Volume 1, Issue 3

"Preparing Servants for the Nations"

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Living in the Reality of Faith

Rev. Lawrence "Buddy" Martin
Senior Pastor
Christian Challenge

Never in the Scriptures are we told to live our life by reason or by logic. Why is that? It is because the Lord is God Almighty, and He is limitless in what He can do. For example, when the Angel of the Lord promised Abraham and Sarah they would have a son at the appointed time, Sarah said to herself, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” Sarah didn’t realize that the Lord heard the musings of her heart. He turned to her, and said, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (Gen18:14)

Of course this disturbed Sarah a bit that the Lord could read her heart. But Biblical faith really is an issue of the heart. And it isn’t that the Lord is against our musings. In fact to reason with God can be very healthy spiritually. This is why He invites us to do this very thing. In one place, the Lord says, “Come now, and let us reason together, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)

But why did the Lord interject into Sarah’s thinking? When the Lord said to Sarah, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” He wanted her to think about this issue carefully. Later it says that Sarah received the ability to conceive because, “she considered Him faithful who had promised.” (Heb11:11) Sarah heard the promise of the Lord. She thought deeply about what He said. She took to herself that His Word was true. And His promise became a living Word to her.

It is one thing for the Lord to reason with us, and we with Him, it is altogether another to let Satan chip away at our faith by seeding our minds with doubts. Satan reasoning’s are designed to tear our faith down. This is why Paul said, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” (2Co10:5)

Let’s reflect a bit on the living nature of faith. Adam was created to live in harmony with the divine will of God. When he rejected the way of the Lord, he lost his spirituality. Adam became a natural man. He was no longer alive in his spirit to God. Paul explains that a natural man is unable to accept spiritual things; “He cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Adam had become an earthy man. (Cf. 1Co15:47)

But the Man from heaven changed all this. And out of the cross we are given a heavenly birth. Not only that, but in the new covenant God’s living Word takes up residence in our very hearts. This is why Paul said, “Christ [God’s Living Word] in you, the hope of glory.” (Col 1:27) And thus our living faith begins with we truly meet Jesus Christ.

This brings us to the next facet of our faith walk in the new covenant. The apostle also said, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Col2:6) This is a powerful statement but it is easily missed in the English rendering. To receive is paralambano. It means to take Jesus to yourself with the idea of accompaniment. It speaks of close fellowship, or the sharing of lives. To walk in Him speaks of living in the reality or sphere of His Being. Jesus explains this in a single statement; “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)

So in the new covenant we are called to live by trusting Jesus Christ, that is, to live by our constant fellowship with Him. Paul explains it this way; “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal2:20)

Notice what Paul is saying. The faith life we are called to is actually Jesus Himself directing our lives. Paul said, “Christ lives in me.” Therefore, we are called to live by faith in Christ who lives in us. Not only did Jesus die for our sins, but He also takes up residence by His Spirit in the hearts of all the redeemed. And so, the walk of faith is truly a Spirit-directed life. This is the wonder of new covenant faith. Not only do we have faith in Jesus, but our lives have been conjoined together with Christ. We live with Christ directing our very walk in this world.

In the new covenant God left nothing to chance. Christ not only died for us, he lives in us. Listen to these Scriptures and you will catch the essence of our call to live by faith in Jesus:

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From His innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38,39) (The innermost being of a believer is where the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ abides. The outflow can be defined as the divine impulses.)

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom10:17) (Greek for ‘word’ here is ‘rhema’. This word speaks of an utterance or a directive. The focus is on content, or a happening thing. This means that faith takes place in the inside of us, as Christ speaks into our inner man. Where did Sarah receive faith to conceive? The Lord spoke to her heart.)

The fact that a believer possesses faith is proof positive that this believer is living in communion with Jesus Christ. Jesus explains the reality of the faith we walk is as living waters. To the lady at the well, Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) Living water is a symbol of God’s Presence, and of His living words. David had spiritual insight into this in saying, “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” (Psalm 36:9)

What then is the conclusion of this? It is simply that Jesus did not come to give us a better religion. He dismantled the best religion the world has ever known, at the cross. He explained at the well. Jesus said, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father … But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24)

Bro. Buddy and his wife Betty founded Christian Challenge in 1976 after having pastored and evangelized for several years. He serves as Senior Pastor and General Overseer. Bro. Buddy and Sister Betty have 3 children and 9 grandchildren, all of whom worship at Christian Challenge.