Faith is a Substantiating Ability for us to Enjoy God and Infuse God into Others

Faith is a substantiating ability infused into us by the Lord when we believe into Him; we live by faith, not by appearance, and we regard the things which are not seen, which are eternal, not the things which are seen, which are temporary. Amen!

Faith is like a sixth sense which has been imparted into us at the time of our regeneration.

Faith is not something that some people come up with because they work really hard on believing what the Bible says, nor is it something that we can manufacture.

We are infused with faith by the hearing of the word of God.

For example, Abraham was a pagan living in a pagan land, but the God of glory appeared to him, and he could not resist God; he responded to God by having faith.

It was this faith, which God has infused into him to become his faith, that was counted to him as righteousness.

Similarly so many others in the Old Testament, when they had God’s appearing and His speaking, when the Holy Spirit moved upon them and revealed to them things of God, they could not resist God: they simply had faith.

In the New Testament, we see Paul who was a fierce persecutor of the believers in Christ, the followers of Jesus.

Though he was breathing murder toward them, God had mercy on him and the Lord Jesus appeared to him.

He was converted to Christ simply by having the Lord appear to him.

When God appears to us through His word, when we see the beauty and loveliness of Jesus Christ, we simply respond to Him by believing into Him.

It is not of us – it is the Lord Himself coming to us to infuse us with Himself, and this becomes our believing ability.

We can all testify of this.

Whenever we come to the Lord in His word and have His shining, His appearing, we are infused with faith.

This infusion is not just once and for all; we need to daily spend time with the Lord in His word to be infused with Him as our faith.

Our Christian life is a life of faith, a walk by faith, and a race that is in faith.

We are now on the Christian race, the pathway of faith, and we walk not by sight, nor by appearance but by faith.

Because faith is something that God infuses into us by His appearing to us, we cannot judge others for not having faith.

We simply need to pray for them and learn to minister something of Christ to them so that they also may see the wonderful Jesus who is enthroned in heaven, crowned with glory and honor.

When we see Him, when we behold the Lord Jesus, we are infused with faith to go on with the Lord on the Christian path and we can run the race with endurance, for Christ Himself in us is able to run the race. Hallelujah!

Faith is in our Spirit as a Substantiating Ability for us to Know God and Live in the Realm of Things Unseen

What is faith? How come some people have faith while others don’t? How come sometimes we have faith and sometimes we do not have faith?

Faith is a substantiating ability; faith is the ability by which we substantiate the things not seen and the things hoped for (Heb. 11:1).

Faith is not of us; we don’t have faith in us when we’re born of our parents. Faith comes through hearing the word of God, the gospel (Rom. 10:17).

We believers in Christ have this sixth sense, our faith, which is a substantiating ability for us to substantiate everything that is of God and of the economy of God.

Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And faith is in our spirit, not in our mind, in our emotions, or in our will. We have a spirit of faith.

2 Cor. 4:13 says that we believe, therefore we speak, for we have the same spirit of faith.

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

Just as we exercise our mouth to eat food and our eyes to see things, so we need to exercise our spirit of faith, our substantiating ability, to substantiate what God is, what He desires, and what His economy is.

But faith is not in us; we need to exercise our spirit of faith in order to have faith.

Faith comes from the Lord; whenever we turn to the Lord by calling on His name, praying, and having fellowship with Him, we are infused with Christ as our faith.

Then, by this spirit of faith, we are able to believe and to speak and to declare.

The Christian life is a life of faith, a life of enjoying the Lord in the mingled spirit and exercising our substantiating ability to substantiate everything that God in Christ as the Spirit is to us and for us.

Faith is in our spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

We need to care for the living God as the Spirt in our spirit by walking according to our mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4); these are unseen things, things in the spirit.

By faith, we substantiate the things not seen, the things in the divine realm.

To substantiate the things in the physical realm is not difficult: we simply exercise our five physical senses.

To substantiate things in the psychological realm, we have our mind, emotion, and will, and these things are made real to us by means of the senses of our soul.

But in order for us to know God, enjoy God, contact God, experience God, and be one with God for the fulfilment of His purpose, we need to exercise our spirit of faith.

We need to more and more exercise our substantiating ability in our spirit – our faith, by coming to the Lord again and again.

