Faith is it a work of God, man or both?

dms1972

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I want to ask a couple of things.

How does someone find God?

I have a bit of knowledge of theology, and pray about things but I live in my head a lot - and i wonder if am in touch with reality, if my praying is real, or if it hypocritical, and I am really denying God.

There is a verse which says : "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me." Isaish 65:1

Can a person exercise faith when they want?
 

Mark Quayle

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I want to ask a couple of things.

How does someone find God?

I have a bit of knowledge of theology, and pray about things but I live in my head a lot - and i wonder if am in touch with reality, if my praying is real, or if it hypocritical, and I am really denying God.

There is a verse which says : "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me." Isaish 65:1

Can a person exercise faith when they want?
What do you think faith is, as you refer to it here —the same sort of thing by which we are saved? Or the sort of thing even unbelievers understand?
 
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fhansen

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I want to ask a couple of things.

How does someone find God?

I have a bit of knowledge of theology, and pray about things but I live in my head a lot - and i wonder if am in touch with reality, if my praying is real, or if it hypocritical, and I am really denying God.

There is a verse which says : "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me." Isaish 65:1

Can a person exercise faith when they want?
It's both/and. We cannot possibly move ourselves to God, let alone find Him; we're lost and wouldn't have a clue where to even look. Meanwhile, in this relatively godless world where truth, justice, and love are so often denied, dismissed, and trampled upon, we can develop a hunger and thirst for them, for goodness, for something better, so that when He comes knocking on our door we may well respond and avail ourselves to His graceful overtures. Faith is a gift-and yet a gift we can refuse.
 
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d taylor

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If faith with out works is dead, how can faith be a work. Faith may contain works. Example if a person has trusted in The Messiah for God's free gift of Eternal Life. They may then go about doing good works, following in The Messiah example.

Faith is trust, to trust in something, does this require a work. If so please provide and example.

If anything faith may be seen as a passive work meaning there is no physical action require by a person to exercise faith except understand what you are placing your faith in.

The written part below is from
Saving Faith Is Not Like Sitting in a Chair
March 1, 1993 by Bob Wilkin in Grace in Focus Articles


Understanding is necessary for faith to occur. However, that is not exactly the same as saying that it is an element of faith.
Understanding is a precondition of faith inasmuch as one cannot believe what he does not understand. If I told you that ptaff will mlarc in the year 2000, you would not be able to believe that because you wouldn’t understand it. Only by understanding the meaning of the noun ptaff and the verb mlarc would you be able to evaluate that proposition as to its trustworthiness.
 
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Mark Quayle

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I personally believe God has chosen believers and their purpose. This doesn’t mean we don’t need to share the gospel.
Exactly right. God uses means to accomplish his plans.

I was just thinking about that a few minutes ago. If, before one is saved, he is "condemned already" (John 3:18) does that mean there's no point in repentance? Of course not! God uses means.

Once I was concerned that a friend would go to hell, if I didn't return to speak with him about questions he had, but I didn't apparently have to opportunity to do so. A Reformed person I was telling about it said not to worry about it —that God had already decided where that friend would end up. But I said, no!, that God uses means to accomplish his plans! If I failed to speak to that man, and by my failure he refused the gospel....?, then God would have used me to do what God had planned concerning that friend's destiny. "Such things must come, but woe to the man by whom they come!" That person was wrong about what Reformed Theology teaches. Nothing is automatic —it is only sure.
 
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Mr. M

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I want to ask a couple of things.

How does someone find God?

I have a bit of knowledge of theology, and pray about things but I live in my head a lot - and i wonder if am in touch with reality, if my praying is real, or if it hypocritical, and I am really denying God.

There is a verse which says : "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me." Isaish 65:1

Can a person exercise faith when they want?
Faith has always been available for those who seek God, whose existence
has always been
evident in creation.
Hebrews 11:3
3
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Romans 1
:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown
to them
.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful,
but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Noah found grace with God.
God took Enoch.
Abraham is spoken of as the father of faith.
 
