become misleading.  They notoriously are divisive with man picking his favorite concept and only associating with those who share his favorite concept.

      How about the concept of us as the "body of Christ" and other similar concepts?  These concepts are used to communicate precious truths to us, but if not viewed for what they are, they can blur that distinction between man and God. When you read Revelations, you get the eternal truth that was there all along, through every teaching, every illustration and concept and it is the truth we must remember. When we gather round the throne, this eternal truth comes into view.  There is God, on the throne, and there at His feet is man.  When glory is revealed, there is God and then there is man, there is God and then there is me.  Yes, I am in the family.  Yes, I am a part of the body. Yes, I am a soldier in the army.  Yes, I citizen of the Kingdom.  However, there at the throne, from my bowed position, there is God and there is me. I am one of the people of His hand, a sheep in His pasture.  In the end, I am not God. In the end, He is there on the throne and there I am, at His feet.  And, you know, in the end, we will all discover that we were all made by Him and for Him and for His pleasure we were created.  This is eternal truth.

 

Second greatest power?

  
    You want to know what the second greatest power on earth is?  This power is so great it can overcome the power of the Word of God.  That is powerful!   Strangely, this power is so great, yet it comes at us so smoothly, so slyly, that we don't even see it coming.  Rather than resist, man often just embraces and gives it aid in its mission.  What is this power, you ask?  I am glad you asked!  Religion traditions! Religion which gives traditions more importance than the commands of God and ever manages to even turn the Word of God into a mere tradition.   Here is what Jesus said to the Pharisees:  He said they were  "Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.", Mark 7:13. Even though they knew truth and had the promises, they had turned everything to tradition and ritual. It is almost unimaginable that something could be more powerful than the word of God, by which the world was created, but there you have it.  Traditions and things like traditions. 

     This powerful tool of religion, which captures millions and holds them in weakened conditions, works by ignoring the present reality, present manifestation of God and cling to the historical manifestations and symbols of God. Religion always speaks of God  in some other tense than present.  God as He was or God as He will be, but never as He is, the Holy Ghost among us.  This works to keep the Spirit from giving life to the letter of the Word.  This turns relationship with God, meant to be a vibrant, experiential, real relationship, into tradition.  This same thing was what had become wrong with the Pharisees.  When Jesus, the Living Word of God came, they rejected Him, preferring their traditions and traditional concepts of God over God Himself.  When Jesus spoke of the "thief" that would come to kill, steal and destroy the abundant life He offers, He was referring to religion, not the devil as is so often assumed. How do they do their work?  Just make the Word of God of   "none effect".  Today, this same spirit is doing the same thing to God's people.  It turns the Word to mere tradition, it speaks of God but rejects the present manifestation of God, the Holy Ghost.

    Lest you think I am just harping on some of the older more traditional denominations, think again.  The way of man is to turn everything to tradition as quickly as possible.  Once, during the plague of snakes, God told Moses to put a brazen serpent on a pole and all who looked on it,  would be healed.  Nine hundred years later they were still worshipping that snake. What started as a word from God, became a deadly tradition.  Traditions easily become a substitute for the voice and presence of God. Many of the traditions we see across the whole spectrum of the church, started with God but now men use them to avoid God.  God can't do anything new because we our traditions won't allow it.  We are in bondage to our traditions. And, we present day faith-charismatic type folks are just as guilty of all this as anyone else.  We so easily turn a word from God in a ten-step formula and the next thing you know, that formula is what we lean on, even judge others by.

   Quickly, when faced with this argument, voices will arise to defend the tradition, pointing out scriptural accuracy.  However, they must understand that a Bible verse is no substitute for a walking, talking relationship with the Spirit of God.  Yes, the formula is correct but the voice of the Living God is something you cannot dismiss or do without.  Sound doctrine is a valuable thing, but sound doctrine must never become dogma and it won't if we continue to walk in the Spirit.  Sound doctrine does not dismiss the voice of the Spirit.  What a lot of folks think is doctrine is not much more than a box we have built that has become our prison. What is the answer?  How do we defend against this power?   Be ever being filled and stimulated with the Holy Ghost!  His presence gives life to the Word.  His presence gives power to our spirit.  His presence makes Jesus Lord indeed, Lord experientially.  Being filled with the Spirit keeps us wise concerning the will, the heart wish of God (Eph. 5:14-20).