November
5, 2003
LIVING
BY FAITH IN GOD
"The
just shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17,
NKJV).
"Many
do not exercise that faith which it is their privilege and
duty to exercise, often waiting for that feeling which faith
alone can bring. Feeling is not faith; the two are distinct.
Faith is ours to exercise, but joyful feeling and the blessing
are God's to give. The grace of God comes to us through the
channel of living faith, and that faith it is our power to
exercise.
"True
faith lays hold of and claims the promised blessing before
it is realized and felt. We must send up our petitions in
faith within the second vail, and let our faith take hold
of the promised blessing, and claim it as ours. We are then
to believe that we receive the blessing, because our faith
has hold of it, and according to the Word it is ours. 'Whatever
things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them,
and you will have them' (Mark 11:24). Here is faith,
naked faith, to believe that we receive the blessing, even
before we realize it... but many suppose... that they cannot
have faith unless they feel the power of the Spirit. Such
confound faith with the blessing that comes through faith.
The very time to exercise faith is when we feel destitute
of the Spirit. When thick clouds of darkness seem to hover
over the mind, then is the time to let living faith pierce
the darkness and scatter the clouds. True faith rests on the
promises contained in the Word of God, and those only who
obey that Word can claim its glorious promises.
"Should
anyone dishonor God by imagining that He would not respond
to the appeals of His children?.. The Holy Spirit, the representative
of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All 'good things'
are comprised in this. The Creator Himself can give us nothing
greater, nothing better. When we beseech the Lord to pity
us in our distress, and to guide us by His Holy Spirit, He
will never turn away our prayer.
"The
measure of the Holy Spirit we receive will be proportioned
to the measure of our desire and the faith exercised for it...
We can be assured that we shall receive the Holy Spirit if
we individually try the experiment of testing God's word."--God's
Amazing Grace, p. 207.
"This
is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. Who
is he who overcomes the world? - he who believes that Jesus
is the Son of God!" (1 John 5:4, 5).
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