Day 8

Live Life In Faith

--Not In Expectancy

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

Today we are going to see a vision of how the process of the gospel works in us and through us. We already know it’s by means of the seed, the root and the fruit — sowing and reaping. Let’s see this another way.

We often make the mistake of living life in expectancy, not in faith. One of the joys of the gospel is that it causes us to see the difference in these two: one is an enemy, the other is a life-producing ally.

Faith is handing God a clean slate, asking him to write on it.

Expectancy is us writing on the slate, asking God to help out.

In everything except the gospel, it is us writing on the slate. This is because life is focused on us. It is a life of self. We are in the spotlight. We become the author, and the finisher of what we call faith. We create our own destinies. We carve our own clay. We decide what we will do next. Then we pray and ask God to bless it . . . . .

On The Gospel Road, we hand God the slate to write on. This type life is founded on trust in God. On The Dirt Road we live in expectancy, which is founded on trust in self.

Faith produces a life of enthusiasm and motivation. Expectancy can also produce good results too. If it is based on solid principles, and natural wisdom, it can take us a long way. But it’s like being in a boat, with a paddle, in the middle of a big lake. It takes lots of work. Faith is getting on the raft and floating down the river that God is guiding.

In most Christian’s lives, true enthusiasm is most often missing. We try to display a level of natural enthusiasm — drummed up by our own expectancy. It sometimes lasts for a short while, and sometimes a long time. But it eventually fizzles out. It short circuits because its focus and attachment is to the world, not to the Kingdom of God. It’s destination is some THING in the world, not GOD. It’s horizontal, not vertical.

Enthusiasm is born in God, not in worldly things. It is constantly generated into us by God — not by some THING. The word enthusiasm comes from two words: (1) en, and (2) theos. You can tell just by looking at them that they mean ‘IN GOD.’

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GOSPEL TRUTH #16

Our human faith should be IN GOD. It is vertical, not horizontal. It is spiritual, not natural. It is Kingdom focused, not worldly focused. This is what Hebrews 6:1 says: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of FAITH TOWARD GOD.” Let me say it again: our human faith should be IN GOD.

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Notice this verse says, “LEAVING the principle of… our faith in God.” This implies our human faith is ‘elementary’ in nature. It is not mature — it has not gone into ‘perfection,’ as the verse says.

See two reasons we don’t live at a higher level. (1) We don’t live in Bible faith, but in human expectancy. Our faith is not vitally connected to God himself. (2) Because of this, the channel between God and us is not totally clear. It is like a clogged artery. It doesn’t let him impart his faith into us, — which is the process of the gospel flowing into us.

The way we live in the good fruit of the gospel is simply by having faith and trust in God. This is so simple it takes a child’s mind to grasp it. Adult minds often miss it. The process of the gospel is generated by our faith in God, which he replaces with divine faith that he imparts into us.

The following truth is difficult truth to grasp. I hope that all that has been said will help you see it. I also pray that God will reveal it to you. But it’s also a truth that I have NEVER heard taught before. It is just something God has shown me by revelation. We will discuss the main reason it is not taught in just a moment.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #17

It’s the voice of God that imparts the faith of Christ to us. This means we must hear the voice of God, and we only hear God’s voice if our faith is IN HIM — and not in our earthly expectancies.

Our faith in God is only elementary faith, but it does get the process started. The process is clogged if we live in expectancy that we call ‘faith.’ As the process is started, it releases divine faith into our human spirits, that enables us to produce all the good fruit of the gospel.

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We focus faith on horizontal, worldly things. We want a better life. We want a restored marriage. We want a teenager to stop rebelling. We want a promotion. We want to succeed at a certain goal. We decide what we want in our 3-D existence, and then pray to God, in what we call ‘faith,’ telling him what we want him to do.

This is the soil that chokes the seed — that the Parable of the Sower talks about. This is the soil that is so filled with weeds, tares, and thorns, that it is worthless. This is living life in expectancy, not in faith. Bible faith is in God, and specifically in who we are in Christ — our imparted free gift of righteousness. This is New Testament gospel faith, but we don’t live here. We live in expectancy. Remember Jesus says we MUST understand the Parable of the Sower! This is part of what we MUST understand!

