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Posted: 01/04/2010 at 1:49pm
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Moving Beyond Faith to Experience
By Ron McGatlin
We are living in an unprecedented season of redemptive fulfillment. A worldwide transformation into the kingdom of heaven on earth is before us. The Holy City, New Jerusalem, Bride pattern of life with God is coming down from spiritual heaven into spiritual reality on earth and manifesting in the lives of maturing sons of God.
That which has been promised and seen in faith by the people of God throughout biblical history has begun to manifest in the season of God we have entered into. Hebrews 11 names many people of God that have gone before us, who by faith brought forth many marvelous works of God and paid a great price of persecution and suffering. Yet, they never experienced the fulfillment of the promise (Heb 11:38). They embraced with assurance of confident hope that which is now beginning to be experienced by multitudes of maturing sons of God in this season of God.
Faith and hope are essentials for productive and useful life.
Some readers may not be aware that the New Testament usage of the word hope is not according to our common usage of it as a wishful or dreamy but doubtful type of maybe someday hope. Rather, it most often means a confident trust or expectation type of hope.
Faith brings the promise of hope into the substance of existence. Heb 11:1: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Spiritual things of God are understood by faith. Heb 11:3: By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Mighty works of God are accomplished by faith. Mat 17:20: So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
What is beyond faith?
Confident hope of promise in God is fulfilled in the completed work of faith.
When faith and confident hope have done their work, the fulfilled promise has become reality in our lives, in this world. That which is from the supernatural has become a reality in the natural. At this point, faith and confident hope are no longer employed because that which was seen in faith by the Spirit is now experienced in the natural reality of life.
Rom 8:24: … hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
However, it is no more in existence now that it is seen in the natural than it was before when it was seen in the spiritual realm. Spirit God in spiritual heaven is the source of all that can be seen in natural creation.
Beyond faith is the fulfillment or the reality of experience. Experience is the fruit of faith and confident hope of a promise or word from God. That which is seen and heard from the Father by the Holy Spirit through Christ Jesus is the seed. The experience is the mature fruit of the faith and hope in the seed of promise.
What is the desired fruit of life?
Jesus is our Lord and example of mature sonship. He was intimately related to our Father and only said and did what He saw or heard our Father saying and doing. Everything Jesus said or did presented the Father into this world (John 14:9). The absolutely predominant characteristic of our Father is His LOVE. GOD IS LOVE.
1 John 4:8: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
The desired fruit of life is the continual experience of our Father’s love flowing into our lives producing His ways – His righteousness and His kingdom rule and dominion of love on earth as it is in heaven.
Everything we will ever see or hear from our Father for us to say or do will manifest His love into the world. Every work or activity in business, ministry, family or any other area of life in which we participate is to be a presentation of what our Father is saying or doing. Manifesting the love of our Father on earth is the kingdom of God. When love is fully accomplished in us, faith and hope have done their work. We are matured into love and are no longer as fatherless slaves but have developed into mature sons and joint heirs with Christ Jesus, living by the Spirit and walking in the Spirit.
Christ Jesus, Holy Spirit and Father God
Revelation of kingdom truth coming forth is uncovering our lack and exposing our need. Many of God’s children have focused on receiving and worshiping Jesus, which we should have done, but stopped short of fully knowing and connecting intimately with our Father. Many are now seeing by the Spirit that Jesus is the way and our Father is the destination. We have not been fully connected into our Father’s love. And we may have imagined Him to be as our earthly fathers who may have been less than a clear presentation of the love of our Heavenly Father.
As Fatherless children, we have been lacking in completeness of the greater experience of truly experiencing the love of our Father who completely loves us and desires above all else that we reflect His love back to Him in pure, holy adoration from our whole hearts.
Mature sons experience full connection with Christ Jesus as Savior, Lord and King. They connect to the Holy Spirit as fully God and are saturated in the work of the Spirit. The primary works of the Spirit areenlightenment to our inner needs, and administering the works of Christ and Father, to absolve our needs and empower us with grace. We cannot be connected and intimately related with Christ Jesus and our Father without the work of the Holy Spirit. If we deny any portion of God we will remain incomplete and immature.
Christ Jesus redeems us and lives within us by the Holy Spirit. We are only able to really experience (know) our Father’s love that purifies us and completely fulfills our lives by the Spirit. We could spend all our lives doing religious things such as, fasting, prayer, reading our Bibles, attending services and conferences, taking communion with bread and wine, paying tithes, giving big offerings and even doing mighty works in His name. Yetif we have not matured into the reality of experiencing our Father’s love, it will profit nothing in this life (1Cor 13) (Mat 7:23).
God’s kind of unconditional love is ONLY available from our Father, and must be received from Him and appropriated by the Holy Spirit. There is no other source. Only through Christ Jesus by the Spirit can we reach the mature love of our Father and only then can we flow Father’s love to our world bringing transformation into His kingdom.
1 Cor 13:1-3: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
1 Cor 13:13: And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Edited by Moderator on 01/05/2010 at 6:38pm
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Topic: MOVING BEYOND FAITH TO EXPERIENCE
