All our spiritual possessions in Christ are actualized and realized by faith; when we claim the divine facts in God’s word by faith, the Spirit will apply to us all the graces that God has accomplished for us in Christ, making them real to us in our life. Wow!
Faith is our “secret weapon” and our “sixth sense”; on one hand, we overcome the enemy by our faith, and on the other hand, we sense, receive, enjoy, and experience everything that is of God by means of our faith.
We enter into the Christian life by faith; faith is our entrance into the enjoyment of all that God is, has, and has done for us and is doing in us.
Faith is not of us; faith is infused into us when we hear the word of God, when the preciousness of Christ is impressed upon us and something rises up in us to believe.
When we initially believe into the Lord, something miraculous happens: we are born again, born of God (John 1:12-13), and our spirit becomes alive.
Our spirit has been deadened because of sin, but through regeneration, our spirit is being made alive and is joined to the Lord.
Now we are one spirit with the Lord, and our spirit is a spirit of faith.
When we are in our mind, we have all kinds of questions and doubts, and we cannot help but wonder; but when we’re in our spirit, everything is clear, for we enjoy life and peace, and we are full of faith.
May we be those who exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the divine facts in the word of God.
May we exercise to reject ourselves and just turn to the Lord, for He is in our spirit and He is also embodied in His word.
When we come to the Word of God, we need to use our spirit.
On one hand, we turn our heart to the Lord to have a loving attitude toward Him, and on the other hand, we need to exercise our spirit of faith to believe in God’s word and say Amen to His word! We say Amen to God’s word!
People in the world think that the Bible is outdated and it contains things that are good but are not practical today.
However, if we only exercise our spirit of faith in coming to the Word of God, we will receive life and more of the Spirit, and faith will increase in us.
The word of God is living and operative, being sharper than any two-edged sword, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
When we exercise our spirit of faith in coming to God’s word, the divine facts become our reality and we enter into the experience of what God has bequeathed to us in His word.
All our spiritual possessions are realized and actualized by faith, so we exercise our spirit of faith to say Amen to His Word!
All Spiritual Possessions in Christ are Actualized and Realized by Faith: we say Amen to God’s Word!
How can we enjoy all the riches of Christ? How can we appropriate and actualize the divine facts in the Word of God? It is not by mere understanding and mental agreement; it is by faith.
Faith opens the door to every blessing that is ours in Christ; when we exercise our spirit of faith to say Amen to God’s word, every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ (2 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 1:3).
Faith is different from the flesh and the natural man; faith justifies us and cuts off the flesh with its natural energy and effort.
It is by faith that we have obtained access into this grace in which we stand and boast because of the hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2).
We have access into God’s grace by faith. When we remain in the flesh with its natural effort, we can’t have access to the grace of God, nor can we enjoy God as grace.
But when we live by faith and exercise our spirit of faith, we will enter into the full enjoyment of God’s grace. Amen!
As believers in Christ, we are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:26).
We are sons of God not by our striving or improving but by faith in Jesus Christ; in the organic union with the Lord, we are children of God, sons of God (John 1:12-13).
The righteousness that is God Himself lived out of us is through faith in Christ (Phil. 3:9).
Christ Himself infused into us through our appreciation of Him becomes our faith, the faith of Christ that brings us into an organic union with Him.
It is in this faith and by this faith, in and by this organic union, that we live Christ as our subjective righteousness.
The more we receive faith and Christ is being lived out from us, He becomes our subjective righteousness, our lived-out righteousness.
By faith, we are sanctified dispositionally – in our very disposition; we are being saturated with God as our possession for our enjoyment today so that we may be transformed by and with the holy nature of God (Acts 26:18; Rom. 6:19, 22; 2 Cor. 3:18).
As we behold the Lord face to face, having no veil on our face but having our heart turned to Him, we are infused with Him as our very faith, and we reflect Him as a result of the inward metabolic process of transformation.
We are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus; by our abiding in the Lord, our remaining in the organic union with Him, we are sanctified dispositionally, that is, His holy nature and being is infused into our being.
The inward cleansing of man’s heart can be accomplished only by the Holy Spirit with the divine life by faith (Acts. 15:8-9).
