I hope that you can agree with me on this simple topic that, “without faith it is impossible to please God!”   


For many of you, young men and women, the question remains, “How do I show my God, my personal faith?” 



I believe that in order to “show” God that you are trusting Him exclusively, you must, in the first place, “learn” what you are being called to do for God. 


And it takes time to gain knowledge of God and His Voice. His ways are not our ways nor are His thoughts our thoughts.
 
I remind you at the outset of this discussion on faith, that we do not do stuff to “earn” salvation, but out of the blessedness of our eternal calling in Christ, we “serve” Our Lord Jesus with a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving by virtue of His faith working on the inside of us. 
 
 These kind of divine thoughts should temper our ardor for His kingdom to come into our world.
 

Do people today really believe that hell and judgment await all those who deny the Lordship of Jesus? 


Answer should breed in us a holy urgency. 


Is it clear in the hearts of true believers that heaven awaits all those who trust exclusively "in the blood" of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins? 


Answer should inspire spiritual comfort to the downtrodden and the lost sheep of the House of Israel.


Do our neighbors embrace entirely the truth that by the virtue of the righteousness of Jesus, by virtue of His Blood, have direct access to the throne of heaven? 


Answer should inspire a hopeful determination to impact our world.


That by the imputation (exchanged and entrusted to your account) of His righteousness, we can do mighty "works" in the promotion of His kingdom? 


Answer leads us to perform Signs & Wonders in His great Name.


2 Cor.5:18-20 says, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 


Isn't it amazing that just by a simple admission of our being a “sinner” and through a real heartfelt confession of our “real” violations of God's holy law, we are saved and that -  forever?


The promise of God is that we will be with the Lord forever, if continue steadfast in our walk before His face.  


This basic idea and simple requirement of the Father required of every member of the human race. As Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17:27, "...that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us."  Paul assumed this reality existed even in the decatance of ancient greco roman culture.


Like our apostolic forefather, Paul, we desire to the utmost to reveal to our world that Our God reigns on the inside of us. That we, by showing our faith by our faithful action, reveal the existence of a very real God. 


So we must start then with a clear understanding that our eternal salvation is in... Christ... alone. By His great power we will prevail.


We must know, at the depths of our heart, that this God-initiated work of faith is the essential first step to the act of “showing” our faith to our very skeptical world. 


This amazing call is in the context of being and acting, on behalf of Christ, as mediators of His Covenant with all of mankind, we are clearly called to compel our world to be, “reconciled to God!” or they will perish. 


Do you realize the important role God has given you and me?  And has this truth gripped your heart?


To know for sure that you are born again by the water and blood of Jesus, through His death and powerful resurrection, is the most absolutely essential truth to be understood by all those called to proclaim His word of peace to the fallen race men.  


That in our heart of hearts, we must effectively “show” the power of our faith. This work is between you and Your Maker, and as you, in the garden of your deepest contemplations, meditate on its immense value to you, as a condemned sinner, you sense real alignment with your hearers. 


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As we progress on our way to the celestial city, we start to learn what it means to “abide” in Christ, a very “real” and “vital” faith begins to agitate beneath the surface of our life in Christ. This work is supernatural, it creates within the depths of our spirit a contagion, to the point that an energy starts to emerge in our walk before the Lord, and we begin to change our surroundings by inspiring others to seek the Lord more fervently.  I have seen this happen first hand in my personal life.


Your real and vital faith reveals to our very needy world, that a very awesome Creator and exacting Judge stares down at us every second of every day and takes notice of us.  He cares about our decisions either to serve Him or ourselves, and all that we say, think, and do.


As ambassadors of Christ we must keep before us the certain truth that, “without faith it is impossible to please God” and this truth forces us to face the fact and answer the question,  "have I really embraced my calling to be “an ambassador of Christ”?  


Like Daniel, we must consistently perform this sacred high priestly act for our world, this we will do, and in time, we will see our world focus on God's ways and laws. 


In a very practical way, we show our faith to our world by what we do in every little and big act we perform. 


Our faith works should flow naturally from our life without an abundance of premeditation.   

Even down to the most minute detail of our decision-making. 

Imagine walking with your father Abraham, imagine watching his decision making as you read of his life in the book of Genesis. If you haven't, take the time to carefully read the stages of Abraham's faith development.
 
Like in our father Abraham, God is forming in us a faith DNA that will eventually define the story of our lives here on earth. 


Once you are assured of your new birth in Christ, you may be led to spend time alone with Him, just so we can accurately learn that our faith belongs to HIm. 

 
But eventually, Your faithful heavenly Father and King will guide you to walk with those who “know” Him and the power of His work in their lives. They too have learned at the feet of the Savior. Their faith is working on the inside of them, in similar fashion, so they can understand your struggle because they have been there and they are with you in the walk of faith.

