Below are a few Faith-Habit high points from our last GraceNotes.
Redemption is God’s foundation for our faith. God’s character of love comes into us as grace; we respond in faith!
Redemption is the means to install our faith into a life-style as a believer; faith is the habit we wear!
Faith is using our grace connection to walk in Christ Jesus.
Living faith is walking in the Spirit!
(Faith) is using God’s resurrection power thru the Spirit!
Faith is trust and dependance upon God at all times especially during trials and obstacles.
The Holy Spirit of God is dwelling within you. Faith is the victory!
Give Him the tools you need for Him to reveal God’s truth into your soul!
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Scripture provides another important concept of our faith journey, light and darkness. The kind of light found in scripture speak to absolute qualities of righteousness, truth and purity, available only in God thru Jesus our redeemer.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
- John 1:4.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
– 1John 1:5.
The Light of Jesus is created within us when we are born again in Christ Jesus. Darkness is our natural state before we experience absolute truth within the righteousness of Jesus. Light in Christ Jesus is a quality natural mankind does not possess without redemption. Jesus said: “I am the way the truth and the life.” He also said: “I am the light of the world.” Faith is our light switch!
Remember the story of the beggar man who was born blind in John 9? As they were passing by, the disciples asked Jesus: “Who sinned, this man or his parent, that he was born blind?”
Jesus responded: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in Him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus kneeled down on the ground, making saliva with his own spittle, He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud. Jesus said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” (An act of faith)
The beggar, blind from birth, went and washed and came back seeing.
People began recognizing him as the blind beggar, yet, here he is walking around as a normal seeing person; they asked how this was possible? He answered: “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went, and washed, and received my sight!!!”
The Jews took the man to the Pharisees and they also asked the same questions. But since Jesus healed the blind man on a Sabbath day, the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” So, they asked the healed blind man who he was and he said, “He is a prophet.”
The Pharisees did not believe he was ever blind so they called his parents and asked them: “Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
So, for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said unto him, “Give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know.”
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast them out.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I might believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgement I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
-1Peter 2:9.
Faith is not just for specific choices we may make, faith is a cloak we wear… or should be wearing. This is why we can call it our Faith-Habit! This beggar blind man, whom Jesus healed, had faith, boldly wearing his Faith-Habit for everyone to see, including the Pharisees.
Notice Jesus’ reply to the disciples. The beggar was born blind so “that the works of God might be displayed in Him.” Are we born again that the works of God may be displayed in us? Do we compromise God’s light with our own darkness?
Jesus goes on to say: “WE must work the works of him who sent me while it is day;” We, you and I, must work the works of God. But it is Jesus speaking! You and I must work in Jesus the works God sent Jesus to do. We are called personally to do Jesus’ works during this age of grace … with Jesus in us. We are containers for Jesus’ life while we are wearing sandals. We are called to do His works, “while it is day.”
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
-2Corinthians 4:6.
These words to the disciples are later affirmed in the upper room: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” We not only have to make faith choices about what we do, we must also be wearing our Faith-Habit while we are doing! But also notice, we have a schedule to meet, “while it is day!”
The clock is ticking! We are in this time and place to produce light (fruit). Our fruit is the product of our love and faith; it also requires light to grow our fruit. Light is what God uses to reveal the order and structure of tasks we need to accomplish “while it is day!”
For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
-Psalm 18:28.
This man who was born blind is used by Jesus to show the blindness of the Pharisees who walk around with their eyes open, but seeing nothing. This story contrasts the spiritual darkness of the Pharisees with the blind beggar’s light born into his soul. We can see how essential light is to produce the fruit of truth. The light of the Pharisees was their darkness and the darkness of the blind man became his light.
One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.
This miraculous healing was years in the making. Yet, it occurred at a singular select moment. The works of God was exposed for all to see. Not just for the blind man’s understanding but also for Pharisees, parents, the disciples and you and me. God uses real life to illustrate eternal Light for the blindness we all experience.
The blind bagger, like us, became a spiritual container, a lamp for Jesus. The physical world, Satan and fleshly things all contribute to scriptural portraits painted for us to discern darkness and light, good from evil.
This is what faith is all about. First, we have to discern light from darkness. Second, we have to walk in the Light. Remember the phrase out of Gal. 2:20: “And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God.” Our faith equips us with both discerning and walking. And both require the logos word of God for equipping us to exercise our faith.
Perhaps you remember our GN discussion on spiritual strength in Paul’s prayer from Ephesians 3. Love is dependent upon being “rooted and grounded.” Rooted refers to the organic dynamic of relationship. We are talking about prayer and just walking and talking to God during the course of our day. Grounded means having scriptural knowledge in place so that our Lord can build our knowledge structure. The deeper our foundation, the higher we can build our structure! When we do our part, God does His part in addition to the grace already in place!
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,
And the night about me be light.”
Even the darkness is not dark to you;
The night is as bright as the day,
For darkness is as light to you.
-Psalm 139:7-12
Our all-knowing God prepares the details of spiritual encounters because we are objects of His love. We are being prepared to meet Jesus in circumstances unexpected while wearing our sandals.
This man’s blind experiences prepared him because he was anxious to see the physical light of day. Unknowingly, his heart was also prepared to see the Light of Life, not just the light of day. Jesus’ agape Love gave him both the light of day and the Light of Life. He was looking for one thing but God gave him so much more. God uses physical light to reveal man’s spiritual darkness.
Need we comment upon our life’s trauma compared to this man’s ordeal. Year after year he continued to have hope? Against what odds did this man continue to sit and beg without a prospect for a normal life? He was born blind!
We were born blind too. Blind like a Pharisee! Jesus has healed you and me but we have also created within us the righteousness of Jesus. We are already operating in grace because within us is the treasure of the resurrected Jesus.
Faith is our tool of service to continue carrying the Light of Jesus into our neighborhood of connections. Jesus has called us into His holy mission of spreading light into our darkness.
For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
-Ephesians 5:8.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it give light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
-Matthew 5:14-16.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” – 2Corinthians 3:17-18.
We pray our Lord and Father helps us to contain the mind of Jesus. Amen.