Circumcision cannot cleanse your heart; it is by faith that man’s heart can be cleansed.
The keeping of the law cannot cleanse your heart; the legality of the law and the regulations in the law cannot cleanse our heart – only faith in Jesus can cleanse our heart.
Only the Holy Spirit can cleanse our hearts with the divine life by faith. This is realized by faith; Christ makes His home deep down in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:17).
Christ’s indwelling is mysterious and abstract, and we can apprehend it not by our physical senses but by the sense of faith.
As we contact the Lord and remain in this touch with Him, Christ has a way to make His home deep down in our hearts through faith.
Hallelujah, we are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ! Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for our faith which opens the door to every blessing that is ours in Christ. We exercise our spirit of faith to believe in what You promise us in Your word. Thank You for giving us access by faith into God’s grace in which we stand. Infuse us more with Yourself, dear Lord, to become our faith, the faith of Christ that brings us into an organic union with you. Keep us beholding You by faith to be infused with You until we’re inwardly transformed and outwardly conformed to the image of the Son of God. We open to you, dear Lord, so that even our heart would be cleansed by the Holy Spirit with the divine life by faith. Amen, Lord, we love You and we open to You; we exercise our spirit of faith to say Amen to Your word and claim Your promises!
At the time of our regeneration, we believed into Christ and received the Spirit by faith; we were saved by faith, not by works, and the Spirit as the ultimate blessing of the gospel was given to us by faith (Gal. 3:2-5, 14).
After being saved by faith, God is supplying to us the Spirit continually, and our receiving the Spirit is lifelong – it is a continuous matter by the hearing of faith.
We received the Spirit by faith initially, and we day by day receive more of the Spirit as we remain under the hearing of the faith.
We inherit all the promises of God through faith (Heb. 6:12).
When we come to the word of God with the exercise of our spirit of faith, God’s promises become our inheritance for our enjoyment and experience in faith.
We have victory over the world through faith; the victory over the world is our faith (1 John 5:4).
By faith, we are enabled to overcome the world organized by Satan and usurped by him.
The world around us is so strong and so attractive; who can overcome it?
Throughout the centuries, God has gained many lives who have forsaken the world and given it up, choosing faith as their path and destiny.
Many young people have given up their golden futures in the world because of faith. Our faith causes us to overcome the world; faith is stronger than the world.
We have victory over the evil one by taking up the shield of faith, which is able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one (Eph. 6:16).
Satan attacks us again and again with his temptations, proposals, doubts, questions, lies, and deceits, and the only thing that can give us victory over him is our faith, our shield of faith.
Especially these days in this chaotic and tumultuous world, Satan is taking advantage of what is happening around us to shoot many flaming darts into the minds and hearts of the saints.
He shoots questions and doubts, and we may even doubt whether we are saved or whether God and the church are real.
We need the shield of faith to fend off all the flaming darts from the evil one.
Through faith, we are able to overcome in the midst of all our circumstances of suffering and difficulties (Heb. 11:33-34).
We may be in suffering and difficulties, and there may be even a war going on around us outwardly; the only thing that can keep us and make us overcomers is faith.
We are kept by the power of God through faith, and we have power through faith (1 Pet. 1:5; Matt. 17:19-20; 21:21-22).
Faith is our covering; we are preserved and kept by the power of God through faith, and we can exercise power through faith.
If we have even like a mustard seed, we can ask the mountain in front of us to be removed.
Faith believes that God has done it; faith is not asking God to do something He doesn’t want to do but being one with God to ask Him to do what He wants to do.
When we pray in faith, we break out in praising the Lord, for we touch the heart of God, we touch reality, and our prayers turn into praise. Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, we turn our heart to You and we exercise our spirit of faith: make Your home in our heart a little more today. Thank You for bringing us into an organic union with You to receive all Your riches by faith. We want to remain under the hearing of faith today so that we may continually receive the Spirit and enjoy the ultimate blessing of the gospel. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith to inherit all the promises of God. Praise the Lord, we have victory over the world by faith, for our faith is the victory over the evil one who usurps and organizes the world! We take up the shield of faith which is able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one! Amen, Lord, strengthen our faith and keep us in faith. May our faith increase and make us overcomers even in the midst of our circumstances of suffering and difficulties. Hallelujah, we are kept by the power of God through faith, and we have power through faith!
