By Titto Thomas

Sidharth and Justin did a terrific job of explaining “Repentance from dead works” as part of our foundational series. In his last post Sidharth explained how the foundation of repentance translates into practical everyday living in God. If you can agree with me that all these topics are fundamental cogs in our walk with God, we can move on to lesson number two- FAITH TOWARDS GOD.

Like Sidharth explained repentance is not an end in itself, rather it moves us out of the negative and faith moves us into the positive. The Bible teaches this very clearly. What do I do after I repent? Believe in GOD! In Mark 1:15 Jesus tells to repent and believe. So the first thing I want you to understand as we move to our second lesson is that we are not starting a new topic, rather we are continuing the first lesson!

You cannot put your faith in God when you are turned away from Him! You have to first turn to Him! The interesting thing about both these aspects of coming to God is that God is responsible for both- our repentance (caused by Godly sorrow) and Faith (His Gift to us). Say this to yourself- “It is His work in me as I yield!

In this first part of Lesson Number 2 I will deal with some aspects of the foundation of faith 

1.      THE ORIGIN OF FAITH – Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. The verse begins with “Fix your eyes on Jesus”. Before we can start on the foundation called faith, your eyes should not be on faith. Your eyes should be on Jesus! Also refer to Ephesians 2:8 where it says Faith is a Gift, implying that Faith can neither be manufactured nor produced. It is a GIFT!

2.      THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH -  Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God…”. Now if there is anything that pleases God it’s faith, so faith is no small matter.

3.      THE NECESSITY OF FAITH- Why does God use this instrument called faith? We need to realize that GOD is Spirit and all our dealings with Him must be in the spirit! We cannot touch God with our emotions or with our eyes or ears. God uses this instrument called faith which makes the spiritual a reality! So you see there is no substitute to faith.

4.       THE PRINCIPLE OF FAITH – To put faith plainly, it is a journey. So if faith is a journey what is its objective? A journey in faith has to with your eyes being opened to the fact of how much you can trust GOD. It is a growth in confidence primarily. If we haven’t clearly understood faith, our growth in faith will be a different journey! Paul explains this very clearly in Romans 1:17 where he tells us that this journey is from faith to faith. Beginning with faith and ending with it!

5.      THE ESSENCE OF FAITH – The essence of our faith is a commitment with God. This commitment is the beginning of a relationship with God. According to Ephesians 2:8, at the time of our salvation God gave us a gift of faith to accept Him and put our trust on Him. Now this was the beginning of a relationship with Him. This was the starting point of faith. The working of faith comes into place only when we understand this fact.

6.      THE WORKING OF FAITH – The working of faith has to do with receiving of God. Now this topic has been really misused, but let us not forget that this is a crucial part of our Christian walk. 

Faith is such a distorted topic in the body of Christ today, but I hope you have come to a point where you understand that faith has nothing to do with denominations and your ideology or belief. Faith is a Gift from God and that is the first and foremost thing you and I need to learn before we can truly comprehend faith. In the coming post Nathan will explain in detail about faith and how it differs from hope.  

By Nick Shelton

Once upon a time, there was a grasshopper who loved to show off his strong legs by jumping over the homes of his insect friends. After a long day of jumping and playing, the grasshopper would grow very hungry. But on this day, there was no food to be found because a winter storm had blanketed the ground with a thin layer of snow. Having no other options, the grasshopper went to his friend Mr. Ant and knelt down on his strong hind legs and begged his friend for some food.

The ant thought to himself, I worked all summer and fall gathering food so that our colony would have all we needed. While I was carrying food twice my weight, this grasshopper was jumping and dancing in the meadow. Why should I give him any food? Why does he deserve it?

This story is a moral question that many psychologists and social scientists have used to examine what kind of morals a person has. What would you do if you were in Mr. Ant’s shoes?

In this version of the story, Mr. Ant decided to help the grasshopper. The ant provided food that the starving grasshopper needed. The ant went out of his way, traveling several feet below the ground to retrieve stored food for the grasshopper.

