YAHSHUA

Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end of life, because eternal life starts in Him. Jesus Christ says about Himself: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6. Jesus Christ, through His work of Salvation on the Cross, also replaces us and delivers us from eternal punishment, sin and hell. As there is only one living God that manifests Himself in three persons, and His Son Jesus Christ is also alive now, and the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity who looks after us every day, we Christians have a full relationship with God through faith, a gift that we receive without deserving it. Our daily experience fills our lives with peace, God's love and a purpose to serve God and our neighbour, in preaching the Gospel as well as in good works, with the great hope of seeing Him coming again in the clouds to establish His Kingdom in God's Paradise for eternity, which we are called to.

If you had never heard or read before this type of description of the Gospel explained in the paragraph above, it is because you have never attended a Bible-based church. If you are a Christian, you will agree with the paragraph because you have already believed the Gospel, you have acknowledged being a sinner, in need of salvation, you have believed that both heaven - which God announces for those who love Him - and also eternal hell exist for those who reject Him. You have already received Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as personal saviour, renouncing your own merits because they are useless for salvation, you have believed in eternal life after resurrection and you believe that all of this is an unmerited gift that we have received from God. And you may wonder what you will learn about faith by reading the Gospel again, if you have already believed it and converted. The answer is as simple as leading to you face the reaction of those who are not Christians, who will first have to believe in Jesus Christ, not only in the fact that He did exist, but the fact that He exists now, that He is alive because He resurrected and went up to the throne of glory and is sitting at the right of the Father. This world is living its last times under the enemy's government but Jesus Christ returns at the end of times according to Bible prophecies, and there are only a few of them left to be fulfilled. Do you believe this? In Hebrews 11:6: ... But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

All these issues, which a Christian thinks are obvious, they are like an abyss in the mind of those who still do not believe God in His Word, they consider this is just another option available within the world's religions. Maybe the reader already has faith, but still does not believe in God's salvation plan, and that this plan is exclusively through His only begotten son, Jesus Christ - Yahshua. In fact, two thirds of the world population are not Christian, actually most of them are illiterate or have never read the Bible or have never attended a Bible-based church; but God is merciful. This shows that one can have faith without believing God, as the Bible tells us: You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe - and tremble! James 2:19. But of course there are also those who do not believe that the Bible is inspired by God, or they think that other books also are, etc.

Therefore, mere faith does not save us, it is when it is a God-given gift that faith saves us, a faith that makes us believe in the redeeming work of the Son of God on the Cross for us, the Gospel of the Word of God, a living faith that transforms the character and makes whoever embraces the Gospel be born again and see it - he who is saved as well as others see it too, daily, because ... by their fruits you will know them. Mathew 7:20. This faith that changes the character and gives new life, as we have said before, brings two things: bearing witness to Jesus Christ and doing good deeds. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 3:36.

If we do not believe God, or what He teaches, saying that we need that He saves us because we cannot save ourselves, neither through practising any religion or traditions, neither by our own merits, if we reject God, we are separated away from God for eternity, since death does not prevail eternally in man, as he will be resurrected for eternal life anyway in a conscious state. The question is whether he is going to spend eternity in the Kingdom of God or in the hell of fire, where Jesus Christ says: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth... Matthew 8:12.

... So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. ²⁴ “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. Luke 16.

The devil fights at all cost so that you do not believe the Gospel, that you are with him in his dwelling in the lake of fire and brimstone; furthermore, he fights so that those who do believe in God have doubts, through difficulties in life, in times of hardship, when we are weak, in the tests of our faith or like Lazarus in his poverty. But if we trust God, our Father, we will never let go of His mighty hand, in Christ, because we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. our "Paraklitos". This Greek word applies to Jesus Christ as well as to the Holy Spirit, because we are now in his hands. The first is our defense advocate and substitute for our sentence. The second is our protecting advocate, like the angel of the Lord who encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them, but this time it is God Himself; this is another one of God's everyday wonders.

