(Pastor Chen)
We have been looking at the subject of faith and have established that faith is what we use to receive what God has provided for us by His grace. The grace of God encompasses every aspect of our lives, who we are, what we have, and what we can do. And the grace of God is activated in our lives by our faith. Therefore without faith, we cannot be all that God has created us to be, have what He wants us to have, and do what He wants us to do. Another word, we are limited in the Kingdom of God without faith. This is the reason why without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). We need faith in every area of our lives. Faith is a way of life, for the just shall live by faith (Hab 2:4, Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, and Heb 10:38).
It would be unjust for God to tell us to have faith without showing us how. On the other hand, if God has given us everything we needed to obtain and develop faith, then it is our responsibility to exercise faith to receive everything that He has for us. It does us no good to beg God to do something that He has already done. Everything we needed in this life has been made available to us through Christ (II Peter 1:3-4, Eph 1:3) and is received by faith. Therefore it would be wise for us to know how to operate in faith. We cannot live a successful Christian life apart from faith (I John 5:4).
We have learned from the previous lesson that faith is not hope, and faith is not a feeling. Faith is simply placing our absolute trust in God. But how do we place our trust in God? Suppose I say to you, "trust me!" How do you demonstrate your trust in me? The only way you demonstrate your trust in me is by believing and acting on whatever that I say to you. But before that can happen, two things must be firmly established. First, I must be trustworthy, or have integrity. Second, my words must carry weight; another word, I must be able to back up whatever that I say to you and make it good. Therefore, if you do not know me very well, it is impossible for you to place your trust in me. And this is exactly why many people have a hard time trusting God - they do not know Him.
In order to put our trust in God, we must first know Him intimately. There is no substitute for times spending with Him. It is during those intimate times of fellowship that God reveals Himself to us as a loving Father, One that is absolutely good and trustworthy, One that is head over heels in love with us and wants to bless us. Many people know the Word of God, but they do not know the God of the Word. They have the letter of the law, but do not have the Spirit that quickens. They have substituted the formula for relationship. The principles of God in His Word do work, but like engine that needs fuel, the Word of God needs the fuel of the Holy Spirit. And that comes through our intimate relationship with Him. Principles plus relationship equals power. Principle minus relationship equals legalism.
The world has stolen the principles of God and leaving God out of its schemes. Faith is being reduced to nothing more than bunch positive messages. While the positive messages may help some in attitude adjustment, the messages in of themselves have no power to produce. Sadly to say, many Christians have likewise left God out in their pursuit of faith; the principles of faith have been reduced to nothing more than over the counter self-help guides. God is not interested in us having bunch formulas for success or quick fixes but an intimate relationship with Him. It is our love relationship with Him that makes His Words come alive in us and enable us to place our trust in Him. Our trust in Him in turn produces the results that we desire of Him. We will be focusing on the principles and operation of faith in the upcoming issues, but let us never forget that it is our walk with Him that gives life to those principles. More to come in the next lesson.