Date: November 16, 1935, morningPlace: ChuenchowScripture Reading: Heb. 11:1
Hebrews 11:1 is the only verse in the Bible that gives a definition of faith. This verse tells us that faith is the substantiation of things hoped for. Faith makes the things that are hoped for real. This is like the nose making smells real, the eyes making colors real, and the ears making sound real. Only faith can make spiritual things real. Faith is spiritual experience. Without faith there is no spiritual experience. A man may have eyes, but all the colors in the world will be invisible to him if he shuts his eyes. The same is true with faith. When we do not exercise faith, we do not see anything spiritual. But when we allow faith to make spiritual things real to us, all spiritual experiences become real. Many believers' prayers never reach God because their prayers are void of faith. Only prayers that are out of faith will touch God, and only these prayers will bring in the spiritual things. Suppose a man has been blind for thirty years, never having seen a color in his life. Once his eyes are opened, he will immediately see colors. The Lord says that He is the vine and we are the branches. If we believe in this word, this word will become reality to us immediately. When a man exercises his eyes to see, things will be there. But if he does not exercise his eyes to see, things will seem to be nonexistent. The same is true with spiritual things. Faith substantiates spiritual things.
Faith is given to us when we are saved (Eph. 2:8). This is like saying that a child is born with two eyes. If a man does not see, he can only blame himself for not seeing. His eyes are present, and they belong to him, but he can choose to see or not to see. In the same way, as soon as we are saved, faith is in us. Whether or not we appropriate spiritual things depends on whether we exercise our faith. Many people have faith already, yet they do not exercise their faith to believe. We need to ask God to show us a revelation. God's revelation can unlock our faith. Revelation is like God lifting the veil and showing us what is behind it. If I am hiding behind a veil, you will not know what I am doing. However, if you have faith, it will be as if you move beyond the veil and see everything that I am doing behind the veil.
Before we have faith, we can only vaguely comprehend the truths in the Bible. We cannot understand them clearly, because the veil is not yet lifted. However, after we have faith, everything becomes real. Once we have faith, we can say, "Now I know, because the veil has been removed." In the past, we might have been veiled concerning some truths. Now the veil is lifted, and everything becomes clear. Who has lifted the veil? God has lifted it through His revelations and has made all the spiritual things behind the veil real to us.
God's revelation is His lifting of the veil. In addition to believing, a man must be hungry if he is to receive any revelation. Only a hungry heart will receive God's revelation. A hungry heart is a desperate heart. If we are desperate, we will see God's revelation as soon as it appears. If we come to this meeting only as spectators, we may gain many doctrines and even be able to analyze these doctrines clearly, but our analysis will only remain an analysis; it will not become our revelation. Doctrines will not make us see, and we will not gain anything. On God's side, He is willing to give us revelation, but on man's side, we must be thirsty and desperate. If we take this attitude, we will receive revelation every time we read the Word or come to a meeting. In a meeting it is easy to jot teachings down in our notebooks. Our minds may be filled with the knowledge, but if our hearts are not open to God, we will still not receive any revelation. If our hearts are not open to the Lord, we will never gain anything. We must pray humbly before the Lord, saying, "Lord, forgive me. Break me! Open my heart!"
Under normal circumstances, salvation and victory occur at the same time. This can be seen from the Israelites in the Old Testament, who ate the flesh of the lamb on the day that they struck the blood of the lamb on the side posts and the upper doorposts. The striking of the blood of the lamb was for their salvation, whereas the eating of the flesh of the lamb was for their empowering. We should experience salvation and empowering at the same time. Unfortunately the condition of most Christians is abnormal today, and we find that we have to preach the overcoming life to them after they are saved. Our preaching of the overcoming life today is a kind of make-up lesson. Recently when I was conducting conferences elsewhere, some brothers and sisters complained that I did not preach this message earlier. We received the overcoming life at the time we were saved. The victory that I am speaking of today is nothing more than a make-up lesson. This lesson tells us that we are not just saved but are able to overcome.
There are different capacities to faith. Every person has a different capacity of faith before God, in the same way that cups, bowls, and tumblers all have different capacities. Mr. George Müller had a great faith; his capacity was great, and God did much through him. However, faith is equally whole in everyone (2 Pet. 1:1). This is the same as saying that fullness is fullness, whether it is in a great vessel or a small vessel. In the eyes of God, the measure of faith can decrease or increase. Revelation gives one sight and faith, but following revelation, one has to exercise his faith. When faith is added to revelation we have reality. Colossians 3:4 says, "Christ our life." For Jesus Christ to become our life, God has to show this to us as a revelation on the one hand, and we have to believe it on the other hand. Philippians 2:13 says, "It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure." It is God's responsibility to operate, and it is our responsibility to will and work, or putting it another way, it is His responsibility to will and work through me. A ten- thousand-ton ship at a shipyard requires only a little girl's hand to cut the ribbon, launching the whole ship into the water. God's will may be likened to a ten-thousand-ton ship. As soon as I will and work, His purpose is realized.
The more we see that our sins are alive and the more we acknowledge that we are the chiefest of all sinners, the more we will experience a breakthrough in the matter of overcoming. Victory is not a change for the better. I am an utterly hopeless sinner; fifty years from now, I will still be a sinner. The Lord has no intention to change me for the better. He wants to give me another life. The overcoming life that He gives us is an exchange; it is not a change in our own life. Everything is accomplished by the Lord. From the day we were saved, the Lord has granted us the victory. If our faith is great, we will see more of what God has given us. If our faith is small, we will see less of what He has given us.
