Genesis 1:26 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth."
The entirety of God's creation was based upon fellowship and relationship between the Father and His family. There was only one Law and that "Don't eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." The relationship was based on Love, and Love alone. Love was the bond that would cement the family together, so there would never be division between the Father and His family. The same thing is required in God's family today. It's no longer works or Law, but relationship.
All of God's Promises are to be received by faith in His Grace and Love for His family. These Promises aren't based on man's performance, but on relationship. We don't receive God's Promises by a formula or the following of Laws, but on knowing our Father. Today's Church doesn't seemingly understand the real relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. Many still believe God deals with us like He did with the Old Testament people, instead of understanding the New Testament covenant of Grace, that God deals with us now. We learn things from God's Word about His Blessing and Promises, and then we "try to make them work" by our own standards, instead of realizing that they're already ours in Christ Jesus.
When we do this, then we're walking by works and not Grace. You can't make them work, anymore than you can make yourself righteous. It all comes by faith in God's Grace and that faith comes by fellowship and truly knowing Him. We can't have faith in someone we don't trust. The only way to have faith in God, is by knowing Him for Who He truly is. If you have know the True Love God has for you, then you can built faith in your relationship with Him. Love is based on Trust.
All God's Promises in both the Old and New Testament, are based on faith or Trust in His Word and His Love. If you don't fellowship with Him and know Him, then you'll be double-minded according to James 1:5-8 (Amplified), which says, "If any of you is deficient in Wisdom, let him ask of the Giving God, Who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault finding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting), For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts), is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything he asks for from the Lord. For being as he is, a man of two minds, hesitating (dubious, irresolute), he is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, and decides."
Double-mindedness comes by our not knowing God on a personal basis, through fellowship. A double-minded believer doesn't know whether or not God's Promises and Blessing is for him/her or doesn't understand what Grace has done what God says it has done for them. This lack of trust or faith, is the double-minded believer's enemy. It leads to our questioning, "Does God still require some of the Law" and "Is there still certain things I must do to qualify for God's Blessing and Promises?" It leads to questioning, "Can I really rely on God to do what He said He would do" and "Is there still something else I need to do?"
All God requires of us to do now, is to, by faith, receive what He's Promised. The harder we try to perform, the further we'll be from His Grace. If Jesus couldn't do it for you, then you can't do it on your own. We have a place in God's family by our trusting Jesus to save us, but we haven't pursued our family relationship through fellowship and knowledge of His Person. We continue trying to perform, in order to obtain. There's no formula or doing certain things, in order to make them work. We must only receive by faith, what Jesus has already done. The only way of knowing what He has done and Promised, is to read His Word and heed the leading of His Holy Spirit.
We've struggled with our righteousness, as though we can improve on it, instead of just receiving it. We've obtained His Righteousness, by trusting and placing our faith in what Jesus has already done. You can walk in His Righteousness, but you can't make yourself righteous. We've failed to understand that Jesus has already done everything needed to make us Righteous, healed, Blessed and delivered and in God's favor. All that's required of us is to trust Him, in it. You can't work for it, but must simply receive it by faith.
Today's Church has misunderstood faith. We can't take faith and force God into doing something, because we were good and He owes us. We're foolish though, if we don't put our faith in and receive what He's already provided for us. Even in the Old Testament, God only required the people to trust Him to do what He said He would do. The Israelites didn't trust God, concerning His deliverance for them and the Promise of entering the Promised Land in the Book of Numbers. Hebrews 4:1-3 (Amplified) tells us, "Therefore, while the Promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered today, let us be afraid to distrust it lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of reaching it. For indeed we have had the glad tidings (Gospel of God), proclaimed to us just as truly as they (the Israelites of old) did when the Good News of deliverance from bondage came to them; but the Message they heard did not benefit them because it was not mixed with faith (or trust) with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute Trust and confidence in His Power Wisdom, and Goodness, BY THOSE WHO HEARD IT, neither were they united in faith with the ones (Joshua and Caleb), who heard and did believe. For we who have believed (adhered to, and trusted in, and relied on God), do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration that those who did not believe should not enter when He said, As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My Rest; and this He said although His works had been completed and prepared and waiting for all who would believe from the foundation of the world."
God only requires that we believe in the Finished Word of Jesus' salvation and redemption and to enter into His Rest, by trust or faith in His Person. You can never rest in God's Promises, if you don't know Him in personal fellowship. We were created for fellowship with the Father, from the beginning. Jesus has brought us back to God's Original Intent, which is fellowship. I'm not talking about reading the Word, but about taking time talking and listening to His Spirit. How can you know His Voice, if you don't spend time listening and fellowshiping with Him? At His death, Jesus left everything to us in His Last Will and Testament. We don't have to work for it, but only trust and receive what He has done. The harder we try working to earn it, the further you remove ourselves from the Grace that provides it.
Galatians 5:4 (Amplified) says, "If you seek to be justified and declared Righteous and given a right standing with God through the Law (or good works), you are brought to nothing and so severed from Christ, You have fallen away from Grace (from God's Graciousness, favor and unmerited Blessing)."
It's been difficult for today's Church to walk in Grace and Trust and having our prayers answered, because we mix Law and works with Grace. We've fallen away from God's Gracious favor and Blessing. John 8:19 (Amplified) says, "Then they said to Him, Where is this Father of Yours? Jesus answered, You know My Father as little as You know Me, if you knew Me, you would know My Father also." The Church can't be double-minded about Law and Grace. We must distinguish between the manner which God dealt with the Old Covenant saints and how He deals with us now in the New Covenant, as family. We must first know the Father, by the Son. This comes by our fellowshiping with Him, spending time with Him, listening to Him and then moving by faith and trust in His Word and Promises. Let's enter into His Rest.
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