The Measure...

The Measure

We are chosen for God’s possession. We are the whosoevers who believe

in Jesus. Our chosenness is the result of God’s love. And God did not say

that He loved a portion of the world, He said for He so loved the world, all

nations, all lands. God loves all. So, it is faith that is the determination of

those chosen. With that we must understand the term “all” in the promise

and the patience of God. God works in a way that brings all of His people to

Himself. God’s election of His people is sovereign and unconditional. We

must have the faith to know that God foreknew those who would come to

faith whom He would choose to come to divine election to salvation. God has

chosen His from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the

Spirit and faith in the truth. Election is rooted in God’s sovereign initiative, not

in human responses. The word reveals that election is by grace alone apart

from anything that we might achieve. Election is effectual in achieving God’s

purposes thus ensuring perseverance and ultimately climaxes in

glorification. Also, the divine election demands restoration of spiritual Israel

and shows the calling of God to be irrevocable. Our faith is in this election in

the assurance of the calling. This divine election should provoke humility and

obedience and gracious love. Faith must remind us of our utter dependence

on the grace of God for deliverance from sin and give us greater confidence

in our witnessing to others the truths of God in the three angels messages.

It is this faith that God knows that assures Him that our relationship with

Christ is inseverable.

Our faith is understood to be intensely personal and seen as extremely

private in that God has given the measure to every man. "Every" refers to

individuals without exception. This faith is superimposed in the lives of every

person who receives the breath of God. But know that faith development is

by the word of God. Faith makes distinct two expresions; the inward

expression of the spirit working in the life and the outward expression of the

spirit working by love for others. Faith’s attitude is shown by the degree of

acceptance of every word of God. This attitude is based upon a studied

learning of the meaning of the Hebrew texts as purposed, designed, and

intended by every word. Faith to God’s chosen is so fundamental that none

of us can live in peace for very long without it. It is so universal that when we

move beneath the characters and principled patterns that express it, faith is

recognizably the same phenomenon that we read in Hebrews, yet it is so

infinitely varied that each person's faith is unique. It is the coming together

in this uniqueness of individual faith that brings us to be one in “the Them”

.

Our faith is so focused as to its supreme trust in an exalted magnifical God,

having a singular loyalty to the principle of being and to the source and center

of all value and power, Jesus Christ, that we can see and know the ultimate

environment of our life in Christ. Faith organizes the power of the knower’s

mind by which we find order and shape our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Faith deposits in our minds and hearts the worth of all to God in regard to

self and others. Faith has this quality of mystery concerning Christ; it is

perplexing, because we are internal to it, compassed by God as with a shield.

shield

Love provides an excellent overview of faith’s journey. It’s the underlying of

our composition generated from our attachments and commitments to the

supraordinate personality of Jesus. Our spiritual being is a function of faith.

This is that regard which has power to unify our experiences of the life of

Jesus. This is where we observe the endowing of all the relationships,

contexts, and patterns of life, past, present, and future, with significance.

Faith is the guiding principle that serves as both the source and the target of

our spirituality. Devotion to our growth in spirituality can be seen as a

measure of greater ability of understanding one's faith as shown through our

consummatory behavior. It is possible for one to have faith but not do faith.

It is the theological adherence to every truth in the word that renders the

spirituality of a person as the indicator of the depth of faith. The acts of

spirituality far outpace the ability to articulate faith. Faith grounds us as

individuals, and our spirituality is to be characterized by constant change. In

other words, there is not a threshold that one can or should attain with either

faith or spirituality.

Faith pleases God because this is the way that we are of Christ, the author

and finisher of our faith, that through him we come to God. Hold this as the

primary truth, that God is most influential upon us; and then believe that it is

our business to come to Him. But there is only one way of coming to Him,

and we must have faith to use that way. He that died and lives for ever saith,

“I am the way. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” He that cometh

to God must believe in God as he is revealed, and must come to God as God

reveals the way of approach; and this is an exertion of faith. The faith of

Christ is the only way through which we can reach beyond ourselves toward

Him. This coming is essential and exclusive to the chosen of God. This is our

response of obedience to His invitation. This is genuine faith, accepting His

His invitation

personal calling, having a centrality of focus on the true and living God

alone. The words of our faith declare that God is. Genuinely coming to God

says with our actions that “YOU ARE”, and we believe it even though we do

not see Him with our fleshly eyes. To believe that God is, or that He exists,

is only the entrance into a faith relationship with Him. This faith must grow to

rest upon the fact that God not only exists, but He is everything that He says

He was, is, and shall forever be. Only on this level of growth can our faith

rest in the truth that God is whatever He says He is to us personally and that

the vast resources of who He is has been promised and made available to

all who come to Him through faith in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ our

