When I was growing up, I thought that all I had to do was believe in Jesus, and somehow that would solve all my problems. When my problems kept growing, I wondered how I could still believe in such a thing without feeling crazy. This specific question plagued me through years of church and cell group, to no one’s fault but my own, and seemingly came with zero answers.

After college, I explored independently and figured out what it meant since I wasn’t getting the answers I craved. Today, after an utterly transformational year reading spiritual leaders such as Piper, Tozer, and Packer, spending time in fervent prayer, seeking His guidance, and listening to wise counsel, along with other less Christian minder spiritual thinkers, I believe I have come back with an answer.

Reading through John’s gospel (good news), you’ll find profound verses such as John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” This is probably the most quoted verse in all of the Bible outside of Philippians 4. Those who believe will not perish but have eternal life. Powerful statement. Throughout my upbringing, I thought that this phrase was it, that you could just believe, and your peace in Christ and eternal life in heaven would follow. There wasn’t anything else to it. But believing is much more than just a general thought. 

It’s a way of life.

To believe means that whatever you believe changes the way you operate.

Let’s see if we can change the way you operate, so you can find life in the eternal, NOW.

Belief in Action

To take a football analogy, if I believe that my coach knows what he’s talking about, then I will listen to his instruction because I believe that his words will lead me to success on the field and victory. He has a certain aura about him that exudes confidence, commands respect, disciplines us when we need to, and guides us toward becoming our best selves. No, the grueling practices he puts us through are never fun, but we know the final outcome will be worth the immense pain of training and discipline. Our belief is that through his coaching, we will improve and succeed as football players.

When we believe in the coach, we must focus our attention on their words and remove other distractions. We must listen to their speeches and encouragement, apply what they teach, actively practice new skills and plays, and recall the message that they sends through their helpers. Through listening and understanding their mission, and how to execute, we become molded into the image of him. It’s through focusing our attention on his guidance, not our own or somebody elses, that we become the player they want us to become, which is all a coach could want. Build an army of people who do exactly as you say, and you truly have an unstoppable team, as long as your direction is clear. 

Key Point:

How much greater is our perfect God, who molds us into Christ, with perfect instruction, has sent the perfect helper, and has promised us eternal life in heaven, which is right now all the time. 

Difference Between Faith and Belief

Further, to achieve the team’s desired results, you must have faith that your actions will produce the results. Belief in your coach creates the foundation from which your actions flow, but faith is active participation in your belief, showing the coach that you are listening to his instruction, proving to show his effectiveness as a coach and your coachability as a player. 

Some people get belief and faith mixed up.

Here’s the difference: 

• Belief is the foundation of understanding from which your actions flow.
  • I believe this chair will hold me up, and therefore, when I feel comfortable and safe, I can sit in it. 
• Faith is acting upon that understanding, trusting that your actions will lead to victory.
  • “Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God” AW Tozer
  • The action of the gaze creates the conditions for us to know God, understand his will for us.

If we want to succeed in football, we must be able to hear the coach, seek the coaches guidance, remove distractions that prevent us from listening to the coach, and have faith that our actions will produce results. 

Starting to sound familiar? Maybe this isn’t revolutionary, but to me, this was utterly transformative.

Seeking and Knowing God

Football is merely a game we play. It’s not real life but an element of real life. It’s an expression, one of the many things that we do that make real life real, like cooking or cleaning or reading or taking a walk. It requires all aspects of the human mind, body, and spirit, but you’re communicating with your coach in the physical realm, face to face. You can see and hear him vocally; you know it’s real because we place so much value in what we can actually see.

When it comes to God, the way we come to know,  God is through Christ (John 14:7). It’s more difficult for us to believe in something we can’t see; therefore, we may struggle to believe. But Christ has shown us the way. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” John 14:6. It is through Him that we see and know God John 14:7. 

God lives in the spiritual realm, but He is all around us. There is nothing He isn’t and nothing He doesn’t know. The creator of the world lived before the world’s creation, as did Christ, “And now You, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world existed” John 17:5. 

Belief Gives Eternal Life

Believing in Him gives you eternal life, living with God, our greatest glory as it’s his greatest glory.

Jesus says, “he who believes has eternal life.” (John 6:47) 

“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven, if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh” John 6:51. 

So what does it mean to eat His flesh, the living bread, which is to believe, and which is to have eternal life?

This is the most important part of the gospel of Jesus Christ:

Knowing that our life on earth is temporary, but life through Christ is eternal, and eternal can only be right now, as it never ends and never began; it always was, is, and is to come, Revelation 4:8.

Belief in Christ means that we believe He is the Son of Man, that He is our Savior, that he has come and has risen, has sent a helper, and He is with us forever, and that through Him we have eternal life. (John 10:28, John 3:16)

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so that He may be with you forever” John 14:16

Our lives are distracted from God’s commands because we seek our satisfaction and comfort and refuge from the things of this earth, which keep us enslaved to the earthly realm. Because we seek elsewhere for our guidance and comfort, instead of seeking Him, we do not know Him and His kingdom. 

We MUST have a drink, a cookie, watch the game, and react in an unideal way. The second we succumb to temptation, we lose our  willpower, and it becomes much easier for us to think it’s ok to do it again. 

We also believe we don’t have the strength to do what needs to be done because it’s uncomfortable. We think that it’s too unbearable. We must enslave ourselves to money because it’s what society says will make us happy. It’s something we can see that will provide us with temporary comfort.

When, in fact, the playbook and the coach are saying something completely different. You’ve gone against the coach’s commands, and the team is moving forward without you. He desperately wants you to be a part of the team and help the team win, but you aren’t playing your role. You aren’t focusing your attention on Christ. Instead, you seek things outside of yourself to keep you happy.

Unified in Christ

Christ exemplified what it means to live in unity with God, and he calls for us to do the same. 

We are called to be at one with God, and being at one with God, means being present with Christ. When we are present with Christ, we release the physical realm’s strangleholds on our habits. We become freed from the slavery of the earth to be released unto heaven. 

“I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one: I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and You loved them, just as You loved Me.” – John 17:20-23 (bold and italics are mine)

To believe means to eat his flesh. To eat his flesh means to live in His presence.

To be present with Him, means to be at one with Him, to know Him, to be unified in Christ, and most importantly, to focus your attention in your body, out of the ego. The ego wants you to believe the same things you’ve always thought. It wants you you believe your glory is your shame (Phil 3:19). It wants you to maintain those harmful patterns of destruction that keep you tied down to earth.

The second you set your gaze upon the Lord, and continually practice it, like as a football player listening and applying the commands of a football coach, you begin to realize those things don’t have a stranglehold on you any longer. Your old habits die away, and new life brings you more peace, joy, and life in the kingdom.

Through Christ, you’re living in now eternity. The world may come and go, and you’ll be unattached to whatever comes your way.

Paul says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Your presence in Christ gives life, and you die to the ego’s needs with presence in Christ. You die to the world but gain eternal life behind the veil of the physical world.

We become molded into his image by aligning with the coach’s demands. The coach knows best, so to believe means that we know he wants what’s best for us. It will not be easy, but if it was easy, everyone would do it, and you wouldn’t be a winner. God calls us to win, be great, and live in eternal glory and bliss. 

Jesus says, “But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.” Matthew 6:33. You are called to live in unity with Him. Belief means to be at one with Him and to know Him in all moments.

Call to Action:

Practice presence in everything you do. 

When you’re walking, looking at your phone, writing an article nobody will read, making coffee, practice getting your attention out of your mind and into your body. Relax the body. 

Practice honing your attention, and your attention will slowly and surely move into the kingdom of heaven. It’s yours for the taking.