SPIRITUAL MATURITY: GROWING UP IN FAITH

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20 NIV).

Faith is the foundation for Christian spirituality. Take Christian spirituality to be a building. The foundation is the most important part of a building. If the foundation is weak, the whole building is weak and will come crushing down. 

The Holy Spirit, from this text, teaches you to build up on your most holy faith. What does this statement mean? Firstly, it means that faith is holy. Faith is not mundane, not ordinary, not common, not of human origin. It is sacred, supernatural, divine, issuing directly from God to the new man. Faith pertains to the new life. Except a man is born of the Spirit and of water, they do not possess faith, in fact, they cannot. Faith is not genetic, passing through the DNA of a parent to their offspring. Faith is spiritual, deposited by the Holy Spirit into the hearts of his offspring. 

Secondly, faith is the foundation of Christian spirituality. Just as a building rises high over its foundation, your spirituality also grows up and rises high over faith. Apostle Peter says, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness...(2 Peter 1:5 NIV). Why does he say, "add to your faith"? It is because faith is the foundation of Christian spirituality, the very virtue that brought you into union with God. 

To make this assertion more authoritative, let us listen to Apostle Paul on faith. He also says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6 NIV). God's holy lover, whether you will rise high in your spiritual life or fall flat in your spiritual life depends on your faith. 

Christian spirituality is like putting up a building. The tenacity of your edifice is dependent on your trust for God, the Father. Spend more time on the foundation of your spirituality, which is faith. Without faith, you cannot make the Father happy. Without faith, you will not be able to walk far with the Father. And without faith, you will not be able to rise to prominence in the ministry. 

Forget about the books. You may read and read again, but without faith, the knowledge that you have acquired will make you puffed up. You will be dry and fruitless. Knowledge is good, but it is not the foundation of spirituality. Faith is the foundation.

What is faith?

Faith is the word of God in motion. Everything happens spiritually according to, or in agreement with God's word. The universe itself came into existence by God's word. Can you forsake God's word and be spiritually worthy? No way!

Faith refers to an utterance made or an action taken according to, or in agreement with God's word. The word of God is the setter forth of faith. 

Scripture says, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17 NIV). To put it another way, faith is birthed in a heart that responds to God's anointed utterance of his Anointed One (TPT). 

Direction of faith

Faith moves, and so it has a direction. Faith has two-way direction. First, it moves from God to man. Second, it moves the heart of man toward God—the Father, the Son (who is the Word) and the Holy Spirit. 

In the first instance, faith comes by hearing the Father's anointed utterance about the Son. Then the Holy Spirit convicts the hearer of the need to accept the Son. So faith is birthed. 

In the second instance, faith moves the heart of man toward the Father, who made the anointed utterance, and toward the Son (who himself is the Word) about whom the anointed utterance was made, and toward the Holy Spirit, who convicted the heart to accept the Son. 

Faith is a movement. It moves mountain of hindrances out of place. It moves the Father to love you. It moves the Son (who himself is the Word) to speak for you and to intercede on your behalf in his priestly role. It moves the Holy Spirit to cause his anointing to overflow within you. You have to be in the flow of the faith movement.  

Object of faith

As faith is directed toward God—Father, Son (who is the Word), and Holy Spirit, you must ensure that you do not direct your faith to any other object apart from God. Your object of faith is God, not an anointed man of God, an anointed place of worship, or an anointed item that supposedly springs forth favour. If an anointed person, place or thing can command so much faith and devotion, what about the Holy Spirit himself who causes his anointing to overflow within that person, place or thing? So, you must direct your faith toward God alone. 

Faith toward Christ

Christ is the centre of the faith movement. Any utterance or action that moves the heart away from placing confidence in Christ is not of faith. You better run away from such utterances!

Beloved, grow up in your faith. Whether you will rise or fall depends on the dimension of the faith of Christ that you have been able to touch.

Faith belongs to Christ

Faith is not of human origin. It belongs to God and his Anointed One—Christ. The faith that you are walking in is the dimension of the faith of Christ that you have been able to touch and handle and possess. There are deeper, higher, longer and wider dimensions of the faith of Christ. What dimension of Christ's faith are you operating now?

Do I say this on my own? Let's listen to Paul as he throws light on the faith of Christ.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

We often make mistake by forcing this text of scripture to say, "I live by faith in the Son of God". But the scripture does not make this mistake. Let God be true but every man a liar. Paul says here that he lived by the faith of the Son of God. "Of" here means pertaining to, or belonging to. Thus, the faith pertaining to Christ, or belonging to Christ. As the heir of God, you have inherited the faith of Christ, and so you live by his kind of faith. Referring to class or quality, it is as precious as that of Christ's, and referring to dimension or measure, he dwells in our hearts with the whole measure of his fulness, and so we must press to touch and handle and possess the whole measure of his fulness. 

What dimension of Christ's faith have you been able to touch and handle and possess? There is more room for improvement. Keep digging deep into the  treasure field of Christ's faith. 


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Comments

  1. Sage WordOctober 17, 2022 at 2:15 AM

    Sage Broadcast empowers you to study, reason and question (srq) scripture in order to find evidence of the truth. Remember, this is achievable only through the Holy Spirit.

    ReplyDelete

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