Faithful to the End

Unfaithful

 

It has been a long time since I have faithfully, or otherwise updated this blog and there is really no excuse. This morning as I was musing about my Christian walk I realized that I certainly wasn’t being faithful, and making the best use of my God given abilities. In fact, I could easily and rightly say that by not being faithful to God in this endeavor and not consistently posting and sharing my thoughts on Christianity with others I was in fact making another being very happy.

I’m not going to name this being here, but Christian or not, you probably have a good idea of who. I’ll be honest I’m really tired of doing things that make this being happy. I don’t want him to be happy I want him to be upset. So this year I’m going to do more things that’ll make him take notice and I can guarantee that will bring spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Warfare

This has been proven time and time again in my life and in the lives of other Christians I know and love. When we engage in actively sharing our faith we will experience spiritual warfare.

Ephesians 6 starting in verse 10 states:

¹⁰ Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. ¹² For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. ¹³ This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. ¹⁴ Stand, therefore,

with truth like a belt around your waist,
righteousness like armor on your chest,
¹⁵ and your feet sandaled with readiness
for the gospel of peace.
¹⁶ In every situation take the shield of faith,
and with it you will be able to extinguish
all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit,
which is God’s word.

¹⁸ Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

This is Spiritual warfare. In fact even if you think about sharing your faith you will come under spiritual attack. Thoughts will flash into your head that you didn’t put there, then enemy did.

What do you know? Is it really your place to speak out about this? No one’s going to listen to you so you might as well keep quiet.

It’s so easy to trust those thoughts, to put stock in them, and finally to choose to believe them. To shut up about your faith, to put a lid on it, to hide your light.

Don’t!

He’s the greatest conman ever and the father of lies.

Right Listening…Right Doing

Instead listen to what God says, after all if you are a believer you were purchased by Him through the blood of Jesus Christ the Messiah! He put His seal On and In you through the Indwelling Holy Spirit as a down payment for eternity. You belong to God, and are adopted into His family and can call out- “Abba Father!”

He is forever faithful, faithful to the end, faithful to infinity.

Matthew 5:15 states:

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house.

In other words, when He gave you new life you’re to stand out and shine your light. You’re to always be a witness of the new creation God has made you into. You are to give testimony, shine your light, so that others might be drawn to your savior, Jesus Christ the Messiah.

Let’s pray to the Lord as believers that we would be like Jeremiah who puts it so perfectly in Jeremiah 20 verse 9:

If I say, “I won’t mention Him or speak any longer in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones. I become tired of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.

When you hold you testimony in, when you do not proclaim Christ and His salvation when you fail to share your faith- it builds up like a magma pool in a dormant volcano. Seeking a way out.

Let’s not be like that as Christians let’s be active, we are called to be Ambassadors for Christ. The job of an Ambassador is to make known the one he or she is representing, so once we are born again our job is to actively proclaim Christ!

Listen to the Voice of the Good Shepherd

As believers we are to listen and follow only after the voice of the Good Shepherd in John 10 it says the following:

 “I assure you: Anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the door but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. ⁵ They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t recognize the voice of strangers.”

⁶ Jesus gave them this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them.

The Good Shepherd

⁷ So Jesus said again, “I assure you: I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. ⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them^[b] and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. ¹³ This happens because he is a hired man and doesn’t care about the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, ¹⁵ as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶ But I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ This is why the Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life so I may take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father.”

Now Jesus is comparing Believers to Sheep….and sheep well to say they’re not smart is an understatement. Believers hear His voice, through reading the Word of God, Prayer, Listening to a great Sermon- and we put what we have taught into action. We follow Him because we know His voice.

We shouldn’t be following the enemy’s voice. We shouldn’t be wandering into sin. We shouldn’t be going down the wrong path.

But if we do God has a response for that too in 1st John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So when we sin we seek Him in prayer and confess our sins to Him (and nobody else) and He is faithful and Righteous (Just) in not only forgiving our sins but also cleansing us from ALL unrighteousness!

What a gracious God we serve!

In Christ,

Ross