Many people have a wrong definition of what it means to “believe”. This society of Christians think believing means thinking. They believe that it’s an opinion. Yet when Jesus was telling us to believe on Him, He wasn’t just saying to think He is real. He was saying trust in me. Rely on me. The Greek and the Hebrew definition for believe is to trust on, to rely on. Yet in American culture, we think “believe” means to accept something as true or an opinion. Newsflash, other religions believe that Jesus died and rose again. Historians and theologians believe that He died and rose again. Does that mean that they believe on Him? No.
It’s those who trust in Him. It’s those who rely on Him. To trust in Him is a work. I have to actually do something in my heart to lead myself to trust Him. I have to quench my feelings, and to be able to trust in Him, I have to actually do something. I have to actually apply myself, give myself, because He said if any man come after me, He must deny himself and follow me. He told us to do something. He tells us to do things if we want to know how to trust in Him. These are those that believe: those that do what He says.
Jesus called Himself the Word of God. To believe on Him is to believe on His Word. He said, “If any man loves me, he will keep my words, and I and my father will make our abode in him.” Our belief requires us to believe. Belief may mean to see something as true but to believe is to actually move on my belief. To believe is to do. To believe in its real biblical definition is the believing that saves. To do what He says, to go where He is going. This is to believe. Every day I have to choose to believe because to believe on Him is trust in Him. Believing in Jesus is not a one-day thing. It is the daily choice of your life.
One day I may have believed on Him and another day I may be believing in myself and trusting in my flesh. That one day that you believed is only the start, yet the Bible talks about a great falling away that clearly shows that one day you can believe and another day you may not. What are you going to do to continue to believe and not fall away? For believing to be effective I have to do what I believe. What I believe requires me to do something if I really believe it. What’s going to happen when you’re standing and believing but the storms of life come to knock you over?
That's why we have the Word. The Rock. It is our foundation that we stand so that we would not be knocked over, that we would not fall away. The man that had the child cried out to Jesus, “I believe but help mine unbelief.” What are you going to do when unbelief comes? Yes, you just believe but unbelief is here to knock out your belief. So I have to do what the Word says. I have to fear not, I have to cast down imaginations. I have to resist Satan. I have to take every thought unto captivity or else I will become as an unbeliever. When the storms come, I will panic and try to fix and figure things out on my own. That's what it looks like to believe in myself. Yet you say you believe in Him?
You may have believed on Him that one day when He saved you but how come the next day now you are trusting yourself to fend for yourself in this life? Then you don't really believe on Him anymore like you say you do. One night you may have held onto Him and His Word but the next the devil came with thorns and thistles. The fowler of the air came and stole the seed. Or maybe because you don't plow your heart of its hardness, the Word cannot go deep in you to sustain you. The Word may have been there that one night but because of the ground that you allowed it to be on, it withered away. He comes with the seed, the Word, and His Spirit, but our job is to make a home for it, for Him. Our job is to give good ground to let it grow, and the ones that believe are the ones that allow the seed to grow. Yet to allow that seed to grow, I have to do something to that ground.
See Matthew 13.
In the world, I see to believe, but in the kingdom, I believe to see. The devil believes and trembles but we need to believe, believe like the trusting-in-Him type of believing. When Jesus told people to believe, He wasn’t just telling them to think differently. When He said believe, He was saying throw yourself unto me. Give me your life. Trust me with it. Even the devil knows He’s real but the devil doesn't put his trust in Him. To trust in Him is not just to pretend He’s going to do something. He has given us instructions and things and His ways for us to do so that He will make things happen. Just like He said you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood if you want to remain in me. In order to continue to have Him, I must continue to eat His Word and drink His blood. There are things I have to do to continue to have Him.
It says in Revelation that the saints overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the end. Those three things require me to do something. Every time the accuser comes, I have to submit myself to the blood. In order for me to have a testimony, I have to be in Him and follow Him or else my testimony is not about Him, it’s about me. In order for me to love not my life until the end, I must resist the flesh and deny myself. These are works, these are things that I myself have to do, and God gives me the grace to do it.
There are things I have to do to continue to believe. I may not have had to do much to begin to believe because all that happened was Jesus revealed Himself and I was changed. Though Jesus could have showed up, but if I didn't continue to believe on Him, it would have profited me none. On the flip side, He only comes to the humble-hearted. So even for Him to come unto me, I had to do something. The Pharisees could not see Him because they said they could see. So, for them to ever see Him, at some point they would have had to humble themselves and realize that they are poor, blind, and naked. “Call out unto the Lord Jesus to be saved.” Isn't calling out to Him me doing something? Not by works, just believe? Not biblical because even to believe is to do something. There's something that needs to be done in my heart. A decision that I’m not going to look to myself. I’m going to look to Him.
