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Faith Faith involves reliance and trust and it will endure in the very face of doubt or inquiry, whereas belief is simply something most take to be true. Belief may be sounded by information. Faith is known by application. Faith in its truest form is when we have confidence in God to the point that it causes us to undertake His will, which reinforces our assurance in all He does and performs our certainty in all He says. Belief in its most elementary form is about what we accept to be true, not what we do with it. Beliefs are things we take to be true based on our logic and experiences. If we learn new information, our beliefs can change. When someone’s beliefs are challenged and changed it sometimes deepens and solidifies their faith — which is what our Heavenly Father wants to happen. Faith is similar to belief in that it is a specific kind and deeper intensity of belief. A person can believe in something and not have faith. Faith requires a personal inspection. Many have believed in God, but their faith in His ability to come through was lacking. Even though we know God’s promises and can sing about His faithfulness, we often struggle to act in faith because we were unsure. This does not deny our belief, it simply reveals our humanity. In reality our faith remains unchanged even as it grows because the word does not change. However, it is not that our faith must grow. It is in whom do we have faith. And with that faith in Christ, it will grow. Faith grows with every new revelation of truth. So, does faith and truth faith grows change our lives…we answer in the affirmative. God wants to move us from belief to faith and He wants our faith to grow. He desires this so that as our faith grow we will trust Him to control every purpose of, and for our lives. But this is a process, and it does not happen all at once. The beautiful part is God is gracious and will give us opportunities to demonstrate our faith. In God’s plan for our life, there are more things He has for us to do, but to get there we are going to require more faith. For this reason, He will graciously help us turn our belief into faith and all we have to do is ask for His help.   Faith is layered with so much reason that even with the most familiar of thoughts and purposes we strive to grow deeper to discover a much richer meaning or treasure contained. The stronger our faith is; the more extraordinary things will occur as His spirit leads us. If we believe only, we do not plunge beneath its surface to ask, “is that all there is?” Faith is fidelity to the Word even when we don’t see the object of our belief. Faith does not come from humans but only from God. Faith is God’s energy, a gift not one of us deserves, a gift given to us by Christ to wash away our iniquities, one that makes Heaven our inheritance. Faith enables us to search our minds and our hearts for God and to come to God to reason in humility and obedience to His will, not our own. Understand how love is the only aspect of holiness that covenants us by faith with God. Remember hearing that God so loved and that He gave? Most of us believe that. But to really know that requires faith in the One whom God gave and it requires that love for the One who gave. If you love Me…keep My commandments and live by the   faith of the Son of God. We love with   faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.    Faith is more than just intellectual knowledge. It is more than just a mental assent. Faith is not halting between two opinions.  It is to accept God’s word on all matters. Accepting God’s choice, His purpose. Faith is the principle of separation. The concept of being set apart as sacred. Meaning belonging to God. This is a recurring theme throughout the bible. Holding to that understanding is how our faith will cease to wax and wane. Faith must be grounded in the always faithful God and His will being done and not upon some specific outcome that may or may not serve God’s purpose. It is trust without reservation.  T rusting is what brings the promises of God into our lives. Faith is our choice as to whom we will serve in sincerity and truth. And truth is found in the word of God. And so, faith is that light in God’s promises. It is God behind us and God before us. Our faith has a way of revealing our worst days, or weeks, or months, or years. Faith has a way of uncovering the purposes and the mercies of God in our past, and giving light to the promises of God for our tomorrow. The past becomes a list of hopes deferred, relationships lost, opportunities squandered, all telling the story of how we were elected. God has so sanctified every sorrow we’ve experienced that it has become, in His hands, an upward step in His purpose. Our past is but our wilderness experience. Christ himself has walked there. If the children of Israel had learned from that experience they would have been as the peculiar people spoken of. No matter how much guilt and grief is buried in the years gone by, the ground bears the footprints of the God footprints of God who works wonders. When we rehearse the bitterness behind us, then, we need to tell ourselves about this day that we were awakened. But that is not yet the full story. True faith has a different interpretation than what our worst moments would suggest.    True faith is knowing of God’s wondrous deeds and thoughts toward us. No matter how many sorrows await us, faith tells us that God knows the thoughts that He Himself thinks toward us to give us an expected end. And the sum of them is great!    Our mourning these days is great. It will increase. But so will our faith in God. What will come from our mourning, our suffering is a deeper understanding of the character of God and His thoughts toward us. This provision is purposed by God. Consider Jeremiah…lamenting actually deepens our gratitude, building our capacity for belief in the promise of His presence and blessing in the midst of it. We have greater faith. It is this greater faith by which we are secure in God’s love for us, when we know how He really feels about us, we are free to come to reason with Him and to ask and tell Him anything. Faith will keep us from faking fine in life. True faith strengthens us to approach God with what is really going on with us. God thinks of us as His. He tells us of His experiences of anger, of joy, of compassion, and even of jealousy. Why would we not choose to be wholly honest with Him…He already knows. It just so amazes Him when He sees our faith becoming so full that He wants desperately to make us whole. He wants us to know that this wholeness is the only way to have the fullness of faith and that is to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the life of Christ, and the fullness of love from and for the Father. Our belief is that He’s got us! We cannot limit what God can do, but we can limit what we accept. When we truly believe, the equation of our faith will fill us up. God tells us how evil the days are and how so much worse they will be. So, He admonishes us to redeem the time, understanding what His will is for us. That we be filled with the Spirit. In our reasoning we understand that means we must be empty of all things of this world. And because God’s thoughts are toward us, He tells us of this greater faith we come to. Faith to know the love of Christ that we may be filled with all the fulness of God. Glory!!!    