In the Bible God demands faith of His children. Without faith we cannot please Him. All spiritual blessings and arrangements in our circumstances can only be received through faith. We marvel that God considers the faith of the believers so important. Without exception, all the aspects of God’s full salvation in the Bible are gained by faith. One thing we know: God hates man’s own works, whether they are those of a sinner or those of a saint. Anything from ourselves, anything done independently of God, and anything done according to one’s own intention by one’s own strength, is hateful to God. Many of these things may seem very good in man’s eyes, yet God hates them all. The Lord Jesus told us that there is only one who is good—God. In the Lord’s eyes, no one is good. Therefore, anything not according to the will of the good God or anything not done through the power of the good God is not good; it is sin. Nothing but God is good. For this reason, every work outside the will and power of God is not good. Hence, all that a believer does must be of God and through God.
Here the matter of faith comes in. Faith has two basic principles: (1) stopping man’s own work and (2) waiting for God’s work. We commonly think that faith is believing, depending, and waiting for God’s work. But there is a step before this, that is, stopping man’s work. This stopping of one’s own work is the work of faith. Waiting for God to work is something that happens inside a believer and is not visible. But stopping one’s own work is something that is outwardly visible at times. The greatest accomplishment of faith is not that God works for the believer, but that the believer stops his own work.
The importance of this step cannot be overemphasized. God has never allowed His own work to be mingled with the work of man’s flesh. He demands the believers to totally stop everything that is of the self, whether it be in intention or in ability. He likes to be trusted and entrusted by the believers. How is such a heart of trust in God expressed? It is expressed in an absolute stillness and quietness of the self. This is the first step of the work of faith. Does a man still tire himself with planning and working, after he has fully entrusted a work to his friend? If God is reliable and His power sufficient, does He still need our help? If we believe that God works for us, why are we still anxious? Is it because we are afraid that He will not do well? If so, we have not yet believed. Faith demands that we fully rest. This is a rest in which the heart is free from anxiety and the body free from labor. If there is still restlessness in our heart and body, whether it be anxiety or labor, it shows that we have no faith. The first principle of faith is to stop our own work. If we are still worried from looking at our poor self and our difficult environment, it means that we have never yet relied on God. If we still use our own ability, power, friends, connections, and tact to labor, it means we have not yet realized our uselessness; we have not yet completely committed matters into the hand of God. A life of faith is a life of giving up the self. Acts of faith are but acts of self-surrender. Faith requires us to give up our pettiness with its worries. It also requires us to give up our ability with its accompanying labor. Putting an absolute stop to our own work is the first expression of the work of faith.
It is interesting that this kind of faith does not come from the believer himself. Inasmuch as the faith at our initial salvation was given by God (Eph. 2:8), the faith in our daily life is also given by God. Nothing else is needed to prove how useless a believer can be in himself; we only need to look at the matter of faith in God. The believer himself does not even have faith; he has to receive it from God. All faith is given by God. This is what the apostle meant when he said that faith is one item of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Are we not many times very willing to believe in God and fully trust Him in our circumstances? We have heard other brothers telling us that we should exercise faith to believe in God. But no matter how hard we exercise, is it not true that we simply cannot believe? Many times we exert such an effort that it seems as if our hearts are almost bursting. Yet is it not true that this kind of faith produces no effect? We center our whole being on struggling with doubt, yet we still do not reach our goal. Such a situation is most painful. The most difficult time a believer has is when he is struggling with doubt.
This, however, is not faith. Faith cannot be invoked or generated by man, nor can it be brought forth from his heart. Faith is given by God. This faith controls the believer; the believer does not control this faith. Many times, we desire faith in order to achieve something, only to find that there is no way to obtain such faith. At other times, we ourselves have no intention of doing anything, yet God grants us faith and causes this faith to be expressed through our prayer, thus bringing forth the greatest achievement. God does not grant faith to satisfy our cravings. Our rightful position is death, as those who prostrate themselves in the dust. According to the will of God, the saints on the earth should live for His will and glory. It is wrong for a believer to decide, desire, or do anything out of himself. God wants us to be His vessel, but that requires us to die. Even in the matter of believing in God for the fulfillment of a certain work, God wants us to simply be a vessel. When He wants to accomplish something, He grants us the faith to petition in prayer for His work. Only then will He move to accomplish the work. Of course, this is a suffering to the flesh, because there is no possibility for its activity and no room for its craving. But since a true believer lives only for God and not for himself, he is happy and willing to simply be a dead instrument to accomplish the supreme will of God.
See what wisdom God has! If faith were ours, something that came from within us, it would be possible for us to direct our faith. In other words, if we wanted something carried out, all we would have to do is believe a little, and we would get God’s work done. But this is not the way faith works. Faith is given by God. Before God gives faith, there is no way for us to believe. Many of us have experienced that we often had no way to enter into rest because we could not produce faith. Then suddenly God would grant us faith. (Sometimes this comes through one or two verses; sometimes it comes after prayer, when a believer understands the will of God in his intuition.) When this happens, we are immediately assured, and our hearts are spontaneously calmed down. It seems that we have the assurance that God will definitely accomplish His work. There is no need for struggling. There is no need for anxiety. There is not even the need to worry about exercising. Assurance simply comes spontaneously without invitation. When God grants faith this way, the believer immediately has the work of faith, that is, rest without anxiety. Any other way is not faith and will never give rest.
At this point, we must clarify something. To say what we have said does not mean that we can now neglect everything and simply wait for the visitation of this faith. There are two kinds of faith: special faith and general faith. Special faith is a kind of faith granted by God for a special matter. It is a faith which believes that God will surely accomplish a certain matter for us. We do not have this kind of faith in every situation. General faith is the daily faith of an experienced believer toward God. This kind of faith is not directed towards any special matter, but it is directed towards all things. Such a believer believes that whatever God does can never be wrong. He believes that whether it be failure or success, God’s good pleasure is there. Although we do not always have special faith in everything that happens to us, we should have general faith. We must believe that our God does everything right and that everything is in His hand. He knows whether it is good for us to suffer or succeed. We should have this kind of general faith all the time. Even when special situations arise, we should not lose this kind of faith. But regardless of which kind of faith we have, faith should always have its manifestation in our conduct; there should always be rest for those who have faith; and there should also be no struggle and fleshly energy in trying to help God.