Faith: Believe that God is and We are Not; He’s a Rewarder of those who Diligently Seek Him

Faith means to believe that God is and we are not and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him; He is everything to us and in us, and we deny ourselves and take Him as our everything – this is faith.

Praise the Lord, God has allotted to each one of us equally precious faith when we believed into the Lord.

All believers in Christ have faith, which is Christ Himself infused into them to be in them the capacity to believe.

Just as in the Old Testament each one in the people of Israel has been allotted a portion of the good land, so we today have been allotted a portion of Christ (Col. 1:12), a portion of the equally precious faith.

Faith is an allotment, and the quantity of faith depends on how much we exercise this faith and live by this faith.

The means by which we come to God is faith.

On one hand, faith refers to the contents of what we believe in, and on the other hand, faith is the action of believing.

Day by day we need to live by this faith and enjoy God by means of this faith as we exercise our spirit of faith to apprehend and enjoy all that God is.

God is real and all the divine facts presented in the Bible are real, but the way they are made real to us is by faith.

When we see God’s economy, when we hear the word of the gospel and are infused with the preciousness of Christ, we spontaneously believe.

We are like a photo camera that takes in and saves the scenery it is pointed at.

If our heart is unveiled by turning it to the Lord and if our spirit is exercised by calling on the name of the Lord, we will see the Lord face to face, and His preciousness and sweetness are infused into us.

Then, what happens in this touch with the Lord, in this beholding Him, is that we reflect Him, for He is infused into us and we have Him as our believing ability, our faith.

The way that God and the divine facts can be real to us is by the exercise of our spirit of faith.

Our regenerated spirit is a spirit of faith, and in spirit, we can see, realize, and apprehend what God is, what God’s economy is, and what He is doing today in us and around us.

Faith is the substantiation of the substance of the truth; truth is the reality of the contents of God’s New Testament economy.

When the truth is being spoken to us when we are under the hearing of the faith, something happens in us: we substantiate the divine truth by means of our faith.

The contents of God’s New Testament economy become real and enjoyable to us by means of the exercise of our spirit of faith.

May we learn to open to the Lord again and again and simply exercise our spirit to enjoy Him and take Him in, so that He in us would increase and thus our faith would increase.

Faith means that We Believe that God is and We are Not, for we Deny Ourselves

Without faith, it is impossible for us to be well-pleasing to God, for he who comes forward to God must believe that God is (Heb. 11:5-6).

Faith means that we believe that God is and that we are not (2 Cor. 4:13, 18).

Faith is not that we hope what God says will happen; faith is not wishing something is real and true.

Faith means that we believe that God is. Man must believe that God is.

Everyone who comes to God must believe that He is; we must believe not only that God exists, that He is able, or that He can do something or will do something. We simply must believe that God is.

He is everything we need, and He is infinite; whatever we need, He is. Many Christians are concerned only with what God can do for them and what God can provide for them.

But we need to be those who come forward to God and believe that He is.

Regardless of whether He does this or gives that to us, He is.

Daniel’s three friends, his companions, when they were thrown into the furnace, they didn’t say that, if God saves them, they believe in God; rather, they said that, even if He doesn’t save them from the fire, He still is their God and they will not bow down to the great image to worship it.

God is so real. We may believe that God is real when we receive a present or when something good happens to us; when things we never asked for come to us, we may be happy and believe that God is so real.

But what about when He doesn’t provide us with material things and when He doesn’t heal us or change our troublesome situation? We still need to believe that He is.

To believe that God is, is to believe that He is everything to us and that we are nothing (John 8:58; Eccl. 1:2).

How can we please God? How can we make God happy? Christians think that if they go to the mission field to do the work God gives them, this makes God happy.

But the best way to make God happy and please Him is to believe that He is and that we are not. He is the great I AM (Exo. 3:1, 4).

In this whole universe, nothing else is – only God is. All created things are here today but gone tomorrow. We may think we are but actually, we are not, for in a few years we simply are not here anymore.

Everything on this earth is vanity and chasing after the wind (Eccl. 1:2), but God is.

The Lord Jesus is the great I am. He is the life (John 14:6), the resurrection (11:25), the door to enter into the pasture (10:7, 9), the Good Shepherd (v. 11), the bread of life (6:35), the breath (20:22), the living water (4:10, 14), and the tree of life (15:1; 14:6; Rev. 2:7). Christ is God (John 1:1; Rom. 9:5), the Father (Isa. 9:6; John 14:9-10), the Son (Mark 1:1; John 20:31), and the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45).

Christ is everything to us.

We need to believe that God is and we are not.

When we see Him and realize how much He is to us, we will simply deny ourselves and follow Him by taking Him as our everything (Luke 9:23).

The fact that God is and we are not means that we really are not and He really is.

If I am a husband, I need to realize that I am not the real husband; I cannot love my wife or care for her, but Christ can, so I take Him as my everything and allow HIm to be the real Husband in me.

If I am a wife, I need to realize that it is only Christ who can obey my husband and live a life of love and submission; I cannot be a wife, only Christ can be the real wife.

The fact that we are not means that we don’t exist; this is why the Lord kept saying that, if we want to follow Him, we need to deny ourselves.

For us to be a real Christian, a real believer, we must believe that God is and that we are not, which involves that He is everything and we are nothing.

The real denial of the self is for us to believe that God is and we are not. In the whole universe, both in the physical universe and in our personal universe, only God is, and we are not.

We have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us.

This is not religion; this is faith. Religion tells us that God does this for us and we do this for God; faith is to believe that God is and we are not.

