Holiness is a quality that is unique to our Heavenly Father. Since we were created in His image for the purpose of having relationship and fellowship with Him, we must conclude that we have no other choice but to be holy too. We can't make ourselves holy. That's an impossibility. God, our extraordinarily loving and all-powerful Heavenly Father who is full of mercy and grace, has made us holy through Jesus Christ. 1Corinthians 1:30(NLT) tells us, "God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin." To be holy is to be set apart, dedicated, and consecrated by God for His purpose, and Jesus Christ left us an indelible blueprint through his example, love, and faith in our Heavenly Father.
Our blessed Lord and Savior lived the life that God has purposed all His children to live. It is important we realize that there is no greater life than the life of Jesus Christ, and it is our overwhelming privilege to follow it. Through His example, he has given us the keys to the Kingdom, and Matthew 16:19(NLT) tells us that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Jesus Christ lived a life of faith, and through his sacrifice and resurrection, we have received his faith. The Apostle Peter affirms this in 2Peter 1:1(NLT). This verse says, “This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.”
The question that each of us must ask ourselves daily is what we are going to do with this tremendous gift of faith. As we ponder the healings that our Lord and Savior did during his sojourn on earth, we can learn a lot about what we are to do through our faith in him. In Luke 8:48(NLT), when Jesus Christ healed the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years, he told her, “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” In Luke 17:19(NLT), Jesus healed a Samaritan man of leprosy, and when the man came back to thank him, he told him, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” In Luke 18:42(NLT), when he healed a blind beggar that was sitting by the side of the road, Jesus told him, “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.”
These were individuals that did not know the Word the way believers today do. Because of Christ, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth, and we have access to the Word of God any time of day. They didn’t have these amazing blessings. Yet, they still had faith in Jesus Christ. But there is something else that we must not ever overlook. It’s the reality that they were responsible for connecting their believing with the Lord’s faith, and this connection manifested their healing.
Matthew 13 tells us that when Jesus Christ visited his hometown, they wouldn’t accept him in the way he deserved. Most of the hometown folks refused to believe in him, and because of this Matthew 13:58(NLT) tells us, “And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” His power and authority didn’t change just because he was in Nazareth. He was still the same powerful and wonderful Messiah, but he would not overstep the free-will choice of the people in his hometown. They had to connect their faith with his faith for something wonderful to happen, and if they refused to do this, their faith was dead.
When our believing isn’t connecting with faith in the Lord’s power, we still have doubt, and that doesn’t meet God’s requirement. Jesus Christ teaches in Mark 11:23-24(NLT), "23 I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. 24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours." As God’s set apart people, we can’t take the word of the world or society over the Word of God. We must believe what God says and have no doubt in our hearts that we can have what He says we can have, we can do what He says we can do, and we can be all that He said we can be.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Believing in Faith”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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