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Elijah-Quality Faith
by Elijah said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow Him." The same thing goes for Christ-followers: How can we follow Him as Lord unless we know Him as Lord? If we know Him as Lord, it will be irresistible for us to honor Him as Lord. There's no way around it. The most dependable way to confirm that Jesus is Lord is to obey His direct commands right away and then continue thus until further notice. A genuine desire to obey Christ is useful; this way we'll stop and listen long enough to know what it is He is commanding us. Obeying Christ is the method God prescribes to get to know Him better. When we obey Christ we are expressing our sincere faith in Him. This is the most substantial way to say, "Yes, Lord, we trust that You know what You're talking about." There is also no more substantial expression of our desire to learn more from Him than to act on what He is already saying to us. As we find out from experience that He is faithful and He knows what He is doing, we will continue with increasing eagerness to accept whatever grace He sees fit to give us. Daily obedience is pure worship. Obeying Him, knowing Him, and worshiping Him are all very nearly the same thing... or, at least, we can't have one without the others. Knowing, worshiping and obeying Christ are unavoidably related to each other; they are all linked to our daily lifestyles. We will worship the Lord better as we get to know His indescribable Fullness. We may know certain people better than others, but we must know the Lord more deeply than we have ever known any mortal if we want to worship Him effectively. This should also encourage us to be open and truthful with Christ, because in so doing He will also open up His divine thoughts to us. This is another way of saying that Christ desires the whole package from us... infinitely more than pre-measured religiosity. From the little glimpse of Christ I have seen thus far, I gather that He is pleased with a reality-embracing people. In other words, if we know the Inventor of this reality then we should also embrace whatever He defines as reality. No longer should fear or insecurity dictate our estimations of the Almighty if we know Him even a little bit. The slightest glimpse of Him should teach us all that we need to know... that the Lord is God. We will obey Christ best when we embrace a humble, expectant, unshakable confidence in His Divinity. His greatness should be common sense to us, to the point that we're not so shocked by His ability to shatter every barrier that shuts us out from His kingdom on earth. The Spirit of God is the One who can and will teach us the secret of powerful purity and ground-breaking faith. by Patrick Roberts. Find his book and additional resources at www.BooksByPatrick.com Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people to Jesus Christ. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |