A proper Christian life involves keeping the faith for the participation in the divine riches in God’s economy; for this, we need to hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience so that we may enjoy all the riches of what God is and serve Him in a proper way. Amen!
We need to keep the faith.
Faith has both a subjective and an objective aspect; the faith we need to keep is the objective faith, and we keep it by laying hold on eternal life.
God’s economy, His plan and purpose to carry out what is in His heart, is in faith (1 Tim. 1:4).
If we want to know God, please God, come close to God, and enjoy God, we need to have faith.
Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing to God.
But how can we have faith? Can we just decide to believe, and then keep on believing?
Faith comes through hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God. When we hear the gospel, we have the hearing of faith.
The gospel conveys to us a wonderful Person, Jesus Christ, who is infused into us by our hearing of faith, and He in us becomes our faith.
When we hear the truth in God’s word when we are presented with a view of God’s economy, we are simply captivated by the Lord, and something rises up in us – this is faith.
For us to receive faith, we must know the truth.
For us to be established in the faith, we must remain in the truth and be constituted with the truth.
Even after believing into the Lord, we must still place ourselves under the hearing of faith again and again.
We need to come to the full knowledge of the truth by being in the healthy teaching of God’s New Testament economy.
When we are in the truth, reading and praying the word of God, we are infused with faith, and faith grows in us.
Through the receiving of the gospel, we receive a person, Jesus Christ, who is life; He is the eternal life, and by regeneration we are born again, born of God.
Hallelujah, we now have the eternal life of God in our spirit, and we can lay hold on eternal life to which we were called!
As we lay hold on eternal life, we live not by our natural life but by the divine life, and we do not trust in our natural human life.
It is by this life that we have to live, act, and behave, and according to this life we should have our being.
When we lay hold on the eternal life, we can fight the good fight of the faith, that is, keep the faith.
Our living will then express God, for it will be a living of godliness, the expression of God as reality in our human living.
May we be those who live and walk by faith day by day.
May we lay hold on the eternal life and live by this life so that the Lord as faith may increase in us!
May we be those who keep the faith and hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience!
A Proper Christian Life involves Keeping the Faith to Participate in the Divine Riches in God’s Economy
![Holding faith and a good conscience, [concerning] which some, thrusting [these] away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith. 1 Tim. 1:19 To Titus, genuine child according to the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Titus 1:4](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Holding-faith-and-a-good-conscience-concerning-which-some-thrusting-these-away-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Holding faith and a good conscience, [concerning] which some, thrusting [these] away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith. 1 Tim. 1:19 To Titus, genuine child according to the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Titus 1:4")
The faith is the content of God’s economy; we keep the faith to participate in the divine riches in God’s economy.
A proper Christian life involves keeping the faith for participation in the divine riches in God’s economy (1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 6:12; Titus 1:4; Jude 3). The faith is a complete gospel and a common salvation.
Firstly, we need to see God’s economy; God’s economy is nothing else but the Triune God Himself passing through all the processes to dispense Himself into us so that we can have His life and nature and become His corporate expression.
The divine riches are embodied in the word of God.
When we receive the gospel, we receive the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, and we are infused with the element of God for us to become the corporate expression of God.
God wants to dispense Himself into us. He wants to dispense the riches of His being, all that He is and has done, into our being.
He doesn’t just want to do things for us but to dispense Himself into us.
The more He dispenses Himself into us, the more our faith increases, for our faith is nothing else but God in Christ coming into us to be our believing ability, our faith.
We believe and live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Gal. 2:20).
The gospel grants us a common salvation not only once and for all when we received the faith, but we are in the process of growing – we are growing into the oneness of the faith.
The oneness of the faith is related to the full knowledge of the Son of God.
The economy of God is a matter in faith, a matter that is initiated and developed in the sphere and element of faith (1 Tim. 1:4).
If we do not have faith, we cannot see God’s economy. God’s economy is to dispense Himself into His chosen people; this economy is not a matter in the natural realm nor is it in the work of law but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 3:23-26).