The fullness of our faith is not determined by our ability to reach it but to receive it. We cannot add to our faith, Christ asks that we yield to faith that it can be added onto us. If we want to believe for more, we must trust for more. Trusting is not done out of strength but out of surrender.   There is nothing that God can’t do if only we would let Him. Every circumstance we go through is an opportunity to hear Him, to seek His face in everything that happens. Do not do anything to play down faith. Faith is our constant connection to Godthinking. This is the mind of Christ. God’s way is the grace way. We give Him glory and He gives us grace. We give Him praise and He gives us peace. We give Him worship and He gives us confidence. This is the way of God. Our faith is to move us beyond the temporal world unto eternal thinking. We cannot teach God anything, but we can understand the things of God. We are but a faith-step away from being made perfect in Christ Jesus. Faith gives us an advantage. Ignorance is torn down while passionate truth builds up. Faith says test what you believe and see if it withstands the scrutiny of critical thinking, that is, critical thinking based on the Word of God. Faith is not established on what we think however, faith is built of what God knows of us. He knows when we make His ways our ways. As our faith is, so will God continually unfold new dimensions of His grace, His love, and His kindness, and His wisdom.    By faith we are to expect days of troubled serenity ahead. If there be any lingering wreckage of our sin, God will clean it up. There will be days that will reveal more constellations of constellations God’s goodness and glory to us, even as we must walk through deep darkness to see them. By faith whatever else we see when we look ahead, then, see the grace and the mercies God has multiplied for us. See also the God who will never fail to preserve us with His steadfast love and faithfulness. If only we had a believing faith to see. We are hemmed in by the things behind us and the hopes before. We know of God’s wondrous deeds of the past. And our faith tells us of the merciful wonders to be. Both of these are marvelous and more than can be told. With such a God behind us and before us, we need not allow the past to swallow us, nor tomorow to worry us. The past and the morrow belong to Him…and most importantly, so do we.   It is believed that faith by both biblical and spiritual definitions needs no evidence. Faith is something that is certain but not yet fully realized in our present experience. It is the conviction of the reality of what we do not yet see. It is the characteristic of those who live “as seeing him who is invisible. We might even suggest that faith is ventured trust that is in no way contrary to reason. If faith bypasses reason  w hy would God give us a written document. It is not just believing in God, it is believing God. It is belief that may not necessarily rely on empirical evidence.   Can  f aith provide a connective understanding as to why our own belief must be based upon historical reality? Therein is the highest mystery that spans the truth of faith…faith always has an object. That is, one cannot have faith in some unclear way. There must be some thing or person, one has faith in. Most people do not understand how to place faith in its characteristic order. Faith cannot be “belief without evidence” since it is not a belief to begin with. It is a condition that may involve beliefs or may be caused by beliefs, although it is not itself a belief. Rather, it is a state of trust. And so , faith embraces testimony.  M easure our faith by the Word of God and make sure we are assenting to the reasonable, historical testimony of the prophets.   Faith is not something of a distance. Wow! What? Some have faith of being in the kingdom. Millennium has past and we’re not there yet. Do we believe these words: thy faith hath made thee whole, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, the kingdom of God is within you. Is that faith? And how near is the kingdom?   Faith requires not trust from a distance but an entrusting ourselves where we risk ourselves and our wellbeing to some thing or some person. Trust is exemplified in a deep and mutual relationship.   God becoming man might qualify for such a demonstration. Everyone has faith, in this sense, insofar as they entrust themselves. So, what is the very distinctiveness of our faith? Its object is Jesus Christ, God Himself. And we venture on the reason, the truth, the revelation of every word of God. We place our faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. It is not merely the truth of the gospel, and it is not merely the evidence and reasons constitutive of the knowledge of the gospel, but we are literally entrusting ourselves to Christ. And here is the essence of the mystery: we might know some truths of the Creator’s determinative purpose by reason and evidence but, at a certain point, reason and evidence run out and faith takes over and the Spirit of God gives us what the mouth of God has spoken in secret. This moves us beyond the measure of faith. Beyond becoming convinced by the preaching of the gospel, the testimony of the Spirit, the richness of scripture, a work the Lord has done in our own lives, answers to prayer, a world that appears designed and finely tuned, needing an explanation for purpose and hope.   We engage the life of the mind of Christ and being careful for nothing, considering and weighing out our reasons as we grow in faith and prayer letting our requests be made known unto God. Many that hear do not believe, yet those that believe have first heard. Faith cometh by hearing. The beginning, progress, and strength of faith are by hearing. The word of God is therefore called the word of faith: it causes and nourishes faith. God gives faith, but it is by the word as the instrument. Hearing is by the word of God. It is not hearing the enticing words of man's wisdom, but hearing the word of God, that will befriend faith, and hearing it as the word of God. Think about how hearing the word of God reflects in the meaning of our lives for God. Others are made to witness faith in the relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. We become a model of how a person of faith should live their faith out loud.   People need to be encouraged and know others are praying for them, that they are loved and not forgotten, that they are loved by God and that He desires them to experience the grace, love, and peace of God.   