THE LAW OF FAITH
Part 7
If
we have considered the matter as we ought, we will surely have come to
understand the great and eternal truth that the nature of God is faith. The scriptures reveal that from eternity God
has always moved in the nature of faith.
We cannot be too emphatic in saying that not only does God have faith,
but indeed
God is
faith. Faith is listed in I
Corinthians 12:9 and Galatians 5:22 as both
a “gift” and a “fruit” of the Spirit. On
the one hand, the gifts of the Spirit are manifestations of God’s ABILITY, while
on the other hand, the fruit of the Spirit is the manifestation of God’s
NATURE. Every living creature possesses
these two aspects of being: ability and nature.
One’s ability is what he or she can DO, whereas one’s nature is what he
or she IS. Thus it can be seen that
faith, being both a “gift” and a “fruit” of the divine Spirit, is the basic
principle of God’s OMNIPOTENT POWER and the very essence of His IMMUTABLE NATURE.
The
inspired writer to the Hebrew believers penned these instructive words: “Through
faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so
that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” We must not depend upon our natural
understanding to probe the depths of this remarkable statement by the apostle. A casual reading might lead one to believe
that he means simply that we accept by faith the idea that God
created all visible things of this creation by His word, but in studying the Greek
text and
searching the mind of the Spirit I have no hesitation in stating that this
passage sets forth the great truth that we now perceive that it was IN FAITH
(that’s how the Greek expresses it) that GOD CREATED ALL THINGS by His
word! Clearly this reveals that God, in
all His purposes and activities,
operates by faith the same as we do!
Man
functions in the natural realm entirely by faith. This natural faith-action is an
expression of that “image” of God which is indelibly stamped into the human constitution. A man feels and desires; he thinks, he
reasons, he wills, he plans, he speaks, he acts. All of these marvelous faculties combine to
make a person, after the similitude of God. Desire, pure or perverted, controls,
contrives, creates all that ever comes to pass in a person’s life. Faith is action, springing from
desire. By faith alone can a man
act. Is there one solitary act that one
single man has ever done, from the trivial to
the sublime, which does not have faith as its method of performance? A man enters a dark room, flips a light
switch, flooding the room with light.
Why did he flip the switch?
Because he wanted light, and he believed, had confidence and assurance
that the light would come on. These
three words — believe, confidence, assurance — are synonyms of faith. Ah, he had faith that the switch
would release the current and provide the light! If he had not believed the light would come
on he would not have entered the room without a flashlight or some other source
of light. It is an action in faith
motivated by desire. A man eats. Why?
Because he wants to, desire being the motivation. How then does he eat, and what does he
eat? He sees some food which to him
appears appetizing, and which he trusts to be nutritious; he believes in its
value; he spoons it into his mouth, masticates, swallows, digests, every action
of which is pure faith and nothing but
faith. At any moment in any one of these
actions, if his faith in the food, or his faith in the ability of his body to properly handle it were shaken: if he were
caused to believe it was spoiled, or poison, or that some process of his
digestive system was rebelling against it, he would immediately and
automatically cease to take, masticate, swallow, or even digest it! In like manner, the men who build towering
skyscrapers or shoot rockets into the starry heavens on journeys to far-away
worlds, at every juncture of the intricate process, are moved by faith. The immutable truth is that nothing
is accomplished in this world except by faith!
Faith initiates action, action springing from desire. Faith is the God-imparted, natural and only
way by which a man can go through all the processes of doing and obtaining the
things he envisions, desires, and purposes.
Man is compounded, in his natural
state, of FAITH!
THE ORIGIN OF CREATION
Now
let us return to God’s operation by faith.
“IN FAITH, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb.
11:3). The Bible opens with one of the
simplest and yet most profound statements ever penned by human hands. “In the beginning — GOD!” In the beginning…the beginning of what? Certainly not in the beginning of God
Himself, for the prophet David declared of Him, “Before the mountains were
brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, THOU ART GOD” (Ps. 90:2). Our Lord was the great active force, the cause
of all that began to happen “in the beginning.”
How awesome the realization that there was a time when there was
nothing…absolutely nothing…but GOD!
