The Most Important Element Of Success: Walking by Grace, Which Is through Faith
How can we know anything about anything
To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald
Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?
NO!
That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.
Take science as an example.
How can we know anything about the created material world around us?
How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?
We all see the same things in the material world,
but we don't come to the same answers.
Why is that?
How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches?
Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.
Why is that?
Same scientific facts. Different answers.
Same Bible. Different answers.
Why is that?
The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get
from what we can see through science
or what we can read in the Bible?
How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?
How do we analyze what we have seen and read?
How do we interpret what we have seen and read?
We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock.
That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation.
There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.
An example might help.
Question: Why do you believe in evolution?
Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.
Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?
Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.
Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.
If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.
When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered.
So where to the foundations come from?
There are three possibilities.
- things that we make up, pulled from the air
- demonic lies
- divine revelation
Question: Why do you believe in creation?
Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith
so that I could believe Him.
See how quickly we got to the foundation.
This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.
In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air,
are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan.
So these are one and the same.
Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ.
So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices?
Because God has revealed this truth to us.
The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God
and the lies of Satan?
The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.
Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"
The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem.
It is a moral problem.
Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you:
For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened."
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Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
Matthew 7:7-11 *
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe
those things that they don't want to submit to.
They have to want to obey God.
How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver
Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)
"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"
Lies appear to have no price upon them.
They seem cheap and they abound everywhere.
But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.
"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness.
And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him.
God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).
"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words;
that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)
That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus.
When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject.
Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.
"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)
Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university.
On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before
who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them,
but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.
In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning,
the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.
They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air.
When asked why he believed his basic assumption,
the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out,
"I guess I'm making the whole thing up."
It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions.
However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.
The Process
Righteousness consists of God leading us and us following. The problem is that we have no capacity within ourselves to follow God. So God has a way to give us the free gift of righteousness.
God's method is "by grace through faith," and this is the process.
- God speaks. God has already prepared our heart to receive and hear.
- When we hear,
- God's faith comes.
- God's faith gives us access into God's grace (free gift).
- We receive that grace and submit to it. Actually, God has, by this point, prepared our hearts to receive and submit (let go) our beings to God's free gift of righteousness (rather than setting about to establish our own righteousness.
- God thinks His thoughts, says His words, and does His works through us.
- When we yield to the Spirit in this way, we die to self and live to Christ. Good seed is planted in our hearts. We are changed to be more like Jesus.
All of this happens very quickly each time it happens. Each time we obey, it lifts us higher. If we let our flesh try to help or contend with God in this process, then we frustrate the grace of God.
When God speaks, your fleshly nature, which is just as evil as Satan and bound to Satan, speaks. If we listen to Satan, evil seed is planted in the garden of our hearts. The ground in our hearts becomes stoney and God's good seed begins to have trouble taking root. We walk away from Jesus. We re-crucify Christ in our hearts.
Sin
A dandelion may grow up in your lawn and you see it just ready to go to seed. At the moment you see it, it is white, and you can't do a thing about the fact that it is there. It is there because of a seed planted in the past. That is like slipping into sin. Slipping happens so fast that you cannot stop it. However, when you step across and continue to speak to yourself or others in a way that does not discern the Body of Christ, then it is as if you grabbed this dandelion full of seeds and shook it to plant all the weed seeds in your lawn. This actually moves you from holiness to worldliness. You are a little less mature afterwards. Fortunately, if you confess your sin, God is faithful and just to forgive your sin.
Wisdom
Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
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Wisdom: moving from taking ground to holding ground and finally moving on to total victory.
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Wisdom: going from doing right things right to ever-increasing stability of mind and action, and then going on to final complete fulfillment.
Wisdom is the principal thing because it has within it righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
1 Corinthians 1:30 It is because of him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. NIV
1 Corinthians 1:30 says that you are in Christ Jesus. Whatever else it may mean to be in Christ Jesus, we know that we are in the Body of Christ, which is the real Church. Now, this Christ, both the Head and the Body, has become wisdom from God to us. That wisdom consists of righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Righteousness is the righteousness of God working through us as we yield ourselves to His righteousness. Righteousness can only be by God's Grace and through God's Faith. That is, faith gives us access into God's Grace (free gift) and Grace does the Works. Righteousness is the Gift of God and we are saved to His good works. Righteousness is in the moment as we flow in the Anointing that comes from God's throne. That is the same as the fruit of the Spirit. When we yield to the Spirit of God in this way, we die to self and live to God. His Holy Presence and the fact that we yield to Him changes us in our very nature. We become like Him. We become holy from glory to glory, from light to light, from faith to faith. This holiness is faithfulness and stability. It is change to what we are. As we walk into His holiness by His Spirit, we experience His redemption. The final enemy to be destroyed is death. The final step is the setting of mature sons of God into ruling authority; it is the redemption of our bodies. This is the manifestation of the sons of God or the apocalypse.
