01/14/2024
This morning we will study the topic of faith, and as I read Bounds' words about Jesus praying for the faith of Simon Peter, I was struck by his observation that "He knew that when faith breaks down, the various foundations of spiritual life give way too."
I have never separated my faith from the spiritual life I am living. My reasoning has always been "how can you have a spiritual life unless you believe", but as I thought about this further I realized that despite the seeming impossibility of this it is indeed possible. As created men we are comprised of three things... Body, spirit, and soul. I don't pretend to understand the fullness of spirit and soul, but I do know they exist within me, and that despite the presence of my faith in God, they will always exist. So, by virtue of the fact that we were created with a spirit, then we can have a spiritual life even if we haven't accepted a faith in Jesus... or have turned away from it somehow.
My next thought was regarding what we have faith in. We use the word faith in some amazingly trite ways... "I have faith you will win the game" or "I have faith in your ability to succeed." These expressions are used to convey an unfounded feeling that something will occur. This is very different from the meaning of spiritual faith. Spiritual faith deals with a vaporous and ethereal world that is unseen physically and requires us to believe without seeing it in order for us to experience it. Our spiritual faith requires us to belief in the possession of an invisible spirit and the interaction of that spirit and soul with a divine entity, and world, which is also spiritual in nature. If you accept this unworldly definition then you must also accept the fact that a person can have faith in not only our very real God, but also in contrived god(s), or the denial of the spiritual altogether. The one thing that can't be changed is the true existence of the spirit we were created with... Whether we chose to acknowledge it or not.
So from birth we begin a dichotomous life. We are meant to travel both a physical and spiritual journey through life. Some of us will find and believe in the God of Abraham while others will not, some of us will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ as a spiritual call, while others will not. But in every case there is no avoiding the fact that we must choose to believe or not, and whether to have faith in what we have chosen to believe in. But by the simple fact that all men possess a spirit and soul, we are drawn towards God by His Holy Spirit, and prayer, and there is no man or tribe ever created who hasn’t felt this need to know Him; but we must seek Him, hear his voice, and call out to Him in truth before we can experience the one true God.
“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”
Psalm 145:18 ESV
Then, when we have experienced Him, and come to realize that we are lost to sin and death, God draws us to His Son Jesus Christ, so that we can be saved from them by His blood and its redeeming power.
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:44 ESV
In this way our belief, and journey of faith, will have begun in earnest, and our spiritual lives will bud into blossom… into the eternal fullness that God intended us to have in Himself, and Jesus. He tells us what He expects of us in the Ten Commandments He gave Moses, in various revelations of biblical scripture, and in the gospel of Jesus. Listen to these examples of each…
Ten Commandments:
“And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Exodus 20:1-3
Various Scripture:
“Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah 6:7-8 ESV
Gospel of Jesus:
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.””
John 3:16-17
So are we walking in faith as we should today? Have we set forth on the spiritual journey we started when God first called out to us? I hope and pray that each of us has come to realize the true existence of our spirit, and soul. In as much as we are drawn to, and seek God, I pray we all come to believe, and experience the growing faith that one day will become what we see in its heavenly fullness as the reality of the life that was breathed into us.
“then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
Genesis 2:7 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for our physical bodies, and the intellect we possess, but thank you more for our spirits and souls which bridge the gap between the earthly lives we live physically now, and the eternal spiritual lives we long to spend with you forever. Help us Lord to increase each day in both our belief in you, and our faith in the spiritual world that awaits us. Praised be your name Heavenly Father for loving us so much that you sent your only Begotten Son to live, suffer, die, and be resurrected for us so that we might be forgiven our sins, and set free from the bonds of death. Thank you for your mercy and the amazing grace you pour over us. You are our Holy God, and hear every prayer as we pray them to you. You are our all-embracing Abba whose loving kindness knows no end. In these things and in all that you are, we worship and give you glory forever. All you are helps us in our unbelief, and grows us in our faith… every breath we take brings us closer to dining with you in heavenly glory, and for this we lift you up forevermore.
Rich Forbes