Faith is the Indicator of our Enjoyment of God: We were Apportioned a Measure of Faith

As believers in Christ, we need to be sober-minded and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith; faith is an indicator of our life in the enjoyment of the Divine Trinity. Amen!

As believers in Christ, we need to be those who have life and live by faith, as Rom. 1:7 says; we need to be the righteous ones who not only have the divine life but also live by faith.

The structure of the gospel of God is the righteousness of God, the life of Christ, and the faith of the believers; this also can be considered the banner of God’s economy.

First, we are justified by God, then we have His life, and finally, we live out the divine life by faith.

We all have received faith when we heard the gospel; faith was infused into us by the hearing of the Word of God.

Now we need to continue to be under the hearing of faith to be infused more with God as our faith until we live by faith.

Our Christian life is a life by faith; we need to not only have faith but also live by faith.

We have faith in the initial stage, but we need faith in the progressing stage, that is, we need the linking faith that comes through our contacting the Triune God. Faith is generated in us whenever we contact the Lord.

When we come to His word and call on His name, opening our being to Him and exercising our spirit to pray and pray-read over His word, we are infused with God as our faith.

This faith links us to the Triune God. The more we contact the Lord in this way, the more we are infused with Him as our faith, and the more He as faith increases in us.

Our linking faith needs to grow; we need to have God increased in us.

We should not be satisfied merely with believing into the Lord Jesus and being saved from eternal perdition; we need to go on, advance with Him, and live by this faith, having a daily life filled with God as our faith.

Our whole Christian life should be a life of progress, a life of progressing in faith until we live in oneness with the Lord. We need to daily live in the linking faith, living in the organic union with the Lord, conversing with Him about everything so that He may infuse Himself into us as our living faith.

On one hand, the Spirit is installed into us through the hearing of the Word; on the other hand, we need to continue to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and have faith increased in us.

May we all advance in faith by contacting the Lord in the morning and throughout the day.

Being Sober-Minded in our Thinking, as God has Apportioned to Each a Measure of Faith

Rom. 12:3 says, “Not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith.”

God has apportioned to each believer a certain measure of faith; for us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think is for us not to be sober-minded.

Here we see faith in our function; faith has been allotted to us as a portion, and we need to exercise our gift for the building up of the church.

However, we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. For us to think that we have greater faith than the apostle Paul is to not be sober-minded.

For us to think we have greater faith than the elders in the church and that we are more advanced in the Lord than them is also not to be sober-minded.

God gave each one of us the same faith in quantity but not in quality; the matter of quantity depends upon how we grow.

If we grow in life and in faith as the apostle Paul did, our portion of faith will greatly be enlarged.

But if we do not contact the Triune God every day, if we don’t open to His divine dispensing throughout the day, faith cannot grow in us, and our portion of faith remains small.

God has apportioned to each a measure of faith, and we need to be sober-minded when thinking of ourselves regarding this.

First, God has allotted faith to us in quality – we have equally precious faith allotted to us (2 Pet. 1:1). Then, He apportioned it in quantity.

What kind of faith depends upon God’s allotment – we have the same kind of faith in quality, but the quantity depends on our cooperation with the Lord to grow in faith.

In our function in the church life, as we serve the saints and help with practical things in the service of the church, we need to exercise our spirit of faith and do all things one with the Lord.

We need to be sober-minded when considering our portion of faith, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith.

God’s apportioning depends upon our attitude. If we’re not sober-minded, God would not increase His apportioning of faith to us, and He probably will even decrease it (see Luke 1:53; Matt. 5:3).

We need to be warned concerning our thinking, to think so as to be sober-minded, not thinking that we have a larger portion of faith than what we really have.

Instead of thinking more highly of ourselves, we should consider others as better and more advanced than us, respect their portion, receive their portion, appreciate their portion, and seek to learn from them so that together we may be built up and advance in faith.

If we humble ourselves and consider others more highly than us, submitting to one another in love, God will increase our measure of faith.

But if we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, if we don’t think so as to be sober-minded, our measure of faith may decrease.

The hungry, He fills with good things, but those who are rich and full, He sends away empty.

May we be the poor in spirit, those who continually empty ourselves and do not rely on what we experienced in the past but always pursue Christ, so that we may have the Lord’s mercy to advance with Him and increase in our faith.

If we humble ourselves and are poor in spirit, if we are sober-minded in our thinking concerning ourselves, the Lord will have a way to increase our measure of faith, and we will cooperate with Him.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us the equally precious faith in quality! Hallelujah, each one of us has precious faith, and God has apportioned to each a certain measure of faith. Grant us to be sober-minded in our consideration so that we may not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We humble ourselves before You, dear Lord, and we want to be poor in spirit, emptied to receive more of You. We need more of Your riches. We need more of Your element. Save us from being content with where we are. Save us from thinking we are rich and in need of nothing. Increase our faith, Lord. Increase Yourself in us as our faith. Grant us to serve in the Body according to the measure of faith apportioned to us by God!

