Friday, April 7, 2017

Faith OR Feeling?

Rom_1:17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Gal_3:11  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

Heb_10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 

2Co 5:7  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 

(Excerpt)

'The Life of Faith

The Bible Discloses for us the normal path of a Christian’s walk in such passages as “the righteous shall live by faith”; “the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God”; and “we walk by faith, not by sight” (Rom. 1.17 ASV; Gal. 2.20; 2 Cor. 5.7).

By faith are we to live.

But while this principle may be quickly grasped in the mind it is not so readily experienced in life. The life of faith is not only totally different from, but also diametrically opposite to, a life of feeling.

He who lives by sensation can follow God’s will or seek the things above purely at the time of excitement; should his blissful feeling cease, every activity terminates. Not so with one who walks by faith.

Faith is anchored in the One Whom he believes rather than in the one who exercises the believing, that is, himself.

Faith looks not at what happens to him but at Him Whom he believes.

Though he may completely change, yet the One in Whom he trusts never does—and so he can proceed without letting up.

Faith establishes its relationship with God. It regards not its feeling because it is concerned with God.

Faith follows the One believed while feeling turns on how one feels.

What faith thus beholds is God whereas what feeling beholds is one’s self.

God does not change: He is the same God in either the cloudy day or the sunny day. Hence he who lives by faith is as unchanging as is God; he expresses the same kind of life through darkness or through light. But one who dwells by feeling must pursue an up-and-down existence because his feeling is ever changing.

What God expects of His children is that they will not make enjoyment the purpose of their lives.

God wants them to walk by believing Him. As they run the spiritual race they are to carry on whether they feel comfortable or whether they feel painful. They never alter their attitude towards God according to their sensations. However dry, tasteless or dark it may be, they continue to advance— trusting God and advancing as long as they know this is God’s will.

Frequently their feeling appears to rebel against this continuation: they grow exceedingly sorrowful, melancholic, despondent, as though their emotions were pleading with them to halt every spiritual activity. They nonetheless go on as usual, entirely ignoring their adverse feeling; for they realize work must be done.

 This is the pathway of faith, one which pays no heed to one’s emotion but exclusively to the purpose of God.'   Excerpt - The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

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