I pray that this teaching on faith has opened your heart to desire the ingredients that make the God-Kind of faith become alive in your lives. That you would be God’s “true people of faith” along with Abraham, Joshua and Caleb who enter the rest of what faith really is. As we continue to teach on the reality of what a living faith is in a believer’s life, we must continue to understand the essential ingredients required for it to live. Our text scripture for this study on faith is:
1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."
“We have learned what God does “not” use as ingredients for an active faith. Here is what they are. He does not use the wisdom or strength of men. He does not choose those who are wise after their own wisdom or understanding. He does not choose that which is strong in their own sufficiency. He does not use that which is noble or well regarded by the standards of men. That is quite a list of disqualifications for an active and living faith.
So what has God chosen? 1st Corinthians 1:25-29 says, "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to the wise to shame. He has chosen the feeble things to put to shame the strong. God has chosen the low things of the world, the things without honor, did God make selection of , yes, even the things that are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are:
God is not a man and His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. However; this has not crossed the ordinary mind of unsaved men. Unsaved men or woman think they are as smart or smarter than God. How can I say that? I can say it by experience. I thought I was able to choose my own path, direction for my life and family, and completely satisfy and fill myself and others by what I did. How about you? Have you ever thought like that?
How many plans do we make for our life? We plan how we are going to spend our time, money and energy every day. Another words we take “control” over our lives and our taught by the world that this is what our human existence should be. The world says if we are “really “ good we will leave the world a better place than we found it when we were born. For those in the world and not Born-Again, life is no more than accumulating as much as you can as long as you help people along the way. If you are a nice person, don’t hurt or say anything bad about anyone and you will be ok for eternity.
This worldly mindset usually consist of making “through another day.” If you are rich, you worry about how you are going to spend your money. If you are poor, you worry about how you are going to get your money. If you are middle class, you worry about how to make more money and who is going to take it from you. Mankind without the Holy Spirit rests in a wisdom that is “foolish” to God. So God has to show mankind what their own wisdom really is “foolishness, “to make as nothing the things that are .”
This is a key to understanding the realm of faith. Human wisdom is at war with the God-kind of faith. Human wisdom is the mind of the flesh as we wrote about in the last article, and it is at enmity with God according to Romans chapter 8:7. The God-kind of faith rest in the “wisdom of God” or the “mind of the Holy Spirit. It is in the mind of God that faith must become alive in a believers heart. That is why Jesus had to be born, die and be raised from the dead. He came not only to reconcile us back to God through the sacrifice of His own life and blood for our sins, but because He had to send the “PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” to those who would accept His sacrifice. The Holy Spirit had to come to activate the measure of faith the Father has given to every man.
This is where many believers miss it. They don’t believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as the finishing work of redemption; however, it was necessary for Jesus to send the Holy Spirit. God in His wisdom knew that for us to walk by faith and not by sight,” it was going to take His own Spirit to come live and dwell in our hearts. He knew to activate the faith He has given to every man as we pointed out earlier, that mankind would need to born-again by the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead according to Romans chapter 8:11 is the Holy Spirit Jesus calls our “ Comforter, Teacher“ in John chapter 14:16-17 and chapter 16: 12-15. In these passages of scripture Jesus tells us of the real work of the Holy Spirit and why “true and living faith” only comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. John 14:16-17, “ And I will pray to the Father and He will give you another Comforter, to be with you forever. Verse17, "even the Spirit of TRUE KNOWLEDGE (TRUTH).”
John 16:12-15 “I have still much to say to you, but you are not strong enough for it now. However, when he, the Spirit of true knowledge, has come, he will be your guide into all true knowledge: for his words will not come from himself, but whatever has come to his hearing, that he will say: and he will make clear to you the things to come. He will give me glory, because he will take of what is mine, and make it clear to you.”
Everything which the Father has is mine: that is why I say, He will take of what is mine and will make it clear toyou.” Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of “TRUE KNOWLEDGE!” He will guide us into ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE! Do you understand what that truly means: That all of man’s great intellect, wisdom,understanding and reason is FOOLISHNESS TO GOD! To the man who is not born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, the WISDOM OF GOD seems like foolishness to them. It is foolish to the “natural unsaved man” because itis not practical.
This is the whole point of the Bible! It is written not to just tell of what to do or not do, but to tell us a story of what “Faith of God” It tells us that “blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, He shall never be put to shame. To prove His point the Lord allows us to prove Him. He does this by bringing us into impossible situations where all human wisdom has to be brought to nothing.
Beloved reader, it was not practical for God to bring 3,000,000 people outof slavery and lead them into a desert where there is no water, no food. It was foolish to bring them to the banks of the Red Sea, and have Pharaoh and his army corner them to take them back to Egypt and trap them by the sea.
