“Further, it (the surrendered heart) is dedicated to enjoy God. It chooses Him as its portion, its happiness, all and in all. It consents to find all its satisfaction in Him and Him alone, whether it be in the loss of every other channel of happiness or by His filling all the springs of life with Himself.”

Excerpt From: A. B. Simpson. “Wholly Sanctified.” WingSpread Publishers

    A generation ago, propelled effectively by mass publishing and television, the word of faith movement swept the nation and the world. Though not new, the idea that man could bring about change in his physical environment and being by believing in and speaking God's Word rather than passively accepting every tragedy and assault as " at God's hand" and of His will struck a chord with a great number of believers;that His will might actually be for us to prosper and be in good health, but that it was our steadfast belief in that will as stated in His word, that would change our circumstances. 

God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.  Hab 3:19

   He makes my feet like hinds’ feet [able to stand firmly or make progress on the dangerous heights of testing and trouble]; He sets me securely upon my high places.

  Psa 18:33

There is a spectrum on which all humans exist: on one end there is complete yieldedness and heartfelt sonship to the one true God. On the opposite end is "godness" or regarding oneself as god. Jesus as the second Adam and firstborn of many was the sole occupant of the good end and maybe Hitler or others have claim to the other end. But the great mass of humanity find themselves in between the two poles moving one way or the other. The work of the Holy Spirit is to move us along towards Jesus' end and away  from the end Satan rules. All lawlessness, which we might define as resisting the structure that the rules and guidelines of the Bible create, and idol worship, and atheism and agnosticism allow the individual to rule his own existence as he or she desires.

   Religion takes on many subtle forms, some of which are antithetical to true relations with Our Creator. Always remember, the Pharisees, in the name of religion, wanted to kill Jesus, who was sent by God, who was the perfect representation of God. Two directions present day Christian religion seems to drift towards are rules and programs. True faith includes rules and laws that define God and govern our living with each other, and our living in this world. The book of Acts describes the feeding programs that the early church initiated indicating programs are an essential part of the practicing of our faith. But neither rules nor programs and church activities come close to representing the living essence of our relationship with God. Perhaps our marginalizing of the Old Testament has allowed us to wander from an appreciation of the genetic stock that began personal relationships with God. In particular, Abraham is the father of the faithful.