Operating As One – Toni M. Babcock
“Without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” (Hebrews 11:6 KJV).
Repentance and faith operate from one principle. A principle Jesus spelled out when he taught his disciples “Without me, ye can do nothing,” (John 15:5b KJV).
The Holy Spirit exposes any confidence we might have in the flesh and turns the heart toward the cross of Christ alone. He reveals the truth we ‘were risen with Christ’ and therefore freed by Christ to trust Him immediately. The devil attempts to steal the confidence we have in Christ and says Jesus is not enough. Satan stalls our faith and points us back to our sin and failure trying to convince us we need something more than the work of Christ to save our souls.
Satan’s goal is to rob Jesus and deceive His people. “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” (John 10:10 KJV).
Any gospel that robs Christ, usurps his authority, twists the truth, and brings people into bondage is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament God promised to give his people a heart that would be willing to do what is right, and do it in faith. Prophetically, God promised in the Old Testament, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them,” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 KJV).
This is repentance and faith operating as one.
Toni is the author of Reflections from the Heart, in Light of the Gospel of Jesus, and The Stone Writer (Christian fiction for kids). Contact 
