Faith Initiation & Faith Response

Everyday God is in the business of initiating to man. He is initiating to us so that we might respond to Him in faith, for it is faith that pleases God!

Faith Initiation and Faith Response

by Pastor Bryan Coelho

Heb.13: 5 – “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you”.

There are 3 specific propositions that accompany what the Word of God says. They are:

1. Divine proposition

2. Human proposition

3. Satanic proposition

Divine and Human proposition

Divine proposition – God initiated the fact that He would create man and that man would respond to Him. Gen.2 – and man was given a free will, which would be exercised to respond to God. There is a divine proposition of faith and there is a human response to God. So we have a divine proposition - God initiating to man and we have human proposition wherein man responds to God in faith and he is able to initiate in faith. When a person receives the message of the gospel and believes that salvation is in Christ – God initiates to him through the gospel by a messenger and man responds to him in faith. As a responder to the gospel, he believes in Christ – that Christ came as the God-man and paid for the sins of the whole world. He then is born again and the Holy Spirit then puts a burden in him to evangelize. Now he is initiating in faith to that which he has responded to – therefore he becomes a soul winner. God always presents a divine proposition – in it He presents to man and man responds in faith and there is a human proposition; he either receives or rationalizes what God has said. In his response he will act in faith or rationalize his viewpoint of what God seemed to have proposed.

Satanic proposition

Then there is satanic proposition – Gen.3:1-5 – he presented a case that was against what God had initiated to man. A satanic proposition is received when I respond outside of faith. Col.2:8; Jam.1:20-21. He now starts rationalizing the Word of God and in order to do that he must abandon faith as the premise to respond, and so God’s Word does not control him any more. He is now looking for something beyond what God has given him.

Contentment

What God has given the believer is to be enjoyed – through this you will enter into divine contentment. Contentment - to be sufficient in oneself; to be possessed in ability; to be strong; to be sufficient for that which is required of him; to enter into defense and ward off or stand against. When God initiated to man and he responded in faith, he had the ability to be sufficient and ward off against the enemy. In order for one to come out of this sufficiency, one has to leave the premise of faith. Now, he will be available to satanic proposition – this is available to a person who will not use the weapon of faith – Eph.6:12-13. Faith is a weapon – it is not just doctrine but my understanding of what I know, that delivers me. Many have only knowledge and so, not many are victorious. In the fall, they were having knowledge but there was no victory because they had left the premise of faith and it caused them to make a decision to rationalize the truth of the Word of God. I am open to deception the moment I leave the premise of faith and I rationalize, not understanding satanic proposition and I am ignorant of it and don’t think about the consequences of the decision at that time.

Man chooses to obey what God has said and God chooses the consequences of his obedience. We choose to obey God – God decides the consequence of our obedience – this will bring tremendous suffering – too many people try to figure out what will happen if they obey. You will be in heaven because of your faith in Christ’s atoning work but you could be a loser in terms of rewards and some will be ashamed at his coming – I Jn.2:22-27. Rev.2:11 - Who are the ones that will lose their rewards ? The ones who chose the consequences for their obedience – they decide they will obey because it is based upon their consequences – they don’t know that God’s plan delivers us to the Cross. The person that is living in contentment does not need any assistance - Phil.4:11. Contentment is the inner quality of life that is possessed with God inside. For our sufficiency is in Him - II Cor.3:5. Faith releases a kingdom within.