Understanding your faith in God and His promises is extremely important for your salvation and continuation in this life. Before we start I want to ask you some questions. 1. Do you believe in the Promises of God? 2. Do you use what God says that you have? 3. Do you pray expecting to receive? 4. Do you pray believing that God is able to deliver? 5. Do you look for your prayers to be answered? 6. Are you praying in the will of God? 7. Do you know what the will of God is? 8. Do you get disappointed when God doesn't answer your prayers? Our faith is based on Believing that God is and that He is able to deliver on His promises. Many wonder why Gods acceptance of us into Heaven is based on; 1. Believing on Him. 2. Accepting His Son Jesus as Lord and Christ. and 3. Living the life that God directs us in by the guidance of the Holy Ghost. First we must look at our justification. Justification is Gods act making a sinner righteous before Him by His grace, received through the faith given to the person by God, for Christ's sake, because of his life, death, and resurrection. No sacrament or any church ritual is at all relevant in this matter; (in other words mans idea of being justified before God has little effect on the salvation of man,(Churches doctrine and rituals cannot justify.) full justification takes place at the moment a sinner admits sin, recognizing that without faith in Jesus, being the son of God, he is lost and separated from God, and trusts in the sacrifice of Christ who took the punishment for that sin. Sanctification is what follows as a result of gratitude for Justification already completed; it must never be confused with justification. Romans 5:1-2; Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: As Paul states in Romans 5:1, we are justified by faith. Faith in who? Jesus the Christ. The word, Christ is not a name but a Title of Royalty. (Jesus is the only one delegated by God to hold this title.) By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Having peace with God, gives us the blessings of the Father, thru His Son, and He acquaints us as being a Child of His. We then are given the Titles and Status as, Kings and Priests before Him. 1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) Mans wisdom is limited to the physical, things that can be seen. The Bible states that, the Sun and Rain, are all given out to the just and the unjust, and this will be so untill the end of time. Faith is; Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence; the judgment that what another states or testifies is the truth. Faith is a firm, cordial belief in the veracity of God, in all the declarations of his word; or a full and affectionate confidence in the certainty of those things which God has declared, and because he has declared them. Romans 10:17; So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. We see in Romans 10:17 how faith comes, by hearing Gods word preached, but faith in God brings about a faith in the reality of Satan and His legions as well. Yes as we believe in God, we also gain a belief in Satan as well. Why? When we believe in God, we also believe in His instructions on dealing with this other side of mankinds life, unrighteousness. The Bible teaches us how to rebuke and controll the evil elements that are sent against the righteous, by Satan, to destroy our Faith in God. From evil comes all the bad sides of man, rape, theft, murder, ect. Why does God declare that even the sociable individual must believe? Lets look at; Romans 9:21, Hath not the potter(God) power over the clay(Mankind), of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (The acceptance of one and the rejection of another.) Isaiah 64:8, But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. This passage is preceded in Isaiah by one declaring the depravity of man; Isaiah 64:6, We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Barnes states; As they were polluted with sin, as they had transgressed the Law of God. The passage in Isaiah proves that God has the right of a sovereign over guilty individuals; that in Jeremiah, that he has the same right over nations; thus meeting the whole case as it was in the mind of the apostle. These passages, however, assert only the right of God to do it, without affirming anything about the manner in which it is done. He refers to man as fallen and lost. His argument is this: Man is in ruins: he is fallen; he has no claim on God; all deserve to die; on this mass, where none have any claim, he may bestow life on whom he pleases, without injury to others; he may exercise the right of a sovereign to pardon whom he pleases; or of a potter to mould any part of the useless mass to purposes of utility and beauty. When Jesus died, we all fell into the same lump, the same category, the same unrighteousness. There were none good nor justified. God granted us all a chance at life everlasting in Heaven, but with the stipulation that we believed in His Son and Honored His word. As the prophets stated, God will not inter-fear with mans life as one who rejects His offer, but at the end of a mans life, God promises him that he will be judged on his works, weather they be good or evil. Without acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Christ, mans works become evil and will be judged as such. , condemning him to life everlasting in the Lake of Fire. In this life, do you not have the right to do what ever you desire with the things you possess? You car, money, home, ect. When a man comes in and steal from you, don't you require him to pay for his theft, and if someone enters into your family and kills one, done you require his life as restitution? If so, then God also requires payment for His Sons death and sacrifice. There is no difference. Now the answer to the questions is this. It should have been ,Yes. to all. 2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Number 8. Do you get disappointed when God doesn't answer your prayers? WE all do at times because we are still in the flesh. God understands. |
