I pray that you all believe the importance of maturing in knowing Jesus by being his disciple and chosen not to remain immature in your spirit by just drinking spiritual milk and not pursue eating solid spiritual food.
Drinking milk is when you just depend on someone other than the Holy Spirit to teach you the heart and will of God.
The next few Sundays I will be teaching on the elementary teachings in Hebrews 6 which it says we need to know first so that we all can move on to mature teaching and eat solid spiritual food through the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit teaching us its spiritual meaning.
Last week I shared about acts that lead to death and about sin that does not lead to death.
Let’s look at the 2nd elementary teaching in Hebrews 6 having faith in God.
Paul teaches the importance of having faith in God.
Ephesians 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
We are saved because of God’s grace when he sent his Son to die for our sins while we were still sinners and by having faith in Jesus, we receive God’s salvation. This is one of the pillars of Jesus gospel that we build on.
Having faith in God is completely different from what the world believes faith is.
The world when it hears the word faith it may first think of the word “f-a-t-e”. Which means something that will happen in the future that they have no control over.
But when asked to define “f-a-i-t-h” the world believes it is to wish with a strong desire for something that seems unattainable and hope it will happen.
That kind of faith is not the faith Jesus wants us to have. Hebrew teaches what faith is.
Hebrews 11: 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Faith in God is not wanting what is unattainable or want it to happen, it being sure and certain of what we hope for even though we do not see it now.
This is the faith Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had when God told them that someday they would inherit the promised land even though they would not receive it in their lifetime.
Hebrews 11: 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go toa place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
Hundreds of years after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were buried God fulfilled his promise to them when Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land because of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob faith in God and his promise to them.
This is the elementary faith we must have in believing Jesus’ promise of someday going home to be with our Father in heaven. A faith that is sure and certain in this hope to be with God as seen by the way we live our lives on this earth like other people with the same faith.
Hebrews 11: 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of theirown. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Faith in God is believing we are aliens and strangers on earth longing to be at home in a country of our own with our Father in heaven. It is a faith that never wants what this world gives but hope in what we will receive in the future.
Faith in God is certain and sure of this hope because Jesus made this hope possible and by having faith in him as our Lord and Savior.
Faith in God believes that Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth born in flesh to be our sacrifice for ours sins by dying on the cross for them and believing he was buried in a tomb and resurrected from his grave 3 day later and went home to be with his Father. Faith in God loves Jesus by obeying his teaching and commandment and by this faith receives the Holy Spirit to dwell in them to be their teacher, guide, counselor, and seal guaranteeing their eternal inheritance.
This is the elementary faith we must have in God so that we can mature in the complete wholeness of knowing Jesus and be able to serve him.
You know you are maturing when you can capture your every thought and conform it to Christ and do not depend on others to hold you accountable to Jesus. If Jesus is your Lord, you know how to serve him and not your own self-interest or what you think is right for you.
Have the mind of Christ and your life will be worthy to God and less angry and frustrated.
Ps. Glenn