This study was first taught on July 2, 2013

Topic: The Essence of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives (6.3): The Supplies of Faith (2)

(use the audio to study)

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Background
Last week, we saw that God’s work of grace in bestowing us with all that we need to live fruitful godly lives, as well as His bestowal of exceedingly great and precious promises, require that we play our own part so that we may experience in real terms, these bestowals, rather than just talk about them! In playing our part, we will be able to move from the realm of professing faith in the word of God, to possessing these bestowals. We must ensure that God’s work of grace through the Holy Spirit is effective in our lives; hence, we must attend with all diligence (wholehearted devotion and dedication) on our part, to the supplies that are required to translate our faith from the realm of profession to the reality of possession. We cannot, and should never, handle the things of God lackadaisically, slothfully, thoughtlessly, or carelessly.

With all diligence therefore, we must supply our faith in God (which must be based on the conviction of the Holy Spirit), with the essentials that will make it an active and living faith; not a dormant or dead faith. As the bible says, “faith without works is dead”, we must therefore supply our faith with essentials (like supplying an undergraduate with the essentials he needs to successfully graduate from university), or building blocks (like the blocks needed to take a building from the foundation up), or additions (which, like musical and voice accompaniments make a chorus leader’s singing to be more effective and meaningful) which will take us to the place of fruitfulness.

We considered some of these supplies, building blocks, or additions last week; which are; virtue or moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, and patience or perseverance. In elaborating on these supplies, we noted that virtue or moral excellence must be the hallmark of our faith in God, as it must be clear to all men that we have indeed been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God by the way we live, act, dress, speak, and so on. We need to build on moral excellence, by getting to know the things that God has freely given to us as a result of the salvation Christ has won for us, lest we begin again to involve ourselves in unsavoury lifestyles. And this knowledge must not be attained just for the sake of it, or so that we can judge others, or claim to be better than others; rather, it must be attained so that we can better understand how we are to conduct ourselves and walk with God. We must also build upon this knowledge, self-control, which is basically, our willing submission to the control and leading of the Holy Spirit; hence, we should be content with what God has revealed to us in His word, rather than probe into realms the Holy Spirit has not revealed, like people engaged in the occult do. We must lay upon the building block of self-control, perseverance, hence, our submission to the control and leading of the Holy Spirit should not be intermittent, but continuous, as we persevere through trials and tribulations; endure God’s testing; and, overcome temptation from the evil one, in the process.

We also noted that each supply, building block, or addition to our faith, moderates or reinforces the preceding one, and hence, builds a strong Christian. For instance, moral excellence reinforces the fact that we have been convicted by the Holy Spirit; while knowledge of the things which God has freely given to us keeps us within the bounds of morality from the standpoint of Christ, and not some human idea of morality, which is no morality. Self-control regulates our knowledge, so that we don’t get puffed up or delve into mysticism; and our self-control is reinforced by perseverance. Thus, we become well rounded and grounded believers in Christ!

Scripture Text(s)
2 Peter 1:1-11
Tonight, we shall be concluding on the issue of the supplies that we need for our fruitfulness. May the Holy Spirit help us to achieve His goals for our fruitfulness, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
As we conclude our review of the supplies of faith, we shall be looking at godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity or agape love.
1 Peter 1:13-16, 18-19; James 1:26; Titus 2:11-12; Hebrews 11:7; 13:1-3; 1 John 3:14-18; John 15:12-13; 1 Corinthians 6:1-8; Galatians 6:6-10; 1 Peter 1:22-23; John 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 13:13, 4-8a, 1-3; 12:7-10, 31; Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:16-23; Matthew 14:14; 15:32-38; Mark 1:40-42; 6:43; Luke 7:11-15.

Conclusion
As we conclude our study on the “Supplies of Faith”, we see that we must add to perseverance, godliness. Godliness is living a life that is consistent with the nature of God—a life of religious piety, a life of holiness, a life of godly reverence or fear. Noah manifested this, when he moved with godly fear to build the ark, and saved his family. A life of godliness is a life of obedience to God, not one of grumbling, murmuring, or complaining. It is a life of thankfulness at all times.

Upon godliness, must be built brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness is the affection which a believer in Christ must have and show towards his fellow Christian, regardless of their gender, age, race or colour; and it involves making sacrifices for other believers, and benevolence toward other believers. Every true believer must go beyond acts of kindness towards other believers in Christ, and attain the ultimate and pinnacle of Christian maturity; that is, the demonstration of the love of God towards all men. Also known as charity, the love of God (agape love), must be the basis for all that we do in leading and bringing men to God, through evangelism, missions, church planting, discipling, and so on, otherwise, all is vanity, and meaningless, and thus, we are unfruitful. God showed this love when He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for the sins of the world. Agape love is the source of compassion, and of doing the work of God as it really should be done, and is poured into the believer through the Holy Spirit, resulting in his fruitfulness—the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, without which the gifts of the Holy Spirit will result in pride, conceit, and other spiritual aberrations; indeed the works of the flesh! We must note that the devil works lying signs and wonders, and he does it for vainglory; not out of the love of God; hence, it is the “unfruitful work of darkness”.

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