Incarnate

*INCARNATE

The 4 stages of faith are exclusive, conenant, prophetic, and incarnate. In the 1st stage, they start to experience the reality of God and his love, but tend to believe that God's love is limited to just a select few such as a chosen people or church. In the 2nd stage, they begin to respond to God's love, but they believe that grace is a conditional gift, that God will love them if they are good. In the 3th stage of faith, people begin to see God's love as unlimited and unconditional, but think that God is doing that from afar, from up in heaven someplace. They do not yet see themselves as involved in the process. In the 4th stage, they make the breakthrough to seeing that God's grace and love are incarnate in human lives and interactions. They realize that God acts through them in the same way. THAT IT IS GOD WHO IS DOING THE LOVING, GOD WHO IS DOING THE SAVING; AND THEY SURRENDER THEMSELVES TO BEING CHANNELS OF GOD'S GRACE IN THE WORLD. They let go. (ThemesOT, p113)

Without incarnate faith, we too may wonder why God isn't doing more to make people do the right thing. We can refuse to see that God is giving us his power to redeem the world. As long as we still see this as something that God will do without our participation in his suffering, we do not yet have New Testament [incarnate] faith. The Church's function is to be the eyes and ears, mouth and hands of God in the world, a body through which the power of divine love can transform the world. This call is a summons to live at the deepest level of faith, that faith which incarnates God's presence and action in human history. Through prayer we become attuned to God's voice calling us to do his will, calling us to be united with him. In our own faith, we come to realize that the Lord is within us and working through us. Not that we are doing anything great, but we are allowing God to do great things in our lives. (ThemesOT, p124-130)