God has made amazing miracles, on top of saving us and in addition to creating the universe, and the spiritual heavens. Even though the Lord says that blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, He also gives us prophecies and miracles that are light in the darkness. Those of us who have received the unmerited gift of faith and have believed God, have good example of other ancestors in the Bible like Noah, who built the ark on the mountain whilst they mocked him, until all the population drowned and died, except for those who believed, who were in the ark with Noah. Or the story of Moses who was brought up by Pharaoh, who had given instruction to kill all the sons of Israel. This way, God did not allow the devil's plan to succeed, but on the contrary He turned it in favour of the divine project since the same one who instructed the killing of all Hebrew sons would end up bringing up and adopting the deliverer of Israel.

What can we say about Abraham and Sarah, who thought that by anticipating God in Ismail they would have the promised descendants, but God would be faithful to His Word and Abraham believed God, and He accounted it to him for righteousness, and Sarah would give birth to Isaac from Abraham, so that the descendants would come from God's promise, from the hope and trust in Him. Or the story of David and Goliath, when nobody believed that they could win the Philistines, a teenager came and won the warrior with a stone, because he believed God. Or Job when he had to be confronted with his own justice and was tested in his faith, but he always acknowledged God until he realized about his proud heart, repenting and receiving much greater blessing from God that before. And although at the beginning it looked like the devil's strategy against him, the end of his experience was of great blessing for God in his life.

What can we say about the faith of the leper who said to Jesus: if You are willing, You can make me clean. Mark 1:40. And the Lord replied to him: I am willing, be cleansed!. The paralytic who was carried, due to the faith of his friends, to place him in front of Jesus, Mark 2. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, believed in God's power to heal his daughter whilst a woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of Jesus' robe and was completely healed, Mark 5:21-43, and the girl would resurrect with Jesus' famous words. Talitha Cumi. Sick multitudes were healed in Genesareth, symbol of the Paradise of the Kingdom of God, Mark 6:53. The father of the demon-possessed boy begged the Lord, and He replied to him that all things are possible for him who believes and the man said: I believe, help my unbelief! and Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, Mark 9:23. Jesus praised the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman who believed in Jesus and healed her daughter who had an unclean spirit, Mark 7:24. Peter's confession, the key and the rock of faith in Jesus Christ: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God - and everything that this entails, Matthew 16:16. The centurion whom even the Lord admired because of his faith in Him, because he had understood the heavenly order and who Jesus was, Yahshua the Messiah, the King, God's heir Son, in military terms he saw Him as the commander in chief of the heavenly armies, this is, as Yahweh of Hosts, and He would heal his servant, Luke 7. Or the faith of the apostles themselves and Paul's supernatural experience and his obedience. Let us never forget these experiences and add them on to ours because they nourish our daily faith, and we will bear witness about them in Church for our brethren to rejoice in them and those who do not believe will be moved when they hear about God's work.

... Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12.

Other believers have left these famous quotes; they have found faith in different situations, like St. Augustine, who said: "...Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe." "He who loses his faith has nothing else to lose", Publius Syrus 1st century B.C. " The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace." Teresa of Calcutta. "...to rationalize faith? I wanted to become master and not a slave of it, and thus I came to bondage instead of coming to freedom in Christ" Unamuno. These four individuals show us four different ways of seeing faith. Although Augustine is a clear example of the faith that saves and his desire is getting to embrace the Lord, Publius, a Roman, who obviously had faith, even though it was pagan faith, realized in his reasoning that if he lost it, the pillar or his life would fall, since faith produces strength to live and hope in life. Sister Teresa would find and fight for her faith through good deeds, experiencing human indifference towards the neighbour's disgrace and Unamuno would surrender to the Spirit of Christ in his reasoning.

