Joy In Believing.

 

Believing.

Does believing in a thing always make it reality?  No, absolutely not. You could believe a lie, and because you believe that lie when you realize it was a lie you believed in you comprehend that you were wrong to believe. What you believed in wasn't a reality. People like to have facts to back up their beliefs. People don't want to be caught believing lies. People feel like fools when they've allowed themselves to be duped. To tell someone to believe when you have very little tangible proof, is asking a lot. However… if what someone is telling you to believe is not something that could ever hurt you in any way- to believe-  how are you duped?  But if you don't believe you will be hurt in the worst way ever- do you risk choosing not to believe?

I'm not talking about our temporary life.  Yes, you'll get a lot of people who believe this life is all there is to life and it all ends when they die. My heart goes out to those people because they choose to only believe in a life filled with all kinds of heartache and pain, when it costs them NOTHING to believe in something more.  Some might say it could cost them their life now to believe in that something more, and they're right- people die to believe all the time. Those people who do die, count that cost worth it in order to believe. They believe in hope, in eternal hope, everlasting life, love unending and to believe in such amazing things takes nothing from them, because even if they're called to give their lives for those beliefs, those beliefs give them joy now. 

You've heard of the saying- there is no down side- well, there is no down side to believing in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, none. Joy now in believing, and joy when that belief is realized.

Faith in the joy of salvation in Jesus Christ is in no way foolish.  The only foolish ones are those who do not allow themselves the hope, the joy through believing.  

A.T. Jones- Excerpt-January 17, 1899

Faith is the depending upon the word of God only, and expecting that word only to do what the word says.

Justification by faith, then, is justification by depending upon the word of God only and expecting that word only to accomplish it.

Justification by faith is righteousness by faith, for justification is the being declared righteous.

Faith comes by the word of God. Justification by faith, then, is justification that comes by the word of God.  Righteousness by faith is righteousness that comes by the word of God.

The word of God is self-fulfilling, for in creating all things, "he spake and it was." And when He was on earth, He stilled the raging sea, cleansed the lepers, healed the sick, raised the dead, and forgave sins, all by His word:  there, too, "he spake, and it was."

Now the same One who, in creating, "spake, and it was", the same One who said, "Let there be light, and there was light," the same One who on earth spoke "the word only," and the sick were healed, the lepers were cleansed, and the dead lived--this same One speaks the righteousness of God unto and upon all that believe.

For though all have sinned and come short of the righteousness of God, yet we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth . . . to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God."

In creating all things in the beginning, God set forth Christ to declare the word which should cause all things to exist. Christ did speak the word only, and all things were. And in redemption, which is creation over again, God set forth Christ to declare the word of righteousness. And when Christ speaks the word only, it is so. His word,  whether in creating or in redeeming, is the same.

"The worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Once there were no worlds, nor was there any of the material which now composes the worlds. God set forth Christ to declare the word which should produce the worlds, and the very material of which they should be composed.

"He spake, and it was." Before He spoke, there were no worlds; after He spoke, the worlds were there. Thus the word of God spoken by Jesus Christ is able to cause that to exist which has no existence before the word is spoken, and which, except for that word, never could have existence.

 

In this same way precisely it is in man's life. In man's life there is no righteousness. In man there is no righteousness from which righteousness can appear in his life. But God has set forth Christ to declare righteousness unto and upon man. Christ has spoken the word only, and in the darkened void of man's life there is righteousness to everyone who will receive it. Where, before the word is received, there was neither righteousness nor anything which could possibly produce righteousness, after the word is received, there is perfect righteousness and the very Fountain from which it springs. The word of God received by faith--that is,  the word of God expected to do what that word says and depended upon to do what it says--produces righteousness in the man and in the life where there never was any before; precisely as, in the original creation,  the word of God produced worlds where there never were any worlds before. He has spoken, and it is so to everyone that believeth: that is, to every one that receiveth. The word itself produces it.

