Our Christian Life is a Life by Faith, a Life of Things Unseen and Hoped For

Without faith we cannot realize God’s economy, for God’s economy is in faith (1 Tim. 1:4).

Today in the church age we are in the age of mystery, and the age of mystery is the age of faith. Everything related to God and to the spiritual things are matters of faith and can be substantiated by faith.

If we don’t have faith, if we don’t believe, we don’t see or have anything. But God’s mysteries are made known to us by faith, and through faith we realize what God’s economy is (1 Tim. 1:4).

All that God wants us is to believe into Him – not just believe that He exists but believe into Him, being brought into an organic union with Him.

In our natural being we don’t have faith and we cannot believe, but when we hear the speaking of the word of God, when the Lord touches us, He infuses us with Himself as the believing element and the capacity to believe. Faith is from God, and God originates faith in us through His appearing, His speaking, His living Word.

Now we are Christians who live in the age of mystery a life by faith. We are those who don’t regard the things which are seen – no matter how “real” may seem to us physically – but we have a high regard and we treasure the things unseen, the things of God’s economy!

And when we preach the gospel, we speak a mystery to others, exercising our spirit to speak the divine facts into people and inwardly praying that God would infuse them with the believing ability to have faith.

Lord Jesus, we come to You in Your Word that we may be infused with FAITH! Increase the believing ability in us, Lord, that we may substantiate all the spiritual and unseen things by faith! Today we want to live by faith a life under Your continual infusion and transfusion!

The Age of Mystery is the Age of Faith

Genuine Christians are mysterious people, who live not according to what they see or physically feel but live by faith. Everything that pertains to God and the spiritual things can be substantiated and apprehended by us through faith.

Christ is making His home in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:17). God’s economy is in faith (1 Tim. 1:4). God requires only one thing from us, that is, to believe, to have faith (Rom. 1:16-17; Mark 11:22; Luke 18:8).

By faith we are assured that Christ is not only in the heavens but also in our spirit, and we are joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). By faith we know that the Bible is the word of God and we take it as God’s speaking and His breath (2 Tim. 3:16).

By faith we know that we are saved, regenerated, forgiven by God, and made children of God (John 1:12-13). By faith we know that we are in the process of God’s organic salvation daily, and in this process we are being continually sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and eventually glorified.

We live a life by faith in God (Gal. 2:20) and in His word, and we believe what His word says. Everything spiritual is apprehended by faith, and we regard the things that are spiritual to be more important and more real than the things which are seen.

Faith is the Substantiation of Things Hoped For, the Conviction of Things not Seen

What is faith? In this age where everyone wants to understand things before they agree and where knowledge has increased, it seems rather foolish or childish, to say the least, to “blindly believe something” before mentally understanding and solidly explaining that particular thing.

Faith is not a part of our natural being – in us, we don’t have faith. Faith is a divine ability which is infused into us by God through the speaking of His word. Faith is actually God Himself infusing His element into us to become our ability to substantiate the things which we don’t see.

When we hear God’s word (the hearing of faith, see Gal. 3:2; Rom. 10:17), something of God is being infused into us and we have an ability to believe.

Whenever we contact God, read His Word, listen to someone speak His living word, or pray to Him, this substantiating ability – which has been infused into our being by God Himself – spontaneously and automatically realizes the things of God, the things not seen, the things hoped for, and we simply believe!

Faith is our sixth sense and our most important sense, since with this sense we can contact God, receive God, understand and apprehend God, and we are one with God. All the things of the spiritual and divine realm, all the things of God, and all the things in the Bible are made clear to us and can be apprehended by us not through our mentality or emotion, but through faith!

Faith assures us of the things not seen, convincing us of what we do not see. Faith is the evidence, the proof, of the things not seen (Heb. 11:1). Brother Lee has a footnote that explains this so good in Heb. 11:1 note 1,

Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for. Hence, it is the assurance, the confidence, the confirmation, the reality, the essence, the supporting ground, of things hoped for, the foundation that supports the things hoped for. Faith is also the conviction of things not seen. It convinces us of what we do not see. Hence, it is the evidence, the proof, of things not seen.