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As you begin to grow up into Christ, and within the context of local body of believers, you will, gradually, over time, become all that you have been destined to be in Him if you keep walking by faith.


The word of God declares quite emphatically in Phil.2:12b,13 these words, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for [His] good pleasure."


To work out your salvation in fear and trembling assumes that you are walking in faith.


Many of the emerging young leaders I have met over the last few years are in deep need to connect with God-ordained godly leadership suited to their personal calling. 


In order for these promising young leaders to rise to the next level in their walk, they must move to a place of submitting their life to God-ordained spiritual authority.  So they can advance to their next point of service in the body of Christ.
 
These older men and women of God have been called by Christ to uncover the specific gifts that Our Father in heaven strategically wove into their birth in His kingdom. They have been called to lay their experienced faith-filled and holy hands on you to impart their life into yours.


As you walk together for a season, and only over a period of time, these young emerging leaders will find their place and office in Christ's church. So they can impart to other newly birthed believers their own personal faith and experience of walking with the Father.


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Determining your office and your spiritual gifts will help you to connect with those best suited to help you establish the work of Christ in your specific area of ministry. For many of God's servants, this work of identifying with your office and calling will happen over a period of years, don't be frustrated if you aren't sure right now.


It is important to you to consider and know your specific role in the Body of Christ. Your calling and your place in His Body will fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and help you be fitted in the right place and find the joy of being where you have been prepared to be before time began.


As your faith walk is established over good period of time, you will sense that your heart is drawn to certain men or women in the body of Christ. This reveals something of your spiritual DNA. This is a powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, and it will guide you to connect with others who have been through similar circumstances and are called to lift your Holy Spirit anointed ministry to a place of greater power and influence. 


As you grow in Christ, you will begin to function either in the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, or teaching role as taught in Eph. 4:11-13 which clearly lays out the way Christ desires to build up His people individually and operationally within His Body, 


“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ.”


How many of you can honestly say that you are moving in the way just described here in the Word of God?   


How many of you even know what this text teaches?


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We live in an exciting time, the Lord Christ through His Spirit is revealing how we can gain more power and influence in our world. We see that we have allowed the enemy to reduce our expectations. By limiting what God can do in our lives. But that is about to change!

Sadly, we have a great deficiency in the Body of Christ, we don't know who we are in Him and we have lacked a right understanding and knowledge of who we are and what we are supposed to do for Him. We don't know "how" to build.  This too will change in our time. When we recognize our office and function in the body of Christ.


If you and I take seriously the emphasis of Eph 4:11-13, we all are being called to be a leaders in the church of today and tomorrow. You and I will fit into at least one of these offices mentioned in Eph. 4 and find our place.


The Lord's desire is to establish His People by raising them up in one of these 5 offices so we can rightly build His Church on the earth. The text says, "He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men... for the equipping of he saints, for the work of ministry


Are you preparing and working hard to know your office?  Are you seeking the Lord to discover the purpose of His death for you in your ministry calling? His death and bloodshed are powerful! They have a divine purpose in your life, not so you can just go to heaven when you die, but that you are set free to serve Him with gladness of heart and with much power.



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I have to ask the question


Are you trusting in the Word of God to be a sufficient guide to manage your life in Christ?    


For you and me, the sad truth is, that so many pastors today are not preaching the “whole counsel” of God's word because they do not possess “faith” in the sufficiency of the Word of God. They have been taught to preach by men. Many have not found their place in the Lord's body. And therefore, they do not know how to model to our generation --- Faith! 


But Satan will not keep Christ's church in a state of weakness forever! No, Jesus knows that we are so weak to His devices. He will deliver us through a right understanding of His Word.


This attitude is being refined out of the Lord's body. We will change our attitude, and we must, this supernatural work is necessary in order to regain our place as accurate and true ambassadors of Christ's kingdom on the earth. 


To become invaders of the earth realm, to shed abroad the light of His gospel, and not our best efforts to help people or by being nice... 
 
NO, but by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit through a right understanding of the power of the Cross of Jesus, the know the power of the blood of Jesus and what it has secured for us, by this knowledge... we will prevail!


The words that flow out of the mouth of God must be preeminence in the life of every pastor or church leader, every apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher that has been called to shepherd Christ's sheep. And to equip His saints.


To rightly interpret and receive Christ's Word is another expression of our faith. And it will make or break your ministry. Numerical advantage is not the key marker of success, rather, it the spiritual growth of your congregation, the activation of the saints for the work of ministry... by this we will be judged in the day of His appearing!


To walk in the 5 offices designated by Christ to release power to captive men, for us, those saved by His righteous blood, is our collective of showing our faith to our world. That we are under His control and we are in a clear and evident state of unity.  


Your faithful obedience will rightly equip God's saints to do the work of ministry in Christ's body, it's essential, and it will happen!


All those who have entrusted yourself to a mature saint in the kingdom must know they have been entrusted to raise up Christ's leaders. This work is nonnegotiable.  


In II Tim.3:16, 17 the Word says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and his profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 


By simply trusting in the simple word of God, the same Word of God that has been given to you by faithful men, you have been delivered from dead works by God's sovereign hand so you might assist all of us in the spreading abroad of His cause worldwide.


If you are assisted in a godly way you then will also participate in helping others find their way in God's calling on their lives as well.  


Praise God!


What I have just said may sound new and to some of you it may be tough to understand, but we must realize that God's word tells us that the only way a man of God can become “perfect” and thoroughly equipped to do “gospel” work is by allowing the Word of God reprove, correct, and instruct us. 


You will not be advantaged if you try to fight this work of grace in your life!


By trusting the word of God, we show our faith. To know its sufficiency and completeness, we reveal our exclusive delight in God's law. Like our hero, King David, we walk in the love of God's statues and they become our constant delight.


As time passes, you and I will become a “perfect” man or woman, not lacking in any good work. This way requires the fire of God's testing judgment. His reproofs are essential.  This testing comes when we rest solely on the revelation of Himself to us personally, we know what we know of Him and that becomes our gospel message.


As the old preachers used to say, "we preach as dying men to a dead world". 


Dead to our wishes. Dead to our fears. Dead to our doubt. and dead to our selfish desire to do our own thing. 


The fire that refines my faith comes when I trust Him for my daily bread when there is no bread. This work is under the same fire administration Our God used to save our forefathers in the faith. He has always been about the business of saving very real sinners from their sins by His Powerful Word of Reconciliation. 


I suppose we must face the reality -- like Moses, David, and the apostles, by studying their lives we realize that we will never leave the refiner's fire.


People are watching you and me right now, they asking the hard questions of you, "Do you really believe what comes out of your mouth?" 


Or some may say, 

"Can I trust God like this guy does, he's a radical?"

This faith stuff is very hard, and at the same time it is very practical. 

As I sit in my home in Pilot Mountain resting on 21 acres of very beautiful pasture land, with seven children looking at their dad right now wondering, “when is God going to come and put us back into public ministry, or grant us our hearts desire by allowing us to serve again in the body of Christ as a family? 

To grant us a place to offer our gift of faith in the lives of needy people so we can see life happen in their walk.

...and while we wait we wonder.. like Abraham, "Are we going to lose everything?" 

"Will we be forsaken by God, deserted and alone out here in the desert?
 
 "Will we ever have a natural born son to call our own?"

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These are real questions and deserve a heavenly response and all I can say to you is “trust” in God and believe with me that the same God who launched our ministry in May of 2006, blessed it with His favor, and then chose to shut it down in October 2008, is the same God who will bring His ministry back in His Perfect Time, we believe in better shape by virtue of workings of the fire of His testing.  


In the meantime, God has, with no real income, miraculously fed all nine members of our large family for two long years in the wilderness.  Amazing. 


All of us have had a bed to rest our heads, and our stomachs are full. I believe this has happened because we have been forced to walk before the face of God in faith. We are going to be the better for this experience and so will you!


By my faith, dear friend. Just by taking one day at a time and walking faithfully before His eye day by day, in spite of continual setbacks and disappointments. 


By being real with Our God. By reaching beyond our experience, we now realize we are reaching higher and farther then we have ever reached before, even to touch the very heart of God.


God gives us all grace to stay in the way of faith. Jacob wrestled with God for a kingdom and he got it, but not until he was ready. And it didn't happen until he was ready to go back to Canaan and face his brother Esau.


In the final analysis, I truly believe that the Lord is going to restore the beauty of His Church in these days, I want to be a part of that work no matter where He leads our family. I just don't want to miss it!


I don't believe that Our God would not send a beautiful revival to His people without moving us all to new places, simply to test our faith. He is allowed, after-all, He is God!


With your loving support, I beg Him to revive the rising generation of young leaders I have sought to minister to in this beautiful area of the USA. 


To grant them a passion for Him that is faith-filled and holy. I beg the Lord to wake up His church here in Surry County and fill it with His Holy Spirit so it can become a beautiful bride ready for Christ's return!


This must happen soon, and it will happen through our entire commitment to walk by faith as a community of believers in His Grace and Power. 


I continually ask the Lord to bring His people together to prepare the land for Christ's Return to earth! And I ask Him to please take care of my family when I'm gone.


The Word of God says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” 


Put His Kingdom first in your life and God will take care of your daily bread.


In His Restful Care,



 

Jonathan D Keener