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setst777

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What do you think faith is, as you refer to it here —the same sort of thing by which we are saved? Or the sort of thing even unbelievers understand?

They say, "You can draw a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink."

For those who thirst (the humble and spiritually crushed), after being drawn, invited, and called by world-wide work of the Gospel and the Spirit, they are ready to listen, believe, and so be drawn.

The Gospel and Spirit universally convict the proud and humble alike of their sinful condition and urge them to repent toward God, deny themselves, and then to believe in Lord Jesus demonstrated in a sanctified life, following Lord Jesus into a life of righteousness and love. The humble will listen, because they thirst, and so will be drawn to repent and believe.

Psalms 25:8-9 (WEB) 8 Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.
9 He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way

These are the genuine believers who come to Lord Jesus to "drink," "believe," "walk," "live," and "sow" (all synonymous terms) to the Spirit so they may have spiritual life - the eternal life of God living in them.

To "drink," "believe," "walk," "live," and "sow" are to be continuous so that we may continue in the life of God through His Spirit. That is the Gospel Faith by which God does is saving work in us.

By this faith, as we follow Lord Jesus, the Spirit will lead the believer into the new life he committed to when he first repented and committed himself to follow Lord Jesus.

The leading of the Spirit in the believer's life will continue as the believer remembers his First Love, and continues in that same faith to the end, because many will quench, grieve, resist, and insult the Spirit living in them.

The Spirit will indwell to give life those who put this Gospel Faith in Lord Jesus, and continue in that faith, which means to drink, live, walk, and sow to the Spirit.

John 6:37-39 (WEB) 37 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! 38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.

Romans 8:3-4 (WEB) 3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; 4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Romans 8:12-14 (WEB) 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.

Galatians 5:24-25 (WEB) 24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Galatians 6:7-9 (WEB) 7 Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we do not give up.
 
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ViaCrucis

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I want to ask a couple of things.

How does someone find God?

I have a bit of knowledge of theology, and pray about things but I live in my head a lot - and i wonder if am in touch with reality, if my praying is real, or if it hypocritical, and I am really denying God.

There is a verse which says : "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me." Isaish 65:1

Can a person exercise faith when they want?

Faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
God gives and works faith through the Gospel (Romans 10:17).

Thus faith is extra nos, from outside ourselves.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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setst777

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I want to ask a couple of things.

How does someone find God?

We find God by believing in Lord Jesus after hearing the gracious universal call and invitation of God through the Gospel - the universal drawing of God by the Word and Spirit.

John 3:16 (WEB) 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

1 Corinthians 1:21 (WEB) 21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.

John 12:32 (WEB) And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

God draws all men to believe and so be saved, but many will refuse to listen, and so believe. But to those who do listen and believe (the humble and spiritually crushed) are drawn by the universal indiscriminate invitation of the Gospel and Spirit.

Psalms 25:8-9 (WEB) 8 Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way. 9 He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way.

Matthew 11:28 (WEB)
28 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

Luke 4:18-19 (WEB) 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor (humble, spiritually crushed). He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, 19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Isaiah 61:1-2]

Matthew 11:5 (WEB) 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, [Isaiah 35:5] the dead are raised up, and the poor (the crushed or humble) have good news preached to them. [Isaiah 61:1-4]

Acts 10:34-35 (WEB) 34 Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism; 35 but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.

Those who believe are the ones who find God, and God saves them.

I have a bit of knowledge of theology, and pray about things but I live in my head a lot - and i wonder if am in touch with reality, if my praying is real, or if it hypocritical, and I am really denying God.

There is a verse which says : "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me." Isaish 65:1

Can a person exercise faith when they want?

Definitely! Faith always remains yours. Faith or lack of faith is what each of us commits to in life and which God impartially judges each person.

The Gentiles, who did not know God, were preached the Gospel, and so came to learn about Him whom they previously were not seeking. By believing the Message, the Gentiles found God, and God found them through the preaching work coupled with the Spirit - both working together to call and invite the Gentiles to faith in Lord Jesus.