I should not be anything; I should not exist – only He should exist (Gal. 2:20).

True Christianity is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. True Christianity is to allow the Lord to live in us so that He may be expressed in our daily living.

Oh, the joy of being nothing, seeing nothing, and doing nothing but seeking and seeking this living Christ in glory, and being found in Him to allow Him to live in us and do everything in us!

Enoch was one who obtained the testimony that he had been well-pleasing to God; he continually walked upward with God day and night for three hundred years, exercising his faith to believe that God is, becoming closer to God and more one with God each day until God took him (Gen. 5:22-24; Song of Songs 8:5).

The result of Enoch’s walk with God and faith in God is that he was not and God was, for God took him to be with Him.

May we obtain such a testimony of being well-pleasing to God by believing that He is and we are not.

Lord, we come forward to You by faith. We believe that God is and we are not. We deny ourselves in everything and we take You as our everything. Amen, Lord, we seek to be well-pleasing to You by walking with You by faith and believing that You are. We really are nothing and You really are everything. Oh Lord, we put ourselves aside and we acknowledge that we have been crucified with Christ, so it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us. Live in us today. Be everything to us and in us today. Live the Christian life in us, dear Lord. We open to You and we allow You to be everything in us and to us. Only You can be the real husband, the real wife, the real employee, and the real saint in the church life. May we be genuine Christians today, those who believe that God is and that we are not!

Faith means that We Believe that God is a Rewarder of those who Diligently Seek Him

On one hand, faith is to believe that God is and we are not; on the other hand, faith means to believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6; Gen. 15:1; Phil. 3:8, 14).

First, we believe that God is, and second, we believe that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

We may be troubled by this second part and we may wonder what does it mean that He is a rewarder – what does He reward us with, and what is this reward?

If we come to God diligently to seek Him, if we seek the Lord with all our heart, He will reward us with Himself.

He doesn’t reward us with gold or silver, riches, or prosperity; He rewards us with the best that He can, which is Himself.

In Gen. 15:1 God told Abraham, His seeker, that He is his great reward. Yes, God did promise Abraham a seed and a land, but actually God Himself was his shield and his exceedingly great reward.

God doesn’t just want to give us things; He gives Himself to us as the reward. We are those who believe that God is – He is the great I AM, the One who exists and is forever, and who is everything to us.

At the same time, we believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We believe that, when we come to Him, He will reward us with Himself.

Our faith involves not only our acknowledging that God is and we are not, but also our acknowledging that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Enoch’s reward was the highest degree of life – escape from death (Heb. 11:5a; 2 Cor. 5:4; Rom. 8:6, 10-11; 5:17). Wow, what a reward!

Enoch walked with God and believed that God is and he is not to the extent that God rewarded him with the highest degree of life – escape from death!

This is a wonderful reward. Enoch was so filled with God as He walked with God that God took him and he escaped death.

Death could not hold this one back, for he was one with God who is the source of life, and he overcame death, even physical death. This is the highest degree of life.

When we come forward to God, we need to believe that the Lord is a rewarder and that we need to be His seekers (Psa. 27:4, 8; 42:1-2; 43:4; 73:25; 119:2, 10).

We seek Him, and He rewards us with Himself.

Faith implies that we are seeking God; we must seek after God. We must come to Him with an unveiled face to see Him and behold Him.

May we be those who come forward to God to seek Him diligently, believing that God is and we are not.

As we come to Him and seek Him, as we behold Him, He infuses us with Himself, and He Himself becomes our reward.

We are those who live by faith, looking away to the reward of the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom (Phil. 3:14).

Like Moses, we need to be those who persevere as one seeing the unseen On (Heb. 11:26-27).

If we seek Him, we will find Him, and He will reveal Himself to us.

Actually, even when we don’t seek Him, He finds us, for He is merciful and great, and He never leaves us.

We are made for Him – we are made to contain Him, believe into Him, and have Him as our everything.

May we be those who diligently seek the Lord and enjoy Him as our great reward!

Lord Jesus, we come to You to seek You, believing that You are a rewarder of those who diligently seek You. Hallelujah, God is and we are not, and He rewards our seeking Him with Himself as our everything! We only want You, dear Lord, for You are the all-inclusive One, the One who meets our need, and the One who gives meaning to our human existence. Make us Your loving seekers, those who seek You until we find You. We want to be those who live by faith, looking away to the reward of the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom! Amen, Lord, though You are the unseen One, we seek You, we love You, and we want to gain You!

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 Witness Lee, 1994-1997, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” ch. 7, 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 am crucified with Jesus, / And He lives and dwells with me; / I have ceased from all my struggling, / ’Tis no longer I, but He. / All my will is yielding to Him, / And His Spirit reigns within; / And His precious blood each moment / Keeps me cleansed and free from sin. / I’m abiding in the Lord / And confiding in His word; / I am hiding in the bosom of His love. / Yes, abiding in the Lord / And confiding in His word, / I am hiding in the bosom of His love. (Hymns #564)
  – Lord, now I see, / You only want me to believe; / Not to dwell / In all my failures and defeats; / To believe what You have done, / And not in what I see. / Lord I believe, / When all around me is defeat / And it seems that nothing’s changing outwardly. / No! I’m not discouraged, / I’m believing You. (Song on, Lord, now I see)
  – Hallelujah! not as orphans / Are we left in sorrow now; / Hallelujah! He is near us, / Faith believes, nor questions how. / Though the clouds from sight received Him / When the forty days were o’er, / Shall our hearts forget His promise, / “I am with you evermore“? (Hymns #125)