Today we live in the age of mystery, which is the age of faith; we know God by faith, we receive God by faith, we live by faith, and we believe in things unseen, even live a life of things unseen, for we substantiate God by faith.
Everything related to God is a mystery and can be apprehended and enjoyed by faith.
As we live these days at the consummation of the age, the age of mystery, we need to realize that the Lord is with us until the end of the age, until the consummation of the age.
He is with us in an inward way, and we can sense Him, enjoy Him, experience Him, and know Him by faith.
What a mystery it is that we who have not seen God, touched God, or sensed God, we can enjoy Him, delight in Him, and be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory! Based on the word of God, we can enjoy God, we can breathe in God, we can drink God, and we can be one with God; all this is by faith, and it truly is a mystery.
When people in the world see us, they see some mysterious people who live not according to their human life, not according to their upbringing, and not according to their culture or opinions, but they live by faith, they live in a mystery, and there’s something of God being expressed through them.
The mysterious things the Bible speaks of is God (the mystery of the universe), Christ (the mystery of God), the church (the mystery of Christ), Christ and the church (the great mystery), the kingdom of the heavens, the gospel, the indwelling of Christ, and the coming resurrection and transfiguration of the saints.
All these are mysteries that were hidden in the times of the ages, but they are revealed to us in spirit in these last days. God created us with a human spirit that can contact God, receive God, and contain God; in our spirit, we can know God and apprehend God, and we do this by faith.
The mystery hidden deep in God, His purpose to dispense Himself into His chosen people and make them His corporate expression, this mystery is His eternal economy, and we can know this in spirit.
As we read the Bible and open to the Lord, the Lord can speak to us, He can enlighten us, and He can reveal His mysteries to us.
The Bible contains the mysteries of God, Christ, the Spirit, the church, the kingdom of the heavens, the gospel, the indwelling of Christ, and the marvelous intrinsic process the believers go through in order to become the same as God in life and nature.
Praise the Lord, we can exercise our spirit and, as the Lord shines on us through His Word, we can be unveiled to see God’s economy, and we can become part of the great mystery – Christ and the church!
By Faith, we Substantiate the Unseen Things to make God, Christ, and the Church Real to us in Spirit
The only way we can know God’s mysteries is by faith. What is faith? Faith is a substantiating ability by which we substantiate, give substance to, the things not seen or hoped for (Heb. 11:1).
By means of our mouth, we substantiate food and drink; by means of our ears we substantiate sound; by means of our nose we substantiate smell; by means of our eyes we substantiate the world around us; by means of our touch, we substantiate the things around us.
Similarly, faith is “a sixth sense” that substantiates God, Christ, and the church, together with all the spiritual things, making them real to us.
Faith assures us of the things not seen, convincing us of what we do not see; therefore, faith is the evidence, the proof, of things not seen.
In this universe there are the visible things and also the invisible things (Col. 1:13); according to history and according to the real situation of the universe, the unseen things control the seen things.
If we look at our body, it is not our physical body that controls our being; rather, it is something unseen, something inside our flesh, that controls it.
Our destiny, our future, is not according to the things that are seen but according to the unseen things.
God is invisible (Col. 2:15; 1 Tim. 1:17), but the entire universe is under His control (Psa. 103:19; Dan. 4:26).
If we look at human history in the light of the Bible we will realize that all human history is controlled and directed not by things that are visible or by a human being but rather, it is controlled by Someone who cannot be seen, God Himself (Acts 17:26).
This book of books, the Bible, tells us of the unseen things; our Christian life is a life of unseen things.
What is seen is going away – including all the social unrest, the inequality, the politics, the pandemic, the wars, the good or bad leaders – everything will pass away, but the unseen things of God and His economy will always remain.
If we care only for things that are seen, we are fallen and miserable, for the seen things are always changing. But when we live by faith, caring for the living God and walking according to our mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4), we live a normal Christian life and church life.
This is our normal Christian life – a life by faith, a living by faith, a living in the unseen things; it is not walking by what we see, by appearance, or by being directed by the outward things, but a living by faith, walking by faith (2 Cor. 5:7).
We are saved through faith, and this faith causes us to experience a divine birth – the divine life comes into us to regenerate us and make us children of God.
As a result of receiving the divine life, we become brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we have an ability in our being that causes us to be able to substantiate the divine life and sense this life in one another.
When we exercise our spirit of faith – for faith is in our spirit – we are able to sense the invisible divine life in us by faith, and all things related to God, Christ, the church, the gospel, and God’s economy are real to us.
Faith is not according to our mind or understanding, neither is it according to our feeling or will; faith is Christ Himself infused into our being by the Spirit through the word of God.
When the word of God is spoken to us, when we have the hearing of faith in the word – either through our reading of the Bible, reading a printed message, or the hearing of a gospel message – something will spontaneously rise up within us to cause us to believe what God says.
This is faith, and this is our ability to substantiate the invisible things and make them real to us.
The more we open to the Lord in His Word, the more we have His speaking, and the more faith will be infused into our being to become our believing ability; such a faith is the substantiation of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen.
Our Christian life should be a life of things unseen, for in the Lord’s recovery He wants to recover His church from things seen to things unseen (Rom. 8:24-25; Heb. 11:27; 1 Pet. 1:8; Gal. 6:10).
If we pay attention only to the things which are seen, we will sink when the storm comes, as Peter did; but when we look to the Lord, believe into Him, and remain in this wonderful organic union with Him, we will be strengthened in our faith, and we will live by faith in our daily life.
Lord Jesus, we open ourselves to You in Your word so that we may have Your speaking and receive Your vision. We do not have faith in ourselves. We open to You, dear Lord, and we look away unto Jesus to be infused with faith! Amen, the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal! Lord, we come to You in Your word: infuse us with faith! Infuse us with Yourself as our believing ability! We love You, Lord Jesus! We have never seen You with our physical eyes but we love You! We set our mind on our spirit and we choose to walk according to our spirit, live by faith, and live one spirit with You!
Having Faith Developed into us to be Overcomers who Meet Christ in His Triumphant Return and Receive the Reward of the Kingdom
Genuine faith is not something we can produce; we can’t manufacture faith, neither can we bring in faith of ourselves.
Genuine faith is Christ Himself infused into us to become our very ability to believe in Him; after He has been infused into us, He spontaneously becomes our faith (Rom. 3:26).
So faith is spontaneous by our focusing on Christ; when we are infused with Christ as our faith, we enter into an organic union with Him, and in this organic union with Him by faith, we experience and enjoy Christ inwardly.
Every member of the Body of Christ has a certain measure of faith, as God has apportioned to each one of us (Rom. 12:3); we shouldn’t think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think but to think so as to be sober-minded.
Faith is very important, for in Luke 18:8 the Lord says, When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? There are millions of believers on earth, yet the Lord says that, when He comes back, will He find faith on earth?
Faith is the divine requirement for the overcomers to meet Christ in His triumphant return and to receive the reward of the kingdom (Luke 18:8; 2 Tim. 4:8-9; Heb. 10:35, 39).
In the parable, in Luke 18 the widow is mistreated and persecuted by someone, and her only recourse is to appeal to a judge; she implores and begs him to intervene and act according to righteousness.
But the judge didn’t care; he even admitted he was an unrighteous and crooked judge, not caring for what happened to her. But she kept coming to him, bothering him, so at one point he gave in and made justice for her.
The Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge said…will the Lord not avenge His people? Yes, He will, but when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?
This is a particular development of faith; it is the requirement for the overcomers. We may be in a very difficult situation, maybe even more difficult than they ever encountered….and they pray, they cry out to the Lord, and they call on Him.
Yet He is silent, seemingly absent, not doing anything; and nothing happens.
We may pray for years for a particular matter or for a very dear one, and the Lord may be silent, not doing anything about it. God seems to be silent. He seems not to do anything outwardly.
Yet as we pray, as we desperately pray and bring a situation before Him, faith is developed in us, a faith that will equip us to be His overcomers and conquer with the Lord at the end.
When faith develops in us in such a way, we may be able to declare that, even though God is silent, even though He may not be doing anything outwardly, He is still our God, and we vindicate His righteousness to the whole universe.
Even though He says and does nothing right now, He is still a righteous God! This is the developed faith, and this kind of faith must be produced in us.
We all are at various stages of growth in life, at different stages of maturity, and we experience difficult situations, hardships, sufferings, and all kinds of perplexing things.
As we cry out to God, there seems to be no answer and no action, but as this goes on, faith is developing in us, we live by faith, and we have the faith of the overcomers.
This is similar to what Daniel’s three companions experienced and testified of when they refused to worship the king’s statue and were faced to be thrown into the fiery furnace; they said, Our God is able to save us, but if He does not, we will still not bow down.
This is the faith of an overcomer – no matter what happens, God is still our God! May we have such a faith developed in us to be produced as the Lord’s overcomers at His return!
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You for our faith to be developed. May we have faith when You return to rapture Your overcomers. Amen, Lord, make us Your overcomers, those who have faith developed in them in the midst of hardships, sufferings, and difficult situations. May we be those who trust in You, have faith in You, and live by faith. May faith be developed in us even as we pass through difficult things, trials, and perplexing situations. We love You, Lord. We trust in You. We vindicate You to the whole universe – You are righteous and faithful! We do not look at is seen – we look unto You! Amen, Lord, we praise You! You are the victorious Lord Jesus, our lovely Bridegroom! Come soon, Lord, with Your bridal army! End this age, Lord, and bring Your kingdom to the earth!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1975-1976, vol. 3, pp. 90-94, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 1, The Consummation of the Age – the Age of Mystery.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face; / Here faith can touch and handle things unseen; / Here would I grasp with firmer hand Thy grace, / And all my weariness upon Thee lean. (Hymns #225)
– Now the secret of faith in the Lord I can see— / It’s saying Amen to His Word. / He is more real and precious than all things to me / By saying Amen to His Word. (Hymns #1219)
– Mystery hid from ancient ages! / But at length to faith made plain: / Christ in me the Hope of Glory, / Tell it o’er and o’er again. (Hymns #482)
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