“I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus ” – Philemon 1:4-6
LIGHT FOR NOW:Knowledge will determine the extent to which your faith works.
We have said that a believer that is in authority but doesn’t know that he is in authority will live his life as though he had no authority. That is why you cannot know your authority in error; you cannot know your authority in ignorance. It will take knowledge to know your authority. And that is why the degree to which a believer exercises his authority is the degree to which he knows his authority. This is the reason for knowledge. Hence, Paul in his letter to Philemon above (Philemon 1:4-6) focuses his prayers on knowledge, how do we know? Notice, he says “I thank my God… Hearing of thy love and faith…” He says “hearing of thy love and faith”, he wasn’t praying for love and faith. The believer does not have a love problem, that’s why Paul in Romans 5:5 says “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. So the love of God is the nature of our spirit. That’s why it is ignorance for a believer to pray to God to give him the capacity to love; it’s like a man praying to be a man. You don’t need the capacity to love, it is in your nature to love. That’s why walking in love as taught in the epistles is walking in your nature which is also synonymous to walking in the spirit. So a believer that is not walking in love is acting beside himself.
Paul also wasn’t praying for faith in verse 5 of the above text. The believer doesn’t have a faith problem. The faith of God is a gift given to sinners, and not to sons. It is that faith given to sinners at salvation that moves them to sons. After salvation, we are not looking for faith, we already have faith. The believer does not have a salvation problem, a love problem nor a faith problem. The believer is not praying to be saved, he is the saved. The believer is not praying to receive grace to love; the love of God is the native of his spirit. The believer is not praying for more faith; when the gospel was heard and believed, faith was supplied to the believer. The believer can only pray to have a precise knowledge of his nature (love), the nature of the faith he has received and the workings of that faith. And that is why knowledge will determine the extent to which your faith works.
INSTRUCTION: Place premium on knowledge.
PRAYER: I declare that the zeal to know increases in me like never before, in Jesus Name. Amen.
QUOTE: You can’t be in ignorance and be effective in your Christian walk.
DAILY BIBLE READING: MORNING: EPHESIANS CHAPTER 1; EVENING: PHILEMON CHAPTER 1
LIGHT FROM THE WORD 