The Pattern
No one can do this on their own. In fact, Now, through the Church, God is doing this in every person who is willing. Taking part in these things will bring great unity in the Church--to the point that the Body of Christ will be so joined to the Head, Jesus, and so joined to each other that the Body and Head will move together as one totally complete and fulfilled man. The Church, as defined in Scripture, is God's pattern.
There are some basic weapons of warfare that God has put into the Church to win this battle:
- Being born again
- Being baptized in water
- Being baptized in the Holy Spirit
- There is strength in the Holy Communion
- Being set into your ministry and having gifts of the Spirit imparted to you by the laying on of hands and prophesy of the presbytery
You may still struggle against the sins of the past. There may be habits and habitual thoughts that trigger unexpectedly. So what can you do?
- Pray fervently for a softer, more receptive heart toward God and for wisdom from God.
- Pray that God remove your secret faults, the ones that are so buried in stony layers of lies that you think they are not faults.
- Pray that the Holy Spirit come as fire and burn out the sinful nature with all its deception, drive, and desire.
- Pray the Holy Spirit come as water flowing from the Throne to wash and create a clean heart in you.
- You may have to confess your sin to a trusted brother or sister who will pray with you.
- When God does lead you, don't contend with Him (Romans 2:8),. When God speaks to you, whether by a feeling or word in your conscience, a word from a brother or sister in Christ, the Bible, or any other source, stop and listen. Take it to heart. Ask God what you should do. Stay in His presence. Don't try to do it in your own strength. You must stay in the anointing.
Warnings
- Magazines, books, internet sites, TV shows, movies, music can all carry the wrong spirit. They can be full of lies. Some of these ungodly influences are even available in Christian book stores, though Christ submit themselves to some really evil messages from Satan. Even the news programs and science programs are usually filled with many lies told using the deception of assumptive language. Ungodly sources can justify anger and violence-this is especially true of movies.
- On the internet, there are websites that give ungodly fashion advice, ungodly life advice, ungodly news, and that help you idolize ungodly people. Classes in the university generally contain some of the popular ungodly lies like the lies of evolution, age of the universe, feminism, socialism, and fears of environmental extremism. Classes on theology or the Bible or comparative religion are particularly dangerous to your soul.
- Ungodly counsel can make light of what the Bible says about marriage and what is reserved for marriage and blessed in marriage. They can lie about the consequences for those who take these blessings and pervert them. They can falsely imply that our hope for righteousness and true holiness in Christ is in vain. They can present counterfeit alternatives to the true Gospel, the true Christ, the true Church, the true Hope, the true faith, and true agape Love.
- Regarding any of these lying sources, the carnal mind may say, "These things have no effect on me. I can read them, listen to them, or look at them and nothing bad happens. These ungodly things are still planting seeds into the soul of anyone who sits in their presence. The human imagination creates many strongholds for the enemy. Many of the ungodly influences take away the need to even strain your imagination. Can a person set burning coals of fire on his or her lap and not be burned? Besides this, is the Holy Spirit really leading you to spend your time this way? Whatever is not of faith is sin.
- One of the biggest lies is the lie of human goodness. In a movie of a novel, it may go like this as a general story line. There was a good person. This person ran into a problem. This person handled the problem in a good way, proving that this person was good. There is no mention of the Holy Spirit working through the person to do the good. Sometimes, the story claims to be true or historical, but it is still a lie. There is not a just person on the earth who does good and does not sin. All our righteousness is filth. There is none good but God. God can do His good work through us, but we must submit to Him.
Testing
Igneous rocks are formed under heat. God will often apply heat to temper us and develop our faith. When we resist the Holy Spirit fire and contend with God (Romans 2:8), we become hardened in our hearts. This becomes a stone in our garden and it remains with the other stones that are there keeping God's gospel from taking root and bearing fruit.
Sedimentary rocks are formed under compression when the water is squeezed out. In the same way, God will speak to us about the way that we are letting the ungodly counselors, ungodly music, and ungodly stories trample down and compress the ground of our garden. If we contend with God, if we argue with Him about it, then we find that stones are formed by squeezing out the water of the Holy Spirit from that already hardened ground along the pathway. When we defend the ungodly philosophies, say it doesn't matter, pretend that God doesn't see, live a double life, we are contending with God.
