Saturday, September 27, 2014

The Key To Increasing Your Faith

Over the years I've heard numerous messages on faith and they primarily focused on getting your prayers answered and receiving things from God. So much of what we hear about faith is designed to motivate us to pursue it for ourselves and the things we desire.

And because we have a “me” attitude, many in the Body of Christ are not walking in their faith potential. We don’t truly understand the purpose of faith and the things we can do to help it grow.

The Bible provides a beautiful analogy to help us understand why God equipped us with faith and what’s required of us to increase our faith. But first, what is our “faith potential”?

Our “faith potential” is our measure of faith

When we are born again we receive “the measure of faith” we need to fulfill the calling God places on our lives (Romans 12:3). We receive “the” measure of faith not “a” measure of faith. Faith is not something you divvy up and distribute. For example, if the total percentage of faith is 100%, my measure may be 2% and someone else’s may be 5% and so on. This is not what this verse is saying.

The “measure” our Father gives us is 100% of the faith we will need to serve Him. Colossians 2:10 says And ye are complete (Gk. pleroo, filled to capacity) in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” Everything Jesus was when he was on earth is now in us.

Do you remember the story in Matthew 17 about the father who brings his son to the disciples so they can cast a devil out of him? They couldn’t and Jesus tells them why – “because of your unbelief” (verse 20). It’s at this point that Jesus teaches them about the need to grow their faith. In verse 21 he says, Howbeit, this kind (of faith, not devil) goeth out not but by prayer and fasting.”

Jesus is teaching us what we must do to grow our faith. He says that we must pray and fast. Why do we need to do pray and fast? What is Jesus really saying here?

The Schoolmaster Analogy

Earlier I mentioned an analogy that exemplifies how our Father equipped us with faith and what we must do to increase our faith. In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul is writing to Gentile believers who are being taught by Jewish Christians that in addition to grace they also needed the law. In essence, the epistle is Paul’s re-teaching them why they don’t have to serve the law.

In Galatians 3:16-19 Paul says the law came 430 years after God made the promise to Abraham and his seed. The law was given because of man’s sinful nature and provided boundaries for Israel until the promised seed, Jesus, could be born.

Now let’s go to verses 23 and 24. But before faith came (before Jesus was born), we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

In the Hebrew culture, the master’s most trusted slave was the heir’s schoolmaster or tutor. From the time he was 3 or 4 years old, the slave taught the heir about his father, about his father’s business and who he was as a member of his father’s house.

The Schoolmaster’s three crucial responsibilities

  1. He had to teach the heir about his father.
  2. He had to teach the heir about his father’s business.
  3. He had to teach the heir how to be a son in his father’s house.
Until the heir completely and thoroughly understands who his father is, what’s important to his father and what it means to be a son, he is not ready to steward his inheritance.

Now let’s look at the first two verses of chapter 4. Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.”

The heir has to grow into the responsibility of stewarding his inheritance. Even though he is a child, he has standing but he doesn't have power and authority. The father is not holding back the son’s inheritance. The son’s inheritance is waiting for him to grow into it.

In verse 2 it says the heir is under tutors and governors “until the time appointed of the father.” The father determines when the son is ready to access his inheritance. Who else determines when the heir is ready?

The Father and the heir determine his readiness

The schoolmaster, tutor, prepares the heir for the day he will be presented to his father, usually around 13 or 14 years old. The father’s goal is to assess the heir’s readiness to receive the inheritance.

  • Does he have the look and demeanor of one in authority?
  • Does his words command respect?
  • Will he properly represent the family’s interests?
The true measure of readiness is determined by the heir’s interactions and conversations with his father over time. It’s determined by the amount of time he spends with his father – spends in his father’s presence. This allows the father to probe a little deeper.

  • How will he respond if this happened?
  • How will he treat those who love him and depend on him?
  • How will he spend the family’s resources?  
  • What does he value above all things?
  • What standard will guide him as he conducts the family's business?
These are the types of questions the father will ask to see if the son is ready – mature enough – to handle his inheritance. Are you seeing the picture?

The Father is looking for himself in his son

The father will assess his son’s knowledge, ability and willingness to steward the inheritance exactly like he himself would steward it. The father has to know that his son will do the exact same thing in a given situation that he himself would do. He had to know that his son’s heart beat with his heart.

The Schoolmaster Analogy for us

When we are born again, we receive a tutor – Holy Spirit. John 16:13 says He will guide us into all truth. He is responsible for helping us understand

  • who our Father is
  • what’s important to our Father and
  • who we are as God's sons and daughters.
Remember Jesus said in Matthew 17 that the faith needed to cast out the devil is the result of praying and fasting?

As we spend time with Holy Spirit praying in tongues, we begin to build our faith (Jude 20). When we fast, we are mortifying the flesh and putting it to death (Romans 8:13). As we build our faith we begin to understand and know the Father’s heart. As we build our faith we begin to understand and know that there is nothing more important to our Father than saving people from an eternity without Him (1 Timothy 2:4). As we build our faith we begin to understand and know who we are as sons and daughters and how to demonstrate our Father’s love to a lost and dying world.

As grow in this understanding, we please our Father (Hebrews 11:6) and our Father is pleased to give us access to more of our inheritance. Why? He knows that we will use our inheritance in the exact same way He would use it if He were here on earth.