Our daily living should be by faith, not by sight.

We do not regard the things which are seen but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18).

Money, prosperity, and possessions are seen things, and they are temporary; they are here today and gone tomorrow.

If we focus on the things seen we are the most miserable persons.

But if we exercise our spirit of faith to have the substantiating ability to substantiate what is of God in the realm of things unseen, we are the most happy persons, for we enjoy and touch something of eternity.

What our eyes can see is very limited. What our ears can hear is quite limited. Even the things which we can think about are limited.

But what God has prepared for us is unlimited, and it is all in the realm of our faith; therefore, we need to exercise our spirit of faith, our substantiating ability.

When we exercise our spirit of faith, the Spirit in our spirit leads us to search out the things of God, the eternal things of God, so that we may enjoy and partake of what God is.

The depths of God are revealed to us as we exercise our spirit of faith.

All the promises of God, His glorious goal, His kingdom, and His reward are made real to us by means of the substantiating ability we have in our spirit of faith.

Our Christian life should be such a life, a life of things unseen, not of things that are seen (Rom. 8:24-25; Heb. 11:27; 1 Pet. 1:8; Gal. 6:10).

Christ is someone we have not seen with our eyes nor have we touched with our hands or felt with our emotions, but we love Him, and we exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory! Amen!

Whenever we leave the things unseen and focus on things that are seen, we are in degradation.

The degradation of the church is the degradation from the unseen things to the seen things; the Lord’s recovery is to recover His church from the things seen to the things not seen (John 20:25; 2 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 8:24-25; 1 Pet. 1:8).

We may focus on many things that are so necessary in the seen realm, but if we lose sight of the unseen realm and do not exercise our spirit of faith, our substantiating ability, we are in degradation.

May we learn to exercise our spirit of faith and walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).

We have been saved through faith (Eph. 2:8), and this faith caused us to experience the divine birth with the divine life.

Now we are learning to exercise our spirit of faith to substantiate the things of God and of His economy, and we live a life by faith by exercising our spirit of faith, our substantiating ability.

By means of this substantiating ability, we are able to sense the invisible divine life within us.

Lord Jesus, thank You for regenerating us with Your life and infusing us with faith so that we may know who You are and what is Your purpose for us. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have a spirit of faith, a substantiating ability by which we substantiate what is of God! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith to believe and to speak what we see of You and enjoy of You. We want to live a life of things not seen, a life of substantiating what is of God, enjoying what God is to us, and living out what God in Christ as the Spirit in our spirit is in us. Lord Jesus, we love You! Though we have never seen You with our physical eyes nor have we felt You with our emotions or touched You with our hands, we love You! We love the unseen One, for He has appeared to us and has infused us with faith! Praise the Lord, we have a substantiating ability in us to substantiate the things not seen, the things of the divine life and of God, and to be convicted of the things that we hope for! Praise the Lord for our spirit of faith!

Exercising our Spirit of Faith to Preach the Gospel and Infuse others with God as Faith

How did we Christians obtain faith? How can Christians have faith, while those around them do not have it?

It is by looking to Jesus. When we look unto Jesus, He transfuses us with Himself as our faith, as our believing element.

Christ becomes our faith.

When we look away from all things to Jesus, we are infused with Him as faith and we have the substantiating ability to make real to us what is of God and of His divine life (Heb. 12:2).

We acquired this substantiating sense, this substantiating ability, by hearing the gospel.

When the gospel was preached to us, faith was infused into us. Believing into the Lord is a reaction to His heavenly attraction through the gospel.

The gospel is not just the declaration of God’s purpose and a call to repentance; the gospel is an infusing of what God is into the hearers.

After believing into the Lord Jesus, we Christians are learning to be one with Him by exercising our spirit of faith to preach the gospel to infuse others with God as their faith. Amen!

Proper gospel preaching is not a matter of teaching others about God or convincing them of their sin or the coming judgment.

Proper gospel preaching is a matter of transfusing what is of God into those who hear.

Therefore, before we can preach the gospel, we need to come to the Lord, enjoy Him and be filled with Him.

We need to exercise our substantiating ability to partake of what is of God and be saturated with Him.

Then, we will have something of Him to impart to others.

