Today I am continuing a discussion on what we do while we are standing for the manifestation of the promise. Our discussion centers on faith, and specifically, faith for healing. Paul in Romans 4:16, makes it quite clear that faith in God is the only way to receive the promise.
Let’s look at it in the Amplified Translation, “’Therefore, [inheriting] the promise depends entirely on faith [that is, confident trust in the unseen God], in order that it may be given as an act of grace [His unmerited favor and mercy], so that the promise will be [legally] guaranteed to all the descendants [of Abraham]—not only for those [Jewish believers] who keep the Law, but also for those [Gentile believers] who share the faith of Abraham, who is the [spiritual] father of us all— “
That is why understanding faith, the principles of faith and as Paul phrased it, the Law of Faith is so important. Outside of faith it is impossible to please our Father. While in the midst of standing for the manifestation, your mind begins to tell you that you need to do something or that you need to perform better inorder to obtain the promise. That is when you must grab the Bible and begin to renew your mind and declare Romans 4:16, over your situation.
Let’s take a minute and look at the Word of God as a seed and how to apply the Word after believing for the promise. When receiving healing or any other promise, we can compare the process to a farmer planting seed. If you want corn, what would you do? You would plant a kernel of corn. The kernel of corn is the seed, right? You did not make, or produce the seed. We take the seed (or Word) and plant in the soil (our hearts). We water it, weed it and wait. No one can make a seed grow. It grows by itself. Once it has borne fruit, we harvest it and the process starts over.
This is what Jesus told His disciples in Mark 4:26-29 MSG “Then Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps—harvest time!”
Here are some points in that passage that I would like to stress. First it says the man goes to bed and forgets about it. Forget about it, where have I heard that phrase? Remember Ronco? Many years ago they had an infomercial to sell a rotisserie. The slogan was “set it and forget it.” In other words the machine did all the work for you. A farmer never sows seed and goes home and worries if the seed will begin to germinate. They have confidence that the seed under the right conditions would produce a crop. They went home with a confident expectation.
Second, the man has no idea how it happens. We don’t have to know and understand how God is healing us. We must put our trust in the One who is the source of all things.
And third, the earth does it all without our help. God does not need our help to bring about healing in our bodies. Again, we are receiving what God has already provided and paid the price for by sending Jesus our Lord.
What if we planted the kernel and after a few days nothing appeared to be happening? So we reasoned in our mind that it wasn’t working and dug it up, thus stopping the growing process?
What if we did not water the seed, or we did not tend to it? This is our part, attending to it. Watering it. By tending to the Word of God we remain in a place of faith and create an atmosphere where the anointing can produce in our lives. This will be discussed more in the future.
As I begin to close this out, let us look at 2 Corinthians, where Paul instructs them to examine themselves to see if they were in the faith or not.
2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves, seeing whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”
Paul asked, do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? In the 4th chapter of the same epistle, Paul wrote Christ in you the hope of glory. Paul is telling them that if Christ is in them then there is nothing God can’t accomplish through them. God is able. If Jesus is in you, then His faith is in you and His anointing is available to remove any burden and destroy any yoke.
Why would Paul instruct the Corinthian Church to examine themselves? Because many think they are living by faith, but they have drifted outside “the place of faith.” We must continue to remain in faith while the seed is growing and producing. How do we know we are in that place of faith? The writer of Hebrews assures us: “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). Remember, faith is always at rest and there is peace, joy and a confidence that God is with us and making a way for us.
If we are agitated, in fear, have lost our joy and confidence, we probably are not in faith. But don’t fret, there is any easy fix, the Word of God. The Bible declares that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.
Sowing and reaping is a spiritual law of the Kingdom of God and is another foundational truth that we must take hold of. Jesus told His disciples in Mark 4, that if they did not understand this parable, then how will they understand any parable?
Paul emphasizes this truth in Galatians 6:7-9 AMP, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked [He will not allow Himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with contempt nor allow His precepts to be scornfully set aside]; for whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will reap. For the one who sows to his flesh [his sinful capacity, his worldliness, his disgraceful impulses] will reap from the flesh ruin and destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap, if we do not give in.”
The question is how do you sow to the Spirit? You sow to the Spirit by living and operating in and through faith. By achieving God’s purpose in your life through faith in God alone. And you sow to the flesh by living and operating in life by attempting to accomplish God’s purpose for your life through performance based works of the flesh.
Paul encouraged the Galatians to not allow themselves to grow weary, or become discouraged in doing good. Paul understood that after we believed God, that pressure to quit and give up would come. But he also said at the proper time you would reap, if we remained steadfast in faith and did not give in. Look at the phrase “in doing good.” Doing good is living life by faith in God and remaining in faith until we see the manifestation of the promise. Giving in means giving in to the pressures of this world system and the pressure to stop believing God and His Word and to return to what we relied on prior to being born again, that is living life through works of the flesh apart from God and His Word.
I want to encourage you to keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. God is faithful to complete what He promised in your life today. Remain in faith, remain in the Word and remain diligent to seek God through His precious Spirit. The victory is yours through Christ Jesus!
Blessings.
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