When we are in the old creation, the things of God don’t make sense; we need to be in the proper realm, the realm of faith in our spirit, in order to enjoy and participate in the divine riches in God’s economy.
The divine riches of God’s economy is first God Himself.
We receive this wonderful, bountiful, abounding, self-existing, eternal God embodied in Christ who is the all-inclusive, extensive One for our enjoyment.
All the riches of God are in Christ. All the riches in God’s economy are embodied in Christ and realized as the all-inclusive, bountiful Spirit.
We need to come out of the natural realm and enter into the divine and spiritual realm by exercising our spirit of faith.
A proper Christian life involves keeping the faith so that we may participate in the divine riches in God’s economy.
We are in Christ, so we are a new creation; all things of the past have gone – now everything is new!
![So then if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name. John 1:12 So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Rom. 12:5](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/So-then-if-anyone-is-in-Christ-he-is-a-new-creation-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "So then if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name. John 1:12 So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Rom. 12:5")
We are not here to improve our actions or better ourselves; we are here to live by faith, enjoy Christ, and participate in the divine riches in God’s economy by keeping the faith.
We are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ; we have been transferred from the natural realm to the realm of the new creation, the spiritual realm.
By faith into God, we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him (John 1:12-13).
By faith we are put into Christ to become members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression (Rom. 12:4-5).
It is all by faith. This is God’s plan, which is carried out in faith, according to God’s New Testament economy.
We need to daily enjoy the divine riches in God’s economy.
These riches cause us to be regenerated and receive God’s life and also partake of His divine nature. We are partakers of the divine nature; we are enjoyers of the very nature of God.
Through faith we are joined together with Christ to be one with Him so that we may participate in the divine riches in God’s economy.
Day by day we need to keep the faith so that we may enjoy Christ, partake of His riches, and become the fullness of Christ, the church as the Body of Christ.
All that God is in Christ is for our enjoyment; we daily enjoy His divine being so that He may be expressed through us.
Lord Jesus, we want to live a proper Christian life by keeping the faith so that we may participate in the divine riches in God’s economy. Hallelujah, God’s economy is a matter in faith! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith today. We exercise to be one spirit with You. Keep us in the realm of faith so that we may enjoy and participate in the divine riches of all that God is and has done for us. Lord Jesus, dispense Yourself into us today. We want to live in the realm of the new creation, exercising our spirit of faith to enjoy and partake of the divine riches in God’s economy. Hallelujah, we are born of God by faith to be His sons, and now we are partaking of His life and nature to express Him! Praise the Lord, by faith we are put into Christ to become members of His Body, and we can share in all that He is so that we may be His corporate expression! Amen, Lord, we want to keep the faith so that we may participate in the divine riches in God’s economy today!
We need to Hold the Mystery of the Faith in a Pure Conscience
1 Tim. 3:9 speaks of holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.
What is the mystery of faith? The mystery of faith is the gospel of God which was entrusted to us, the entire contents of God’s New Testament economy.
The faith refers to the things we believe in, the things that constitute the gospel (Rom. 1:1, 3-4).
The gospel of God is not only for men to receive the forgiveness of sins and not go to hell but go to heaven.
The gospel of God, the mystery of the faith, is concerning His Son who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness, out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
This One was prophesied to David by the Lord through Nathan the prophet, that He will raise up a seed after him who will be the Son of God (2 Sam. 7).
Christ is the Seed of David and the Son of God.
He became man, passed through human living, passed through the death on the cross, and was resurrected on the third day.
In resurrection according to the Spirit of holiness, Christ was designated the Son of God in power.
A man, Jesus Christ, was designated the Son of God in resurrection. Hallelujah!
God became man to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead; this is the highest gospel, the high peak of the divine revelation in God’s word.
And when we believe in the gospel, we become sons of God to become God-men, to be deified, so that we may become the same as Christ in every possible way.
Christ brought divinity into humanity through incarnation and He brought humanity into divinity through death and resurrection.
Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved, and we enter the process of God’s organic salvation so that we may be renewed, sanctified, transformed, and eventually glorified.
This is part of the gospel, part of the mystery of the faith. We hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
This faith to which we hold is objective, referring to the things we believe into, the things that constitute the gospel.
The mystery of faith is mainly Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4).
We need to live and serve in the church life by holding the mystery of faith, having a full understanding of God’s economy in a pure conscience for the Lord’s testimony.
What does it mean for us to have a pure conscience? It is to have a conscience purified from any mixture.
We cannot hold the mystery of the faith if we don’t have a pure conscience.
For us to hold the mystery of the faith for the Lord’s testimony, we need to have our conscience purified.
We need to deal with anything that the Lord’s light exposes and shines on in our conscience.
![That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ. Col. 2:2 By which, in reading [it,] you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ. Eph. 3:4](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/That-their-hearts-may-be-comforted-they-being-knit-together-in-love-and-unto-all-the-riches-of-the-full-assurance-of-understanding-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ. Col. 2:2 By which, in reading [it,] you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ. Eph. 3:4")
We need to come to the Lord again and again and deal with our conscience so that we may have a pure conscience as we hold the mystery of the faith.
Paul testified in 2 Tim. 1:3 that he served God in a pure conscience.
We serve God in our worship to Him (Acts 24:13; Phil. 3:3) in a pure conscience.
These days in the days of the degradation of the church we need to have a pure conscience, a conscience purified from any mixture, so that we may serve God.
After dealing with our conscience and confessing everything the Lord shines on, we need to believe that we have a pure conscience.
We should not accept the enemy’s doubts in this matter but declare to him that we are for the Lord and for the church, and we are here for nothing else but for God’s interests.
Satan puts doubts in our mind but the Lord’s blood prevails against him.
We need to stand against him in the Lord and based on the Lord’s prevailing blood, and we should not allow Satan to hold us back anymore.
We can even tell him,
Satan, you have been cheating us long enough; we will no longer believe you! We no longer allow you to hold us back. We are for the Lord, and we have a pure conscience. Satan, get away from us! We are not here for you and for your evil scheme; we are here for the Lord, for His recovery, for His church, and for His interests!
When we exercise our spirit of faith in this way, we are holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
We hold to the all-inclusive Christ as our God-allotted portion, and we hold to the church as the mystery of Christ, the fullness of Christ.
God is a mystery, but He is embodied in Christ; Christ is mysterious, but we can see Him expressed in His word and also in the Body of Christ.
May we have a pure conscience as we hold the mystery of the faith today.
May we apply the blood of Christ to take away any condemnation in our conscience.
Lord Jesus, we want to hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. We come to You and we want to be under Your shining. Expose any mixture and impurity in us. We apply Your precious blood. Cleanse us and remove anything in our conscience that is impure. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith to hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. We hold to Christ and the church. We come to You, Lord, in our spirit, to enjoy all Your riches. Hallelujah, the all-inclusive Christ has been allotted to us to be our rich portion with the saints. Praise the Lord, the church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of Christ, to express Him on the earth. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith today to hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. We are here for You and for Your interest. We are not here for our job or career; we are here for the Lord and for the church! Oh, what a mystery, that God and man can be joined together, mingled together, even incorporated together for the corporate expression of God in man! Praise the Lord!
Read this article in the Romanian language – citiți acest articol în limba română la următorul link, Păstrăm credința pentru a savura de bogățiile lui Dumnezeu și păstrăm taina credinței într-o conștiință pură.
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 2 Timothy, msg. 1, 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 3, Keeping the Faith.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– Dealing with the conscience being necessary for the growth in life, a portion from, Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
– 14 Words to Enrich Your Fellowship with Jesus, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– Speaking by the Spirit of Faith, via, Having this Ministry.
– A Testimony: Enjoying Crystallization Studies I and II of the Book of Numbers to Work out the Kingdom of God on Earth Today, via, Living to Him.