Savior. Faith not only embraces the fact that “GOD IS” in His existence, but “GOD IS” in His presence with us. Our faith must rest on the reality of His personal presence in us that He will never forsake us.

Faith is so important that it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved

from eternal separation from God and that we are enabled to live this life

victoriously. God knows the thoughts He has toward us. He has an expected

end for His chosen people. God has a beautiful plan that He wants us to

fulfill, but that purpose He has for us is something that is so vital, so vast that

we cannot do it without God. That's why God asks us to trust Him - so we

can do all that we are to do through and in Him. He knows that without the

power of the Holy Spirit guiding us and the work of Christ motivating us, we

will never be able to live faith to its fullness. And to live faith is to always be

overcoming. To live faith is the conviction that produces righteous works. It

is being convinced of the confidence that God has in our absolute submission

to His will. Living faith is the revelation of the word of God reflecting His living

in us. Living faith motivates conduct in agreement with God's purpose. There

is a time when the testing of faith will be by the word of God. The hearts will

be exposed to see whether we truly believe every word of God or is there

something that is valued more. God finds pleasure in seeing us choose Him

above all. Standing in faith proves to be one of the most firm ways to express

to God how much we love Him. There is no other way that we honor God

best than by means of our faith. It is a calamity to be commended in error

because of family or friendship for it may prevent our becoming really

commendable. What reason can we offer for missing the end of our creation.

We shall not escape trial, for even the highest qualities must be tested, yet

we shall find great peace in being the means for good to God. Our faith will

rebuke and stimulate; will convince and invite. Our faith will teach

transgressors God’s way, and sinners shall be converted unto Him.

God's way

Without faith it is impossible to please God. The word does not say it is

difficult, or so needful that without it success is barely possible; but, point-

blank, the word declares it to be “impossible.” When the Holy Spirit says that

a thing is impossible, it is so, in a very absolute sense. We cannot please God

by any invention of our own, however clever, nor by any opinion or belief of

our own, however ardent; since infallible inspiration declares that, “without

faith it is impossible to please God.” Without faith how would we commune

with God. Without the eye of faith we have no reasoning with God in those

sacred truths concerning eternal things which only faith can perceive.

Without faith, the man himself is not pleasing to God. Want of faith in one

word of God will create variance on many points. The desire to come to God,

the way to come to God, the power to come to God, the actual coming to

God - these are all gifts of sovereign grace. Coming to God, however feebly

gifts

we come, and seeking Him, however much else we miss, must be well-

pleasing in His sight; for it is the result of His own purpose and election which

we are in Christ Jesus before the world began. But all this hangs upon faith.

And faith says that what God would have me do I will do it in happily in

fellowship with others, or alone by myself, as the case may be; but do it I

must. Given the absolute reality of God being God and God's fullness being

found in Christ, this is what faith has to be. This is the end of the argument.

This is the bottom of the reasoning. We should say it like this: what pleases

God is that our hearts and minds display God's being. That we display God's

existence and His excellence. That we display how real He is and how

rewarding He is. This is what pleases God, and this is faith. In Him we are

assured of everything we hope for, convinced of all things to be seen. Though

He is the great unseen God who exists absolutely and does not depend on

us in the least, we have His substance as us in Jesus Christ.

Faith is vulnerable. Be wary of the subtle encroachments of the world and

sin and error. Vigilance and endurance are crucial for the soul. The spiritual

nature of faith and the vitality of faith is rooted in what God is like, not what

we are like. If we would have our faith be strong, we must have the mind of

Christ. And God's existence and fullness will be wonderfully displayed in our

life.