Understanding Faith in the Age of Grace

By Brother Lawrence

Understanding Faith in the Age of Grace reveals what faith is and its source. The original Hebrew and Greek language are used in key words and phrases to help readers understand what was lost in the translation of the Bible. Faith develops in us as a progressive work. We must also know the true meaning of Grace. The Spirit of Grace provides the power to be obedient to the faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Grace. The fruit of both is transformation. It is complete and full. Faith is established by Grace. It is also accomplished and completed by Grace for those that yield to His power. Let us look "unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brother Lawrence
• Release date: Jul 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393206996

Book preview

Preface

We must understand our Lord’s view of what faith is. It comes as a seed and develops into an absolute trust in God alone. We must also understand and know true meaning of Grace. The Spirit of Grace provides the power to be obedient to the faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Grace. All Christians are to live in faith by the Grace of God.

The purpose of this book is to reveal what faith is and its source. Faith develops in us as a progressive work. The fruit of faith is transformation. It is complete and full. Faith is established by Grace. It is also accomplished and completed by Grace for those that yield to His power. Let us look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2).

All quoted scriptures are from the New King James Version unless noted otherwise.

Table of Contents

Preface

PART ONE – A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING

What is Faith? [Chapter One]

Trusting God makes faith real

Faith is a matter of trust

Faith in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ [Chapter Two]

Baptism in His name

A Name above every name

In His Name

Those affected by His Name

Man

The spiritual forces of darkness

Father God

What is Grace? [Chapter Three]

Providence

The New Covenant of Grace

Being in Christ

The Purpose of Grace

The Gift of His Son is everything

Understanding

The proper mindset

PART TWO - UNDERSTANDING THE ENEMY

The Enemy [Chapter Four]

The first heaven and earth

Corruption of Lucifer’s will

Corruption of the human will

The Exception

The self-indulgent nature (sin)

Devices of the Enemy [Chapter Five]

Do not be ignorant of the devil’s devices

Active and Passive Sin

The snare of passivity

The selfish passive heart

The self-confident heart

Rebuke from Our Lord Jesus Christ

PART THREE – UNDERSTANDING OUR SOUL

The Old Nature [Chapter Six]

He came that we might see

Living in our mind

Living by our emotions

Living by desires

Our will

The Divine Countermeasure [Chapter Seven]

Having Christ

Transformation

Understanding Thoughts [Chapter Eight]

Identifying the source

The attacks of the enemy

A servant-heart

Regaining ground

PART FOUR – THE LIGHT OF KNOWING

Knowing God and His Son [Chapter Nine]

A close personal knowledge

Textual knowledge of God’s Word

Knowing the Spirit of His Words

Spiritual discernment

Direct revelation

Indirect revelation

Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven

The importance of Spirit revealed knowledge

An important example of Spirit revealed knowledge

PART FIVE - THE NARROW PATH

The Way [Chapter Ten]

Do likewise

The Truth [Chapter Eleven]

The goal of knowing Truth

The path of knowing Truth

The Life [Chapter Twelve]

Our Lord is the Life

Experiencing the God-life

The works He created

Our Works [Chapter Thirteen]

The problem

Reward or Judgment

Works of the law

Works of faith

Life in the Spirit [Chapter Fourteen]

The works of our Lord Jesus Christ

Our walk

His Fruit

Keeping our awareness of the Spirit

The Law of the Spirit

Christ is our Life

We have everything in Christ

Learning to Stand in Our Lord Jesus Christ [Chapter Fifteen]

The adversary is spirit

Standing in our Lord Jesus

Endnotes

PART ONE – A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING

What is Faith? [Chapter One]

When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

- Luke 18:8, KJV.

In a parable to His disciples, our Lord Jesus spoke of a swift judgment that would occur upon His return. He ends the story by posing an important question. Upon His return, would He find faith upon the earth. The word faith in Luke 18:8 comes from the Greek word pistis pronounced pis’-tis. It means belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same.[1] Our Lord was telling His disciples that many have faith in themselves. It is a mis-directed faith.

Understanding faith is an important part of our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. If you ask believers to tell you what faith is, you will get several notions of what they believe faith is to them. Many believe that their ideas of faith are accepted by God. But this is not true. God only accepts one type of faith. The faith our Lord accepts is faith in Him alone. He also expects those that have faith in Him to yield and follow His teachings, and commandments. When faith only acknowledges the existence of God, there is no desire to follow or obey God. Unfortunately, many that proclaim a belief in God’s existence have more respect for man’s laws than for God’s laws.

