December 2015

promise of a child as did Abraham’s
gift, but usually there is
some mighty insight into the
Heavenly way of seeing things
according to the need of that
person.
This is why Paul, writing to the
Ephesians, (2:8, 9) wrote
‘For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, 9 not of works, lest anyone
should boast.’
BUT, you say, faith without works
is dead, so we have to do something
for our faith. James 2:14-
26 declares ‘What does it profit,
my brethren, if someone says
he has faith but does not have
works? Can faith save him? 15 If
a brother or sister is naked and
destitute of daily food, 16 and
one of you says to them, “Depart
in peace, be warmed and filled,”
but you do not give them the
things which are needed for the
body, what does it profit? 17
Thus also faith by itself, if it does
not have works, is dead.
Yes, as I already said, faith completely
changes the mental perspective
and so the manner in
which one lives will automatically
be changed, seeing ‘As a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he.’
(Proverbs 23:7). The behaviour
that flows from the gift of faith is
of a much higher calibre in terms
of loving, serving, forgiving, miracles
even. As the new Christian
matures this will become more
and more so. The behaviour is
so intensely attached to the gift
of faith that when we don’t see it
we doubt very much that the gift
of faith is there at all. The gift
of faith precedes the behaviour
change, but only just. It’s like a
seed of faith goes into the heart,
and next thing you have good
works sprouting. But there are
no good works sprouting without
the gift of faith (seed) first. In
fact if you don’t see good works
and character change happening,
then you can accurately
guess that no seed of faith was
planted.
It follows from this that you can’t
produce the good works needed
to get to Heaven unless the seed
of faith has been planted, nourished,
and shot up shoots. You
don’t get shoots without roots.
Neither do you get fruit of the
wrong seeds. And the good
works spoken of are not the
same as being a ‘nice’ person
who doesn’t mind helping out a
bit at times. The good works that
result from the seed of faith are
love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
kindness, forgiveness, gentleness,
prophecy, wisdom, words
of knowledge, healing, evangelism,
and so forth, but above all
repentance and humility – the
works God has prepared for
us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10).
These are consistent aspects
of the new personality, growing
steadily in strength as it develops
into maturity in Christ.
You can easily see from this that
salvation flows only from the
gifts of faith, and certainly not
from what some see as good
works, infant baptism, or any
other source. Moreover this gift
of faith must push right through
life. We must ‘finish the race’
in Paul’s language. 1Cor 9:24
– 25. Do you not know that in
a race all the runners run, but
only one gets the prize? Run in
such a way as to get the prize.
That basically suggests that we
should finish the race… No
prizes for those who don’t finish.
In other words the race is not
over until the day we go to be
with Jesus.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the
narrow gate; for wide is the gate
and broad is the way that leads
to destruction, and there are
many who go in by it. Because
narrow is the gate and difficult is
the way which leads to life, and
there are few who find it.
Many people have ideas about
the way to live, but those ideas
are in contradiction to what God
has clearly stated in His Word.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and
the Life. There is no other way
to the Father but by Him. It’s a
finely tuned path and takes a bit
of finding. However it is always
possible and you could be one of
those who find it. The first step
is to receive that seed of faith
by opening up yourself to the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth,
sent by Jesus at Pentecost. If
you really want to do business
with the Almighty God who created
the universe and your own
body, you need firstly to trust
Him, acknowledge your sin and
need of His forgiveness and
grace through the crucifixion of
Jesus. Then ask Him into your
heart and life, to change it completely
and turn it forever into a
temple of the Living God. Then
study (scripture regularly) to
show yourself approved (2Timothy
2:15). Find a church where
Jesus is known and loved and is
the heart and soul of everything.
God bless you. You are about
to learn what Freedom, joy and
peace really are.