Part 1: Faith in Jesus, or is it Faith in Something else?

 

 

 

If anyone thinks I was exaggerating or lying about the podcast increase last November, my stats on this particular message, and the stats I published by letter about it are all there and still available. Podbean doesn't erase them, and I still have copies of the emails I sent. I was more shocked than anybody by 11.4 thousand downloads from 6 continents (129 countries) in a 3 day period! It was unprecedented for me. I've never had something like that happen before. You would think everybody would rejoice over it, but some didn't seem to rejoice much. Go figure! Some may have thought I was "evangelistically" exaggerating (lying) about the numbers. No, it was all true and you can verify the podcast stat on this page that it happened. Note the little numbers for downloads below the title- 11.4k. The stats are legit. They don't lie. Why and how that happened is another story, one I did not have anything to do with. 

 

In Part One, we look at a verse not mentioned often enough in many Christian circles, yet it was penned by the Paul, the apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: 

Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected? (2^ndCorinthians 13:5 Amplified Bible)        

When was the last time you examined yourself? Did you run a test on yourself? What did the honest and brutal evaluation bring back? Was the evaluation, “I am holding firm to my faith in Christ Jesus, or am I slipping, need to repent, and get it right before God? Do you realize and know that Jesus is in you, or have you become a counterfeit Christian?

We have counterfeits today. They talk a good talk and have learned the language of faith. Others are impressed, but is God impressed? Is God actually pleased with your faith? (See Hebrews 11:6.)

Read it again from a more concise translation.

Put yourselves to the test to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize regarding yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless, indeed, you fail the test! (2^ndCorinthians 13:5 NET)

To get what Paul means by being “in the faith” we must see the context. 

Get ready for traditional ideas to be shattered. If you want to stay the same, and be the same as you have always been in dead religion, then don’t listen to these messages. Run! If you want more of God and His Spirit, then listen up, and get ready to be obedient to the Lord and His Word of life.

This is life-changing Word for you today. No fluff or cotton candy here! Just the meat of the Word!