The Fast of Daniel- Day Twelve

Original Post by Bishop Macedo

I doubt that God would require a level of faith from His children beyond what He has already given them!

But whoever wants to know the upper limit of his faith must simply look at the degree of sacrifice that he has been willing to make.

That is why Jesus said: If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself (sacrifice), and take up his cross (sacrifice), and follow Me (sacrifice). Matthew 16.24

It's the same with love.
Whoever wants to know the actual intensity of their love for a loved one, should simply look at the sacrifices they have been willing to make for them.

The size of the faith is measured by the size of the sacrifice.
Whoever does not believe, does not sacrifice;
Whoever believes half way, sacrifices half way;
Whoever believes 100%, sacrifices 100%.

Wasn’t this Jesus’ response to the hypocrites?
Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mark 12:29-30

What I mean is this:
Whoever believes with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind and all his strength, will sacrifice with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind and all his strength.
Do you get the spirit of the thing?

In other words:
Sacrifice your heart;
Sacrifice your soul;
Sacrifice your mind;
Sacrifice your strength.
This is a fact. There’s no adding or subtracting to this. It’s hard, raw, pure reality.

Whoever wants to receive everything from God (the Spirit of God) has to completely sacrifice heart, soul, mind and strength.

God’s all for our all.

ALL FOR ALL!
Are you willing to do this?
And I’ll say more, those who believe don’t make excuses, they sacrifice.
But those who do not believe, seek to justify their unbelief by making excuses and blaming others.

Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother.’” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor (sacrifice), and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me (sacrifice). But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful (sacrifice saddens), for he was very rich.Luke 18.18-23

A sacrifice saddens the one making the sacrifice, but shows the quality of his faith to the One receiving the sacrifice.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has (sacrifice) and buys that field. Matthew 13:44

As you can see, pure faith is about obedience to the Word of God.
Faith requires obedience. And obedience is materialized through sacrifice.
Obedience is impossible without sacrifice.
Abraham was the greatest example of obedience.Hebrews 11.8-17

But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says,“ Abraham believed God (used his faith and sacrificed), and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. James 2.20-24

To summarize: faith without the work of sacrifice does not justify (forgive) anyone before God.

This is why most believers end up as failures, both spiritually and physically. They learned to accept Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord. If Jesus were their Lord, they would sacrifice their lives to serve Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

So then, hear O Israel of the last days, Jesus Christ is only Lord and Savior of THOSE who REALLY serve Him!

My Lord, have compassion on those who are sincere but deceived, and give them another chance. This I implore in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!