John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
Romans 1:17 (Amplified) says, "For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith (disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith). As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
The above scripture tells us that our faith in God's Word is supposed to grow and mature from one degree to another. We accept the Gift of righteousness, by faith. Many struggle with the truth that we were made righteous and we do not become righteous. Romans 10:10 (Amplified) says, "For with the heart a person believes, adheres to, trusts in and relies on Christ, and so is justified, declared righteous, acceptable to God, and with the mouth he confesses, declares openly and speaks out freely his faith and confirms his salvation."
Carnal thinking and lack of understanding, have led to our not growing in our faith in God's Word. We've haven't dared to believe what God has done and what Jesus accomplished on our behalf, at His Resurrection. It's only by faith, that you can believe in your heart, that you are in right standing or righteous in God's Presence. This righteousness has nothing to do with our performance or our past lives, but it's based entirely on the Finished Work of Jesus and it must be received by faith that it may be by Grace.
If our works make us righteous, then it's not by Grace. We've understood the righteousness we have through Jesus, with man's understanding and not God's understanding. We've been restrained from going any further in our faith, because we know in our own understanding that we are not righteous in the eyes of a Holy God. If satan can keep our eyes on ourselves instead of on Jesus, then we'll never advance in our trust and faith in our inheritance in Jesus.
There was a time in history, that man's understanding of this planet was limited to only as far as he could see or go. Some saw the earth as being very small and only for their group. They had no idea that there were other continents and people beyond their limited view. Many believed the earth was flat and they would fall off the earth, if they went too close to the edge of the world. Many had no concept of gravity or the Laws of Physics. The idea of air travel, combustion engines or the internet, once seemed foolish to those who lacked understanding of these things. If someone in the eighteenth century dreamed of space travel or visiting Mars, then that person would have been deemed "crazy."
Man has grown from faith to faith in his own planet , by understanding the laws that govern it. The more we understand, the more we trust in our own understanding. The things of God's Word have been hidden from the eyes of mankind, by the master deceiver (satan), according to 2Corinthians 4:4 (Amplified) which says, "For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers minds, that they should not discern the Truth, preventing them from seeing the illuminating Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God."
We've often thought this scripture was only referring to the unsaved persons, but believers have been blinded to the Glory of the Gospel. We haven't believed the fullness of this Truth and have been subject to and bound by, the very same deception as those who are unsaved.
Many in today's Church haven't accepted most of what Jesus brought us by His Sacrifice. We've accepted the lie that all our inheritance holds, is for after we die and go to be with the Father. We've put off the Spiritual aspects of our salvation, for our future in Heaven. The new birth or new creation concept, hasn't been fully understood or discerned by most of the Church. We've been trying and waiting to become what Jesus has already made us to be.
You don't become righteous before God. You were made righteous in Jesus Christ and are already right before God. You can only enter into God's Throne Room of Grace, BY FAITH. Hebrews 4:16 (Amplified) says, "Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the Throne of Grace (the Throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy for our failures and fine Grace to help in good time for every need (appropriate help and well-timed help), coming just when we need it."
This righteousness is the key to understanding our inheritance in Christ Jesus. Without righteousness or being in right standing with God, none of what we've been granted is accepted here in our earthly walk with the Father. We all know that we were sinners and didn't deserve to be saved or called God's children. Thank God for His Grace, that didn't leave us as sinners or as unrighteous. Righteousness simply means that now, through Jesus, we've been redeemed and restored into a place that we now have a right to come back into God's Presence. Jesus is the Door into the Father's Presence and has been opened once again.
Many Christians still just hope that they'll be God's children and come into perfect fellowship with Him, in the future. Jesus is the future and that future is where we now live. It seems odd to many believers, that we have Super-natural ability in this natural world. The angels of God, who've been sent forth to minister to us, must think it's odd, that we don't take our rightful place on this earth. We're the home or temple that the Holy Spirit resides in and all His ability is at our disposal. The angels know that we are much more than the enemy and his ability to stop the processes of God's Plan and purpose for our lives.
God has never actually asked us to do anything, except to believe His Word. He has never told us that we must sacrifice our children or livestock or anything else. He only asks us to believe. Romans 1:17 tells us that our faith is ton continue into more and more and greater mature faith. Some find it difficult to believe in the things the New Testament says we are and can do. Do you believe that Jesus was the Word of God, spoken into the womb of a virgin? Do you believe that this Word became flesh? Do you believe that this Word grew into manhood, died on a cross, rose from the dead, ascended visibly to the Father, in the sight of over 500 brethren and is still alive today and is actually Lord of all Heaven and earth? If you can believe this, then you have the God-given ability to believe all that Jesus said to do and all that He said you are.
We must take this faith and go from faith to faith, believing on the things God said about us. It's not that we don't have faith, but our faith hasn't matured and grown from one degree of faith in Him, to another degree of faith in Him. The Same God Who said that if we "would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then we would be saved," also said that those who believe "would lay hands on the sick and they would recover and be made well." It's the Same Lord. Is God's Word any more Truth, when He said, "Believe and be saved," than it is when He said, "Cast our devils?"
I can almost see how astonished the angels God dispatched for our sake, must be when they see God's children pushed around by a defeated enemy of the Most High God. The angels were amazed when God Himself created man in a higher place than they are and then called them His family. The angels must have been totally amazed, to watch Jesus die and become the Curse and sin on our behalf. They must have been astonished when God did such a thing for mankind.
If the Father Loved us enough to do what He did, in order to deliver us and bring us back to Himself, then do you really think He would hold out on us now, in the Promises He made to and for us in Jesus? The enemy's lies have left us uncertain, where God's Word is concerned. We've been deceived into thinking that God deals with us, like He did with those in the old covenant. This has left us believing that sickness, hardship and disaster, are His way of disciplining us.
Paul writes about God's disciplining His children, in Hebrews 12:5-10 (Amplified) which says, "And have you completely forgotten the Divine Word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him. For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone Whom He Loves, and He even punishes (even scourges) every son Whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes. You must submit to and endure correction for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons, For what son is there whom his father does not thus train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all of God's children share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons at all. Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded to them and respected them for training us. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of Spirits and so truly live? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for only a short period of time, and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good that we may become sharers in His Own Holiness."
Don't lose track of the fact and Truth, that there are two kinds of fathers mentioned in the above scripture. One is our earthly, fleshly father and the other is our Spiritual, Heavenly Father. One disciplines the flesh, while the other disciplines the spirit. Don't mix the manners which they discipline. Satan has used this as a weapon against the Church. We've yielded ourselves over to sickness and hard times, believing this is how our Father was disciplining us. We've accepted the onslaught of the enemy, because of this. Does God discipline us then? Yes, He does, but He corrects Spiritual children, by our spirits.
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