Should we just have a word of prayer?
Lord, we are so thankful to You that we can meet as Your people. You are so gracious to us. You speak again and again to us, even though we are hard of hearing and our hearts are unresponsive. Yet You continue to be merciful and to speak to us.
We commit this morning time to You. We thank You for Your presence with us. We thank You for faith to believe that You are God and that You are faithful to Yourself. We just worship You. We commit this time to You. We ask in the Lord Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, you can introduce me as Jose Wu. I was told that when those brothers and sisters came back from the conference, they changed my name. Did you know about that? You did not know about that?
Well, they call me Dana Wu. So I wonder why. I think that came from Dan. I think Dan Boy was the one who began all that. So I am still wondering why they call me that. Do you know why, Mac?
Before I turn to my heart, I think it would be right and proper for me to share, very briefly, what the Lord is doing in our area.
We thank the Lord for what He has been doing in Glassboro and the South Jersey area for the last fourteen or fifteen years. The meeting in Glassboro actually began in 1971, when our brother Stephen Kong came to us for about two years. On the last Friday of every month, he came to minister the Word to us. We are very thankful.
A good deal has been built into us in those two years, and I believe that laid the foundation for the testimony in that area. We began to meet as a group, as a fellowship, in the spring of 1973.
When we first began to meet, there were about thirty or so of us. Thank God for those who are still faithful and still with us. We praise God for what He is doing.
Then, about six or seven years ago, we felt led to join a group of Chinese Christians who met together on Sunday afternoons for Bible study. For the last seven years, my wife and I have been meeting with them every Sunday afternoon for Bible study. The Lord began to join our hearts together.
The Chinese group came simply for Bible study. They had no worship time; they just read the Bible and shared God’s Word together. As we began to share with them, the Lord began to work in their hearts. He gave them a desire to worship as His people and to come together as a local testimony.
For the last two years or so, the two groups have been coming together regularly. At least on the first Lord’s Day of every month, we meet together for worship and ministry. Also, every Saturday of the month, the two groups come together for a family time.
When we come together for the family time, we have a large group—usually in the seventies. Sometimes we have as many as eighty-five to a hundred when people come from other areas.
For years, we have been asking the Lord to provide a suitable place to meet. In South Jersey, we are scattered over a wide area. Some of the brothers drive about thirty miles or so to come to the meeting. We have been asking the Lord to give us a more central location where we can meet.
We had been looking for a place to meet for about two or three years. Then, last fall, we discovered an old school building that had been abandoned for some months and was available. We looked at it, had peace about it, and felt that the premises were very appropriate for our purpose.
We went to that place, prayed together, and asked the Lord to seal that place to our hearts if it was His will for us to purchase it. At that time, we had only about fifteen thousand dollars—or perhaps less than that—in our building fund.
But we asked the brothers and sisters to go home and pray about it, because we did need a place to meet. When we looked at the place, we all seemed to be of one heart and one mind. We had the inward assurance that this was the place the Lord had marked out for us.
The amazing thing was that the original asking price was one hundred and ten thousand dollars. We investigated, and the assessed value of the place was about eighty-six thousand dollars. So, with very little money in the bank account but with much prayer, we gave an offer of eighty-six thousand dollars.
Within a few weeks, they came down from one hundred and ten thousand dollars to ninety thousand dollars—a drop of twenty thousand dollars. We offered eighty-six thousand dollars because that was the assessed value. Even though we had a very small bank account for purchasing this building, within the month of November the Lord provided everything we needed to purchase it.
By the first Lord’s Day of November, about eighty-six thousand dollars had been placed before the Lord. We really witnessed the wonderful hand of the Lord.
Now we have a small problem for the moment. The owner of the building had financial difficulties many years ago and, I think, declared bankruptcy two or three years ago. Because of that, he owes back taxes to the federal and local governments.
During our title search, we were not able to secure a clear title because of these past financial problems. Our Christian attorney is working on this matter, and we hope it is only a matter of time. But we are open to the Lord.
If the Lord wants us to have it, we believe we will have it before long. But if the Lord has something even better for us, we are open to that. We do not know for the moment, but we appreciate your prayers. Please continue to pray for us.