There is a purpose behind God’s calling us to come to Him. We see the necessity of reason in bringing us to the threshold of faith. It is this vital collaboration whereby we believe that God will reveal to us the truth in the words of Jesus and his divine works as recorded in the bible bible. As such we become eyewitnesses of truth. We were not there, yet our reliance, our trust is in the One who makes known the strength of the evidence…it is faith in God. None of this violates our free will , for our faith in God depends on our personal “commitment” to Christ. For those of us who allow ourselves to be touched by God’s grace, for faith is nothing short of a gift, then we can make an act of faith that God does indeed exist and that He reveals Himself through His Son to bring us into the fullness of life. When we come to God to reason, we do not come to be rational, we come to be transrational, we go beyond the realm of reason. We trust God and that is faith! Faith and reason become like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of divine truth to believe all that is God. God wants us to know what we believe and why we believe it. We are to have a well reasoned, evidential faith that we can articulate to those who may have doubt. We do not share opinions. God either is, or He is not. Jesus is that God, or He is not. Salvation comes through Christ alone, or it does not. This is not a personal preference. Historical reality points to determined providential purpose. Ensamples, patterns, admonitions are for our benefit. Yesterday is a collection of ideas, choices and possibilities. Faith is that event that creates a wise narrative weaving our experience to hope and having that confidence that the work God began, He will perform. This is the how and the why we can know why we are the called. We are dramatic proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament. How did Mary know what she heard was truth? It was written. How did Jesus know he was the Son of Man? It was written. Has your life been transformed? You know your experience to be true because you understand, on separate evidence, that the one in whom you trust is Himself trustworthy. And because God is God, His every utterance about the future is to be utterly trustworthy. Believing faith is discernible. It emits a spiritual light. Jesus perceived the strength or weakness in the faith of those around Him. We hear him say, “thy faith hath made thee whole.” “Great is thy faith.” He lamented to another, “O ye of little faith.” He questioned others, “where is your faith?” And Jesus distinguished yet another with, “I have not found so great faith.” The measure of faith is given by God, but faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from heaven that comes as we choose to believe and as we seek it and hold on to it. Faith is a principle of power, important not only in this life but also in our progression beyond the veil into the most holy. By the grace of Christ, we will one day be saved through faith on His name. The forthcoming of our faith is not by chance, but by choice. We must realize that if we fail to reason with every word, with any of God’s word, it is a sign that the adversary is destroying our faith. Remember the words of Jesus, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”.   We view life’s events through the divine prescription that enables us to have spiritual vision in this world because we view it from the perspective of another world.  W hen we reach perfection we realize that faith has been leading all along to the person of our Lord Jesus, the author and finisher. With believing faith we defy the wisdom of the world that tells us to live for today. Instead we live in the present in the light of the future, and handle everything that is visible in the light of the invisible.  T o live by faith is not to live by what we can see and feel and touch on the basis of our sense experience, but to live on the basis of what God has said and promised. That is believing faith. It has its epicenter in our Lord Jesus Christ. It takes its practical shape from what God has said and promised in His Word. Learning, understanding, embracing, digesting, and applying every last word of scripture. Everything about us will be assessed by our faith. The basis of our expectation, the proof of what God has prepared. The word is written…we know there is an election…we know the wise will understand…we know the sealing is certain…we know of the time of trouble…we know there will be great plagues, the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…we know of the thousand years…the lake of fire, the new heaven, the new earth…and by faith we know it is done.    by faith we know that it is done

for one another God has our best interest at heart. So, He commands us to pray for ourselves and for others. In our prayers we find confession as a source of healing. And when we pray in the name of Jesus, we do it according to his will. And his will is that we come to know and to understand God. Now we begin to see why praying for others is important. Prayer is not about getting everything we ask or keeping others safe, healthy, and problem-free. Prayer is a powerful way in which we get to know our Savior, and it also brings us together with other believers. Effective prayer for others will bring us closer to God because effective prayer is based on a knowledge of His will. We pray for their faith, we pray against temptation in their lives, we pray for their unity, and we pray for their sanctification. We pray for the salvation of the lost; we pray that the brothers and sisters would stay on the right path; we pray that believers would be strengthened by the Spirit, rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend God’s love, and filled with the fullness of God. These are our prayers for spiritual blessings; they are all “in Jesus’ name” and according to the Father’s will. We pray that these prayers warrant finding a “yes” in Jesus Christ. Praying for others gets our focus off of ourselves. Strengthens us to “carry each other’s burdens,” as we “fulfill the law of Christ”. Praying is supposed to be like breathing, easier to do than to not do. Our praying is a form breathing of serving God. God knows when the intent of prayer is to be the means of obtaining His solutions to the many situations we encounter. It may be that we not receive what we ask for, but because of God’s wisdom our prayers are never in vain for He has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for. We are to be diligent and persistent in prayer. For prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God’s will done on earth. God’s wisdom far exceeds our own. Often it is prayer that will position us to discern God’s will. Our connection is to be of such a consciousness of God’s presence in our lives that even thoughts unprayed will be prayers calling out to Christ. Prayer demonstrates our faith in God, that He will do as He has promised in His Word and bless our lives abundantly more than we could ask or hope for. You want to see God work in others lives…pray for them. Oh, what can fervent prayer accomplish. Try not to pray in anxiousness nor with eloquence. Present your prayer from the content of your heart as an expression of your love, your gratitude, and your worship to God. Memorization and recitation avoid. Prayer is to be real and personal. Pray for the things that God’s word talks about, using our own words and ordering them to our own journey with God.  power of praying Have you ever felt the power of praying, not prayer, but praying as you take someone’s hand or sitting facing one another with knees touching while holding hands or walking in nature and peering upward or cycling through the many people God has brought to you. Have you ever just let your thoughts flood your praying, adding to the heaviness of spirit for the souls you love. Have you ever felt God relieve the heartache. Do you often find that sacred space where you can pray in isolation. And do you sometimes long to share that space that another might join you in taking the hearts to God in silence or out loud.   