what is faith

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

What is faith? Is it just to believe? Why do some have it and some do not? Does the Bible give us any direction on how to obtain more faith? Well, the questions concerning faith are virtually endless. Of course the Bible does have much to say about faith. Yet, in many ways it remains mysterious. One of the most mysterious references to faith is found in Philippians 2 where Paul talks about “the sacrifice and service of your faith.”

We want to get into this extraordinary expression today concerning the faith of the believers on this Life-Study from the book of Philippians. In the book of Philippians, the apostle Paul uses several remarkable or extraordinary expressions, and they’re not found any place else in the New Testament…not even in his other writings…in his epistles.

We spent quite a bit of time on at least two of them in previous programs…and those are “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” and the second one would be “holding forth the word of life.” This whole portion of the Bible…especially here in Philippians…really gives you more and more basic reasons for enjoying Christ in so many ways.

Philippians 2:17…”But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with you all.” If you would pay some attention, you will see…in this one short book…three extraordinary expressions were used by Paul. In chapter 1, he used…”the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Then in chapter 2 he used, “holding forth of the word of life.” You could never find such expressions in the Bible…even in other books by the apostle.

“The sacrifice of your faith.” Hard for us to get into this expression. The secret to experience Christ in such a book is just relying on these 3 things. The bountiful supply of the Spirit, the word of life, and the sacrifice of your faith. Now…what is faith that can constitute a sacrifice to God. As long as you are a believer, you have faith. But the question is this: could you consider your faith a sacrifice good for some other one to offer to God?

Paul was a New Testament priest. In Romans 15:16, Paul says I offered you gentile believers as a priest…all of you I offered to God. Paul was a gospel priest. He offered his converts all to God as a kind of sacrifice. Not only the persons…Romans 15 refers to the persons as sacrifice, but Philippians 2:17 refers to the believers faith as sacrifice. This is much deeper.

Three extraordinary expressions used by the apostle in this book…(1) the bountiful supply, (2) holding forth the word of life, and now (3) the sacrifice of your faith. This is not an easy passage to understand, but surely it’s worth our while to get into it to try to see the kind of faith that Paul was considering to be an offering…a sacrifice.

We have to spend some time to get the right understanding of the matter of faith. The faith here is a little different at least from the faith even in the Bible in other places. What is faith? Ephesians 1:13 gives us a very clear definition. You have heard the word of truth. Then you believed in Christ. The result was that you were sealed with the Spirit. The Word came and the Spirit was there. When you heard the Word and believed, you got the Spirit. The Word, faith and the Spirit…these three are one. The first function of the Word is to infuse you.

The Word infuses you with faith. Faith is the issue of the word and the function of the Spirit. Why? Because when the Word comes to you…when you touch it…the Spirit is there. Rather, I would say…the Word comes and you touch it…this Word becomes the Spirit. I must tell you…from my youth, I loved to have faith. So I tried my best. By that time I loved two things…faith and regeneration. I spent dollars to buy books…I couldn’t get any book to tell me what is faith. As it should be. Some books tell you what is faith…but not actually as faith should be.

Until in the recent years…mostly by my experiences…I realized what is faith. Faith is just the Word infusing the very element of the Word into you. And this very element is just the function of the Spirit. So faith is the issue of the Word and the function of the Spirit. So when you have faith, spontaneously you have the Word and the Spirit. And actually…dear saints…eventually when you have faith you have the three things. When you have faith, you have the Word. When you have faith, you have the Spirit.

You can pick up any portion of the Word and dwell on it for a while. Then something burning…something boiling…something rising up with power. What is that? This is the mingling of the Word and the Spirit with your faith. And this always issues in the full enjoyment of Christ.

Living Stream Ministry

the four laws

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Romans chapters 7 and 8 are (in my opinion) the most crucial chapters to every Christian in understanding how to live a vital Christian life. Paul was speaking frankly concerning his experience…what he was doing…what he could do and what he couldn’t do. If ever there was a man that could be good…that was equipped to be good…to fulfill the law and be obedient…this would have been Paul.