– The Lord’s Recovery—The Life, Function, and Practical Oneness of the Believers, via, An Open Letter.
– Eternal Redemption; Serve the Living God, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– 8 – The Ministry Abounding with Glory (4), a portion from chapter eight of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant, via, Shepherding Words.
– Paul, the pattern, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon, Chapter 19, by Witness Lee.
– Departing from the faith, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
– Life-study of Ephesians, Message 14: A Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation and the Eyes of Our Heart, watch it via LSM YouTube channel.
– Our Faith, Testimony, and History introduces readers to the local churches and to the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. As Christians, we affirm “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). As this booklet explains, we endeavor to cooperate with the Lord to recover the experience of Christ as life, the functioning of every believer in serving the Lord, and the building up of the Body of Christ in a testimony of oneness. Via, Contending for the Faith. - Hymns on this topic:
– Thus we must relinquish doctrines of all kinds, / Only keep the faith that oneness we may find. / In the Lord the Spirit we are one indeed; / Just to keep this oneness is our only need. / Truth we must be holding, which is Christ Himself, / That we be delivered from the sects of self, / That in all things growing into Christ the Head, / Built will be the Body and to fulness led. (Hymns #832 stanzas 3-4)
– This good deposit is the mark / Of God’s economy, / Without it we will miss the aim / Of His recovery. / The myst’ry of the common faith, / A conscience pure requires; / A holy, separated life / For us the Lord desires. (Hymns #1285 stanzas 2-3)
– Oh, for a heart to praise my God, / A heart from sin set free, / With conscience sprinkled by the blood / So freely shed for me. / A heart resigned, submissive, meek, / My dear Redeemer’s throne; / Where only Christ is heard to speak, / Where Jesus reigns alone. (Hymns #410 stanzas 1-2)
About aGodMan
Life-study of 1 Timothy, 2nd ed., p. 12, by Witness Lee
We need to hold to the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
Our conscience needs to be purified from any mixture and impurity so that we can hold the mystery of Christ and the church with a pure conscience.
Praise the Lord, the blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin and impurity.
The more we doubt purpose conscience the more we feel our conscience is not pure.
We should not listen to the lies of the enemy and instead declare I have a pure conscience
Amen brother. Faith is God being the Word spoken to us.
God’s speaking in these last days unveils the mystery of the faith, the mystery of His New Testament economy.
It makes a tremendous difference if our contact with others is based on God’s New Testament economy.
For this we need a conscience purified of mixture.
We should have a conscience that testifies even to the demons that we live according to the standard of God’s economy.
In this age of degradation, our God needs those like Samuel; a man purified from all mixture.
Whenever we are infused with God in Christ or preached the gospel by any called minister we can have faith in Him.
Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
This is the mystery of faith, which is in turn the mystery of God, Jesus Christ, and the mystery of Jesus Christ, the church.
This process of transfusion and infusion of God into us is the new testament economy or the move of the triune God in His people for His kingdom.
To participate in this process, our conscience must be pure and clean.
Praise the Lord for this opportunity to participate in His eternal purpose.
Amen! Thank you Lord for saving us and thank you for your precious cleansing blood!
Amen. Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord! 🙌😃🙋🏼
https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1211
God’s economy is in the sphere and realm of faith having been revealed to us through the word of God and the Spirit of God to enter into an organic union with the Triune God.
We need to hold to the mystery of the faith, concerning Christ and the church with a conscience purified from any mixture, serving the Lord.
However, we must not doubt or believe Satan’s lies but declare that we are here for God’s economy for His interests on earth!
Serve God in a pure conscience.
(HWMR – W3D4)
07/04/24 Keeping the Faith (Week 3, Day 4)
First Timothy unveils to us God’s dispensation, His New Testament economy, concerning the church. The purpose of 2 Timothy is to inoculate the church against the decline. On the one hand, an inoculation is positive, and on the other hand, it is negative because it indicates that we need to be protected from a disease that could kill us. Paul’s purpose in writing 2 Timothy was to inoculate the church against decline, degradation, and deterioration.
