Knowledge And Power of Faith


1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. (NASB)


Faith means seeking for God. Faith means reaching to God to grab the divine nature, or attributes that belong to Him, and making them ours. Therefore the goal of faith is God, the hope of faith is God, and the result of faith is God too. When we keep faith hoping for God and aiming for God, we will be rich with His attributes accomplished in ourselves.


It is said "faith, hope, love abide these three"; this means we who are limited can hope beyond our limit when we hope for the infinite God. Everything has its end, but our hope for God has no end since God as our aim is boundless. How can we accomplish this eternal hope? Through faith. Faith also has no bounds and continues eternally. What results through these boundless hope and unfailing faith? Love. The works of love are the Incarnation and all subsequent vicarious redemption thereby. Love furnished the remission, the justification, and the life and power of reconciliation. These are what love works out.


The remission of sin given as grace is accomplished when differences between God and His creation are corrected. The grace of justification means we move as God moves, eventually moving boundlessly as He moves boundlessly. We are justified when we move for His sake. The new life of reconciliation is manifested when we are connected to God to reveal His power which is full and infinite. The life of reconciliation means pure objectification, the justification means object's submission to the subject to become one and to move as one. The remission of sin means correcting what conflicts between God and the creation, making it straight. This is love. Faith without hope is like beating the air, and faith will have built wrong unless love results.


Faith means seeking for God, and participating in His divine nature so that we become like His image, become like Him, and become influenced by Him. Faith was given to us as a gift; faith was permitted and came to us through Jesus Christ our Mediator and through the merits of Jesus of one Person with divine-human nature.


Other religions are subjected to human hope, human power, and human endeavor, but in Christianity divine elements were permitted which are non-human beyond human boundary, which in turn brought forth unlimited hope, position, and works―this is the seed of faith. Faith is entirely from God as a gift. We can acknowledge this faith and we can find this faith. We can be connected to God's knowledge when we pour all our knowledge, and we can be connected to His power when we pour all our strength.


Dynamite explodes only when its fuse is ignited, and the ignited fuse will not be useful unless it is connected to the dynamite. God's goal is to give His boundlessness to us, the elect, to make us like God in wholeness, holiness, and purity; God purposed to make us His successor working on what He created, preserved, ruled, and filled; we are His church. Such great are we as His purpose.


We are to reign with Christ, or to reign through Christ. We are a royal priesthood that is connected to Jesus the King to execute the priestly ministry, and we are to be connected to Jesus the Prophet to execute the prophetic ministry. And we as the purpose of God are able to bear the duty and responsibility, and this is why we need our knowledge and strength which we have as possessions of our mind and body, respectively. Knowledge has no value when it stands by itself. When is it valuable and important? Human knowledge acquires power and value when connected to divine knowledge. Human power becomes valuable and needed when connected to infinite power of God.


"You have a little power, and kept My word, and have not denied My name"―'a little power' here is insignificant knowledge and power we have, such as they are, that can work in our mind and body what can be shaken by no creature, and this is valuable.


We can receive His knowledge and power when we 'keep His word,' and our least knowledge can acquire His infinite knowledge and our negligible power can bring His infinite power when we are faithful until death; then we will be given the crown of life. How do we with our knowledge receive the divine knowledge? We are told to 'buy from Him.' We pay what we have to buy to our possession what we do not have but others have. We should submit all of our knowledge to His knowledge; we should seek God's knowledge, having our knowledge yield to His knowledge; we should offer to God our knowledge completely.


In other words, we must not use our knowledge to resist God and to solve everything. Now that we have realized that our knowledge alone can work out death only, we must have our knowledge, be it much or little, used as a means to seek the knowledge of God, to receive the knowledge of God, and to be offered to Him wholly and used by Him. So when our knowledge ceases to be sovereign and comes to belong to God's knowledge, it becomes connected to the knowledge of God. As God has sovereignty over even a least thing, it is resisting God and ungodly to attempt to do anything with our own ability.


