FAITH IS CONVERSION RHODA: Read let us hear and begin from there. ROSELYN: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail: and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32). RHODA: As inference from what you just read, instead of the Lord to pray that Peter’s holiness or sanctification should not fail, He rather prayed that Peter’s faith should not fail when Satan himself is fighting to have him. Your greatest treasure is in keeping your faith, not in keeping your holiness. And he said to him, “When you are converted, strengthen your brethren”. To be converted is to have and keep faith in Christ Jesus the Son of God. ROSELYN: I thought to be converted means for a sinner to repent and desist from all kinds of sin, and walk in holiness. RHODA: True conversion is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to walk by faith that is in him, not in self or in any other man. A man may walk in holiness, and end up in hell fire even with his holiness; but a man who walks in true faith in Christ, can never end up in hell fire. For the just shall live by faith, not by holiness. Muslims have codes of holy living, repentance and many of them walk in fear of Allah. However, because they seek salvation by their own strength, they shall fail without faith in Christ the Son of God. They have faith in their religion, therefore their religion is in their faith. 1. When a man has faith in his religion, his religion will be found in his faith; 2. When a man has faith in his traditions or doctrines, his traditions and doctrines shall fill his faith. But, 3. When a man has faith in God, God is in his faith and Christ fills his faith. Therefore, have faith in God, not in your strength or zeal for God. To have faith in God is to have faith in his Son: What you have in God is what you have in His Son. You can only keep something in God, when you keep that thing in his Son. No man can access or store anything in God, without the Son of God: The life, hope, faith and love we have in God is in his Son Jesus Christ. ROSELYN: But we still have some Christian churches which emphasize holiness and discipline, just as the Muslims do; only that they combine it with faith in the Son of God. I am convinced that without holiness, no eyes shall see God. RHODA: You are right on your conviction, but we are talking about conversion and not conviction. Conviction is to believe or agree in something, but Conversion is to believe and agree with Someone. Those Muslims and those Christians you mentioned have something in common, which is their conviction on holiness; but they do not have the same conversion because the Christians believe in the Son of God, while the Muslims believe in a Childless Allah who is just one in number (No Son, no Daughter, No Relative, No Spirit and No definite form or image of Allah because no man knows how he looks like and no man looks like him). Yet I will tell you this, salvation and righteousness must be based on faith in Christ and not based on holiness. Your holiness will only reveal your own righteousness, but your faith will reveal the righteousness of the One whom you believe in. Your righteousness is as awful as your sin, it is as filthy rag which is has filthiness or sin in it (Isaiah 64:4). Your holiness will only reveal your own righteousness, but will not allow God to reveal God’s righteousness through you; which is which God has chosen faith instead of the old ways of holiness. For faith will always allow God to reveal the Righteousness of God: As it is written, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:9-11). Therefore, men must seek the righteousness of God, Jesus Christ. This is the difference between the gospel and the preachings in any other religion of the world. The gospel is not just about preaching repentance, but more about revealing the righteousness of God through faith: When you are preaching, and your message is not revealing the righteousness of God through faith in Christ, then your message is not the gospel but condemnation coated with the appearance of speaking the truth. Therefore, it is written, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17) ROSELYN: Are we then to drop holiness aside? RHODA: Drop your own holiness with your sins, but take on the holiness of Christ which is the true holiness. Put on righteousness and true holiness, which is a man and not a thing or doctrine: True holiness is a man, not a doctrine or set of codes of conduct – that man who is true holiness is called the New man (Ephesians 4:24). Holiness is what you must keep in your heart and in your lips, not what you keep on the surface of your body. 1. When a man keeps holiness on the surface of the body, he ends up carrying fake holiness or false holiness. 2. When a man carries holiness in his heart and mind, he carries true holiness. It is when holiness is in your heart that your heart becomes pure: When he said without holiness no eye shall see God, he was not talking of holiness in the body, but rather holiness in the heart. So that holiness to see God is the holiness within the heart, not holiness within the body or outward appearance: As it is written, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). But you will still see some people interprete that to mean, blessed are those who appear pure in body or clothing for they shall see God. Those are the generation without the true knowledge of the Christ, but walk in strange doctrines: Such as a woman must not put on earrings, a woman must not wear trousers, a woman must not preach in the church, a woman cannot become a pastor, a woman cannot put on make ups; even some will say people must not wear shoe or slippers into their church, because Moses and Joshua had to put off their shoes while they stood on the holy ground. Putting off shoes before entering those churches is like Muslims putting off their shoes before entering mosque or into some places they hold sacred. All these and more are false or fake holiness, because the holiness does not reflect the purity of their heart and mind in Christ. Always enter the house of God with your shoes on and don’t leave them outside; and always enter the house of God with your brain, don’t leave your brain outside and remain gullible in the church. Your brain does not belong Satan as to leave it outside the church, serve God with your brain also.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 08:35:01 +0000
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