Faith or Fear: Blessing or Cursing Part Four

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

Genesis 15:6 “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness because of his faith.”

There are so many wonderful art strokes from God’s hands throughout nature that some times it’s hard for my eyes to believe what I am actually seeing because of the awesomeness of its beauty. There is a television show called Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel, that if you are able to watch in High Definition (HD,) the cinematography of nature in this show is often breathtaking. I remember one night I was in the cockpit of a commercial jet flying at about 33,000 feet. We ran into the greatest display of Northern Lights I had ever seen. It was one thing seeing them from the ground. It was another thing seeing them that high up in the dark. I was memorized for 15 minutes almost not being able to believe what I was seeing. (You can see some fantastic pictures of Northern lights at http://www.northern-lights.no/ if you’ll click around a little.) Has that ever happened to you – you can hardly believe what you have seen or heard?

When I think of this it makes me think of Abraham. The God of the universe makes a personal and intimate promise to this one man. If we wonder if God talks to the heart of man, that question is answered in these verses. If we wonder if God cares about what we care about, that question is answered in these verses. If we wonder if God will do things greater than we could possibly conceive out of love for us – Jesus already proved it to be so. But we see it again in today’s Fresh Manna verses. “Then the Lord brought Abram outside beneath the night sky and told him, “Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!” And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness because of his faith.” (Genesis 15:5-6)

When you were a child you probably had your parent or parents make promises to you that you wanted them to reassure to you over and over again. Hopefully they kept them to you. Over the course of life, there are so many broken promises, so many disillusionments, and so many times our hopes and expectations are shattered that we lose trust in anyone’s promises including God. We can’t let that distrust infect our trust in God’s promises. Unbelief is the enemy of faith and the hindering force and obstacle to the fulfillment of God’s promises in our life. Promises from God are ushered into our lives through sincere heart understanding of what they are and in our faith in them. Hebrews 11:6 opens our eyes to this revelation of truth. “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.”

As a Christian – one who has accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you have the Holy Spirit in you. You literally have the Spirit of God within you helping you be transformed in a new creature. 2 Cor 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” That word creature is a Greek word that means you’ve been made over again. It carries the meaning of being remanufactured, or a brand new creation and carries the connotation that you are under someone else’s proprietorship – God Himself. 1 Cor 6:20 says, “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Jesus paid the price for your redemption – therefore you belong to Him. He is making you a brand new creature from the inside out. As you respond to the Holy Spirit – as the scriptures lead and instruct you in how to think, how to love, how to behave, and what attitude to carry in life, you will become, over time, completely transformed – into a “new creature.” If you gave your life to Jesus today, and walked closely with Him letting Him work in your heart – fifteen years from now, people wouldn’t recognize you you’d be so different. God wants us to truly work to become like Jesus in heart BUT, that will be a life long effort.

Understanding this, I want to expound on an important verse. 2 Cor. 7:1 says, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” At face value you can see that God wants us to purge from our life, ungodly thinking, ungodly behaviors, and ungodly attitudes. That is what He means when He says, “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh…” God will truly help you clean up your life and rebuild you into a “new creature.”

But then the verse says, we also need to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of spirit. What does that mean? Honestly, with no hype intended – it is one of the most important truths for building our faith and receiving the promises of God that you could ever study. The revelation of it has the potential to affect every part of your life. I’ll explain it tomorrow.

For today, know that just as God made mind-blowing promises to Abraham that were almost impossible to believe – so does He to You! Abraham believed! Can you?

More about God’s promised blessing to you to come…

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org