As believers in Christ, we need to have God’s appearing, His transfusing Himself into us, so that we may have a living by faith for His perfect will to build up the church as the Body of Christ. Amen!
According to the New Testament, Abraham is the father of faith, and the is the father of us all as believers in Christ.
Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, like the stars of the heavens (Gen. 22:17-18), and the Jewish people are the earthly descendants of Abraham, like the dust of the earth.
As sons of Abraham, we need to walk in the steps of the same faith as our father.
We are now part of the faith family, our family name is “faith”, and Abraham is our father.
It is such a privilege to be among the faith people, meet with the saints, and be encouraged by the faith in each other.
We are like Abraham today, strangers and sojourners, not having our home here but looking for the city that has the foundations, the New Jerusalem.
Our roots, our dwelling place, are not on this earth; we are eagerly awaiting the city whose architect and builder is God. Amen!
God is a divine and mystical Architect; He designed the New Jerusalem and He is working Himself into us to make us His masterpiece.
We are in the process of becoming God’s masterpiece. The church is the poem of God, the masterpiece of God, and it expresses His infinite wisdom and divine design.
When others look at us, they see something of God, for God is actively working Himself into us to make us the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in His Godhead.
We are part of the family of faith, our father is Abraham, and we are learning to live by faith not in and of ourselves but by having God’s appearing to us again and again.
Our country is a better country, a heavenly country; we are sojourners on this earth, and this is not our permanent residence. Praise the Lord!
It is truly a wonder and a mystery that God became a man, lived a perfect human life, died on the cross, resurrected and became a life-giving Spirit to dispense Himself into us to make us God-men, sons of God, men who live by faith.
Now we are learning to walk in the steps of that faith of Abraham, our father, but coming to the Lord day by day to have His fresh appearing.
His appearing infuses us with faith, and by this faith we live, work, and follow the Lord in our Christian life.
Our Faith Originates with God: it is a Reaction to the Appearing of the God of Glory!
Abraham’s faith did not originate with himself; rather, his believing in God was a reaction to the God of glory appearing to him and to the transfusing and infusing of God’s element into his being (Acts 7:2).
When the God of glory appeared to Abraham, he was still in the land of idolatry; God’s appearing enabled him to go to the good land which God promised to him.
When God appeared to Abraham, he crossed the river; therefore, he was called a Hebrew, a river crosser. We all are river-crossers like our father Abraham, for we are crossing any river until we are fully in God and one with God.
Once the Lord appears to us, it is unforgettable; we come out of wherever we are and we are one with the Lord.
We all need God’s appearing in a fresh way.
If we love the Lord and open to Him, He will come with us, and both He and the Father will come to make an abode with us (John 14:21; Mark 11:22).
Our faith as believers in Christ does not originate with us; faith is our reaction to God, produced by His infusion, transfusion, and saturation (Rev. 5:6; 2 Cor. 2:10; Heb. 12:2; Gal. 2:20; Mark 11:22).
Our consecration is simply the result of God’s appearing; when God appears to someone, they spontaneously consecrate all that they are and have to the Lord.
When God appears to us, we simply believe, for He infuses Himself as the very element of faith into our being.
When we have God’s appearing, He becomes everything to us, and His purpose becomes our purpose and desire, for He infuses us with Himself.
We are made in God’s image and we are made for God; when we have the Lord’s appearing, we receive His element, we believe into Him, and we give ourselves to Him.
We may have the concept that Abraham was a giant in faith, but if we consider his history, we will realize that he wasn’t such a one.
The only giant of faith is God Himself; Abraham’s faith did not come from his natural ability but as a result of God appearing to him.
When God appeared to Abraham, He transfused Himself into Abraham, and Abraham simple believed, for God was his believing element to be his faith.
Faith is our reaction to God’s attraction; when God appears to us, He transfuses Himself into us, and His element in us causes us to believe.
Through God’s repeated appearings to Abraham, God transfused Himself into him, causing him to experience a spiritual infusion with a spiritual infiltration of God’s essence into his being (Gen. 12:1-3, 7-8; 13:14-17; 15:1-7; Rom. 4:3; Gen. 18:17-19; cf. Acts 26:16; 22:14-15).
Abraham was not a giant in faith; only God is a giant of faith, and He infuses us with Himself.
Many times we are like Abraham, minding our own business and not necessarily seeking God, and then God appears to us.
He appears to us and “infiltrates us”, that is, He transfuses His element into our being.
We did not necessarily believe, but when we have God’s appearing, He infuses Himself into us, and we simply believe.
The more we have God’s appearing, the more He infiltrates us, and our faith grows.
The more we open to Him, the more He secretly works to infiltrate areas of our being that no one else can touch.
Through His work through the environment, He arranges the circumstances to cause us to open to Him certain parts that we used to close off to Him, and He infuses us with Himself.
The Lord Jesus appeared to Abraham as the great I am, the God of glory, to transfuse Himself into Abraham (John 8:56-58; Exo. 3:14-15; Acts 7:2).
When the Lord Jesus was speaking with the Pharisees, He confirmed that before Abraham was, He is.
The Jews said that He was not even fifty years old, how can He say that He saw Abraham.
But the Lord Jesus is the great I am, and He appeared to Abraham and called him to go to Canaan, the good land.
Similarly, the Lord Jesus as the great I AM appeared to Moses in the burning thornbush, and He commissioned him to go and deliver the people of Israel from Egypt.
Our faith does not originate with us; it originates with God, who is the giant in faith, the source of faith, and He appears to us to infuse us with Himself as our faith.
Lord Jesus, we open to You; appear to us again and again! We love You and we turn our heart to You. We welcome Your appearing. May there be a transfusion of God into our being so that we may be infused with the divine element! Amen, Lord, we welcome Your divine element. Work Yourself into us. Come and visit us. It is only by Your appearing that we can be infused and saturated with God as our faith. Oh Lord, we have no ability to believe in ourselves; transfuse us with Yourself as our believing element! Appear to us again and again!
God’s Appearing to us Infuses us with Himself and Issues in our Living by Faith for His Perfect Will
Just like Abraham, we need to have the Lord’s appearing today; we need to come to the Lord and ask Him to appear to us again and again.
Many times, even though we may contact the Lord here and there, we lose our vision.
We may work diligently for the Lord day after day, but we may lose our vision, or we may simply be worn out by the enemy’s continual attacks.
Just like Abraham, we may backslide in the world (as Abraham went to Egypt), so we need the Lord’s fresh appearing.
Not only mundane things can blur our vision; even spiritual things can blur our vision.
If we don’t live continuously in the Lord’s appearing, it will be easy for us to lose the vision of our calling.
We need to know what is the hope of His calling (Eph. 1:18). It is easy for us to forget what God wants to do.
The things in the world, our responsibilities, our work, our family situation, and many things, both good or not so good, can blur our vision, and we may lose sight of God’s calling.
We need to come to the Lord again and again and beseech Him to appear to us and speak to us again and again!
We need to have a continuous seeing, even an eternal seeing; we need to see God’s goal and what He is doing today (John 14:21; Acts 26:16; 2 Tim. 4:8).
In John 14:21 the Lord Jesus said that he who loves the Lord, will be loved by His Father and the Lord will love him, and the Father and the Son will come and make an abode with him.
May we be those who love the Lord and exercise our spirit of love toward Him so that the Father and the Son would manifest Himself to us.
He wants to come and make Himself real to us, that is, appear to us and manifest Himself to us.
We need to be those who love God’s appearing.
God’s appearing to us and His transfusing Himself into us issue in our living by faith for His perfect will to build up the church as the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem (Gen. 12:7-8; 13:3-4, 18; Rom. 1:17; 4:16-17; Heb. 12:1-2; Matt. 16:18; Rom. 12:1-2; Rev. 21:1).
When the Lord appears to us, He makes us a minister and a witness of the things in which we see Him and of the things in which He appears to us.
The Lord wants to appear to us again and again so that we may see a broader and higher revelation of Him.
We want the Lord to continually appear to us until the day of His appearing in His second coming.
We need the Lord’s appearing.
When Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out onto a place which he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went not knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8).
This afforded Abraham a constant opportunity to exercise his faith to trust in God for His instant leading, taking God’s presence as the map for his travelling (Exo. 33:14-16).
Today not many people may go to a place where they are called to go without knowing where they are going; but Abraham did that.
He exercised his faith to trust in God for His leading, taking God’s presence as his map for travelling.
We need to be governed by God’s presence, just as Abraham was guided by God’s appearing.
Like Moses, we need to tell the Lord that we don’t want to go anywhere except if the Lord’s presence goes with us.
We need to incorporate this into our conversations with the Lord, asking Him to appear to us again and again, and to keep us in His appearing.
We need the Lord’s appearing, His presence, whenever we do something for the Lord, whenever we speak, and in all our daily living and situations.
Our labour in the Lord is our cooperation with Him for Him to flow out through us to build Himself into others; this should be a rest to us, not something arduous or tiresome.
Wherever He goes, we go, and whatever He says, we also say. If He does something, we also do it, but if He doesn’t, we are one with Him.
How we need God’s appearing, His presence, in all the days of our life!
Lord Jesus, appear to us again and again! Lord, speak to us again and again. We cannot go on without Your speaking. We cannot live without Your presence. Appear to us and transfuse Yourself into us so that we may live by faith for Your perfect will to build up the church as the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith to trust in You for Your instant leading. We take Your presence as the map for our travelling. Your presence is everything to us. Infuse us with Yourself until we live by faith for Your perfect will to build up the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem!
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, Life-study of Romans, msgs. 7-8, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 8, entitled, Walking in the Steps of that Faith of Our Father Abraham.