There was no earth, no moon, no planets, no sun, no stars, no galaxies,
no swirling nebulae, no angels, no cherubim, no devils, nothing anywhere but
God Himself. And yet there was such a
circumstance! Paul
caught something of the sublimity of this eternal and self-existent One and wrote to the saints
at Colosse:
“For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and HE
IS BEFORE ALL THINGS, and by Him all things consist” (Col. 1:16-17). This is written of the eternal Word of God,
of whom it is also written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. All
things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made”
(Jn. 1:1,3).
Let
me emphasize this wonderful and important truth. “He is before all things” signifies that He
is not one of the “things.” He is before
all things! Shall we state it
yet another way…He is before all things…and He is furthermore before all things! And just as sublime is the great truth that
“…by Him all things consist.” Young’s
Literal Translation renders this literally from the Greek: “Because in Him were
the all things created…and Himself is before all, and the all things in
Him have consisted.” The word
“consist” is from the Greek word sunistemi meaning “to set together;
introduce; constitute.” Webster defines
consist thus: “to be made up of or composed; to be contained or inherent in.” It should be very evident, then, that the
“all things” of creation were set together in Him, they are made up or composed
of
Him, and they were contained and inherent in Him. What a word that is!
This
throws the light of divine inspiration upon the important question, “If God is
“before all things,” and “all things were made by Him,” and “ all things were contained and inherent in
Him,” then out of what did God “make” the all things? If there was ONLY GOD, and absolutely NO
THING anywhere other than God, what kind of material, then, did God have at His
disposal out of which to construct all things?
If you were standing completely alone, with nothing but the substance of
your own being existent, what material would be available to you for making
“something” other than yourself? The
obvious answer is, of course, you would have no alternative but to MAKE THE
“THINGS” OUT OF YOURSELF! And friend, that is exactly what God
did! Now we can understand the divine
intent of those blessed words inspired of the Holy Spirit through our beloved
brother Paul,
“Because in Him were the all things created…and Himself is before all,
and the all things in Him have consisted” (Col. 1:16-17, Young’s Literal).
In
relation to creation another term for “things” is “elements.” The natural creation is composed of various
elements or parts. God could not make
the world or the universe out of
minerals, because minerals are but some of the things or elements He created. He couldn’t make it from gases, for gases are
also among the things created. He
couldn’t make it out of light, for natural light is the very first “thing” He
spoke into existence. He didn’t make
the world out of magma, because again
magma is but another of the things created.
I trust you can see, dear reader, that since God was before
all things, and armed with the understanding that it was IN HIM that
all things CONSISTED, it is abundantly clear that the very source and substance
of all things IS GOD HIMSELF! Out of the
infinite energy and divine substance of His own being…God brought forth and
framed all things OF HIMSELF. That is
the mystery.
When
I was a boy we had what I call a “Sunday School” definition of the word
“create.” I call it a “Sunday School”
definition because somewhere, sometime, as a little boy in Sunday School, this
definition was given to me by a teacher.
To “create,” I was told, “means to make something out of nothing.” To my young and unlearned mind that sounded
altogether logical. After all, I
thought, if God is God, and God can do anything, nothing being impossible with
Him, then surely it is no problem to God to make something out of
NOTHING! As I grew older, however, and
learned something of science, of physics, of the laws of the universe, I
discovered a simple but demonstrable fact, namely, that out of nothing —
nothing comes! If you start with nothing
you will end with nothing. It is simply
not possible to make something out of nothing, and even God, in all His
glorious and eternal omnipotence, DOES NOT MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING!
The
correct explanation of the creative process is found in Hebrews 11:3. “In faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear.”
This remarkable passage of scripture does not teach that God made the visible wonders of the universe out
of nothing — rather, it informs us of the scientific fact that He constructed
them out of “things” which are “not seen,” which do not appear, or are not
apparent, yes, “things” which are INVISIBLE!
All nature everywhere radiantly manifests the great truth that God
formed the visible things out of invisible things. But “things” nevertheless! Just because a thing is invisible and
undetectable to human senses and mechanisms doesn’t mean that it is
non-existent. Not by any means!
