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Faith based on what we hear or read is central and necessary; the beginning of faith does come by hearing. But God wants to lead you on to the point where you can say, “Now I’ve seen it with my own eyes and it’s all clear.”
comes from spending time in the presence of God. It does not have to be in a whirlwind. Indeed, we most clearly see the presence of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.
The important thing is to be in the presence of God, for that is the birthplace of the life without lack.
Even if you have strong faith, you may still complain to God.
When faith begins to move, it moves on groups.
That is not the way of God. It is asking, it is seeking, it is knocking.
Grace is opposed to earning, but it is not opposed to effort, because effort is action and earning is attitude.
We must take the faith we have, act on it, and grow toward the faith of sufficiency.
“Lord, give me faith. I am ready for it. Take me through whatever I need for it.” That is
the way forward to the faith of sufficiency.
to life without lack. The nature of the death-to-self experience is that,
Control One
purposed in his heart to seek God’s help. Then he acted, proclaiming a national fast, enlisting the help of others, and directing them to seek the Lord as well. This is precisely what they did, with people coming from all over Judah to Jerusalem. When they were assembled, Jehoshaphat acted again by pouring out his heart to God in a prayer of desperate faith:
That is how we are to respond to life’s difficulties and disappointments and the suffering that can—and most likely will—come to us. If we get ourselves out of the way, and focus our attention upon the God of our sufficiency, then we, too, can be singing songs of victory. With full-throated confidence, we can shout out with Paul:
but a great part of our growth includes disengaging from the expectations of others.
When we see people dominated by their lust for glory or insisting that their will be done, we will be in a position where we can be very firm in not cooperating with them, even if they’re our loved ones.
Death to self gives us the place to stand in real dignity, in the yoke of Jesus, and not cooperate with the efforts of other people to live out their fleshly fantasies, whatever they may be.
