If you don’t understand how your vehicle works, why do you still drive it?
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Is there “substance,” that which is substantial in our faith in God?
The Greek word from which “substance” is derived is hupostasis.
Definition:
hoop-os’-tas-is
From a compound of G5259 and G2476; a setting under (support), that is, (figuratively) concretely essence, or abstractly assurance (objectively or subjectively): – confidence, confident, person, substance.
In the times, the seasons of testings, of attack, we are undergirded, supported by the substantial presence, the supporting “substance” of this faith God has given us (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Sister Karen Cochran shared this on this topic of faith:
“See John 20: 24-29 . The other disciples were telling Thomas they had seen the Lord but Thomas doubted and needed proof. He wanted to see Jesus’ hands, the print of the nails, and put his finger into the print of the nails and touch the Savior’s side or he would not believe it was Jesus. Jesus showed him his nail scared hands and allowed Thomas to reach his finger into His hand and to touch His side. Thomas then believed and his faith was strengthened. He shouted ‘my Lord, my God.’ Jesus saith unto him, ‘Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believed.’ 2 Corinthians 5:7 says: ‘We walk by faith and not by sight.'”
Fret Not
Ever see where the wicked plot against the just as they carefully craft questions in order to make their opponent, the righteous, to stumble? Then the wicked rejoice when the righteous can’t answer the question?
They are basically saying to the people of God – “If you can’t understand it, your faith is built on a lie and is futile.”
Is that true? No.
Once again … If you don’t understand how your vehicle works, why do you still drive it?
To say one must understand something completely to be able to enjoy, to experience it, would mean we’d have to cut out far more than half the things we use in our lives…. toaster, refrigerator, washer and dryer, all vehicles, TV, cell phones, computers, etc. Yet this logic is used by detractors, the unrepentant who don’t yet wish to get honest and repent, in a vain attempt to disprove God. Well following this to its logical conclusion means we would have to believe that toasters and washing machines and automobiles, etc., do not exist, all because we don’t understand them.
We all have faith that when we insert and turn the key in our vehicle, it’s going to start and it’s going to carry us to the location we desire, right? Right. And for the born again believer, he knows intrinsically, he is possessed with the substance of the faith of God, knowing that as he serves God by the “substance,” the substantial reality of the faith in his heart, that faith, that relationship is going to carry him into eternity with Christ and the Father.
“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Romans 12:3
Answering questions with questions is something Christ did.
A good question for this type detractor would be something like: “So, basically, if you will follow your own logic to its conclusion, you will no longer drive your vehicle, right? After all, you do not understand the way your vehicles operates, so why do you still drive it? You drive it because it works right? Yes. You are claiming that people shouldn’t believe in God due to not fully understanding everything about Him. Yet you don’t understand all about your vehicle, and you still drive it, right?”
You don’t have to understand something, the how, to know that something works!
The fact is, we are those who are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). We do not understand a mere fraction of what is going on in our own masterfully made bodies, much less the world and universe. Right? Right. Should that stop us from functioning in this world? No. Who ever came up with this idea that you have to understand something fully to enjoy or experience it? Such is a misnomer. If that were the case, that would mean we would do very little.
What we DO know, as Jesus’ regenerated saints, is that we are His and that walking with Him brings blessings untold (Psalms 68:19; 103:2; Matthew 6:33, etc.). We understand that God blesses all who put Him first. Jesus specifically promised He would.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33
God’s blessings, His “benefits” are given exclusively to those who are His and they are vast, they are many.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:” Psalms 103:2
God loads His children with His “benefits.”
“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.” Psalms 68:19
You may wish to include in your witnessing arsenal this illustration of a car, key, and how it all operates and how we don’t understand the whole process and yet we still drive our vehicles because it works to transport us. In the same way, though we “see through a glass, darkly” in this life, that is, we do not yet see the full reality for what it is, nevertheless we have “the evidence of things not seen” with the human eye and will one day see all “when that which is perfect is come” (Hebrews 11:1; 2 Corinthians 13:10, 12).
Also, how about the wind. Can we see the wind? No. Do we know, are we certain it exists? Yes.
When you, as a child of God, are being assailed by questions about the universe, the natural things of creation, if you’re like most of us, you are not always going to have the scientific answer. Yet, you have the “substance” that is your faith – “the faith of the Son of God” – that is in you (Galatians 2:20). And this “faith” that possessed you is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
A review of our main verse:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
This “substance” of faith cannot be understood by those who do not have it, those who seek to trip you up, those who have not experienced it. Yet every true born again saint knows that he knows, in his innermost man, that God is real, that he is God’s child, that he is saved, and that nothing could be more dear nor more important.
