Throughout Scripture, God has revealed Himself in ways both dramatic and ordinary. Mighty acts, visible glory, audible voice, and miraculous signs all testify to His reality and power. Yet the consistent testimony of the biblical record is sobering: supernatural experience, no matter how powerful, does not produce faithful obedience. The problem is not with the clarity of God’s revelation but with the condition of the human heart. Negative volition resists divine truth, explains it away, or substitutes human viewpoint in its place. From Israel’s wilderness generation to Christ’s own ministry, from the apostolic witness to the judgments of the Tribulation, the pattern repeats. Miracles may astonish, experiences may terrify or thrill, but apart from faith in God’s Word, they leave no lasting spiritual change.
Tag: walking by faith
The God Who Knows Your Name
One of the most comforting truths in the Christian life is that God knows us perfectly and loves us completely. It is said of the Lord, “He counts the stars and calls them all by name” (Psa 147:4). If God’s knowledge is that specific concerning His creation, how much more so regarding His children? Jesus reminded us that not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father’s will (Matt 10:29), and then added, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt 10:30). God doesn’t merely notice us—He knows us. He knows when we sit down and when we rise up (Psa 139:2a), our thoughts before we think them (Psa 139:2b), and our words before we speak them (Psa 139:4).
The Spiritual Life and the Walk of Faith
The spiritual life is inseparably connected to the walk of faith, for to “walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16) is to “walk by faith” (2 Cor 5:7). The former assumes the latter. God the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:20-21), ensuring the written text is God’s authoritative revelation, the very “Word of God, which performs its work in you who believe” (1 Th 2:13b). It follows that God the Holy Spirit will instruct us in the Word He authored.
Mastering Focus as We Walk by Faith
Living by faith is both a science and an art due to the interplay between objective truths and subjective experiences that characterize the faith journey. Faith is grounded in the objective truths of Scripture. Just as science relies on established laws and principles, living by faith involves understanding and applying biblical truths.
Two Fathers, Two Kingdoms: Understanding Spiritual Identity in a Divided World
Everyone we meet has two fathers. Everyone. They have a biological father and a spiritual father. Biblically, their spiritual father is either God or Satan. The Pharisees incorrectly thought they were children of God, and said to Jesus, “The only Father we have is God himself” (John 8:41). Here’s an example were perception was not equal to reality. Jesus refuted them, saying, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23), and “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44a). According to William Hendriksen, “Identity of inner passions and desires establishes spiritual descent: they are constantly desiring to carry out the wishes of the devil; so he must be their father. The devil desires to kill and to lie, and so do they.”[2] We live in a divided world where “the good seed are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one” (Matt 13:38; cf., 1 John 3:10).
Walking Worthy of God’s Call to Service
As God's people, we are called into service to the King, to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (Eph 4:1). Paul uses similar language when writing to Christians in Thessalonica, saying, “walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Th 2:12). We are called to a mission, and our mission field is wherever we happen to be and includes whoever we happen to meet. To fulfill our divine objective requires submission, humility, commitment, biblical education, field training, and advancement testing. We reach the spiritual high-ground by operating by faith as God’s Word saturates our thinking and directs our speech and behavior.
A Role Model for Believers
There’s a wonderful passage in the book of Ezra that tells us, “Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Ezra's determination speaks of an inward decision to do three things: 1) to study the law of the LORD, 2) to practice it, and 3) to teach it to others.
Bible Promises that Strengthen our Faith
The Lord permits us to face trials in order to develop our Christian character (Jam. 1:2-4). He also gives us promises that are rooted in His character that we might learn to trust Him as we walk with Him. The tests of life are inevitable, but how we handle them is optional.
Walking with God
Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Gen. 5:22-24) The genealogical record of Genesis … Continue reading Walking with God