There is nothing wrong with wanting and desiring certain things in life. But too often, when we BEGIN here, our faith STOPS here. It never even approaches having New Testament faith in God.

Let me elaborate what I mean by this. We pray for Aunt Annabel to get married, or Uncle Uriah to be healed, even if they are 100 years old. We should pray for things that concern us, but sometimes we misplace our faith, and short-circuit it, in doing so. We go to God with our prayer lists, and pray for them ‘in faith.’

What we should do is go to God in faith in him, for who we are in Christ, and just hang out with him and fellowship in the gospel with him (Phil 1:5). Afterwards, we ASK him about Aunt Annabel and Uncle Uriah.

The problem is we use what we call ‘faith’ for 100 things in our ‘kingdom of self,’ and many of these fail to resolve the way we would desire. In other words, God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect he will. This causes our faith to short-circuit. Our faith becomes weak. Then we go to God all discouraged to find out WHY things didn’t happen the way we wanted.

True faith in God is born in failure when we do this.

We go to him discouraged and beat up, and have no faith left.

We figure if it didn’t work for Aunt Annabel and Uncle Uriah,
it won’t work for anything. So why bother?

Satan has blinded our minds to the glorious gospel of Christ.

Don’t allow earthly things to preempt eternal things! When we do, we’re walking The Dirt Road, not The Gospel Road. Earthly things are important, but only AFTER eternal things.

We should go to God with faith in him first. Paul says our fellowship should be in the gospel (Phil 1:5). This applies to God as well as to other people. We should just hang out with him, and connect with him — not just go to him with our prayer list, or our agenda.

Our fellowship with him should be in Philippians 3:10: just to know him, the power of his resurrection in us, the fellowship of his sufferings for us, knowing that he has conformed us to the death of his Son. We should go to him just to listen, as we’ve talked about. “Be still and know that I am God.” We should go to him just knowing WHOM we believe (I Tim 1:12). We usually go to him telling him WHAT we choose to believe about how earthly things should work out.

We should go to him seeking revelation, and repenting of rotten, bad theological seed we have eaten. Ask for his divine repentance that will enable you to believe gospel truth (II Tim 2:25).

In other words, God just wants us to go to him — for no other reason than he is God and we know he loves us. We should go to him asking for a greater revelation of all of his good spiritual gifts in us. We should ask the Holy Spirit to show us the ones we have missed (I Cor 1:12).

Just go to God for the sake of being with him, and worshipping him, and thanking him for all he has done, and all he is doing in your life. Again, just go to him.

This is when the faith of Christ is born in our spirits.

The faith of Christ in us is how we should live in the process of God.

Don’t you agree that divine faith can do more than human faith?

There are many verses I could quote, but let me just quote one. Galatians 2:20 is familiar to most of us. Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD…” This verse is quoted from the KJV. It talks about the faith of Christ — not human, elementary faith, but divine faith.

If you read any modern translation, you will find they change this. They say that we live ‘by faith IN the Son of God.’ The KJV has many verses that refer living by the faith OF Christ. Too often, modern translations minimize gospel truth. It doesn’t take a degree from Harvard to know there is a difference between divine faith and human faith.

Modern translations even keep similar wording in Hebrews 6:1 that talks about our faith in God being elementary faith, and we should go on to maturity. But no where do modern translations say there is any faith other than our faith in God. I have come to experience a MUCH greater faith than just my faith in God. Many people do who work in healing ministries, deliverance ministries, and the like. Human faith often just simply doesn’t cut it! We need more than our faith!

Divine faith — the faith of Christ — is available to us.

But it’s not available only going to God with our prayer list.

It’s not available if we go to God all burned out,
after praying for Aunt Annabel and Uncle Uriah.

I said earlier I’d tell you why this isn’t taught on by any preacher that I’ve ever heard. It’s because all they use are modern translations. The KJV has become almost obsolete. It is the least used translation. I use modern translations. I use them a lot.

But I also still use the KJV. This is especially true if I’m studying the gospel — according to Paul.

Modern translations contribute to us missing the revelation of God: the gospel of the finished work of his Son. Later I’ll show you SEVERAL examples of this. Their focus is US, much more than it is GOD. I believe that modern translations are one reason more Christians don’t have revelation of the better New Covenant gospel!