Faith has a source. This source is not in the saints but in God. If the source of faith were in the saints, faith would be fragile. Who could have faith? Many children of God sadly sigh over their lack of great faith. Some lack not only great faith but even small faith. We often acknowledge that we have no faith. We wish for greater faith so that we can trust God and He can perform daily miracles for us. We wish for practical faith so that we can commit everything into the hand of God with ease and calmness. “If only we could have greater faith, everything would be fine.” This is our wish. “If only we could have faith like So-and-so, then everything would be all right.” This is our word of admiration. How often have we asked the Lord to increase our faith? But why do we still lack faith? Does faith only belong to a certain privileged class of saints? Is there truly no way for us to obtain greater faith? There is a way in the Lord. But only those who want faith can obtain it.
The cry of the saints today is for greater faith. But where does greater faith come from? The saints aspire to have greater faith in themselves. Is this a mistake? Yes, the mistake of saints is that they want to have greater faith in themselves. They seek faith from the wrong source. No wonder they never get it!
We all ask ourselves, “Do I have faith?” “Can I trust God regarding this matter?” “Is my faith sufficient?” The answers to these questions are always “No” and “I cannot”! What a great grief it is! We should not ask these questions. We are not the source of faith, so we cannot expect ourselves to have greater faith. The more we ask ourselves and search, seek, and look within ourselves, the more we feel we have no faith or very little faith! What is the reason for this? The reason is that we are not the source of faith. Since the source of faith is not within us, we cannot obtain faith if we turn within ourselves to search for it. Therefore, we must learn a lesson: we are not the source of faith. When we examine ourselves, we cannot see or feel that we have faith.
The Word of God tells us what the source of faith really is: “Faith...not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). This verse of the Bible is more than clear; faith is given to us by God. A similar word is found in Acts 3:16: “The faith which is through Him.” Therefore, we know that the source of faith is in God, not in us. This may seem very common, ordinary, and familiar to us. But there are not many who really understand the importance of the source of our faith. If we really understood that God is the source of our faith, we would never ask ourselves, “Do I have enough faith? Do I have faith?” These questions indicate that we still do not understand that God is the source of our faith, because if we did, we would not ask these questions.
God is the Giver of faith; God is the source of faith. Nevertheless, the fact that God is the source of faith does not mean merely that He gives faith to us. It means that men have faith or increase in faith through God because God is the source of their faith. In other words, men have faith or increase in faith because God possesses a nature that makes it easy for men to trust in Him.
What does this mean? It means that we do not have to ask, “Do we have faith? Is our faith sufficient?” These are not the most important questions. These questions will keep us in darkness and discouragement. We should ask, “Is God reliable? Is God honest? Is God trustworthy? Will God break His promises? Are God’s power and love real?” Because we always pay attention to ourselves, the more we search, the more we are unable to find our faith. If we pay attention to God, we will find that faith comes spontaneously. Faith does not originate in ourselves. No wonder faith cannot be found when we examine ourselves! Faith originates with God. The more we look at God, look to God, and meditate on God, the more we will have faith.
An illustration may help us understand this teaching. Once a few brothers came to talk with me about the issue of faith. They felt that they had too little faith. But I told them that it was not their faith that was too little, but their God. If they wanted to have greater faith, they needed to have a greater God. That day I told them that faith means committing ourselves and our things to someone else. Believing in God means committing ourselves and our things to God and trusting in Him to accomplish these things for us. I asked, “When you commit your things to somebody else, do you ask, ‘Do I have the faith to trust this person? Is my faith sufficient to trust him?’” You never ask these kinds of questions. Rather, you ask, “Can I trust him?” You do not ask, “Do I have faith in him?” Suppose you are an owner of a store, and you hire a manager and commit your business entirely to him. When you hired him, you did not ask, “Do I have faith in him? Is my faith too little? Do I have to increase my faith in him?” Instead, you asked yourself, “Can I trust him? Is he honest? Is he faithful? Is he reliable?” Since he was honest, trustworthy, and reliable, you spontaneously committed your entire business into his hand. You did not have to ask yourself if you had faith or if your faith was great or sufficient.
Similarly you should trust in God. You do not have to ask, “Do I have faith? Is my faith great and sufficient? How much more should my faith be increased?” All you have to ask is, “Is God honest? Is God faithful? Is God reliable? Will God regret His promise and break His word?” If God is honest, faithful, and reliable, and if He promises and will not repent, then you do not have to search and examine yourselves to see if you have faith. You will spontaneously commit yourselves and your things to the hand of God. This is faith. Faith is not something produced from within. It is a trust that arises out of the fact that the other party is honest, stable, trustworthy, and reliable. Therefore, what is lacking is not greater faith but a greater God.
Most of the time, we do not dare commit ourselves and our things to God under the pretext that our faith is too small. Actually, the reason we do not dare commit ourselves to God is neither the absence of our faith nor the smallness of our faith. Rather, we think that God is not reliable. If God is faithful, why do we not rely on Him? If God is trustworthy, why do we not put our trust in Him? If God is reliable, why do we not depend on Him? If God will not break His word, why do we not rely on Him according to His promise? We are afraid that our God is muddle-headed, unreliable, dishonest, and always breaking His promises. This is the reason we do not have faith. Now is the time for us to confess our sins. We know a bank is honest and reliable. This is why we deposit our money in it. We ask if the bank is trustworthy; we do not ask if we have faith in the bank. When a baby is in danger, his fear ceases and he is at peace when he just touches his father’s hand or mother’s face. He will not trust anyone else because they are not trustworthy to him. He trusts in his parents because they are trustworthy.