Faith is not acquiring something new. Faith is seeing what God has already given us. If we do not have faith, spiritual things will still exist, but they will appear as if they do not exist at all. The eyes see things, but as soon as the eyes are closed, the things become invisible. The things are still there, but to the eyes, they are gone. Revelation is always available, but it is possible for man to be without faith. The more revelation we have, the more faith we possess. The less revelation we have, the less faith we possess. The more we see the Lord's revelation, the more we will progress; the less we see, the less we will progress.
Faith has nothing to do with natural understanding. Many village women have more faith than college professors. It is not a question of whether or not one has knowledge but whether or not one has living faith. Faith does not come as a result of an artificial believing, nor is it based on one's feelings. Our feelings are not trustworthy; only God's Word is trustworthy. Based on his feelings, a little boy thought that his father would buy him a ball. He invited many of his friends to come to his house and play in anticipation. When his father came, there was no ball because he had never promised to buy his son a ball. Later, the father promised that he would bring him a ball. After the father made such a promise, the child only needed to trust in his father's word. In the same way, we should not go by our feelings or judge God by how we feel. We should trust rather in the Word of God. What counts is what God has said. As soon as we believe, the things will become ours.
How can we tell the difference between faith that comes from God and temptation that comes from Satan? The key lies in the source of the spoken word — whether it is from Satan or from God. When Satan tempted the Lord, he also quoted the Scripture. He wanted the Lord to jump down from the top of the temple, but the Lord would not do it because the word was a temptation from Satan. If God said, "You can jump down," you could jump down even if you had a much higher temple. This is faith. If God has not told you to jump, however, you should not jump no matter how low a temple is. If you do, you are tempting the Lord.
How do we know if this or that verse is the Lord's word to us? Every saved person has the Holy Spirit residing within him, and everyone can know God's leading. According to the promise of the New Testament, "I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me. And they shall by no means each teach his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all will know Me from the little one to the great one among them" (Heb. 8:10-11). There was a man who once wrote a book to oppose the trichotomy of the spirit, soul, and body. He thought that there was no need for such a distinction. Later, others asked my opinion concerning this subject. I said, "Even if the Bible did not say that man was of three parts, the Holy Spirit, who is in us, would tell us there is the distinction between the spirit, soul, and body." If the New Testament is the same as the Old Testament, why does the Bible need the New Testament? The Old Testament was inscribed outside of man, whereas the New Testament is a book inscribed in the heart, which touches on our inward condition. Actually, the One who inscribes into us is the Holy Spirit.
Today everyone can go and demand of God, saying, "I am Your sheep, and the sheep hears Your voice. Speak to me, and let me know Your will." There was a story about two men fighting over a sheep. They brought the matter to the magistrate, who asked the two men to call the sheep by name. When the real master called, the sheep responded. Today we have the Holy Spirit residing in us. He is our Lord; we have to hearken to His inner voice. I cannot make everyone clear concerning God's will, but the Holy Spirit is in us. He is much closer than I am; He is right within us. He can lead us. We only need to hear His voice.
The problem with the church today is that it only knows to search the Scripture and does not inquire of the Spirit within. If we only have the teaching of the Bible and do not have the inner leading of the Spirit, the Bible will be merely dead letters to us. The book The Assembly Life has been published, but a big question still remains whether or not we have the leading from the Spirit. If we try to practice The Assembly Life as if we were practicing the Ten Commandments and ignore the leading of the Spirit within, our meetings will be nothing but death. Once I saw a sister who blindly followed others to cover her head; she was not following the leading of the Spirit. When I saw this, I told her to take off her head covering. When a brother saw me, he asked why I told the sister to take the head covering off. I told the brother to ask the sister one question: Is she an Old Testament believer or a New Testament believer? An Old Testament believer obeys in an outward way; he only keeps the outward law. But a New Testament believer has the Spirit within him. Our life is one that walks according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. If we disobey the voice of the Spirit within, we are disobeying God. If the Spirit within has not ordered us to do something, and we do it, we are wrong in the eyes of God no matter how well we have done the work.
Suppose a brother wants to be baptized. If he does it only because the Bible says so, he is wrong. We must obey the Bible according to the Spirit. Every outward regulation and every human institution is a law. We must do everything according to the leading of the Spirit. What we need to do is to follow the inner leading. If we tell anyone to do something because the Bible says so, we are practicing the law. Unless the Spirit first works in a man, everything he does outwardly is of the law. Everything that does not originate from the leading of the Spirit is in the principle of the law. The Old Testament law was outside man, whereas the New Testament Spirit is inside man. May the Lord be merciful to us. We do not see much work of the Holy Spirit today because we do not honor Him and do not know Him. If we honor Him, know Him, and magnify Him, He can do great things among us. If we have the assurance from the Spirit to do a certain thing, we can be undeterred even if the whole world shakes its head. May we all follow the inner leading and not do anything without the inner leading. Obeying the inner leading in this way is true obedience. Only those who obey in this way will hear God's speaking, and only they will have the faith that substantiates all the spiritual things.
