PART ONE: THE UNAWAKENED BELIEVER.
It is not enough to believe, but there are many believers in the church who have not been awakened. They have never had an encounter with the living Christ’s spirit because they have never sought him with all of their heart. They were happy to have a quick-fix that the church has offered the world since the 19th C. There are varying degrees of belief towards Jesus in the Gospels of the N.T.
Many religious have never heard the call of Christ. They may read the Scriptures and attend Christian worship services. One day listening to the Bible based preacher there comes a personal response of the believer. He/she is suddenly arrested by the challenge to follow Christ and do His bidding. His whole being is awakened into the reality of Christ’s presence and he/she becomes an ardent follower or disciple.
Unawakened souls are not disciples of Christ, merely religious. They may be in the church, but they do not have God’s presence WITH THEM and are not yet His SHEEP.
The unawakened believer has no knowledge of the Scriptures and finds the Bible a mystery which he does not understand.
The unawakened person is classed as a walking dead, or ‘dead man walking’. The unawakened believer needs not to procrastinate too long or the day of grace may pass too soon.
The unawakened person may well have knowledge of creed, confession, and written articles of faith, such as baptism washes away sins.
Awakening does not happen at one’s own behest or the will of the preacher. It is at God’s behest alone. No decision, prayer, water, wine or wafer can compel God to awaken the lost soul, dead in sins and trespasses. The four stages of belief in the New Testament are the unawakened, the awakened, the enlightened, and the illuminated believer.
BIBLE REFERENCES.
John 6:44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:
John 6:65 … no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
John 10:16. And other SHEEP I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.
1 Corinthians 15:34. AWAKE to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
Ephesians 5:14… AWAKE you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
Romans 13:11. …it is high time to AWAKE out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
James 2:19. …the devils also believe and tremble.
FOUR STAGES OF THE BELIEVER’S FAITH. (Part 1)
Published by
Bible Simply
PROFILE of BIBLE SIMPLY
SIMPLE KEYS
TO UNDERSTANDING
AND KNOWING YOUR
BIBLE’S CONTENTS
HOW TO START READING YOUR BIBLE.
As we are educated to be doubters and skeptics, one way or another, you need to employ the willing suspension of disbelief at the very start and if you have not believed the following tenets enumerated below you must pretend they are true while reading.
1. Read it as if it is the infallible Word of God.
2. Remember in the first chapter of the first of sixty-six books: Genesis, these words appear:
a. “God said-God made-God called”
i. God said what you’re reading
ii. God made the patriarchs, prophets & apostles write them.
iii. God called ordinary men to write His Words. Do not treat them as in any other book.
3. Do not analyze it by your own intellect for logic or truthfulness;
4. Do not judge it by your powers of mental reason or of popular philosophy;
5. Read it as God’s Word demonstrating the waywardness of rebellious human nature cursed by sin;
6. Read it noticing the rare men or women that wholeheartedly seek God sincerely without ulterior motive;
7. Read it noticing the futile attempts of men to keep the moral law, vainly worshipping with lip service;
8. Read it and continue the habit even when you do not understand it for God is secretly at work because the Bible says:-:
a. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God:
i. Romans 10: 17.
b. The pre-eternal Christ’s name is the Word, in the triune godhead of the Father, the Word & Spirit:
i. 1st John 5:7; 1st John 1:1; John’s Gospel 1:1.
9. Read it without the help of church or clergy until there arises within your heart a pang of hunger to wholeheartedly be a daily Bible reader.
10. Read it until God’s grace enlightens the eyes of your understanding to fathom Christ’s message to you in both the Old and New Testaments (excepting the uninspired Apocrypha in some Bibles)
11. Read it noticing the principles of the wise reader found in the following Bible references:-
a. Proverbs 3:5-6; 1st Corinthians 2:14; 2nd Timothy 3:16; Romans 1:17; John’s Gospel 1:17.
12. Keep in mind that the minute your mind asserts superior wisdom over your Bible reading you are a fool.
a. Romans 1:22.
13. The reason the mind blindly argues against the credibility of Scripture that the problem is from the heart:
a. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
PROFILE
John David’s Bible Simply is a Know Your Bible program. Bible Simply has been formed to reach the ‘household of faith’ and the god-fearing pilgrims struggling to understand the Bible. Bible Simply would encourage spasmodic readers to become daily Bible readers and regular readers to become more acquainted with the Old and New Testaments.
For a free Bible Study or New Testament sample: c/- biblesimply@gmail.com or
Please write to-
Bible Simply
PO Box 366603,
Bonita Springs FL 34136.
Bible Simply is neither church-based nor sectarian in approach. It does not solicit church attendance or use follow-up methods unless requested.
Bible Simply holds to the tenets of our Puritan forefathers and their early English Bible translations based on the Greek Text of Erasmus, not the unreliable 19th C Greek New Testament of Westcott & Hort upon which most modern translations of the Bible are based.
MOTTO: “Faith alone- by grace alone- through Scripture alone.”
‘The just shall live by faith,’ not of themselves but of grace.
http://bonitabiblemission.worthyofpraise.org/how-to-start-reading-your-bible/
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