"Therefore being justified (made righteous) by faith (by expecting and depending upon the word of God only)  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1. That is so, bless the Lord! And feeding upon this blessed thing is cultivating faith.

We Choose. We Are All Given A Measure of Faith.

 God PUT an enmity between man and Satan.  There was no enmity until God put it there. Think about that for a moment. When Eve and Adam took and ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they aligned themselves with the seducer, Satan himself. To align themselves with Satan meant not aligning themselves with God. They had been in alignment with God from the moment of their creation, they had every advantage of that alignment but the seducer used his formidable wiles to test their alignment with God. Being overcome by the seducer, mankind abdicated their alignment with God and could not get it back of their own accord. That they were ashamed of what they'd done is on record. They knew instantly they'd made a grave error in judgment. Their regret had to be overwhelming. They immediately lost the light of God's pureness, their heavenly covering, a part of their alignment with God. As the veil of purity was wrenched off them, they were horrified by what was revealed beneath the Holy covering. They'd been changed from the sinless, to the sinful instantly, and sin is ugly, sin is an abhorrence. They knew they were different right away and not in a good way.  They knew they'd left the alliance with God and traded it for an alliance with something evil, something shameful. Mankind was NOT created to die. In order to die mankind was instantaneously altered from sinless creations to something awful, sin-filled. Make no mistake the way our bodies are now, are not the way God intended them to be. We made the choice and that choice changed us in ways that have allowed us to decay, to get sick, to be injured, to have deformity and so on. Our mere bodily system of normal functioning can make us ill, we have refuse in us that needs to be eliminated constantly- this was NOT how we were created to be. Sin changed us. The loss of immortality through God's pure light and love, took all that was of God and immortal from us. We became creatures of sin.  

But God didn’t want to lose us eternally. God knew that within us where part of Him dwelt in spirit, a part of Him allowed to remain by His mercy and grace, we could be restored to Him one day. God PUT an enmity between US and SATAN. We would be allowed to choose. Such love! Such awesome LOVE. We each get to choose, every individual capable of deciding can choose. Those incapable of choosing are God's through His mercy, His love and only He knows truly who are those incapable. 

*******

 Excerpt A.T. Jones- January 10, 1899 -

"The knowledge of what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith is more essential than any other knowledge that can be acquired."

Notice that it is the knowledge of what the Scripture means as to the "necessity of cultivating faith"--not particularly having faith but cultivating it.

There is not much said in the Scriptures about any necessity of our having faith, while very, very much is said about our cultivating faith.

The reason of this is that to all people there is given faith to begin with, and all they need to do is to cultivate faith. 

Nobody can have more faith than is already given him without cultivating the faith that is already given.

And there is nothing known to man that will grow so fast as faith, when it is cultivated--"faith groweth exceedingly."

2Th_1:3  We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth

Faith is the expecting that the word of God itself will accomplish what that word says, and the depending upon "the word only" to accomplish what the word says. 

To cultivate dependence on the word of God, "the word only," itself to do what the word says is to cultivate faith.

Faith is "the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8), and that it is given to everybody is plainly stated in the Scriptures.

 "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Rom. 12:3.

This measure of faith which "God hath dealt to every man" is the capital with which God endows and starts "every man that cometh into the world," and every man is expected to trade upon this capital--cultivate it--to the salvation of his soul.

There is no danger of ever lessening this capital when it is used; as certainly as it is used at all, it will increase. It will grow exceedingly. And as certainly as it grows, the righteousness, the peace, the joy, of the Lord, are assured to the full salvation of the soul.

Again, faith comes by the word of God. Therefore, it is written, "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach." Rom. 10:8. Thus faith, the very word of faith, is in the mouth and in the heart of every man.

How is this? Thus: When the first pair sinned in the garden, they wholly believed Satan. They gave themselves wholly to Satan. They were taken completely captive by him. Then there was perfect agreement and peace between them and Satan. But God did not leave it so. He broke up this agreement; He spoiled this peace. And He did it by His word, saying to Satan, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed." Gen. 3:15.