We could say that faith in God has three stages: The faith that saves, the living faith and the fulfilled faith. Let us see these stages

"Emun" and "aman", in Hebrew, and "pistis" in Greek are the words for faith or belief. Faith is a living gift that we have to nourish every day of our lives. But what difference is there between faith in anything or anybody, even in ourselves, and the faith that saves, faith in the Son of God?. When the Bible talks about faith, it refers to faith in God. Every one is a potential believer because God has given us this capacity, in fact everybody believes in something superior, even those who call themselves atheists or agnostics, they strive to believe, argue and reason in ways that are contrary to God, or believe in themselves or in the ever-changing scientific evidences, which is an ongoing battle, especially when they face relevant situations in life when reason is not equipped to understand, only the heart understands. The Bible says: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2. And also the Word that warns us about what to believe in 1John 4:

...Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

The famous Bible quote: the just shall live by his faith...in Habakkuk 2:4 which Paul refers to in Galatians 3:11 and which was the source of inspiration for Luther's protestant reform, deserves a detailed study, not just because faith is God's gift, but because it refers to faith in God, the faith that the Apostle John refers to in the text that we have just read above, the faith that makes us believe in His salvation plan for our souls. This plan, as we have said before, is through faith in the redeeming work of His Son Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. The work that Jesus Christ has fulfilled becoming our substitute to deliver us from the reward of sin, which is eternal death to the Spirit, if we believe that we are separated from God and in need of salvation because we have lived being rebellious an apart from Him, He blesses us not only with salvation for life in His Kingdom but also with a life of blessing here and now. As the most famous verse of the Bible assures us: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16. If God has not spared His own Son because He loves us and offers us Salvation and eternal life in His Kingdom, only through faith in the Cross of Christ, which, in resurrection will lead us to His presence, why are there so many people who do not believe it?

The Bible tells us about when God knew us before the foundation of the world, when He saw our hearts, and talks about His choice, about the predestination for salvation, of the call received through preaching and about how He chooses some people whilst he hardens others. “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to ourfathers, ²⁶ saying, ‘ Go to this people and say: “ Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you will see, and not perceive; ²⁷ for the hearts of this people have grown dull. their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.”’ Acts 28.

But there are many who understand predestination as God's total control over our lives and that everything we do is His plan for us, but the Bible, although it speaks about God's absolute sovereignty and that God is Who makes the choice, He does it with justice. God fights in the battle for the souls against the devil, as we have read so many times. Therefore, predestination is a doctrine that refers to salvation of those who love God from before. A scene that happens so often in us as in the angels in heavenly places, where not only men rebelled, also angels did. We can read all of this in the Bible in Jude's letter, read it, I recommend you to do so.

Faith in God is therefore like a ladder where the first step is believing in the Gospel, to believe that we are sinners, having lived a life under our own justice and therefore away from God and believing that if God calls us to reconciliation through Jesus Christ - and that there is no other Way - we will be saved. If we receive the Son of God in our heart, we have started a new life, we have been born again, through God's gift called faith. From this moment, we will have to continue climbing the steps of God's ladder in our daily life.

For those who know the Gospel it is obvious that it is necessary to believe in God's work on the Cross of Calvary, but human mind needs to receive this message in order to receive the gift of faith, which God gives to those who love Him. But that gift, faith, comes from God's will, because the source of this gift is the heart of our Father, who understands better than anybody our spiritual need and the obstacles of the mind and the flesh, He lets us feel His presences, that comes from His grace, from His will, from His love for us. the prodigal sons of the Kingdom of the Lord. And this faith that comes from God's grace is the means to obtain the end, God's purpose when He gave His Son who out of His own will offered Himself as redeeming Lamb for the salvation of our souls: "...For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast...". Ephesians 2:8.

...That is, the word of faith which we preach: ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. ¹³ For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10.

But living faith needs to be nourished on a daily basis, in order to preach as well as in every circumstance in life, when we face any important decision. We must always come to God in prayer, in Jesus' name. Only by spending time with God - talking with God - we will find the Way in the living faith. While we serve God in the Great Commission, our faith is alive and growing, because the just shall live by his faith and the just is made just because God has justified Him, giving him faith in His Son. ... And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life... 1John 5:11. Therefore the Son, Jesus Christ, Yahshua, is the source of life, and those of us who believe in the living faith of the Gospel will need to spend time with Him daily studying the Bible, our encyclopaedia, our instruction and guide book which we shall meditate on throughout our lives, just like doctors, lawyers, judges and anybody who wishes to continue growing in the knowledge of their vocation, which in our case is to have a deep knowledge of God and to serve Him and our neighbour, and to stay in His Way until His return to establish His Kingdom.

