Saturday 13 January 2018

Testing Our Convictions – Why & How

It is so good to know that people not only read but also think through our blog posts. I would like to thank everyone that takes a minute or two to read our articles. You make it all worth our while so thank you. It was one of you who drew my attention to that fact that I did not mention how to test one’s conviction as per my last blog; so I just want to share that. I wish I could come up with something really high sounding but then, that would not be the faith we profess as was handed down to us. Our faith is so simple that Paul talks about its simplicity being the reason many intellectuals and highly educated struggle with it. I wonder, given the simplicity of Christ life here on earth, why we would expect His gospel to be any different. Isn’t it amazing how man who was formed in the image of and by a very simple God, would dare to even think that the very same God is too simple to make sense? We must really think of ourselves much higher than we should.

1 Corinthians 1: 26 – 28 “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things that are despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”

So to test our conviction concerning our faith, I advise that we take our minds back to when we got born again and remind ourselves of what led us to believe that we had changed. You want to be reminded also of the decision and consequent action that preceded you having that conviction that you are born again. Some of us were even Christians by religion ye we knew we had become “Christians’. After all, there is really no drama announcing any one’s salvation. Though God will not be boxed so that we can’t confirm how He will move in a life, the “born again” experience is always a change on the inside with an outward expression. You want to check that your response to God at the time is even now much deeper and your passion for Him, even greater. Salvation is a full package, the fullness of which we are filled with as soon as we are born again. Our spirit man receives life instantly, though the outworking keeps unfolding. So whatever happened inside us at the point of getting born again, is all that will ever happen and all we have to do, is ensure that we are building on it; are you? Can you look back at your responses to life soon after you got born again and confirm that the same belief that instigated them still instigates your responses today? No one disconnects from Christ and remains same. You may pretend to others, but you know the truth and see it every time you look in your mirror.

John 15: 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.”

1 Corinthians 2: 15” Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.”

One of the very beautiful things about God is the fact that even if you don’t ask for help, when He sees that we are genuinely desirous of a faith conviction test, He helps us; His desire is that we love that if we find a problem, we love Him enough to want it fixed that our relationship with Him may be stronger. God is more interested in keeping that relationship beautiful than He is in keeping count of your sin; for that is not something He appreciates nor is it His job as some have come to believe. The process of our salvation may be complicated in the realm of the spirit where all things start, but here on earth, it is simple and so must be our “faith test.’  Interesting as the world may seem, it is not. Loss of salvation definitely is the beginning of a joyless life which signals imminent loss of strength and beginning of unbearable pressures; signs we often misinterpret.

2 Corinthians 13: 5 “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test.”

Luke 4: 8 “Jesus replied, the scriptures say, you must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.”

In the times that we are in, we have to sincerely believe what we believe and hold onto it tenaciously. If we believe God through Jesus Christ, who appears to be the problem of many, then we must hold on to Him and live accordingly. Everything is eating away at the very root of what our faith in a way that could be likened to the way, I am told, that rats bite people. I hear they do it so nicely that you almost don’t feel the pain until after they are long gone; they bite and blow nice air. The enemy is “biting and blowing” and a lot of us are sleeping the sleep of death but we are not aware. We must re-visit our root belief from time to time. If we have precious things stored away, no matter how safe we believe they are, we would check them from time to time. We must be deliberate about reminding ourselves of what we believe because we cannot afford to forget what we believe.

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