"It is God alone that can continually put enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent's seed. After the transgression of man, his nature became evil. Then was peace between Satan and fallen man. Had there been no interference on the part of God, men would have formed an alliance against heaven, and in the place of warfare among themselves, carried on nothing but warfare against God. There is no native enmity between fallen angels and fallen men. Both are evil and that through apostasy, and evil, wherever it exists, will always league against good. Fallen angels and fallen men join in companionship. The wise general of fallen angels calculated that if he could induce men, as he had angels, to join in rebellion, they would stand as his agents of communication with men to league in rebellion against heaven. Just as soon as one separates from God, he has no power of enmity against Satan. The enmity on earth between man and Satan is supernaturally put there. 

Unless the converting power of God is brought daily to bear upon the human heart, there will be no inclination to be religiously inclined, but men will choose to be the captives of Satan rather than to be free men in Jesus Christ. 

I say God will put enmity. Man cannot put it. When the will is brought into subject to the will of God, it must be through man's inclining his heart and will to be on the Lord's side." Unpublished Testimony.

This enmity against Satan, this hatred of evil, which God puts in every person by His word, causes each soul to long for deliverance, and the deliverance is found alone in Jesus Christ. Rom. 7:14-25.

Thus this word of God, which plants in each soul enmity against Satan, this hatred of evil that calls for deliverance which is found alone in Jesus Christ, this is the gift of faith to men. This is "the measure of faith" which God has dealt to every man. This is the "word of faith," which is in the mouth and in the heart of every person in the world.

This "is the word of faith, which we preach: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Rom. 10:8-10.

Therefore say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven, to bring faith to us? Neither say, Who shall descend into the deep, or, Who shall go far off to find faith and bring it to us? For "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach." Deut. 30:11-14; Rom. 10:6-8.

Say that--and exercise the faith which God has given to you, as to every other person in the world, for "understanding how to exercise faith, this is the science of the gospel."

Evil Is Temporary.

 God cannot lie.

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began

We can lie, we do lie, it happens all the time. We lie to ourselves often, and also to others. We call them innocuous lies, but no lie is innocuous, they all have consequences. 

Do you think the Devil tallies up the lies told- all of them from the very first human lie to the lies continuing even now as I write this? He is the father of lies. 

Joh_8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Each lie told is a tally mark for Satan, a sin in need of forgiveness. There are examples in the Bible of men and women of God lying, and their lies had consequences. They needed forgiveness from each and every lie, just as we do. We can't think our lies don't matter. Our words matter, and they are nothing like God's words. God's words do not lie, God cannot lie. God can be trusted. It's we who twist God's words to mean things they do not. We warp the meaning and context and then blame God for our own deception. Sometimes we even deceive ourselves, we begin to believe our own lies and we are allowed to do that because God does not force our hands, God does not stop our bent on evil not in the tiniest form of evil or the most horrific. We wonder why, and claim if we were God we wouldn't let these terrible things happen. We rail against God and say He's no God at all for allowing the evil. We make so many accusations and the truth of the matter is, God's mercy has all the evil, the worst of the worst of evil, as only being temporary. TEMPORARY.  Does that make a difference? Yes, yes it does. Evil would have evil be eternal. God allows things to happen, but He has a gospel of the purest love that tells us all the evil is temporary. As we walk through the valleys of evil against ourselves and against others, against purest innocent, and against other evil, we can BELIEVE it's temporary! This is NOT how it will be forever! This our loving God has made sure of, He's proclaimed this truth and God cannot lie!

(Excerpt)

Faith is the expecting the word of God itself to do what the word says and depending upon that word itself to do what the word says.

When this is clearly discerned, it is perfectly easy to see how it is that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Since the word of God is imbued with creative power and so is able to produce in very substance the thing which that word speaks and since faith is the expectation that the word itself will do what the word says and depending on the word only to do what that word says, it is plain enough 

that faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Since the word of God is in itself creative and so is able to produce and cause to appear what otherwise would never exist nor be seen, and since faith is the expecting the word of God only to do just that thing and depending upon "the word only" to do it, it is plain enough that faith is "the evidence of things not seen."

Thus it is that "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

He who exercises faith knows that the word of God is creative and that so it is able to produce the thing spoken.  Therefore, he can understand, not guess, that the worlds were produced, were caused to exist, by the word of God.

He who exercises faith can understand that though before the word of God was spoken, neither the things which are now seen nor the substances of which those things are composed, anywhere appeared, simply because they did not exist; yet when that word was spoken, the worlds were, simply because that word itself caused them to exist.

This is the difference between the word of God and the word of man. Man may speak, but there is no power in his words to perform the thing spoken. If the thing is to be accomplished which he has spoken, the man must do something in addition to speaking the word--he must make good his word.

Not so the word of God.

When God speaks, the thing is. And it is, simply because He has spoken. It accomplishes that which He was pleased to speak. It is not necessary that the Lord, as man, must do something in addition to the word spoken.  He needs not to make His word good; it is good. He speaks "the word only," and the things is accomplished.

And so it is written: "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe"--in you that exercise faith. 1 Thess. 2:13.

This also is how it is that it is "impossible for God to lie." It is not impossible for God to lie only because He will not, but also because He cannot. And He cannot lie, just because He cannot. It is impossible. And it is impossible, because when He speaks, the creative energy is in the word spoken, so that "the word only" causes the thing to be so.

Man may speak a word and it not be so. Thus man can lie, for to speak what is not so is to lie. And man can lie,  can speak what is not so, because there is no power in his word itself to cause the thing to be. With God this is impossible; He cannot lie, for "he spake, and it was"; He speaks, and it is so.

This is also how it is that when the word of God is spoken for a certain time, as in a prophecy for hundreds of years to come when that time actually has arrived, that word is fulfilled. And it is then fulfilled, not because, apart from the word, God does something to fulfill it, but because the word was spoken for that time, and in it is the creative energy which causes the word at that time to produce the thing spoken.

This is how it was that if the children had not cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David," the stones would have immediately cried out; and this is how it was that when the third day had come, it was "impossible" that He should be any longer holden of death.

O, the word of God is divine! In it is creative energy. It is "living and powerful." The word of God is self-fulfilling,  and to trust it and depend upon it as such, that is to exercise faith. "Hast thou faith?"

January 3, 1899 A.T. Jones 

The Vine of All Living.

 

In the mists of early morning, in the garden beyond the border, there under the wings of the angels, I peered. 

A beam of sunlight struck the minuscule droplets of water, and in a burst of vapor dissipated the veil before my vision. There in glorious beauty, I beheld the magnificent Vine. 

No ordinary vine was this before me. In all my knowledge-seeking I'd never been able to watch a vine writhing in growth, twisting and bringing forth new shoots even as other shoots withered and began their slow descent to the ground. 

The dying tendrils caught my eye, momentarily distracting me from the myriad of newly budding shoots. Before any of the dying shoots, broken off from the Vine, could touch the mossy floor below they turned to dark, thick dust, and wind swept them away. Not a single withering slip of decay ever touched the earth, it simply vanished.

Quickly my attention returned to the constant new growth, intermingling with the continuous release of the non-viable tendrils and it was a sight unlike anything known to me before.

Nature beyond this angel guarded garden simply had never shown us such a wondrous Vine as this, Vine of all Vines. We'd been allowed glimpses of such wonders. A plant whose flower would bloom only once a hundred years, a plant whose flower opened fully for only a single night, a water shoot growing twelve inches in one day… yet all these marvels could not compare to this Vine. 

This was the true Vine of all living, of all who had ever lived, and all who had ever died. Each offshoot of bearing life kept its promise of living even when it no longer grew- there attached to the Vine in a state of suspended growth- it would never die, rather forever be a part of this wondrous Vine.

Each offshoot of death left its tiny pockmark in the Vine for now, a testament to a life that could have been. 

All the tiny tendrils newly shooting forth were growing either towards life, or towards death. 

As I bore witness to the growing vines I noticed that many of them, if not all, were writhing each in their own almost agonizing way. I longed for a closer inspection of those living tendrils and even as I leaned inward I felt a sudden heat surround me. Daring to look upwards, I gasped as the glowing swords of the angel guardians ignited into flames of the most brilliant fire. I knew instantly this was a mere warning. I would only be allowed to catch glimpses of this majesty before me, not enter within the garden, not cross the border by even a hairsbreadth  

Leaning back, the instant relief from the glowing fire above rushed over me. As sweat beaded down my forehead and dotted my cheeks, I knew how close I had come to my own end should I have dared to move any closer. 

Yet the struggle of the tiny vine shoots beckoned my attention. Those living tendrils branched outwards from the vine pushing from within them something, but what? Were those fruit?! The tiny bits of golden nubs dotting a tiny branch here and there, fruit? Oh, how those struggling shoots were tormented by some unseen force! They struggled as they chose life, clearly longing for something, perhaps a promise of what they would one day become.

A heavy weight dropped upon my heart, but only for the briefest of moments. The weight then lifted, taken from me, as the story's end flashed into realization, a memory from the past.

Being allowed this brief vision of truth I knew that all I'd been told of the Vine long ago would come to pass one day. 

As the lore passed down through time unwound its tale I knew the Vine would not bring forth new shoots forever. One day the last tiny tendril would come forth from the Vine, and then all that would remain would be for each tendril still growing to compete its life cycle- choosing death or life. When the decision for each was made and the very last slip of life was decided, then and only then would the Vine bring into being the everlasting blooms promised of the Vine. All the sleeping branches of the Vine would once more spring to full life obtaining their ultimate end of eternal flowering along with every single living shoot attached to the Vine. Such beauty! Such wonder! How miraculous that would be to behold! 

To see the Vine of All Living. Such a gift I'd been given. As the vision clouded before me and I fought drifting downwards into a deep thought-less sleep, my lips curled in a soft smile, I would remember this dream. And I did.

*******

Joh 15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 

Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 

 Joh 15:7  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 

Abide.... do we abide in Christ?  More on this tomorrow by the grace of our Lord and Savior.

The Word Has Power.

 

What Is Faith.

 The Word of God.

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God. 

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 

Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 

Joh 1:6  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 

Joh 1:7  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 

Joh 1:8  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 

Joh 1:9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 

Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 

Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 

Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 

Joh 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

Joh 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 

Joh 1:15  John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 

Joh 1:16  And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 

Joh 1:18  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. 

Cultivating Faith - What Is Faith?

(Excerpt)

In order to be able to know what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith, it is essential to know, first of all, what is faith.

Plainly, it must be too little purpose to urge upon a person the necessity of cultivating faith, while that person has no intelligent idea of what faith is. And it is sadly true that, though the Lord has made this perfectly plain in the Scriptures, there are many church-members who do not know what faith is. They may even know what the definition of faith is, but they do not know what the thing is. They do not grasp the idea that is in the definition.

For that reason the definition will not be touched now, but rather there will be cited and studied an illustration of faith-an instance which makes it stand out so plainly that all can see the very thing itself.

Faith comes "by the word of God." To the Word, then, we must look for it.

One day a centurion came to Jesus and said to him, "Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed . . .  When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Matt. 8:6-10.

There is what Jesus pronounces faith. When we find what that is, we have found faith. To know what that is, is to know what faith is. there can be no sort of doubt about this, for Christ is "the Author . . . of faith," and He says that that which the centurion manifested was "faith"--yes, even "great faith."

Where, then, in this is the faith? The centurion wanted a certain thing done. He wanted the Lord to do it. But when the Lord said, "I will come" and do it, the centurion checked Him, saying, "Speak the word only," and it shall be done.

Now what did the centurion expect would do the work? "The word ONLY." Upon what did he depend for the healing of his servant? Upon "the word ONLY."

Now, brother, sister, what is faith?

December 6, 1898 A.T Jones EXCERPT