WHAT MAY COME OUR WAY

     "Let us go and get past the elementary stage....advancing steadily toward the completeness....that belongs to spiritual maturity" Heb. 6:1, Amp.

     "So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father".

     The thought of providence [the visible] and its relationship to faith [the invisible] has been on my mind of late. Thoughts once again inspired by Mr Stoney of long ago.

      First however we must establish what faith is. "Faith is us resting on the known mind of the father which He has by His Word communicated and assured that whatever the difficulties in the way of fulfillment, or however great the opposition it, His perfect will for us, will ultimately be established". The continuation of His established will is found or often seen in providence, that which comes our way in life, and of course always by His Word. We may depend on and even trust God's providence seeing Him in the visible, but that is not faith. Yes God is the Lord over providence. However our faith in His presence there is what glorifies and honors Him.

      Our faith can never be based upon what is seen. This is the great problem with experiential religion today. For if that were possible then there would be no need to rise above the seen things of this world by faith, as the Word declares we are to do. If His truth and His joy is found in a seen or experienced thing then righteousness would always be in that which the world or we produce. This simply cannot be true, as He has condemned the world and is not of this world. We and He have died to it in Christ and are citizens of the heavenly realm, now a unseen thing only accessible by faith, as to that being our condition and position before God.

      So if we go to faith in the invisible as our rock, accepting the agent of providence as its extension, we may then trust that everything that comes our way, despite the confusion or anarchy of so much around in the visible, is from the mind of our God and is indeed divine providence. Therefore faith is the only course to know true godly progress, not in the works we see or do; no matter how moral, biblical or godly. This in my estimation is the only principle [faith] upon which the Christian man or woman of action may live to their selves in Gods path. That is if one wishes to live a life in Jesus Christ consciously.

      Our Father has not deserted the earth in His condemnation of it. He keeps it in check by His providence. This is a different thing than faith, which rests on the mind and is found in the will of our Father conducted in us. But they work hand in hand and we may find godly power in the adoption of faith and providence's inevitable path as a valid view of our position as Christians. We may, I believe, gain a sort of control over the future by the acceptance that God is thoroughly in that which comes our way, with faith being our compass.

      By His providence and power The Father controls the disorder of the world systems, even in the seeming confusion of providence's fateful path. Our faith however is applied in the undisturbed region of His mind and within His unalterable will, upon our identification in His Son. His will waits and may be seen in that which comes our way in the providence which forms us as receivers of His blessings and conduits of His will.

      God has no other choice than this method for our growth and progress. If He left man to himself or by suppression controlled him, then He would effectively be supporting Satan. No He [God] is the only source of ultimate power and He must check it and control it as His wisdom and ultimate purpose require. The Fathers providence brings that which comes our way all in His timing and by His supreme will. We only need wait upon Him in our experience and trust Him in faith.

      Nothing can be plainer than that faith is far higher and a more spiritual path than providence or experience. Faith is the the only true path. Faith is to be intelligent and assured....but often the providence of God is mysterious.

      It is not that we are to disregard providence...but we are not to surrender faith for it by relying only upon experience. If we are walking in a intelligent informed biblical faith in a persistent way His providence will confirm our path. We may know by this kind of faith that God is always there in what may come our way.