Faith - Hope - Love

Blog Repost

Jan 10, 2023

Any one raised with or near any of the different flavors of "Christianity" available today has at one time or another come across this concept. Faith, love, hope. I Corinthians 13:13. Many a believer's favorite verse too. And for good reason! These three individual aspects of life combined with an accurate knowledge of the scriptures and applied in proper context makes available a genuine spiritual life to any human being living on this planet today. It astounds me people don't stampede their way to this genuine spiritual life. Instead, the majority of the world is taking that broad way that leads to their own destruction. They really can't be blamed though seeing we are born into this world without a spiritual connection leaving us to rely solely on our five senses and going by our own perceptions. It's people's perceptions that have allowed religion to dominate people's minds since mankind's beginnings. It's foundational for the biblical research student to have the ability to understand and discern the difference between religion and godliness as shown in Perceptions. The more religious thinking one can shed when confronted with truth the more one's mind is freed from the bondage religion brings. And with that liberty comes power! Power to live this life with abundance in every category of it! But it takes time. It takes effort. It takes diligence to cut through the darkness that enshrouds the minds of humans concerning the truth of the spirit realm. For those of us that approach God's Word with an attitude of meekness in that much of what we've been taught via "traditional" truth (religion) is wrong and that it... God's Word truly does speak for itself (if allowed!) We can find what I call those "gold nuggets" of Truth that empowers us to live life victoriously! Let's take a dive together into a cluster of these gold nuggets we know as faith, love and hope!

Faith. Of these three this one can be the most challenging in my mind for someone to fully comprehend. Why? There has been so much wrong teaching of it! Almost all it passed down since the King James Version went to press. There are many aspects to faith and hardly anyone sees the distinctions in the scriptures. A lot of it due to the failure of the translators of the KJV to make the distinctions, getting published with the translator's slant at times and exposing the minds of people ever since to their short-comings. I say shortcomings in that this isn't the only case! There is the faith of Jesus Christ one receives when one gets born again. This is the ability to believe as Christ believed as recorded in the scriptures. You receive all that is available. No more. No less. So when someone tells you "Ya gotta have more faith brother!" you can tell them to take a hike. There is the manifestation of faith (often mislabeled as a "gift"... another example of wrong translation). The energizing of the faith you received when you unleash that spiritual power within onto the physical realm. There is the fruit of the spirit faith. It's a fruit of the spirit in that as you grow spiritually so does your believing in that it becomes easier to see and believe truth when you see it and bring the promises of The Word into your life. There is household faith. The doctrine the household, God's sons and daughters believes. And there is faith as simply... believing. That which you know.

Now understand. The ancient greek of the original text this word "faith" was translated from is the noun pistis. The definition of pistis is "...firm persuasion, the conviction which is based upon hearing, not upon sight, or knowledge; a firmly relying confidence in what we hear from God in His Word" - A Critical Lexicon And Concordance of the Greek New Testament, Dr. E.W. Bullinger When the translators came to this word they translated it "faith." The verb form pisteuo almost always got translated to "believe." Depending on the context this word, it is either a spiritual or mental thing... or both! Believing doesn't require experiencing it in the natural realm. I've never been to Normandy but I believe there's a lot of Americans buried over there! But I've heard about it. So I believe it's there. Faith is the jump of believing from the natural realm to the spiritual. Ya dig? You do not "have" faith in God. You believe God's Word to the point you receive the new birth. Once born of the spirit faith is available to you which is your spiritual life. A "higher form" of believing. That which you believe in the depths of your heart and manifest, or live out here in the world. This is how one becomes a "living epistle." Believing brings results. In this universe and in the spiritual realm. The mind renewed to Truth is the key to power. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh (is made energetic) also in you that believe. - I Thessalonians 2:13 Believing is appropriating that which we need from God via the promises in His Word.

Hope. By definition hope is an expectation of the arrival of a future event or thing. Something that is not yet available. This isn't hoping for a sunny day, for your favorite song to come on the radio. Unlike "hoping" for all the petty things we want in life, this hope is available. Just not right now. The hope referred to in this context is coined by some as "the rapture" since about the early to mid 1900's I believe. God's Word calls it the hope. That's good enough for me! The word hope in the greek is elpis (n). "expectation of something future. Subjectively, a well-grounded expectation and a gladly and firmly held prospect of a future good. Objectively, the expected good, that for which we hope." This hope has many details to it. Suffice to share here... and realizing this is my terminology... we, God's chosen... are getting the hell outta here! As amazing as this physical universe is and I do see beauty and perfection everywhere, it is no comparison to what I've seen in the Word concerning the spiritual realm. My hope is an anticipation of a justly expected reward for faithful service. Keeps me goin' for the goal!

When's it gonna happen? Nobody but God himself knows. But it is available to know how it's initiated. Behold, I shew you a mystery, We shall not all sleep, (their will be believers alive at the time) but we shall (absolutely) all be changed. In a moment, in the twinking of an eye, at the last trump: For the trumpet will sound, (a trumpet will be blowing!) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.... Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. - I Corinthians 15:51, 52 & 58 We, God's true household, those born again through out generations to that present day will be raised from the dead with the "incorruptible" and those alive at the occasion will be changed "in a moment". That phrase in the greek is "en atomo", from where we get our word "atom". That's pretty minuet! I'm sure those involved will notice though! Can you just imagine what a spiritual (incorruptible) body will be like?! Lookey here! -> For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent (precede) them which are asleep (what we call dead) For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump (ta-da!) of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: as so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. - I Thessalonians 4:15 - 18 OK... I hear some of you out there soundin' surprised. I know. You thought someone goes right to heaven when they die. Nope. You just read it yourself. Not if God's Word is accurate. The "dead in Christ" ain't zombies either! Those that had gotten themselves born again will be raised with a spiritual body and "fly" up to the clouds. Those that are alive at the time shall be changed so fast they won't even feel it! And then join the others in the clouds! We're outta here baby! I've always imagined that shout to be, "C'mon ya'll!" Heard 'round the world!

Love. This love isn't the kind of love we're all accustomed to. That kind of love is finite. It's fickle. It's based on condition. It's human love. It's "phileo" in the greek. What we're after is AGAPE! This is the real thing! High octane git-r-dun love! This is spiritual love. It's infinite. It's stable. It's unconditional. It's love that generates from your very essence cuz... You've taken on the nature of your spiritual Father and... YOU ARE LOVE! You have a love of and for God in your mind renewed to truth and manifesting it in the world! This agape love is the reason I reach out via this site. To you! When I say I love my online friends I mean it! I'm always looking to bless someone somehow. Whether it's to share a laugh, listen to challenges, offer God's Word as a solution, a greeting, whatever! I put love into my work, my cooking, my chores... purty much everything! Well... except for gettin' outta bed some mornings. Anyways! I ain't in this for the money! Ha! I do appreciate donations and am willing to accept sponsorship but the mission of this site is to assist others to separate truth from error. And I'm here for ya!

What is it that love does for a believer? It energizes believing! The more you see the love God is, the easier it is to believe Him and take Him at His Word. For in Jesus Christ (in God's will) neither circumcision (the old testament law, the Jew) availeth any thing, nor uncircumsicion (the Gentile); but faith (believing) which worketh (is engergized) by love (agape). - Galatians 5:6 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love (agapao) God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28. According as He hath chosen us in Him before (He laid) the foundation of the world, (why?!) that we should be holy and without blame before Him (in His presence!) in love: - Ephesians 1:4

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