DISCERNMENT OF FAITH -chambers

sermonindex Oct 27, 2005

DISCERNMENT OF FAITH"Faith as a grain of mustard seed. . ." Matthew 17:20We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, it may be so in the initial stages; but we do not earn anything by faith, faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God His opportunity. God has frequently to knock the bottom board out of your experience if you are a saint in order to get you into contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. You are worth far more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony. Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him - I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" - this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.

PreachParsly Oct 27, 2005

God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. Amen. I think a lot of belivers don't ever get past the 'honeymoon' mentality. When someone first gets married (I'm assuming.. I'm not married nor have ever been) its a burst of emotion and feeling. Then you have to actually learn to live with them. I think a lot of Christians just want feeling. When they are first saved emotions are high and everything happy. Then persecution and trail come and some would think God has left, no I think He is teaching you to walk by faith.

InTheLight Oct 27, 2005

Amen. I think a lot of belivers don't ever get past the 'honeymoon' mentality.I think you're right, many decide to sit down just inside of Bunyan's "wicket gate" and selfishly enjoy the view there in a kind of honeymoon mentality while forgetting that there is a narrow path to be followed. We need to be aware that there is something in the Father's heart that goes beyond the redemption. That is not to belittle the work of redemption in any way, I rejoice in it daily, but there is much more in view. DeVern Fromke breaks the intention of God down into the Historic Cross where the work of redemtion was completed and the Inwrought Cross where God brings many sons to glory in a daily walk in the Spirit. If we only see the cross as the answer for our own need me miss the much larger picture of what the cross does in me FOR GOD.In Christ,Ron