Even Demons Believe, Chapter Nineteen

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19. The First Step Of Humility

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  • Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (Acts 8:30–31)

Do you understand what you are reading?” Be humble enough like the eunuch in the story above to say, “How can I?” The cross crucifies pride. Like the eunuch, nd a true disciple of Jesus to “invite[d]” into your life who can teach you to count the cost and baptize you “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” God will honor this, and you will begin a new day, with a new life as a disciple of Jesus. Ask God to send you someone who understands what it means to count the cost, how to suffer against sin, how to count suffering as a joy, who denies self unto death, and knows how to really be born again. Find someone without a legalistic or shallow understanding of water baptism, but who themselves have walked through the narrow gate by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Usually a person will think this is beyond them to live. They feel hopeless in attempting to live this kind of Christianity. Many voiced this very concern to Jesus and He simply told them to make “every effort.” The good news is that if you want to love God, He will give you His power to walk the narrow road.

The message of the cross is not a matter of a bunch of rules, principles, and applications of dos or don’ts. Rather it means surrendering to God to do the work through you. So the question isn’t whether you can live this kind of life, it is a question of whether you are willing to let Jesus honestly be Lord of your life. Only those who say it is “hopeless” to live this life will be given divine power to walk the narrow road.

Pray for God to show you who preaches and lives the “full message.” Many groups preach only the Spirit, (blessings, miracles, feelings) and therefore remove the blood (cost, suering, testimonies) and these partial gospels can never deliver one from sin. Many others speak of only the blood, (cost, denying self) but do not have the Spirit (oil, joy) or the water (refreshment, purity) all of which leaves the believer despondent and weak. Still other groups preach the water of Jesus but forget the blood and the Spirit. For them Jesus is an intellectual or feel-good experience. Let God lead you to a church where you feel uncomfortable. After all, the cross is not a comfortable thing to hang on and a church preaching the complete message of the cross can feel very unsettling to join. If you can’t find someone with these basics down, realize that they offer you, at best, only part of the good news. After all, if the foundation is faulty there is a greater danger the house will collapse.

The salvation call of Jesus includes the altar of sacrice that will forever change a man. The old Law of the Bible required many sacrices burnt on the altar for sins. Jesus completed the law by oering Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus lived a life continually sacrificing Himself to God. And those born again, in the image of Jesus, live a life of continual sacrice to God. Disciples of Jesus walk in the footsteps of Jesus by daily offering their “bodies” as living sacrices.

  • Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1)

A true “act of worship” towards God requires that a man or woman sacrice themselves to God. God’s “mercy” motivates a thankful-hearted person to become a disciple. Without sacrificing everything to God, we have no hope of salvation. Are you ready, with joy in your heart, to count the cost, pay the price, and become a disciple? If so the Scripture below is for you. If you desire to “obey everything” by the new self that God will create, then Jesus commands you to become a “disciple,” by being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. en every day, as you grow in the Lord, confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. TThen your faith will be real and it will provide the blessing of saving your soul.

  • Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. erefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20)

What a blessing it is to know Jesus remains “always” with us “to the very end of the age.” Those who obey God by faith have the right and the privilege to walk in this blessing. As we have seen, God only gives the Holy Spirit to those who “obey him.” Those who have true faith in God obey Him in this way, by the power of the Holy Spirit and for the reasons He commands. Faith gives the power to obey and the new life springs from obedience to God. Note well that God only gives the Holy Spirit to those who “obey him” day in and day out.

  • We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. (Acts 5:32 emphasis added)

It happens all by faith, but the new life is maintained and grows only as we obey the Holy Spirit with a living faith. For a man who says he believes something but does not act with the power of that belief is as a demon. After all, “even the demons believe—and shudder.”

Truths To Ponder, Beliefs To Examine

  1. What opinion do you have about the way of salvation?
  1. What opinion do you have about the way of salvation?
  1. What opinion do you have about the way of salvation?

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