Once again when we look back at the last fifty years, we see extremely significant shifts in moral standards, values and beliefs. But the shift goes back even further. Until Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517; protesting the actions of the Catholic Church and their doctrine of Papal Infallibility; the Christian World was an agrarian society of two classes; the very rich and the very poor. Luther’s subsequent excommunication by the Pope, initiated the Protestant Reformation that forever changed the face and structure of the Christian World. This led to the Age of Reason and ultimately the Industrial Revolution of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. A world controlled by a church transformed into a world controlled by commerce. In the two centuries following 1800, the world's average per capita income increased over 10-fold, while the world's population increased over 6-fold. 1995 Nobel Prize winning economist, Robert E. Lucas, Jr., stated; "For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth. ... Nothing remotely like this economic behavior has happened before."
With the new century of 1900, came not only the automotive age and the age of flight; but a historic Pentecostal revival took place in Los Angeles, California that was led by William J. Seymour, an African American preacher. That revival is considered to be the primary catalyst of the spread of Pentecostalism of the 20th Century. As society sped toward moral decadence, the Apostolic Pentecostal revival held the line of Biblical Standards and the teachings of the Original Apostles; a revival grounded in Biblical Faith from the WORD.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The WORD of God is vital to receiving real faith the kind of faith that Jesus questioned whether it would be found at His return.
Luke 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Real faith comes from God to those who believe and who ask God for the Holy Ghost which bears the fruit of faith.
Luke 11:10-13 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (11) If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? (12) Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? (13) If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
We need the Holy Ghost first; then the Holy Ghost will bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives of which faith is one of the resulting fruits. God accepts us where we are when He calls us, but we are not to stay that way. We are to grow in the kind of faith that bears fruit as seen in our works. James is very upfront about faith.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
God will speak to our hearts and convict us of truth. Such convictions come from God and we can’t deny them. If we know to do good and we don’t do it, then it will be sin for us.
Romans 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
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