How can I have childlike faith?

 

Questions:

  1. How do I “know”?
  2. How do I HAVE “childlike faith”?
  3. How do I DEVELOP trust?
  4. How do I “become” BOLD and BE WILLING to take SERIOUS RISK to do UNCOMMON things?

Responses:

  1. There are two ways of knowing—I can “take” the knowledge… and everything dies. And I can receive the knowledge—I can know because I’m known—and everything rises; the tree of knowledge becomes the tree of life. But here’s the problem: the question can’t be “how do I?” because I don’t. It must be “how does He?” because he does…How else could he create “faith in Grace,” instead of “faith in more religion?” So, you will “know.” It will happen—you already took the fruit from the tree—but in the process you will die and rise with Christ.
  2. Come to the realization that you ARE a little child (1 John 3:1—Sorry it’s Scripture, but hardly anyone believes it). This is very painful for the ego…it certainly is for mine. We are all in the process of coming to terms with our own creation. My children often did not have childlike faith, because they were convinced that they had made themselves adults. We do not have childlike faith because we have “taken knowledge of Good and evil” (the law) thinking that it will make us in the “image of God” our Father. We each think we’re adults trying to become like children, but we’re children having convinced ourselves that we’re adults. To believe that we are what we truly are, we must die to the notion that we can make ourselves in the image of God–the notion that we can get some knowledge of “How to grow up,” and then simply decide to do it.
  3. Trust is Faith. God is developing trust within you right now…I’m not sure you can “do” much. Faith is something God is developing within you. With the faith that you have keep your eyes open. I think faith is the “knowledge” that you are asking about. Faith in Grace (the Good is Grace and Grace is God) is what you are to come to know. We take the knowledge, and it dies; God gives it, and it rises from the dead. I think faith is Christ rising within us. How do I develop that? I witness it.
  4. God will push you out of the boat. Well that’s been my experience. One of the clearest instances for me was being defrocked by my denomination. At my public trial, my wife had a vision of me nailed to a cross, and then, Jesus entering the room and taking me down…I feel like I’m still living that, and in it, God is growing faith. But I don’t know how to “make it work,” other than this: with the faith I’ve got, I am to watch as he grows more faith—it comes through dying and rising with Christ. With the little faith I’ve got I’m trusting that there will be a lot more rising…and I will “know” in the depths of my being that God is Good and the Good is a Gift. God is Grace. I die and rise with Christ and then I know, because I’ve been known by Grace.

All Questions