Believe in and Claim the Divine Facts in the Bible, and the Holy Spirit applies them to our Experience
Our Christian life is a life of faith, a life by faith; we live not by appearance, by what we see, but by faith, by what we don’t see yet believe.
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
Where are these blessings? How can we enjoy these blessings? All of God’s blessings and promises can be enjoyed by us by faith; we need to believe that God’s word is true.
This means that we need to not only read the Bible and agree with what it says but say Amen to the word of God and claim the promises of God.
We need to acknowledge that all the accomplishments of God are effective in us; then, when temptation comes, we will live out these accomplishments as if we have already attained to the fact that the Lord has placed in us.
Our experience as believers in Christ is fully based on the facts that God has accomplished for us.
The divine facts in the word of God are the basis, our experience is the accomplishment, and faith is the process.
When we exercise our spirit of faith to believe in and claim the divine facts in the Bible, the Holy Spirit applies them to our experience.
The facts are the cause, faith is the way, and our experience is the result.
Some believers don’t have a rich experience of Christ according to His word because they don’t exercise their spirit of faith to believe in the divine facts in God’s word.
The Word of God speaks of our being sanctified, our having victory in Christ, our being crucified and resurrected with Christ, and our death to the self in the Lord Jesus.
We need to acknowledge these divine facts and say Amen to God’s word, and we need to realize that we are joined to the Lord Jesus as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
As those joined to the Lord as one spirit, we experience everything He has experienced in spirit, and we claim by faith and reckon as ours all that the Lord Jesus has and has passed through.
When we believe in God’s facts shown in the Bible and claim these facts, the Holy Spirit will apply to us all the graces that God has accomplished for us in Christ.
The way we can enjoy and experience the blessings of God and the divine facts in the Bible is by believing them through the exercise of our spirit of faith, and the Holy Spirit will make them real to us in our lives.
In this way, they become our personal experiences. By saying Amen to God’s word with the exercise of our spirit of faith, we acknowledge and claim them by faith, and this opens the door for the Holy Spirit to work and apply them in our life.
Our acknowledging and claiming faith opens the door for the Holy Spirit to apply in our lives all that the Lord Jesus has accomplished so that we will have the practical experience.
We don’t need to worry about the experience, when will it happen and how will it be; we simply need to believe the divine facts in the word of God, claim them by faith, and say Amen to the Word of God.
On His side, God has accomplished all the facts in Christ.
On our side, we acknowledge and claim these facts, and we trust in the Holy Spirit to apply in our life what God has accomplished so that we will have the spiritual experiences. Amen to God’s word!
Lord Jesus, we say Amen to Your word. We say Amen to all Your promises and blessings in Your word. We claim Your promises by faith and we believe in what You have done for us. We trust in You, dear Lord, to come as the Spirit to guide us into all the reality of what You are and what You have accomplished. Have a way to work and apply in our life all that Christ has accomplished so that we may have the practical experience. Hallelujah, we have a spirit of faith, and by our believing in and claiming God’s promises and blessings, we can enter into the experience of what God has done and accomplished for us in Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 46, pp. 64-65, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 2, entitled, The Intrinsic Significance of Faith.