And yet, he met with such experience that he ended up crying “Oh wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from the body of this death!” And I think many many believers identify with that. We feel that we have tried…that we have worked…tried “plan A” and then “plan B.” And we go from plan to plan…thinking that something is going to finally make this Christian life vital and real to all of us. And some things help a little bit and then it seems like somehow the thing gets shorted out and sometimes disastrously so…and yet many times we get up and start again.

We have come to the most deep, most meaningful, crucial point. In all these verses, I would say three crucial words are repeatedly mentioned. (1) the word law. (2) the word life. (3) and death. Law, life and death. We all have to realize…even scientifically speaking…these three things are the hardest thing for the scientists to explain. Who could define life? Could you? Could you tell me in any university…any kind of prominent famous professor that could explain to you what is life? Not only life…even this ugly thing…death…is a hard thing to explain.

You may think death is somewhat too abstract, but in the Bible, death is very concrete. Why? Revelation 20 says death eventually will be cast into the lake of fire. The first thing which will be cast into the lake of fire is Satan. And following him you have Hades. And this proves how Satan is a solid person and how Hades is a solid place. This matter of death should be also something solid.

Then, of course we all know the matter of law is a profound thing. The thing that surprises me is that 2,000 years ago, Paul the apostle understood the matter of law. If you look into it, firstly it denotes the ten commandments of God. The law of God. But Paul says in my mind there is a law. What is this? And he says also there is the law of sin and of death. What is this? Not only so, you also have the law of the Spirit of life. The law and life are good enough for us to be troubled. Now he put also the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life. What is this?

The first time through Romans on the life-study of the Bible, we touched these four laws that are mentioned in chapters 7 and 8. To really understand this portion of scripture, we need to be clear that there are two different types or kinds of law. We have to underline that to get into the experience that Paul got into, we need to have the understanding that he had. And this is why I appreciate brother Lee and brother Nee getting into this in a spiritually scientific (if one can say that) method of looking at the laws that are operating. And Paul used the word laws.

Certainly, the first time the law is mentioned it refers to the law of God. That is an objective written standard that God spoke to the children of Israel for their behavior on this earth. That is the law outside of ourselves. Then Paul comes to the law of doing good in my mind. And that refers to an innate law or innate ability or capacity…desire that man wants to do good. And we do. We are created in God’s image and we are created that way to be those kind of beings. So there is something in our mind…a law…a propensity…e.g. the dogs bark, the fish swim, the birds fly. Every life has a law, and part of the human life is wanting to do good.

Then there is the law of sin in our members, and this law is the other side of doing good. This law comes from man’s fall where Satan tempted man to partake of the knowledge of good and evil. And by that partaking, man not only disobeyed but partook of something that brought another law into his members…into his flesh of his body, and that is the desire to do evil.

The fourth law that we have looked at in Romans 7 and 8 is the law of the Spirit of life. And this is another law that is within us. It’s another innate ability within us that comes from regeneration. That comes from God Himself dwelling inside of us as the Spirit of life. When this operates, this law sets us free from the law of sin and death. We don’t wrestle with that problem of good and evil. We just go to the law of the Spirit of life which is resurrection life…which takes us into the realm of God and of enjoying God…instead of being occupied with the matters of good and evil.

So we have talked about these four laws. The law of God outside of us. And then inside of us three…the law of good in our mind to do good. The law of evil in our members to do evil. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus in our spirit to bring us into the realm of God Himself.

Living Stream Ministry

Obedience is better than sacrifice

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

In Philippians 2:14, the apostle Paul says, “Do all things without murmuring and reasoning.” This is a very small verse that many of us pass over…maybe even take for granted. But in today’s life-study from the book of Philippians, we’re going to focus on how it affects our obedience…to work out our salvation…to live Christ…to express Christ and to hold forth Christ.

These are two little annoying things (murmuring and reasoning)…always troubling us in our daily life to undermine the real experience and enjoyment of the Lord.

