Paul the Poke

Welcome to Part 6 of Phil’s series.

𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐓, 𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋, 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄, 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇, 𝐁𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐌

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐈 𝐃𝐨 𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝?

It’s really quite simple.

Romans 10:9-10 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Let God into your life. It’s not only about you answering an invitation but you offering one in exchange. When you sense God knocking on the door of your heart, open the door and let Him in. It goes both ways, you let God into your house, God lets you into His.

What else must you do?

Listen to Him. God’s Holy Spirit will begin to produce the fruits of Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control. When you see these things manifesting in your life you will know that these things are done in God through you.

Read the Bible. Get to know God.

The New Covenant is this: God’s Law will not be written just in stone, but God will write His Law on your heart.

Jeremiah 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

You’ll know God’s Law is written on your heart when “Thou Shall Not” becomes “I Don’t Want To”. That is the evidence of repentance. That’s how you’ll know you’ve repented.

“Repent and believe the Gospel.”

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐁𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 of things hoped for, the 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 of things not seen.

The name of the 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 is “And it came to pass…”

The 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 is a person’s behavior until it comes to pass.

Hebrews 11 is sometimes called “the hall of faith”. It mentions Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham & Sarah, Issac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and the prophets. Even though they all had a close encounter with God they were still required to have faith! They were justified by acting in faith, doing what God told them to do. We can know God interacted with them because we see the 𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 of what happened when they acted in faith.

The same is true of our own actions. When we behave in a Godly way, not only we ourselves but others too have evidence of our faith.

𝐹𝑎𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠.

Faith is the currency of the Kingdom. Faith is like a coin where Belief and Action are flip sides of that coin.

“Your Faith has made you well” and “Faith without works (action) is dead.”

Adam disbelieved God and acted on his disbelief. We are to believe God and act on that belief.

~

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐃𝐨 𝐈 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡?

In conversations with atheists, they continually demand, “prove to me God exists”. They reject the notion of faith.

If “the just shall live by faith” then without faith one cannot be justified. The very thing atheists demand – absolute undeniable proof, would disqualify them for justification.

Recently I was watching videos of NDE’s (Near Death Experiences). In all the tellings of these experiences there is one common element; after death all doubt is removed. Whether it’s a Heavenly or Hellish experience after death, they have absolute undeniable certainty of the truth of God. They know the Truth. However when they “come back” to this life they still have to demonstrate faith when explaining their experience to others.

In the presence of absolute undeniable certainty, Faith is simply impossible. They are exact opposites. In the afterlife Faith does not exist any longer. When there is no faith possible neither is there any possibility of justification by faith. Justification comes only by faith.

When a person dies and experiences absolute undeniable certainty their fate is permanently sealed. If they did not have justification by faith in this life, they cannot achieve it after death. This is why Hell is permanent. There is no faith in Hell, only absolute certainty.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Jesus explained that faith is required in this life before we die. “…that whosoever shall believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The just, shall live, by faith.

Believe