10.3 What Is Faith?
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Faith is the seed of the woman. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it (Hebrews 4:2).
The Word enters into Faith to bring forth Life. We engage in this faith by asking God to fulfill His word in us in all that God means and then to believe that we have already received all that we have asked. The primary line by which we respond to every Word God speaks is Mary’s: Let it be to me according to Your Word. For that aspect of faith, refer back to Symmorphy I: Purpose, Lesson 21.1 Let It Be.Connecting Faith
Faith is the receptor of Word in the DNA structure.
Consider the diagram. The vertical column of hexagons represents you and me in our human frame. The horizontal diamonds represent Christ Jesus as Word connecting us to the same quality in Father. The hexagon that is Faith is both part of the Word, the faith of the Son of God, and part of us, our human faith.
Jesus, remaining Himself and remaining part of the Father, also embeds Himself into us as part of us, Word released into us through Faith.
We Live by Faith
Notice in the diagram the continuous connections of Christ into us. We live by every Word God speaks. And we live by faith, not by performance. Yes, the actions of Christ proceed out from faith, out from our hearts. But works are by obligation – do this or die. If the doing does not arise from our own hearts, it cannot be of God. (I am not speaking of daily tasks or the mundane chores of employment, yet these things also are part of God and us together in all things setting creation free.)
Faith is the operation of symmorphy in our lives.
Outward “Proof”
Here is something we must understand. God will never appear to any part of His creation, including to us, as His own Person. If we saw some outward anything that we might call “God,” we would have descended in that instant into idolatry. ALL outward “proof” of God will always be coincidental only, something easily argued as being caused by anything else. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered (John 12:28-29).
God is forever invisible; we KNOW Him only by faith.
No Longer Faith?
Yet this invisible God is seen and known forever through us, His temple, His body. Therefore, forever, we will walk in symmorphy entirely by faith, by believing that we are the visible appearance of God through us BECAUSE God says.
One of the fundamental but unspoken beliefs of Christians is that dead Christians living in heaven-only no longer need faith. Why would they need faith if they see a separated God? This is why many immature believers now in heaven only try to worship angels, the angels sure look like their image of “God.” And when the angels refuse them, they wander around not knowing God because they do not believe His word.
The Flesh of a Man
The ONLY connection we will EVER have with God is Word coming from Father and connecting with us as part of us through Faith. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). - The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. – The second Man is the Lord from heaven (from 1 Corinthians 15:45-47).
These lines are in a category of verses that I have kept at arm’s length until now – because I knew that Jesus is and remains a human. Now I see that it is as a HUMAN that Jesus lives in and connects us to God – yet now this MAN is a life-giving Spirit. You and I are His Body, His flesh.
No Other Difference
Let’s refer back, now, to the opening line of this session. – The difference between the manifest sons of God walking this earth setting creation free and you and me right now is simple. They believe that what God says is true; we do not. –
There is NO other difference, none. They are not “better” persons; they do not perform “more perfect” obedience; they do not have some “in” with God, anymore than our IN. They are not stronger; they are not wiser; they do not look more the part; they are not from the “right” natural family. They simply believe the Word God speaks, that it IS true.
One Path Only
And these manifest sons of God setting creation free got to that level of faith by one path only – by speaking Christ their only life, by asking God to fulfill His Word in them and then believing that they have already received all fulfillment, and by giving thanks in and for all things, by speaking good grace into all circumstances and people they encounter.
Resurrection life is nothing more nor less than believing that what God says is true as Christ made personal inside of us. By believing that we ARE the appearance of God to creation as God desires. Symmorphy is always by faith. Walking in a perfect symmorphic relationship with God will always be by faith.
Lust for Death
In a TV show, the characters referred to the story of Moby Dick by Herman Melville in which Captain Ahab pursued the white whale to harpoon it, even though that pursuit cost him his life, his ship, and all men on board but one. The characters drew this conclusion, that we are always attacking the parts of ourselves that we hate.
This is the root of the Christian lust for death, wrongly termed “a desire for heaven.” Christians are convinced that only by getting rid of their physical bodies will they ever connect with God as they ought. More than that, they see the “power and glory” of heaven as the essence of God and entirely beyond their reach right now.
Turn Around
Everything about the Christian lust for death is so contrary to the clear teaching of the New Testament. Our connection with God is through Word, through faith in His Word, coming into us as Spirit and as Life – nothing else, ever.
What is it about themselves that humans (and Christians) hate? Being the likeness and image of God. Turn around.
Symmorphy is walking in the present moment KNOWING that God IS revealing Himself through our present appearance entirely as He wishes.
Resurrection Life
Walking in resurrection life IS giving thanks in and for all things, all things regarding ourselves and all things coming into our experience. But we discovered in Symmorphy I: Purpose that “giving thanks” is poorly translated. Yes, we “give thanks,” but much more than that, we, together with God, speak good grace into all things. This is what manifest sons of God DO.
The problem with performing miracles is that you are never better than your last miracle. “Oh, so you do miracles. Well, how about doing one for us!” Outward performance cannot reveal God.
A More Certain Faith
This is literally the way it works. Awhile back on Facebook, I posted the confession of faith, “I set creation free.” A minister of deeper truth, one who does see from afar the manifestation of the sons of God, one who considers himself God’s prophet for today, responded with mockery. Oh, so you are a manifest son of God? Well, come do some miracles over here.
Jesus’ ministry shows us that doing all miracles, even raising the dead, will not keep God’s people from crucifying any human who dares to walk as they are, God revealed. Setting creation free comes from a far deeper, a far more certain faith than the outward doing of miracles.
Speaking Good Grace
Manifest sons of God set creation free by speaking good grace into all things, utterly together with God. And they do so entirely by the simplicity of faith, by the simple honor given to God that He speaks the truth.
Speaking good grace into all things is the one performance we can practice and it will always bring forth life. We speak good grace inside our own hearts first; sometimes that is the hardest thing in the world; sometimes it requires laying down our lives for others. We speak good grace out loud with our voice box, though in the privacy of an inner chamber, as an acknowledgment of God and us together making all things good.
A God-Filled Heart
And at times, only when it is appropriate, we speak good grace into the ears of others. We are not compelled to do so because we are not religious, we do not pretend. When we speak good grace into the ears of others, it is always for their benefit, it always lifts them up.
And don’t be scared off by James’s assertion: You say to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? (James 2:16). Speaking good grace comes out of a God-filled heart, a heart that always provides what is needed as well.
As We Know
But speaking good grace begins first in our own hearts.
As we KNOW that we are utterly connected together with Father God as one person together, through every Word that is Jesus – As we KNOW that Father and us walk through all things together as one – As we KNOW that as we speak, Father IS speaking and as Father speaks, we ARE speaking – As we KNOW that every part of ourselves in the present moment IS the Father’s perfect choice of His revelation through us –
Then we just are. – The Father and we are one.