What
were these “invisible things” out of which God made the “visible things” of
creation? Certainly a key to this is found
in Paul’s
letter to the young minister, Timothy. “Now
unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise
God, be honor and glory for ever” (I Tim. 1:17). The King, the King of the ages, our glorious
God and the great cause of all, is invisible. Of Moses it is written that “He
forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is
invisible” (Heb. 11:27). John
the beloved said, “No man hath seen God at any time” (Jn.
1:18). The Invisible One, who was before
all things, by whom all things were made, and in whom all things consisted…made
the all things out of those invisible properties of energy and substance which
were inherent eternally, spiritually, and invisibly within Himself. If any who read these lines would argue the
point let him examine carefully and reverently the words of the apostle Paul wherein he says, “For
the invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world ARE CLEARLY SEEN, being understood
by the things that are made, even HIS ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD” (Rom.
1:20).
That
the universe is composed of unseen, invisible things is as scientific a
statement as has ever been made. Many
scientists want to relegate the Bible to the category of ancient fables and
myths, dismissing it as outmoded and disproven in this “enlightened” age of
science and technology. There is only
one problem with such scientists. They know more about science than they do the
Bible! They either haven’t studied the
Bible, or have an extremely superficial knowledge of it. Or perhaps their estimation of the Bible is
based upon the ignorant babble of preachers who themselves have a distorted and
perverted understanding of it. If these
scientists truly knew the Bible as well as they know their science, they would discover that there
is not one single contradiction between the Word of God and any true
science. Long millenniums ago, when even
the “scientists” believed the earth to be flat and supported underneath by a
foundation, the great rancher-prophet penned these significant words concerning
God and creation: “It is He who spreads out the northern skies over emptiness
and hangs
the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7).
Ah, how did Job know that? He
knew nothing scientifically about the orbital order of our solar system or the Law
of Universal Gravitation. Yet he knew by
divine wisdom
that there was no foundation under the earth holding it up — that the great God hung it upon NOTHING!
Centuries
later the prophet Isaiah cried out, “It is He (God) which sitteth upon the circle
of the earth…that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain” (Isa.
40:32). The word translated “circle”
here is the Hebrew word khug, a more exact connotation of
which is “sphericity” or “roundness” like a ball. It in no way indicates
a flat circle
like a pizza. Yes, the God of Isaiah,
the God of the Bible, knew the earth was round a long time
before the scientists discovered it! In
speaking of the sun the psalmist said, “His going forth is from the end of the
heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the
heat thereof” (Ps. 19:6). And while
there are wonderful and valid spiritual applications from this verse, yet the
spiritual is predicated upon the actual law of the natural sun. Not until recent times did the world’s
astronomers catch up with the revelation of God and learn that the sun, with
the entire solar system, actually does move through space at the tremendous
speed of 14,400,000 (fourteen million, four hundred thousand) miles per
twenty-four hour day, in such a gigantic orbit that it requires over two million centuries to complete
it! Who can accuse the Holy Spirit of
ignorance of modern astronomy? And
example could be compounded upon example!
GOD — ALL IN ALL
Let
us return to our thought. God, the
all-wise and all-powerful Creator, declares that He made the universe out of
invisible things — out of the invisible properties of His very own spiritual
substance. Science knows that all matter
is composed of atoms, atoms are energy, and all matter is simply energy
in motion. Who has ever seen an
atom? No, you’ve never seen one for in the smallest grain of
sand there are billions if them. One of
the most important discoveries of twentieth century science was the fact of the
basic equivalence of mass and energy. It
is well known now that matter is actually one form of energy, or better, is a
manifestation of that form of energy known as atomic energy. The source of the tremendous energy of the
atom is yet unknown to scientists and may be, in fact, undiscoverable by
science — for the energy is one of the elements in the very POWER
OF GOD. Science doesn’t know from whence
this energy comes, however they do know that an incredible supply of energy
from some source is necessary to maintain the terrific motions and forces
associated with the various subatomic particles. The magnitudes of such energies are
graphically intimated in the energy released by atomic radiation.
