“Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6).

How is that?  How are we to “so walk in Him,” as Paul instructs us here?  By faith.  

I will often tell people who come to us for prayer, that the four most important words in the English vocabulary are, “I believe, I receive.”  I ask them, “How is it you received Christ?”  While they are normally hesitating, I ask, “When you asked Him into your heart, you believe He came in, right?”  And then I say, “It is the same with healing (or, whatever it is they are wanting prayer for).  You believe that you have received, that you have it.”

It is written that the “just shall live by faith.”  That is to say, by believing.  We believe Jesus Christ is in us, don’t we? We do not feel Him, we cannot touch Him, and we do not hear His audible voice; and yet we believe He is inside us.  Why?  How?  By faith.  So it is with every other promise God makes to us.  So it is having to do with every aspect of this life.  We live our lives by faith, much in the same way as when we received the Lord to begin with.  

Paul writes, “Those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).  

So you see it all has to do with receiving.  We cannot see, feel, or touch grace, can we? Nor righteousness, can we?  No; but we receive these by faith and believe they are ours by faith.  It is the same, then, with respect to every need a Christian may have.  If God has said it, if He has made a promise regarding it, or a statement of fact concerning you, you accept that as being truth and go on to conduct yourself accordingly.  

I realize this is not easy; it is simple, but not easy.  God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, and even though they were both past the age for procreation, they believed God.   And after a while, behold a son.  In the meantime they had to hang on to the promise and likely endure much ridicule.  

As for eternal life, we have not yet entered into it, but we believe that we have it.  

Regarding provision for our needs, God promises to meet them, so we trust in God regardless of how things look.  

And with respect to healing, though our bodies may say one thing, God’s word says another.  And if God says He will meet our need, albeit it financial or physical or any other thing, then, upon asking God, we believe we receive and get on with it.  

As we received Jesus–we prayed and believe He came into our hearts, so we are to walk with Him, praying and believing.  

Paul goes on to say, “having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude” (Colossians 2:7).  It is this last instruction that ties in with the first:  “overflowing with gratitude.”  We thank God that Jesus Christ came into us, that right now He, by His Spirit, is in us; our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Well, as we walk with Him by faith, believing and receiving, we are grateful that we have what we have asked for.    We thank God for His abundant grace and for the gift of righteousness.  We thank God for the forgiveness of our sins.  We thank God for loving and accepting us.  We thank God for feeding and clothing us.  We thank God for all His manifold blessings.  As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, we walk in Him, overflowing with gratitude.