In the Faith

Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 11:1-12

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good report. 3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. 4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. 5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable

How is it those who lived before the giving of the Holy Ghost have obtained a good report with God? Can we imagine being so righteous before God that He would not even allow us to die? Why is it that those of us with the Holy Ghost cannot obtain the same report? What did they have that we do not have? Let us go to St. John 1 and see.

St. John 1:1-3

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The Word of God was Jesus Christ; He was the Word of God walking among us in the flesh. The Word that came out of the mouth of God was Jesus, before Jesus ever came in the flesh. This leaves the question then, how could the men of old be found so faithful even without the Holy Ghost? These patriarchs of old walked in what God told them to do; the spoken word of God, they walked in Jesus. That is the reason why they could be accounted as righteous, their obedience to God. As the New Testament Church, we have to realize that our Faith is not hinged on our positions in the church.

Jesus is the author and the finisher of our Faith. We have heard that so many times but have we really understood what it means? First let us ask ourselves, what is an author? In the natural, an author is someone who writes either a book, an article or a story. The author is the one who sets the guidelines for the story, which is what Jesus is for us. In order to be in the Faith, we have to be walking within the guidelines written by the author. We must abide in Jesus Christ. As an author, Jesus has laid out a path for us to follow. He walked from the throne of the Father, to Calvary, back to the throne spotless and without blame. Unless we walk within the boundaries of that path, we are not in the Faith. We will try to walk in Jesus’ path and we will want to do the exploits that He did, but when we come to our Calvary where we have to die to this flesh, we will tell the Father we have a problem with dying. It is almost as if we say, “Ok God, we came this far but I never promised to deny myself.” We say, “Well, I will only do so much. I’ll let them talk about me or I’ll let them say one or two words that go against this flesh, but I’m not going all the way down”, but JESUS DID IT.

Jesus endured some of the cruelest forms of torture that we could ever imagine without one mumbling word. Why is it then that we cannot endure a slap in the face, or even someone saying the wrong thing to us? Once again, all we are doing is coming to church, but we are not in the Faith. Let us examine ourselves, as members of Bible Teachers International we have become accustomed to coming to church and doing all the activities of church. We have even grown to like church, but do we reside in the Faith, or are we just coming to church? Are we walking in the Spirit, or are we just trying to look like, and do things that we believe Jesus would do, are we actually being formed into the man Jesus?

Often we are counseled in the mind of Jesus Christ, and encouraged to do what He would do, and we sometimes do it, but is it in our hearts to do it? We have to be honest with ourselves and see if we are in the faith, or are we trying to be taught the faith. This is the season where God is revealing what is in our hearts. Young people are in sin now and doing all manner of evil yet it seems to be no big deal. God is simply showing us that we were never in the faith, we were just playing church. What is our reason for being in church? Is it that the boyfriend or the girlfriend we want is there? Is it that our friends are there? Is it because our parents made us go?

Some of us have been in church so long that this is all we know. We fit in so well at church some of us would not even know how to deal in the world. This is where it is comfortable for us, it is not that we are seeking God, but this has become just like any other clique or social club. The tell tale signs of where we really reside though is how we deal in our situations. Do we have to be policed to live holy? In our day-to-day situations, are our hearts set to please God, to be holy, or do we always have to be told what to do? Do we agree and obey when we hear the counsel of our hearts, or do we always have to be counseled in order to purify our hearts and to do the will of the Father? No matter what we say out of our mouths, that is what will truly say whether our hearts are in the right place.

God will be faithful to bring a test or trial right after we have made a confession to prove what we have said. When we are in Christ, we want nothing more than to be pure before God. When we repent in our hearts we will do all we know to do to make it right with those we may have offended. We are willing to do whatever God requires of us to do it, no matter how it makes the flesh feel. When we are in Christ, we are not moved by what man might say . . . we please God and move on.

An individual who will only examine their heart when the Word comes over the pulpit and finds them in the wrong is in a very dangerous place. They are often deceived into believing that they are right with God because they are seeking to get it right but God is not pleased with that. Those who are in Christ, heed to the counsel of their hearts. To continuously pull away from what we hear the Holy Ghost ministering to our hearts, is to always be found on the wrong side of the Word. This is solely by choice because as we have heard so many times before, we were made complete at salvation. The Holy Ghost is the power and the Spirit of God. If we are never in agreement with the counsel within us we are disobeying God, and even with the Holy Ghost, we are not in the Faith. With every action we show that we are not in agreement with the message, with those who deliver the Word, with the Holy Ghost on the inside, or most of all, with God.