Most
significant then, is the proclamation of Hebrews 1:2-3, “God…hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,
whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made
the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His
person, and UPHOLDING ALL THINGS BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER, when He had by
Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” This passage teaches us that all things
— that is, the matter of the physical universe — are maintained by energy
or power, the source of which is the Creator Himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ! So Paul was right when he said, “And Himself is
before all, and the all things in Him have consisted.” The energy, the very power of the
universe is the very energy, the POWER OF GOD
HIMSELF! It has all been drawn out of,
and fashioned from, the infinite and omnipotent reservoir of energy in the
all-powerful WORD OF GOD! If only I can
help men see the deep and momentous mystery of that marvelous faith chapter,
Hebrews 11, which begins with such an eloquent assertion of the necessity of
understanding this one basic truth that God created all things IN FAITH, OUT OF HIMSELF, BY THE POWER IN HIS WORD!
It is indeed
wonderful!
If in the beginning, as Genesis says, there is
only God, all things must be some form of Him; and we know this is so, because
we are taken to the consummation of the ages by Paul (I Cor. 15:28) when he tells us that
after sin and death are eradicated from the creation the Son will deliver up
the kingdom to the Father that “God may be all in all.”
Can we not see that before “the beginning” God was ALL. He was everything there was! There is infinite difference between God
being ALL and His being all IN ALL. In
the end God could only be ALL
once more by completely destroying every vestige of creation. But no!
He purifies and perfects the creation so He can be ALL
IN ALL — or, as one translation beautifully expresses
it, “everything to everyone.” If He is
all, then everything must be forms of Him; and “all in all” means He, The All,
in all His forms fully and completely manifesting Himself as He is. The universe is HE in manifestation! The universe is spirit slowed down to the
point of visibility. Paul says that all men possess an inner
understanding of Him the Invisible, so that “things which are seen were not
made of things which do appear.”
By
now someone is surely asking, Are you, then, a pantheist? The answer is an unequivocal No. A pantheist is, according to Webster, one who
believes that God is not a personality, but that all forces and
manifestations of the universe ARE GOD.
We, to the contrary, know that God is a Person — A LIVING PERSONALITY. So
we are saying one tremendous fact. In
the beginning, before creation or any manifestation, there was GOD. “In the beginning GOD…!” This God both spoke and acted. There was only one Person and all substance
eternally existed IN HIM. There was only
God. And God said, “Let there be,” and
there was, out of the energy of His own being.
The visible out of the Invisible.
But God Himself, in His Personality, remains invisible. By way of example, you never see electricity, but you do see the
manifestations of electricity in light, heat, and motion. You never
see atoms, but you see things composed of atoms. You never
see air, but you feel it, experience it, and see the form of the
whirlwind. And, my beloved, no man has
ever seen God at any time, but you do see manifestations of Him, of His eternal
power and Godhead, and you can experience Him in power and in life! But we do not call the “things” we see
God. What we are talking about is seeing
through all things to the ONE of whom it is some form, just as I don’t
mistake a person’s body for themselves.
I see through the body to the person of whom it is the outer form and
manifestation.
GOD IN CHRIST — THE PERSON OF GOD REVEALED
Two
thousand years ago God did a new thing.
God took the very essence
of His Personality, and incorporated it into His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “No man hath seen God at any
time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
declared Him” (Jn. 1:18). Jesus was,
therefore, the FULL REVELATION of the invisible God. I love the rendering of this passage in the Amplified Bible, “No
man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son…who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him — He
has revealed Him, brought Him out where He can be seen…He has made Him
known.” Before Jesus came no man
had ever seen the Person, the Personality of God. The manifestations that God had given of
Himself were fragmentary and only partially revealed what He is like. However, when Jesus came into the world He
was the complete and full embodiment of the Person of God! Every created thing has manifested and
expressed some portion, some fragment of the properties inherent in God, but never had God revealed
in any one thing or group of things the totality of HIMSELF. But of Jesus it is written, “Now He is the exact
likeness of the unseen God — the visible representation of the invisible…for
it has pleased the Father that all the divine fullness — the sum total of the
divine perfection, powers, and attributes should DWELL IN HIM PERMANENTLY”
(Col. 1:15,19, Amplified Bible).