The first crucial point in 1 Timothy is God’s economy in faith. In 1:3-4 Paul says, “Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.”
God’s economy is carried out in faith through the Word as the Spirit Who gives life (1Tim 1:4; John 6:63). Faith is first God being the Word spoken to us. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Upon hearing of the Word, it gets into our human spirit and becomes Spirit and life into us. Then, something rises within us to believe in the Word, Who is God, being the Spirit of life, thus regenerating us. This is faith.
As we continually enjoy the Word, the more we receive the Spirit, and the more we grow in life. Our growth in life also causes our faith to increase. Faith then works in us to bring us into an organic union with the Triune God. Through this organic union, God is continually transfusing and infusing His life and nature into our inner being, causing us to be transformed to become:
a.) the sons of God,
b.) members of Christ, and
c.) parts of the new man
Then, corporately, we shall also become:
a.) the House of God,
b.) the Kingdom of God
c.) the Body of Christ,
d.) the New Man, and
e.) the Bride of Christ
The faith in 1 Timothy 3;9, as in 1:19 and 2 Timothy 4:7 is objective. It refers to the things we believe, which constitute the gospel. This gospel involves the mystery of the faith – Christ being the mystery of God (Col 2:2), and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:4).
First Timothy 3:9 says, “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” We need to have a pure conscience so that we can hold the mystery of the faith. Without a pure conscience, we can not hold the mystery of the faith properly. But the Spirit tells us clearly that in later times, some will depart from the central thought of the faith, that is, from the mystery of godliness, which is God manifested in the flesh. These persons will give “heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons” (1Tim 4:1).
When people seek to argue with us and try to convince us with various teachings, we should not argue with them or exercise our mentality; we must check with the conscience. If we know how to deal with the conscience, we may sense that such people are merely arguing in their mind. We may have the sense that their conscience is not pure before the Lord.
If we learn the lesson of dealing with our own conscience, we may sense that although the arguments of such persons may be quite reasonable, there is an impure motive in their conscience. Hence, we may realize that we can not go along with their argument. If we have not learned the lesson of dealing with our conscience, our sense of discernment will not be sharp. However, if we learn to deal with our conscience day by day, our conscience will become very sensitive, and we will have a keen sense concerning the conscience of others.
First Timothy 4:2 speaks of “men who are branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron.” We should not have a branded conscience. A branded conscience is a seared conscience, a conscience that has become insensitive or numb. Just as skin that is seared by a hot object loses its ability to feel, a branded conscience loses its sensitivity and feeling.
If we do not deal with our conscience, our conscience will lose its sensitivity and will become insensitive. It is very dangerous to have a seared conscience. Hence, we must develop a sensitive conscience. The only way that we can have a sensitive conscience is to deal with our conscience. By constantly dealing with our conscience before the Lord, we will have a keen and sensitive conscience. Having such a conscience, we will be able to hold the mystery of the faith.
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT9q00E9rKw
Rumble:
https://rumble.com/v55gpc0-hold-the-mystery-of-faith-in-a-pure-conscience.html
We should deny everything that satan is trying to put in our minds.
Without any mixture, with a conscience pure, teaching only the economy of God to this humanity lost and entangled by other teachings
[Excerpt from HWMR-Wk. 3 Day 4]
1 Tim. 1:4
Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which producequestionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.
–
1 Tim. 3:9
Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
—
HWMRW3D4
𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩
The faith here, as in 1:19 and 2 Tim. 4:7, is objective, referring to the things we believe in, the things that constitute the gospel. The mystery of the faith is mainly Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). A deacon in a local church should hold the mystery of the faith with full understanding in a pure conscience for the Lord’s testimony. 1 Tim. 3:9, footnote 1 on “mystery”, Recovery Version Bible
A pure conscience is a conscience purified from any mixture. To hold the mystery of the faith for the Lord’s testimony, a deacon needs such a purified conscience. 1 Tim. 3:9, footnote 2 on “pure”, Recovery Version Bible