What a powerful gesture it is to seize the moment and pray with a friend. We might ought to pray soberly, watchfully, knowing the end is at hand. We might want to check some of our desires knowing this. We are at the time where every incident in life should suggest a prayer. We might see the end of things at any moment. God's dealings with mankind will not see another consideration for salvation. Our present state is itself even now the end. We ought to pray for endurance to stand under every hardship, while maintaining an attitude of patience as we stand. It is to be an attitude of humility and magnanimity and gentle forbearance. It is enduring without finding fault. We have a common duty to pray for one another. We should be aroused from the indifference shown toward the truths of God and have a view to perseverance in prayer for the coming of our Lord. Praying that God will work in the life of every person, of His people in a way that will bring them to the end of themselves, to recognize their lostness. This is endurance in faith. Prayer has this great reason…it establishes a right relationship with God. Never neglect how much of Himself God puts in our prayers. Prayer is a result of the reality of God’s omnipresence. There is only one thing that can keep you from coming before God in prayer…your choice…Jonah prayed from the ocean depths. The seriousness of prayer enhances our hearing God. Let nothing distract us during prayer. Our circumstances are brought to God, but they are not the focus. God is. We must focus on God else our prayer is idolatrous. Prayer is our access to a resource beyond human limits or even human understanding. God’s power and resources are offered to us to do His service. This is how the truth and the soundness of every word of God transform our prayer spiritually to bring our hearts into intimate harmony with the person of the Holy Spirit and enhances our surrender to His control, wisdom, and power for our prayers. The Spirit’s groanings then enables us to worship more fully as we are assured that intercession with God is made for us. Intercession is the continuing enfolding into Christ’s ministry. Christ’s ministry did not close with his death. His atoning work was finished then, but when he rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, he entered upon other work for us just as important in its place as His atoning work. It cannot be divorced from His atoning work; it rests upon that as its basis, but it is necessary to our complete salvation. What that great present work is, by which Jesus carries our salvation on to completeness…wherefore Jesus is able also to save us to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Unto entire completeness, absolute perfection, because he not merely died but because he also “ever liveth.” For what purpose he now lives…“to make intercession” for us, to pray. Praying is the principal thing he is doing in these days. It is by his prayers that he is saving us. Prayer through Christ takes us before God. It is this whereby we come to understand prayer as did Jesus. If we then are to have fellowship with Jesus Christ in his present work, we must spend much time in prayer; we must give ourselves to Prayer through Christ earnest, constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer. I know of nothing that has so impressed me with a sense of the importance of praying at all seasons, being much and constantly in prayer, as the thought that that is the principal occupation at present of our Jesus. We can have part in this. We can intercede for our brothers and sisters. We can come boldly, confidently, outspokenly approaching the throne of grace, the most holy place of God’s presence, where our sympathizing High Priest, Jesus Christ, has entered in our behalf. It is a transforming experience in the Holy of Holies. Infinite grace is at our disposal, and we make it ours experimentally by prayer. If we only realized the fullness of God’s grace that is ours for the asking, its height and depth and length and breadth, I am sure that we would spend more time in prayer. The measure of our appropriation of grace is determined by the measure of our prayers. In His presence is the fullness of joy. It is the bowing of the innermost spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him. Often in prayer it is prudent to let God begin the conversation rather than discharging our own thoughts. After all He abides with us more than we do with Him. Hearing Him ignites our heart with truth, wisdom, direction, focus, and passion in our prayer experiences. Worship-based prayer seeks the face of God before the hand of God. God’s face is the essence of who He is. God’s hand is the blessing of what He does. God’s face represents His person and presence. God’s hand expresses His provision for needs in our lives. If all we do is seek God’s hand, we may miss His face; but when we seek His face, He will be glad to open His hand and satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts according to His will. Let us not be content to simply pray from our own intellectual framework of understanding.   O ne that delights in biblical truth about God’s character, seeks the empowerment of the Spirit for application and articulation being surrendered to God’s word in intimate pursuit of His will. Prayer is not just about making requests of God. But what do we in our deep heart conceive God to be like. What comes to the mind as we think about God. We leave far behind our needs and wants, even our transformation. Here we give to God the various difficulties and trials that we face, asking Him to use them redemptively. We also voluntarily take into ourselves the griefs and sorrows of others. In this last day we are to pray in suffering and be changed. The language of ​“they” and ​“them” is converted into ​“we” and ​“us.” Together we stand at the cross. stand at the cross Faith tells us that we are about to be baptized into the sacrament of suffering. And as did Jesus in entreaty offer up prayers and supplication, with loud cries and tears, so will we. Our triumph in Christ goes through suffering, not around it. We pray for holy obedience. In the reality of prayer is God giving us both the grace to repent and to forgive. Earnest prayer proves our faith. Prayer isn't a place for us to be good or right, and it isn't a place for us to perform or prove our worth. It's a place for us to be honest, to be present, and to be known. We need not posture before God. God does not partially love us, He fully loves us. God made us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this life, and to spend all eternity with