We must Exercise our Spirit of Faith to Believe in the Divine Facts in God’s Word

Faith is rooted in God’s divine facts covenanted to us in His holy Word, and we believers must exercise our spirit of faith to believe what God has promised and covenanted to us in His word. Amen!

Faith is not something that we muster up or “conjure up”; faith is not something mysterious that only some people can have, but faith comes through the hearing of the word.

When the gospel is preached to us, when we hear the Word of God and the preciousness of Christ is infused into us, faith rises up in us.

We simply react to seeing the preciousness and sweetness of the Lord Jesus, and we just repent and give ourselves to Him.

Even more, faith is to believe that God is and we are not.

On one hand, he who comes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

This means that, when we come to God, we need to exercise to believe, and He Himself becomes our very believing ability.

On the other hand, however, when we see that God is, we realize that we are not. It is true that we are here today and that so much of what’s around us is related to us and is for us, but tomorrow we are not here anymore, so we are not.

Even more, though we may gain something today, it will be gone tomorrow, and though we may achieve something today, it will be lost tomorrow.

What we have and can do amounts to nothing, and even we ourselves are not, but God is.

He simply is. He is the verb to be: He was, He is, and He will be. This is what we testified through our baptism: we believe that He is and we are not.

The Lord requires that all who believe into Him be baptised, for baptism is a declaration that we are terminated and Christ lives in us.

Baptism means that we are put into death and our old man remains there; we then rise up in newness of life to live in resurrection.

We are Christians, those who live a Christian life by realizing that we are not but God is, for we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer us who live but it is Christ who lives in us.

Christianity is not a religion; Christianity in its essence is something of life, for it is living by another life, the divine life.

No religion tells people to deny themselves; they may tell them to do this and that, to keep this and that rule and regulation, and to go here or there, but not to deny themselves.

In today’s culture, people protect themselves and want to remain whole, showing themselves off and standing up for themselves.

But the Lord told us that, if we want to follow Him, we must deny the self and take up our cross and follow Him.

Whether we’re a billionaire or a poor beggar, whether we’re a Nobel laureate or a farmer, and whether we’re PhD graduates or a pupil in school, we need to realize that faith is to believe that we are not and God is – He is everything and we are nothing.

Faith is Rooted in God’s Great and Divine Facts Covenanted to us in His Holy Word, and our Subjective Faith is in our Spirit

Faith is not just to believe in God; faith is rooted in God’s great, eternal, and divine facts covenanted to us in the holy word of God (2 Cor. 4:13).

The fact that our faith is rooted means that faith is something organic, not something floating in the air and mysterious.

Faith is rooted in God’s great, eternal, and divine facts, which are covenanted to us in His holy Word. The roots of our faith are in the Word of God.

Faith is not empty hope; we don’t believe that one day this and that will happen to us – that is hope, not faith.

Hope is something we may wish that will happen, but it may not have a solid support.

When we have faith, we have a strong support, which is the Word of God.

The word of God is intimately related to our exercise of faith, for we cannot have faith without the Word of God. Faith is solidly rooted in the Word of God.

The Bible is not just the words that man wrote under God’s inspiration; the Bible is the covenanted Word of God. God didn’t just promise to do this or that; He covenanted Himself to us.

What we have in our hands is the testament, which is a legally binding matter; God has legally bound Himself to give Himself to us in many ways and in many aspects.

All the promises of God in the Word of God are covenanted to us; they are our testament.

What we have is a covenant and even a testament strongly assuring us of what God is and what He has done for us. Our faith is rooted in the Word of God.

And our subjective faith is in our spirit. The word of God is not just some black and white letters; the word of God is spirit and is life.

When we touch such a word, that is spirit and life with our spirit, and we get dynamically saved by this divine life.

When our spirit is touched by the Spirit that is in the Word of God, something “explodes” – the Spirit comes into our spirit and causes our spirit to become the spirit of faith.

When we read the Word of God with a heart turned to the Lord and a spirit that is exercised, faith responds to God’s word, and we have the subjective faith in our spirit.

Our spirit is a spirit of faith, which is actually a mingled spirit. This mingled spirit is not distinctly the Holy Spirit and not merely just the human spirit; the indwelling Holy Spirit penetrates and fills the whole inner man.

The mingled spirit is not just a human faculty or disposition, nor is it just the divine Spirit; it is the blending of the divine Spirit and the human spirit.

Hallelujah, we can exercise our spirit of faith to believe the divine facts in the Word of God, and these become real to us in our spirit!

We need to exercise such a spirit to believe and to speak what we have experienced and enjoyed of the Lord, especially His death and resurrection.

Faith is in our spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit, but doubts are in our mind.

When we are in our mind, we have questions and doubts; when we are in our spirit, we have faith, and by faith, we live and carry out our ministry.

May we learn to turn to our spirit and read the word of God prayerfully to receive and enjoy more of the Triune God as spirit and life through the exercise of our spirit of faith to believe!

Hallelujah, our faith is rooted in God’s great, eternal, and divine facts covenanted to us in His holy Word! Amen, Lord, we believe into You according to Your word, which contains all the promises and blessings. We not only hope in Your word; we believe into You according to the holy Word of God. Thank You for covenanting Yourself to us; thank You for promising and legally binding Yourself to give us all that You are for our enjoyment and experience. May our faith be rooted in the word of God. We exercise our spirit of faith to believe in what Your word speaks and promises to us. Hallelujah for our mingled spirit which is a spirit of faith! Amen, Lord, we turn from our mind (where doubts are) to our spirit (where faith is)!

