Gain God by Coming to His Written Word to have the Living Word Applied to us in Faith

In order for us as believers in Christ to be men full of faith, we need to see that faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ; God’s written word in the Bible needs to become Christ as the living word who is applied to us as the Spirit to be the source of our faith. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to a new topic, The Linking Faith – the Faith of the Overcomers.

We want to see a panoramic view of faith, the faith of the believers, and we want to see what is the practical way for us to live by faith.

First, we need to have a revelation concerning what faith really is, and what is the nature of faith; then, we can receive help concerning how can we practically live by faith.

Faith is a popular subject among all Christians, but who really lives by faith in their daily life? We need to see what faith is and learn to live by faith.

Heb. 13:7 in particular is a verse that speaks of considering the manner of life of the leading ones and the issue of their manner of life, and our need to imitate them.

There’s such a thing as an imitable faith, for such faith is lived out in the daily life of the leading ones, and we as saints can imitate their faith.

We need to remember those who take the lead among us and who have spoken the word of God to us.

We need to consider their life and the issue of their manner of life; we need to consider the way they conduct themselves, how they live by faith and imitate their faith.

The leading brothers need a pattern for the believers; they need to be a pattern to be imitated not only by functioning in the meetings of the church and serving in the church selflessly but also by their manner of life.

Our life, our way of living, and our manner of life must be worthy of consideration by the saints, even worthy to be imitated by them.

On one hand, we need to learn to dive into the word of God, enjoy God in His word, and be constituted with the divine truths in God’s word.

On the other hand, we need to have a particular kind of life, a manner of life, that is imitable by others, for our life is by faith.

Such patterns of living by faith are very much necessary in the church life, for we need not only the word of God being spoken but also patterns of living Christ and living by faith for us to imitate.

The ministers of the word of God should have a manner of life that issues in an example of faith for the church members; those who receive the word of God from the leading ones must also see the issue of their manner of life and imitate their faith.

This is actually a sign of being a genuine leader: you not only lead by what you speak or how you speak it but you also lead by your living by faith.

May the Lord raise up many such patterns, such men full of faith, who live Christ and live a daily life by faith, so that we may look at their manner of life and imitate their faith in our Christian life.

Being Men Full of Faith who see that Faith Comes out of Hearing, and Hearing through the Word of Christ

Heb. 13:7 and Acts 6:5 both speak of men full of faith; for us to be men full of faith, we need to see that faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).

This is a great secret for our Christian life. In the early church life in the church in Jerusalem, there were some deacons being set up, some who can serve the tables and take care of practical things; one of these was Stephen, a man who was full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith.

We may think that he needed skills to serve tables and help with practical things, but the requirement for doing this was that he was full of faith and of the Spirit.

These kinds of persons are needed for the service in the church; real spiritual men are men full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit.

For us to be such ones, we need to realize that faith is not of us but faith comes out of hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

The source of faith is not ourselves; it is the word of God. However, not everyone who reads the Word of God receives faith; we need to realize the crystallization of the matter of faith coming out of the hearing of the word of God.

The more we have the Word of God, the more faith we have; the more we are under the hearing of faith, the more faith increases in us.

Faith is not something we generate ourselves; faith is not something that comes out of our own being.

Rather, faith is a response, a reaction, to the word of Christ that we hear. The hearing of the word of God produces faith within us.

This means that we need to spend more time in the Word of God not only to read the Word but to muse on it, mix it with our prayer, sing it, prayerfully consider it, and speak to the Lord and to ourselves with the Word.

When we do this, when the word of God fills us and becomes our enjoyment in our prayerful consideration of the Word, we will have more faith.

There are three aspects of the word of God: the written word of God, the living word of God, and the applied word of God.

First of all, we have the Bible, the written word of God (John 10:35); all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable, and without the written word of God we can’t have faith.

Then, we have the living word of God (John 1:1), which is Christ Himself.

We believers in Christ don’t just read the black-and-white letters of the Bible and that’s it; the word of God is living, for Christ as the embodiment of God is the very word of God.

In the beginning, the word was with God and the Word was even God; this Word came and tabernacled among us, and the living word of God reaches us.

Finally, there is the applied word of God, the Spirit (Eph. 6:17; John 6:63).

The Lord said that the words He speaks to us are spirit and life; when we exercise our spirit to receive the word by means of all prayer and petition, the written word becomes the living word applied to us as the Spirit.

The written word, the living word, and the applied word refer to God Himself in different aspects. God’s written word, the Bible, becomes Christ as the living word, who is applied to us as the Spirit, the word of the Spirit.

The more that we gain God in this way, by means of His word, the more He becomes our faith.

There is a process here: the written word of God in the Bible becomes the Christ, the living word of God, and this living word is Christ being applied to us to be the Spirit, the word of the Spirit.

The more we touch the Word in a living way with the exercise of our spirit, the more we not only apprehend the Word but also gain God, and the element of God is being infused into us to be gained by us.

This is how we have faith: by properly handling the word of God to be infused with God Himself in this kind of way.

The crystallization of faith is to believe that God is; the crystallization of the source of faith is God in His written word contacted as the living word and applied as the word of the Spirit so that we can gain the Triune God!

This Triune God whom we contact in the word of God is the One who is able to call the things not being as being and give life to the dead (Rom. 4:17). Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we want to be men full of faith who receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition so that we may gain God and be infused with faith through the word! We open to You, dear Lord, as we come to Your word; infuse us more with Yourself as faith. We want to be under the hearing of faith as we come to the word of God. May the written word in the Bible become Christ as the living word to us, and may this word be applied to us as the Spirit so that we may gain more of God! Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word to gain more of God as our faith. Infuse us with Yourself much more today. Apply Yourself as the word of God to us. May Your words become spirit and life to us, and may we be filled with faith as we come to You in Your word day by day!

Our need to Gain God by Coming to His Written Word to have the Living Word Applied to us

It is one thing to understand that the word of God has three aspects (the written word, the living word, and the applied word) and it is something else for us to practice gaining God by coming to His word day by day.

There are millions of Christians who read the Bible every day, but who contact the Lord, the source of the word, when they come to the word of God?

We need to practice coming to the Lord in His word with the exercise of our spirit so that we may gain God by having the living word applied to us as the Spirit (John 6:63).

God is the source of faith; we can gain God by coming to the Bible, the written word of God.

But before we come to read the Bible, we need to contact the Lord by calling on His name.

When we call on the name of the Lord, Oh Lord Jesus, O, Lord Jesus! we open our spirit to Him and we contact Him in spirit; then, He has a free way to infuse us with Himself as our faith through His word.

If we contact the Lord as we come to His word, the written word of the Bible becomes the living word; the word becomes Christ to us, and when we say Amen to the word, it is being applied as the Spirit and by the Spirit. In this way, we gain something of God.

May we gain not only more Bible knowledge when we come to God’s word but gain more of God!

Our need is to gain God by coming to His written word to have the living Word applied to us in and by the Spirit.

The more we gain God in this way, by coming to His word in a living way by the exercise of our spirit, the more He becomes our faith.

It makes a great difference for a believer to call on the name of the Lord and open his being before coming to read the Bible.

If we merely read the Bible without exercising our spirit, we may gain some spiritual knowledge and understand some doctrines in God’s word, but we may not gain something of God.

Faith is infused into our being as we contact God in His word so that His word would become living and operative in us (Heb. 4:12) and therefore infuse us with the element of God Himself.

The words in the Bible can become spirit and life to us to be applied to our being as the applied word of God, the Spirit, to become our faith.

How much do we need more of God! We need Him to be added to our being, to be infused into us, to become our very faith by which we believe into Him and are organically joined to Him!

The Triune God is embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit can be found in His word.

When we come to the word of God with the exercise of our faith and by saying Amen to His word, something of God is infused into us.

When we call on the Lord and pray-read the word of God, right away we have the deep sensation that Christ is living within us.

We simply react by praying and thanking the Lord for His speaking, and we say Amen to His word.

May we all have such experiences of the written word becoming the living word, Christ, who is applied to our being as the Spirit to infuse God into us.

If we have such a time of enjoying God and receiving His element through His word in the morning, He will operate in our being throughout the day to impart life to us and to regulate us from within.

He in us becomes the very ability to believe and we are linked to the Triune God in our daily living.

Lord Jesus, teach us how to come to You in Your word in a living way so that we may receive not only knowledge but even more, gain God in His word! We call on Your name, Oh Lord Jesus, and we come to Your word in the way of pray-reading. May Your written word in the Bible become the living word of God to us to infuse God into us and be applied to our being as the Spirit! O, Lord Jesus! Keep us calling on Your name again and again. We love You, Lord, and we open our being to You! Infuse us with Yourself more abundantly and become the faith that links us to the Triune God and keeps us in an organic union with Christ! Amen, Lord, add Yourself to our being today as we come to Your word to have the living word applied to 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 Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 6, entitled, The Linking Faith – the Faith of the Overcomers.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thy Word in spirit we must eat / And to our inmost part receive; / ’Tis by our spirit’s exercise / To pray with what our minds perceive. / Thy Word remaining in our mind / Is only knowledge burdensome, / But when it to the spirit goes / Then life and spirit it becomes. (Hymns #814)
  – Thou art the Word with God’s fulness in Thee, / Thou too the Spirit that God my life be; / Thee in the Word I enjoy as my food, / Thou as the Spirit art water to me. (Hymns #811)
  – Given us, given us, God has given us / Precious faith, power divine, greatest promises. / We believed, we received, now we have all three; / By these we may grow unto maturity… / Christ within, as the pow’r, in our spirit lives; / Christ without is the Word—all God’s promises. / Now the key is that we daily contact both, / Calling, praying, reading to produce the growth. (Hymns #1211)