Him in heaven. Is this the purpose and the substance of our life? And so, prayer is a time and a place for us to offer ourselves to God and to receive of God in turn. Communion with each of the divine persons is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the eternally existing Triune. The ultimate end of the whole divine economy. This truth is infinite in scope and the human mind can only process that which is finite and limited in scope, and even then it often struggles. We don’t pray to three Gods. We pray to One God in whom there are three persons. That’s a faith relationship. According to God’s divine self-revelation, according to scripture, God is one in essence, and three in person. Prayer is that breath that sustains our spiritual life. Prayer fills the mind with truth and gives hope to the heart. Prayer deepens our moral life by taking it from the shallowness of the sensate, to an increasing experience of the divine life. Through prayer our mind is renewed, our soul is purified, our heart is converted, and we radiate the perfect unity of the family of heaven. In short, God informs us in prayer, the Spirit reforms us in prayer, Jesus transforms us as we become conformed to the image and likeness of the Us in God. This is the attractiveness of the light of truth. A light that leads us into the Divine Mystery. Prayer helps our minds to understand what our spirit knows. Prayer is a dialogue like no other. It heals and soothes, convicts and forgives, unbinds and sets free. It brings light to our understanding and illumination to our soul. It can do all this and more because this dialogue is conversation with God.  O utside of time and space Jesus is waiting for us to converse with him. He so wants to attract us to the truth of who his Father is and to reveal to us the truth of who we are in Him. He desires to engage us, to captivate us, and gently to unfold the petals of our heart with tenderness and unfold the petals of our heart care. He wants to pierce our darkness with the light of his love. He desires to transform us.   This is what true prayer is all about. Imbuing all that we do, indeed all that we are, with the life of God Himself.  Prayer takes the traumatic — such as seeing the reality of our condition — and makes it life changing. It takes our pain and our sorrow — such as broken relationships and unhappy decisions — and gives them eternal value. It takes our suffering — such as rejection, betrayal, and misunderstanding — and fills it with joy. In the end, prayer takes us — weak as we are — and makes us instruments of light and truth by transforming us into the object of our desire — Christ Himself. And we are sent forth to share the way, the truth, and life with others. we are instruments of light Mysteries remain, but in spite of them, let us persist in prayer and then rest in the sovereignty of God as we ask how came we to be so like our Jesus…our prayer life explains the mystery.

God is reproducing Himself God's purpose is something far bigger and far more important than we can totally comprehend. He is reproducing Himself. In broad generalities this purpose is shown in the opening chapters of Genesis. Right from the beginning, God wants to make sure that we understand where He is headed with His Word so that we can begin to process the information that comes along as we are guided into changing behavior and ingraining new spiritual objectives that the powerful truths of His purpose present. Spiritual objectives such as increased compassion, the certainty of faith, and sacrificial worship. The first most important clue…we are created in His image. Embedded in this image is the accommodating power of choice. This empowers us to heed God’s instructions in the very beginning, to choose life consciously, to avoid sin and death with the utmost of energy. Here is the intent of this purpose: that we be transformed from glory to glory - from the glory of man to the glory of God.   What truth can give us the confidence that we know and are fulfilling God’s purpose for our life? After all we are in a chaotic and unsettling time. It is sometimes hard to understand what God’s purposes may be and especially how God’s purposes are being worked out in our lives. This may not be yet revealed to us but this we do know…that God is indeed working out His plans in our lives. He uses His sovereign authority to determine the revelations His purposes contain and the sequence in which they are given and brought forth.  May we hear this suggestion: we can’t work it up on our own through human intellect and positive thinking. Rather, it is produced by the Holy Spirit, who works primarily, though not exclusively, through the holy scripture, which He uses to enlighten our minds and kindle faith in our hearts.    It’s as though God presents us through reasoning His character, purpose, and plan. We must intricately approach our need for guidance in the present time, which seem so urgent, in the context of God’s larger purpose. We must situate ourselves in a spiritual framework, whereby we can more readily discern and embrace God’s purposes in the unique circumstances of our lives, keeping uppermost in our minds that the God of the bible is our God of purpose. Specific purposes. And His purposes extend from eternity past to eternity future, encompassing not only the ultimate destiny of His creation, but every aspect of our personal lives, as well.   Specific purposes Everything was set determinately clear, fixed, and exact in counsel from the beginning. Then the employment of immense power and wisdom gave notice of the purposes by staging in the beginning, defined limits, periods of time, orders of precedence, essential events, settled consequences, certainty of truth. Before ever anything was brought forth, the Triune, in accord declared, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’. With that, the forever faithful has assurance and comfort of knowing that God is more than simply a purposeful, all-powerful Creator; God is good! God is going to reveal Himself in deeper ways by demonstrating more of His sovereign purposes and power by calling those who accept the gift of His Son to be as saviors of the world. God…has purposes and performs particular actions,…does one thing and not another, is a choosing, commanding, prohibiting God with a determinate character. Have you ever consciously wondered why God ceased a previous system, an array of disparate parts, an earth without form, void, and dark and fashioned them into a form appropriate for His next step? Supreme order and direction in what He will reveal originates in and from Him. Though normally invisible to humanity, He is clearly in control, initiating what will happen and also continuing to completion what He began. God readies His purpose for man that was determined. The orderly progression of time began, and activity continues as God arranges the environment in which purposed intentional events will take place in both a natural and spiritual progression. First, there must be light. From this point on, everything coming into view is made new. The “let there be” is purposefully instructive. His purpose is that we become as fully manifested in His image as He was when He made that pronouncement and remains to this day. The Father and Son are eternal spirit Beings of awesome intellect, character, power, and purpose. Being in the image of God does not mean becoming God. We were to choose to not know evil. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. But what had the first pair reasoned to be the full effect of what was said. God implies that from the beginning, He intended that mankind live forever! He means “forever”, even as He and the Son live forever. From the beginning in counsel, God providenced the “in the beginning”. It was His ultimate purpose that, when His creative efforts are complete, those whom He created would live forever in His image. And God made sure that the first pair was not ignorant of the truth. Let’s offer a conceptualization of this performance; divine love shall be brought to its most glorious perfection in every faithfilled individual ransomed by Christ. Then, in every heart, that love which now seems but a spark, shall be kindled to a bright and glowing flame, and every ransomed soul shall be as it were in a blaze of divine and holy love, and shall remain and grow in this glorious perfection and blessedness throughout all eternity.   In spite of sin, God’s purposes continue to move toward fulfillment through His elect, then finally and supremely through Jesus, God’s own Son. We are commissioned to go into the world and teach the word of truth to people where they are. If called by God, they will be born again. This begins the process of transformation designed to conform them to the likeness of Jesus, displaying His grace and glory in this present time to make them fit to live in His presence. These will come to know that they are God’s works of art, created in Christ to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for them to do. These will manifest the change of heart and character that comes from the new birth - the process of becoming holy in daily life through grateful, spirit-empowered obedience.   Being “holy” is the unfolding of a metamorphosis as we follow the teaching and example of Jesus, drawn forward by a grateful love. It is guided by holy scripture, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and manifested in the fruit of the Spirit, as we contend against the world, the flesh, and the enemy of God. The position of being set apart as God’s child, which is conferred upon us through new birth, justification and adoption into God’s family, and the process of change, sanctification, makes that position a progressively experienced reality. The goal of this process is to “be conformed to the image of His Son”, and it happens as we “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship” and seek to “be transformed by the renewal of our mind”.  T his involves every area of personal and moral and spiritual life, whether one is educated or illiterate. We were known, consecrated, and appointed before formed in the womb. And now God has purposed to reveal His Son in us. God’s calling us is predicated upon this: that we embrace His grace and love through faith in Jesus His Son Christ and that we respond to His grace with wholehearted surrender and the pursuit of Christlikeness. God calls us by a direct word or in rare cases, a word through others, or through an unusual circumstance. But normally, He works through a process using His written word, by which any other guidance must be judged. This process, which we usually find too slow, is purposeful, for it serves to draw us closer to Him in prayer, to keep us dependent on His word and Spirit, to help us surrender to His will, and to teach us about Himself and His ways and to so grow our faith as to have complete dependence upon Him. In a word, it is for our maturing.    process of growing in Christ is slow Think of the choices that we make each moment. How they forge the context in which God’s purposes are worked out; more important, they shape our lives and contribute to our transformation. It is an inescapable law of life that we make our choices, then our choices make us. Choices are transformative - for good or ill. This is why God calls us to reason. Every time we make a choice we turn the central part of ourselves, the part of us that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before the choice was made. It is so very important to reason with God for wisdom and guidance that unfold truth that establishes faith. We gain much insight and wisdom from the relevant biblical precepts and promises of God. Humility of heart and reverence for God are essential in God’s guiding us. He counsels us with His eye on us, indicating a more personal level of guidance. So, this is not a automated process of studying the bible as a book of rules, regulations, policies, and procedures, then coming up with the right answer. Rather, God is personally guiding and directing us through the Holy Spirit opening our understanding to the meaning and application of His word to the circumstances of our lives and the situations we face based upon His purpose for us. Choose not to be spiritually dull and rebellious to His guidance but rather docile and surrendered. We are to have wholehearted surrender and active faith in our commitment and trust to do His will whether we like it or not. We must resist the tendency to rely on our own understanding and instead seek God’s wisdom. We are to subordinate our understanding to God and His wisdom and never default to “what feels right”. Trusting God means waiting in the posture of faith. God sometimes uses delays to work deeply in our lives, testing our motives, deepening our faith, developing our patience, and aligning the circumstances required for His answer. Only then will we be in a position for Him to direct our paths.  T here is also a place to “listen to wise counsel and accept good instruction” from spiritually mature believers, parents or friends, who are known to be wise, godly, and well grounded in scripture, who have your back and want the right for you. All of this must be done with serious prayer and sometimes fasting and sometimes journaling your discourse with God. Have the confident assurance that in everything God has a purpose.     There is a caveat to the purposes of God that is so confounding. It is truly a mystery. Let’s reason here with God…we are always living in God’s purpose. God is God and He works all things, including our life, according to His purposes. Nothing can happen without God ordaining it. He has numbered our days and will fulfill every purpose He has for us. He has numbered our days However, our choices also really matter. In some ways, this is a mystery not fully understood, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. God’s purpose already determined, yet my choice matters…? We are created so uniquely that the pursuit of God is not optional. It is not an “extra” that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. God knows this and from a relationship, not choosing God renders you purposeless. See, God wants to give us purpose. He wants to bestow divine wisdom on us. He gave us faith that we would expect Him to give us purpose to begin to understand the heart of God.    