Faith is from God, His gift to us at birth, like sight or hearing. It is a faculty or a hand, by which we reach out, and take what God has for us. If we destroy the faculty, or let that hand wither, then we can take nothing. We are guilty losers. The world conditions us. We go out in the morning, work all day, and come in at night, read the newspaper, watch television, and in all that time, how much have we been exposed to what will encourage faith in God? Usually nothing whatsoever – not a single word. On the contrary, we have been almost immersed in a sea of doubt and sin. The world is a vast brainwashing establishment to destroy faith in God. It maims us spiritually; it amputates our hand of faith. We are ‘civilized’ out of the simple nature God gave us.
A word of warning here: Faith is not a subject, like gardening or photography, just for those interested. We either believe or perish. Faith is a universal human obligation and responsibility. This is set out in the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:12. All guests were provided with a wedding garment, meaning faith. One man came, apparently thinking that he could dress better than anybody else, wearing his own, possibly self-made, clothes. He was thrown out.
The standard dress in the Kingdom of God is faith. ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God.’ This one individual had come to the feast proud and superior, not wearing the garments of God-given faith. The Kingdom of God is not a meritocracy. Entry permits, visas and passports are issued to the believing alone. Academic qualifications are irrelevant. Heaven will not be monopolized by theological graduates, nor by people who have ‘never robbed a bank’, but only by people displaying the simple badge of faith. Do you go along with that? Please let me know. REINHARD BONNKE.
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