The link to my book - Destroy and Deliver (Autobiography)

Sunday 3 July 2016

Fruit and faith

It is easy to claim something as your own, lip service happens all the time but how often is something claimed that shouldn’t be. I can say that a particular motor vehicle is mine but unless I have the paperwork to prove it, I would not legally be able to sell that car.

The Bible is full of statements that came from the mouth of our glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ and the more I examine them the deeper I am taken concerning the profound simplicity in which He arrived at his conclusions. He was rather ingenious in a simple kind of way. He never muddied words in his explanations, but arrived at his point accurately and precisely. And when we are true to the text it is hard to find wiggle room on what has been penned.

Jesus was seen walking on water, leaving the discipline in a quandary and full of fear believing him to be a ghost; The Lord Comforts their hearts reassuring them that it was him walking towards them on water. Amazingly no scientific explanation was give on how he achieved this miraculous deed. Peter cries out like so many of us have done in the past, “command me to come to you on the water.” Look at the Lords reply, “come”. Peter was eager to go and so he did and when he saw the wind he began to doubt and immediately started sinking which instinctively caused him to cry out, “Lord, save me.” And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. What amazes me is what came next; "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" – Faith demands our ability to trust God at His word regardless of any scientific proof required by our natural brains to reconcile how something actually works. I do not believe that God expects us to walk blindly as we are called to walk by faith. He calls us to put us trust in Him. This is known in scriptures as “faith towards God”. It is the Word of God that we are called to follow and in so doing we need to believe what is written even if we can’t get our heads around certain truths. Peter saw the Lord Jesus walking on water believing that if Jesus commanded it he could do the same, until his carnality caught up with him, his brain needed and explanation. Faith does not! The cares of this life is what often chokes the once so called believer to reverting back to a nominal lifestyle where sight is dominate.

As Christian maturing in Christ we need to arrive at a place of total dependency upon our God and often it is in spite of our circumstances which exposes the core of our belief. We all want to receive accolades, it is nice to be noticed and we learn the feeling of this from an early age, report cards, and colours for sporting achievements and so on. Faith has proof attached to it and it speaks loudest when the chips are down and God’s people are not moved. As an outsider who reasons with their natural abilities they see failure, but God sees something far greater, those who have learnt to walk by faith, trusting Him in spite of their circumstances. A man is jobless and he holds onto to Gods Word, the Lord Jesus Christ and without any criminal activity and against all odds he doesn’t starve to death. God looks out for his own, praise his name!

Here is his point of view explained in a portion of the faith chapter of the Bible. The world sees something totally different and they see these individuals as a bunch of failures who achieved very little in this life, but those looked upon in that way were in fact focused on eternity, which is a concept foreign to the natural mind; “Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated-- of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” (Hebrews 11:36-38)   

“You will know a tree by its fruit” is an obvious deduction or at least it should be, certain trees produce differing fruits. Who goes to an orange farm to get apples? That would be absurd, even a three year old understands this. Why then do people flock to those who claim Christianity and yet it is obvious that those in charge know nothing about sound doctrine? The simple truth taught throughout the Bible is shelved and their focus shifts to a twisted manipulated slant on faith attached to a prosperity message. Or the idea of fame is jumped at whilst everyone has a word for someone else, when the ones prophesying have in fact been deceived into believing that they are God’s chosen for the hour, when in fact all they seek is personal accolades. And then there are the less obvious traits that we see closer to home, nuances that tell a different story to what is being claimed and yet the Lord Jesus announced simply, “you will know a tree by its fruit”. It not about what we achieve here on earth but how we are willing to lay down the comforts of this life as we learn to walk by faith, loving our brothers as ourselves. Christianity is all about trusting God at His Word, which will come at a cost, it must if it is to be tried and tested and we are to come out on the other side refine and worthy to fly the flag of faith with the stamp of God’s approval endorsing it.

God singled out Moses and this is what it cost him; “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.” (Hebrews 11:24-28)

We cannot claim to be people of faith if our lives depict a totally different story. God help us all to walk by faith and to put to death the voices in our heads that leads us down the road of carnality which is another road altogether. The correct road that will harvest the right fruit is the road named "faith towards God".

Signing off

Tyrone

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