Exercising our Spirit of Faith, our Sixth Sense, to be Assured of the Things of God

Our Christian life is a life of faith; faith is a substantiating ability, a sixth sense, the sense by which we substantiate God and all the things of God, and this sense and ability is implanted into us by Christ through His Word and His appearing.

Our faith as believers is not actually ours; we are not any different than anyone else – we didn’t come up with faith, we can’t produce faith, and faith is not of ourselves. Faith is actually Christ entering into us to be our faith.

Faith comes from hearing the word of God; when we hear the gospel, something of Christ is being infused in us, and He in us enables us to believe.

Jesus Christ is the Author of faith – He invented faith, He generates faith, He ran the race in faith, and He is the Pioneer of faith. He is the Forerunner, and we all follow in His steps in this life of faith. Our believing is nothing else but our appreciation of Christ as a reaction to His attraction.

He is the most wonderful One; the more we come to Him in His word or listen to His speaking personally and in the meetings, the more we appreciate Him, love Him, and are strengthened in our believing ability.

In our natural man we have no capacity to believe, and we are not inclined to believe; but when we come to the Lord, hear His word, and receive it, we are infused with faith – we are infused with the ability to believe.

It is crucial for us as believers to realize that our believing ability, our faith, does not come from ourselves but from the Lord; this will cause us to stop again and again in our experience, contact the Lord, pray over His word, meet with the saints, and open to Him, so that we may have Him transfused into our being to be our faith.

When we look away unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit transfuses us with Himself, with His believing element, and we simply believe; this causes us to run the race with endurance in our Christian life, for our eyes are set on the One who both originated our faith and will complete it.

The more we look away unto Jesus, the more we have Him as our faith; the result will be that we live a life by faith, and this faith is the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Gal. 2:20).

Faith is a Sixth Sense, a Substantiating Ability to Substantiate Spiritual Things

What is faith? According to Heb. 11:1, faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This verse is in the context of seeing Christ in His heavenly ministry as the High Priest and the Heavenly Minister.

Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for; it is the assurance, confidence, confirmation, reality, essence, and supporting ground of the things hoped for. Also, faith is the conviction of things not seen; it convinces us of what we do not see, being the evidence, the proof, of things not seen.

This word, substantiation, in Heb. 11:1, is very unique. The footnote in the Holy Bible, Recovery Version, helps us understand it more,

The same Greek word [for substantiation in Hebrews 11:1] is used for substance in 1:3, assurance in 3:14, and confidence (in which one knows that he has a sure foundation) in 2 Corinthians 11:17. Moreover, it can be translated confirmation, reality, essence (which denotes the real nature of things, as opposed to the appearance), foundation, or supporting ground. The word means, primarily, substance, but in Hebrews 11:1 it denotes the substantiating of the substance (of the things hoped for); hence, it is translated substantiation. The word substantiate is substance in verb form; to substantiate is to give substance to the reality of the substance not seen. This is the action of faith. Therefore, it says here that faith is the substantiation of things hoped for. (Heb. 11:1, footnote 2)

Faith is a substantiating ability, a sixth sense, the sense by which we can substantiate the things not seen and hoped for. We have five sense in our human body that substantiate different aspects of the world, making them real to us inwardly.

The objective items outside of us become subjective to us by means of our five sense. As the eye is to seeing, the ear to hearing, and the nose to smelling, so faith – our spirit of faith – is the organ whereby we substantiate everything in the unseen spiritual world into us (2 Cor. 4:13).

How can we substantiate and experience personally and subjectively what Christ is and what He is doing in the heavens as the Great Shepherd of the sheep, the High Priest, the Intercessor, and the heavenly Minister? It is by faith, by the sixth sense implanted into us by the hearing of the word and the transfusing of Christ into our being.

What Christ is doing in the heavens right now is not something objective, far above, that has nothing to do with us; rather, we can substantiate it by faith.

When we speak the gospel to others, people may ask us, Show me what you’re talking about: I want to see it! Our response many times is, I can’t show you, but I know it’s true, because I believe in Christ, and I am convinced of the things of which I speak!

We need to realize that our mind is a land of doubts and quarrelling, but our spirit is a land of faith; doubts are in our mind, but faith is in our spirit.

Therefore, we must exercise our spirit of faith, our mingled spirit, to believe and to speak the things we have experienced of the Lord.