- Hymns on this topic:
– I have ceased from my wandering and going astray / By saying Amen to God’s Word. / And my old inclinations are passing away / By saying Amen to His Word. / Now the secret of faith in the Lord I can see— / It’s saying Amen to His Word. / He is more real and precious than all things to me / By saying Amen to His Word. (Hymns #1219)
– Our faith to God-ward must in these days spread abroad / To show we’ve turned from idols to the living God. / We’ll mix His Word with faith by answering “Amen!” / And to Christ in the Word turn again and again. / Our work of faith must grow exceedingly, / The labor of our love increase abundantly, / His sanctifying work in us go on and on, / While in patience of hope we will watch till He come. (Hymns #1305)
– Savior, I by faith am touching / Thee, the source of every good; / Virtue now, by faith am claiming, / Through the cleansing of Thy blood. / Touching Thee, new life is glowing / By Thy Spirit’s burning flame; / Cleansing, purging, Spirit filling, / Glory to Thy Holy Name! / Touching Thee in faith, I take Thee / In Thy riches full and free; / All I am I open to Thee, / All Thou art Thou giv’st to me. (Hymns #559)
About aGodMan
The meaning of claiming is to acknowledge daily all that the Lord has accomplished for us, that is, to acknowledge that all these accomplishments are effective in us. Then, when temptation comes, we will live out these accomplishments as if we have already attained to the position (the fact) that the Lord has placed us in. If we do this, our experience will follow. The experience of the believers’ spiritual life is fully based on the facts that God has accomplished for them. The facts are the basis, the experience is the accomplishment, and faith is the process. In other words, the facts are the cause, faith is the way, and experience is the result… Before there can be any lofty spiritual life in the believers, there first must be the perfect work of the Lord Jesus as its wellspring… Sanctification, victory, death, and so forth do not come from self-effort. They come from: (1) acknowledging our sanctification, victory, and death to the self in the Lord Jesus Christ, and (2) practicing it by believing that one is joined to the Lord Jesus in life and that one will be as sanctified, victorious, and dead to the self as the Lord Jesus is. The Lord Jesus has already encountered every experience that we have and will have. To claim by faith is to reckon as ours all that the Lord Jesus has and to apply through an attitude and a conduct of faith all that we have counted as grace. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 1, pp. 64-65)
Faith first gives us access into grace, then a solid standing in grace. Grace is the Triune God Himself, processed that we may enter into Him and enjoy Him… Grace is the realm in which we stand… When we sense that we have moved from the realm of grace into another sphere, we should pray, “Lord, forgive me. Bring me back to the realm of grace.” We return to the realm of grace by the same way through which we entered it originally… through justification by faith. God’s justification brought us into this grace in which we stand. Whenever we act wrongly and sense that we are out of grace, we must pray: “O Lord, forgive me. Cleanse me with Your precious blood.” When we do this, we will be brought back to grace instantly. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3036-3037, by Witness Lee)
How can we appropriate and enjoy all of God’s blessings and promises in His word? It is by the exercise of our spirit of faith to say Amen to His word! When we believe in God’s facts shown in the Bible and when we claim these facts, the Holy Spirit will apply to us all the graces that God has accomplished for us in Christ, making them real to us in our lives. In this way, they become our personal experiences.
We see this morning that we must believe in the facts of God’s word, and we must acknowledge & claim Christ’s accomplishments in order to enjoy grace.
Every day, grace should be the realm in which we stand. Faith is the way for us to enjoy grace, and experience is the result.
The work of the Holy Spirit is based upon the facts revealed in God’s word. He makes the things that Christ has accomplished real & living in our daily lives.
By acknowledging & claiming faith, we open the door for the the Holy Spirit to work & apply in our lives all that Jesus has accomplished
We have received The Spirit not out of the works of the law but by the hearing of Faith.
When we believe in God’s facts shown in the Bible and claim those facts, the Holy Spirit will apply to us all the graces that God has accomplished for us in Christ, making them real to us thus becoming our experiences thus Faith is increased in us.
Praise the Lord the Holy Spirit makes the facts and all of Christ accomplishments real an living in us.
What we must do is acknowledge and claim these facts, trusting in the Holy Spirit to apply in our lives what God has accomplished so that we will have the spiritual experiences. Amen
Amen for the divine facts in the word! O Lord we need to claim these facts and experience more grace to live You!
I also agree with you and would like to say amen!
Amen! The word of God!!!!
Ameeenn!!!
Wow!! Facts are the basis, experiences are the accomplishments, and faith is the process. In other words facts are the cause, experience is the result, and faith is the means.
Oh brother, how we need the acknowledging and the claiming faith stimulated and applied to us through the Holy Spirit that the divine facts become our subjective experience.
May we keep exercising our spirit of faith, daily claiming and acknowledging until we have an attitude and conduct of faith in our experience. This is wonderful!!!