Jesus can show up right in my bedroom in the flesh. That will prove to me that He is real, but for me to have the belief unto salvation, I have to believe on Him, not just carry a belief system. Yet to trust on Him, and to trust someone, is not to just know someone is real. If you and I just met and didn't really hang out but just had an encounter with each other, if I go around telling everyone that you exist and you’re my friend but I never know you after that, how could that statement really be true?
Friendship is a bond with another person, not a one-time encounter. Marriage is a bond, not a one-night stand. It’s just like in the Kingdom. We have many people who had one encounter with Jesus or said one prayer and they are touting around like they are true believers; meanwhile, they only believe in themselves, and all they do is change the lip service to believing in Jesus. They think for themselves. They fend for themselves. They do only for themselves. Where is the bond with Jesus in that? These types only believe that He’s real but they don't believe in him. Believing that He’s real and believing what He did in the flesh won’t save you. To believe on Him and believe on what He did is to actually apply Him and what He did to my life. Many people separate the person and event that Jesus did and say they believe, that it happened, but none of those two things even dictate one part of their life. So then you really don't believe in Him. These types, they don't trust their heart with Him, they don't give their life to Him. To believe in Him is to trust in Him, and to trust in Him is to obey Him.
I don't trust somebody because of what they look like or sound like. I trust them because I trust what they say and I know who they are. I know Jesus and I know His words are true and this is why I believe on Him and do what He says. What about those that say, “Lord, Lord,” but He says to them, “I never knew you.” They knew He was real, they knew the things He did were real, but they didn't really believe on Him because they didn't know Him. It says all those who believe will be saved, right? But these believed and were not saved. They believed His reality but they did not believe in Him because they did not put their trust in Him, because they did not know Him. How can I really believe in Him if I don’t know Him?
So, we can now understand John 3:16 for what it really means: “For God so loved the world that He gave up His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Now see this verse and get rid of that definition we have in American culture of believeth and replace it with the real definition. Whosoever trusts in Him. Whosoever relies on Him will not perish! Not whosoever thinks He’s real. There are atheists that think Jesus was real, are they saved, too?
We know also that you can rely on God one day and not the next. So for that everlasting life to be true or continue to be true, for that saving from perishing to continue to be true, we must continue in Him. It says those that endure to the end, those that continue to trust in Him and rely on him until the end.
Believing is a work. If I want to believe on Him, I have to do what He says. He said to deny myself. He says to pick up my cross and follow Him. He said to submit to Him and resist Satan. He said to cast down thoughts and imaginations. He says that we must not worship the beast and take the mark. He says we must humble ourselves. We must seek Him. We must forgive or we will not be forgiven. We must drink His blood and eat His flesh. We must take heed of false teachers and false doctrines. We must love God with all our mind, heart, and soul. We must love our neighbors as ourselves. And there's is much more where that came from.
People will say, “Oh, it’s not by works, brother, that any man should boast.” Well, I tell you this, brother, the works that Paul and Jesus were talking about were works of the law, works of the flesh, and dead works; basically, any works that we try to do in our own flesh and strength. Yet there are works that we do in the Kingdom. They are the works of the Spirit, the works of faith. The Bible talks about every man’s work being tested and how every man’s work will be tried by fire. Any work that is flesh will be burned up but any work that comes from above came from the fire, and fire cannot burn fire. These are the works that remain, these are the fruits that remain, and the fruits are produced by the root, by the vine. He is the vine but we must abide in the vine. That is our job. That is what it looks like to believe on Him.
He produces the fruit that we would not boast. These are the works that we do but still cannot boast on because He does it. The only thing that is honorable that we do is that we abide and obey and He does the rest that we would give glory to Him. The problem is the religious church says that we don't even have to do any of that and that Jesus obeyed for us, He did everything for us so that all we have to do is “believe,” all we have to do is think that as true and God will do everything else.
This is how slothful servants are created. God wants a fiery bride that purses Him and is submissive to Him. Not a couch potato and many Christians are couch potatoes. Unwise virgins with no oil, constantly stumbling because they have no light. It’s time for us to rise up and really believe on Him. Saying you believe does not mean you believe. Doing what He says is to believe on Him.
By Joe Pinto
FULL MESSAGE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMWZPQlZd5E
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