Faith, Which Letter Significant? (Poem)

See the Faith and Pride series here

‘…when the Son of Man comes,

will He really find [persistent] faith on the Earth?’

(Luke 18:8)

Since The Lord departed Earth, faith has been on His Mind,

Perhaps since during His time here, He witnessed so little.

Yet He declared, ‘Against My church, hell’s gates will not prevail.’ ¹

To you, does it seem to strong faith, we are not inclined??

For example, what is your ‘persistent, strong faith’ level?

Have you noticed, devils upped their game, our faith to assail?

In these post-pandemic years, Christian faith is on the wane,

Just as Paul twice predicted toward the end of this age. ²

His predictions, and this reality, give us a choice:

To join many on the lukewarm and apostasy train,

Or enhance our faith before The Lord turns His ages page’. ³

On this choice, devils would love for more of us …to be poised.

While pondering this issue, I asked several friends,

‘To you, what’s the most significant letter in ‘faith’, and why?’

Spiritually, I believe words ‘mean much more’ than they mean.

Jesus said His words are spirit, and life. That’s a blend! ⁴

Words we speak are also spirit, but mostly …death on the fly!

So from the word, faith, I was curious what some friends might glean. ⁵

Two chose F as their key letter, showing trust in Father God,

Whose Son’s family and fellowship are their life’s cornerstone.

Two chose T, representing knowing Truth, a faith by-product,

And the cross on which Christ was nailed, [with Father’s strategic nod].

Faith in His sacrifice is a prerequisite and keystone.

Two friend chose A for asking, then boldly acting, all doubts bucked!

Another friend chose H for hope, which Godly faith generates.

Two chose I, the balancing middle letter, the fulcrum,

One for her personal responsibility to ask,

The other for it’s and is, noting what those words indicate:

Folks who think it’s their faith, forget where Godly faith comes from.

Others think faith creates, but it only ‘sees’ what is [masked].

Voila! This last friend’s perspective mirrors mine, exactly!!!

Here’s the lesson The Lord has anchored in my soul deeply.

I chose the letter I, signifying imagination.

Our spirit and soul twins, our immortal duality,

Are uniquely equipped to ‘see’ beyond reality.

And that which we choose to ‘see’, attracts The Lord’s keen attention!

The Bible cites the word, imagination, 25 times,

Spread across 3 ages of human history.

In not one of them is this word used in a positive light! ⁶

The word, faith, is only cited twice in the 2^nd age times--

Once each in Habakkuk and Deuteronomy.

‘…The just shall live by his faith’, The Lord told Habakkuk, to write. ⁷

With His sacrifice pending, Jesus altered that focus,

When He told His fig tree awed disciples, ‘Have the faith of God.’

I prayed about and pondered this distinction, then concluded,

Before we could have God’s faith, Christ’s sacrifice was a must!

We 3^rd age believers are thus endowed with the faith of God!

Ergo, believers who rely on their faith, are deluded. ⁸

Since spiritually, words ‘mean much more’ than they mean,

To words with an odd number of letters, I am attracted,

Focusing on their middle letter, their balancing fulcrum.

When I perceive plausible intersections that seem,

To link with Bible themes that are strategic and protracted,

I slow down and tune my ear to hear what, from The Lord, may come.

At the fulcrum of faith, imagination intersected.

Uniquely equipped to ‘see’ beyond reality,

Imagination sketches what is not seen, but is.

Beliefs are birthed, and in them, the fuel of hopes is injected.

Hopes shape molds for the substance of faith to fill fully.

When we patiently do our parts, The Lord does …His biz.

F.A.I.T.H. Acronyms

Fully Assured, I Trust Him.

Fully Anticipating It To Happen.

Forsaking All, I’m Trusting Him.

Father And I Together, Harmony.

Father Always Inspires The Humble.

Faithfully Anchoring In (T)His Harbor.

Faith Allows Imaginations To Happen.

Forwarding All Issues to Him/Heaven.

Framing All Imaginations Through Him.

Father’s Amazing Imaginations Trigger Hopes.

Ponder this:

Faith uncloaks the substance of hope.

The quality of your life is the harvest of your imagination.

---------- 

¹ In Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus makes this affirmation, based, not on Peter, as some may think, but on the spiritual revelation that He is The Son of God, The Messiah. 