Instead of just letting people fire questions at you, fire the Word of God at them by preaching it.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 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
When God’s Word falls upon a receptive, and obedient ear, heart, that person can repent and believe upon Christ unto salvation. The Word of God we plant in the hearts of others is that seed of faith by which we are born again (Romans 1:16; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23).
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17
We are passing through this earth and until we are with Christ and the Father, we look for and see the things in His Word. We cannot see these things with our natural eyes, in the natural, and yet we behold them by faith via the Word. Example: The mansions Jesus is preparing for us (John 14:1-6), and our coming abode, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21).
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18
“Death is not to be feared, it ushers us into eternity with God. Life with God eternally is what everyone of us should long for. In everything you do, have eternity in mind. If there is anything in your life that is drawing you away from God, you should realize that it is not worth it.” Unknown
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
Your prayer should be as was the prayer of Christ’s original apostles …
“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” Luke 17:5-6
YOUR PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of my LORD Jesus. Please purify this heart by faith and increase my faith and trust in You dear LORD. With Your psalmist I ask “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Abiding
“Buried with Him by Baptism into Death” [podcast]

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
Every person “hid with Christ in God” is saved and under divine grace, saved by Christ.
Everyone not “hid with Christ in God” is going away in judgment (Colossians 3:3; Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:19-21, 24). When we are “hid with Christ in God,” we are safe, secure, and under the blessings of His divine grace instead of His condemnation.
“Of the doctrine of baptisms” Hebrews 6:2
Baptized into Jesus Christ and Baptized into His Death
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” Romans 6:3
Jesus defeated death, hell, sin, and Satan by dying (Hebrews 2:14)…. whereby He was then resurrected and redemption was completed. Redemption culminated, was finalized in the resurrection of Christ.
In the same way, God calls us to die downward with Christ so that He can raise us upward into His victory…. letting go and letting God, not a striving or struggle but rather a surrender, we are to let Christ consume us, as we surrender (John 3:30).
“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46
Are we willing to declare today with our LORD Jesus that we are submitting our spirit into His holy hands?
“Death is swallowed up in victory” – death results in God raising us upward, into His full victory, ultimately into final, eternal victory, glory with the Father, Son, and the saints of the ages.
We can be sure, completely confident that as we die downward and are buried with Christ, God is going to raise us up into His victory. God’s answer to death and burial is resurrection.
The resurrection is the victory and in order to experience His resurrection life, we must be dead and buried and ultimately raised up into eternal glory with Him.
“Thou fool, that which thou sowest (plant downward) is not quickened (made alive), except it die:” 1 Corinthians 15:36
“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54
Romans 6
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”
v3 – “baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death”
v4 – “buried with him by baptism into death”
v5 – “his death … his resurrection”
Notice that death and buried, being immersed into the death and burial of Christ must of necessity precede, must come before the resurrection we experience with Christ through the daily cross life.
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4
When He saves us we are baptized with Him “into his death” …. “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).
“When a person is saved, he is baptized into Christ Jesus in the sense that he is identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. This is not the same as the baptism in (or of) the Spirit, though both occur simultaneously. The latter baptism places the believer in the body of Christ (1Co_12:13); it is not a baptism into death. The baptism into Christ means that in the reckoning of God, the believer has died with Christ and has risen with Him.
When Paul speaks of baptism here, he is thinking both of our spiritual identification with Christ and of its portrayal in water baptism. But as the argument advances, he seems to shift his emphasis in a special way to water baptism as he reminds his readers how they were ‘buried’ and planted together in the ‘likeness’ of Christ’s death.
The NT never contemplates the abnormal situation of an unbaptized believer. It assumes that those who are converted submit to baptism right away. Thus our Lord could speak of faith and baptism in the same breath: ‘he who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mrk_16:16). Though baptism is not a requirement for salvation, it should be the invariable public sign of it.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
Baptized into the Body of Christ
“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13
“1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized, etc. – As the body of man, though composed of many members, is informed and influenced by one soul; so the Church of Christ, which is his body, though composed of many members, is informed and influenced by one Spirit, the Holy Ghost; actuating and working by his spiritual body, as the human soul does in the body of man.
To drink into one Spirit – We are to understand being made partakers of the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost agreeably to the words of our Lord, Jhn_7:37, etc.: If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: this he spake of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive.