What do we need our knowledge for? It is not necessary but to be used to seek and receive God's knowledge; our knowledge works out death only unless it is used as such. Those who deem something can be accomplished through their strength are infringing on God's sovereignty, deviating from the path of the creation, and resisting God, claiming they are self-existent, sovereign, and creator―they are committing the sin of ungodliness. Our power we can possess is what the infinite power God has been permitted to us only through Jesus Christ the Mediator, and thus there is no other way to get this power unless we seek and meet it.


In our life in faith we should employ our power to find God's power and our knowledge to find God's knowledge. This path has been given to us as a privilege through Jesus our Mediator. Jesus told us to deny ourselves if we ever want to kill our inclination to try to do anything using our knowledge or power. He also told us to take up our cross and follow Him if we are to offer all of our knowledge and strength to receive His knowledge and power. The cross is the means of receiving Him.


There is nothing faith cannot do. All of God's omniscient and omnipotent attributes came into our human attributes and work indirectly through our attributes on all the creation, and this is what faith works.


"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for." Hopes are given in the Bible through the boundless inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We hope what is subject to our knowledge, but there are innumerous hopes that surpass our knowledge. We know what our knowledge permits us, but there are the infinite Being that also surpasses the extent of our knowledge. It is said here that it is through faith to acknowledge the infinite Being and to realize unbounded hopes.


It is faith that our knowledge is connected to God's knowledge and our power is connected to God's power. Faith begins when we try to have the connection made, and it is faith that this connection continues and moves eternally. Faith abides forever. Now the faith thus connected to God entitles us through our knowledge to acknowledge and receive God's knowledge, and through our power to deny our power and serve God's power, and we can possess God's infinitude. It is through faith that we can recognize God's boundlessness.


Consequence of faith is to be clothed in the image of God, to realize all hopes, and to know what we have not known. Man only knew about death and not about resurrection, but Abraham came to know about it when he had faith.


Faith is extremely precious, and its inner elements are knowledge and power. Infinite knowledge of God is connected to us through Jesus Christ. We have been given 'a spirit of revelation' so that we now have the connection to His knowledge. We also have been given 'the surpassing greatness of His power' so that we now have the connection to His power. Our connection to the knowledge and power of God was established through the merit of vicarious redemption of Jesus, and this is called the gift of God, or faith.


'From faith to faith' means that His knowledge and power gradually fill us as our knowledge and power are connected to God's knowledge and power. Of course we need knowledge, much or little, but we need something more important. There is a significant difference in what is accomplished by a person with much knowledge and power compared with that by a person with less knowledge and power. When two people with different knowledge and power set out at the same time, the one with less knowledge and power cannot catch up with the one with more knowledge and power.


Whether we have much or little, all of His will be ours when we offer all of ours to seek His knowledge and power and to make ours compatible with His, and to make ours His. We are given either much or little, but what we are individually given is sufficient for everyone respectively. This is compared to the talents: two talents were different from five talents but two talents were enough to accomplish the servant's work. Human knowledge and capability can make a difference depending on individual quantity and quality, but they cannot be used to do anything but to seek divine knowledge and power. We can use human capability to seek divine power and offer it to God and make His power ours, which is expressed in the Bible as to 'buy from Him,' so that we may become one with Him, to exchange with Him, and to appeal to God, meaning the same.


Human knowledge is valuable when used to appeal to God. We become in bondage to knowledge because of our incomprehension of knowledge if we think we can do something with it; we carry more knowledge than we can manage. We regard our knowledge so great as to do something since we have not yet judged and comprehended it right. But when we have comprehended our knowledge, we will be able not to be its slave. When we have understood about our knowledge, recognized it, surpassed it, and taken it as possession, we will clearly know human knowledge is useful for nothing but only seeking divine knowledge, and is all death otherwise.


Men are too weak to appraise much knowledge and power, and are led astray to regard human knowledge and ability as some alternative to work on something. They do not know clearly about possibility or impossibility of human knowledge and capability to replace God's knowledge and power, hoping for and depending on human knowledge and power, and they fail. Human knowledge and power can work reverse effects, which is expressed as when the Lord said, "You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants."


