Through we have Never Seen Jesus, we Love Him, Believe in Him, and Exult with Unspeakable Joy

As believers in Christ, we need to develop and perfect our faith in the Lord and our love for Him, the One whom we have not seen yet we love, into whom we believe, and to whom we’re organically joined to. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to a new topic entitled, The Need to Develop our Faith in the Lord and our Love for Him.

No matter what is our age, what is the stage of our spiritual development, how many years and decades we have been a believer or in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we all need to advance in the development of our faith in the Lord and our love for Him.

And this we do not by ourselves or in ourselves, but in the Lord and one with Him.

In Heb. 12 we see that the Lord Himself is the Author and Perfecter of our faith; this faith needs to be developed to such an extent that the Lord will be able to fulfill Luke 18:7-8, When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?

These verses refer to the believers suffering and praying, and there are apparently no answers from God; they cry day and night, but God seems to do nothing.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? This is the faith that the overcomer will need in this present age until the time of the Lord’s rapturing the overcomers.

Furthermore, our love needs to be perfected; the Body builds itself up in love so that the bride would make herself ready to bring the Lord back (Eph. 4:16).

We need to advance in our experience as the Lord as love, from merely loving Him in a natural way and for our own satisfaction to having a more developed and mature love for Him.

For us to be ready for the Lord to come, our faith and love need to be developed and perfected.

This developing doesn’t originate with us; the Lord is the source of faith and the Author of faith, and God is love.

Our love is not pure, universal, or without preference; but God loves us, He pours out His love into our hearts, and we love because He first loves us.

Our faith in the Lord needs to grow, develop, and be perfected; also, our love needs to advance and be perfected until we love not only the brothers and all men, but even our enemies.

There are things that are lacking in our faith, and our love is so natural and impure; we need to come to the Lord again and again and take Him as the Author and Perfecter of our faith and enjoy Him as our love to let Him love others through us.

We need more development of our faith and love; we are not rapture-ready, but we want to remain open to the Lord to be perfected and developed in our faith and love until He returns.

Though we have Never Seen the Lord Jesus, we Love Him, Believe in Him, and Exult with Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory!

We Christians are mysterious and peculiar people, for we believe in Someone whom we have never seen and we love someone we have never physically met or seen.

We believe in Jesus Christ whom, having not seen, we love; into whom, though not seeing Him at present, yet believe, we exult with joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Pet. 1:8).

The Lord Jesus is here with us today (Matt. 28:20) but not in a physical, visible way; He is with us in a hidden, veiled way.

Although we have never seen Him, we love Him; we cannot see Him at present, yet we believe in Him.

What a wonder and what a mystery that, even though we have not seen Him, yet we believe in Him and we love Him!

We love Him and believe into Him because of the faith that has been infused into us through our hearing of the living word of God.

And as we believe in Him, we exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

Even though our life is under the government of God, even though we suffer under His dealings and discipline, we still love Him and exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

In the midst of all these things that we can see around us, we can confess that we love the Lord, we believe into Him, and we exult with joy in Him; He is becoming more and more real to us day by day as we enjoy Him and experience Him.

This is similar to the experience of Rebekah in the Old Testament, who saw the riches that Isaac had, heard the report concerning him, and she chose to go and marry him even though she never met him not has she seen a picture of him.

We believers in Christ are on a camel ride on our way to meet our husband; we have never met Him, we have never seen Him, but we heard the word of the faith, we believed into Him, and we love Him and exult with joy unspeakable and full of glory!

Amen, we love the Lord Jesus whom we have not seen because of believing, that is, because of the faith that has been infused into us through our hearing of the living word of God spoken to us.

Faith is not something we’re born with; faith is infused into us through our hearing of the living word of God.

The more we put ourselves under the hearing of the faith, the more we read the Bible and are in the meetings of the church, the more we are infused with God and faith increases in us.

Whether we feel it or not, moment-by-moment there is an infusion of God and a transfusion of His element into us going on constantly.

The Lord is praying for us, He is the Author and perfecter of our faith, and He is infusing Himself into us as our believing ability.

And as we see Him in spirit, touch Him in spirit, and enjoy and experience Him, we exult with joy that is immersed in glory!

Hallelujah, our joy is immersed in the Lord as glory, and it is full of the expression of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18).

We love Him, we believe in Him, we are enjoying Him, and with this joy there is glory, so there is an expression!

When we enjoy the Lord, our face is shining; we are not aware of it, but others can see us shining with joy unspeakable and full of glory!

We are aware of the sweetness of the indwelling Christ, and we enjoy Him; others, however, see something of Christ in us! Amen! By believing into the Lord and loving Him, we obtain great joy.

The normal condition of a Christian is to exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. Amen!

Even in sufferings or in situations where there’s nothing around us that would bring us joy, we can rejoice in the Lord and maintain our joy in Him.

When there’s nothing for the soul-life to enjoy, we can inwardly love and believe into the unseen One, and there’s no end to our joy.