It is like we’re being charged with the heavenly electricity, and when we preach the gospel by exercising our spirit of faith, we connect others to this heavenly electricity.

The hearers may shake their heads and not react in a positive way, but as long as we exercise our spirit of faith to speak something of Christ, God is infused into them.

They may even reject what we speak, and they may fight it, but deep within them they are convicted and touched.

Those who hear may think it is silly to believe, for there are so many things that don’t make sense to their mind, but something of God is infused into them through the gospel preaching.

Eventually, they will react and say, Lord Jesus, thank You. You are so good. I believe into You as my Savior.

We believers in Christ need to exercise our spirit of faith to first be filled with the Lord and all that He is, and then speak to others something of Christ so that God may be infused into them as faith.

We should not be intimidated by their response or lack of it; we should simply speak the word of God so that Christ may be infused into them. And we should pray for them.

The church needs to devote much time to praying for the preaching of the gospel.

We need to pray for so many around us to receive the substantiating ability for them to enjoy the things not seen and be convicted of the things hoped for.

The more we pray for the gospel, the more we immerse ourselves in God by prayer, the more charming we will be when we speak to others about the Lord.

The Lord Jesus was not an outwardly attractive man but there was an indescribable charm about Him, for He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic human virtues (Matt. 14:14; Mark 6:34; Matt. 15:32).

When we exercise our spirit of faith and enjoy God, we are filled with the heavenly charm and, when we speak to others, they will be drawn to the Christ who is in us.

Others will be charmed as they listen to us; it will not be us charming them but the Lord attracting them to Himself. There will be an infusion of God’s element into them (Eph. 2:8; Gal. 3:2, 5).

This principle applies to all the service to God and before man.

If we minister in a proper way, we will be charming to others, for Christ will be expressed through us, and all our service will transfuse God into others.

This is altogether a matter of God’s grace, the enjoyment of all that God is for us to have everything of Him infused into us and expressed through us.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of faith to be filled with You and to speak You forth to those around us so that they may be infused with God as their believing ability! Amen, Lord, we exercise to contact You today. We exercise our substantiating ability to come to You, partake of Your riches, be filled with You, and be one with You! Amen, Lord, fill us with Yourself. Saturate us what You are. Fill us to overflowing. Overflow through us to others. Have a way to infuse those around us with something of God so that they may have faith! Oh Lord, we pray for our daily living and for the gospel preaching. May our speaking to others infuse God into them so that God may become their substantiating ability for them to enjoy God and partake of all that God is! Amen, Lord Jesus, may even our speaking to our colleagues be an infusing of God into them so that faith may rise up in them to believe and enjoy all that God is!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 540-541, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord’s Appearing in Order to Receive the Reward of Christ as the Crown of Righteousness (2024 ICSC), week 2, Finishing the Course.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Exercising the spirit to pray-read the Word, a portion from, The Secret of Experiencing Christ, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
  – See New Jerusalem with a Spirit of Faith, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The key to experiencing Christ – the human spirit, a portion from,
  – Podcast: How to Know the Difference Between the Soul and the Spirit, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The function of faith – substantiation, a portion from, Gospel of God, The (2 volume set), Chapter 14, by Watchman Nee.
  – Faith, Regeneration, and the New Creation, article in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Faith being the substantiation of God’s fact, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 24: The Overcoming Life, Chapter 8, by Watchman Nee.
  – What is it to Exercise Our Spirit? Read more via, The hearing of faith.
  – Choosing to Exercise our Spirit, via, Living to Him.
  – God’s economy vs. doctrinal diseases, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – What Is Faith and Where Does It Come From? Read more via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – 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. / Here would I feed upon the Bread of God; / Here drink with Thee the royal wine of heav’n; / Here would I lay aside each earthly load; / Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiv’n. (Hymns #225 stanzas 1-2)
  – 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! (Hymns #559 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – “Ask in faith,” ’tis just the asking, / In a faith that dares to stand, / Full of joyful expectation, / With an open, outstretched hand. / “Ask in faith,” for God is waiting / For thy faith-filled, earnest prayer. / Faith delights Him; faith can touch Him, / Every moment, everywhere. (Hymns #776 stanzas 3-4)