The place is very run-down. It had been abandoned for some months. It was originally built as a school; then a factory occupied it for some time, and afterward a dancing studio occupied it for some months. Inside, it is quite a mess.
When I looked at the place, I told the brothers and sisters that the place is actually a reflection of our condition before the Lord. There are spiritual lessons we can learn in any situation if our hearts are fixed on the Lord.
The basement was full of all kinds of junk from the old factory and from the dancing studio. The rooms were posted with all kinds of pictures and modern abstract art. I thought, brothers and sisters, that is a reflection of our condition.
It takes faith to buy that place. It will take much, much faith to restore that place so that it will be suitable for God’s people to meet. But God is a God of power. God is a God of resurrection.
Out of chaos, He restores order. Out of death, He restores life. So when you look at that place, physically speaking, nobody wants it. Yet we thank the Lord that He seems to have marked out that place for us.
The place itself is nothing. It is a means by which we may come to know the Lord in a deeper way. The place is a vehicle, a means of knowing the Lord and entering into all that He wants us to enter into.
We appreciate your prayers. Our brother reported, when he came back from his visit with us, that the fellowship in South Jersey is in good health. It is encouraging to hear that from our brother. We ourselves feel very, very weak, and so we need your continual prayer.
The Lord has impressed upon my heart these few days this matter of faith. So should we turn to a few verses of Scripture and see what we can discover together?
Let us turn to Hebrews 11:6.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him;
for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
I will read it once more.
Without faith it is impossible to please Him;
for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
And listen to the Gospel of Luke, just one phrase: Luke 18:8.
When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?
Prayer is really an expression of our faith in Him. There is no need, no use, in praying if there is no faith. Prayer is an expression, a confession, of our faith—a confession of what God says He is.
Those who come to God must believe that He is. In Taiwan, one of our brothers said, “I AM. Do you believe that I AM that I AM? The only way you can please Me is to believe that I AM.”
In other words, God wants us to believe Who He says He is. Because Who He says He is, He can say what He says and do what He does. He is God.
Faith is necessary if we are to please God. I believe faith is the foundation of the Christian life. We enter into this relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way.
In Scripture, we are exhorted to continue in this faith. Faith is the door. Faith is the way. Faith is our life.
The righteous shall live by faith.
We have started in faith, and we have to do the work of faith. Paul says, at the end of Galatians, that we, God’s people, are the household of faith. We are to demonstrate this faith individually; and when we come together, we are to demonstrate this faith as well.
Faith is the foundation of the Christian life. One has to believe Who God says He is, that all He says is true, and that all His works are good, eternal, and perfect. That is our God.
God is Who He says He is. What He says is true, and all His works are good and perfect. That is our confidence in Him. That is our conviction, our assurance, and our certainty.
Christian faith is not merely believing that God is faithful. Thank God, He is faithful. But our faith is in the One Who is faithful to Himself. God is full of faith in Himself. That is what God is.
Because He has faith in Himself, He says what He says. When we say that we believe in Him and are faithful to Him, it simply means that we have faith in Him. Our faith is in the One Who has full faith in Himself.
Our faith is none other than God. Faith is God, because God has faith in Himself and has imparted that faith to us, so that we can believe Who He is, what He says, and what He is doing. That is faith.
In Luke 18, it says, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” There is a relationship between faith and this earth.
Those who are sinners and reject Christ are already feeling the agony of unbelief in hell. They are already suffering the consequence of their unbelief. The saints who are with the Lord are enjoying what they have believed.
But on this earth, in the midst of unbelief, God needs an instrument to show that He is worthy of our faith and belief. Through faith, we allow God to be God, so that He can say what He says and do what He wants to do.
Faith is the foundation of the Christian life. This faith is to be displayed and exhibited on earth, because the question is, “Will He find faith on the earth?”
On this earth, there is an occasion and a need for faith. The sinners are already suffering the consequences of unbelief, and the saints in the presence of the Lord are already enjoying the fullness of the Lord. But we here need to have faith, because faith determines not only our eternal destiny but also our present spiritual condition—how we live.
This phrase also shows us that faith is something very precious. It is something the Lord Jesus comes to this earth to look for. That is why He says, “Will He really find faith on the earth?”
God is looking for faith. In other words, God is looking for an opportunity in which He can be God. Faith allows Him to be what He wants to be, to say what He wants to say, and to do what He wants to do. Faith is the way.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He came to an unbelieving world. There was no faith.
You recall when the disciples came down from the Mount of Transfiguration and encountered the boy possessed by a mute and deaf spirit. The father brought the boy to the disciples and asked them to cast the evil spirit out, but they were not able to do it. So they brought him to the Lord.
The Lord said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” Whenever the Lord encountered unbelief, there was something that stirred within Him.
Because of unbelief, He could not do what He wanted to do. He could not say the things He wanted to say. He could not be manifested as the Son of Man and the Son of God.
When they brought the boy to Him, the Lord said:
If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
That is the most comforting word: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The father knew that the Lord was looking for faith, and he knew he did not have faith, even though he wanted very much to believe.
Then he cried out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” Or, “I believe; help me to overcome my unbelief.”
Is that not true with us, brothers and sisters? We believe, but oftentimes unbelief is an obstacle preventing us from believing what we believe.
When the Lord spoke about removing obstacles—removing the mountain—He said that if we have faith, we can tell this mountain to be cast into the sea. Oftentimes we interpret that mountain as our brothers and sisters in the fellowship. We say they are obstacles.
Or we say the mountain is the circumstances we face, our work, or our many excuses. But I believe this mountain that needs to be removed is not our brothers and sisters, nor is it our circumstances. It is unbelief.
The greatest obstacle, both individually and corporately, is unbelief. When there is unbelief, God is bound. He cannot be God. He cannot say what He wants to say or do the things He wants to do because of unbelief.
You remember when the Lord Jesus went back to His hometown. This is in Matthew 13. It says that He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
He came to His hometown with His disciples, and it says that He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. How we restrict the Lord through our unbelief!
With us, brothers and sisters, it is not that we do not believe. But somehow, even in our believing, there is still an element of unbelief. That is our difficulty.
I believe this is our battle throughout our lives: “Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.” Without faith, we cannot please God.
The Lord several times used the phrase, “O you of little faith.” Once you take your eyes off the Lord Jesus, your faith is gone, because He is the source of faith.
If one thing is in view and everything else is in view, then faith is gone. Once the Lord is not before you, your sight is wrong. He is the source of faith; He is the power.
Then all you look for is temporal: what to eat, what to drink, all your needs, all your problems, all your anxieties, your survival. That is what worries most people.
I am not saying that we should not be careful about what we wear, eat, or drink. We should be careful. But worry causes these things to become our occupation.
As Christians, our occupation should be the Lord Himself, because He is the source of faith. Without Him, we have no faith. We cannot go on.
That is why, in Hebrews, we are told to fix our eyes upon Jesus. He is the Author and Finisher of faith. He initiated this way of faith, and He finished it. If we are in Him, He will see to it that we get through to the end.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
— Hebrews 12:2
When you come to the books of Timothy, there are some not-so-pleasant things that Paul had to say. In 1 Timothy, he says there were some who departed from the faith.
They departed from the faith because once they had the faith, but then removed themselves from it. There is a danger. Paul gives us a warning.
Later, in the same connection, Paul speaks of denying the faith. Brothers and sisters, we may have faith, but there is always a danger of departing from the faith that was once given to us. There is always the danger of denying the faith that was once so real to us.
There are pitfalls in the way of faith, because we like to see things happen. We like to touch things. We like to see something happen now.
In this country, as in the rest of the world, we are living at the bottom of feeling good. When you feel good, you say it is all faith. When you feel good, you say, “I am on the mountaintop. I am going on with the Lord.”
But feeling is very deceptive. At the end of 2 Timothy, Paul says that he had kept the faith.
Paul did not say, “I alone kept the faith.” Later, as you read the text, he includes everybody:
There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day;
and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
— 2 Timothy 4:8
If there is no faith, you will not look for His appearing. Faith is the only way we can be ready for His appearing, because faith is seeing God.
Honestly, if you are not living a life of faith, you do not want to see Him. Without faith, you cannot please Him. When you are living a life that is not pleasing to Him, you know there will be judgment.
Paul said, “I have kept the faith,” and now he knew there was a crown of righteousness waiting for him—not only for him, but for all those who love His appearing.
