In this beautiful trek of faith in Christ Jesus, the greatest challenge I have personally encountered is the difficulty of acquiring and maintaining FAITH! It is very evident that the same predicament had trapped the church and many believers had settled for trivialities than the realities; busy with working in the flesh than in the Spirit and by sight than by faith.
The Ministry of Christ Jesus clearly explains the standard and principles of the Christian faith. The key and most popular Bible verse to start with is, John 3:16, “,,,that whosoever BELIEVES shall not perish but have eternal life,,,” This is the backbone and summary of God’s eternal purpose and plan for mankind. Everything outside BELIEVING is an abominable destructive curse, but faith is most pleasing to God (Heb 11:6).
Christ Jesus demonstrated this in His lifestyle and mission. Nobody got any miracle from Him without BELIEVING. A father sought help from Jesus for his demon possessed child, while he was wandering about what would happen, Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." (Mk 9;23). Also read Mt 17:20; Mk 11:23; Lk 17:6; Jn 11:40.
Believers must get rid of all unbelieving doctrines if the Christian Faith must receive the necessary honor and glory originally intended by God. All this while, one can see much of activities and formulated doctrines taking the place of faith in the church which had contradicted the teaching of Christ Jesus.
Doctrines or man-made ideas instead of BELIEVING are the reasons for world system encroaching into the church. If faith had been strictly at the forefront of church operations, the world’s type of security or paramilitary, hospitals, secular education, fund raising, funeral, marriage etc concepts would not be found in the church today.
What did any of us do to be perfectly protected from the strikes of lightening that thunders close to us when it rains? What about the dangers of walking in the dark nights? Who protects you when accidents would have happened? When at night sleeping, where does safety comes when you wake up safe the next morning? The air we all breathe, who purifies and protect us from the various bacteria and viruses that could have caused sicknesses to us? Now, what makes you believe that the WHO’s face mask and hand washing will do it for you? Don’t be stupidly foolish!
Are you sure the church guards, the paramilitary boys with guns, the people you helped to be recruited into the Nigerian military etc that would protect you from the incesent harassment, killings and destruction of the devil through the agents of witchcraft in the local communities and elsewhere? Only BELIEVERS to the core can handle these questions.
There are other aspects of activities people embark on thinking that such will attract favors upon their lives and endeavors. For instance, praying, fasting, giving or charity, kindness, etc which are wonderful Spiritual exercises. But the candid truth is, if Faith was not applied, it avails to nothing.
Faith or BELIEVING must accompany all Spiritual commitments to attract Divine favour! Hebrews 3:19 says “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Please read the whole chapter of Hebrews three and get the complete account of the Jews who failed God because of the disobedience of not BELIEVING!
Another Faith aspect that is crucial to the life of a Christian is to take the teaching of Christ far far above the wisdom of men. Matthew 5 is considered as one of the hard sayings of Jesus. What is taught here is very hard to be adhered to by ordinary minds, only hardcore BELEIVERS can accept and submit to His teachings.
Faith is compared to one behaving like a bird in the air, flower of the field, or any such thing that would not reason or plan to earn a living. And yet God Almighty pays close attention to their daily needs. And how much more would He do to those of higher regard to Him than those things if only they would BELIEVE?
NO MATTER WHAT WE DO, THERE IS NOTHING THAN BELIEVING!
Conact Address:
Brother Matthew Arin Adams,
Boiling Point Gospel Centre, Jos, Nigeria.
