Report Card: Self-grading Faith NOW

We all grow up and become well versed in tracking various aspects of our growth processes. We receive and respond to school report cards, health report cards, and job performance reviews. We dutifully track our work level productivity and profitability, as well as our earned income per week, month and year. We even track and double/triple check every possible (hopefully legal) income tax deduction to make sure we are only paying the absolute minimum amount in taxes. Thus, we ‘live’ by these tracking processes. They comprise critical threads in the fabric of our lives.

But what do we track as carefully and methodically in our spiritual lives, which are far more critical and eternally valuable than anything we experience in this physical life? Where do we find our ‘spiritual report cards and grades, periodic productivity reports, performance reviews, and benefits statements?!’

The Bible meticulously reveals and unfolds God’s will for believers in Christ to live the abundant life. Moreover, we, ourselves, are allowed to define the parameters of such a life. Jesus teaches, as does the entire New Testament, that our ability to walk in this abundant life is directly and intimately tied to the level/quality of our applied faith, including our ability to trust patiently and unfailingly that God’s will is unfolding in our lives.

Nevertheless, many of us elect to diminish this message in favor of a misplaced, misunderstood ‘arming ourselves to suffer for Christ as He suffered for us’. Jesus did indeed suffer, and we are to arm ourselves to suffer, but NOT for what He suffered. Only He could suffer as The Christ. Our suffering has more to do with the common struggles of living a holy (i.e., separated) way of life from the way people of the world typically live their lives. It’s a struggle to swim up stream when the whole world is seemingly headed the opposite direction! I doubt we are called to suffer the lack what Jesus died and was raised again to pay for us to have, namely life abundant, full of joy and victory. The typical mantle we don in the name of ‘suffering for Christ’ is likely a cleaver deception of our common enemy, to steal, kill and destroy our two-stage inheritance in Christ, rendering His death and resurrection of no effect in our Earthly lives.

Just as in any other developmental aspect of life, our Christian walk is supposed to pass through progressive phases, all the way from being a baby Christian, to being increasingly matured in our faith. Any baby whimpers, cries at the least discomfort, and loving parents try their best to respond immediately. Same with baby Christians. The problem is we all like and expect, as adults, the same loving attention received as a baby, but don’t receive. God has His maturation process for us all, and His ways are not our ways. To develop patience, we walk through trials, etc. During early maturation stages, we suffer because we want the attention received as a baby, but don’t get. If God were to give it, we would not mature. The level of our suffering is, therefore, directly keyed to our willingness to accept and walk through His maturation process, which includes His tests. Toward the end, we endure sufferings differently, and squirm less and less …until we arrive at the point of transforming suffering into pure JOY! (James 1:2) Jesus transformed suffering into joy. Remember Hebrews 12:2?

As we grow in Christ, it is critical to understand God’s maturation process and to develop our faith along the lines of how Jesus operated, just as He commanded. 

Faith speaks.

Just as God reveals and exercises His faith by speaking words, Jesus similarly spoke to reveal, release His faith in what He perceived The Father was doing (John 5:19), and He required the same from His disciples …and now from you and me. The great capstone of His expectations and requirements is for us to ‘speak to mountains’ -- revealing, releasing and requiring our mountain-moving faith in what we perceive God is doing (i.e., His inner voice), to work on our behalf. This is how we access the ‘all things’ The Word declares have been purchased for and made available to us through Christ, as noted in 2 Peter 1:2 -4 and elsewhere. As we do this, God performs His good works in and through us. This is ‘in yo face-faith!’  On the surface, it looks and sounds like incredible arrogance! Often misunderstood, it is too easily shunned by many of us who seek simply to blend into the ‘garden variety, don’t do anything to stand out’ Christian. Consider for a moment the great cost of this approach. wOw!

Mountain-speaking faith isn’t something we tend to do or exhibit early in our spiritual maturation process, now is it?? Nope. Neither do I believe Jesus expected His disciples to do this very early in their 3-year walk with Him. Similarly, I think The Book of Jude, especially verse 20, may be well placed at the end of the New Testament for similar reasons. Praying in the Spirit, and thereby ‘building up our most holy (i.e., separated, standing-out or out-standing) faith’ just isn’t something we tend to do very early in our maturation process, now is it?? Nope. Praying earnestly in this manner is 100% faith, because the understanding mind is not involved. Again, the objective of building up our faith is to more clearly and accurately perceive God’s inner Voice saying, ‘This is the way. Walk in it.’ (John 5:19)

Paul speaks of the Christian’s spiritual diet transforming from ‘milk of The Word’ to strong meat. If feeding on/hearing The Word produces faith, surely these two diet extremes would produce different kinds/strengths of faith, no? Get this:

Faith is NOT a monolith.

in this regard. we simply don’t ‘have faith’. There is faith for salvation, for health and provisions, faith to intercede, faith for A, B, C, X, Y, Z, and beyond. It may take stronger faith to reach for and expect to receive Z, rather than A. Just as muscles of our bodies have different strengths and purposes, and must be developed, used, rehabilitated, etc., think of faith as the overall strength of your spiritual body, but with clearly identifiable elements, with designated purposes. You go to a gym to develop specific muscle groups. Consider, identify and develop the various groups of your spiritual muscles.

We are all well experienced in being graded by a teacher after completing a class or course, and Jesus will eventually ‘grade’ both our faith and the works we were able to accomplish by faith. But we don’t have to wait for this final grading in order to know how well we are progressing. We can grade ourselves, with insight from The Holy Spirit within us. Consider the great benefits of not waiting for your final spiritual report card!

My wish for you:

Matthew 9:29 and John 5:19