Faith is the entrance, faith is the way, and faith prepares us for His coming. Faith is the foundation, faith is the structure, and faith is also the capstone of Christian life.
Whenever the Lord Jesus discovered there was no faith, He sighed: “Faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?” When there was no faith, He could not do the things He wanted to do—the things for which He was sent down here to do.
But whenever there was genuine faith, immediately His word was released, His love was expressed, and His work was done.
For example, in the Gospel, you remember the paralytic whom they carried to the Lord. When they came, the place was packed. They did not know what to do, but they did not give up.
When people come and see the door shut, they often take that as an excuse to go home and do the things they wanted to do anyway. In some gatherings, if you do not get there on time, perhaps the door should be shut!
For those who really want to get in, they try to get in somehow. If they cannot get through the front door, they try the back door. But others see the door shut and say, “Well, I have a lot of things to do at home.” They turn their cars around and go home.
But these men carrying the paralytic did not give up. The place was crowded, and there was nowhere to get in, but they were persistent. That is faith.
Faith never gives up. Faith can overcome obstacles. Faith makes what is impossible possible.
So they went up to the rooftop and removed the tiles. The amazing thing is that they lowered that person right in front of the Lord Jesus—exactly where the Lord Jesus was.
Come to Him. Be before Him. Find your way to Him, one way or another. That is faith. Faith is not feeling; faith is coming because we want to be there.
In Taiwan, one brother saw me at several conferences. He saw me in Hong Kong, Singapore, and then in Taiwan. He said, “Brother Jose, you go to all these conferences. How do you know the Lord wants you to do that? How do you know the Lord wants you to be at those conferences?”
I said, “For me, it is very simple. Whenever I hear there is a gathering of God’s people where God will speak to His people, my prayer is, ‘Lord, I will be there unless You free me from going there.’”
I never pray, “Lord, do You want me to be there, or do You not want me to be there?” I say, “Lord, thank You that there is a gathering. I want to be there unless You say no to me. My first desire is to be there, unless You prevent me from going.”
That makes it easier for me, and it makes it easier for the Lord. Do you see what I mean? Whenever there is a gathering of God’s people, the first thing in my heart is, “Lord, I want to be there.” I believe God has something to say to His people, and I want to hear what He wants to say. I want to receive that blessing.
Once they lowered the paralytic before the Lord, the amazing thing was what the Lord said: “When He saw their faith.” He saw their faith.
Many of us think that how we feel is faith, and therefore we try to generate faith through emotion. But the Lord saw faith. When the Lord saw faith, He was free to say what He wanted to say, express His love, and do His work.
He spoke to that man and said:
Man, your sins are forgiven you.
That is very simple. He set him free from the bondage of sin, made him whole, and enabled him to pick up the bed on which he had lain for years and walk in public.
Whenever there is faith, no matter how small, the Lord says, “Here is My opportunity to say what I want to say and do what I want to do. These people believe Me.”
Later, we have another incident: the servant of the centurion. He must have been a good servant because he was loved by his master.
In those days, there was a relationship. Today, the relationship between supervisors, bosses, and employees has become so mechanical. You simply go to work. There is no real rapport, no real relationship.
But this servant of the centurion was different. This centurion, this officer, loved his servant very much. When he was sick unto death, the centurion called the Jewish elders to go to the Lord Jesus.
Those elders were diplomats. They knew how to say many nice things about this centurion: “He loves our nation. He built us a synagogue. If anybody is worthy of Your help, this person is worthy. You should go there and heal his servant.”
The Lord knows everything. We do not need to tell Him a lot of things. He knows it already.
Just before the Lord Jesus was about to go, the centurion sent his friends to Him. He said:
Lord, trouble not Thyself;
for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof.
For I also am a man set under authority,
having under myself soldiers:
and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth;
and to another, Come, and he cometh.
But say the word, and my servant shall be healed.
Do you remember the Lord’s reaction? He stood there and looked around. He was looking for faith, and He found it. What joy He had at that moment.
He said:
I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
When the Lord said “great faith,” it was great faith, because the Lord always tells the truth. And the servant was immediately healed.
You see the importance of faith. Thank God for the faith He has given, but sometimes we feel so feeble, do we not? Therefore, we need to cultivate and fight for that faith and keep it alive.