To illustrate, most people acknowledge the existence of man’s laws. They may not agree with the law. But for the most part, they follow the laws of the land. This is because they not only believe in the existence of the laws, but the penalties of breaking the law. Believing in the law is not an excuse to break the law. No one charged with breaking the law defends himself by saying, I believe in the law. If they did, they would plead guilty and accept the consequences.

Many proclaimed believers do not follow Biblical truths. They do not follow our Lord’s teachings and commandments. This is because, God’s judgments are delayed. Many think that God will bow down and accept their notions of what they believe and do. But God does not bow down to anyone. He does not accept the logic and reasoning of men in judgment. There is no plea bargaining! His judgment may be delayed. But when it is given, it is final and the consequences are eternal. We must understand that faith without obedience is pretentious. Obedience without faith is only following rules to change our outward behavior. God requires both faith in Him and obedience to Him. Our obedience shows our faith and trust in Him.

Trusting God makes faith real

Now [faith] is the [substance] of things hoped for, the [evidence] of things not seen.

- Hebrews 11:1, KJV, [Emphasis added by Author].

The writer of Hebrews gives us an excellent definition of what faith is. The original Greek shows us an important definition of faith. It comes from the Greek word pistis pronounced pis’-tis. In context, it means the confident assurance of belief in the truth of God and His Word.[2]

It is the substance that establishes and proves things hoped for. The word substance comes from the Greek word hupostasis pronounced hoop-os’-tas-is. It means to establish and prove.[3] It proves that which is unseen to be real. Faith makes God’s Word real in our day-to-day experience.

Faith produces the evidence or unmistakable proof of things not seen. The word evidence comes from the Greek word elegchos pronounced el’-eng-khos. It means the proof or manifest evidence.[4] We are not to focus on the things which are seen, but on the things, which are unseen. The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

By illustration, our physical senses help us to perceive things of the physical world. Our physical senses bring them into our mind’s awareness. By doing so, we can understand and appreciate them. Here, we will use the sense of smell as an example. We can sense the aroma of fresh baked bread before we actual see the bread. Yet, smelling the aroma of bread does not cause our eyes to see the actual loaf of bread. We may visualize the bread in our mind’s eye. But we have not yet seen it as being real. If we lack the sense of smell, we can only know of the existence of the bread by physically seeing it. The reality of fresh baked bread is unaffected by our lack of smell. It still exists.

If we were to lose our sight, we cannot directly perceive what is before us. If we were to lack the ability to hear, we would not understand what is being said to us. Sight, sound, and smell are an important part of our innate nature. They help us to function in the natural realm of the physical world. Our physical senses of sight, sound, and smell give us the power to realize things of the physical realm. Our physical senses make the physical world real within our conscious awareness. Our physical senses help us to establish what is real in the physical realm.

But we cannot use our physical senses to prove faith. Our physical senses and our feelings do not establish and make real the substance of faith. It is difficult for a believer who follows their feelings to see this principle. We can have good feelings about our faith, but it does not establish it as being real. The good feelings we experience are only a consequence of our faith.

We cannot prove the things which are unseen by our natural senses. Nor do they become real because of our emotions. True faith is not an emotion that changes from one moment to the next. Yet, there is one power that can make real the things hoped for, the things of Christ, and that is faith. Faith is not temporal. It is not pretense. Faith is not believing in something that appeals to the intellect, ego, and will. It is not something that is dependent upon the self-life of our soul or flesh.

Faith makes the truth of God’s Word real to us. When we begin to agree with God’s Word and live by God’s Word, it becomes real in our consciousness. Faith is believing in the unseen eternal truths of God’s Word. It changes our focus and perceptions to establish and bring into existence the reality of God’s Word.[5] Faith helps us to receive what God has already done for us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith evidences to us the works of Christ: proving to us what is true (beyond doubt).

We are not only dealing with promises, but with facts. God reveals His promises to us so we can lay hold of them. God’s facts are facts, and they remain facts whether we believe them or not. If we do not believe God’s Word (e.g. our shared death with Christ) His Word still remains as real as ever. But His Word is powerless to those that do not have real faith. God’s Word doesn’t need our faith to make His Word real in Itself. But faith can make God’s Word real in our subjective experience.

