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A Right Premise;
Your Basis of Faith

If your faith isn?t working for you, your prayers are not being answered, your walk with Jesus is wrought with stumbling, pit-falls and you know that you don?t have the peace of God as you know you should.  It may be that you have not based your faith on the right premise.

As a child of God, your faith ought to always rest solidly upon the Word of God.  Not upon what anyone has told you what the Word of God means or any man?s particular interpretation of the Word but rather upon what the Holy Spirit has revealed to your heart through your own study of the Word.  2 timothy 2:15 ?study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth?.

Premise is defined in the dictionary as follows; a previous statement or assertion that serves as the basis for an argument.  Webster?s dictionary also states that the word is made up of two words for the root word of premise is a Latin word ?praemissus or praemittere?, which means to send before (prae, before + mittere, to send), in other words, you could state it like this, pre-mission.  Before you go into the mission field you had best know WHY you are going and WHAT you will do when you get there and WHO it is that sent you.

It is always easy to allow someone to spoon feed you the Word of God.  It takes discipline to get into the Word of God for yourself.  If you choose to not study the Word of God and would rather be spoon fed a few scriptures on a Sunday morning or a Sunday afternoon, then your walk with Jesus will be weak, ineffectual, and you will not walk in the victory that Jesus died on the cross of Calvary to obtain for you.

You will be every bit saved, for the Word of God does not say that you must ?study? to be saved.  It says, ?that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus , and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession in made unto salvation? Romans 10:9-10.

We?re not talking about salvation here, were talking about how to have an effective, victorious walk with God in Christ Jesus, which is God?s will for your life.

There are some vital areas in many Christians? lives where their faith is not based on a correct premise.  Areas where Satan has lied to them and tricked them into believing something that the Word of God does not say.  For instance, how many believe that they are God?s servant?  Many.  The truth is that if we are saved, we are God?s children.  The following Bible study outlines are to assist you in correcting false premises that you may have ?learned,? heard, or acquired along your pilgrimage here on earth.  Jesus said, ?You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free?.  I?m sure that we all can agree also that Jesus said, ?I am the Way, the truth and the life.?  Then doesn?t it stand to reason, isn?t it a good premise to base your FAITH upon the WORD, the TRUTH, and that to know the truth Jesus spoke about is to KNOW HIM?

The following Bible study outlines are given to enable you to not only KNOW the TRUTH, to KNOW JESUS, but also to know WHO YOU ARE IN HIM, as well as to KNOW HOW to follow HIM, and HOW to WALK with God in VICTORY.

Allow me, if you will, to show you the difference between believing that you are a ?servant? of God, as opposed to believing that you are a child of God.  You have the choice to believe what you want to believe.  God gave you a free will.  But what you believe will either free you or place a burden of bondage and legalism upon you.

Suppose a child comes to believe they are the ?servant? of their mother and father.  The child has made himself a slave because servitude is a condition based upon bondage.  Where there is a servant there is a master who needs to be served.  And it is a loveless relationship because there is no ?love? between servant and master.  It?s a condition.

This is a terrible belief for a child to hold, and for you to believe that God made you to be His servant instead of His beloved child is equally wrong.

But that same child, set free and knowing they are loved, may freely choose to ?serve? someone and take upon him or herself the form of a servant, but the child is a free agent!

Jesus Christ is God?s Son.  He, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, who was equal with God the Father, chose to take upon Himself the form of a servant.  He wasn?t a servant; He was/is a Son, who did something.  He served!  He didn?t serve God!  God didn?t need His son to serve Him.  His son was EQUAL to Himself.  Jesus came to serve humanity.

Jesus knew his position in the God head.  He took upon himself the FORM of a servant.  Philippians 2:7 As God?s child, you are not a servant to God, but you can choose, like Jesus did, to ?serve? humanity around you.

When your premise is correct, your FAITH is then ABLE to WORK in your life.  FREE from bondage, free from the law of sin and death.  Jesus made the way.  As you begin to seek FIRST the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, (Jesus is the righteousness of God, as are you when you abide in Him), then your FAITH will have a solid foundation upon which to build and form the very thing God purposed in His heart before the foundation of the world for you to accomplish to bring Him Glory.

It is my sincere prayer that the following Bible studies will lead you from Glory to Glory, in victory, and that the Holy Spirit will fill your heart, as you study, with more and more love, thus increasing the measure of Faith God Placed in your heart.

I remain your faith-filled, grace-filled sister in Jesus Christ.

Susan Atkins-Whitehouse