Taking on God’s Responsibilities

I was struck by something I heard Bertie Brits say, "Faith is not something that you do - faith is something that happens to you". *

Faith is to be persuaded of the truth of something. When the Bible talks about believing something, it means to trust. We do not believe God for things - we believe in the One whom He sent.

The ability to believe is actually an aspect of love (See 1 Cor. 13:7). God is love. The ability to trust God is something that God has given to us, is a gift - it is not something that we do.

Look at what happens when we try to believe God for something in our own strength? We try to trust in God for individual things, like a new car, by anxiously repeating Bible verses such as Phil. 4:19. Does it work? No, it does not.

Let's take this concept further: if believing, or trusting, is not something that we do - then everything else that 1 Cor. 13:4-7 or Gal 5 says love is - is not something that we do: it is something that we receive as a gift. We should not fool ourselves in believing that we can be kind, longsuffering, gentle, compassionate, trusting or patient in our own effort.

If we could “do” love in our own effort – we could keep the one-and-only commandment that Jesus gave to the world: that we love one another. But we can’t keep the commandment of love, the one commandment that fulfils the Ten Commandments – that’s why we need the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the divine nature through the anointing.

As soon as we attempt to re-produce these qualities of love in our lives, out of a sense of guilt, fear or coercion - we grieve the Holy Spirit and interrupt His work in our lives. Only religion tries to coax people to be more kind, patient and longsuffering than they actually are. As a result - religious people often become weird, confused, frustrated and pretentious individuals.

We should not take responsibility for something that God takes responsibility for. Take worry for instance: worry occurs when people take responsibility for working out the fine details of their lives - instead of casting their care on the Lord and not leaning unto their own understanding.

How can we facilitate this flow of the divine nature in our lives?

It helps to "step outside" of our ego and see ourselves as the product of God's will. We need to step out of the way and realise who we truly are in Christ. Otherwise, we become limited by who we perceive to be according to what we perceive with our physical senses. When we get our own limited ego out of the way of God, we allow the nature of God to flow in our lives. We do not know what the next step will be – we just know that we are led by Him and that His will is good.

We can facilitate this flow of divine nature in our lives by simply looking at the cross. We keep looking to what Jesus did on our behalf. That's how holiness flows. That's how compassion for people flows. That's how healing flows. That's how it all flows! Praise God! There is no need to take our eyes off of Jesus' performance and put them on our own - as soon as we do, sin is strengthened in our lives.

* Bertie Brits, Faith without Efforts: http://www.dynamicministries.com/The%20Word%20Well.htm