The Same Spirit of Faith

 

 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

 

God has given these three to the world, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13.

 

God has foreordained His created man to be an imitator of Himself. Because man was created in the image and likeness of his creator, being in the same class but made a little lower than God (Psalm 8:5), he had to be tested with obedience.

 

When man failed the test then the creator had to set in motion a new plan called redemption. This new plan is based on righteousness by faith.

 

Then true love came into play when God gave His only Son as a substitute for mans disobedience. (Sin)

 

Now when redemption is preached the lost soul of man begins to wonder about this word and if desire is there then hope arises.

 

When hope arises in the heart (spirit) then the measure of faith is imparted and when this man speaks forth in agreement with the word that was preached (whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved) then the miracle of regeneration takes place.

 

What is the foundational principle on which this plan of redemption was instituted?

 

It is called the same spirit of faith and it is based on this one action that was birthed in the heart of the Father when he made the decision to call heaven and earth into existence and placed man at the center of creation.

 

This act of our Creators faith is summed up in this one scripture from Romans 4:17b, which says, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things that be not as though they were.

 

This same principle is taught by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:13 when he says, since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak.

 

The spirit realm cannot be seen or felt by the physical senses but we can know it through regeneration and fellowship with God through His word. In the natural realm it is the spirit of life in his word that enables us to make contact with the Father.

 

It all began in the beginning, John 1:1, in the beginning was the word, the word goes forth and does not return void, and therefore it eventually comes to pass. Whatever the word was sent to do it ultimately does.

 

This then is the foundation stone upon which all things exist. He created everything by the power of His word.

 

When things went wrong in the Garden of Eden He simply fell back on His word and said to Satan, One will come forth who will bruise your head. Genesis 3:15.

 

This was the mystery hidden in God. The Messiah was conceived at that moment. Everything that happened from that moment on until Mary said, “Let it be”, was alive within the Fathers heart and there was nothing in creation that could prevent it from happening.

 

When Romans 4 talks about Abraham being fully persuaded that is the ultimate reflection of the word of God being manifested in the earth. All things pertaining to Abraham believing God and enabling Him to begin His natural family once again, can be likened to God seeing Himself in Abraham and calling things that do not exist as though they did.

 

That’s why Paul went to such lengths in his teaching so we too as disciples of the Lord could obtain this information and to realize how the operation of faith in the word can supercede the natural and bring those things to pass that belong to us as part of our covenant.

 

When we picture Jesus, we see Him as a resurrected man: spirit, soul and body, and that is exactly who He is today. Before conception He existed as the word because the word was always with God and indeed it was God. But we cannot picture Him as a man before conception because He simply was not. He was spirit and He was life and then He willingly obeyed the Father and became flesh. John1:14. And just as we stated before, this flesh was the Messiah, who had been called into existence through faith working by love, who was and is God.

 

We must not let flesh and spirit be confusing to us. We desperately need to grow up into spiritual things if we are to be useful to His body in the earth.

 

As we stated before we do not need a revelation of the physical realm because this is where we are most familiar. What we need revealed to us is the function of the soul, verses the spirit.

 

Before regeneration we had the mind of the world, which is, living a life completely under the influence of the kingdom of darkness. This kingdom is in disarray and will never function properly even if it lasted for another thousand years, which it will not.

 

Spiritual darkness had us in bondage all of our lives and we had no hope until we heard the good news. Once we came into Gods family by faith then we learn that it must be a life lived by faith if we are to be pleasing to God. Hebrews 11:6.

 

First comes regeneration which according to Webster means to be formed or created again, to gain new life, which agrees with Jesus teaching in John 3 when the religious leader came to Him and asked, “What does born again mean?" You see, although he was very religious he knew that what Jesus had was not religion but something more and that it came from God.

 

Jesus had a spiritual life which no man made religion could provide no matter if you served for a million years. Jesus had the way back to the Father, which was lost through Adams disobedience. In verse 6 he makes it as plain as He possibly could. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:6.

 

There is a physical birth that enables us to function in a physical world and there is a spiritual birth that enables us to once again have fellowship with our creator. Jesus can be referred to as a doorway to deliverance by which having passed through we are now on our way to receiving all that he has provided both now and in the future.

 

After regeneration we are then encouraged to renew our minds through the washing of water by the complete word of God. Not just some of the gospel but the full gospel message. Just as Paul stated in Acts 20:27, “I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God." What he meant was that everything he received from the Lord was everything that he shared with the church.

 

What did he share?

 

He shared that by grace are you saved through faith and not by something we’ve done in the physical that would be looked upon as good works. Ephesians 2:8.

 

He shared that the infilling of the Holy Spirit is necessary for spiritual growth and for fellowship with the Father. Ephesians 5:17-18.

 

He shared that we are to put off the old corruptible man and to put on the new man which was created according to God. Ephesians 4:22-24. Etc.

 

But most of all he shared this, “the just shall live by faith." Galatians 3:11 and Romans 1:17.

 

But why?

 

For without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6.

 

So, if we have graduated from seeking Him with diligence – that is by steady, earnest, and energetic application and effort – then we must live in complete expectation that he will perform His word and shower us with heavenly rewards. That is if we have decided to take Him at His word.

 

Here again we need to apply the act of mind renewal or we will never know what every good and perfect gift coming down from the Father of lights might entail. James 1:17.

 

In all actuality, since the kingdom of God is within us, then all we really need to do is to open the spiritual box of goodies that we received at the new birth and begin to enjoy.

 

How do we do that?

 

We begin to call those things that be not as though they were, which is obedience to the Father and which is the same spirit of faith taught to us by Paul which is, according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak.

 

Written by: R W Nagle.