"Not by Might nor by Power"

December 3nd
My Utmost For His Highest
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality.

The problem is this, we do not know what Spirit-filled really means nor we know how to practice Spirit-filled virtues. In Ephesians 5:18 where the present tense of the verb in Greek means: "Keep on being filled with the Spirit." Being filled with the Holy Spirit means we are to refrain from using our rights and privileges we are entitled to by God's grace because we desire to do God's will out of love and obedience as if we are after God's own heart. Great faiths in the Bible were willing to let go of their rights, privileges and lives in the interests of doing God's will.

We are sanctified by faith and God is always sanctifying us every minute.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified (spiritual).

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. As long as we are making efforts to live in holiness, then God is very pleased.

In 2 Peter 1:5-9: make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Once you are rooted in reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith.

Faith in Jesus replaced our temporal doubts with eternal hope. When we doubt means we disobeyed God. In term of "obedience" we are to present our bodies "as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." A faithful Christian will learn and see to it that his/her anticipations conform to the revealed Word of God and he/she has nothing to doubt or fear in life or in death. Real faith is the practical belief is what you hold in reality and what holds you in your day-to-day living. The bible explains that each of our faith always pleases God, because it comes to grips with our own reality. Jesus said in Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. I believe in God who is able to do ALL things according to His Will. Faith is focusing on God's decision and its NOT that He just hasn't gotten around to doing it, He has a purpose. God will always accomplish His purposes in His eternal time. According to faith, I am whole in God's eternal promises. I must remember that God does not see time from our perspective.

Faith recognizes the fact that God is in control of my life. Whether I believe it or not, it's a fact that God is in control of the world. If I don't believe it, I"m just robbing myself of the enjoyment of the fact.

Paul Little