gordon 2
Senior Member
Lots of good stuff on this topic. Here are a few thoughts that came to me.
2 Cor 13
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Testing that leads to repentance (a turning away) is healthy for a believer!
Colossians 3:3
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Galatians 2
19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Most believers will spend a lifetime on this truth, trying to figure out that we are already dead!
Ephesians 1
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
The door is locked tight but believers have full access!
The very fact that a believer is convicted of sin shows that the Holy Spirit is working in you. Learn to plug into His power to overcome it! As long as you have your flesh man you will always be in this war but victory is already yours! Fight the fight! Overcome!
God Bless!
And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.+++
Re: Regards faith and the definition of faith.
I had never looked at faith this way+++ ( from Galatians 2-19 above) that the traditional definition of faith ( trust in things hoped for) was as to the flesh and perhaps not as to the Spirit.
In the flesh we are still not made whole but in the Spirit we are " blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places"! Ephesians 1-3 above.
So our traditional and simple definition of faith is from and for our flesh nature. Which might explain why I always felt that faith was much more than its simple definition.
Faith risks a change of form or nature in a person's makeup after a person's spiritual nature is changed by the grace of God through Jesus Savior which usually leaves a person without doubt that the Holy Spirit is present and active in their lives.
Or, simply for many from a witness of God's intimate presence in their lives, or more simply expressed (I hope) for some born again experience in the life of a believer that there is NOT A DOUBT they are re-wired spiritually to a one on one relationship with God and to the body of Christ now present to the world as His church.
" Or as in my case that the " Kingdom of our Lord is more perceptible as a solid foundation than anything else said to be of solid foundation-period." And this is part of my faith, not a faith as a persuasion, not faith as something hoped for, but a faith in relationship that is my sure witness from and of the many "spiritual blessings in the heavenly places" Ephesians 1-3.
???? So does faith have more than one or two definitions? By God's grace how is faith built up and is it transformed in the life of a believer?
Maybe I should start a new thread... if all the eyes and tees are not crossed yet with the topic of this one...?
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