Principles of the Doctrine of Christ: Faith Toward God (continued)

Beloved, in continuance of our series entitled “Faith Toward God,” I would like to admonish you that everyone who “believeth on [him], as the scripture hath said” should receive the Holy Ghost, since this was prophesied by Jesus Himself. This is confirmed in the second part of the verse, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). The Holy Ghost is that living water - the gift that was promised by Jesus. Beloved, this is the Gospel - the Good News! The Gospel is supposed to give everyone the hope that they will receive that which was promised.

Precious Ones, the Apostle Paul speaks of the opening of the door of faith. How was it done? The apostles preached the Word of God, giving the Gentiles the opportunity to come to Jesus. Through the preaching of the Gospel on the Day of Pentecost, the door was opened for the Jews. Without the preaching of the Gospel, there would be no one to believe on the Lord. Paul puts it this way, “Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed...but after that faith is come [when we believe], we are no longer under a schoolmaster [the law]” (Galatians 3:23,25). In other words, Paul is saying that we, like the Jews, were shut up in our traditions, but when we learned the truth as revealed in Christ, we had “faith toward God” and became believers.

Chosen Ones, when the door of faith was opened to us, we left our traditions and teachings behind, and were sealed by the Holy Ghost. Many people make the mistake of thinking that faith and belief are the same. Not so! When we have faith, we are assuming that we are going to get something, but when we believe, we accept that our God can be trusted to give it to us, so we are convinced that it is already ours!

Children of God, this is the position with most people. When they feel that they can trust God, they expect things from Him. As Christians, we must be convinced that God wants us to have all good things - even things that we may not even have thought to trust Him for.

I will write more on this subject next week.

I love each and every one of you all SO very much.

In His Love,

Pastor William L. McCoy