“Here you go, Mr. Hopper,” said Mr. Ant.

“Thanks, but this is such a small amount of food. I’m a lot bigger than you. I need a lot more food than you.”

“I can only get this much at a time,” said Mr. Ant. “The ant who guards our food storage will only allow me to get so much extra.”

“There’s no way you can get more?”

“Well, I guess I could share the small bit of food that I’m given each day.”

For the next few days, Mr. Ant shared his small rations of food with the grasshopper. As the winter progressed, the grasshopper kept taking larger and larger food portions from the ant. Both of them were almost starving themselves to death. One day, Mr. Ant finally said, “Mr. Hopper, the lack of food has completely changed you. Your hind legs do not look like they’ll be able to jump any more. Why don’t you take all my food so you can survive until the spring.”  The selfish grasshopper took the food and enjoyed every bite.

The following day, the ant died in the snow trying to find more food for the hungry grasshopper. The ant gave his all in order that the grasshopper could live.

The ant did not have to do anything for the grasshopper – he did not deserve it. He showed him mercy. The ant did not have to give the grasshopper his own food – it was gift of gratitude. He showed him grace.

Grace and mercy are the two fundamental concepts on which Christianity is built. We are just like the grasshopper in many ways. We come seeking want we do not deserve, and we get something that we cannot obtain on our own.

We deserve punishment for all of our sins. Whether we are a murderer on death row, or a priest– we deserve hell. However, God does not leave us out in the cold, starving to death. He loves us and welcomes us into His warm embrace and invites us to His banqueting table in Heaven.

God not only cancels the debt of millions that we owe to Him, but He also gives us millions that we could never accomplish on our own. HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!

Ephesians 2:4

Isaiah 55:7

Romans 3:23,24

Romans 11:42

Ephesians 2:8

Hebrews 4:16

By Sidharth Mohandas

When your eyes are good, your WHOLE body also is full of light.[Luke 11:34]

Jesus tells us here of something that can affect our WHOLE body. It is “when our eyes are good”. The Greek word used for “good” is “aplouv” and it can also be translated as either “single” or “simple”. One of the marvelous things about human eyes unlike many animals is that we have two eyes but by focusing we can form one image. I believe , first and foremost, this verse deals with having a single image. That is, our eyes can be focused to make a single and clear image. I believe many Christians suffer from lack of focus. That is why the spiritual world seems kind of misty, half real to them. 

Team member Jonathan was speaking to me the other day about the importance of carrying a vision for Imrah Ministries, and that without a clear vision we’d get no where in fulfilling what God had called us to do. In fact, Scripture goes onto tell us that “where there is no vision, people perish”. Singleness of vision is very important. How focused are you about God’s plan for your family, your city, your nation and the world? What is your vision of your role in these?

However, it’s not enough to just have a vision, we need to act on it. How do we act on it?

Scripture tells us that God had created man in His likeness [Genesis 1:26]. This does not simply mean that God created man to look like Him, but much more that man was created to function like God. How did God function? Through faith. He calls things that are not as though they were. Most of us associate faith with “having faith in some one”. But no, faith is much more than just that, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Before something comes into being, God knows it will be. That’s just how God operates!

That brings us to another part that affects the course of our WHOLE body: the tongue

If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his WHOLE body in check. [James 3:2]

God not only carries a clear vision for His plans, but He also uses His mouth to speak them into existence. When God brought Ezekiel before a valley of dry bones, He had a clear vision of what He wanted…an army out of those dry bones. And then He commands Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!…”

As children of God, we are to operate like our Abba, and that is in faith. We must have eyes with single vision and a tongue that speaks the vision into existence.

For example, a while back some of us gathered together to pray for the unsaved ones in our families. We started by gathering all of God’s promises for our families, and after we developed a clear vision of what God purposed to do in our families, we started speaking those words over our families. Have we seen any change? Very little. However, we are assured that we will see the vision come to pass.

Have a single vision, speak the vision and see it come to pass.