We must exercise our Spirit of Faith to Believe in the Divine Facts in God’s Word

As believers in Christ, we have a spirit of faith; we must exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the divine facts in God’s word.

First of all, we must exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the fact that God is love (1 John 4:8). He not only loved us or will love us; He Himself is love.

We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the fact that God’s grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9).

We may be in suffering and trials, and there may be a thorn in our flesh that the Lord still allows to exist; His grace is sufficient to us.

We may not understand how this will work out and how will our suffering cause His grace to increase to us, but we can exercise our spirit of faith to believe that God’s grace is sufficient.

We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the fact that Christ is able to save us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25).

He is able to save to the uttermost all those who come forward to God through Him, for He lives always to intercede for them.

He is able to save us completely, entirely, perfectly, to the end, and for eternity if we come forward to God through Him. Hallelujah, He is able!

We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the fact that we are in Christ and Christ is in us, and that we and Christ are one (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 1:27; John 14:20; 15:5).

Even though we may not feel it at times, it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus, and Christ lives in us.

He is the vine, and we are the branches; through regeneration, we have been grafted into Him, and now we live a life in the organic union with the Lord.

This is a fact, a spiritual, divine, great fact in the Word of God; we simply need to believe it. We believe these divine facts by exercising our spirit of faith over the word of God.

We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the fact that we believers in Christ are God’s children and heirs (Rom. 8:16-17).

The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him.

We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe that we have been made full in Christ (Col. 2:10).

On one hand, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; on the other hand, we have been made full in Him, who is the Head of all rule and authority.

He has given to us all the fullness and grace upon grace; we receive all these through the exercise of our spirit of faith to read and pray the word of God.

We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the fact that we are the temple of the living God and that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16).

God, Christ, and the Spirit dwell in us, in our mingled spirit; we are the temple of the living God, and our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

This is a divine fact in the Word of God, and we believe it and appropriate it by faith.

We withstand the devil by being firm in our subjective faith in God’s protecting power and loving concern (1 Pet. 5:8-9).

Satan is like a roaring lion, walking about, seeking someone to devour; we can withstand him by being firm in our subjective faith.

How can we withstand the devil? We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe that the Lord was manifested for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

Wherever He went and wherever He was, the works of the devil were destroyed, undone, and stopped.

To others, it seemed that there was a storm on the sea, but the Lord destroyed the work of the devil through that storm.

He cast out demons and rebuked the fever of Peter’s mother-in-law to undo the works of the devil.

We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe that the Lord’s death has destroyed him who has the might of death, the devil (Heb. 2:14).

Christ not only destroyed the devil’s works; through His death, He destroyed the devil himself.

Satan thought that he would destroy Christ through death, but actually, in His death, Christ destroyed him who has the might of death, the devil.

This is a divine fact in the word of God, and we believe it! We must exercise our spirit of faith to believe that the Lord’s resurrection has put Satan to shame (Acts 2:23-24; Col. 2:12-15, 20; 3:1; John 14:30).

The resurrection life is a life that cannot be touched by death for it has overcome death; resurrection life transcends death and is beyond the boundary of death, coming out of death and not being able to be held by it (Phil. 3:10).

Especially these days, Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us.

We live in a world full of chaos, tumults, confusion, and lawlessness. Man’s heart is being bombarded by all the suppression, depression, concerns, worries, and anxieties.

We need to firm up our faith and withstand the devil, not giving place to him, by exercising our spirit of faith to believe in the divine facts in the Word of God.

When we exercise our spirit of faith to believe the divine facts in God’s word, we experience Christ in His death and resurrection.

When we stand on the ground of resurrection, we triumph over Satan through the cross, and he cannot touch us.

No matter how strong Satan may be, he is no match for the resurrection life of Christ.

May we not forget our position in Christ but remain one spirit with Him, standing in resurrection, so that the enemy would flee from us.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the divine and great facts in the Word of God. Amen, we believe that God is love and that His grace is sufficient for us! We believe that Christ is our great High Priest who is able to save us to the uttermost, for He always lives to intercede for us. We believe that we are in Christ, that Christ is in us, and that we and Christ are one. We exercise our spirit of faith to believe in the fact that we are God’s children and heirs, even heirs together with Christ. Amen, in Christ we have been made full, and we are the temple of the living God! Hallelujah, our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. We praise You, Lord Jesus, for being manifested for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil. We exercise our spirit of faith to believe that the Lord’s death has destroyed him who has the might of death, the devil. Hallelujah, the Lord’s resurrection has put Satan to shame, and today we can experience His resurrection life and remain in resurrection to withstand the devil, and he will flee from us!

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 Watchman Nee, vol. 50, “Messages for Building up New Believers (3)“, ch. 43, 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:
  – What I never could do God is doing in me, / By saying Amen to His Word. / And the change is so real all the brothers can see, / By saying Amen to God’s Word. (Hymns #1219)
  – Saved to the uttermost, I am the Lord’s; / Jesus my Savior salvation affords; / Gives me His Spirit a witness within, / Whisp’ring of pardon, and saving from sin. / Saved, saved, saved to the uttermost: / Saved, saved by power divine; / Saved, saved, I’m saved to the uttermost; / Jesus the Savior is mine! (Hymns #315)
  – What a victory! What a triumph! / God Himself became a man, / Clothed Himself in human nature / To fulfill His mighty plan. / He through death destroyed the devil; / Risen now, the Son of Man! (Hymns #1174)