Faith in God, thus, changes from being an unmerited gift to a way of life that will take us, if we exercise it and nourish it, along the Way of a life blessed by God until the day of our resurrection or transformation. Faith in Jesus Christ is the means, God's tool, the light that lights up the darkness, this is why Jesus says that He is the light, and that we ourselves are light of the world due to the message that we carry within us and that we preach. Grace is God's goodness. Salvation is the will of God's love for us. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. Therefore let us fight eagerly for this living faith everyday so that we don't lose this treasure that we have in earthen vessels, so when the Bridegroom comes, He finds faith on earth, in His Church, receiving light from lamps filled with oil from His anointment in our souls. Light from the Spirit where He can see and recognize Himself, just like the husband sees himself reflected in the eyes of his beloved wife.

Once we have believed we will have to take our cross, for keeping ourselves in the faith as well as for fighting with the Gospel to save souls, and the devil will plant the seed of doubt. Restless in his efforts to take the Christian away from his Way, he works against our beliefs in order to disrupt our perseverance, which the Bible warns us about saying: ... Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1Peter 5.

Faith is God's gift that keeps us anchored to Him, in spite of the mood changes, anxiety, doubts, reasoning and changing circumstances of the rollercoaster of life. As Pascal said after he converted to Christ, "man's heart has its reasons" to believe. But the mind cannot discern them because it is nor made for that, only for reasoning. Our spirit, which is so often symbolized in the Bible by the heart, is the one that has the capacity to discern deep inside what "is" and tell it apart from what "isn't" in spiritual grounds, without any prior reasoning. The mind lives considering options, information, knowledge, data, doubts, and is never capable of anchoring to anything on its own; there must be conviction, and this is a spiritual attitude, not a rational one, because it changes as it receives information that the mind manages and handles through the reasoning process. If man can get to understand this, he will have won the battle because he will trust God and his faith will be alive and indestructible. Our spirit does not doubt when it is nourished by the Holy Spirit, but our mind does. The mind is the battlefield, but if we live by the Spirit, we will win in a superior battlefield, the heavenly places.

We are too impatient, we still are even after thousands of years. Aren't you impatient?. Let us never cease to believe in Him even though we are walking through a valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil for He is with us, as Psalm 23 tells us. God is faithful and He works in our favour, if we go with Him. His almighty hand is in our lives and makes up for our lack of faith, but we must trust Him because He increases our faith and knows our condition: ...Increase our faith... Luke 17:5, the apostles asked the Lord, a prayer that we must make every day. Faith emerges when we believe in the great universal message of the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Lord and it is a demolishing message for the mind. Who, having a sound mind, would not want to spend eternity in the Kingdom of God? This message gives hope, and coming from God, gives us confidence, because God does not lie, He is not a politician, or a leader of a human organization, He is the King of the Universe. The source of trust in God is God's faithfulness, which fills us with faith, Ephesians 3:12. We pray to God because we trust Him. As we have seen, faith is in our heart, but we must exercise it in the Holy Spirit and to do so we find a series of spiritual tools that Apostle Paul as Well as Apostle Peter received from the Spirit of the Lord.

Peter tells us, in his second universal letter, chapter one, verses five to ten: ... Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶ to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. ⁸ For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble. You can read further on the seven gifts of the Spirit in the Bible Study about Virtue.

Paul wrote: ... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22-24. ...But your have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance... 2Timothy 3:10.

Based on the following Bible Texts we can study the following ingredients to nourish our faith. Putting them into practice they help to have an effective and living faith if we meditate deeply about them, 26 words in 7 steps. Study them with a dictionary, and do it n Bible Hebrew and Greek if you can:

Therefore the living faith is the source of light that enlightens our spirit in life, in the Church, when we raise a ministry, when we preach the Gospel, or in intercession, in praise and worship. Living faith is an engine, a power that does not come from us, it comes from God, but we have to nourish it. We see living faith when we feel that the Holy Spirit inspires us every day in so many experiences which no doubt many brethren in the world can witness of. We depend on the Lord in every case, and it is in humbleness and acknowledgement of our dependence on Him that we will persevere, without moving to right nor left, but standing fast in the faith until His coming, only by doing so living faith consolidates and becomes fulfilled faith.

Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, Hebrews 12:2, but faith is the tool that God gives us by His grace so that we can overcome the barrier of human mind and its limitations to have access to a personal relation of friendship with God for eternity. ... I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6. Note that He doesn't say "no one goes to the Father" but "no one COMES to the Father" because Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Him, John 14:10 and 11: therefore Jesus Christ wants us to be His friends and the Father's. And who would not want to be God's friend forever?

There are many who have enjoyed, presently enjoy and will enjoy His friendship. God Himself says about the patriarch: ...Abraham, my friend ... Isaiah 41:8. God calls Abraham His friend. Those of us that belong to Abraham's spiritual descendants, the children of faith, the faith that changed the life of our spiritual ancestor, the father of the faith. Today the door to God's heart is open, because the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom when Christ yielded up His spirit, trespassing the sin of man's heart, through the work of the Cross of Christ. And this is precisely the key of salvation, believing in what God says that we need to understand in order to be His friends, His children, His salvation plan, not ours, and live with Him every day, here on earth, and in eternity when Jesus Christ returns.

We could talk about faith for ever, but it is in our daily lives and in that of others when we will be confronted with reality and we will be able to see the fruits of our relationship with God. Only then we will be able to know how our faith and our Christian growth are, only then we will be able to know whether our faith is fulfilled and is part of our character. Because, how else can we talk about faith to somebody who has lost a loved one, a mother who sees her son on the edge of death in hospital, a terminal patient, or an elder person who has been abandoned, an orphan child or a young widow in a poor country; to parents of a baby born with a serious condition or paralysis; to a prisoner, or slave, or some that has been abused; to social dropouts or even those who have been betrayed by their best friend or brother, or brother in the faith; to a jobless father or a business man who has gone bankrupt and cannot pay his staff or even cover his family's basic needs?

I can think of so many circumstances that all of us have experienced to a lesser or greater extent, or that we can experience sometime, or we see others, relatives, friends or strangers who experience situations that make us lose our faith, and God knows this, but He does not walk away from our side, and just like it happened to Job, all of us who trust God will always be blessed. God promises us eternal life, in blessing, in health, in joy, in resurrection, with our beloved ones who love Him, with our brethren and friends in the faith and with our best friend, our beloved Lord. ...My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. James 1:2

The strength to get ahead and overcome in all these circumstances comes from God and faith comes from Him, especially when we look for Him. We must be there for others when they need us, pray, have faith when they lose it, because others had it for us when we lost it. Godliness and hope will be hand-in-hand when we are going through the wilderness or in the valley of the shadow of death. But even if we don't see the light and we don't have hope in difficult times, do not forget the loneliness and abandonment that Jesus Christ experienced in Gethsemane when He drank the cup of the sin of humankind and from the Cross, His heart loved us even when He was forsaken: ... “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” ... “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”. Therefore let us look at Christ, example of the fulfilled faith, let us remember His passion on the Cross for us, for the sinners, for those who rejected Him and let us also walk along and cry with those who cry and pray, because soon the light will shine at the end of the tunnel, God raises us and takes us out of the valley and takes us to the top of the mountain in His presence and let us laugh with those who laugh, and with those who laugh with us. And on that day ... Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him... Revelation 1:7.

The fulfilled faith also looks at the prophecies that have been fulfilled and has hope in those few that are still to be fulfilled, since prophecy is a lamp of the Word of God that enlightens faith. This is why when we remember the prophecy fulfilled in Israel on receiving their new state from United Nations in 1948 according to the prophecy of Zechariah 12:2, 3 and 6, almost two thousand years after the destruction of the Temple (Matthew 24) our heart rejoices and our faith is greatly nourished. And even more when we see how on celebration of their first jubilee (Leviticus 25:11) in Jerusalem, Paul Wilbur gave a concert of Messianic worship music in English and Hebrew during the Feast of Tabernacles. It was also interpreted and recorded in Spanish by Rene Gonzalez. The event was attended by many Messianic Jews converted to Yahshua the Messiah, Zechariah 12:10, to Jesus Christ as Lord. Every year since then, the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem is held in Tabernacles. Now we see in the news how the nations around Israel are getting ready to surround it according to the last prophecy of Zechariah 12:9 - 14:2 and 14:12 and Revelation 16:16.