There is a definition of faith from F. B. Meyer. Let me share this with you. He said faith is the sixth sense.
Faith is the sixth sense. It makes us as sure of unseen and future things, which we know only through the divine Word, as we are of things which we can see and touch.
Faith is the sixth sense. It makes us as sure of unseen and future things, which we know only through the divine Word, as we are of the things which we can see and touch.
Faith is the certainty of God Himself. Is there anything more certain than God Himself?
Faith is the assurance of all those things we cannot see and hear. Brothers and sisters, by faith they become real. They become real.
That is why the Holy Spirit is making all those things real in us. The reality is already within. Faith is simply discovering what God has already placed in us.
In my Christian life, and in the few places I have been, the most exciting thing is to discover those who believe. They are called believers.
In the first part of the Book of Acts, we read of those who believed—those who were of the way of faith. We are called believers. Sometimes, in these last days, perhaps it is better for us to call ourselves believers rather than merely Christians.
This country is called a Christian country, and everybody is a Christian. But many who are called Christians are unbelievers because they do not have faith in the living God. We need to remind one another that we are those who have faith in God.
Faith is not based on feelings. Faith is based on God Himself, on God’s facts, on all that the Lord Jesus has already accomplished on the cross, and on what is already ours.
We are simply beginning to discover these things. Right here, in these few years of our lives, it is the most exciting time: together, as well as individually, discovering daily and weekly the riches that are ours in Christ.
When I discover Him by myself in my own home, I discover Him in a very limited way. When we come together, share, and worship together, we discover Him in a much, much greater way.
That is why the Taiwan conference was so exciting. I heard the tape of the brothers and sisters who came back, and you were all in tears, sharing what the Lord was doing over there and sharing your experiences. It was a wonderful discovery.
God is able to be God because of faith in Him. That is what I see.
As we walk in this way of faith, the Lord often asks, “O you of little faith,” or, “Where is your faith?”
If you are a person who thinks you have much faith, and the Lord says, “Where is your faith?” you may feel very bad. You may say, “Lord, I have faith in You. Why do You say I have no faith?”
There is a phrase we have been reading this month from Romans 1:17:
The righteous shall live by faith.
Paul uses the phrase, “from faith unto faith.” This morning somebody was praying this also: “from grace unto grace.” Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “from glory unto glory.”
If the Lord wants to move you from faith to faith, He has to come again and again and tell you, “O you of little faith.” If the Lord wants to move you from faith to faith, He comes again, catches you, and raises your faith to bring you to another level, a deeper place in Him.
We need to hear that. We do not want to hear those negative things, but the Lord uses these negative questions to bring us into positive faith.
We are all of little faith. You can thank God for that. We can hear Him say that because it means He is very close to us, or He is within us.
When He says, “O you of little faith,” we may say, “I am available to You. Take me as You say. Take me to the next level of faith.” That is what He is saying.
As we walk with the Lord, we will encounter again and again the Lord’s question concerning our little faith. But that question is not negative. It is very positive, bringing us to a higher level to discover more of Himself.
We hear Him saying, “I am making My faith available. The provision is here. Believe Me. All things are possible to those who believe.”
Whenever He finds faith, He has liberty to say what He wants to say, do what He wants to do, and be what He wants to be. That is faith. Faith is seeing Him.
Let us come down to some practical things through which we can help one another.
I always think of the brothers and sisters in Richmond as spiritually strong. You may not think so, but at least I think so. You are stronger than the gathering in my area, at least in my thinking.
When we come together, sometimes it is very difficult for us to really thank God and say, “Lord, we are here by faith.”
We meet every Sunday, and it becomes a habit. Sunday comes, and we are programmed automatically to come. We come simply because it is Sunday.
But if we are believers, and without faith we cannot please God, then whatever we do must be on the basis of believing Who He is. Because the Lord wants us to gather together, by faith we come. Then He can do what He wants to do in the gathering.
When we come, we need to believe. When we come for prayer, we have to believe in Him. When someone shares, when someone gives thanks, without faith we cannot appreciate it.
We need to be reminded that faith is the way to God—not only in our initial salvation, but in our subsequent individual and corporate life. It is all a life of faith.
When we come together, you sit here and feel like you are dead. But Peter says that when we come together, we are not dead; we are living stones.
You may have been very busy this week. Before you came, perhaps you had an argument with your wife. Then, on the way to the meeting, you drove too fast, beyond the speed limit. Something is wrong within, and you feel so weak, so empty, that you cannot even lift up your head.
But Peter says that when you come, you are not that. We are living stones. When we come, thank God, we are living stones.
You may feel like that in your feelings, but God’s fact is that you are a living stone. That is part of faith.
Whether a gathering is healthy or unhealthy depends upon our faith. We enter into this life initially by faith, and we maintain this life also by faith.
We are living stones, and we are being built into a spiritual house. Stones have to come together and relate to one another. We have to learn to relate.
Perhaps some brother says something that makes you a little uncomfortable, and you find it hard to relate. That is part of faith. You must overcome it.
God says that we are living stones. It is a fact. We believe it and thank Him, because He says we are living stones. We are indeed living stones.
You do not have to think about it. If you begin to think about it, you may doubt. Faith is not what you think; faith is taking God at His word and believing what He says you are.
Then we come to relate, and relating is also by faith. That brother’s prayer is not merely his prayer; it becomes my prayer. That brother’s thanksgiving is my thanksgiving. That brother’s song becomes my song, and I enter into it. That is relating.
The song he picks may be awkward sometimes. But the issue is not whether the external thing is right or wrong; it is the motive and intention of the heart.
The song may be wrong, but the heart is right. That is relating. It is not that everything is externally right; it is that you can enter into the heart. We need to exercise that.
Peter also says that we are a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. Now, the word holy scares people.
If you call someone a saint, they may say, “Okay, we are sinners saved by grace,” and they feel more comfortable. But when we say “holy priesthood,” that is a strong word.
Only God is holy. He alone is holy. There is no one like Him. Yet God says that we are the holy priesthood.
Do not think, analyze, or doubt. When God says what you are, that is what you are. When you believe what God says, you say, “Thank God, if You say that is what I am, then that is what I am.”
Then, by faith, you begin to function as a priest. You begin to minister on the basis of what God has done. It is not how we feel or how we analyze it; it is Who He is.
Then we can offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Can you imagine that you and I, poor sinners and nobodies, can offer sacrifices acceptable to the holy God?
On what basis can we offer sacrifices acceptable to God except through the Lord Jesus Christ? It is by faith.
God says we are living stones. Amen, we are living stones. We are His spiritual house, relating one to another. Amen, we are. We are holy priests. Amen, we are.
Because of faith, we can offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Without faith, it is not possible to please Him. Therefore, our offering is by faith.
In our gathering, we have Chinese brothers and sisters who came from Taiwan. During the last few years, when we meet, we use English—when we share, pray, and worship.
Some of those Chinese brothers and sisters love the Lord and come to pray every Thursday. But when it comes to opening their mouths and praising the Lord verbally, they are fearful. They say, “I may not use the right words. I may not do it the right way.”
They want to pray and praise the Lord, but because of the language, they do not want to try.
One day, I spoke to a brother who loves the Lord. I said, “Brother, when you pray and praise the Lord, I know you want to praise Him. I know the reason you hesitate is that you do not feel you have the language ability.”
I asked him, “Who are you saying those words to? Are you speaking from your heart, or are you speaking from your mind?”
If you speak from your mind, you have to figure out all the right words. But if you speak from your heart, what is in your heart? You are loving God.
The language we use in loving God is the language of the heart. Love is the language of the heart. Love is not the language of the mind, because the mind is very calculating.
I told this brother, “You should pray. You should trust the Lord to give you the ability to worship Him and praise Him with your broken English.”
The brother accepted my advice. Honestly, the first time he prayed in English—in his broken Chinese English—the whole gathering changed.
There was a new freshness in the meeting. The whole gathering was lifted up by that broken Chinese English, and we were all helped and ministered to.
So it is not the correctness of the external expression. It is the intent of your heart. Faith is not our feeling. You may not feel that your words are right, but somehow your spiritual sacrifice is acceptable in His sight.
What is acceptable to God is what counts. It is not the correctness of your words that counts; it is what is acceptable to Him.
We are able to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. What a privilege! Can you think that when we offer spiritual thanksgiving and praise, God is accepting it?
If someone accepts your offering the first time, what should you do? You should do it again. That should be your attitude. If He accepts even a feeble offering that comes from you, then you say, “Praise the Lord. I will offer again.”
One more thing: Revelation 1:5-6. Sometimes we come to the meeting with a little guilty conscience because of the week in the world.
We cannot help it. In this world, there is still very much that is earthly, and we are easily contaminated by the things of the world.
But it says:
Unto Him that loveth us,
and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom,
to be priests unto His God and Father.
— Revelation 1:5-6
He Who loves us—Christ Who loves us. In English, it is easier to understand, because loves is in the present tense, and washed or loosed is something that has been done.
The point is this: do not question God’s love. If you question God’s love, that is not faith. If you question love, you will not experience love.
But when you take love by faith, then you experience love. Experience comes after faith. There will be no experience before faith, but experience always comes after faith.
He loves us. There is no question. When we come to the Lord’s table in worship and look at the bread and the cup, how can we doubt His love?
When you see that cup, remember: we are washed. We are washed. He loved us, and our sins have been washed away in His own blood.
Then He says that He made us a kingdom and priests to His God and Father. Think of that. These are all God’s facts.
It is hard to embrace all these facts. I know we believe; we all believe. But in our believing, there is an element of unbelief, and therefore we need to overcome.
All we need is faith. We need to hear the Lord say, “To him who believes, all things are possible.” We have to say, “Lord, I believe; help me to overcome my unbelief.”
Immediately, we enter into the experience of all that is available to us.
Finally, these are just a few thoughts concerning faith.
Christ made us clean through His work on the cross. But in His glorification, in His ascension, He keeps us clean forever.
He died to make us clean. He lives forever to keep us clean. Do you believe that?
He died to make us one in Him, and He lives forever to keep us one. Can you believe that?
He died to make us kings and priests to His God. He lives forever to keep us alive—living in Him, serving Him from now unto the ages to come. Do we believe that?
That is our high calling. That is what He has done. That is why our Father is so wonderful, so great, and so complete.
We believe He died to make us clean, but do we believe that He lives to keep us clean? Do we?
We believe that He died to make us one. But do we believe that He lives forever to keep us one? Do we?
We believe that in His death we are made kings and priests. Do we believe that because He made us kings and priests, He also gives us the equipment—the life—to serve Him forever?
Brothers and sisters, it is a matter of faith. In everything we believe, there is an element of unbelief. That unbelief we must fight.
It is often in our feelings, and I believe it always comes from the accuser. But thank God, Colossians tells us that we are complete in Him.
Thank God for saying to us again and again, “O you of little faith.” That is simply His way of moving us and bringing us to a higher, deeper level of faith in Him.
Finally, brothers and sisters, faith in the end is seeing Him. Seeing Him, we become like Him. Whenever we are like Him, we are like Him in His life.
The Richmond conference is about to begin within a matter of months. I know you have promised to spend time praying. We need to pray, but we also need to pray believing.
I believe something inwardly in my spirit. I feel this coming conference is something very special. I do not know, brothers and sisters. I have been to all the conferences in Richmond, but somehow the Lord has laid a heavier burden in my spirit for this conference than ever before.
Somehow, I feel something is going to happen. The Lord is going to say something He has never said to us before. He is going to do a work He has not done before. There is something inwardly; I just feel it.
We need to pray, but we need to pray believing that what He intends to do for this conference, He will do. Because we believe, He can be what He wants to be to us, say what He wants to say, and do the work He wants to do.
For us to realize that, we must give Him every opportunity we can for Him to work, because He wants to work. Let us believe that He will and can. That is really the whole issue.
O Father, we are so thankful that You have deposited this faith in our hearts to believe.
Lord, forgive us of all the particles that we have in our lives that prevent us from fully trusting You and believing You.
We pray that You will help us to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus. He is the Initiator of our faith, and He is the Finisher of our faith.
In Him we began, and in Him we will surely finish—not because of who we are, but because of Who He is.
We thank You that our confidence is not in our flesh, but in the One Who has been raised from the dead and is alive forever. To Him be praise and honor and glory, in the Lord Jesus’ name. Amen.