Examine Yourself To See If You Are In Faith! : By James Lantz
   We are accustomed to inspecting our hair by looking in the mirror each day and checking our fuel gauge and monitoring our checkbook so that we don’t come short. These are important because we only have one opportunity to make a first impression and running short will cost us or at the very least be an inconvenience. Running short on faith will cost us much more and has eternal consequences! If you listen to some preachers they will tell you once saved always saved. They portray God’s grace as overlooking man’s sin instead of empowering man through faith to live free from sin. God offers grace to every man who will believe what Jesus has accomplished for us through His suffering, His dying on the cross, and rising from the dead!  Ephesians 2:8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Faith is also a gift from God that comes by hearing and hearing

Grace Was God’s Part And Believing Is Our Part!

God’s word but must be activated by the one who desires God’s grace. God and Jesus did the hard part that we could not do and require us to do the part that they will not do for us!  2 Cor. 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Our part is to open up the door of our heart and say yes to Him! No one can lose their salvation accidentally and yet there are those who have been warned and walked away from God. Cain was warned that if he didn’t do what was right with that which belongs to God that sin would ensnare him. The majority of Abrahams descendants who were supernaturally delivered from Egyptian bondage refused to believe that Canann’s land had been given to them and they died in the desert! Judas was so stirred in his heart that he left his home and job to serve the Master and help take God’s message of repentance and the kingdom of God to Israel. Things did not work out like he thought they should so he quit believing and today Judas is in hell. Not all sin is unto eternal damnation but all sin leads to death! Thank God for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which supersedes the law of sin and death!  1 John. 5:16&17  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.  There’s a difference between the unbelief of ignorance and the one who has seen God’s power and goodness but just refuses to believe. Paul used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious but he obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. Those who provoked God in the wilderness saw His mighty miracles ten times and God said they had an evil heart of unbelief. We who have received salvation are warned to not harden our hearts like those who provoked God in the wilderness.  Heb. 3:12  Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.  Unbelief separates us from God and His extreme mighty blessing while faith receives God’s grace!

– Jude exhorts us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints and warns us of ungodly men who have crept into the church and turned the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying our Lord Jesus Christ! Lasciviousness includes the meaning of -Excessive indulgence of liberty; contempt of the just restraints of law, morality and decorum -frolicsomeness; waggery – and the unlawful indulgence of lust; fornication, or adultery and shamelessness.

• We are made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ!  Rom. 4:13  Rom. 5:1   Phil. 3:9
• The righteous are to live by their faith!  Hab. 2:4  Rom. 1:17  Gal. 3:11  Heb. 10:38
• Jesus said we are to hold fast that which we have received and heard!   Rev. 3:3
• Paul says that we must fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life!   1 Tim. 6:12
• Timothy’s faith referred to as unfeigned (genuine) faith reveals there is the fake!  2 Tim. 1:5
• The writer of Hebrews says that we must work to enter into faith which is God’s rest!   Heb. 4:11
• John warns us not to lose that which we received by faith lest we lose reward!   2 John 1:3

       As we examine ourselves to see if we are in faith we need to know what faith is, what faith looks like, what faith acts like, what faith sounds like, and how faith talks.  2 Corinthians 13:5 GNT  Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. Surely you know that Christ Jesus is in you?—unless you have completely failed.

Faith Rejoices, Gives Thanks, And Is Glad!

       Faith is the substance of all things!  Heb. 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Heb. 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  Joshua and Caleb believed what Moses preached about possessing the good land with houses they didn’t have to build, wells they didn’t have to dig, and vineyards and olive groves they didn’t have to plant and they possessed it. All things are possible to him that believes! When we hear what God said then faith is there. Faith says and faith acts! Caleb said, Let us go up at once, and possess this good land; for we are well able to overcome it. Faith acts immediately on what God said. God told Abraham to take his only son, Isaac and travel three days to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there. Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac up from the dead so in obedience Abraham rose early the next day and began. It is interesting that God gave Abraham three days to reconsider his decision to sacrifice the promised son whom he loved. Satan did not understand the covenant significance this sacrifice would mean in allowing God access into the earth to sacrifice His Son for us but you can be sure that satan was doing his best trying to persuade Abraham that God was being unreasonable. Faith obeys even when it doesn’t understand! Jacob didn’t go about pursuing the blessing of the Lord the correct way but he valued the things of God and when God spoke to him he obeyed Him. God showed him how to prosper supernaturally by cutting stripes in the branch and setting it by the watering hole. This would sound absolutely too ridiculous to most people and they would never do it. When God spoke to Jacob to go home he obeyed even though it seemed like he would be killed. Joseph held to the dream God gave him and refused to get bitter when things went from bad to worse. Hannah believed the word from the priest and she was no more sad! If your name is in the book of life you should be rejoicing!

Doubt Complains, Despairs, And Is Sad!

       There was a moment in which Hannah believed but prior to that she was a sad case. Year after year Hannah would be grieved because she had no son. Her husband said to her, why are you weeping and refusing to eat? Am I not better than ten sons? Unbelief complains and is unthankful. Sarcasm is not faith. Sighing can be a sigh of despair. Stout words against God are unbelief!

2 Cor. 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?