God's mind is absolutely undivided. This means that His sovereignty can never be separated from His love; His grace cannot be separated from His omniscience; His judgment cannot be separated from either His mercy or His wrath. God is absolutely and constantly purposing change that was determined in His counsel because His faithful providence cannot be separated from any other of His attributes. God is whole and complete. Under every circumstance, He is never confused or uncertain about what to do. He is always headed in the right direction, which is to complete His purpose. It is absolutely impossible for Him to do anything that is not wise and at the same time loving. It is He who tells us how to live and how to be like Him. What God is has awesome ramifications for us because we are so different, and He wants us to be like Him, to be one with Him, to be whole, to be complete, to be undivided in mind with Him. Becoming this way requires a measure of cooperation from us. And God gives every person that measure. Note this spectacular performance. God is always working two things at once: He is performing His overall purposes for His creation, and simultaneously working His specific purposes for us as individuals and for His people. Out of this comes a principle. God is Jehovah-jireh, Jehovahnissi, Jehovah-shalom. He is Jehovah God, the Eternal who sees, the Eternal who provides.    Many have not yet heard the call. But God is certainly manipulating events to His own ends in their world as well as ours. God determines their preappointed times as well as where they will come to where we are to hear of Him. This means that He has predestined when they will rise to understanding and when they will fade from self. God has overseen the path of every person, the coming and going of every kingdom, the ploys of devils, and the gathering of His Israel nation over millennia, and has kept all of them moving toward the successful conclusion of His purpose! What kind of God is this we serve? How awesome His mind, purpose, wisdom, and love! Man does not merely owe his life to God's creative acts, but his movements across time are to the very extent ordered by our Sovereign God. Almighty God works in this manner to the end that all might seek and find Him. God's purpose is all that counts! In addition, since He is God, He can bring it to pass. God has the right, the will, and the loving nature to do anything He pleases to anybody at any time - and good will result. God’s sovereignty and involvement with the details of events persist from beginning to end; everything happens when, where, and how God planned. Our acceptance shows our faith in God. Through it all we trusts Him, not fully understanding every detail sometimes until after it is over. But God works throughout moments, days, years and in all the details toward a purpose and a time He has determined in advance.   The need for a relationship with our Creator is beginning to emerge. A spiritual creation, a creation process begun in Eden continues. Not as an expression of newness in the sense of “makeover.” The sense of being completely and newly formed. God’s hand forming every part how He wants it and determining how every part would function with every other system in His creation. A purposed person as a new individual with a new family, a new set of values, new motivations, and new possessions. Nothing new in this sense creates itself. But in Christ we have an idea what it is we are in the process of becoming. Are we making ourselves spiritually? We are no more making ourselves spiritually than we did physically. However, this creation is far more difficult and important because it requires our mindful and willing cooperation   with our Creator. God’s determination is of such a high purpose that He clearly and precisely allows us to foresee where our spiritual Creator is headed. To say it bluntly, without God's calling to His election, found in His purpose which creates the relationship with Him, there is no possibility whatever of knowing anything meaningful about what God is in the process of creating, and therefore no eternal, spiritual salvation would exist. God is purposing us for everlasting life. Therefore, it is our responsibility always to do whatever is necessary to seek Him and glorify Him, helping to keep the relationship going and knowledge increasing. Without the relationship that He invited us into, there is no possibility of ever accomplishing the end that He is heading toward and yielding to what He desires. It is as though He has removed the cherubims from the eastward entry of Jesus to allow us back into the Garden of Eden, right into the very source of every good and perfect gift that will enable us to glorify Him by fulfilling our responsibilities to Him. It is as if He says, as He opens the gate, “now there, let's begin the next step in My overall purpose!”   We are to take certain factors into consideration, because they affect our lives. And God does have an overall purpose. How near is Jesus’ return?  Might there be occasions when God deeply tests our faith because other people's situations whose lives touch on ours must be resolved first? We may be called to suffer mightily in the process, not really understanding what is happening. We appeal to God, but we hear no answer because other things were being worked out through, around, for and about someone in our sphere, of which we are totally unaware. We are not privy to every purpose God has for another. The individual may not know until the episode is resolved. We may have to endure much emotional anguish while the whole situation plays out. For a while, God was a God from afar. But faith tells us that God was near because He strengthened us. We limit not God. He can work from afar for our good while always being nearby. As we think on God and His intent, remembering His purpose, we no longer think and act from an earthly point of view. Our minds open the possibility of an "above the sun" perspective of life that can teach us that God is to be considered in all things. By being a means of helping Him to form us into what He desires, our internal disgust with self can motivate cooperation with God and produce growth to maturity. God's calling, His reasoning with us, and the revelation of Himself and His purpose are favors beyond calculation. We have only one opportunity for salvation. Tremendous gain rests in what the called children of God are experiencing. We must choose to direct our lives to follow an "above the sun" perspective so that our lives are not meaningless. The choice lies between searching out earthly imaginings or submitting to what God has revealed. Understanding God’s purposes reveals much about our consideration for Christ. God's concern is for events in life involving moral, spiritual, and ethical choices. Whether one chooses a red or blue car makes no difference morally, but red car or blue car? whether we buy a car when other family needs are more pressing is another situation altogether. This choice may shape character and therefore purpose. Too many today are stiff-necked, opinionated, and self-willed. Sometimes this occurs because of ignorance or cultural influences. Far too often however, the cause of our poor moral and ethical choices is pride and self-righteousness. So much so, to the point that some will actually choose the lake of fire! Others, though their inferior works burn because of their poor choices, God will mercifully spare them.  