A Final Word on Biblical Concept of Faith

[Speaker 1] This message is officially coming from one of the most spiritual and individualized ministries that constitute the board the world needs. This is what documentation and instruction in righteousness in Family Tent Ministries. Reading the bless as of this truth. [Speaker 2] Everlasting Father, we are grateful indeed unto you this evening. We thank you for your love, we thank you for your mercies, we thank you for your grace, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your help, we thank you for assistance. We thank you for all who you are and all that you are to us. Lord, indeed we are very, very grateful. Thank you, Lord our God. As we gather again unto you this evening, work in us, work through us, speak to us, meet with us where we need you most in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, our eyes on you. Let nothing prevail against your purposes in our lives in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Eternal Father. Blessed be your name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We thank our God again for another time in his presence to move on from where we left it two weeks ago. Last week was last Monday of the month. Yes, so normally we pray. So it was the prayer meeting last week. So today, we are coming back again to considering important lessons again from the word of God. To learn again at his feet, to look into scriptures, to see what we can learn from the word of God. And as I normally say, always make sure that you are with your Bible, make sure that you are with your note, make sure that you are with your biro. There is so much in God that many times our memory may not be able to carry. Sometimes we just forgot what we have heard, but when we write them down, we are able to recall them and remember them. So let's look at something. My intention today is to move to something new or something very, very important which we describe as the wisdom of God. But I saw the need for us to fine-tune some things in order to be able to bring that matter together. And what I want us to do today before we move on is I want us to have what I will describe as a final word on biblical concept of faith. A final word. A final word on biblical concept of faith. We concluded with Episode 36 and I want to encourage you if you have not listened to those episodes. It will be good you listen to them. Very, very long anyway, 36 episodes. It's not a small episode from Episode 1 to 36 and each of them about one and a half hours. So you know the number of hours that is involved in it. But just take time, they are on our website, download them, listen to them. Now, I said a final word on biblical concept of faith. This biblical concept of faith, just a final word. Something that just occurred to me and I want us to take it home. Let's turn our Bible to the book of Genesis. Let's turn to Genesis 1. Let's see what scripture says here about God at creation. Let's see Genesis 1, just a way of putting some things together for us as we try to take a final word on biblical concept of faith. Episode 36, and I just want to bring some things together. The Bible says that in the beginning, in the beginning, what did God do? God created the heavens and the earth. So what did God do at the beginning? He created the heavens and the earth. So Genesis 1:1 is actually a summary of what God did at the beginning. What did God do at the beginning? Created heaven and earth. So at the beginning, God created heaven and earth. Now, from verse 2, we began to see how heaven and earth, how they were created because another way to look at this heaven is to understand that I hope you agree with me that the heaven that was that the Bible said in the beginning, God created heaven and earth. The heaven and earth that is created in this place, you will know that it is not the heaven that God dwells is not the heaven that God is living in. I hope that is clear. It's not the heaven that God is living in. It is the heaven that we describe as the sky, the firmament. It is the sky that the Bible is talking about. This heaven that you are looking at that you call heaven. So when the Bible said God created heaven and earth at the beginning, it is important for us to reconcile that the heaven that the Bible talked about is not the heaven that God dwells. God was dwelling somewhere, isn't it? So he came out of that place to create what at the beginning? To create heaven and earth. Okay? Now, God at the beginning created heaven and earth. So by understanding, God had been existing. God had been before the beginning. Is that not true? So God was before the beginning. Now, the beginning therefore that we are talking about here, which beginning is that? Which beginning is it talking about here? Exactly. The beginning of heaven, earth, that beginning when everything was to start. Good. So the beginning there is not the beginning for God, but the beginning for the heavens and the earth that God was going to create. Yeah, thank you. I hope you're getting something clear. It is just a final word. It is something that occurred to me about faith. And in the last two, three days, I've been praying so much about my life. And that is what I'm bringing to you as a final word on biblical concept of faith. And I pray that the way that that word that came to me changed me, may what you hear this evening change you for the better in the name of Jesus. May the image and the likeness of God be perfected in you in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, look at what the Bible says in Genesis. It says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then from verse 2, it now began to tell us how, what actually God did to create the heavens and the earth, isn't it? Now, in verse 2, we notice that the Bible says that the earth was without form and void. The earth was without form. It was void. Now, why was the earth without form and why was it void? There have been different theology about this. Some said after God created heaven and earth, there was a war. It was during that war that the earth became void. There are different schools about it. But what is important to me here is that when you look at verse 7, 8, 9, some from 7 to 10, verse 7 to 10. [Speaker 3] Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and so it was. God called the firmament heaven. [Speaker 2] So that's why we normally said that the heaven there that God created was the sky. I hope it's clear. God called the firmament heaven. So morning and evening, that was the second day. The first day, God created light, separated light from darkness. The second day, what was created? God created the sky. Okay. Verse 9. [Speaker 3] Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear," and it was so. [Speaker 2] So what did God do now to the water that was below? What did God do? The water that was below, what is happening here? God told the water to move to one side so that dry land can appear. So what did God now call that dry land? Verse 10. So God called the dry land, what did he call it? Earth. So the dry land that appeared was earth. So what will be on earth? What will be on the earth when it was created? Will anything be on the earth? No, there will be nothing on the earth. God only said, "Let dry land appear." So when dry land appeared, God called it earth. So the earth is just an empty dry land. You get the point I'm making? An empty dry land. That was the earth before God now said before the Bible now says, "Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grasses.'" So do you see it? So that dry land was now told to bring grass and then grass now appeared. Then that dry land again was told to bring trees, mango, guava, pawpaw, pineapple, coconut, palm kernel, just name them. The dry land brought them again. So later God told the dry land to bring animals. Then God told the seas to bring animals. Do you get the point I'm making? But look at something, just a final word on the matter of faith. A final word on the matter of biblical faith. Do you notice something about creation? Look at verse 2. Genesis 1:2 again. "The earth was without form." Why was it without form? Because it was just a dry land. And it was void. There was nothing in it. Before God now begins to say, "Let this appear, let this appear, let that appear." Am I right? But look at something. The Bible says, "The earth was without form, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water." I'm trying to show you something. How was the earth? It was null and void. It was without form. Then as it was without form, what did God now do? God began to bring things into that thing that was empty. How did God do, how was it done? You notice that he spoke, isn't it? He spoke. Now, but before the speaking, what do you notice was first going over the? What was first going round? What was hovering round? The Spirit of God was hovering round. The Spirit of God was hovering round. It was hovering round and round before the word of God came. The word now created something. I'm trying to make us see something very, very fundamental. At creation, the Spirit of God was hovering round, was hovering round, hovering round and round before the word of God came. The word now created something. You know what I'm trying to make you see? Our lives, let me open my note. I want to show you what I wrote. I want to show you what I wrote. I wrote something as I was contemplating on this thing, a final word, a final word on biblical faith. Genesis 1. Look at what I wrote. I said, our lives, our lives actually remain without form and void and in darkness except the Spirit of God moves over the deeps of our lives. Are you getting me? Do you notice that even though God was to create something, the Bible make us to see that before God spoke, somebody was doing something around the thing. Who was that? Who was hovering round? The Spirit of God was hovering round. The Spirit of God was hovering round. It was hovering round. Then God now speak, "Let there be so-so-and-so." And what happened? The Bible now says it was so. Now, I'm trying to make us see something very, very fundamental. At creation, the Spirit of God was hovering round, was hovering round, hovering round and round before the word of God came. The word now created something. You know what I'm trying to make you see? For God to do anything in your life, there must be a move of the Spirit. For God to do anything in our lives, there must be a move of God's Spirit. If the Spirit of God don't move, God cannot really do anything in our lives. What I'm saying is that God does things in our lives through the move of his Spirit. When God want to create, you see God wanted to create, the earth was null, abbi? It was void, it was without form. So what did God first make to be moving round? The Spirit of God. The Spirit of God. The Spirit of God was first hovering round, hovering round, hovering round. And I pray this evening, may the Spirit of God hover over your life in the name of Jesus. Do you know that if the Spirit of God don't hover over your life, hovering over your life, there is nothing that can happen to your life. Your life will remain without form. It will remain void. Your life will remain empty. It will be in darkness. You notice the Lord Jesus said something. He said when the Spirit shall come, he will convince the world of what? Of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. So how do we know that we are sinners? How do we come to know that we are sinners and we repented? Because the Spirit convinced us of sin. He told us what it means to live right and then we began to say, "I surrender all." What I'm trying to make you see is this. When God want to create in your life, everything that God will create in your life, when God is about to do those things, what will first begin to happen around your life is that the Spirit of God will begin to move around it. What I'm trying to make you see, brethren, is that we must deliberately and intentionally cry to God for the move of his Spirit in our lives. We must be deliberate, we must intentionally cry to God. "God, I desire the move of your Spirit in my life. Lord, I desire that your Spirit will hover over my life. I desire a movement of your Spirit. Lord, move upon my Spirit. Lord, move upon my mind. Lord, move upon my intellect. God, move." Until there is a move of the Spirit, what simply happens to you is that you you cannot effectually come to God. You know when you see something is effective, effective. If there is no move of the Spirit and you gave your life to Christ, go and check those kind of people. People who don't have a move of the Spirit in their life and they said they've given their life to Christ. Over time, you'll not be able to tell whether they are born again or they are not born again. Because their life will not mirror Jesus. Now, you notice that the Bible says God is the author and what? Finisher of our faith. Let me tell you this. It is that move of the Spirit, that move of the Spirit that is the that is what we are calling the the authoring. We say God is the author of your faith. It is that move of the Spirit that we are saying that God has authored something in your heart. If there is no move of the Spirit, nothing can begin in your heart. Nothing can be authored. It is the Spirit that author something. That's why the Bible says that "Confident of this very thing, that he who began the good work," do you see it? He began it. It is not really you that began it. You're not the one that started it. No, it is he who began the good work in you. So it is that move of the Spirit that is the origination, the origination of real faith in our heart. Real faith that brings salvation. And please, people always misunderstand the matter of salvation. What people understand about salvation many of the times is simply that somebody gave his life to Christ and so that person have experienced salvation. You see that somebody gave his life to Christ. The person have experienced indeed salvation. But it's important to understand that that is the salvation that comes in a man being reconciled to God. You have been reconciled to God. The Bible says being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You will also still need to be saved in your mind. You will need to be saved in your emotions. You need to be saved in your finance. You need to be saved in your marriage. You need to be saved in your relationship. You need to be saved in your use of money. Need to be saved. So salvation is a continuous thing also. That's why the Bible says for us who are being saved, we are being saved. So salvation is something when you come into Christ, what has happened? It is just the origination of your faith. But that faith need to be perfected. So God is the author and what? The perfecter of the faith. Let's start it. But that faith will be going through a lot of things, perfecting, perfecting. What it means is that that salvation that started will need to now come to affect every other thing. That's physical salvation. In your in your thought life, you begin to live that eternal salvation. In your emotional life, you live that eternal salvation. In your financial life, you live that salvation. Even in your health, "I wish that you prosper and be in health as your soul prosper." You understand? So prosperity financially will be according to that thing that happened to your eternal salvation. So what I'm trying to make you see is that there is something that originate our faith. What is that? The move of the Spirit of God. The move of God's Spirit. Until the Spirit of God moves, nothing can be authored in our heart. This is what I mean. For you to come to salvation, let me take it very let me make it simpler now. At one point, you gave your life to Christ, isn't it? What did you call that? When a man gives his or her life to Christ, what do we call that? Salvation. Good. Now, when you gave your life to Christ, there was salvation. Now, that salvation, how did you how did it happen? How did it happen? Something was preached to you, isn't it? You believed what was preached to you. Where? In your heart. Then you confess what was preached to you. "Lord Jesus, into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus," you understand? Now, what are we saying? What are we saying? There was a move of the Spirit that authored something where? In your heart. That thing that was authored in your heart, you now speak it with your what? With your mouth. What now happened? You were now saved. Good. What I'm saying is this. That salvation that gave you salvation, I say you are saved, you became a child of God. Why because you heard something. What made that thing you heard to become what saved you was what? The Spirit, it said when the Spirit of God shall come, he will convince the world of what? Of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. So what convicted you of sin? The move of the So as you were hearing that word, there was a move of the Spirit. It was that move of the Spirit on that word that you heard that authored your faith. You now became a saved person. Are you getting something? Are you getting something? So you became a child of God. But having become a child of God, it's just the beginning of what? It's the beginning of what? Of the salvation journey. There are now so many other aspect of your life that that salvation must come to. So as you have been saved in terms of you are now a child of God, your finances must experience salvation. Your health life must experience salvation. Your academic life must experience salvation. For those of us that are workers, your career life must experience salvation. Now, it is their experiencing of salvation. As you begin experiencing salvation, what is happening to you? What is happening to you? It means God is the author and also what? And also what? God is the finisher. He authored it, he carries you through to finish it. Are you are you getting something? Now, what must come to you very strongly is this. That as you were hearing those words that were preached, look at 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. Let's see 1 Corinthians. I want to call our attention to something there. 1 Corinthians 2. Now, look at what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 4. It says, "And my speech and my preaching were not with what? They were not with what? Persuasive words." Are you seeing it? "Of what? Of human wisdom." Is that what's in your Bible? Okay. But what was it? "But in demonstration of what? Of the Spirit and of power." So what was Paul saying about the word that he was speaking? What were those word? What were they demonstrating? Are you seeing it now? Even though he was preaching, what actually brought faith was what? The power of the Holy Spirit. That is why when we look at 1 Corinthians 3, look at 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. That is just the next chapter. 1 Corinthians 3. Look at what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3. from verse 4, "For when one says, 'I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not carnal? Who then is Paul? Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? But what?" What are they? What did he call themselves? God's servant, abbi? God minister, through what? Through whom what happened to you? You believed as the Lord gave to each one. So who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Through whom people believe, abbi? Are you getting something? But look at what he look at what he's going to say. I planted. What now happened? Apollos watered. But what happened? [Speaker 3] I planted the seed in your heart and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. [Speaker 2] Are you seeing it? "But who made it grow? The Lord." It said, "But it was God," not who? Not us, who made it grow. So if Paul plant, preach, preach, preach, preach, Apollos water, water, water, water, water, water, what will happen without God? Are you getting what I'm trying to see? So as a Christian, if you will not die ordinary, look as I'm preaching now, just like the way I'm preaching now and you are hearing me, is it me that can make it to grow? Is it me who can make it to grow? No. Who can make it to grow? So how will God make it to grow? The Spirit of the Lord will be doing what? Will be hovering over your life, hovering. So at creation, you notice that the Spirit of God was hovering, was hovering, was hovering, was hovering. Then God now say, "Let there be light!" What happened? There was light. But the Spirit of God was hovering, was hovering over it, was hovering. And what I'm trying to make you see, brethren, is that you must learn how to cry to God for the Spirit of God to hover over your life. If the Spirit of God don't hover over your life, no matter the preaching you are hearing, you will remain an ordinary person. You will ever be learning, but will never come to the knowledge of the truth. Another time again, Sunday, you will go, carry your Bible, ah, you will join the choir, you'll be in Bible study, you'll do this and then you'll hear all the preaching, everything. And at the end of the day, what happened? You come back home, you say "I'm a Christian." You are a dead Christian. No matter how much Paul is planting, no matter how much Apollos is watering, it is only one person that makes it grow. That one person is God. And so believers must learn how to cry to God. This matter is just a final word, I'm just taking a final word on biblical concept of faith. This biblical concept of faith. You see, God is the author of our faith. That faith, God is the author. The person who authored that faith in you is that the Spirit did what? Moved within you. So he authored it. He moved. So we must learn to cry to God. We must learn to to cry to God and say, "God, that your Spirit will hover over my life." That is why at the beginning of creation, you saw what the Bible says happened in that place. The Bible says the earth was empty, the earth was formless, the earth was in darkness. Then to change it out of that voidness, out of that emptiness, out of that darkness, the Spirit of God was first moving over it. The Spirit of God was hovering over it. The Spirit of God was hovering over it. That is how God will take your life, your soul, you know we're in darkness. We were called into the marvelous light. That is how we were brought into light. But that is just the authoring of faith. That thing must be perfected, it's the perfection of your faith. That faith that was authored, then they will now come again over over your life, and physically over over your life, as he over over your life. Then what happens again? God speaks. What happens? Your physical life come out of formlessness, come out of shapelessness, come into something. That's how it comes again into your relational life, relationship. It begins to over, it begins to over, there is a speaking. And what happens? That again comes out of darkness, every formlessness. So many Christian marriages today are formless. So many Christian life today are formless. People so many people in different area of their life, they are in darkness, they are empty, they are void. It is still it said, "The earth was void, it was void, it was formless, it was in darkness." So many believers today are still in that situation. They don't understand that just the way salvation came and took them out of darkness, it is the same way there must be hovering of the Spirit in over other every areas of your life. So you have people who call themselves Christian, but their marriages are in darkness. You have those who call themselves Christian, their academic is in darkness. It is formless, it is shapeless. You have people who emotional life, some Christians they call themselves Christian, they are not morally serious. You find them a little fornication here, a little immorality there. That aspect of their life, some are struggling with evil thoughts. They cannot clear their thought. Their thought is still formless, it is empty, it is shapeless and they are wondering. And so you find it in different way like that. Some in terms of their morality. Morality is not Christianity. You can be morally sound and yet not be saved. You get the point I'm making. There are people who are morally sound but they are not saved. I know that because that was what my father was. My father was morally sound. I mean morally sound. As an unbeliever my father don't tell a lie and he does not womanize, he does not drink. My father my father lived with integrity. My father did not get saved until about 85, when he eventually understood salvation. He took us from idol worship into the church. He was a very strong if you leave my dad, you can come to the Bible, you remember Cornelius. You remember Cornelius in the Bible, Acts Chapter 10. The Bible says there was a man, his name was Cornelius, isn't it? It said that man, he was devoted to what? To prayer and to almsgiving. That man's almsgiving became what? A memorial before God. His arms and his prayer became a memorial before God. Yet he was not saved. God have to send Peter. God sent an angel for him to go and call Peter. It was when Peter came that Peter now preached Jesus. He now said the angel said you should come and call you. So tell us. Peter now said how the Lord Jesus went about doing good and all that were oppressed of the devil. While Peter was there preaching, the Spirit of God fell on them. They began to speak in tongues. Peter now said, "Who will forbid us from preaching to these people?" So a man can be morally sound and don't have salvation. But a salvation that not produce moral soundness is not salvation. It still means your moral life is in darkness. Something has not been formed. Something has not been formed. The Bible says God created heaven and earth. The earth that was created was empty. It was a dry land. It was without form. The Spirit of God was hovering over it. Then God began God began to bring form. "Let grass appear. Let animals appear." You see, God bringing form. He was bringing shape. God now made rain to come upon the earth. God brought man on the earth. Are you seeing it? God bringing shape. But before those things happen, I'm just showing you a very fundamental thing. If you don't have if all that is happening to your life, listen to me. If whenever you are reading your Bible and it is look at what I wrote. Let me read what I wrote again. I want to complete that reading. I said, our lives our lives actually remain without form and void and in darkness except the Spirit of God moves over our deeps and the Lord speaks into it. The Spirit of God must move and then God will speak. I said this move of the Spirit, either during personal devotion, please get me very clear. This move of the Spirit. This move of the Spirit, either during personal devotion, your personal devotion. You are reading your Bible, personal devotion, personal prayer, or preaching of the scripture. As I'm preaching to you now and you are hearing me. Preaching of the scripture. Either in personal devotion or preaching of the scripture is the effectual call within that authors faith. If that effectual one don't happen, that move of the Spirit, that thing don't happen inside you, Christ can never be formed in you. It will remain a head knowledge. You know in the head you are becoming a Christian, it is good to be a Christian, it is good to be this. You know Jesus healed the sick. They have never experienced it in their life. It's just head knowledge. They don't have the experience. God answers prayer. God do they don't have the personal Look, there's something called in there's this internal thing that happens and it is the move of the Spirit. The move of the Spirit. Now, he said then that move of the Spirit speak within the heart and confession come through the mouth to establish salvation. This is the faith that makes just and by which the just lives. This is the faith that make just and by which the just live. So what is the faith that make just? Is that faith that comes by what? The move of the Spirit within. The Spirit moves within us. As he moves within us, that is the effectual call. That is the internal call. The external one is not the effectual call. We have preached, that's why I said Paul plant, Apollos water. Paul was preaching, Paul was planting. That's the external call. But there must be an effectual one, an internal call to that external call. Before then, same thing when you are reading your Bible. As you are reading with your head, you are reading with your understanding. That reading which is the external must encounter an effectual one from within. That effectual one from within is the one that establishes something. That is why the knowledge of the Bible is not the knowledge of God. You may have good knowledge of the Bible but you may not know God. Without the internal call. That's why you find people who can preach everything about the Bible, but they don't live the life of God. They don't even know salvation. Look at people who read religious studies. They can tell you the whole Bible, the Bible history, everything, everything, but they don't they don't know salvation. They are not saved. Why? Why? Because there is no internal call. So a final word that I'm bringing like I said we look at 36 episode of biblical concept of faith. Biblical faith. And in this final word, it just occurred to me to call the attention of all of us to the need for everybody to earnestly desire the move of the Spirit of God in their life. You must earnestly desire it. You must seek it. You must cry to God. "God, I don't want to remain void and empty." Those areas of your life where you are void is because the Spirit has not moved. That's why you are void, you are empty, and you are in darkness. If you want to come out of that shapelessness, formlessness, darkness that you are experiencing in your life, you must cry to God for the Spirit of God to move in your life. No matter how much I preach is an external call. There is an internal one that changes you. Without that internal one, you can never change. You will keep hearing me but you will never change. You will become more informed, but you will not be transformed. So you must tell the Lord, you must cry to God. And that is why we are closing the meeting today. That you will leave this place to go to God to cry to God that God Almighty, beyond the external call, grant me the effectual call in every matters of my life. Grant me the effectual call. Please start begin to talk to the Lord. Talk to the Lord, that's where we are closing today. Talk to the Lord that God God, beyond the external call, this external call, Lord grant me the internal one. Grant me the internal call, the effectual call, the one that brings change, the one that brings transformation. I don't want to remain just the way I am. I don't I don't just want to be more informed and informed about truth. I want to be transformed. Paul plant, Apollos water. It is God that gives increase. Cry to the Lord. He's the one who authors faith. The faith by which the just lives. It is authored by God. Ask the Lord to author it in you. Lord you are the author. You are the author. You are the author. Lord author it in me. Let there be an let there be an author it, author it in my life. Author it Lord. Author it. Author it Jehovah. Thank you Eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever more. Amen. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [Speaker 4] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission hints. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday 5:00 PM at adolescent of singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, family life seminars, regular school outreaches and every day counseling. For further counseling you can reach us on our location Light Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Rejoice filling station along Ijera Road, Akure, Ondo state Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles Family Tent at Yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.