Confession of Faith

July 20, 2015

Philippians 3:3-6
I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Confession of Faith

Sometimes, if I start to see myself after the flesh, I will become discouraged, depressed and defeated. I will focus on all of the things I am not, all of the places I still fail, all the places I’m still selfish and self-centered and on all of that which I don’t yet see. I will allow my circumstances to dictate a life that I left behind when I identified myself with Christ on that cross and died to that old man of sin and death. If I allow myself, I could go back there again, but then that would be to deny Christ and what He has done for me. That would be to say that I wasn’t raised in the newness of His life, to live out of His life and no longer my own. That would be to return again and live under the law of sin and death, rather than out of the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus. That would be to embrace the flesh, whose end is death and corruption, rather than embracing the Spirit, who enables and empowers me to walk in Life in the divine nature of His love.
What I am identifying with is what I am and am becoming, whether it be flesh or Spirit. It isn’t dependent upon what I see outwardly, it is fully dependent upon my believing the promises that my God gave to me or forsaking them to go back from whence I came. Behind me is only what brought me guilt and shame, but before me is my Jesus who has promised to bring to completion the good work that He began in me.
No, I may not see the fullness of Him yet, but I will keep pressing into Him, expecting and believing for His highest for me. I will not allow the discouragement, natural circumstances and even facts to detour me from the truth that I know in my heart. For I refuse to see through natural eyes alone anymore. He is teaching me to see all things after the Spirit; myself, my spiritual family and even the world around me. As I walk in the faith of who He is in me, I see more clearly others through God’s heart of love. I see that I walk in the earth, but I live out of heaven. I live in Christ Jesus who sits at the right hand of the throne of God. From that place I know that whatever touches my life has to come through the Father and the Son. I know that He works all things to my good, even the bad things, because He has loved me and called me according to His purpose. He doesn’t just love me, but in that love He corrects me, teaches me and stretches me. He makes me to come out of the dependency of my flesh, so that I can more full rest and rely upon Him. Only there will I learn of His rest that He has for me and only there can I operate out of the fullness of faith without which it is impossible to please Him.
I don’t know everything, I just know His Word. I don’t understand everything, I just trust the Holy Spirit to help me understand what I need to know. Life has a new meaning and purpose because He is in it. Because of that, it is no longer about me, it is all about Him. He has told me that all of His promises to me are “yes and amen”. As I walk in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me, I believe I can walk into all that He has prepared for me. I don’t believe I have to die and go to heaven to experience and live out of a more abundant life. I believe heaven wants to live that abundant life through me as I walk in the earth. I believe God wants to manifest that kingdom in my earthen body as it is in heaven, but He can’t do that while I am still caught up in me. So with God’s grace and the power of His Spirit I submit myself and my will, which is the one gift He has allowed me to give to Him.
If you are looking for perfection in me, you won’t see it yet, but know that even in my human frailty and weakness I pursue Him who knows none. His blood continues to wash me and His grace certainly carries me. Out of His strength and abundance I will live and declare the name of the Lord, for He is my salvation, both now and evermore.

Blessings,
#kent

Advertisement

Matthew 7: 21-27
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
4″Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

It is not in the Hearing, but in the Doing


We can hear and have knowledge of many things through our life.  Some things we will embrace mentally, philosophically, morally and spiritually.  There are many things that can play into our belief system, but how does it come out in who we are as a person and how we live.  Jesus came as the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Many people heard of Him and still do.  Many people read the Bible, go to church and listen to the Word of God being preached and taught.  Many people embrace the ideas of Christianity and even claim to be Christians, but here in this passage Jesus is defining what a true Christian and disciple is.  Strangely enough He is telling us that there will be those who operated out of the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit.  There will be those who actually performed miracles and prophesied in the name of the Lord, but that in itself does not qualify them for the kingdom of heaven.  You see we can experience the Lord and even know all about Him, but what counts is our relationship with Him.
I can know another woman.  She can be my friend and I can know all about her, but it doesn’t make her my wife.  For her to be my wife we need to enter into a covenant relationship with one another where our lives and purpose are no longer two but one.  I must enter into a level of intimacy and commitment with her that I can have with no other.  I come to know her in the most intimate sense of relationship and she knows me in that same way.  The same is true of our commitment and relationship with Jesus.  We can’t just rub spiritual shoulders and say that we really know Him and are in that intimate relationship with Him.  Our covenant with Christ is a spiritual union where we come to know Him as our husband.  He gave His life for us and now our life becomes lost to self-identity and one in Him.  The proof of that relationship is in the doing.  It is not just good works, religious deeds or even miracles and spiritual manifestations.  It is in practicing His presence where He is a part of all that you are and do.  His Words go from our head to our hearts and they become expression through the way that we live our lives.  They become the expression of His love and life that we are to others.  We learn to walk by the Spirit and no longer in the flesh.
Jesus likens His Word to building a foundation.  The sand is like the Word without the substance.  If we just build on the Words and the ideas we are building a house on a sand foundation.  It may work okay for awhile, but when the storms and adversities of life come it will fall because there is no substance that binds the sands of God’s truth to our lives.  If we take sand and mix it with cement and water we have come away with concrete which is like the rock.  It takes the Word, the embracing and practicing of that Word in practical life experience along with the water, which is like the Spirit that helps the sand and cement to become one.  As we know Christ we are able to endure things and withstand temptation and trials, because His life has become solidified within us.  We know longer see ourselves apart from Him, but one with Him.  The manifestation of His life is in our actions and not just in our words.   When we face the storms of testing and trials our faith will stand because our lives are embedded in Christ and in Him we live and move and have our being.
We can’t build a house on the sand of what we know or even what we believe in our heads.  It has to be built upon an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ wherein we know Him intimately and personally.  We have need of the water and the cement that binds that sand to our hearts and lives and makes us one with Him.

Blessings,
kent

%d bloggers like this: