(Pastor Chen)
In our last newsletter, we touched on the importance of our walk with God in relation to the exercising of our faith. We pointed out that our love relationship with Him is what makes His Words come alive in us and enable us to place our trust in Him. This is one truth that cannot be overly emphasized. It is our knowing Him that causes us to have confidence in Him and His Word. Therefore in order for us to have an operational faith, we must maintain intimate fellowship with Him. It is He who leads us and guides us through the principles that He outlined in His Word. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.
In order to develop our faith, we must first establish the fact that we already have faith. We cannot develop something that we do not have. Romans 12:3 tells us that God has already dealt to each one of us a measure of faith. God is no respecter of persons, and He has no favorites. Everybody has the same amount of faith. It is up to us to do something with the basic faith that we all have. Colossians 2:10 tells us that we are complete in Him. In other words, we had everything we needed when we were born again. This includes faith that we need to live victoriously in this life. It is our responsibility not only to learn how to use the faith that we have but also to develop it.
Ephesians 2:8-9 tell us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." We are saved through faith and not works. Faith is required for our salvation; therefore, every one of us who is saved has faith. It would help us greatly if we understand how we obtain our salvation. If salvation is so important that it means the difference between going to heaven or going to hell, then the principles we used to receive our salvation must be the same principles we need to receive everything else from God. When we can understand and apply the principles that caused us to be born again, then we can apply the same principles for all other provisions from God.
The Scriptures that all of us are so familiar with in salvation messages are found in Romans 10:9-10, "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation." We can look at this in another angle, these Scriptures outline the way we are to exercise our faith for salvation. From these, we see two important principles to faith - believe and confess. Of course, in order to believe, we must first hear the message. Romans 10:14 states, "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" The Scripture then concludes in Romans 10:17, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
From the Scriptures that we have just seen, we can conclude that the principles of faith involve hearing the Word of God, believing the Word of God, and confessing the Word of God. If these principles work for our salvation, which is the most important thing, then they must surely work for all other areas of needs. The same grace that brought us salvation is the same grace that brought us all other exceedingly great and precious promises. Thus the same faith that we used to receive salvation grace is the same faith that we use to receive all other promises. We will concentrate on the principles and operation of faith in upcoming lessons.