Faith is the Indicator of the Believers’ Life in the Enjoyment of the Divine Trinity

What is the indicator of our life as believers in Christ? We may say that we enjoy Christ, we enjoy the riches of the Triune God, but what kind of indication do people see in us of this enjoyment?

Faith is the indicator of the believers’ life in the enjoyment of the Divine Trinity.

In 1 Thes. 1:3, 5, 7-8 Paul testifies of the faith of the Thessalonians, saying that he remembered their work of faith.

The work of faith of the saints in Thessalonica became such a strong factor in their lives that people everywhere were talking about their faith.

The saints enjoyed the Divine Trinity, and the strong indicator of their enjoyment of God was their faith.

They even became a pattern for all the ones who believe in Christ.

We need to enjoy the Divine Trinity in our daily life, and we need to contact God and allow Him to infuse us with Himself as our faith.

The indicator of our life in the enjoyment of the Divine Trinity is faith.

What should stand out about us before others is not how much we work for the Lord or how much zeal we have for the gospel but our faith.

Similarly, in Rom. 1:8 Paul thanks his God through Jesus Christ for all of them, because their faith was proclaimed throughout the whole world.

It’s not just the faith of Jesus Christ but the faith of the believers that was proclaimed. Wow!

To have faith is to believe that we are nothing and that Christ is everything; faith annuls us and makes Christ everything to us.

Strictly speaking, faith is not for us to accomplish careers or perform great works for God.

Faith is not for us to accomplish big things; faith is for us to live God, express God, and minister God to people.

Faith is the Triune God being infused into us to become our believing ability; when we receive God into us and live by the Christ we have been infused with, we live Christ, express Christ, and minister Christ to others.

When Christians talk about faith, many times they say that by faith you make miracles and move mountains; they say that by faith you raise the dead and heal people.

Yes, there is that aspect of faith, but the main emphasis of faith is as Paul said in Gal. 2:20, we live by faith, the faith of the Son of God.

We shouldn’t think that now, that we are believers in Christ and have faith, we are somebody and we can do something great.

Instead, we should realize that we are not, but God is; we believe that God is, and we are not.

He is everything to us, and we are nothing.

When people contact us, they must see this indicator of the linking faith; they must realize that it is not us who lives but Christ is the One who lives in us.

In all that we are and do, people must see that we are enjoyers of God.

We should always bear the indication, the sign, that we are nothing, but God in Christ is everything to us.

May we be like brother Nee who paid more attention to life than to work. Our attention, our focus, should be on life, on living Christ, and not on doing great works for Him.

Faith is the indicator of the believers’ life in the enjoyment of the Divine Trinity.

We may hear that there is a person who has great faith and makes great miracles for God; we should not learn from people like this but rather, we need to learn from those who live by faith to live Christ, magnify Christ, and minister Christ to others.

Faith is the indicator of the believers’ life in the enjoyment of Christ; faith is the indicator of our life in the enjoyment of the Divine Trinity.

May we look at others’ faith as they live Christ, minister Christ, and express Christ, and may we learn from their faith.

May we become the testimony of Jesus, the people that live by faith, those who consider themselves as nothing and Christ as everything.

May we be sober-minded in our thinking and realize that each one of us has been apportioned a certain measure of faith, and our faith is for us to live Christ, magnify Christ, and minister Christ.

Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying You day by day. May we be those who enjoy the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity in our daily living. Amen, Lord, may faith be the indicator of our life in the enjoyment of Christ to such an extent that we become a pattern to the believers. May we realize that faith is for us to live God, express God, and minister God to people. May our daily life and living with all its activities and things be in faith and by faith, in the organic union with the Lord. Amen, Lord, may others see us as being enjoyers of God, and may faith be the indicator of our daily life in the enjoyment of the Triune God!

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, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 319-322, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 6, entitled, The Linking Faith – the Faith of the Overcomers.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Make us in spirit poor; / Lord, take whate’er we think we know. / We’ll open to life’s flow, / And thus take in the life that makes us grow— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. / Lord, make us pure in heart; / For we’ll be not content until / You all our being fill, / O Lord, renew our mind, emotion, will— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132)
  – With the Body right, on the Body ground, / Move and act on this accomplished fact; / Sins and doubts condemn, wait no more around, / But by living faith now move and act. (Hymns #276)
  – I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, / Yet, not I, but Christ who liveth in me; / And the life I live in the flesh, / I live by the faith of the Son of God, / Who loved, and gave Himself for me. (Hymns #484)