In verse 12 is to work out the salvation. Then in verse 13, it is God who operates in us that we may work out the salvation. Now in verse 14, the apostles writing is very practical. He only mentions 2 things in a negative way. Murmurings is something always out of our emotions; and reasonings is something out of our mind. So Paul says do all things without murmurings and reasonings.

By the context, you could see that if we murmur or we reason this surely means we do not obey. Obedience to God kills all the murmurings and reasonings. And these two things could only be transformed by obeying the God who operates in us. Salvation is God, and the working out of the salvation is our obeying. Obeying what? Obeying whom? Obey the very operating God. God is our salvation, and our obeying of God is working out of salvation.

If we do obey God, this obeying will kill ALL murmurings and ALL reasonings. When you sisters murmur, you do realize that you are disobedient to the inner working God. And with us, the brothers, we also have the full realization whenever we reason with the brothers, we have the deep conviction that we are just rebellious. Not rebellious to the brothers to whom (or with whom) we reason. But rebellious to the inner working God.

So just by one thing, we kill these two gophers…and this one thing is just obedience to God. By this you can see, Paul…his consideration is altogether not doctrinal. His consideration is altogether experiential. Because murmurings and reasonings are too crucial in our Christian life.

The satanic life which we received by the fall really expresses itself by murmuring and reasoning. Somebody who’s really enjoying Christ and really experiencing Christ…you never hear murmuring and reasoning. For sure, those murmurings and reasonings are the expression of the satanic rebellious life and nature. But there is one life…that is the life which is Christ Himself…which in this chapter it is presented as the inner operating God. That life has no murmurings and no reasonings in it.

When we go along with that life, even our murmurings and reasonings get killed. Our obedience to the Lord is really the poison to these two gophers of murmuring and reasoning. On one hand, God Himself is our salvation. Philippians is really a book of salvation; almost every chapter, salvation is brought out.

But the working out of the salvation (as is mentioned here in Phil 2) is by obeying the inner operating God. This is the key…and this is the secret to really living a life apart from murmurings and reasonings. And even putting murmurings and reasonings to death…that is to the death of the cross. We really see Christ as our pattern earlier in this chapter, and now that pattern is in us.

As we go along with that pattern, we live out a life that doesn’t display murmurings and reasonings…but rather glorifies and expresses God. And even…as we shall see…shines forth God and holds forth God as life…expressing Him.

Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is a big secret to enjoying the inner operating God and to be a person who lives Christ and expresses Christ and magnifies Christ. So the real need is for us to obey the inner operating God. Even as we would just open to Him and turn to Him and be one with Him, we can even partake of His perfect and complete obedience. Then we really enjoy a life that doesn’t murmur or reason but expresses God under all circumstances.

Hallelujah for such a life!

Living Stream Ministry

for we are His masterpiece

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God created all things: the heavens, the earth, the universe, man and all the living creatures. And how even a simple gaze at creation often fills us with awe as we consider His creation. But not until the New Testament book of Ephesians are we told what is at the very top of all that He has done and even all that He is doing. Or to use Paul’s language in Ephesians, what is His “masterpiece.” Listen to Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them.”

WE are His masterpiece. “We” meaning the church. We will get into God’s masterpiece on our program today.

Only grace can produce this masterpiece. We in ourselves are not able to do anything that would result in the creation of this masterpiece of God. We must receive from God something which the Bible calls grace.

What do you understand by the term grace? What is grace: God dispensed into us. The very God who has been dispensed into us is the grace. “Saved by grace” means by God dispensed and still dispensing into us. Grace came through Jesus Christ. Grace came like a person. And here in Ephesians…from chapter one…you can see the very saving grace is God Himself in Christ wrought into our being.

We have stressed emphatically in chapter one the basic controlling factor there is the Triune God dispensed into our being. It is this Triune God that saved us. So “we are saved by grace” means we are saved by the dispensed God. The very God who has been dispensed into us…saved us.

The processed God transmitted into you in the grace. This is the abounding grace…amazing grace.

Living Stream Ministry