Believe so your whole household may be saved

Many people desire their family members to be saved. But at what price are you willing to pay? Are you willing to lose your job or business if necessary? Are you willing to lose your home? Are you willing to lose your content status of living? Are you willing to give up your education if necessary? Are you willing to give up your promotion? Are you willing to become poor and give up all your financial resources if necessary? Are you willing to give up the perks of your life? Are you willing to give up your time? Are you willing to give up your life?

Acts 16:31 (AMP) And they answered, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ [[a]give yourself up to Him, [b] take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping] and you will be saved, [and this applies both to] you and your household as well.

The promise is there for your household to be saved. However, if you are to truly believe, you must walk in the Life of Jesus to do the Father's will and share in His suffering. Just to acknowledge His existence and to just acknowledge the work of the cross is to believe as the demons do. They have no salvation but shudder instead. There is a wrong way to believe.

James 2:19 (AMP) You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as [a]make a man’s hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]!

Yes, we are saved by Grace and not by our own self righteous works. But if Grace is living in us, then we should be manifesting the good works of obedience (fruits) of God and not the fruits of the world. In other words, our by products of what we believe is reflected in the fruit we bear which are the works of obedience.

James 2:17-26(AMP) So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith.You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as [a]make a man’s hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]! Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless? 23 And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed), and he was called God’s friend.24 You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes].25 So also with Rahab the harlot—was she not shown to be justified (pronounced righteous before God) by [good] deeds when she took in the scouts (spies) and sent them away by a different route?26 For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead.

One cannot just sit on the couch watching TV all day long and believe his/her household will be saved. This is but self delusion. In order for the promises of God to be manifested, we must be doers of the Word instead of just hearers. The TV commercials, Hollywood, the secular singers, the corporations and the merchants of the world all tell us to buy this or that. You hear them and many of us react to buy their products, to look like them, talk like them, dress like them, sing like them, and many of us will do what we hear from them.

But when most of us hear the Word of God in our lives, instead of doing what we hear, we basically look at the air or wall with a blank stare.

James 1:22-25 But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].23 For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror;24 For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.25 But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).

And we wonder why our families may be in chaos instead of peace? Perhaps many of us are hearing the world and reacting to them instead of the Word of God. If you desire your household to be saved, you must be willing to FULLY Surrender all the areas of your life.

Wake up brethren, each time we make a wrong choice our hearts will harden. And as we continue to make wrong choices, our hearts will harden more. And when a desperate situation arises and when we finally decide to make the right choice, it will be very difficult to make the right choice as we may have become bondage to that wrong choice.

When we choose God, we are basically choosing to give up all our own choices so that our choices now be His choices.

Fire of God

Steve Yong Kim

May 11, 2012