² See: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 and 1 Timothy 4:1.

³ The next historical age will be the tribulation age. See: Human History Ages (Series).

⁴ See: John 6:63.

⁵ Death on the fly signifies spiritual death. I posed my question to 38 friends. The Lord inspired 8 to reply. Thanks very much to you whom He inspired.

⁶ Check out what the KJV Bible says about typical human imaginations. In most other versions, the word, thoughts, is substituted for imaginations.

⁷ See: Habakkuk 2:4.

⁸ See: In vs. Of - A Prepositional Detour, Faith Hijackers (Poem), Faith and Pride (Series) and Faith Author, Finisher and You (Series).

Missed Insights from Matthew 27 (Part 2)

See the Missed Insights series here

For anyone who may be rather slow to believe the insights I received from The Lord in Part 1 of this series, He has stirred my spirit to pass these, His questions to you:

When I told Moses to tell Pharaoh, ‘Let My people go!’, 

did I include a numerical, percentage or adjectival qualifier?

How many (live) Jewish slaves did I leave in ancient Egypt?

Here’s what I intuit from that unexpected question. 

Through Moses, The Lord ‘led captivity captive’. Dogmatic minds that may be restricted to only believing what’s written in The Bible, might conclude ‘That’s not what Moses did, because, in The Bible, that particular expression is not clearly associated with the exodus, or in any other related books we know of.’ But effectively, historically and strategically, that is exactly what happened.

This exodus occurred long before The Lord inspired David, in Psalm 68:18, to prophesy about a very similar act He would perform in the future. David may not have had a clue about the exact nature and/or magnitude of what he wrote, although Psalm 16:10 reveals he personally believed The Lord would not leave his spirit/soul forever in sheol/hades/hell. With hindsight, thanks to Paul, we today understand The Spirit intended what David wrote, to apply to a uniquely different group of captives, namely the twin spirits and souls of all righteous people from the 1st and 2nd ages of history, who were temporarily resting in the upper region of hades. What David received, he wrote, with no qualifying adjectives, numbers or percentages. The word, captivity, in David’s prophecy, is an un-modified noun. When Paul, by The Spirit in Ephesians 4:8, affirmed Jesus fulfilled David’s ancient prophecy, he likewise, avoided any adjectival qualifiers. 

Therefore, we should be safe in concluding the following.

In both His direct instruction to Moses about the exodus, and His cloaked prophecy He inspired David to write about the resurrection and rapture of 1st and 2nd ages saints, The Lord apparently, and perhaps strategically determined to avoid ANY adjectival qualifiers that would, in some way, limit or restrict His meanings and intentions.  Moses understood, believed, then achieved The Lord’s objective. Similarly, Paul understood, believed, then by faith, emphatically associated David’s prophecy, to the strange, post-crucifixion events briefly described in Matthew 27:51-53.

So if they ‘got it’, I think The Lord intends us today to apply The Mind of Christ to ‘get it’, and to not be slow to perceive and believe His inferred intentions, simply because that Scripture passage has no qualifiers (e.g., that describe details of who, how many, what happened after folks were resurrected, etc.), or because there might not be other verifying Scripture passages or other external sources about those strange events. This is where faith should kick in!

For sure, what The Lord revealed to me is un-written ‘in’ that passage. I received and believe it because it comports with so many of His strategic patterns and tactics across the entire Bible. Allowing Scripture to interpret and elucidate Scripture, frees me to readily believe what I ‘see’, that is until He shows me more …down the road. This approach to faith-building fully accords with Isaiah 28:10 & 13, that summarize His very clear and historically-demonstrated tactic for releasing insights to us from His infinite supply of knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Check it out.

BIG Tip: Since Adam, The Lord has been releasing insights to humanity in a ‘drip-drip’ manner. He very likely conditions subsequent insights, to the levels of faith we demonstrate in His previously released insights. Moreover, He does not expect us to ‘get bent out of shape’ when His subsequent insights modify His earlier insights. Moreover, check out what He promised in Joel 2:28-29. Just as Paul echoed what The Lord inspired  David to write, Paul also echoed what The Lord inspired Joel to write. And guess what that should signal to us TODAY?? It signals The Lord, during these closing years of the 3rd age of history, will be releasing insights NOT WRITTEN in The Bible, but that corroborate and amplify what is written therein. Are you ready for that?! 

