photo credit: decar66 – cc – Heb. 11:8 By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
As believers in Christ, we have Abraham as our spiritual father, and we need to walk in the steps of his faith. If we would walk in the steps of Abraham’s faith, we need to be those who live the life of the altar and the tent, taking Christ as our life and the church as our living.
We need to live a life of being transfused by God, consecrating our all to God, and taking His presence as our roadmap. God called us to Himself, and we need to be enlightened and reminded daily what the hope of our calling.
God didn’t call us only once – initially when we were saved; He is constantly appearing to us every day so that He may infuse Himself into our being and become our subjective faith, the believing element in us.
As we spend time with the Lord and simply open to Him, under His shining, we are infused with His element and we spontaneously believe. This faith is considered by God as righteousness, since it is from God and it is God Himself in us believing in us and for us.
We need God to repeatedly appear to us so that we may be infused with Him and even have a spiritual infiltration of God’s essence into our being. There are so many doubts in our mind, so many problems with our emotions, and so much stubbornness in our will, but when we have God’s appearing, He infiltrates the enemy’s territory in our being and transfuses Himself into us to become the faith in us towards Him!
Then, when we preach the gospel to others, in a normal way Christ will be infused into them to become the believing ability within them. How can you resist the God of glory? When He appears to you, you simply react to Him by opening to Him, believing into Him, loving Him, and receiving Him into your being.
You are happy to be infused with God, and God is happy with you, giving Himself to you as your peace, life, joy, and righteousness.
God’s Appearing Infuses us with Faith to Believe into Him and Follow Him
Abraham was living in his father’s house and his father’s land for many years, but when the God of glory appeared to him, he was inwardly strengthened to get out of his father’s house and go to where God told him to go – even though he didn’t know where he was going (Heb. 11:8).
The God of glory appeared to Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia (Acts 7:2), and this glory might have been even a visible glory, as when He appeared in the cloud and the fire to the people of Israel in the wilderness (Exo. 16:10; 24:16-17; Lev. 9:23; Num. 14:10; 16:19; 20:6; Deut. 5:24) and when He filled the tabernacle and the temple with His glory (Exo. 40:35; 1 Kings 8:11).
When the God of glory appeared to Abraham, He attracted him and sanctified him from the rest of the world unto God (Exo. 29:43), encouraging him and strengthening him to enable him to follow God (see Gen. 12:1, 4). The same happened with us when we were born again: God called us by His virtue and glory (2 Pet. 1:3), and we left all things behind and followed Him.
We may not know where we were going or what we were doing, but the attraction to God’s appearing strengthened us to open to the Lord and believe into Him. When God appears to us, He transfuses Himself into us and even becomes in us the very believing element with which we believe into Him.
In ourselves and of ourselves we cannot believe in God; at most, we can try to understand God with our mind, feel Him with our emotion, or decide to believe that there’s a God. But when God appears to us, we experience a spiritual infusion with His element, and there’s a spiritual infiltration of God’s essence into our being causing us to believe into Him and be joined to Him as one (see Gen. 12:1-3, 7-8; 13:14-17; 15:1-7; Rom. 4:3; Gen. 18:17-19; cf. Acts 26:16; 22:14-15).
As in Abraham’s case, faith doesn’t originate with us; our believing in God is a reaction to the God of glory appearing to us and transfusing Himself into us to become our subjective faith by which we believe into Him.
We Need the Repeated Appearing of the God of Glory to Know the Goal of His Calling
photo credit: Stefan4m on twitter – Lord, appear to us again and again
God’s appearing infuses us with His element to believe into Him. If we don’t live constantly in God’s appearing, it is easy for us to lose the vision of our calling. Even if we try really hard every day to be a proper Christian, in the world today and in the degraded situation in the church in general it is very easy to lose our vision.
Paul prayed for us that we may know what is the hope of God’s calling (Eph. 1:18). God called us for a definite purpose and for a specific goal, and if we don’t see the goal, we don’t see what our ministry is and what’s the meaning of our calling. Brother Watchman Nee helps us in this matter,
If we have not seen the substance of Abraham’s calling, we will not see the meaning of our own calling. If we have not seen the key to Abraham’s calling, we will not see our own ministry. If we do not see this, we will be like those who build a house without a foundation. How easy it is for us to forget what God wants to do! Many times, when we have too much to do and the work becomes a little more hectic, we lose sight of our spiritual calling. We need to come again and again to the Lord and beseech Him: “Appear to me again and again, and speak to me again and again!” We need to have a continuous seeing, an eternal seeing; we need to see God’s goal and what God is doing. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 35, pp. 29-30)
God’s goal was not merely to save Abraham from his environment and the idolatrous land he was living in; He desired to bring Abraham and his seed into the good land of Canaan for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. God’s goal is not merely for us to be saved from our environment, background, sins, or evil situation, but to bring us into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land (Gen. 12:5; Deut. 8:7-10; Col. 1:12; 2:6-7).
Through God’s repeated appearing to us, He is being transfused into us and we experience a spiritual infusion with the element of God. As we spend time with the Lord, open to Him, let Him shine on us and speak to us, His appearing and transfusing issue in our living by faith so that God’s perfect will to build up the church as the Body of Christ may be done (see Gen. 12:7-8; 13:3-4, 18; Rom. 1:17; 4:16-17; Heb. 12:1-2a; Matt. 16:18; Rom. 12:1-2; Rev. 21:2).
How we need God’s continual and repeated appearing so that we may be infused with Him and fulfill His purpose to build up the church! When God appears to us, there will be a reaction in our being: we believe!
This faith as the reaction and response to the divine infusion is considered by God as righteousness. This faith is a joining faith, making us one organically with God for the fulfillment of His purpose and the goal of His calling. His goal is for us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land so that we may become God’s people, build God’s house and God’s temple, and express Him and represent Him corporately on the earth.
Lord, appear to us again and again and speak to us again and again! We beseech You, God of glory, appear to us! Your appearing infuses us with Your element that we may believe into You and fulfill Your purpose. Lord, we need a continual seeing of Your person and even an eternal seeing! Cause us to see Your goal, the hope of our calling, and the purpose You saved us for! Lord, we treasure Your appearing and we love to be infused with You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (ch. 2), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 2 / msg 2, Living by Faith—Being Today’s River Crossers to Live the Life of the Altar and the Tent.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In a low dungeon, hope we had none; / Tried to believe, but faith didn’t come; / God, our sky clearing, Jesus appearing, / We by God were transfused! (Hymns #1131)
# Through the Lord’s infusion, Abraham became / Father of the faithful—life had changed his name. / Though the Lord’s appearing, brought him to the land, / Still he needed Isaac to fulfill God’s plan. (Hymns #1269)
# O God of glory, / You’ve changed my destiny. / Oh Lord, Your mercy / In love appeared to me. / O God of glory, / You have attracted me! / My heart responds to Thee / And turns spontaneously. / O God of glory, / You have appeared to me. / Dear Lord, Your beauty, / My God, has captured me! (Hymn by Howard Higashi, O God of Glory)
# Take time to behold Him, gaze oft on His face, / Receiving His Person, and grace upon grace. / By His pleasant shining, infused we will be; / Our faces will glow with His light, radiantly. (new hymn on, Take Time to Absorb Him)
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