It was David who said “it is good for brethren to dwell together”, indeed, God is One and His Spirit is the same. In this vein, the Holy Spirit continued the first sermon through another vessel, establishing His word in our hearts. There’s no small word of God, right? Thus, we must respect, cherish, and apply the word of God. The revelation of one word is enough to change a man’s life forever!
TEXT: Luke 18:1-8, Jude 1:2, Ephesians 4:4, Luke 9:1, Hosea 12:1, Hosea 7:11, 1Corinthians 12:6-9
We can say from scriptures that there are three phases of faith. The first is called “the Faith”, the second is the “gift of faith”, and lastly “faith”. Whilst what Jesus requested whether or not he would find when he returns back to earth was the third one -and that we wish to dwell on as far as this convention is concerned, it will however be needed to say a few things -if need be -on the three.
THE FAITH (Jude 1:3)
The first faith is such that gives salvation, as recorded in Jude 1:2, if you do not have that, God does not recognize you, and guess what? That salvation doesn’t have duplicates -it is common -it is One! (Eph. 4:4) and you can only get it by that common faith that Paul says to us that it is One! This faith has its registers -what proves exact that you have it. We could go on to talk about what makes up this faith. This “the Faith” does not recognize trinity as a building block; in this faith, the fivefold ministry is strictly reserved for men -for they are in the position of eunuchs to dress the bride of Christ, thus faithful men are required as chamberlain worthy of presenting the king’s wife to him according to his heart. What more? The entire baptism done in the Act of the Apostles was in the name of Jesus Christ, and baptizing contrary would absolutely mean that you are not in the faith -and you know what that means, don’t you? You don’t have the salvation God recognized.
THE GIFT OF FAITH (1COR. 13:1)
This faith comes from the “The Faith ”, however, it’s a gift, thus, we do not have it alike -it differs in measure.
Whilst these two are wonderful and needed, we cannot enjoy Jesus if we do not launch into this third phase of faith.
FAITH (Matthew 15:22-)
In this third phase is where Jesus is enjoyed, is where the demonstration takes place, is where God is put to work. In another word, it is called “the work of faith”. God has been tagged disabled and incapable because we are unable to enter into this dimension. Some points are needed to understand this faith if we closely look at the environment in which this scripture was situated -Luke 18.
- Prayer: Luke 18:1 reveals to us that the essence of the parable that Jesus was about to put forth was to make us understand the potency of prayer. Meaning, if we only understand how much of a result we can get through that kind of faith, we will always pray and not faint. You need to know this to know how to put God to work.
- Patience & endurance: do you realize that the judge was wicked and would not heed the request of that poor widow? The judge would not even fear God but the woman kept knocking, she kept seeking, she kept asking. Oh brother, for everyone who keeps knocking, the door would indeed be open. The patience she exercised made her persistent, and she wouldn’t even mind the attitude of the judge, she proved herself and put God to work. Of course, God would try your faith. Your patience and endurance in this time is what proves your faith worthy of result.
- Character: In Matthew 15:22-26, the woman of Canaan who came to Jesus and received such a ridiculous response, didn’t find offense in that, instead the bible says, “she worshiped him”. Faith has character. A spiritual man doesn’t work by feelings. Guess what? It will always be to you according to your faith. Per adventure she got angry and uttered some negative words, it will be to her as she has said, but because she stayed positive even when she wasn’t getting a desired response, Christ turned around and changed the situation.
If we understand these, then we should be able to activate this faith, and put God in action. So brethren it is expedient for us as believers to work in the reality of this understanding and I pray that God increases us in Jesus Christ Name.