Consider it to be like teaching an infant how to walk. Such instructions given to an infant, will differ significantly from those given to a slouching pre-teen, an over-worked adult, and a declining senior! Compris? 

Faith and Pride, First Cousins (Poem)

See the Faith and Pride series here

Faith and its first cousin, pride,

In life are closely allied.

They appear to be indistinguishable,

Because to us, they're indeterminable. ¹

 

They both share the same taproot: 

Godly faith we 'gave the boot’.

With Godly faith corrupted,

From its root, pride erupted!

The Lord gave us a measure of faith to believe Him,

But satan’s crew convinced us, The Lord’s Glory to dim.

As leverage, they played upon our selfish nature.

Deceived, it’s since been our own glory that we nature.

The Lord is faithful to beat devils at their game!

Thus, He will not allow His faith to be defamed.

In His Word, He cites ‘faith’ much more than ‘pride’,

And affirms from it, His Glory won’t hide! ²

Pride glorifies self and stirs strife among faith’s enemies.

Thus, it’ll eventually attract The Lord’s enmity.

Godly faith glorifies Him, and will attract His Glory,

Which might only be perceived by people He calls, ‘holy’. 

So to the astute among us, do you ‘see’ what I ‘see’,

How between faith and pride, we can discern accurately??

With Godly patience, all we really need to do,

Is wait to perceive His …ensuing Glory hue. ³

Since from the same taproot, faith and pride sprout,

On the surface, they look alike, no doubt!

We can’t see people’s hearts, but this we certainly see,

Their words and actions …serving whom they serve, fruitfully. ⁴

Pride, the taproot of Godly faith to us, sin-defective,

Whether stealthy or boisterous, it’s highly deceptive.

Godly faith that remains pure, by Heaven is admired,

Will likely, by those who are un-Godly, be bemired. ⁵

So let’s stay attuned to The Lord’s accent on faith,

Leaving the results to Him, and give pride no place.

As we do, keep in mind what He says we CAN be proud about:

His Grace, judgment, and righteousness, Earth will never be without! ⁶

---------- 

¹ Godly faith is faith in The Holy Trinity and Their Word. Selfish pride is faith in self, apart from all things holy. The both stem from our heart’s deep-seated motivations, which onlookers cannot easily or always clearly discern.

² Ponder this: The words, faith and pride, are cited 695 versus 55 times, respectively, in The Bible. (NKJV). Moreover, there are countless examples in which Godly faith is actively demonstrated, and gloriously rewarded, though the word, faith, is not mentioned therein.

³ See: What’s Glory? (Series).

⁴ We cannot ignore or discount the clear links between Godly faith and fear. Essentially, they are the same spiritual force or energy. Fear is Godly faith, moving in reverse, operating contrary to The Lord’s intended design.

⁵ Ponder this: The Bible is literally chock full of historical accounts in which Godly faith was regarded as selfish pride by onlookers, especially by folks who were un-Godly, and even folks who were like babes, spiritually. As a man, Jesus attracted incredible scorn and derision from Jewish leaders who were well-schooled in Old Testament laws, to the point that they schemed to have Him crucified by Rome! How’s that for a gross failure to discern Godly faith?! So don’t worry about people today, believers or sinners alike, who may be motivated to deride your Godly faith. Just wait for The Lord’s GLORY to be revealed …in you and in what you do faithfully and in earnest for Him, and the Glory of His Kingdom.

⁶ Thus says The Lord: ‘Let not the wise person glory (be prideful) in his wisdom, let not the mighty person glory in his might, nor let the rich person glory in his riches; but let him/her who glories, glory in this, that he/she understands and knows Me, that I am The Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the Earth. For in these I delight’, says The Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NKJV) To whom has The Lord directed His ‘Let…’ commands?? I thought I knew, until this happened…Missed Insights from Jeremiah 9. 

 

That I do. Do you, too? This is my favorite Scripture. Gratefully, a gracious lady offered to design and gift to me, unique version of verse 24, in the form of a Morse code-beaded bracelet. I now wear it proudly as an abiding reminder of The Lord’s command, glorying in Him and His presence in my life. See: WearATouchofSpirit.com.