Journey of Faith ('Faith Journey' Review)
I just had a privilege of reading Ruben’s book Faith Journey. In this book, he tries to answer the question on the difference between the Covenants so as to understand the gospel, and also illustrates the difference between living carnally versus living spiritually.
It's such an outstanding lesson to know that if I don't trust God and His word, then His promises will have little or no impact upon me. His words to me will have no weight if I do not believe that He is the source of every good thing and that nothing evil comes from Him. And without the precious faith of Jesus (the faith He has in His Father), who is the author and finisher of our faith, we are unable to believe the words of God.
The book begins by taking us back to the root source of the predicament we now face. It began out of the choice we made after we were granted absolute freedom to decide for ourselves which way we should go. Unfortunately, we ended up choosing bondage instead of the freedom that God had intended to give us. Satan is so good in packaging that when he is tempting you, he will never show you the darkest part of it. Instead of recognizing our need for help and believing we could call upon our Saviour, we run away from Him and try to figure out things in our own strength as the solution.
God, Our Father, always has a solution to each and every problem we have and so He opened a door of hope to Adam and Eve. They were in a confused, difficult situation when they chose a different voice than that of God, just like we are since we resemble them. Even though we mistrust His Word, He does not abandon us. What Love! He has assured us of forgiveness by making it possible that we can hate sin by seeing the results of it, and through this come to recognize the sinfulness of our nature and thus realize the need for His Gift of grace. This would empower us to live life anew and be an expression of our love to God in response to His love.
The precious Gift we have received is Jesus Christ the Son of God who would live in our hearts through His Spirit. This is so because He was the first one who expressed faith. When we believe that, we can receive His Faith that which reconciles us to God.
Just like we are told that "if we be in Christ, then we are Abraham's seed" (Galatians 3:29), we face the same exact dilemma that those in heroes of faith went through (Hebrews 11). Abraham was impatient with the words of God on the promise of a child. Whenever time passes and environmental circumstances change, we embrace fear and doubt the word of God, and our faith becomes affected. Patience, which is among the fruit of the Spirit, is not exercised.
This is what happened to the life of Abraham, who at first believed the words of God, but the time factor caused his faith to stumble. At times I find myself trying to help God fulfil the promise He has made to me by looking for alternatives (just like how Sarai did by asking Abraham to get a child with Hagar, which was not in God’s will and which they did without consulting God) "that seem okay" but if closely examined, they are harmful. This made me realize that I was following a path of my own that would cause me pain and sorrow, not necessarily trusting God and His promises.
The profound lesson learnt is that we need to enter into a relationship with God based on faith, not works. This will show our full dependency is on God. He desires to fulfill His own promises in us, but we interfere with the process when we take control of our lives and follow what we think is right – and that's how we obtain the old covenant mindset.
We want to acknowledge human weakness and consult God always, walking as His Son walked, breathing in His Spirt and chewing on His Word. If you are struggling with the manifestation of the natural heart by following your own course of action rather than believing God and accepting that He will fulfill his promise in your life by the faith of Jesus, then I would recommend this wonderful book as the foundation to how it is God works with us and teaches us.
Allan
