“Faith that works by love,” as mentioned in Galatians 5:6, is the rallying cry of the Holy Spirit in this hour.We must train for war in time of peace. The Holy Spirit is training us to trust in God. Not only must we believe God, we must demonstrate His faith that works by love and learn not to lean to our own understanding but to put our trust in God. We know that while we are in the world, we will have tribulations, but we have been taught how to respond (Matthew 16:33) and how to overcome the evil of perilous times (Revelations 12:11; Romans 12;21). As Paul told Timothy (I Timothy 6:12), we must fight the good fight of faith… that works by love. When we possess faith, doubt will be dealt with.
When we question the legitimacy of the things that are happening in our lives and that are happening around and about us, let us remember that there’s a blessing in believing the word of God and the voice of the Holy Spirit of truth. God does not want us to be faithless but believing. In John 20: 27-29 after his resurrection, Jesus challenged Thomas to stop doubting and to trust in his divinity and Jesus let Thomas know that those who would believe in his resurrection, without seeing the scars in his hands and his side, that they would be truly blessed. On another occasion when John the Baptist needed proof of Jesus’s Messiahship, Jesus told John’s disciples in Matthew 11:4-5 that the blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel, the good news , preached to them, and blessed are all of those that are not offended by having to believe, to have faith and to trust in Him.
Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. He decides who gets what and when. Our physical body is made up of many parts: limbs, organs, cells, etc. that all function differently, yet all the parts combined make up one person, one body-not many. And that’s how it is in Christ’s body, otherwise known as the church. We must understand how God intends and expects for us to function as Christ’s body. Before we received Jesus as Savior and Lord, we each used to do things our own way and according to the imaginations of our own hearts. But now that we have entered into a life in the Lord where Christ has the final say in everything. the old ways that we used to do things and especially the way that we identify ourselves, using labels like Jew or Greek, black or white, and slave or free, are no longer useful, impactful or important. As we are now in Him, we identify as the body of Christ and all self-importance and independence are done away with.
How does one do away with the idolatry of self? The answer is to learn how to do four basic things: examine, encourage, deny and die. We must live a life in truth and of faith that works by love. When the Holy Spirit reveals that you are being distracted from the truth, immediately, (1.) EXAMINE yourself to see if you’re in the faith (II Corinthians 13:5). Pray and ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit and power of the Reprover (The Convincer Who Convicts) to reprove you of any sin or righteousness or judgment as it states in John 16:7-11,. The Spirit of truth will show you the truth about your true identity and who you are in Christ. Study the real you as God sees you. Always be willing to look at yourself through spiritual or Holy Spirit-revealed lenses and not through natural or five-senses lenses. Study the real you, your Christ-self as revealed by the Holy Spirit, so you can always recognize when the impersonator, the false image of yourself that tries to show up. Then when you meet with opposition from the enemy, you can stand righteously and (2.) ENCOURAGE yourself in the Lord, as David did in I Samuel 30:6. When you are determined to follow Christ, (3.) DENY yourself and take up your cross as we are encouraged to do in Matthew 16:24. Finally, (4.) DIE to yourself so that you can produce much fruit as we are shown in John 12:24.
The Holy Spirit of Truth is our Helper. The secular world has given us this famous saying from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “To thine own self be true.” In that play, Polonius is advising his son Laertes to be honest with himself to ensure that he is not dishonest with others. But in actuality, no amount of loyalty extended to the self can strengthen our own self, let alone another individual. We must never allow our unconverted self to lead. Only when we have become a new creature in Christ can we trust our inner man with righteousness, honesty and integrity (II Corinthians 5:17-21). We must operate through our new identity, our new self that is born to look like and act as Christ would act. We cannot do this outside of faith.
We must decide once and for all whom do desire to please. Do we want to please the idol of self or do we want to please God with our life? Without faith that works by love, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). We must learn how to and practice loving God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. We must love our born-again self and we must love others. (Matthew 22:37-40). Owe no man anything but to love him (Romans 13:8). So as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially those of the household of faith. Every born-again believer is assigned a function as a member in the body of Christ. Think about the natural body. Can the hand foolishly tell the foot, or the eye or the stomach that its hand function alone is more important and that their functions or less significant or unnecessary to the proper functioning of the body? The Bible disagrees. In fact, we see that the parts considered to be lower and/ or more basic are necessary to the body. We can live without an eye, but not without a stomach. Every part is dependent on every other part. If one part of the body hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt in some way. And as it is with the hurting so it is with healing. If one part thrives, every other part enters into that bountifulness.
We’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in His church body, such as: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, organizers, and those who pray in tongues, etc. Not all are apostles, not all prophets, not all miracle workers, not all healers, not all lead prophetic prayers in tongues, not all are interpreters of tongues. Yet, in the body there is no need for competition. God has shown us a better way. We must please God through faith that works by love (Hebrews 11:6; Galatians 5:6; I Corinthians 13:1-13).
Now hear the Holy Spirit. If Satan could drive us insane he would’ve done years ago. Wisdom is still crying in the chief places of concourse everywhere (Proverbs 1:20-21). Will we hearken? Will we listen? Will we turn at her reproof? God is offering us a picture of a spectrum of knowledge through reception, submission and surrender. This spectrum reveals our reception (John 1:12), our submission (James 4:7), and our surrender (Romans 12:1) to the Source and Sender of the messages that are coming to us. Study this chart from left to right and keep in mind that the devil tries to copy and counterfeit all that God does, but to no avail. The enemy will always be exposed (Hebrews 4:12-13). Let the imagery of the fingers on the hand presented in this chart help you to decide who will be your source of knowledge and revelation.
| Left Hand Pinky Finger | Left Hand Ring Finger | Left Hand Middle Finger | Left Hand Index/ Pointing Finger | Left Hand Thumb | TAKE NOTES | Right Hand Thumb |
| Delusion-False Belief or False Judgment about Reality. Beliefs are still held despite the evidence to the contrary. Even though someone shows them the TRUTH, they still choose to believe the lie. CAN Change | Deception-Give a false impression to another. Deliberately and intentionally cause another to believe something not TRUE for personal gain and control over another. *Be careful of/ by whom you are impressed! CAN Change | Lie-Say something that is not TRUE because of the fear of not being able to protect self-interest *Liars are afraid of you, so you do not have to fear them or the source behind them. CAN Change | Opinion-a judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on facts or knowledge or TRUTH. The place and premise where you have decided to stand or uphold. CAN Change | Fact-known or proven to the five senses…can be seen, smelled, tasted, heard, or felt. Evidence provided… Circumstances presented… not necessarily TRUE CAN Change | Truth-A Spiritual Reality that cannot be altered and Can NOT Change |
According to I Corinthians 13, love never gives up. Love cares more for others than self. Love doesn’t get angry because of what it doesn’t have nor when it doesn’t get what it wants. Love doesn’t puff up itself to be bigger than what it is, it is not prideful and it doesn’t boast. Love doesn’t force itself on others, and it isn’t always demanding “me first.” Love doesn’t keep a record of the sins of others; it doesn’t rejoice when others beg. Love takes pleasure in the truth and puts up with anything. Love trusts God, always looks for the best, and never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies.
At this stage of our earth-bound journey, we don’t yet see everything clearly. We’re like those that struggle to see through the fog. But one day, we shall see as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly, just as He knows us. God does all things well. Let’s choose Him as our Source and let’s not choose the world, the devil or ourselves. While we move in His timing, we must purpose in our hearts to hold on to “hope” that leads to unwavering trust through “faith” that works by “love.” (I Corinthians 13:13)