Jesus is our model

In John 5:19 we read “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”

How did Jesus “see” things like the Father “sees” them? How did He know that what He did the Father would do? Jesus spent time with His father. He developed a relationship with Him by spending time with Him. (Luke 6:12, John 5:30, 7:16, 8:26, 38, 55)

The key to increasing our faith? Pursue a deep and intimate relationship with our Father. Spend time with the one who is sent to tutor us, Holy Spirit.

When we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, He is showing us who our Father is.

When we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, He is showing us what is important to our Father.

When we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, He is showing us who we are in the Father's family.

Jesus opened blind eyes because that’s what his Father would do. 

Jesus healed lame legs because that’s what his Father would do.

Jesus healed sickness and disease because that’s what his Father would do.

Jesus opened deaf ears and gave sight to the blind because that’s what his Father would do.

As sons and daughters of God, we should be doing what our Father would do if He were physically here on earth. But are we?

Are you pleasing your Father? Is your life a reflection of His life here on earth? As your faith grows, as you spend time with Holy Spirit, so does your Father’s pleasure and your access to your inheritance. Why? Because you are developing a heart for people. You are developing a heart that beats with His heart just like Jesus's did.

Right now, my heart is not fully in rhythm with my Father's. But as I spend time with Holy Spirit, it will beat closer and closer to His until one day there will be no difference. How about you?




Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Adrian Peterson: How Should We Respond?

There is a public outcry against Minnesota Viking running back Adrian Peterson for whipping his sons and leaving bruising on their bodies. (We didn’t call “whippings” spankings when I was a boy.)

I’ve seen this type of bruising on a child before – after he deliberately disobeyed his parents. I was whipped – “taken to the woodshed” – and sometimes I had bruising on my arms and legs. When a child is whipped – disciplined in such a manner – there will be bruising.

“Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.” (Proverbs 23:13)

My Mom and Dad didn’t believe in sending you to the corner or to time-out. They were more demonstrative in expressing their dissatisfaction with our rebellion. Their message to us was clear: if we tell you to do something but you decide to do something else, you will be disciplined. You will be whipped. (But I don’t believed this applied to their grandchildren.)

“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” (Proverbs 22:15)

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and no one gave me a second look when they saw swollen red areas on my arms or legs. They knew I had gotten a whipping and that I probably deserved it. (Yeah, I always did.) And my teachers showed absolutely no concern for my bruising. (Yeah, they knew I probably deserved the whipping too.) All of them knew my parents. I can’t tell you the number of times I heard “Do you want me to tell John or Dorothy on you?” I kid you not.

My Mom and Dad were the most loving parents a child could ever have. They were not abusive. But they didn’t spare the rod or the switch or the belt or the paddle. By the way, I also saw swollen red areas on the arms and legs of other kids in the neighborhood. My parents were by no means alone in how they disciplined their children.

“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” (Proverbs 13:24)

My Mom and Dad taught us that we had boundaries and they were not boundaries of our own choosing. My parents knew that if they didn’t teach us to obey them and to respect their authority while we were at home the odds were good that we would be less willing to obey others and less respectful of authority when we left home.

Let me tell you what I believe we’re witnessing today.

The enemy of the soul (the devil, satan) wants our emotions regarding this issue to be so outraged and so disgusted that we are willing to take another step on the path toward disapproval of any type of child discipline. We are heading toward a time in this country when parents will see jail time for whipping their children. I am not joking.

Can you image what some people would say about my Mom and Dad today if they saw me going to school with swollen red areas on my arms or legs? My teacher would pull me out of class and take me to the principal’s office and he would talk to me about the bruising. Depending on my response, he would decide if outside intervention was warranted. Notice what I said. The principal would make that determination based on a conversation with me – the child who is sore and angry – and not after a conversation with the child, who is sore and angry, and his parents.

Now let me ask you a question: a child who has been disciplined because he was in rebellion – who is sore and angry with his Mom or Dad – what are the chances of that child being completely truthful about what led to the whipping? Are you following me?

Now, I’m not defending Mr. Peterson’s actions. But I am not throwing him under the bus either. Many Christians are judging and condemning him based on what they’ve read or seen in the news and social media. It reminds me of a lyric from Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.” “People say believe half of what you see, son, and none of what you hear.” I believe there’s a lot of truth to that.

As Christians, how should we respond to what we’re seeing and hearing about Mr. Peterson? How about we take our cues from Jesus. Remember the story of the woman who as caught in adultery? I’m not going to get into the one-sidedness of this whole affair but the indictment against the religious leaders was clear. Jesus is teaching in the temple and the religious leaders drag this woman into the temple – I’m sure kicking and screaming -- and make her stand in front of him. “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?” (John 8:4, 5) Jesus’ response was clear and telling: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one …” (John 8:9a)

All of us have done things in our lives that we wish we could do over. And we’re glad that we’re not like those in the public eye where everything they do is open for scrutiny and ridicule. The things we wish we’d never done are safe. We will do everything we can to make sure “they never see the light of day.” And yet, we pounce on those who live everyday of their lives “in the light of day.”

I got news for you. Your life is in the public domain. Just ask God. You are more exposed than you realize. When you speak, you are exposing what is at work on the inside of you. And if what you say is condemning and judging, guess what is working on the inside of you? Do you think Jesus would respond to this situation the way many Christians are responding?

Let’s find out by going back to the woman caught in adultery. And let’s be clear – the accusations were true. “When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:10-11).

If Adrian Peterson did in fact go too far in disciplining his sons, the last thing he needs from the body of Christ is our condemnation. What he needs is our love, our mercy and our intercession. Isn’t that what Jesus showed the woman in John 8?