If there is one thing I have noticed about the reprobate, is they feel that if God would just do this one thing for them as an individual, they would believe. This makes one question if the onus of believing in God is truly on man.

Mat 12:38-39
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;

What I have noticed in the charismatic school of thought is besides the: cast your troubles on the Lord and claim your healing; I have observed that when a guest charismatic preacher comes in to share the Word at another charismatic body, this preacher will not be in a frenzied state like charismatic body he has visited. This preacher may act just like them in his home charismatic setting but it makes me wonder how the charismatics define ‘filled with the Spirit’ because it seems that these preachers subconsciously know that they can either settle for the so called ‘spirit filled’ tongue speaking, yelling, clapping and dancing frenzy or sit quietly in the presence of His Majesty and preach the Spirit breathed Word. These preachers know subconsciously that they cannot do both. Why? Well, that is question that remains unanswered only to the charasmatics. It seems that being ‘Spirit filled’ has no connection with ‘Christ likeness’ to these charasmatics, as for me I would find it blasphemous to even associate the charismatic definition of ‘spirit filled’ with ‘Christ likeness’. Yes and I have noticed among this section that they like sketches of where Jesus is portrayed as rather jovial. This makes me wonder if these people ever took note of Isaiah 53:3, which speaking of Christ says that He was a man of sorrows and acquainted in grief. In fact in John 8:57, the Jews told Jesus that He was not yet 50 years old, when He would have been only about 33 years in his human age at that time. He truly was the Lamb of God (John 1:29) who bore the sins of the world.

The solution for man is not in meeting His every need but in being put right with His Creator. If it were ever so that man’s need were to be first met before any initiation of relationship between him and God, then one needs to see man’s belief as being conditional, which itself does not reflect the essence of belief and subjection to an Almighty God. In the Bible, many a times Jesus has said to people while healing them, your faith has saved you. You will notice in most of these cases, that these people subjected themselves to Him and His majesty. What is faith? It is not asking desperately or demanding with confidence in any way. It is seeing yourself under the behest of God. When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, he received the knowledge of good and evil, which actually is, he received a new standard i.e. death because it was separate from the righteousness of God. It is for this reason that man independently chooses right from wrong though the Word of God may teach otherwise on that same issue. So faith is that where you humble yourself in the presence of the living God. God is already exalted and we cannot exalt Him any further but by His Spirit working in us we can deny ourselves the self righteous pride Adam gave us. This way we humble ourselves before Him, saying we are but sinners deserving of nothing but His justice and this is faith because to deny feeding our appetites and see ourselves for who we are before God, is how we truly prostrate before His Majesty.

Mat 15
21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”24 But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”26 And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”27 But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”28 Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

Psalms 51
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

When we look at the Israelites in the Book of Exodus, we see that they were a people who witnessed many miracles, yet it is recorded of them that they grumbled and sought to go back to Egypt. Now this nature is not peculiar to the Israelite people, this is what human nature is. We want to feel warm in the winters, cool in the summer and dry in the monsoon, there never reaches a point of satisfaction. This is what man’s fallen nature is about! However for a believer, His satisfaction is only in His relationship with Christ, he does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mat 4:4). Will such a state ever be possible with man? Never by man (Mat 19:26)! But for the elect in Christ, who have RECEIVED a birth in His Spirit, they have also received a righteousness which is of God and so obedience to God is made possible only to the Christian. As for the reprobate, they never realize that satisfaction can only be found in a relationship with God and this does not even matter to them because they are dead in the spirit, owing to Adam; so they do not have, neither can they initiate communion with God by themselves.

To a reprobate man, it is always a miracle that he feels will satisfy him to bring him to belief but if this man were to question his desire and reason to materialize this miracle, it will in most cases seem that he chooses only to further his lust and excuse himself from subjection under God. This is the death that pervades through all the children of Adam. To these people, faith is nothing more than one’s hunger to make it big in life, which is nothing more than the highlight of audacious self righteousness in seeking pride, craving for power and lustful pleasure (1 John 2:16), that Adam took on in death to pass on to all his children. However scripture states that we have nothing more than what we have been given, in fact even the beasts of the Book of Revelation have no more power than what God has given them to meet His purpose of threshing the wheat from the chaff.

