Paul emphasizes the importance of walking in the Spirit and being guided by Him in Romans 8:14-15: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are born of God; for you have not received a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, which we cry, Abba Father! However, those who are living the life of the flesh cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him” (vs 8). They live a life empty of faith, outside God’s perimeter of love and His commands. They are rebelling against the Spirit of God, suppressing His rights to be what He is to be in our life, that is if we are born-again. The Holy Spirit is our (Comforter, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby). He is the Spirit of Truth; He guides us in all truth (John 15:26; 16:13). A life of faith is a life that is led by the Holy Spirit; it walks hand-in-hand with Him, following his instructions with faith that pleases the heavenly Father to be free from fear, worries, and anxieties. John says, “There is no fear in love, but full-grown love turns fear out of the doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love” (I John 4:18). Fear is the opposite of faith. If we are not controlled by faith, fear will take over our emotions and lead us to physical and mental problems.
We must guard our soul with faith that will endure the tests of time; With faith comes joy, peace that passes all understanding. The Bible says, “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God; and God’s peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Messiah YAHSHUA” (Phil. 4:6-7). Let’s hold on to faith and we will see mountains being transported. Faith is the sure anchor of the soul; it gets stronger when the soul follows the instructions from the Spirit- the source of all our strength and victory. Faith provides for us a level path when we are going through the trials of life. Accompanied by peace, faith comforts and shows the way to our victory; it is through perseverance and our submission to the Word of God, even in the darkest valley of life. Even there, we can experience God’s peace through faith. By faith, its martyrs suffered death, rejection, mocking and scourging and even chains and imprisonment… they were utterly destituted, without giving up their faith. These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God’s] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth… But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly one. For that reason, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. (Heb.11:13,16).
How about you, my friend? Is your faith strong enough to aspire heaven more than your life in this earth? “YAHSHUA, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2b). Faith – let’s thrive to live by it, as the Lord desires us to.
Light from the Word 