What we will do is continue coming to church even though in our hearts we will never agree. We will continue to do all of the outward duties of church because that is what we are accustomed to. Christ is the blueprint of the Faith. If we are still making our own decisions, we are not in the Faith. Somewhere on our walk, the life of Christ went on to the denial of the flesh, but we got left behind. God may have wanted to show Himself to someone through humility, but we chose not to let Him do it through our vessel. We deny God of being glorified in the situations that He sets up so now when we stand before God, we are without Christ. Finding ourselves outside of God, we want to come to God, repent and think that all is well because we are so special to God. We want to assume that time and time again we can go back and forth, in and out of sin with no consequence. That is not written in the Word; in fact we are cautioned not to fall into that mindset.

Romans 6:1-4

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

God’s opinion of sin and our opinion of sin are totally different. We might believe that God will wink at sin, or turn a blind eye to it, but this is not so. For every sin there is a consequence, if we do not repent of our sins, we are on our way to hell. Young people, I want you now to set your priorities straight. Are you still focused on your church duties, or are you concerned with where your soul stands with God? Does it matter to you if you are pleasing God or, do you not care if you are going to hell? All the activities that you supposedly do for God have to take a back seat to the condition of your heart. No, I am not telling you to stop doing what you do for God, because that, too, is a part of your salvation, but you must ensure that your soul is in right standing with the Father, first and foremost, before you focus on anything else.

Galatians 5:24-26

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

The other important statement that defines Faith is we must crucify our flesh. We have to live dead to the influence of this flesh; we must walk in the Spirit. Let us take something as simple as watching television. We are not to be entertained by the things of this world. Our bodies might not be in physical sin, but what we entertain in our minds is just as if we were out committing the sin. We choose to go to hell for something we may never experience in the natural, only in our minds. The mind of Christ is the only thing that can keep us out of sin. The minute we try to walk in our own ways and our own minds, we revert to death. This is why we are urged to crucify this flesh. As this scripture states, we should be living as Christ. This is something we already know to do, and we believe that we are doing. As we go into the sixth chapter of Galatians, we must examine to see if we are really living up to the standard that has been set for us.

Galatians 6:1-2

1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Ask yourself this, when you see someone who may be off-course with God, what is your first reaction to his or her disposition? Are you quick to judge them and look down on their state as being lower than you and therefore not needing mercy? Are you so eager to see them destroyed? Do you forget the times when you fell and needed mercy? Those who are spiritual do not have that mind. They bear their brothers up in love, praying that God will restore them quickly. As sons we should look on those who are off-course and desire that they be restored without chastisement. Let us use the example of parent and child. Have you ever had a brother or sister who was getting a whooping and you wished that they had just done right in the first place to avoid getting in trouble? Why do we care that they got in trouble? Because we love them, and that is the same way we should be with those in the Body of Christ, or even those who are in the streets and ignorant. When God chastises individuals, people sometimes cannot handle it. We should pray for God to have mercy, but only those who are in Christ have those sentiments for souls.

2 Corinthians 13:1-5

1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. 2 I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare: 3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. 4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. 5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Now if you have the Spirit of Christ, we should know when the Lord is speaking to us. If we have doubts as to whether we have the Spirit of God, we need to begin to seek Him once again, because there is no way that we should have the Spirit of God and not know unless we have a reprobate mind. But it is not our desire that you be reprobates.

2 Corinthians 13:6-10

6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. 7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. 10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

As leaders in your life, God has given us a spirit of discernment to identify whether or not you are in the faith. There is a time coming when there will be a separation between those who are in the faith, and those who are not. The distinction is being made between those who are in the Spirit, and those who are just coming to church. Our situations and circumstances are going to reveal to others and to us where we are in the faith. Christ obeyed God even as a little child, doing exactly what He was told, and that is exactly how we are expected to live; obeying God in everything that we do. It is only as we do this, that we will be able to experience God in His fullness. As young people and youth leaders alike, I encourage you to examine yourself thoroughly do not cut yourself short. In this examination also, do not judge yourself on the curve, because God is the one who will do the final judgment. I desire that you all make it and when the Father comes that He will find us “In the