Metamorphic rocks are formed by applying temperature or pressure to existing rocks. God will often apply heat to drive sin from us. Sometime, by the water of the Holy Spirit, God will wash out the rocks. When we contend with God (Romans 2:8), we become even more hardened. If we love sin instead of loving God, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus must be our Lord, and we cannot fool Him. He judges the heart and nothing defiled can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Each lie becomes hardened and lies build on lies just as stones lay on top of one another and seem to lock together. They form a stronghold. Your soul garden can become so stony that you only have enough clay to hold your stones together. No good plant can grow there. Only the toughest and most virulent weeds can grow.
The lies in us can indeed become strongholds of demons.
How to be born again
God's Wisdom read
Growing In Christ: From God's Righteousness To His Holiness To Complete Redemption read
Encouragement read
The Kingdom Of God Costs You Everything - and It Costs You Nothing read
The Leaf, The Wind, And The Rock read
The Road to God by Grace Through Faith, Which is In Christ read
Total Fulfillment, The Final Victory read
What is the best way to worship God? read
Why Can't We Just Do What's Right On Our Own Initiative and By Our Own Power? read
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By Grace Through Faith
1 Corinthians 15:10, by the grace of God I am what I am...I laboured ...yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (Go)
1 John 3:7, Don't Let Anyone Deceive You About Righteousness. (Go)
Doing Right Things Right By the Right Spirit--yielding (Go)
Down To Earth Righteousness (Go)
It Is All About A Relationship With God. (Go)
Listen, Hear, Yield, Receive, Let God Move. (Go)
You Need Love If You Want Fulfillment, But What Is It Really? (Go)
Real Faith Versus Rationalized Faith (Go)
Romans 1:17 The Righteousness Of God [unveiled] From Faith To Faith: As It Is Written, The Just Shall Live By Faith. (Go)
Romans 5:21 As Sin Hath Reigned Unto Death, Even So Might Grace Reign Through Righteousness Unto Eternal Life By Jesus Christ Our Lord. (Go)
We Are Totally Dependent On God To Have Love Or To Do Any Good Work. (Go)
What happened to the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden? (Go)
Don't All Ways Lead To God? No. There is One Way. Jesus (Go)
Bible Dictionary: Define Grace, Definition of Grace (Go)
The Process of Salvation (Go)
Bible Dictionary: Define Faith, Definition of Faith (Go)
Bible Dictionary: Define Believe, Definition of Believe (Go)
Righteousness by Grace through Faith
How Can I Know God's Will And Be Led By The Spirit Of God? (Go)
Wisdom: Righteousness (Go)
Real Righteousness (Go)
The Strait and Narrow Way (Go)
The Secret of the Law of Liberty (Go)
No Willful Sin (Go)
Dead to Self (Go)
Down To Earth Righteousness (Go)
Sin Versus the Strait and Narrow Way (Go)
Everything Good Comes From God, But We Must Be Willing To Receive It. (Go)
Righteousness by Grace through Faith (Go)
Romans 6:14 For Sin Shall Not Have Dominion Over You (Go)
Luke 13:24 The Strait (constricted) Gate (Go)
Romans 6:12-22 Don't be a Slave of Sin; Serve God (Go)
1 Peter 1:22 Purified your Souls in Obeying the Truth through the Spirit unto Unfeigned Love (Go)
If our righteousness is like filthy rags, how can we do good works and be holy? (Go)
Author/Compiler
Last updated: Oct, 2011
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There is so much more for you.
This is what you have been missing.
Don't let anyone deceptively keep you from fulfilling your destiny and God's purpose for your life.
God has established the pattern of Scripture, for life and for the Church.
You can feel free to use the Contact Form further down on this page to ask any question regarding this pattern of Scripture.
The Church, the Body of Christ, and discernment of this Body, is the method that God is using to finish the work in His Body.
The Body of Christ, God's Temple, is built up by that which every joint supplies, building each other up in love,
and the Temple must be built according to the pattern of Scripture.
We believe the Holy Scriptures teach:
- The 5 apostolic ministries (Ephesians 4:11)
- The nine gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)
- Local congregations overseen by elders and deacons (Titus 1:5)
- Every member having and being a ministry in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:11)
- Being led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14)
- The gathering together of the Body of Christ (Genesis 49:10, John 17:21)
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Meaning
