Living By Faith In God

"The just shall live by faith." (1)

"Many do not exercise that faith which it is their privilege and duty to exercise, often waiting for that feeling which faith alone can bring. Feeling is not faith; the two are distinct. Faith is ours to exercise, but joyful feeling and the blessing are God's to give. The grace of God comes to us through the channel of living faith, and that faith it is our power to exercise.

"True faith lays hold of and claims the promised blessing before it is realized and felt. We must send up our petitions in faith within the second vail, and let our faith take hold of the promised blessing, and claim it as ours. We are then to believe that we receive the blessing, because our faith has hold of it, and according to the Word it is ours. 'Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.' (2) Here is faith, naked faith, to believe that we receive the blessing, even before we realize it... but many suppose... that they cannot have faith unless they feel the power of the Spirit. Such confound faith with the blessing that comes through faith. The very time to exercise faith is when we feel destitute of the Spirit. When thick clouds of darkness seem to hover over the mind, then is the time to let living faith pierce the darkness and scatter the clouds. True faith rests on the promises contained in the Word of God, and those only who obey that Word can claim its glorious promises.

"Should anyone dishonor God by imagining that He would not respond to the appeals of His children?.. The Holy Spirit, the representative of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All 'good things' are comprised in this. The Creator Himself can give us nothing greater, nothing better. When we beseech the Lord to pity us in our distress, and to guide us by His Holy Spirit, He will never turn away our prayer.

"The measure of the Holy Spirit we receive will be proportioned to the measure of our desire and the faith exercised for it... We can be assured that we shall receive the Holy Spirit if we individually try the experiment of testing God's word." (3)

1. Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17.
2. Mark 11:24.
3. God's Amazing Grace, p. 207.