In the substance of your being do I exist. In the evidence of who you are, invisible, Eternal, do I find my place.
In the intimate places of my heart, in the secret places of your chambers, you abide, and make me real.
There is no reality found within this life, and there is no truth within its shadows. The reality, the real, is only you.
Indeed, the fountain of life is with you. In your light we see light.
Psalm 36:9
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:18-20
The message to the church of Laodicea was clear. Get tested and tried faith, get righteous acts, and get healing for your sight, so you can see. Read more…
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Matthew 10:34-36
That sword, that gleaming, shining sword, comes to divide. Sharper, faster, more active. When His sword comes, we cannot remain the same.
Until faith comes, a man’s thoughts are only opinion. Until faith comes, we only have theories, speculations, and hypotheses. But, when faith comes, it is the proof, it is the substance of the thing hoped for (Hebrews 11:1).
Do not suppose that you can remain neutral, for you must, eventually, love one and hate the other. Surely, the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do what you want, but those that are led by the Spirit are not under the law!
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The Word became flesh, and [tabernacled] among us.
John 1:14, portion, paraphrased
We live in our tents, our bodies. Jesus, in becoming man, put on flesh as a garment. We are not our own. Our bodies are not ours, nor are we all that is within.
The spirit realm is complex and vast. The inter-workings of the body and the spirit are not generally well understood by those in Western cultures. Yet, as when two people come together in intimacy they become one flesh, there are realities that go Beyond the carnal, which the Western mindset as a whole has no capacity to account for.
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Luke 17:33 KJV
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 10:39 KJV
Perhaps one of the most enigmatic phrases to the carnal observer would be this one, largely because it is so simple. He has hidden things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes. Instinctive to nearly every human being who has not been otherwise affected is the basic drive for self-survival, self-preservation. It is at a core part of their being. In a human realm, such as in gangs and the mafia, only a greater fear than death itself is capable of overcoming such an innate, core part of our human nature. We fear death, and losing our self, and yet, this is at the core of not only the Gospel, yet of love itself. To love is to lose yourself, and yet retain it.
This verse is perplexing only in a natural sense, however, to mind of man, and not to God. Many have of course tried to fulfill this in their flesh, only to fail again and again, and some have set up whole camps for doctrines of thought around the whole idea that we should simply not try and just “let God”. While this may sound wonderfully and spiritual, the plain fact remains that we were given instruction for a reason, if we could just know how to apply it!
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the substance, the spiritual substructure or foundation of a thing, that if you have it, you have it, you have the actual thing in spiritual form. While hope is relative to the future, faith is always a “Now” thing. Because to have the substance of the thing is to have it in actuality, while the manifestation of the material or appearance of a thing may be yet forthcoming, the presence of faith, the presence of the thing in the Spirit, is the same as having it in the natural. True faith, when it is real faith, and it is not ever wrong. If the thing does not appear, either keep waiting, you got off faith, or it was not faith in the first place.
However, faith is not only the substance of a thing hoped for, it is also the proof of a thing. This is important also to know. While the faith is the presence of a thing, simply to have faith is proof that it is so. You cannot have God’s kind of faith in a lie, and because “faith” and “wrong” cannot happen in the same place at the same time, you will never have faith in a non-thing. Faith cannot be attached to a fantasy. Faith, goes beyond substance to the evidence and proof that something is.
Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:6
Abraham believed, and God called it righteousness in him. This is the basis of our justification in the cross of Christ, for it is by faith that we have access to this Grace called Calvary (Romans 5:2). Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), for one must first believe that God is, and that He rewards those that diligently pursue Him.
This is the picture of faith. When Abraham, then Abram, heard God speak, and God showed Him the stars in the sky and that his descendants would be like unto them in number (Genesis 15:6), he took God at His word. Later, when Abraham was told to sacrifice his one and only true heir, Abraham believed that God could raise him back from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). Faith saw the promise of God’s word, and grabbed a hold.
They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.
Exodus 25:10-16
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). What Moses built in the wilderness was a picture of an unseen thing. He built according to the “pattern” that he had seen on mount Sinai. That pattern was Christ, a detailed look at who He is as the Word of God and His ministry on Earth.
The entire of the tabernacle was a walk through model of Jesus. Every facet of the tabernacle from the ark down to the very tent pegs and number of pillars represented something of the perfect man Christ Jesus.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
Christ gave His life for us, and, although we can get to heaven, it is quite apparent from scripture that we can have greater or less reward when we get there. We are saved by Grace, yet rewarded for what we do. This is called the doctrine of Eternal Reward.
Psalm 1:5 says, “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” We understand that the sinners will be judged, but so too will the believers, made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
Matthew 21:22
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (NAS). Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (NIV).
Faith is God’s standard to reject the status quo, to step Beyond what society tells you is right and wrong and to listen to God’s standard. Faith in God and in Christ is what causes division.