For The Christian
, God holds each of us responsible for our faith, and continue faith, before Him - a faith demonstrated by following Lord Jesus into a sanctified life of love and righteousness.

Faith must be demonstrated in a righteous life, for only as we walk in the light, as Lord Jesus is in the light, will God cleanse us from all sin.

1 John 1:6-7 (WEB) 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Consider carefully the following Scriptures which all teach about that Gospel Faith by which God saves us. Apply these Scriptures to yourself to test the authenticity of your faith...

1 Peter 1:6-7 (WEB) 6 Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, 7 that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ

If you possess this faith, then you are not hypocritical.

All the saving promises of God are ours by faith in Lord Jesus.

Hebrews 10:35-36 (WEB) 35 Therefore do not throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Galatians 5:24-25 (WEB) 24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (WEB) 3 For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God, 6 that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. 7 For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. 8 Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.

1 Peter 1:16-18 (WEB) “You shall be holy; for I am holy.” [Leviticus 11:44-45] 17 If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear, 18 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers

Hebrews 12:14-17 (WEB) 14 Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, 15 looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it, 16 lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. 17 For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.

Hebrews 12:25 (WEB) 25 See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven

Matthew 5:13 (WEB) Speaking to His followers
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.

Luke 14:33-35 (WEB) The followers of Lord Jesus are referred to as “salt.”
33 So therefore whoever of you who does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Mark 13:32-37 (WEB) ... 35 Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning; 36 lest coming suddenly he might find you sleeping. 37 What I tell you, I tell all: Watch.”

Luke 21:34-36 (WEB) 34 “So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. 35 For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. 36 Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

John 15:10 (WEB) 10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

Romans 6:21-22 (WEB)
21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.

Romans 8:12-13 (WEB) 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

1 Corinthians 10:11-12 (WEB) 11 Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall.

Hebrews 3:12-15 (WEB) 12 Beware, brothers and sisters, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; 13 but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end, 15 while it is said,
Today if you will hear his voice, Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” [Psalm 95:7-8]

Hebrews 4:1 (WEB) Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into His Rest.

Hebrews 4:11 (WEB) 11 Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that Rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

Hebrews 6:11-12 (WEB) 11 We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, 12 that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises.

2 Peter 1:8-11 (WEB) 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. 11 For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

James 1:12-16 (WEB) 12 Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. 15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters.

1 John 2:15-17 (WEB) 15 Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s. 17 The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.

Revelation 2:10-11 (WEB) 10 Do not be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.

Revelation 3:1-5 (WEB) “I know your works, in that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up and keep the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If therefore you won’t watch, I will come as a thief, and you won’t know what hour I will come upon you. 4 Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Revelation 3:11-12 (WEB) 11 I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown.

Revelation 14:12 (WEB) 12 Here is the perseverance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Revelation 16:15 (WEB) 15 “Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn’t walk naked, and they see his shame.”
 
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eleos1954

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I want to ask a couple of things.

How does someone find God?

I have a bit of knowledge of theology, and pray about things but I live in my head a lot - and i wonder if am in touch with reality, if my praying is real, or if it hypocritical, and I am really denying God.

There is a verse which says : "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me." Isaish 65:1

Can a person exercise faith when they want?

Faith is believing God will do all that He said He will do.

Romans 10 (read all of it)

Isaiah 65:20 is quoted.
 
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TedT

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Can a person exercise faith when they want?
Faith is an unproven hope in someone ...probably to be telling you the truth, Heb 11:1 with 2 Corinthians 4:18
2 Corinthians 5:7. We see (find) GOD by hope, not proof, though it is my experience that the hope we practice leads to a feeling of proof our hope is being fulfilled.

While you are doubting the reality of the gospel, do you not always hope that it is true and will be applied to you? Ride the wave of hope because you will get very little proof of GOD, the nature of Jesus or our end at death... Proverbs 3:5 Trust (have hope) in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; you don't need to get it all figured out, we are not saved by theology, we are saved by hope:
Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen (ie, proven) is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?
 
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