The Christian Life is a Life of Things Unseen

We have never physically seen the Lord, neither did we see with our own eyes the glory of God expressed outwardly. You can’t really touch, feel, see, hear, or smell the things of God with your hands, feet, mouth, ears, and nose.

But we as Christians, those who have been infused by God and have His believing element in us, live a life of things unseen, believing in the Unseen One and loving the God we have never seen (1 Pet. 1:8; Heb. 11:27).

The Christian life is a life of things unseen, and the Lord’s recovery is to recover His church and all His believers from the things seen to the things unseen, the things of the divine and mystical realm of the Triune God and His economy.

Throughout the Bible we see many hundreds of our forerunners (see Heb 11), those who are of the household of faith (Gal. 6:10), like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Daniel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, Paul, Peter, John, etc.

We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in the spiritual realm, and they all cheer us as we run the course of our faith to win the race!

We do not regard the things which are seen – no matter how painful, suffering-causing, stressful, pleasant, peaceful, or troublesome they are. We regard the things which are NOT seen, because the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen – the things of God, His economy, His plan, the spiritual things – are eternal!

This is why we don’t try to change the world – we just want to exercise our faith, focus on our faith, to be organically one with God! We have no standing city here, we don’t have roots in this world, and we live by faith where God has called us to be!

We Preach the Mystery of the Gospel

We not only live by faith, but we also speak “the mystery of the gospel” by preaching Christ and the church, the entire New Testament economy of God!

In this age of mystery we live a life of mystery by living a life by faith, and we preach the mystery of the gospel, “the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery” (Eph. 6:19; Rom. 16:25).

Daily we are under God’s infusing and transfusing of Himself with all His riches and His mysteries, and we have the revelation of the mystery being known to us. Then, as we meet people, as we talk to others, we exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord and speak the gospel to them!

The gospel includes all the divine mysteries – the entire New Testament economy of God (Eph. 6:19; 1 Tim. 1:4). In particular, the mystery of the gospel is Christ and the church for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose (see Eph. 5:32; 3:11).

For this preaching and speaking of the gospel we need to pray for one another, that the Lord will give us boldness to open our mouth and teach and preach the mystery of the gospel.

Pray for all the saints in the church life, that the Lord will bring in a gospel-preaching atmosphere that is prevailing, so that men would see the mystery of God, Christ and the church!

Lord Jesus, we open to You. Thank You for the believing ability in us which is You infused into our being. Lord, increase the believing element in us. We want to live a life by faith today by minding the things which are above and not the things which are on the earth. Lord Jesus, we love You! We have never seen You yet we love You and we treasure You. Unveil our spiritual eyes to see You more, and increase our believing ability to apprehend more of God and His economy!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from brother Andrew Yu’s speaking in this message and portions in, Life-study of Ephesians (msg. 66), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 4 (entitled, The Vision of the Seventy Weeks and the Age of Mystery).
• Further reading:
  # Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990 (by Witness Lee, chs. 3, 8).
  # Footnote 3 in Heb. 11:1 concerning, “things hoped for” – we believers in Christ are a people of hope!
  # Footnote 4 in Heb. 11:1 concerning, “conviction of things NOT seen” – the things which are seen are temporary!
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Savior, I by faith am touching / Thee, the source of every good; / Virtue now, by faith am claiming, / Through the cleansing of Thy blood.
  # Faith is the response to the truth of the faith / Conscience is a test and a check to preserve us in the faith. / The faith is the economy, the economy of God, / The household administration, the dispensing of our God.
  # I never thought that God would be enjoyable, / And my experience of Him is indescribable; / When first I opened up my heart to Him, / He came in me and filled me to the brim.
  # Lord, now I see, / You only want me to believe / Not to change. / In all my failures and defeats / To believe what You have done, / And not in what I see.