BELIEF-FAITH

Throughout Jesus’ teachings, belief and faith are closely connected.  If someone believes, they will develop faith.  If they demonstrate faith then the foundation of belief is revealed.  Belief and faith are never truly separate.

In the ancient world man’s works, various spells, and incantations became the attempt to control the gods.  Today some of these practices are referred to as sympathetic magic.  Man’s expression of the working mind, the purely intellectual mind, may not always be spirit-directed.  For all of man’s earthly knowledge, a man may remain unenlightened, remaining asleep.  To turn the world from man’s dictate, man turns toward faith.  Faith is the most basic and available conduit unto God.                                                                                                                     

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus explains that a person should start with faith and certain confidence as a foundation before starting his day, expressed in v. 32-34:
“For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own” (niv).

In the above scripture, Jesus gives us basic steps concerning Walking in the Way.  God observes the pagans and knows how they pursue their lives.  Jesus separates the pagan life from a righteous life. “Seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness,” Jesus asserts the supremacy of God.  Jesus establishes an order, God first, followed by, “do not worry about tomorrow.”  Even though this scripture does not directly mention faith, the underlying message propels the person toward faith and trust and builds an active faith foundation.

A person can pray for more faith or speak (name) faith into himself.  The praying part people understand, but the naming part is sometimes elusive.  The difference between the two is that prayer supplicates by the word of God, and speaking pronounces by the word of God.  Jesus prays in faith but also pronounces faith, if even as small as a mustard seed.

For some, speech, or naming, rises and falls with every emotional reaction.  This mixed naming is often directed at themselves—first positive about themselves, soon, they pronounce doubt or division.  All of us have experienced this teetering effect.  By bouncing back and forth, however, the faith walk is diminished.  They neither name themselves into faith nor faith into themselves.  Not completing this process, the active faith message is reduced.

Although this message may seem strictly orthodox to some readers, it is also true that belief in what you do as well as faith in its completion is a standard requirement of all serious endeavors.  Belief may motivate, but faith may become static and rooted in one place on the pathway, as opposed to an active faith, one that seeks growth.  Many people within orthodoxy espouse great faith but refuse to walk.  Complaints about this static condition are preached in hundreds of churches each week.

Sow the seed of wholeness and speak faith.

*

With the example of faith as small as the mustard seed, a person may remove mountains into the sea (Matt. 17:20), meaning essentially to accomplish great feats.  This scripture explains how a person removes spiritual obstruction, mountains, from his pathway.  These obstructions may be worry, guilt, or any number of other attributes, and this obstruction may include people who are unrighteously coming against you or those who hold you back.  Jesus teaches that if you have faith and do not doubt, that faith will remove the obstruction, “…whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Mt. 21.21-22).

Everyone is so concerned about sowing seed into their circumstances, such as a lack of money or a spouse, that they forget to start with themselves—inspect yourself before sowing seed into anything else!  When you Walk in the Way, your soul nourishment is your priority.  Get within yourself and get with God.  Speak from the kingdom within, and it is only then that the pathway is clarified.  Since most people are familiar with their speech causing them trouble, there is nothing wrong or embarrassing about using your speech to bring about rectification.

When Eve named Cain after ‘gain’ (Who Is Cain?), she talked about what she had gotten instead of what God had given her.  Eve mentioned herself first instead of God, thus naming in reverse order.  Frankly, this is what most people do.  Remember, the naming you give and the Word you speak becomes the journey you travel.  There is an old saying, it goes like this, “Let me observe how a man speaks today, and I will tell you what his life will be like five years from now.”

Jesus tells the Roman Centurian that he has never seen such faith as his, and Jesus tells more than one person that their faith has made them whole.  The illumination provided by faith now gives rise within the soul—the city on the hill shines forth as love, compassion, charity, knowledge, and wisdom.  But without faith as a first step, none of the above may be revealed nor maintained.  Likewise, without faith, the Word or prayer you speak will remain lifeless and ineffective.

*

JUDGMENT

Jesus addresses the subject of judging in Matt. 7.1:

“Pass no judgment, and you will not be judged.  For as you
judge others, so you will yourselves be judged, and whatever measures you deal out to others will be dealt back to you.  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye, with never a thought for the great plank in your own.”

What is the spiritual problem with judging?  Why do all societies have warnings against judging others?  Jesus prescribes judging ourselves and infers we should do so before judging others.

Judging with discernment is what God wishes to develop in each person.*  In Ezekiel 7.3, Ezekiel speaks to judgment on Israel, “I will judge you according to your ways,” and in v. 27, “I will do to them according to their way, and according to what they deserve I will judge them.”  This kind of judgment is given within context and therefore is not meant to be critical but fair.  “Whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt back to you,” held as truth in the Hebrew Bible as well as in the new testimony Jesus gives us.

*discernment: Adam and Eve

You will be judged after your fashion of judgment, whether from vitriol or love or by personal standards.  This form of judgment will then be returned to you.  Thus the prohibition when Jesus says, “By with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with the same measure (nature) you use, it will be measured back to you,” Matt. 7.2.  The approach Jesus recommends proceeds from the spirit within, not how you size up a person and then make a series of judgments, which would be based on personal attitudes or soul nature, either of which might be afflicted.

Matt. 7.2 tells us much about the nature of judging, for you may not know what the spirit is trying to work out in that person’s life, so by improperly judging you usurp another soul’s integrity.  Constantly judging others also leads a person to distraction from their soul progression, always pointing out the faults of others but only rarely seeing one’s own.  Judging may also lead to gossip and slander as one voices these opinions as if they are fact, and then others take them up as truth.

It is better to judge yourself, as this may counsel love toward others.  To judge righteously (carefully, after His values and the nature of His spirit) and to walk in faith are both important components of the Way.

Sow seed that personal judgments be laid aside for godly revelation.

God Bless!