Living
by faith and not by sight is not a dispensation of risk-taking and
adventuring. It is the clear ground upon
which every Christian is to operate his or her life. When we let Christ become our salvation, we
received the Holy Spirit as a part of our personality. This means that He interacts with us at every
level of our thinking, whether conscious or unconscious. The warping caused by sin makes us
incorrigible at points; pouty children who demand our way at the expense of
living in the Spirit. This creates a
conflict in our soul and the effect upon our soul is that we develop outbreaks
of anger, depression, fear, discontentment, jealousy, frustration, impatience
and a loss of gratitude. When we
frustrate the Holy Spirit by our rebellion against Scripture or disregard for
how He is leading us, we start to lose contact with Him. Some Christians are just fine with that. They are in fact pleased to not have to put
up with His pestering but after a while, it becomes clear that we are miserable
people when we are not walking in step with the Holy Spirit. At that point, when we like the prodigal son
realize just how badly we have chosen, we in our misery cry out to God for
help. Through our desolation we repent
of our sin and the Holy Spirit presents Himself to us once more and our heart
becomes soft enough to live in Him, or to put it another way, live by
faith. Faith is not an ephemeral feeling
of "everything will somehow come together." Faith is the practical doing as the Holy
Spirit gives direction. The Holy Spirit
might point out a Scripture that tells you how to respond to an argument you
are having with your spouse or tell you to stop working for a certain company
but always, if you are to remain "Spirit filled", you must not trust
your Sin marred "sight" judgment, but rather by faith let the Spirit
lead your next step. The Holy Spirit is
not going to fight with you to gain your allegiance. But if you want the fruit of the Spirit
operating within your personality, you must fight with your flesh to make Him
your commander and chief!
We
live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians
5: 7 NIV
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