Obligations

"Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do..."

~Romans 8:12

Today I've been looking over my own life and realizing that I do more things than I should under the power of obligation.  Meaning I feel obligated to do mundane, day to day stuff...instead of feeling freedom, I've been feeling pressured to compulsively perform.

The truth in Christ though, is that there is no obligatory work.  There is no obligation to sin and mess up; you've been set free from sin!  You don't have to do it anymore.  Sin is not your nature.  Why not?  Well, look at the preceding verses and you'll see that it's because Christ is in you.  And His work in you overcame the world and all of it's sin along with it.

The only obligatory work we need to do is believe.  We must believe at all times; we must not fall out of faith.   Paul instructed the Corinthians to inspect themselves, by their fruit, to determine if they really believed.  Having the faith of God is important.  It's His faith that binds us together and raises us with Him.

The only obligation we have is to enter His rest.  Many Christians miss this -- the book of Hebrews says that so did the Ancient Israelites.  And until we really believe, there will be warfare, there will be ups and down, and there will be very difficult points.  It's in focusing on Him that these kinds of battles are won.

"...For if you live according to flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

~Romans 8:13

The only way to stay in belief is to remain in the Spirit.  If you set up your tent with God, if you give Him your heart, He'll give you His feelings towards you and inspire you to trust Him.  It's the Holy Spirit who inspires belief and points us towards Yahshua, the Son of God.

When we believe, we pave the way for the reality of God to become greater, in our lives, than anything else.  Our activities get drowned out.  Our attentions and distractions get forgotten.  Our obligations get burned away.  We don't have to do a thing but believe in what Messiah's done!

This is a belief that will make you joyful and give you energy.  It will quicken and electrify your physical bodies.  It will cause you to do stuff because you want to...not because you're scared of man. There will be no fears and no thoughts of feelings in the things you do, because you've made God the most important thing.

The only obligation we have is to live for God.  And living for God flows out of belief in His goodness and love!  The only fight we fight is the fight of faith.  And when faith comes, we are no longer supervised and micromanaged by the law.  We are free to do everything, or free to do nothing! The nature of self-worth through what you're doing will be gone; you'll be set free from yourself.  It feels good to follow God; it feels good to have a light burden and have Hims simplify your life.

The Faith of God

"Yahshua answered and he said to them, 'May the faith of God be in you.'"                      ~Mark 11:22

Most translations of the above verse say 'faith in God', but that's not the most accurate translation. See, in recent times scholars and translators have discovered that the many verses that talk about our 'faith in Jesus' should really be translated as 'faith of Jesus'.  It's more about what God thinks about you!

This is one thing that I've been learning recently.  Our Heavenly Father wants us to be able to conceptualize what it would look like to have His faith--the faith of His Son.

If we constantly rely on our own faith in God, we may get burnt out.  Having faith in you own faith is not enough.  That leads to striving and pressure!  God wants us to experience His faith overwhelming and swallowing up our own.  This is what Reese Howells referred to as "the grace of faith" (Reese Howells: Intercessor

Just Imagine how situations would break out and how lives would change if we could just get out of the way and come to know the Faith of God.  What would Jesus do?  That's what Yahweh would like us to walk in.

It helps to see people as He sees them--as true sons and daughters who have wandered away from ever coming to know their true potential.  Jesus was moved with compassion (Matthew 14:14), and you can be too!

Check out how this verse flows when translated more correctly:

"Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through the faith of Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

~Galatians 2:16