It was foolish of God to do so to allow that the Israelite’s would think, “ you brought us out here to die by the hand of the Egyptians, we were better to be their slaves. Yet it was here against “human reason“ God brought for agreat deliverance by a mighty miracle of parting the sea. Yet, even this didn’t establish them in the “faith of God.”
After God delivered them from Pharaoh by opening up a sea for them to cross on dry ground in the midst of, and destroying Pharaoh’s army in the same river, they still complained. A few days later all their food ran out and they complained again and said, “we were better off back in Egypt as slaves at least there were cucumbers to eat.” God answered their cry and gave them “manna from heaven to eat”, yet that was enough to build their faith. As they went forward a few more days they ran out of water in the dessertand again they murmured that “God you brought us out here to die, we were better off in Egypt.”
Their “human wisdom” caused them to DENY GOD who had done so many miracles for them all along the way,and want to go back to being slaves in Egypt. Hebrews chapter 3 tells us that God was angry with this generationand swore in His wrath, “they shall never enter my rest.” The rest of what true faith is and what true faith brings.Listen to the rebuke the author of Hebrews writes about these people :
Heb 3:7-12, “ And so, as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you let his voice come to your ears, Be not hard of heart, as when you made me angry, on the day of testing in the waste land, When your fathers put me to the test, and saw my works for forty years. So that I was angry with this generation, and I said, Their hearts are in error at all times, and they have no knowledge of my ways; And being angry I made an oath, saying, They may not come into my rest. My brothers, take care that there is not by chance in any one of you an evil heart filled with unbelief, turning away from the living God!"
The King James bible describes Hebrews 3:12 as having an “evil heart of unbelief.” This heart is the “mind of the flesh“, or “human wisdom.” Their lack of faith caused them to DIE IN THE WILDERNESS! They did not allow God to activate the faith God gave them by trusting in someone bigger than them. Jesus said, I must send SOMEONE BIGGER than you to live in you. He is called the Comforter, Teacher, and the SPIRIT OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE! He is Knowledge of God Himself, the living Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity!
So God has chosen that which is “not revealed to the spirit of the world” or the things “which are not” for this purpose: SO THAT HE MIGHT MAKE AS NOTHING THE THINGS THAT ARE! “The things that are” is what man bases “his faith upon!” His “own understanding, intelligence, wisdom as the basis of his faith.”
God proved that this kind of thinking in them to be nothing according to 1st Corinthians 1:1:29.Their human wisdom wanted to go back to Egypt! They said they would die in the wilderness, and God led them there to die! Yet by His mighty power for Israel, He opens up the sea to walk on dry ground. He brought forth water from the rock and provided bread from heaven called manna. So much for "human reason!"
There were even more miracles through the History of the Bible that shows us God’s wisdom supersedes all of mans wisdom. He allowed Elijah to call down fire from heaven to prove He was God and not Baal. He stopped the sun from setting for Joshua so the army of Israel could defeat the enemy, and later brought the great walls of Jericho down after 7 days of marching around them with the shouts of God’s people and a trumpet. Foolishness isn’t it?
All this is foolish to a man without God, and sadly also to so many in the Body of Christ that think God is powerless today. To many believers believe that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit died with the Apostles, though there is not ONE scripture that says this happened! Beside the logic itself that is faulty. Whywould God stop sending the Baptism of the Spirit after the disciples? So we could go back relying on our own human wisdom and power to serve God and make disciples of the nations?
Does it make sense that God would want every other generation to walk without the power of the Holy Spirit, the mind of the Holy Spirit, when He came to send His very Spirit to us in power? Why did the disciples have to tarry in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, if it was not important? To many this "human wisdom" seems logical even reasonable. Many even try to twist the scriptures to accomodate their reasoning.
Yet no where did Jesus ever teach the Baptism of the Holy Spirit would end with the disciples. Quite the opposite is true. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached to the crowd and said these words, Act 2:39, "For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him!"
The “real” baptism of the Holy Spirit brought them “dunamus” power to preach the Gospel, but more it transfigured their lives by activating the "God-Kind of fatih" within them. Before Pentecost they were hiding and afraid for their lives, but after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit they were boldly proclaiming the Gospel and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They now had a “new way” of thinking and living.
They did not have to hide anymore, but could declare the Gospel boldly with signs and wonders following. This sounds like a “new mind of faith” to me, the "mind of the Holy Spirit!" Once again God would demonstrate that the foolishness of God is wiser than all human wisdom could ever hope to be. He would use the foolishness of preaching the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit based in the "faith of God" in us to counfound the wisdom of this world.
I will close with this thought, "God did make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."
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