Whenever we are in our mind, doubts arise; when we turn to our spirit, we are filled with faith, and God and the spiritual things are real to us.

Whenever we are in our spirit, we are simple: we just believe; when we are in our mind, we have many questions, many opinions, etc…but when we are in the spirit, we are full of faith.

Our need is to turn to our spirit and remain in the spirit, exercising our spirit of faith – our sixth sense – to substantiate the things of God and speak the things of God.

Thank You Lord for giving us a sixth sense, our faith, by means of which we can substantiate the things unseen or hoped for. We can now substantiate the things of God and of Christ to make them real and subjective to us. Lord, we want to exercise our spirit of faith – our mingled spirit – to believe and to speak the things we have seen, enjoyed, and experienced of Christ. We want to turn to our spirit, remain in this land of faith, and live in spirit, so that we may be simple and genuine, believing in You and receiving all that You are into us for our enjoyment and experience.

Exercising our Spirit of Faith – our Christian Life is a Life of Things Unseen!

Our Christian life is a mysterious life, for we believe in Someone we have never physically seen or met, and we talk to someone whom we have never touched or seen. The Christian life is a life of things not seen (see Rom. 8:24-25; Heb. 11:27; Gal. 6:10).

We have not seen Christ, but we love Him for we believe into Him and exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory (1 Pet. 1:8).

The degradation of the church is the degradation from unseen things to seen things. When church becomes something you see as a physical building, without any spiritual reality that is unseen, that is degradation.

When we do many things for the Lord in a good way and with a proper outward arrangement, yet we are not intimately connected to Him in faith, by the organic union, all these are outward things, part of the degradation.

If we merely say, Praise the Lord! Jesus is Lord! in the meeting, but there’s no realization or substantiation of the things not seen in our heart and spirit, we are merely doing something outward. If we are lively and happy in the Lord only in the meeting, without having Christ being made real to us in our Christian life in faith, we are degraded from unseen things to seen things.

We need to exercise our sixth sense, our spirit of faith, to substantiate the unseen things and be full of the conviction of the things of Christ.

When the gospel is preached, the person who speaks must be filled with the Lord, being under the heavenly divine transmission, so that he would not merely utter words to the hearers but convey the divine element into them.

People may hear and shake their head, but when we are infusing them with God through our speaking of the word of God, something will rise up in them to believe into the unseen One and love Him, and they will pray with much appreciation, Lord Jesus, thank You. You are so good. You are my Savior. I believe into You.

Faith is not of us – it is of God in Christ, and it is infused into us by the preaching of the gospel, the hearing of the word of God. We need to place ourselves under the hearing of faith again and again to be infused with faith and sharpen our sixth sense, our believing ability.

In His recovery the Lord is recovering us from things seen to things unseen. This doesn’t mean we speak in abstract terms about spiritual doctrines; it means that we need to learn to exercise our spirit of faith, our sixth sense, to substantiate God, the things of God, Christ in His heavenly ministry, and all the spiritual things.

Faith assures us of the things not seen, convincing us of what we do not see; faith is the evidence, the proof, of things unseen. Once we see something in the spiritual realm by means of our spirit of faith, we cannot unsee it; it becomes a conviction within us.

Lord Jesus, we want to exercise our spirit of faith to substantiate and make real to us in spirit all the things concerning God and Christ. Cause us to realize that our Christian life is a life of things unseen. Save us from remaining in things that are seen. Recover us to God, to Christ, and to the unseen things of the heavenly ministry of Christ. We want to have many experiences of Christ in spirit, being assured and convinced of all that He is and has done for us by exercising our spirit of faith, our sixth sense.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 380, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 8 (week 8), Cooperating with Christ in His Heavenly Ministry by Running with Endurance the Race Set before Us, Looking Away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of Our Faith. 
• Hymns on this topic:
  # So many times I was in weakness; / I realize that was my blindness. / I’m beginning to see / All that the Triune God is to me. / Wasting my time looking at my poorness; / Now my heart’s eyes can behold His greatness. / I’m enlightened to see / All of the Triune God is to me. / I believe, so I speak. / I am strong, I have power. / I believe, Oh Lord, Amen! / I am strong, I have power. (Song on I believe, so I speak)
  # 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! / We by God were transfused! (Hymns #1131)
  # Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face; / Here faith can touch and handle things unseen; / Here would I grasp with firmer hand Thy grace, / And all my weariness upon Thee lean. (Hymns #225)