Every day we need to exercise faith to live with the Lord, and overcome Satan’s disturbances. Satan uses all means to stop you from going to the Lord, praying to Him, drawing near to Him, and experiencing Him. Even when you are drawing near to God, Satan is trying to disturb you. He disturbs you in order to disconnect your lifeline. This is the key battleground in the spiritual war. When we look at church history, we see that only those who came before God and prayed were able to bring forth revivals. Only when they were able to overcome Satan’s attacks were they raised up and close to God.
The Lord’s words on the night before His crucifixion were incredibly precious. He opened up His heart and personally explained the new covenant perfectly, which has immeasurable depth. However, no matter how glorious the new covenant is, without the key, we won’t be able to fully experience it. Yes, we might be able to enjoy being saved, but without the key, we would not be able to fully enjoy the blessings of the forgiveness of our sins, and can still be easily swayed and accused by Satan, and have shadows. The new covenant belongs to you, along with all its blessings. But we won’t be able to enjoy it deeply if we lack being heart to heart with the Lord.
The Lord said that He is the true vine and we are the branches. We are already united with Him. We were once wild olive shoots, but now we have been grafted in. As said in Romans, we can be nourished and bear much fruit. This is the key. Without this, we won’t be able to enjoy the Lord and the blessings of the new covenant, even though it belongs to us.
I hope that you can enter into the essence of John chapter 15 so that you can truly live in the Lord, and then the Lord in you. We know that the Lord is already in us; why does it say, “Abide in Me”? It means more than the Lord being there in us, but He does His work in us and provides for us. When we abide in Him, we are heart to heart with Him, free of all disturbances. We have a part in Him.
John chapter 13 tells us that we are clean. For those who truly believe in the Lord, their sins have been forgiven. They have been born again, having the indwelling of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, while walking our life journey on earth, our feet can get dirty. Satan tempts us and wants us to stumble, sin and leave the Lord. However, the Lord would never leave us because He yearns for us and desires for us. If we do not enjoy Him, the problem would be with us. The Lord said that He is the true vine and we are the branches. As we abide in Him, we will enjoy His provision, just like the branches staying on the vine. Satan tempts us and lures us away from God, starting with our minds. God gives us freedom, but Satan wants to affect our heart, starting with our minds.
Faith is necessary for all things on earth. For example, without faith, you cannot come to the meeting place today. Who came here by public transportation? You have already used faith without knowing it. When you boarded the bus, how did you know for sure that the bus driver was not going to kidnap you? Or to drive you to a dangerous place? Faith is needed for something as simple as sitting on a chair. If you knew you would fall once you sat on that chair, you would not sit on it. Did you eat something today? You also exercised faith and believed that the food you were about to eat would be tasty and helpful to your body. Who would eat food that was harmful and tasted bad? We also had faith in the cook, especially during the pandemic. In fact, without faith, we cannot live. Think about it. Going home tonight, you have faith that your family will not hurt you because you trust them. This is exercising faith. Who will sleep tonight? Sleeping also requires faith. There are other family members at home, whom you believe will not harm you while you’re sleeping. If you think they are going to hurt you, you won’t sleep, because you will be in fear. Without faith, you would worry about being struck by falling objects when you walk on the street. It could be very dangerous because Hong Kong has many high rises. Nonetheless, you believe that people will not throw things out of the windows intentionally. When you consider all these situations, you know that we cannot live our lives without faith. And this kind of faith is what people of this world generally have.
In order to enjoy God, we need to exercise faith too. The Bible is God’s word, which tells us to “count on” and “believe in”, but we ought to know in whom we are to place this trust. In whom does the Bible tell us to believe? We need to trust in God. If you have no faith, heaven will not be heaven to you. We cannot live our lives without faith on earth. Similarly, if you do not trust in God and in brothers and sisters, will you be eager to go to heaven? Will heaven still be home sweet home? How can we love one another? If you don’t trust in God, you will not be able to enjoy what God gives you, nor would you be able to get His help. He wants to help you, and He even died for you. But if you do not accept Him, you cannot enjoy any blessings. If you don’t trust in Him, you cannot enjoy Him. It’s that simple: if you don’t have faith in a certain thing, you won’t be able to enjoy it.
God is the most trustworthy. It makes no sense if you trust in other things but not God. There is so much evidence about Him. Since I believed in Him, I have experienced a lot of grace from God. How long have you believed in the Lord? If you don’t believe in Him, how could you have changed and become who you are? Where could you find peace, rest and joy? Where could you gain strength, life and changes from within? If you lived your life as a non-believer, putting no trust in God but only on material things, how can you enjoy Him? Trusting in God is the most real and important action, now through eternity. Paul said that he looked to the things that are unseen. It doesn’t mean that he did not care about the things on earth. His life on earth was very glorious. But he looked to things that are unseen, because God is very precious and absolutely real. All of us are witnesses. Let’s consider: who changed you after you believed in God? Who has been taking care of you till today? If you remained a non-believer, could you have such changes in life? Absolutely not! And you would have no hope in this world, no hope in eternity. Without God, you would have no hope. Satan’s scheme is to lure you away from God so that you cannot enjoy the blessings that belong to you.
What the Bible tells us is absolutely the truth. It emphasizes on faith, and when you believe, you are saved. God has done a lot for you. Not believing in Him means rejecting Him. Then, how can you enjoy Him? Impossible! It’s so precious that He came to seek us. We are so blessed! We have been enjoying this material world, and now we know how to enjoy it even more, because He has taught us how to best use the material things. We appreciate His creation more, and know how to use the resources that He provides for us better. Furthermore, we have entered into His unsearchable riches. Also, there is eternity. He is the eternal Lord!