Seeking Jesus First - April 24, 2023
Who owns your faith?
Who is in charge of your faith?
“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3, NKJV)
If God still owns and controls your faith, He didn’t really give it to you.
If you own your faith and you are in charge of your faith, who is responsible for the growth and use of your faith?
If it is really true that you own your faith and you are in charge of your faith and you are responsible for the growth and practice of your faith, then God surely would have included instructions in His Word and He would have given you examples and He might have even given you an ever present teacher to help in its development.
Didn’t God do just that?
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4, NKJV)
Can you get victory over the world without your faith?
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17, NKJV)
How does faith come?
Can you hear the Spirit without the word of God?
Can The Spirit give you faith without the word of God?
The Spirit does not work on its own without The Word of God. And The Word of God does not work on its own without The Spirit of God. Go ahead and settle in your heart the unity of The Spirit and The Word.
Ignore either or both to your own detriment.
Parable of the Mina’s Luke 19:12-27 “Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ “And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.’ Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.’ “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.’ (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas.’) ‘For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’ ”” (Luke 19:12–27, NKJV)
In this parable, the employees or stewards were given charge of some of the boss’s finances. They were all given the same amount. Because they were given charge of this money, the money became their responsibility, they were responsible for its management and growth. The nobleman would return and hold them accountable.
What kept the bad steward from investing? Fear, The enemy of faith. He was unwilling to take responsibility for the very thing that the master had given him responsibility. Even though this bad steward knew that the nobleman was going to hold him accountable, he determined just to give back what was given to him. He made no effort because of his fear.
Now let’s makes some comparisons to find similarities and differences to where we are now:
- D- We are adopted and not merely servants but we do have stewardship of the things God gives us to oversee. We’ve been set free, born again, filled with Holy Spirit and He is always present with us. We are family. What God has given us is our inheritance.
- D- They were given money. We were given relationship with God through faith. We were given the kingdom of God. But it all starts with the gift of faith.
- S- The reward for good stewardship is rewarded exorbitantly.
- S- God wants us to use what He gives us and grow them.
- S- Fear is the enemy of faith.
- S- The reward for not growing and using your faith is NOTHING. There is no reward for not using your faith.
We have the God kind of faith and we are expected to use it enough to live by it.
As you can see, we are back where we started.
God gave us His faith because that’s the only kind of faith that He has.
We have been given the handbook of faith.
We have been given examples of faith.
We have been given a permanent “live in” faith teacher.
So start where it’s easiest.
Jude 20–21, NKJV “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
Pray in the Spirit. This means pray in tongues. Pray in the spirit often, especially when feeling the unction or leading to do so.
1 Peter 1:22-2:3, NKJV “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
Desire the word of God as if you are a baby and The Word is your mothers milk so that you can grow.
Read it, Hear it, Say it, Do it, Receive it, and Tell it.
If we approach The Word of God with this much desire, we can’t help but grow our faith.
Your Teacher, Helper and Comforter is with you and in you. When you mess up, repent and receive the mind of Christ.
This is a relationship. We are one family. We are walking together with each other and we are walking together with Our Father.