Spirit Soul and Body Part 3 - Faith and Grace

Spirit Soul and Body Part 3 Faith and Grace Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: Ephesians 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. God has made it easy for us We Christians have a bad habit of making simple things very complicated. The scriptures make it clear that even a child can understand and do what is required, so what is the problem? For a number of years I worked for a marketing company which had the simple motto KISS, which meant “keep it simple stupid” we Christians need to take heed to that admonition. Does not the word say… Isaiah 35:8  And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Becoming as a little child Matthew 18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is quite a profound statement; the problem is we don’t believe it. We believe unless we are very spiritual, or very educated in the things of God we cannot walk in the realities of the Kingdom now.  The Galatian church had the same problem that we have today. Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love…. God requires we walk in faith and love. That is not complicated Galatians 5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? Galatians 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? The Galatian church had started well but began to fall from grace into works. They began to believe that circumcision or works was needed in order to please God, much   like the church of today. The scripture is clear in as much as it tells us that works cannot please God or cause us to walk with Him, only faith and love which are gifts from the Lord can enable us to please God. Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Two great pillars of the church Grace and Faith We already have everything that we need to successfully fulfill our purpose in coming to this earth. Not only does He give us assignments but He supplies the ability and gifts to fulfill those assignments. We are right now complete in Him, your spirit man has all it needs to complete its course on this planet. If you can grasp this and believe it you are on the way to a walk with the Lord that you never dreamed was possible.  Faith believes Gods word what God says without doubt, and faith comes by hearing God speak either through the word or directly to us. We cannot please God without faith. He that comes to God must believe that He is or that He exists and hears us. This seems simple and it is, but many Christians do not believe what God says either in His word or direct to them.  Many even teachers of the word will explain away Gods word by spiritualizing it or explain why it doesn’t literally mean what God says. He that comes to God must believe. Believing is seeing or is seeing believing? We often hear the phrase “seeing is believing” but that is not true, to really see you must first believe. This is where the secular mind falls down every time; the secular mind must have a rational explanation before it can believe. You cannot understand the things of God unless you first believe them. Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By believing we understand Childlike faith or trust The qualities of childhood are Innocence, Trust,  A sense of wonder, Fascination, Belief, Joy, Happiness,  Present–moment living, these magical qualities of childhood is what the Lord wants us to become like. It requires an absolute surrender to the Lord and a will committed to obey and follow Him in all things, living from our spirit, aware of our spirit and above all trusting Him implicitly with our lives knowing that all things work together for good to them who love God and are called into His purposes. We forget that we are more than human beings on a spiritual journey; in reality we are spiritual beings on a human journey. This world is not our final home we are here to learn how to love and how to obey the Lord implicitly. The world is a schoolhouse where we learn to how to cooperate with the Lord as sons, training to become an extension of Gods purposes and plans in the ages to come. To walk in the spirit with the Lord requires that we learn to walk from our spirit which is joined to the Lord. Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Blessings Neville Johnson  25 May 2009