To conclude, what a man needs is not a miracle to set his life straight but he needs to receive Jesus Christ in the Spirit according to the will of God and never according to the will of man (John 1:12-13).

Mat 16
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”15 He *said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

From the above scripture we see a few things that are critical to the Christian faith. The most important question concerning one’s salvation is ‘who is Jesus Christ?’. With the reprobate it has always been that what the majority believe, is the right thing. For e.g. if you were to ask an unbeliever who comes from a people setting where homosexuality or abortion is so rampant that it has become the fabric of his society, if you were ask this unbeliever what he thought of the Law of God that abhorred the sin of homosexuality and abortion, this unbeliever though he may not have participated in that sin, he will discount the Law of God just because the society he comes from teaches otherwise in majority.

So it was similar when Christ asked His disciples ‘who He is?’ the disciples first rattled off what society considered Christ to be, then when they were asked to answer that question for themselves, that was when they actually made a declaration of faith. This declaration of faith is that rock on which the Church is built by Christ, which hell cannot overpower even though it is right outside its gate.

Phil 2
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2 Peter 1
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Many a times in an Arminian setting, the belief is that so long as one acknowledges Christ as Lord, salvation is made available to the person but the truth of matter is, all shall confess that He is Lord (Phil 2:9-11). Today the hatred of God in the reprobate puts off this confession for another time but a time will come when this confession shall be so overbearing upon them that even the consuming fires of His wrath will not deter their perfect subjection and their knees shall be like ripe fruit falling to the ground in its time. You see only the believer shall know Christ as ‘Lord and Savior’ (2Peter 1:11) but the reprobate will only know Him as ‘Lord’ in time but never as Savior.

There are many in the Arminian setting, who say that they first acknowledged Christ as Savior when they believed and then as Lord. This may be case when people consider themselves and their works as what makes them what they are. You see such a believer, feels he has taken the onus to receiving the sacrifice of Christ for his sins and later when he begins to see change in his life coming out of obedience this believer says then that he has received Christ as Lord. However, such a school of thought shows that it is the believer himself and not the Word of God which is the standard of Christian life. When the Bible teaches that salvation is the finished work of Jesus Christ, then the true believer ought to know that there is nothing left for him to do, so as complete his own salvation. His salvation stems from the promises of God, which will never move. Heaven and Earth shall pass away but never His Word (Mat 24:35). He chose, He paid for and He sanctified; and though we are to work out our salvation, our iniquity can never cast aside His promise to His elect. For He Himself is Sovereign in the working out of our salvation.

Phil 2
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

This goes to show that a person, who truly acknowledges Christ as Savior, shall just the same acknowledge Him as Lord, which is dependent on his calling as God’s elect, for only then shall he trust in God (Word) and lean not on his own understanding (Prov 3:5). For those who say that they received Christ as Savior but their lives never showed that they have received Him as Lord, on the day of their judgment, though they may call unto Him ‘Lord Lord’, He shall cast them into the darkness for their lives never obeyed His rule (Moral Law) i.e. though they called Him ‘Lord Lord’, these hypocrites never received His Lordship in His salvation and thereby turn subject to receive His Lordship in His justice.

A believer in receiving Jesus Christ is brought to terms with His authority as Prophet, Priest and King. In theology, these three are the offices He holds as God the Son.
• He is thee Prophet about whom all Spirit-breathed scripture (the Bible – the only credible Word on God) points to (Luke 24:19-27). In His office as Prophet He teaches and admonishes the people of God, as a Shepherd unto His sheep (John 10), by the working of His Spirit.
• He is thee Priest of the highest order ‘Melchizedek’ (Heb 7), the only mediator between God and men, who offers Himself as the unblemished atoning sacrifice for His people (Heb 9:14).
• He is thee ‘King’: King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 17:14), where His enemies are made His footstool (Luke 20:43, Acts 7:49) and He rules over His kingdom with righteousness (Isaiah 32:1).

This ultimately is saving faith that you know Jesus Christ (John 17:3), as a Christian.