In this we come to know that prayer's major purpose is to give us an additional, effective way to draw near to and harmonize with the Spirit. We must have access to God…to His nature to live right, to live according to His purpose. So what is meant as God says He changes not. He has never altered His purpose from the beginning. Because God has a purpose that He has been working out from the very beginning, He looked beyond what people do to destroy and remove themselves from His purpose. God, in a sense, overlooks what people do all the way to the last day, to the conclusion of His purpose for them. He did not carelessly call us. We may want to consider more deeply how valuable our conduct and attitude are to the entirety of the purpose of God. No challenge in our life is without divine purpose and approval. God's providence is in control in every aspect of our lives. We understand, if we are His election, that God assigns a place in the outworking of His purpose to everyone He calls. We must respond to God's grace, to His calling, to His gift of Christ, to His gift of the Holy Spirit, to His gift of revealing to us knowledge and understanding of what is happening. We must respond - that is, love God in return. We must be one of "the called according to His purpose," one of the elect.    God is reproducing Himself. He will not limit His options to avoid offending a humanity that lacks His Spirit and is therefore wholly incapable of sharing His perspective. He will bring His purpose about. His purpose and plan, is a mystery, a secret that is impossible to penetrate except by reasoning with God Himself. Man would never find out what God intends, except that God gives it to us by revelation. We have in no way earned this revelation. We have it because it pleased God to give it to us. He withholds it from others, but He has given it to us. He is in no way beholden to us, as if He owed us something. We could dig in His Word over our entire lifetimes and never come to what He freely gives to us for His purposes, for His own reasons. Had we not responded to and accepted His command to come we would never have caught the vision of His purpose. If you are called as His election in His purpose you are as the one man among the many at the Pool of Bethesda. Why was this one purposed? It was God’s will. Clearly, He treats and responds to individuals according to the counsel of His own mind, and He answers to no one. He does this even in the lives of His children. What right do we have to murmur about the discomforts He creates for us to endure and grow within? He could rescue everybody in every uncomfortable circumstance, but He does not. Have we fully accepted that He may choose difficult things for us? Pay attention intensely to what God is doing in our lives! What we see going on in the world during our time has not been brought to pass by men but by the invisible God. This unseen unseen hand hand is manipulating events so that the person of faith can understand that history is not an endless cycle of repetition; it is getting ready to end. God is drawing things to a conclusion. When we come to understand the design of His purpose we will come to the wisdom to understand the overall subject is the return of Jesus Christ. Then will be revealed to us the whole panorama of God’s purpose. God has the whole process planned out, and He is so confident of His ability to accomplish it that He perceives it as already done!   He knows the end from the beginning…

OnlineBibleCourse: Deepen your search for truth in the bible and learn about Christ. Sounds of Manna -Hymn 10 - Jesus Paid It All Play Video Free books! Play Video The Seed Play Video The Truth Play Video The Truth Watch Now Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Close DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED ARE EXTRACTS, EXCERPTS, OR COMPILATIONS AND ARE NOT COPYEDITED. MANY WORKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS ARE USED. THERE IS NO AUTHOR HERE…IT IS A COMPILATION FOR YOUR LEARNING Schedule Learn at your own pace. Grade your own quizzes. No schedule. No deadline. Contact He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone , and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Revelation 2:17 KJV Online Bible Courses No Cost *New Blog Entries Added Weekly* Bible Prophecy Charts & Maps Learn where we are in the stream of time Bible Helpful Links From reputable sources About About White Stone Bible Study Online/OnlineBibleCourse Have you had questions about the Bible? Perhaps you just want to know more about the life of Jesus or how to become a better person. Or, rather, you have come here to learn more about prophecy and the events that are coming upon this earth. Well, put on your seatbelt, because you are about to have a bumpy ride; these studies may cause you to question long-held church traditions that might make you ponder and wonder...

Prayer Requests, King James Bible, Strong's Concordance, Spirit of Prophecy Scripture Index, Spirit of Prophecy Topic Index Helpful Links For Bible Study Online T o assist you on your way to enlightenment in spiritual things. Psalms 77 [13] Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? King James Bible The KJV is the only bible that aligns and agrees with Strong's Concordance... Strong's Concordance It takes every single word of the KJV and lists where each word can be found in the scriptures. Spirit of Prophecy Scripture Index Starting in the 1840's, William Foy (a free Black man) and then Ellen White, received visions from God. Ellen White wrote extensively and her writings agree with that of the Biblical prophets. Spirit of Prophecy Topic Index Ellen White's writings are not an addition to Scripture, nor do they replace or contradict it; instead they elevate the Bible as the true source of inspiration and light. Adobe Acrobat Installer Adobe Acrobat Reader installer download. Please verify that your computer or phone has the data capacity to download successfully. Mark 11 [24] Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. [25] And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. [26] But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Prayer Requests If you are in need of prayer, we will add your name to our Prayer List, which will be prayed upon every morning. As a prerequisite, we ask that you read the above verse in Mark 11 first. First Name Last Name Email Send ....neverless not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42 excerpt)

A Word for His Servants Only, Parallel Darkness- Part 5 Price $0 Duration 7 Minutes < Back About the Course A Word for His Servants Only, Parallel Darkness - Part 5 Revelation 17 [ 15 ] And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. A Word for His Servants Only, Parallel Darkness - Part 5 .pdf Download PDF • 91KB Your Instructor White Stone Learn more and more about Jesus