Jude 1:3 NKJV Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Earnestly – shows an interest and commitment level to maintaining our faith foundation
No one floats into strong faith – it is not automatic.
We ought to be able to say this about our faith:
2 Thessalonians 1:3 TPT We feel a personal responsibility to continually be thanking God for you, our spiritual family, every time we pray. And we have every reason to do so because your faith is growing marvelously beyond measure. The unselfish love each of you share for one another is increasing and overflowing!
Stay away from anything that is a detriment or has a negative impact on your faith. Negative thinking, negative preaching… Stay with what the Word says!
The more our faith is able to work with and cooperate with the Lord, the more He is able to do in, through, and for us who believe.
We are to inspect our faith foundation.
2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV (5) Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
2 Corinthians 13:5 AMPC Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you–unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected?
What are we looking for when we examine ourselves? Unforgiveness, unbelief, bitterness, strife, worry, etc.
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Faith has a call. (Romans 4:17)
Romans 4:17 AMPC As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed. [Gen_17:5]
Faith calls those things which be not as though they were.
Hebrews 11:6 NKJV But without faith (calling those things which be not as though they were) it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Romans 1:17 NKJV For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY (calling those things which be not as though they were).”
1 John 5:4 NKJV For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our (calling those things which be not as though they were).
Faith is only dealing with the invisible. Once it becomes visible, faith is no longer needed.
The call is necessary to give God permission to move in the earth realm.
Could God have brought forth Isaac without Abraham’s permission? No.
Could God have brought forth the Lord Jesus into the earth without the permissions of a human being? No.
Jesus could not move in Nazareth, without the cooperation of the people but their unbelief stopped Him.
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God wants us to live out of His realm with His realm dominating our lives and not the natural realm dominating our lives. We are spirit beings called to live out of that realm.
God tells us what is completed and He sees in that realm because He knows we cannot see into that realm. Therefore, we must trust what He sees and says about that realm.
We trust what He says about the truth of that realm.
Whatever is dead, God’s power can make it alive again by His quickening power.
Abraham was so convinced that God would raise up Isaac after he had been sacrificed.
Hebrews 11:17-19 NKJV By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, (18) of whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED,” (19) concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
Abraham had never seen anyone raised from the dead but He believed God could do and He would in order for the declaration of God to be carried out.
Romans 4:19-21 NKJV And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. (20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
Abraham was not weak in faith – meaning he was strong in faith.
- He did not consider the circumstances that were contrary to what God had said.
Consider – think carefully about (something), typically before making a decision; think about and be drawn toward (a course of action); regard (someone or something) as having a specified quality
Abraham did not pretend the circumstances did not exist; he just did not give them any thought.
He did not take counsel with his physical body.
Abraham was not calendar and clock ruled. God is beyond the realm of time.
Do not allow your mind to get on those who have not received from the Lord. That is not any of your business.
- He did not waver in the promise through unbelief
Waver – be undecided between two opinions or courses of action; be irresolute; become unsteady or unreliable
Stagger (KJV) – to withdraw from, oppose, hesitate
Abraham was all in – in it to win it.
The temptation to doubt comes to everyone, no matter how spiritually mature a person may be. You must answer it. You must respond to it.
The thoughts of doubt came to Abraham but he did not take them.
- He was strengthened in his faith because he gave glory to God.
Strengthened – from the Greek endunamoo – to be made strong like Samsom was made strong. This implies that there is something that happens when we give glory to God.
Giving glory to God requires nothing of us and is easy.
The only thing that you need to know about how God is going to bring it to pass, is to give glory and praise to God. You don’t have to figure anything out before you see it done and give God glory.
God gives you common sense to deal with natural things, but faith is how you deal with spiritual things.
Don’t use your words to tear your faith down. Use your words to declare that you have strong faith.
Say things like, “I always receive!” or when you hear a testimony say, “That happens to me all the time…”
- He became fully convinced that what God had promised, He was able to perform.
Convinced – completely certain about something; firm in one’s belief with regard to a particular cause or issue.
People begin to waver when they begin to think that they have to perform the Word.