How marvelous the truth that has
burst upon our hearts, that God has chosen to constitute us the
body of His Son, the fullness of Him that filleth all in
all! Sons of God, joint heirs with
Christ, co-sharers of His glory, the fullness of God in Christ distributed
through a many-membered body. As Jesus
said, “That they all may be one as You, Father, are in me and I in You, that
they also may be one in Us. I have given
them the glory and honor which You have given me, that they may be one as We
are one: I in them and You in me, in order that they may become one…that
the world may know…You” (Jn. 17:21-23,
Amplified Bible). The sons of God are
called and chosen to EXPRESS HIM — to reveal here upon this earth the Person of
GOD!
FAITH — THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS
HOPED FOR
In the light of such a glorious
hope let us not lose sight of the fact that we are speaking of FAITH. Here is the divine order. The worlds were framed by God — through
faith. The faith was inherent in God, an
aspect of His nature, an essence
of His being; faith is thus a property of His divine energy and substance, an
attribute of His omnipotent power. When
God spoke, saying, “Let there be,” the thing spoken came into existence…made
of the energy and power contained in God Himself. So, not only was the thing spoken created by
God, but in truth it was created BY FAITH!
Can you not see the power behind those two little words — by
faith. By faith God framed the
worlds! By faith Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice! By
faith Noah prepared an ark! By
faith Abraham went out! By
faith Sarah conceived! By
faith Moses forsook Egypt…passed
over the Red Sea! By faith the walls of Jericho fell down! Everyone of these great events was the
product of faith! We have now come again
to our starting point and find that faith is POWER. The power OF GOD; but not only that, the
power IS GOD. Faith is what things are
made of. Creation is the manifestation
of God’s invisible power, therefore creation is also the manifestation of
faith. Faith is energy. Faith is substance. The thing created is made out of the energy, the
power, the substance contained in FAITH! Little wonder, then, that Jesus could say, “If
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed…you can move mountains!” And again, “All things whatsoever ye shall
ask in
faith…ye shall receive.” Oh, the
mystery of it!
The thing you are hoping for, my
friend, will be made out of some material, some substance, and the substance
out of which it will be made IS FAITH! This
beautiful truth really blows to pieces the Sunday School theory that to create
means “to make something out of nothing.”
Everything is made of some material, some substance, some energy. Envelopes are made out of paper. Paper is made from wood. Wood is produced from substances and energies
within the earth and from the sun. In
most trees, wood is made up mainly of two substances, cellulose and
lignin. It also contains water, dyes,
minerals, oils, starch, gums, and other
materials. These substances form
different kinds of tissue called fiber, vessels, tracheids, and parenchyma, and
each has a different job to perform. The
majestic tree is the product of many of the mysterious processes of life. The universe is built of various kinds of
atoms. Everything is made from
something. Hear it! God isn’t going to produce your “something” out
of NOTHING! He will produce the answer
to your prayer, the supply for your need, the realization of the yearnings of
your heart, the reality of your attainment in God — out of some substance. God’s counsel to you today, my
beloved, is just this. When you pray, or
speak, or move, or act in faith the energy of God in that
faith is released, thus becoming the producer, the very creator, of
the thing you anticipate — hope for!
Isn’t it wonderful!
This brings us to that great
statement in Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is
the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” When we consider the spectrum of faith all
the way from elementary faith, which will get us blessings and benefits from
the Lord, onward through the degrees of faith in which He teaches us His ways,
purifying and maturing us, all the way forward to that ultimate faith that
inherits the kingdom in the full stature of sonship, we can only come to the
conclusion that IT’S ALL BY FAITH!
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” What do we hope for? Ah, as the elect of the Lord in this new
kingdom day we hope for the end of the 365 days of Enoch when “we
are not,” because we have walked with God down all the paths of faith,
and transformation into the image of Christ and have stepped over into another
realm, into a higher realm, into a greater glory. It doesn’t mean that we
disappear off the earth, but it does mean that we are transferred into a new
dimension in the power of Christ’s resurrection — and that’s what it will take,
my beloved, for creation to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Oh, yes!
