FAITH is the CONVICTION of the THINGS of GOD concerning CHRIST!

We are in Cuenca, Ecuador.  Each day we are learning a little more of Spanish.  Immersion is a good teacher - like throwing a baby in a pool and causing them to swim (well at least we've heard of people doing that!)

In the midst of living in this world, don't you think it is rather amazing that the Spirit of God can get through to our "spirit ears" and teach us the remarkable things concerning Christ? 

Every day God's Spirit either reviews, clarifies, deepens, enriches, reveals, declares - you name it.  He has come to teach us all things, take the things of Christ and show them to us, and work the work of faith.

Yesterday I was reading Hebrews 11 (Galatians and some other Scriptures). 

Verse 1:  "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not (yet) seen." 

We have used the word conviction in the negative sense for so long that the dictionary meaning probably pops to our mind when we hear it.  Webster's definition is:  to prove or declare guilty of an offense, to impress with a sense of guilt.

Can you imagine a prisoner coming out of prison, who has paid the sentence for their crime still having a conviction of guilt within them for the rest of their lives?  And those on the outside will remind them of their crime too.  So while they may be outwardly free, they walk around with the inward guilt and never live free.

Isn't that what we do as "believers?"  I put the word in quotes because to believe is to REALLY BELIEVE!  Believe what?

The Holy Spirit is bringing about a true heart conviction not for a sense of guilt - Jesus' blood removed it! - but a heart filled with awe over the magnitude of what Christ has done in the cross and resurrection.

WE ARE NOT GUILTY before GOD!  (Romans 4)

This is inconceivable to the human mind but available to the spiritual mind!  Romans 4 ,5, 6, 7 & 8 points us in the right direction.  To POSSESS in faith this powerful, marvelous work of God is to produce a deep, heart CONVICTION OF TRUTH THAT SETS US FREE!

Remember what Jesus said before the cross?  "When He comes (the Holy Spirit) He will convict the world of sin, because they BELIEVE NOT ON ME!"

The whole point of salvation is to NOT BE GUILTY (we'd spend eternity trying to figure all our sins out if it were about this!)  The cross is about something than just sins.  It is about the WHOLE PERSON being WRONG, GUILTY, DEAD in our sins!

Jesus Christ was crucified so that what we WERE in Adam is now considered dead, buried and put away in the sight of God.   The consummation of it will come when we received our resurrected bodies for this mortal flesh!  Yet in the meantime, we are still new creatures of God in spirit. 

For those who have trusted in Christ we are EXACTLY what God says we are:  NEW CREATURES in Christ - the NEW MAN in Him.  II Corinthians 5:17

Our conviction then is a work of God, a work of faith to BELIEVE the very works of God as accomplished through His Son.  This is what brings TRUE transformation.  Brings TRUE joy.  Brings the REAL FRUIT!

Through God's work of faith in us (in His Son and what He did), we do not have to walk around ANYMORE with an inner conscience of guilt but as the FREE.

"For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the FLESH (outward deeds!), HOW MUCH more will the blood of CHRIST, who through the ETERNAL SPIRIT offered HIMSELF without blemish, CLEANSE YOUR CONSCIENCE...(the innerward parts!) from DEAD WORKS (doing it another way other than God's provision) to SERVE the LIVING GOD?"  Hebrews 9:13, 14

Let us stir one another yes to love and good deeds as Hebrews states, but let us also stir one another to believe God's Word with its purity - so that we might all explode with joy of the Christ who dwells within and His GREAT SALVATION!

"Thank you, Father YOU have removed our guilt through the blood of Christ - we are now in the Spirit of Him who dwells inside - we are in Christ, the HEAD of the body - the church - the New Man - taken from death into LIFE - we are not part of a religion, Father but members of Your SON, Jesus Christ - You are the LIVING God and we are living children.  Thank you that Christ is the author and finisher of our FAITH - you are working in us to "see" Him and Him alone!  Change our thinking, Lord - let us know in full reality - the mind of Christ!  AMEN!"

Yippee,
Sue Gaither