On this verse there is a great profusion of various readings, which may be found in Griesbach, but cannot be conveniently noticed here.” Adam Clarke
“Baptism is more than just getting wet. When we go down into the water it signifies we are now dead and buried and our ‘life is hid with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3). Coming up out of the water is our resurrection life! We are then raised up into newness of life! Our old man is crucified and we no longer serve sin but we have a new Master. Jesus Christ is the new Master of our lives! We now serve God and not sin. And should be bearing fruit of rightness and holiness (Romans 6). When we embrace the crucified life we are given overflowing rivers of new life. New life is breathed into us. Walking in the flesh only makes our soul sick with sin, as sin kills and destroys (Romans 6:23). Rotting us from the inside out! But the way of the cross brings life to our flesh (Proverbs 3:8, 4:22). Our flesh meaning our whole spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We cannot be a whole person until we are completely given over to the Lord. And this can only happen through the cross. When we are dead and buried and raised up in the newness of life Jesus offers us. Then the joy of the Lord will fill our hearts!” Karen Cochran
What some don’t realize is that just because they were saved in the past in no way means they are still in Christ, which is why we read verses like this throughout Scripture:
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5
We must judge ourselves against God’s Word.
“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32
Prayer: Father please penetrate my heart with Your holy conviction, granting true repentance and obedience. LORD, I want to be dead and buried with You. I am crucified with Christ and I know You are raising me up and will ultimately raise me up with You into eternal glory… I am now planted together in the likeness of His death and burial and I know You are raising me up into the victory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Articles
Is Romans 7 Before or After Paul’s Salvation?

“The truth is that while Christ dwells in the believer’s new nature, He has strong competition from the believer’s old nature. The warfare between the old and the new goes on continually in most believers.” AW Tozer
The law of God is “holy, and just, and good.” (Romans 7:12)
The holy law of God and the depraved nature of fallen mankind could not be further apart – the righteousness of God inherent in His law vs the “old man,” the iniquitous fallen nature of mankind (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9).
Nothing but a caustic reaction, explosion could be the result of the 2 colliding (Romans 7). One or the other must reign.
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:17
In what tense did the great apostle speak in when addressing this “old man” that wars against the Spirit in us?
“O WRETCHed man that I am! (presently) who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24
Paul’s flesh was and our flesh is a constant reminder of the ever momentary need for the cross, burial, and resurrection grace of Jesus (Romans 6:3-10; 8:11; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20, etc.). Read Romans chapters 6-7 each morning this week.
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Romans 7:18
No, the apostle wasn’t admitting to living in sin but rather that that “old man” – the flesh – was present and must be crucified with Christ daily. Is that not exactly what Jesus taught?
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his CROSS DAILY, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24
I believe Romans 7 applies to both before and after one is saved …. Because if the saved person departs from the daily cross walk, that same “old man” will take center stage. “O wretch man that I AM (present)” (Romans 7:18) ….. we are born again children of God, saints of the Most High and yet that potential to evil, that “old man” must be crucified and “put off” by the daily cross so the “new man” can reign with Christ in this life and eternity. What Paul calls the “old man” must be “put off” and so we can conclude that there IS an “old man” to be “put off” otherwise no such instruction would have been given. We are not to deny the “old man” – the sinful bent – but rather to crucify it (Romans 6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9).
Charles Pray writes: “So many want to hide their sins, especially those who like to appear Holy on the outside while inside they are dark, unholy ministers of the flesh. They have become a product of their own desires. Dear Lord, please bring them back to their first Love–Jesus! Amen.”
Saints, we cannot possibly begin to appreciate this “so great salvation” that is Christ until we understand how lost, helpless, and alienated we were in our sin (Ephesians 2:1-10; Hebrews 2:3). We must study to understand the biblical doctrine of inherent sin, fallen mankind, and the holiness of God …. in order to begin to be able to appreciate the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.
What to “Put Off” and What to “Put On”
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation THE OLD MAN, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on THE NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24
“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off THE OLD MAN with his deeds; 10 And have put on THE NEW MAN, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” Colossians 3:9-10
“When we embrace the crucified life we are given overflowing rivers of new life! New life is breathed into us. Walking in the flesh only makes our soul sick with sin! And sin kills and destroys! (Romans 6:23). Rotting us from the inside out! But the way of the cross brings life to our flesh! (Proverbs 3:8, 4:22). Our flesh meaning our whole spirit, soul and body. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. We cannot be a whole person until we are completely given over to the Lord! And this can only happen through the cross. When we are dead and buried and raised up in the newness of life Jesus offers us, then the joy of the Lord will fill our hearts!” Karen Cochran
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Articles
What Does it Mean to Follow Christ? [podcast]

“Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude 3
THE LORD is calling for an immediate release of the WHOLE counsel of HIS WORD!
DO you have a 20/20 vision? Read Acts 20:20 and get it!
Just like fake news TV, wolves only give you a small part of the whole story – in order to manipulate you! Half truths kill!
YOU know when you are right with God when you are running TO the cross message and not AWAY from it! “Enemies of the cross” of Christ “mind earthly things” and not the things the LORD commanded (Philippians 3:18-19).
The cross is a dethroning, unseating of self and the enthroning of Christ!
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