There are so many kinds of faith, and we all live relying on our faith. To live relying on our faith means to rely on what is extrinsic. We have nothing our own when we are born, but thereafter we accumulate our knowledge which is in fact provided by others. We move affected by others, by humanity, by history, by culture, which means we live influenced by a sort of faith which is to die and corrupt and which is harmful.


Faith is largely of two sorts. One is formed by God's knowledge and power, and the other by human knowledge and creature's power. No other but the two. Two ingredients of faith are knowledge and power. We have many kinds of faith, and if we move according to human knowledge and creature's power, we will come to move according to faith that is dead and so harmful as to kill us.


What is knowledge? We delight, despair, joy, and anguish according to our knowledge, and we appraise and judge all according to our knowledge. What does it mean that knowledge is an element of faith? Two persons at one place and at the same time over an event may feel differently: a young man indulging in a prostitute is enjoying his life, but his parents are in grief. They differ because their knowledges―desires, appraisals, and interests are contradictory to each other. Their differences arise from their differences in knowledge.


Faith is invaluable, and faith is of two kinds. One is extremely precious and the other is extremely harmful, exactly opposite to each other. Why do they differ? They differ because they are built on different grounds. Faith is established on knowledge and power, and one faith is on human knowledge and creature's power and the other on divine knowledge and power.


How do we discern faith? The more measures to assay faith, the more correct judgments, and the less measures, the less correct appraisals. In general correct judgment results when inner elements of faith are examined. In case this fails, the direction of faith should be investigated, since faith appeals to God, and what faith desires should be investigated.


A disease can be more correctly diagnosed by more measures, instruments, experiences, and statistics, rather that just one. Faith should be evaluated through various ways since right faith is invaluable but wrong faith is extremely pernicious. Men regard only what appears great, but we ought to discern faith from faith. It is in the same context that is said, "what is seen was not made out of things which are visible"


In case a correct assessment of faith cannot be made, examine what the faith has brought forth. Faith is right if it brings forth love. Faith is wrong if it bears no love even though its other aspects are acceptable. What does it mean that faith bears love? That faith works the remission of sin, the justification, and the new life; it accomplishes God's purpose; and it becomes praises of His glory.


Faith is precious, and all men live since they each have faith. This valuable faith is of two sorts: one is greatly precious and the other is full of poison. Now faith being either quickening or killing, we must not crave for faith indiscreetly. The devil infuses the worthless faith into men, confusing and mingling faiths, "Faith is all the same. This faith and that faith are one of a kind." People are unaware where this highly subtle scheme of the devil is from, and they pay no attention to differentiating one from the other.


It is important to distinguish faith from faith, for our life or death hinges on it; we will not die when we choose to live, and we will not live when we choose to die. Life and death here do not mean temporary but eternal, and they are decided by faith we choose; therefore we must examine faith, elements of faith, aims of faith, desires of faith, and fruits of faith.


Can men have faith on their own? No; faith is what God gives us as a gift, without charge. Faith is given to us through the merits of Jesus. Now judge any faith we have. If we are to have faith, we should have God's knowledge which comprises a half of faith and God's extremely great power which comprises the other half of faith. What should we offer to obtain His knowledge? There is nothing we should do but offer all of our knowledge. When our knowledge claims we can do something on our own denying divine knowledge, our faith contains dead element, or knowledge of death.


Let us seek God's knowledge through our knowledge and God's power through our power. We obey God not because our obedience itself can do something but our obedience can bring God's power to us to work. Our power should be used to do nothing but bring God's power. Our knowledge and power―physical strength as well as other capability we have―should be employed to work so as to seek God's knowledge and power, otherwise they only kill ourselves and others. "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much." We are faithful when our knowledge seeks God's knowledge and our power seeks God's power, so when we find His knowledge and power, we serve Him our King, Master, and we become His slaves. This is how we come into Christ.


