Faith in the Word...

(Hebrews 13:7) “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”

We now will hopefully spend some time over the next week or so looking at the brilliance of God’s “apparent foolishness” as he exposes the hearts of men as they profess to be wise but in fact are fools. Simply put, God laughs at those who take Him on as He openly exposes their own folly! We will also look at individuals that embraced faith with both arms and then some. And why they were so persuaded and hopefully draw some parallels for our own lives, furnishing us with new vigour to serve God faithfully through faith.

But before we open this amazing topic, I would like to remind you how I find daily inspiration for this blog and how it takes its direction. Without the application of faith to it, it would be a futile exercise. Why? It would be so man-centred that it would be no heavenly good. I strongly believe in the work of God the Holy Spirit as He guides and leads God’s children. As much as this blog is for me as it deals with my emotions and struggles I do strongly believe that it is also speaking to others. This is the way God in His brilliance is able to minister into the hearts of His Children. How then do I find the direction this blog should take? I often wake up in the early hours of the morning with a thought. Take this morning as an example; I was challenged with death and faith and that those who lived by faith would not ever fear death. That was the thought, so now before I let that consideration run riot I need to seek out scripture that will confirm my reflection. This is a safe and accurate way to be sure that we are listening to the voice of God and not our vain imaginations. For many will come claiming to have been of service to God on judgment day and He will reject many as evil workers.

How is it then that I need to walk by faith and not be so in control that I hinder the work of God the Holy Spirit in my life? The answer is simple! Find contextual scripture and verse to back up what you believe you have heard. I have often heard sincere people, usually babes in Christ, say that they speak to God in their own way and they have a very close relationship with Him, praise God for that, Christianity is a very personal experience. But when you hear a voice speak against the Word of God, it cannot be God’s voice as He will never deny Himself. It is imperative that when we walk by faith that we use God’s map (the bible) to guide our footsteps along this Celestial Road toward the culmination of our hope, Heaven!

It is the Word that Satan will attack, that has been his ploy from the beginning. Remember the Garden of Eden and what the devil said to Eve; "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" (Gen 3:1) – Lets us now observe how this type of reasoning affects us today... God spoke and gave Adam an instruction, and that instruction was not to eat of that tree’s fruit. The instruction was clear and concise, but what the serpent now does is he twists the command as he realises that Eve had not listened to God’s Word accurately (now whether Adam was guilty in conveying that message accurately or not to His wife I cannot say, God knows!); her response to the serpent was; - “but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"(Gen 3:3) – Through this text God said nothing about touching the fruit; Eve was not paying attention to the voice of God. Satan as the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field and he exploits her weakness and gets her to then eat the forbidden fruit, objective accomplished! Satan twists the words of God to lure His children into sin; it is as simple as that! What then is our safe Guard? It is to accurately listen to the voice of God through scripture. It must be unpacked in context; as soon as we take scripture out of context we then open ourselves to be lead astray by the wiles of the devil. .

Let’s use another illustration to support this train of thought; through Matthew 6 the Lord Jesus instruct those who surrounded Him then, but now instructs us through the written Word, the Bible! He teaches us many truths and points out some safe-guards on how we should conduct ourselves. At the end of the chapter the Lord then tells us not to be anxious and illustrates through creation how God is perfectly in control and then instructs us to be anxious for nothing. Much of the concluding chapter addressing our daily needs, “food and raiment” and He makes a promise to us the believers, He tells us that God will supply all our needs. I have often heard people misquote the next verse; they say God will give me all I need and they read Matthew 6:33 like this; “But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.” But that is not accurate. Look at the difference when we read it appropriately; “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The promise is to those who first seek out God and His righteousness, only those who put God’s plans first will be beneficiaries of this promise. Now this is what it means to live by faith and how we are to use the Word correctly in order to reap the rewards of God’s promises.

Satan also uses the Word of God, but his objective is to misrepresent it. Even the written Word Himself, the Lord Jesus was challenged by the devil as he endeavoured to use God’s Word against Him, trying to get the Lord to sin...

“And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"” (Matthew 4:3-7) – Note the importance the Lord Jesus places on the Word of God when combating the devil, in fact even Satan notes the importance of the Word of God as he tries to misrepresent it. Do you then think we should take the Word of God seriously?

In conclusion; we must align our faith with the Word of God as it is of utmost importance if we are to be effective in this dying world, where so many apparent Christians hold the Word of God with such low esteem. May God equip His children to fly the banner of truth, without compromise to His Holy Word, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone