All Things part 3
So we have all things (that pertain to life and godliness) and we know all things. So what, then, is the problem? I believe it is that we don't understand what we know, and we don't accept what we have. 1 Timothy 6:12 (NLT) addresses the latter. "Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses." Fighting the good fight of faith is, quite simply, USING your faith. Having faith in God. Knowing and believing the truth that God is love and He loves you. Guys, the truth HAS set us free and made us free. But it is only in knowing and believing the truth that we can experience and enjoy that freedom. If all you've ever known is slavery, and then slavery gets abolished, but nobody tells you... you're still going to act like a slave. It is freedom from the bondage of sin and death that comes with the preaching of the gospel! Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God! So knowing what we have and holding tightly to it--accepting it, receiving it and releasing it--is vitally important. But there's more to it. You also have to understand what you have. We have an unction from the Holy One and we know all things. So why, then, do we seem to stumble around in the dark so much and so often? Ephesians 3:19 tells us, "...to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fulness of God." A knowledge that passes knowledge. Not just head knowledge, but heart knowledge. Experience. And a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. You might think something, but if I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt... well... there's a difference between thinking and knowing. And it is not until we KNOW the love of God that we can hold onto it. Faith isn't about making something happen. Faith is about knowing and believing that something already happened. Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen. We don't have faith in God because we want Him to do something. We have faith in God because He has proven Himself faithful BY doing something! The Work is finished. It was finished 2,000 years ago on the cross. Everything that needed to happen... has already happened. Fighting the good fight of faith is not about making something happen. It is about holding onto the truth about what already happened! Not trying to finish the work ourselves, but enjoying the fruit of JESUS' labor! Being still and knowing that HE is God is how we begin to have this mindset shift from "natural" to Kingdom thinking. Letting our pride fall away like scales from our eyes so that we can see clearly. And when you can see clearly, you can see everything. You might not understand what everything you're seeing is, right away. But you're starting where you need to start. You're looking into the mirror with an unveiled face, seeing the glory of God (in the mirror, which means in you), and you're being changed into that image from GLORY to glory. You're starting at glory. You're starting at eyes wide open. We have all things and we know all things. We have no lack because our God has no lack. What we need is to hold tight to it. Be thankful for it. Live with an attitude of gratitude. Declare it before many witnesses. Use what we've got. We have love. Love is giving. If you want to truly understand it... give it away! Receive it... and release it! That's what love is, so that's how we are to live. You live by loving. By giving. You hold tight to the gift you've been given... by giving it away!