We cannot do a big thing immediately, and we should work in 'a very little thing' as we will come to work great things. Segments of our reality we are in are tiny bits in our entire life, and ability, value, and weight of every individual are 'a little thing.' But do not let our knowledge play a role of denying God's knowledge, but let it play a role of receiving it. Our knowledge is supposed to seek God's knowledge only and receive it in our reality so that God's knowledge may reign in our reality; our ability is supposed to seek God's power only so that His power may rule in our reality; then we have become faithful.


Faithfulness presupposes an object person to be faithful to. Faithfulness also presupposes rewards. We are faithful when we maintain the covenanted relationship and deeds which are not conflicting nor betraying but satisfying requirements in the contract relationship. We are given the covenant: we can accomplish extremely great things if and only if we are faithful to Him.


To be in faith is to follow and obey God; we cannot follow God Himself, but we can follow His attributes and His works. We have been regenerate through His living; it is our power that God lives. We have been born again through 'the living and enduring word of God.' The word came out of God when God worked. God's works came out as the word which has spread to the creation as the truth, and we have been connected to the works of God and to His Being to become regenerate.


A definition of regeneration is more urgently needed in this last age than all degrees in systematic theology. We should take everything by faith; we should know, accept, release, and work on everything by faith. To work on something by faith means to work it on through the knowledge and power of God; we should not know about it through our knowledge, nor should we let our knowledge decide how it should be worked on. Even a least thing should be handled by God's knowledge, not by our knowledge. When we meet a least thing, we should not say we can handle it. The only thing we should do on the least thing is to start to work it on, then the extremely great power of God accomplishes it. Whatever belongs to life, however least it may be, is what God has done. Whatever belongs to death, whether it is great or small, is not what God has done.


Nothing that the power of God has not done can go to the kingdom of heaven, and nothing that the knowledge of God has not done can go to the kingdom of heaven, since nothing that God's knowledge and power do not do can pass His judgment. 'Gold, silver, and precious stones' mean what is done by faith. By faith Moses has judgment even on a least thing, and he came to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter―he had a right view on authority. 'Son of Pharaoh's daughter' could command high authority in Egypt then, but by faith he abandoned it. He could abandon it when he viewed the secular authority through the knowledge of God. The authority Moses could have assumed was a power of creature, and he gave it in exchange for divine power, which enabled him to give up the Egyptian authority.


Let us learn from Moses' refusal to be called the son Pharaoh's daughter. It is a least thing to conduct however morally high in men's view, to influence and serve others however much; what if a bitter root inside should work to make us an adversary to God? So what is the point? We should do anything by faith. Moses judged and viewed authority through God's knowledge to reach a right appraisal. He judged and viewed all delights called happiness in the world through God's knowledge to conclude right assessment.


Nowadays men do not judge human joy and secular authority in terms of the knowledge of God, and their resulting judgments are all opposite to right views. We should view creature's power as such and God's power as such. The power of creature is precious, only when it is used to seek the power of God; human power turns into killing poison when it works alone without divine power.


Why did Moses give up his fortunes of Egypt in exchange for afflictions? He did it by faith. The knowledge God caused him to do it. He judged and appraised by God's knowledge instead of human knowledge, and he took as his power the power of God instead of the power of creature, and he offered what he had and chose what God had. This is faith, where power springs out.


Let everyone pray on their own and be dismissed. Let us not be absurd. It is our wisdom to judge and appraise every reality of ours employing God's knowledge, and there is no other way to live. All the others are worthless. Whoever works with help from any creation, however powerful it may be, is pitiable and miserable, and deceived greatly. Any human power is useful only when used to find the power of God, but worthless otherwise. Knowledge and ability we the saints have should be used only to find and meet knowledge and power of God, no other purpose whatsoever, or they will prove worthless and conclude in death.


We are told to buy eye salve from Jesus to anoint our eyes so that we may see; we will judge and appraise all beings right, and we will assess and evaluate all things right. What can we comprehend, leaving God's knowledge and employing human knowledge? Is there anything worth listening to what man says? You are foolish. We will see no works of life unless we have changed our views on knowledge and power.


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