We need to pray persistently and not lose heart, and when the Lord comes, we need to have the faith; this is the linking faith, the Triune God moving in us to link us to His unsearchable riches and make us His overcoming ones.
At the end of this age, the Lord wants His people to utter a particular kind of prayer, even an extraordinary prayer, even as the situation in the world today is extraordinary, very particular.
And this prayer is not merely a prayer for the building up of the church, but a persistent prayer by the linking faith, the faith that links us with the Triune God and makes the Triune God one with us.
There are many kinds of prayer that we can offer to God, including petitions, intercessions, thanksgivings, supplications, and general prayers; but today we need to offer a particular kind of prayer to match the Lord’s need in what He wants to do today.
Our spiritual response today shouldn’t be one that is natural, asking God to stop the pandemic; rather, we should enquire of the Lord, be one with Him, and even have a persistent prayer, a prayer with authority, releasing on earth the will of God so that He may do what He desires to do.
The Lord said that whoever says to the mountain to get up and be cast into the sea, and has faith and doesn’t doubt in his heart, it shall be done for him.
What kind of prayer is this? What kind of faith is this?
This is not just the faith that causes us to be joined with God and enjoy His riches, but the faith that links us to the Triune God to the extent that we utter on earth what He prays in heaven, and we bind on earth what has been bound in heaven.
It is a prayer that deals with the obstacles and the frustrations directly; it doesn’t ask God to deal with the problem but rather, the prayer deals with the problem.
So the church needs to learn big prayers and make big requests; oftentimes the prayer prays small prayers, praying only for ordinary problems. This is not enough.
The ministry of the church is prayer, not small prayers but prayers that pioneer the way for God; the prayers of the church open the way for God to move.
So the church must have big prayers, serious prayers, and strong prayers.
We need to respond to the world situation and cooperate with the divine history in the human history by prayer; a very particular kind of prayer is needed because we are in a very particular kind of situation.
Having the Persistent Faith, the Linking Faith that causes us to Live by the Son of God
After the Lord encourages us to pray persistently to God – even though He may seem to be like an “unrighteous Judge”, He concludes with, When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)
This is how the Lord concludes the parable concerning the unrighteous judge and the widow. He is wondering, when He returns a second time, will there be anybody with this kind of faith? What kind of faith is this?
There are many believers on earth…but what kind of faith is this?
In Greek the word rendered for “faith” means “the faith”; it denotes the persistent faith for our persistent prayer, like that of the widow.
In other words, there’s a definite article there in the original language, but for translation purposes, it is translated “faith”, for it may sound funny if you translate, “will He find the faith on the earth?”
This kind of faith, this quality of faith, this faith without any doubt in your heart, that’s the faith that the Lord is looking for.
When one day under God’s sovereignty we heard the preaching of the gospel, the word of Christ, faith came into us; faith comes by the hearing of the word.
This faith brought us into a life union with Christ, and this union is a kind of linking.
After we received Christ into us as our Savior and life by being attracted to Him, the divine grace began to abound in us; the first issue for the abounding of the divine grace is the linking faith.
The linking faith is the living God who came into us and who is moving in us to link us to all His unsearchable riches.
The linking faith is the measure according to which God dispenses into us His super-abounding grace to meet our need (Rom. 12:3).
Such a faith is te indicator of our living of a God-man life, a life of pursuing Christ; such a faith leads to the real expression of the consummated God in Christ as His embodiment for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
The faith through which we were saved is the initial stage of faith; the faith that brought us into a life union with Christ is the linking faith.
The linking faith is the faith that comes into us through our contacting the Triune God continually so that we may live by the Son of God (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 2:20; John 14:19).
We could say that faith has different stages; the initial faith is sufficient for us to be regenerated and become a child of God, but the linking faith is the faith that enables us to live Christ.
As Gal. 2:20 says, the life we live, we live in faith; this faith is of the Son of God.
This linking faith brings us into an organic union with Christ; by faith we are mingled with Christ and we are saturated with Christ so that we can live Christ.
This is the faith that the Lord desires to see when He returns; the linking faith, the faith that joins us to the Triune God and makes us His overcomers.
When we have such a faith, we realize we we need the Lord, we can’t do anything by and in ourselves, and we don’t want anything else but the Lord to live in us as we live by faith.
May we be those whom the Lord can steal and take away when He returns, those who live by the linking faith!
Thank You Lord for coming into us to be our Savior and life! You are now moving in us, working in us, and operating in us to cause us to be joined to You and live by faith. Amen, Lord, may we live by the linking faith to receive more of the super-abounding grace to meet our need! May we be those who live by faith so that we may be saturated and constituted with God. Amen, Lord, increase our level of faith. Keep us in the organic union with You, contacting the Triune God continually so that we may live by the Son of God!
Live by the Linking Faith to be Overcomers who Meet Christ in His Triumphant Return
Have you ever considered that one of the requirements – even a major requirement – for us to be overcomers is to have this faith, this linking faith?
The linking faith is the divine requirement for the overcomers to meet Christ in His triumphant return (see Luke 18:8).
Having this kind of faith qualifies us to be an overcomers.
This kind of faith is what we speak of when we say that we need to pray persistently with God as our faith; this is the prayer of the overcomers; we need to experience this linking faith in order to be an overcomer.
Linking faith is the Triune God moving in us to link us to His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8).
When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? If we look around on earth, even though there are so many kinds of believers – both the Jewish people and the Christian, the Catholics, the Protestants, the evangelical denominations, etc – where is the faith?
Many people – maybe even most people – are consumed with the things of this world, and faith is not found on earth.
It is the Lord’s mercy that we have been brought into a situation of learning NOT to trust ourselves for anything but believe that our God is everything.
May the Lord find us, at His coming back, as being the believing ones, those who trust not in themselves but in Him.
May we have no assurance in ourselves, not trust in ourselves, but trust in the Lord, abiding in Him and living by faith – living in and by the linking faith, so that Christ may live in us.
It is the divine requirement for you and me as the overcomers to meet Christ in His triumphant return. Linking faith is the faith of the believers who have no trust in themselves; rather, their trust is in God (2 Cor. 1:9).
When the Lord Jesus returns, may He find a number of overcomers who are living by faith, the linking faith, and He will regard them as treasures for His kingdom in the thousand years of His reign (Luke 18:8; Rev. 20:4, 6).
There will be at the Lord’s coming a group of living overcomers on earth; according to Revelation, that number will be a hundred and forty-four thousand who are alive on the earth in a state of overcoming at the time of the Lord’s return.
May we all pray that we would be part of that number, and may the Lord in these days uplift our prayer and teach us to have this very particular kind of prayer that we need to have – the prayer of authority, the prayer in ascension, and the prayer of the spiritual warfare.
May we cooperate with the Lord’s operation by making ourselves ready for that day, the day of His return!
May we make ourselves ready by becoming an overcomer, who is always linked by the living faith with the Triune God!
May every morning and every evening we would abide in the Lord, live by the linking faith, and do all things of our daily life in this organic union with Him.
Then we will be qualified to meet Christ at His coming back, for He will return for those who live by such a faith that is living, active, practical, and lived out.
This kind of faith is needed for us to pray one with the Lord, pray with authority, and pray persistently by faith for the executing of God’s will according to God’s economy.
On one hand we pray ourselves into God, we know the will of God, and we pray to execute the will of God; on the other hand, we do all this by the linking faith, the faith that links us to the Triune God, makes the Triune God real and experiential to us, and causes us to live one with Him in our daily life.
It is this linking faith and our living by faith that produces us and qualifies us to be the overcomers who bring the Lord back and cause Him to consider us as treasures for His kingdom, thus taking us to be with Him!
Lord Jesus, thank You for joining us with You in an organic way so that we would enjoy all Your unsearchable riches! Hallelujah, the Triune God is in us, and He is moving in us to link us to His unsearchable riches! Oh Lord, we don’t trust in ourselves; we trust in You. We want to live no longer in ourselves or by ourselves but by faith, the linking faith. May we live by faith today and every day. May we be part of the number of overcomers who are living by the living faith at the Lord’s return so that we may be regarded by the Lord as treasures for His kingdom and thus be raptured as His overcomers!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” chs. 10-11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (2020 Memorial Day Conference), week 4, Praying Persistently with God as Our Faith.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Will you be an overcomer? / Trust the living Lord! /Keep your “garments” from the deadness, / Win the life-reward. (Hymns #894)
– Flow through me, Lord, with overflowing fulness, / Make me to know Thine own deep love for souls. / Work in me, Lord, the faith that moveth mountains, / As power, Almighty power, my being holds. (Hymns #249)
– No matter what, thou mountain high, / In heav’n or earth, where’er thou art, / At any cost we’ll level thee, / In Jesus’ name thou must depart! / Faith orders thee “Remove from here, / And be thou cast into the sea!” / We should, we must, we can, we will, / Fulfill God’s purpose faithfully. (Hymns #892)
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