Again I ask, What do we hope
for? Well, seventy years ago I hoped for
healing. Seventy years ago I hoped for
finances and showers of blessings. On
some level I suppose I still hope for
such things, for I am still in a mortal body and must eat and be clothed and
put gas in my car. But I do know that my
hope in Christ today far exceeds and transcends those things! I hope for the glory that is yet to be
revealed! I hope for that perfect man
who comes to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I hope for those holy sons of God who stand
with the Lamb upon mount
Zion
in the full and exact likeness of the glorified Jesus. I hope for the manchild who ascends the
throne of God and the Lamb and rules all nations with a rod of iron. All of this is being raised up in our lives
to the degree of our growth and development and the measure of our faith, Yes, I have a hope! I have a hope and faith is the substance of this
hope.
The word “substance” is translated
from the Greek word huposstasis meaning “a setting under; a support.” The prefix hupo means “under,
beneath; underneath.” The second part of
this compound word, histemi, means “to
stand.” The full meaning of the word
signifies “to stand underneath.” It
bespeaks of a substratum, that which is laid then something else is placed upon
it, like the foundation beneath a building.
The word has broad usage. It could speak of one layer of soil or rock
upon which another layer is superimposed.
It could be the soil in a field out of which the grain grows, being
superimposed upon the supporting soil underneath.
It is that which undergirds and it is furthermore that out of which and upon which
things are built. It should not seem
strange to any who read these lines when I say that the raising up and building
of my hopes in Christ, the raising up of my sonship, the raising up of my
inheritance within myself IS UPON THIS
FOUNDATION OF FAITH. Faith is the substance, faith is the
substratum, faith is the foundation, faith is the undergirding, faith is the
support of all my hopes in Christ! Faith
is that out of which all my hopes spring and out of which and upon which they
are being fashioned and framed in my life.
That is the mystery!
My own walk in faith was greatly
influenced by an elderly man I met and fellowshipped with on various occasions
while I was yet a young boy. Many years
before the Lord had spoken to this man and told him to go to China as a
missionary. It seemed impossible. He was unqualified by the standards of most church organizations. He had no denominational affiliation, no
mission board to send him, and no money.
But he knew that he had heard from God!
With no visible means of even getting out of the country he booked
passage on a ship from San Francisco, California
to the city of Shanghai, China. The ticket was to be paid for and picked up
prior to departure from San Francisco. He
disposed of what few possessions he had, packed his one suitcase, and
travelled to San Francisco,
arriving the day before the departure date.
With suitcase in hand he walked through the streets of San Francisco on his way to the docks and the
waiting ship. He still had no money for
the ticket. As he walked along one of
the narrow streets, a lady burst through a door onto the sidewalk. “It’s you!” she whispered, as she thrust an
envelope into his hand. “As I was
praying,” she continued, “the Lord showed me you in a vision. He told me to give you this.” My friend opened the envelope and there was
exactly the amount of money needed to claim his ticket and make the trip to Shanghai! With tears of joy he continued on his way,
made the voyage, and by faith spent some thirty years in China about the
Father’s business.
We have personally witnessed the
miracle of this operation of faith again and again throughout many years of
“walking by faith.” The life of faith
has held a fascination for me for over seventy-five years. Illustration
could be heaped upon illustration and many thrilling stories be told from our
own personal experience — of going through Bible School
by faith, going to the mission fields by faith, pastoring small, poor churches
with no salary by faith, travelling in ministry from coast to coast as well as
a number of foreign countries by faith, mailing out nearly two million books
and Bible study papers free of charge over the past 50 years by faith,
ministering by faith, speaking by faith, decreeing in faith, moving by faith in
the constant stream of God’s miracle working power. God always provides and manifests His power
and goodness in His own unique and sovereign way, yet from the storehouse of
spiritual understanding it is my deep conviction that through this entire
journey the things that I hoped for in Christ were truly created out of the faith raised
up within our own hearts. There was
divine energy and omnipotent power inherent in that faith. As I stated earlier, faith IS GOD, for God IS
FAITH. Faith is both God’s nature and
God’s power in operation. God dwells in and
inhabits
faith, just as He dwells in and inhabits the praises of His people (Ps.
22:3). Let us therefore be assured that
it was not God in some far-off heaven somewhere moving in our behalf — it was
GOD IN US, present, active, operating in the faith that is within just as He
did in that long-ago beginning when He issued the divine fiat, “Let there be!”
and there was. For each of us, my
beloved, it is the creative power of the faith in our hearts that becomes the
very substance
of all that we hope for. Isn’t
it wonderful!