- Hymns on this topic:
– There in old Chaldea, product of man’s fall, / God appeared to Abram – called him from it all. / “Get thee from thy country, from thy father’s clan; / Get thee from thy kindred to another land.” / Our Lord God Jehovah called a corp’rate man, / One that would express Him and fulfill His plan. (Hymns #1269)
– We are the Hebrews! Praise the Lord! / We’re from the other side. / Throughout our hist’ry we have passed / Through rivers deep and wide. / Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! / He has brought / All us river-crossing Hebrews / To the land, to build up / The temple of our God. (Hymns #1270)
– O Lord, appear to us today; / We see this is the only way. / The idols to forsake / And Canaan land partake, / O Lord, appear to us today. (Hymns #1190)
About aGodMan
It is easy for us to lose the vision of God’s calling. Even if we are consciously trying to be a proper Christian, it is still possible for us to lose our vision. We can lose our vision even while we are working diligently day after day. Do not think that only mundane things can blur our vision; even spiritual things can blur our vision. If we do not live continuously in God’s appearing, it will be easy for us to lose the vision of our calling. The calling that the church has received is the same as the calling that Abraham received. But many people have not seen the hope of this calling. Therefore, Paul prayed, “That you may know what is the hope of His calling” (Eph. 1:18). “Hope” indicates the content of this calling, the things included in God’s calling… How easy it is for us to forget what God wants to do! Many times, when we have too much to do and the work becomes a little more hectic, we lose sight of our spiritual calling. We need to come again and again to the Lord and beseech Him: “Appear to me again and again, and speak to me again and again!” We need to have a continuous seeing, an eternal seeing; we need to see God’s goal and what God is doing. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” pp. 29-30)
God appeared to Abraham again and again. Many of us have held the wrong concept about Abraham, the concept that he was a giant in faith… As I considered the history of Abraham, I realized that he was not the giant of faith. The only giant of faith is God Himself. God, as the giant of faith, transfused Himself into him. After Abraham had spent time in God’s presence, he could not help believing in Him, because he had been transfused with God. Thus, Abraham was attracted to God and reacted to Him in believing. His reaction was his believing… Who actually appeared to Abraham? The God of glory. Abraham’s faith did not come from his natural ability and it did not originate with himself. His believing in God was a reaction to the heavenly radium, a response to the divine infusion… Genuine faith is the working of God within us. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 93-94, by Witness Lee)
We need to live continuously in God’s appearing. His appearing infuses us with God’s element and spontaneously we have faith.
We need to come again & again to the Lord and beseech Him:
We need a continuous seeing of what the goal of God is.
God wants to appear to us and transfuse Himself into us in our living by faith for the building up of the Body of Christ, which will ultimately be the New Jerusalem.
May we exercise our spirit of faith to trust in God for His instant leading, being in His presence…
Ammeenn!!!
Like Abraham, for us to walk in his steps to live by faith we need the Lord’s appearing and speaking again and again.
Abraham is not a giant of faith.
Abraham could only live by faith because God, who is the giant of faith, was transfused, infused, and infiltrated into him through God’s repeated appearings and speaking.
Amen!
For the law of the Spirit of life has Freed us in Christ Jesus…
What a law enabling us to live Christ spontaneously when we turn to our spirit. It is the life of the consummate manifestation of the Triune God who went through. Process of incarnation crucifixion resurrection and accession and becoming the life giving spirit ! To indwell in our spirit. By this life living in us we have faith ! Lord may this faith ever more be appearing to us!
amen Brother we need to be like Abraham who was under God’s presence and God’s appearing while he was in God’s presence he was being transfused with God himself which issued in him walking by faith now today in order for us to stay in the vision we need to keep. coming to God and ask him to speak to us
Amen!
O Lord Jesus, thank You for Your marvellous dispensing of loving kindness; our conscience have been sharpen and in our disposition we welcome Your appearing, may we be those who keep instep with the Holy Spirit while it is still today.
Amen Lord, save us from losing sight of You! Appear to us over and over again to keep us to know the hope of Your calling!
Amen! Thank You Lord we are in the family of faith. Lord keep appearing to us
Wow! Genuine faith is the working of God within us! Faith is our reaction to God produced by His transfusion, infusion, and saturation! Lord more infusing today!!!
Our God is the strongest radium. When we spend time in His presence seeking His appearing and speaking He transfuses Himself through infusion, permeating us with His elements.
Such a permeation and saturation issue in a life lived by faith even as Abraham was infused with God through God’s appearing and speaking to him.
Because of this he was able to go out, not knowing where he was going.
He was infused with God as his faith and his faith and our faith is a reaction the One who appears to us through our coming to Him.
Yes Lord appear to us again and again so that you can tranfuse us with your element so that we may spontaneously have faith in you.
Yes Lord keep us coming to You again and again. Appear to us, speak to us again and again. We want to experience a spiritual infusion with a spiritual infiltration of Your essence into our being.
Amen Lord refresh our vision again and again! Infuse us with yourself more and more!