Faith is natural! It comes spontaneously and without reluctance because we put our trust only in those that we consider trustworthy. We do not need greater faith, we need to know the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God. If we realized that God was the source of our faith, we would no longer seek faith in ourselves. Instead, we would lift up our eyes to God and seek to know Him. When we realize that God is reliable, our faith will spontaneously grow. If we know that God is reliable, we will trust Him. If we consider God to be unreliable, we will not trust Him.
Our faith has a basis because it rests in God. We do not believe in ourselves but in God Himself. We must make a distinction: what we believe in is not our faith but God. The mistake of some believers is that they believe in their feelings of faith more than they believe in God. If they feel they have no faith, they do not trust in God or commit their things into God’s hand. If they feel they have faith, they boldly entrust their things to God. What is this? This is not believing in God. This is believing in their own faith! We should not pay much attention to this faith. We should not ask or search to see if we have faith, and we should not trust in God only when we have faith. We should ask whether or not God is reliable. If He is—and of course He is—then why do we not trust in Him? If we think, “I am not afraid now because I have faith,” then we are trusting in our own faith and not trusting in God. Likewise, if we say, “I cannot commit these things to God because I have no faith,” it does not mean that we do not believe in God. This only indicates that we doubt our own faith. We fail to trust in God not because He is untrustworthy but because we do not have faith. The problem is not with God. The problem is with man. It may be true that you do not have faith, but is God unreliable? If God is reliable, why do you not trust in Him? You only have to be concerned about God, not yourself. If God is trustworthy, then spontaneously you will trust in Him. Otherwise, even if you have faith, it is futile. Do not trust in your own faith; your faith is not trustworthy. Instead, trust in God. “For I know whom I have believed”; therefore, “I am persuaded that He is able to guard my deposit” (2 Tim. 1:12).
The Bible not only tells us that God is the source of our faith; it also tells us that the word of God is the source of our faith: “So faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Why do I first say that God is the source of our faith and then say that the word of God is the source of our faith? Here we see the wonder of God’s word. How do we know God? We know Him by the word He speaks. The word He speaks represents His heart’s desire. When we understand His word, we will realize what God has promised for us and what He does and does not want to do. Only through the Word of God—the Bible—can we know God’s promise. When we know His promise, we will trust in Him according to His promise and beseech Him through prayers. If we do not have the word of God, we will have nothing at all. “How then shall they call upon Him into whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe into Him of whom they have not heard?” (Rom. 10:14). If we do not have the promise of God, but mindlessly believe in Him, we will fall into a kind of superstition. Faith must be based on something. Mindlessly believing, without a basis, is superstition, and no one will receive anything from this kind of faith. If my father promises me something, I believe he will give it to me. This believing is solid because my faith is based on the promise of my father. If my father has not promised me anything, but I force myself to believe that he will give me something, then I am not believing but dreaming because I believe in something that is not factual but my own imagination. From this example, we can see the important relationship between faith and promise.
God’s promises are only recorded in God’s Word, the Bible. To know the promises of God, one must know the Word of God. Without the promises of God, our faith is not real faith. The promises are in the Word of God. “So faith comes...through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). We have said that we need to believe in God’s faithfulness, trustworthiness, and reliability. We have also said that if we know God, we will spontaneously have faith. This is related to God’s promises, that is, to His words. If God has not promised anything, how can we know that He is faithful? He must promise something before we can talk about His faithfulness.
What is faith? Faith is holding on to what God has said and praying for God’s work to be realized. Faith is believing that God will do what He has said. Faith is believing that God is faithful and that He will work out what He has said. Whether our faith is great or small is not the issue. The issue is: if God has promised something, will He lie and change? The only question we should ask is whether or not we believe that God is honest. This has nothing to do with our faith being great or small.
We know that God loves us. Therefore, we should have no doubt that He is for us. The Bible shows us at least two aspects concerning His promises: “What He [has] promised He [is] able also to do” (Rom. 4:21). God is powerful and His power fulfills His promises. Our God is not a weak and powerless God who cannot do what He says He will do. If this were so, what good would His promises be? All of His promises would be empty words. But God is not only powerful in promising something, He is also powerful in carrying out His promise. Whatever He has promised, He is able to carry it out. “He is able”—this is what the Bible tells us about His person. “For the Lord is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4). “God is able to make all grace abound unto you” (2 Cor. 9:8). “He is able to guard...” (2 Tim. 1:12). Abraham offered up Isaac because he knew that “God was able to raise men even from the dead...” (Heb. 11:19).
God is not only able to do what He has promised to do; He is also intent on doing it. Even if someone has the ability to carry them out but does not keep his words, the promises are vain. God is not only able; He is intent on carrying out His promises. “For He who has promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23). “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). God intends that all of His promises, every word and every sentence, be fulfilled in His children. Whatever He says, He will keep. Whatever He has promised, He will fulfill. Otherwise, His deity would be threatened. Since He cannot deny Himself, He must remain trustworthy whatever the circumstances. If His promises are vain words, we cannot entrust all things and ourselves to God. How can we still doubt if He has promised something, since He is faithful and will not break His words?
Therefore, brothers, please learn this lesson today. You are not the basis of faith. Never ask yourselves, “Do I have faith? Is my faith sufficient?” It is useless to ask such questions. The more you ask, the less faith you will have. Please ask God. What is God’s promise concerning this matter? Has His love towards you changed? Will He break His word of promise? Is He able to carry out His promises? Is He trustworthy? Is He reliable? When you consider more about God, you will not have to manufacture faith. Faith will come spontaneously. Remember, you are not trustworthy, and your faith is also not trustworthy. Only God is trustworthy.