The fulfilled faith gives us a new life for which the Lord says: ... I desire mercy and not sacrifice ... Matthew 12:7. Christ dwells within us by faith, Ephesians 3:17, and faith is our shield, Ephesians 6:16. Let us therefore strive for the faith of the Gospel, Philippians 1:27. Because the righteousness of God is through faith, Philippians 3:9. James makes the difference between faith without works and faith with works very clear. And last but not least, we cannot forget another fruit of the faith in Jesus Christ, I refer to the spiritual unity of the Church, which is only possible by faith on knowing that Jesus Christ is who directs it, the only spiritual head of His Body and only High Priest. Our personal relation and as fellowship with the Holy Spirit, in worship, in good works, and in the Great Commission unites the Church across the world, awaiting His coming to establish His Kingdom; let us pray earnestly that the Lord increases our faith, because it is obvious when we see Christianity that we all lack much faith, according to the exhortation in Ephesians 4:13.

...We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, ³ remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,

...Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, ² speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, ³ forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; ⁵ for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

...Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, ² of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

...Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, ⁹ receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

If God is who chooses, if God is who calls and attracts us through His presence and gives us the gift of faith, and if God is who keeps us in the Way with His Spirit, and who saves us in His Son, we must give Him all the glory and honour for loving us before we loved Him, when we were in our sins. Because ...In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 1John 4:10.12.

It is painful to see how some brethren lose their faith and go astray as believers because they have not fought for it, blinded by the greed of the pleasures of the world, by the flesh, and the devil tries every type of temptation, as we read in 1Timothy 6:10-12. But he who prays and fights will be delivered from all of them: Resist the devil and he will flee from you, James 4:7. Therefore faith is our weapon against the devil, an efficient weapon that comes from God. Let's fight to keep our faith and pray that others receive it and the Lord will be on our side always providing for our weakness. To sum up:

Faith that saves: Faith in God, the new birth by faith is the time to receive salvation believing, with absolute conviction, that we are sinners in need of being saved by God through the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the work of the Son of God on the Cross for resurrection and eternal life.

Living faith: This is the faith that we, the disciples of Christ, live by. A faith that must be nourished through prayer, fasting, daily reading and Bible study, personal edification in a close relationship with the Holy Spirit, our faithful friend. A faith that, when we work on it, must produce fruits of the Spirit in preaching, way of life, way of thinking and in good deeds of godliness and mercy, for charity, God's love. 2Corinthians 13:5 teaches us that every individual is conscious himself about the way he is living before God's eyes, and our conscience bears witness to us in the Holy Spirit, as we can also read in Romans 9:1.

Fulfilled faith: Faith that blends in with God's love, faith that becomes in a way of life, not trusting what we see but what we do not see. This faith is the one that takes us hand in hand with Jesus Christ every day and once we leave this world, either by death or in the rapture when the Lord comes, we will resurrect or be transformed for eternal life receiving the reward, the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls. 1Peter 1:9.

Spiritual revelation about faith in God is that it must be a constant faith. God gives us the faith that saves us but we must work on this faith on a daily basis that it becomes a living faith, and it is our responsibility and faithfulness to God, because God is faithful and He sustains us in our weakness. If we fight for faith it becomes fulfilled faith, in part of our being, so that it remains engraved in our soul and becomes a conviction, our trust in God no matter what lies ahead.

The final words of this study are from Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans: ... Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began ²⁶ but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith ²⁷ to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

Faith in Jesus Christ is God's gift, which we must fight for with all our strength that we do not lose it. Jesus Christ Himself prayed for us that we would believe in Him and would persevere in the faith and in the work. John 17. Let us therefore obey faith. But there is one final question I want to raise that we must reply to ourselves and as Church in Luke 18:8b:... Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”...