Our key Scripture
says that we, as God’s children, are expected to imitate God. We are expected
to copy Him and follow His example. In other words, we are expected to live like
God, i.e. talk, see, hear, think and do like God. For some people, it’s a
staggering thought. For others, it may even sound blasphemous. But the truth is,
that’s what we are supposed to do if we ever want to live the way God wants us
to live.
When you received
Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, your spirit came alive and
got reconnected with God through the Holy Spirit who indwells you. In Jesus’
term, you were born again (read John 3:3-7; Ezekiel 36:26-27). Your (past and
confessed) sins are completely blotted out and forgotten by God; this means that
He won’t hold it against you when you misbehave toward Him (read Isaiah 43:25;
Psalm 103:3; Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:12; 1 John 1:9). You become His chosen
and holy people, His ambassador, and His royal priest (read 1 Peter 2:9; 2
Corinthians 5:20). By faith in Jesus Christ you are totally righteous before the
Lord (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:24).
If you believe
those truths then you can go ahead and read through this article. However, if
there is even a little doubt in your heart concerning the above truths please
stop reading right now. I would like you to study and meditate on the Scriptures
that I gave you above and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truths as well as
engrave it in your heart.
Hold your fire and
let me explain why I said what I said. It takes FAITH to get excited about the
things of God that I’m going to share with you in this article. If you don’t
believe that you’re in the right standing before the Lord the minute you’re
born again, then you won’t be able to believe that you’re supposed to
imitate God and that you are anointed to do so. If you don’t believe that
you’re His chosen and holy generation, His ambassador, and His royal priest,
then the thought of imitating God will sound outlandish to you.
God calls those
things that are not yet there, as if they’re already there (read Romans 4:17).
He talked about Jesus since Adam’s high treason. God told the devil, “I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her
Offspring (Jesus); He will bruise and
tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel”
(Genesis 3:15, The Amplified Bible).
God kept saying to
mankind that a Savior was on the way. God said it through the prophets of the
Old Testament, which means about 4,000 years since the Fall of Man until the
birth of Jesus Christ. Awesome! Now, that’s faith and patience!
“Sister Maggy,
you don’t suppose that I should hold on to my faith confession for 4,000
years, right?!” Well, personally I don’t think we even have another 4,000
years until the Rapture of the Church. What I’m saying is you should hold on
to your faith confession and change not until you see the result in the natural
existence (read Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 10:23,35-36).
God has been
living by faith forever. When He created man, He created him in His image and
likeness. That means the first man had divine nature just like God. Adam was
empowered to have dominion over the earth. He named all the beasts and not a
single one has the same name. Adam didn’t run out of ideas and named an insect
“Mosquito II.” What a sound mind he’s got! That must be the mind of Christ
that Adam had before the Fall. Then Adam must have had God’s faith, joy,
peace, and power too.
Adam, together
with Eve, lived by faith in the Garden of Eden. We know that “faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). It means that Adam
and Eve kept God’s commandments that they heard. When they decided to live by
someone else’s word, i.e. the devil’s, they fell in sin and lost their
dominion over the earth to the devil. Then they got into the whole mess of birth
pangs, cursed ground, and physical death (read Genesis 3:16-19). By now, we know
Adam is not a good example to follow.
God says that
“the just shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38). In the beginning we’ve
settled on the truth that we’re the just if we’re born again. When you
meditate on Hebrews 10:38, you will know that you, as a born again believer, can
only live by faith. If you don’t live by faith (that comes by hearing, and
hearing the Word of God) and act upon your faith, you’re meant to lose your
dominion over your situation just like Adam. So, without hearing the Word of God and
acting
upon the Word of God that you hear, you can rest assured you’ll go under!
Some people
say, “I don’t have faith!” That’s not true! Think again. When you’re
born again, you’re born of God (read John 1:13; 1 John 3:9). You’re born
again of the incorruptible seed that is the Word of God (read 1 John 1:23). John
1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.” So, if you’re born of God, and God is the Living Word, that
means before you’re born again you must have received the Word of God that
caused you to have faith to be born again.
The Word of God
clearly says that faith only comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Notice that God doesn’t say that faith comes by hearing a preacher or a
counselor. I’m not talking down on preachers or counselors here. No, no! I
myself preach and often counsel people. However, unless I preach the Word of God
to people or share the Word of God in my counseling sessions, I cannot expect
them to have faith in God. Faith in God alone will deliver people from the worst
situation.
To hear the Word
of God, so that you can have the real biblical faith, means that you have to
come where the Word of God is preached. If the place where you go for your
spiritual food makes you spiritually dependent on the pastor, for instance, then
it means you’re not being fed the Word of God. Because I believe if I’m
being fed the Word of God, then I shall develop faith
in God over my situation and not faith in the pastor. If I’m being
fed the Word of God then I shall develop confidence in the Holy Spirit who
indwells me and leads me to a total dependence to the Greater One in me.
Please read
through the book of Hebrews chapter 11. It talks about those who walked by faith
and lived the impossible by faith. When you read their accounts in the Old
Testament, they have one common starting point – they first received the Word
of God. And when faith was acted on, to name a few examples: Enoch got raptured,
Noah and his family got saved from the big flood, Abraham and Sarah received a
son when their reproduction system had ceased to function, the thick wall of
Jericho went down by the sounds of trumpets and praises.
If that’s
what faith could do in the Old Covenant, what more faith can do in our time? We
live under a better covenant that was established upon better promises (read
Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 11:40). No wonder Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto
you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater
works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12). And
Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to anoint us to do these greater works. Glory to
God! Praise His Name forever more!