As we love the Lord and believe into Him through our contact with Him under the speaking of the living word of God, we enter into the reality of the kingdom of God, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we believe into You! Though we have never seen You physically, we love You! Though we don’t see You at present, we believe into You and exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory! Amen, Lord, what a wonder and a mystery that we can believe into the unseen One and love the One we have never seen! Thank You for infusing us with faith, the believing ability, under the hearing of faith. Amen, Lord, infuse us more with faith through our hearing of the living word of God! It is only because of Your infusing and transfusing of Yourself that we can believe; keep us under the infusing of the element of God into us! Amen, Lord, we love You, we believe into You, and we exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory! We rejoice in You, Lord, and we exult in You with joy we can’t explain but we sense and enjoy!

We believe as a Result of Hearing the Living Word, Appreciating the Lord, Calling on Him, Receiving Him, Accepting Him, Being Joined to Him, and Partaking and Enjoying Him

How can a person believe into someone he has not seen, and how can a man love someone he has never met physically nor talked to or touched?

This truly is a mystery, and to the people in the world, we Christians are a mystery and a wonder.

First of all, how can we believe in Christ? If anyone can believe in Christ, why doesn’t everyone believe into Him?

We need to realize that faith is not in and of us; faith is of the Lord, who infuses Himself into us by our hearing of the living word of God.

Faith refers to two matters in particular: the object of our believing (the contents of the faith) and our action of believing (our believing).

As we hear the things in which we believe, faith is produced within us; the more we hear the living word of God, the more faith is produced in us.

Faith, therefore, is both objective and subjective.

The subjective aspect of faith involves the following: our hearing of the living word of God, our appreciating the Lord, our calling on Him, our receiving Him, our accepting Him, our being joined to Him, and our partaking and enjoying Him.

When we hear the word of God, when the gospel is preached to us in a living way, faith rises up in us. There’s no faith without the hearing of the Word of God; faith comes upon hearing.

The word that we hear includes God, Christ, the Spirit, the cross, redemption, salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life.

When we hear that God became a man to die for us and then He became a life-giving Spirit to come into us, we are stirred up and filled with appreciation.

When we hear the living word of God spoken to us, we are filled with appreciation for the Lord; appreciation spontaneously rises up in those who hear the speaking of the living word of God.

Whether we hear the gospel for the first time or we are under the speaking of the word of God in the meetings of the church, whether we hear the word spoken to us as unbelievers or as believers, there’s an appreciation for the Lord that rises up in us.

This appreciation for the Lord causes us to call on Him and spontaneously pray and thank Him; we may even say, Lord, how good You are. Or we may just call on the name of the Lord, O Lord Jesus!

As we call, we receive; as we appreciate the Lord and call on Him, we spontaneously receive Him in spirit. We accept the Lord and receive Him, and He becomes our Savior and our life.

As we receive the Lord through our hearing of the living word of God, we are joined to the Lord Jesus.

This is faith: faith is an organic union with the Lord. The hearing of the gospel and of the speaking of the Word in a proper way spontaneously awakens our appreciation for the Lord and brings us into an organic union with Him.

In this organic union in spirit, we are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), and we enjoy Him and partake of Him.

This is what faith is in a subjective way: it brings us into an organic union with the Lord and causes us to enjoy Him and partake of Him.

By faith, we partake of and enjoy the Lord Jesus.

We start as unbelievers, and by faith, we become those who believe into One we have not seen, we love the One we have never met, and we exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory!

And this is not just initially when we’re saved: this happens again and again when we are under the hearing of the faith.

Lord Jesus, thank You for dying for us to redeem us and bring us back to God. Thank You for becoming a life-giving Spirit to infuse us with the element of God by coming into us. We appreciate You, Lord, and we open to You to receive You! Oh Lord Jesus, how good You are. We receive You as our life and Savior. We accept You and we receive You. We are even one with You in spirit, Lord, for You made us one spirit with You. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith to partake of You and enjoy You in faith. We believe in You, Lord, and we love You; we exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by bro. Ron Kangas on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Galatians, msg. 14 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 3, entitled, The Need to Develop Our Faith in the Lord and Our Love for Him.
• Recommended further reading:
  – Whom having not seen, you love, you love; / Into whom though not seeing Him at present, / yet believing; / Whom having not seen, you love, you love; / Into whom though not seeing Him at present, / yet believing, / You exult with joy / That is unspeakable / And full of glory. / You exult with joy / That is unspeakable / And full of glory. / First Peter 1:8. (Scripture song)
  – We have found the Christ who’s all in all; / He is everything to us; / O how blest upon His name to call, / How divine, how glorious! / It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, / Full of glory, full of glory; / It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, / And the half has never yet been told! (Hymns #1153)
  – Our faith to God-ward must in these days spread abroad / To show we’ve turned from idols to the living God. / We’ll mix His Word with faith by answering “Amen!” / And to Christ in the Word turn again and again. (Hymns #1305)