This is why apart from faith we
receive nothing. It is not that God up
in heaven says, “That fellow has no faith so I’m not going to do anything for
Him.” God is love. He is not vindictive, stingy, mean hearted,
or spiteful. But there is an
unalterable divine principle in the economy of God. It is His nature, the law of His working, the
principle of His manifestation. “FAITH
IS THE SUBSTANCE of things hoped for!” How
the saints should rejoice in the sacred knowledge that faith is what things are
made out of! Without faith there is no
substance from which God can construct anything. The faith within God fashioned and formed all
the untold trillions of galaxies, solar systems, suns, planets, and moons
throughout the vastnesses of infinity.
And the faith within YOU will create that which you hope for! This is the divine principle — there is just
no other way. Endeavoring to obtain
without faith is like trying to build a house without any lumber, nails, or
bricks. If you have nothing, you
construct nothing. The substance you
possess can be molded into the thing you desire, if you are not desiring
amiss. Faith IS your substance! This is why the Lord Jesus could so
confidently assert, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall
not doubt in his heart, but shall
believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; HE SHALL
HAVE WHATSOEVER HE SAITH. Therefore I
say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that you receive them, and
ye shall
have them” (Mk. 11:23-24). It’s
simple. It’s true.
Those whom God is calling forth as a
firstfruit company of sons in this great day of the Lord do not misuse faith
unto the ends of self. You can always
tell a babe, a carnal Christian, from a son of God. The carnal Christian will always equate faith
with material blessings to pamper the natural man. He
will be talking about how he can have anything he can believe for. “The people of God should have the best of
everything,” he will assert, “because we
are the ‘king’s kids.’” These are the
“prosperity” people who seek to use faith to procure for themselves the finest
homes, the most expensive clothing, the highest paying jobs, the largest bank
accounts, and a multitude of amenities that cater to and pamper the flesh. The natural mind is indeed dark and without
understanding! The unvarnished truth is
that one cannot prove the so-called “prosperity doctrine” by Jesus, the Pattern
Son! He never put a premium on wealth
either for Himself or His followers.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth,” is one the articles of
the Constitution of the kingdom
of Jesus. Spiritual people who have set their
affections on things above, on the spirit realm where
Christ sits at the right hand of God, and not on things on the earth, don’t go
about using their faith as a magic formula for all their carnal lusts and
fleshly desires. Certainly God blesses
and provides for His people, and
sometimes prospers them! We have already
testified to that and I am sure that many who read these lines can add their
own beautiful testimonies to God’s wonderful faithfulness. But there are issues of greater importance at
stake in this hour. The purpose of God in this new kingdom day
far transcends thousand dollar suits, million dollar homes, and Porsches in
every garage. This old world is passing
away, with the lusts thereof. The
kingdom is at hand. The long-awaited
manifestation of the sons of God is even
now approaching. God is preparing an
army to conquer the kingdom of darkness, to put all principality and power
under their feet, to break the stranglehold of
demonic tyranny over the nations, to break the dominion of sin, sorrow, and death over all
mankind. God is mustering His army. The battle is before us! To
overcome ignorance, sin, sickness, pain, darkness, bondage, and death,
to bring God’s kingdom to pass in the midst of chaos and trouble — THIS REQUIRES FAITH OF THE ULTIMATE KIND!
Let every son of God seek the kingdom of God
and His righteousness. Then ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE
ADDED UNTO HIM. Let God add
them if He will, but do not seek
them. Let every son of God seek the
kingdom. Let every son of God seek those
things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Seek to reign with Christ. Let every son of God put on the whole armor of God. Let every son of God seek the Father’s
will. Let every son of God seek to
bless, rather than to be blessed. Let
every son of God seek to be conformed to the image of The Son. Let every son of God seek to express God in
this earth, to be the instrument in the hand of God for the liberation of
creation…to see God’s purpose completed.
May God grant it. May God hasten it. Already this kind of faith is planted,
growing, bursting forth within our hearts!
This faith within God’s called and separated elect is the SUBSTANCE of
God’s new day for all mankind! Oh, the
wonder of it!
To be continued… J.
PRESTON EBY
