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Faith

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him.”
Hebrews 11:6

Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense falls. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. "We know that all things work together for good," then no matter what happens, the alchemy of God's providence transfigures the ideal faith into actual reality. Faith always works on the personal line, the whole purpose of God being to see that the ideal faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of the common-sense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle which always puts Jesus Christ first - Lord, Thou hast said so and so (e.g., Matthew 6:33), Lord, it looks mad, but I am going to venture on Thy word. To turn head faith into always a personal possession is a fight always, not sometimes. God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we can not have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say - "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," we have something that is real, and faith is boundless. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

The Paralysis of a Divided Heart

How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him. (1 Kings 18:21 ESV)

That word was never addressed to the unsaved. It was never intended for them. It is only rarely that the unsaved are in the position of two opinions. More often than not they are of no opinion. This is what the prophet really said to the people: "How long limp ye from one side to another?" He viewed them as lame, and lamed by uncertainty, lamed by indecision, paralyzed by an unsettled issue. Oh, how an unsettled issue does paralyze the life. Have a controversy with the Lord, an unsettled issue with the Lord, and your whole life is lamed, is paralyzed; you are limping first one way and then the other; there is no sense of stability about your way.

So the prophet called for the issue to be settled. How long limp ye from one side to the other? Settle this issue one way or the other. If Jehovah be God, let Him have His place, His full rights; settle it once and for all. If Baal is god, well then let us be settled. But until that is done you are crippled, you are paralyzed, and the whole secret of your being in that weak, indefinite, unstable, uncertain place is that God is not having His full rights; there is a dividedness in your life, a dividedness in your own soul, because other interests and considerations are in view. The dividedness may be in your home life, where you have power, authority and influence, and you are not standing one hundred percent for the Lord interests there. It may be working in other directions, but wherever it is present the result is that deep down in your being you are not satisfied, you are not at rest. You may be busy, you may be occupied, you may be rushing hither and thither in the Lord name, but you know that deep down there is a lack, an uncertainty, an unsettled state; your spiritual life is limited and paralyzed. It will always be so until the issue is settled and God has His place in fullness in every part and relationship of your life. It is a question of zeal for the Lord, jealousy for the Lord.

“Not by might nor by power, but by MySpirit,” says the Lord of hosts.

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him?

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. § Born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. § My Spirit remains among you; do not fear! § The battle is not yours, but God’s.

The Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s.

Zech. 4:6;  Isa. 40:13;  1 Cor. 1:27;  1 Cor. 1:28;  1 Cor. 1:29;  John 3:8;  John 1:13;  Hag. 2:5;  2 Chron. 20:15;  1 Sam. 17:47

Do as You have said.

Establish Your word to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You … So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word … Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope … Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage … The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver … Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations.

God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus.

Exceedingly great and precious promises.

2 Sam. 7:25;  Ps. 119:38;   Ps. 119:42;   Ps. 119:49;  Ps. 119:54;  Ps. 119:72    Ps. 119:89,90;  Heb. 6:17,18;  Heb. 6:19,20;  2 Pet. 1:4

Life Given And Maintained

He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).

When one begins to realize the complexity of simple spiritual growth, he learns to keep his hands off, and his faith on.

"Regeneration is a birth: the center and root of the personality, the spirit, has been re-created and taken possession of by the Holy Spirit. But time is required for that center to extend through all the circumference of our being. It is akin to a seed: the life of the Lord Jesus within must grow; and it would be against the laws of nature and grace alike if we expected from the babe in Christ the strength that can only be found in the young man, or the rich experience and stability of the fathers. Even where in the new convert there is great singleness of heart and faith, with true love and devotion to the Saviour, time is needed for a deeper knowledge of the old man and sin, for a spiritual insight into what the Father's will and grace are." -A.M.

"The process of conformity to the Lord Jesus' image is going on day by day in the growing believer's life. It is a progression from obedience to obedience, from dependence to dependence, from righteousness to righteousness, and from love to love. As the maturing one gets a larger vision of his perfect Pattern through the daily study of God's Word, he takes higher ground along the line of that blessed revelation, so that his life is a progressive growing up into the Lord Jesus in all things." -R.P.

"The more the believer abounds in the riches of the Father's grace, the more unsearchable and inexhaustible he finds them to be. The spiritual man never stops growing, because he is always reaching upward to that still higher height that is just beyond." -R.P.

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).

A Time to Die

Let Us Look to Jesus