Of Faithfulness and Agreement

I had a revelation last night. You may already know this and I thought I did as well.

Faith without works is dead!

Yes, I know, astounding revelation.

But something hit me about our journey from church focused to Kingdom focused. In our joy of being released into freedom we have lost our faithfulness. Ouch! I can see my inbox filling with complaints already.

But as we have been set free of faithfulness to man (legalism) we have failed to move on to faithfulness to God. I have spent months being healed (and sometimes this is needed) and taken a back seat with some of my gifts and talents but now I'm not sure I was meant to stop being faithful with these during this freedom/kingdom transition.

Faithfulness is an “eternal” truth - it is both old and new testament. It is old covenant and new covenant. There is no way we can escape this truth. We are called to be faithful with what we have.

And works - dirty serving word or outworking of our faith? Legalised serving or the Kingdom advancing! Jesus was “moved by compassion”. We need to get the revelation that we should also be “moved” by compassion resulting in action.

I realised that this is true "agreement" with God. When two or more agree on anything......the scripture says......but I believe that also includes actions and not just words. Now I’m not saying prayer and declaration are not important - these truths have been some of the most powerful revelations in our journey. I am saying that “faith without works” is dead - and so our words and our actions need to agree. We demonstrate our Agreement with God through our actions and words.

In my freedom I agree with God that the lost need to be saved, I declare salvation with my words, I proclaim it over New Zealand and then I share the gospel whenever God opens the door. I’m sure we can all agree with this.

But I also believe in faithfulness at all levels.

We used to serve faithfully for man (legalism). We need to serve faithfully for God, as His sons.

We need to serve faithfully with our gifts and passions - our talents. This is the body of Christ, us, all doing what we have been created to do.

Faithful to God, faithful to the body and faithful to His bride!

Rom12:8

For, as we have a number of parts in one body, but all the parts have not the same use, 5 So we, though we are a number of persons, are one body in Christ, and are dependent on one another; 6 And having different qualities by reason of the grace given to us, such as the quality of a prophet, let it be made use of in relation to the measure of our faith; 7 Or the position of a Deacon of the church, let a man give himself to it; or he who has the power of teaching, let him make use of it; 8 He who has the power of comforting, let him do so; he who gives, let him give freely; he who has the power of ruling, let him do it with a serious mind; he who has mercy on others, let it be with joy.

Being set free of control of man and "religion" has not precluded us from being faithful to God and honouring Him through our faithfulness. Using our gifts and talents in the body and in the world - we are His workmanship, created to bear much fruit!

Encourage one another daily.....

Love one another.....

Be generous on every occasion.....

Ian Johnson shared wonderfully on Sunday about the power of agreement between brothers.

I am further inspired to bring my life into agreement with Gods plans and desires for me. I show my agreement by using the talents He has given me to achieve the plans He has prepared for me whilst living in the love and acceptance of a Son displaying the passions within me.

It is His Grace that enables me, not excuses me from serving faithfully.

Freedom reigns! (It does not sit hidden in a box!)

We should not wait to be perfect before we are faithful. God calls us to be faithful (like Moses - using what we have in our hands right now) and faithful with the little (parable of talents).

We don't have to wait until we are righteous enough (we are righteous through Christ Jesus).

We don't have to wait until we are holy either - we are holy through Christs holiness.

And we don't have to wait for permission from anyone - Jesus said "Go and make disciples of all nations, preaching the kingdom...." and that has never changed.

I am challenged to be faithful to God today, using what I have to change the lives of those around me.

I am challenged to be faithful to my family and my church family today.

I am challenged to bring my life into agreement with God no matter what I feel about my circumstances or about others.

Being a good and faithful servant of God is up to me, not to anyone else.

"Daddy I agree with you today about my plans, my future, my promises, my talents, my passions, my finances, my everything.

Help me faithfully administer these for your glory.

Amen"