Believing is Receiving

According to the New Testament economy, everything has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus on the cross. The law is over and now we believers live not by the energy of the flesh but by unmerited, undeserved grace. So God's imperative is, under the new covenant, believe, not do.

Immediately after we are saved and receive the Lord Jesus into our spirit, our natural thought is to do something for the Lord because He has done so much for us. This is to eat to the tree of knowledge, to be independent from the Lord and to live by our own effort which is to live by the flesh. Unfortunately, what we do spontaneously, according to our natural concept, is to attempt to do good which is to live by right and wrong. This is to live by the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We must always be aware that the tree of knowledge is not only evil but also good. And the good is always the enemy of the best. this is law. keeping and the result is that we fall into sin because the law is the strength of sin.

You cannot mix grace with law. If you do Christ becomes of none effect to you. (Gal. 2:21) Your entire Christian life must be lived by undeserved, unmerited grace. Grace is Christ Himself freely flowing in us as our joy, peace and enabling to express God in every way. That is we will be the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

Since grace is not by doing, how do we live in and experience this grace? It is by receiving. John 1:12 says that as many as have received Him He gave authority to become the children of God, even to those who believe into His name. John defines believing as receiving. Belief is not an objective believe in some foreign object but a subjective experience just like drinking a glass of water. It is being filled in your spirit. (Eph. 5:18) Every day we look away to jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. As we look to Him in our spirit and call on His name we are filled with Himself and He becomes our faith. This is the receiving of the Spirit into the depths of your being. This is the practical experience of faith.If you are really practicing this you will experience life and peace and joy. You could describe this as a river of peace flowing into, through and out of you just as it is depicted in the New Jerusalem. Like Jesus said in John chapter seven, "Out of your inner most being shall flow rivers of living water.