Whatever contradicts the truth of God’s Word we are to cast down and regard as the devil's lie. We do so, not because it may not be in itself a very real fact to our senses and the mind of our soul. We do so because God’s Word declares a greater fact. It goes beyond what we can perceive with our mind and physical senses.[6]

We must believe God’s Word no matter how convincing Satan's arguments appear. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24). The devil is the father of lies.[7] He will use our physical senses and stir our soul to get us to agree with his logic by reasoning with us. He seeks to draw us into pretense through our emotions, and appeal to our intellect. He works to get us to agree with him and doubt God’s Word. We must not give place to the devil. The attack is straightforward to those given discernment from God’s Light. The devil always works to stir our mind, emotions, and desires to prevent us from trusting God’s Word.

We do not deny the realities of the flesh and the physical world. But we must understand that the devil's goal is to move us from our Spirit-revealed position in Christ. When we see our death and resurrection with Christ as fact, the devil will do his best to convince us that we have erred. God is Spirit, and we must learn to live in the spirit realm while living in a physical world.

We must choose! Will we believe the devil’s temporal deceptions or God's eternal truths? Are we going to be governed by the logic and reason of this world or by what God says? Whether we believe it or not, we have died with Christ. How can we be sure? Because Christ has died; and since One died for all, therefore all died. (2 Corinthians 5:14). Whether our experience proves it or seems to disprove it, the fact remains unchanged.

While we stand upon God’s Word as fact the devil cannot prevail against us. We must remember that his attack is always upon our assurance: what we reckon to be true. For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7). If unclean spirits can get us to doubt God’s Word, we have given them place in our minds. They will then work to establish strongholds in us. When we allow the Abiding Spirit to control our thought life, we remain unshaken in God's stated facts. This is living by the mind of Christ. God does not go back on His work or His Word. When we trust in the love of God, it does not matter what tactics the devil uses. We overcome the enemy by our trust and patience.

Peter walking across the water to Christ shows us we must always keep our focus upon Him. When we do, we do not sink into our surrounding circumstances. We walk above it.[8] As an illustration, I share with you an anonymous story, I read several years ago. Once upon a time, Truth, Belief, and Experience were all walking across a patch of ice formed across a deep creek. Truth was confident and kept his head looking straight ahead. He never looked to the right, or to the left, or back behind him. Belief followed behind Truth, and all went well as long as Belief kept his eyes focused upon Truth. Suddenly, Belief turned to look at Experience. When Belief's focus turned, he slipped and lost his balance. When he fell, both Belief and Experience fell into the creek’s rushing current. The purpose of temptation is to get us to look the wrong way. When our belief is based upon our experiences, we take our minds off our Lord Jesus Christ. We become distracted about what is going on around us.

The enemy always presents us with a wall of evidence that seems to contradict God’s Word. The wall is always full of tangible facts. It is full of experienced failures as well as conflicting feelings and suggestions. What will we believe? Either faith or the wall must go, they both cannot stand.

Many times, the wall stays, and faith goes. When we follow our intellect, feelings, and personal interests, all we find is the devil’s logic. They are often true enough to our experiences. But when we refuse to live by the devil’s logic that contradicts God’s Word, we will find the devil’s logic begins to fade. Faith in God becomes our new reality. As our faith progresses in God, our experiences begin to progress towards God's facts. We must always maintain our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ alone. The Abiding Spirit works to change our way of understanding and knowing when we trust God's facts. He works to transform our mindset into His Mindset.

As we progress in transformation, we see God's Word and Spirit as a real Person. His Abiding Presence gives us new Life that becomes real and concrete as our faith in His Word grows. Faith makes God's facts real. Faith always proves what is eternal and true. God’s facts will never be untrue. By faith, we receive and experience all the promises of God. Without true faith in the finished and ongoing work of our Lord, our obedience will always be lacking. We always falter when we trust in ourselves.

Faith is a matter of trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

– Proverbs 3:5-6.

The question of faith concerns whether we will pick up our cross and allow Him to direct our path. It is a matter of trusting in Him alone. For most Christians the tendency is to hold back on committing their entire lives to God. The reason frequently given is that we do not have enough faith. The truth of the matter is that we do not need more faith. We need to learn to trust God’s Word. We must understand, know, and rely upon the faithfulness of our God. When we doubt God’s Word, we do not trust Him.

It is not a matter of how much faith we have, but where the source of faith comes from. If we have faith in ourselves, we will never have enough faith. But if our faith comes from God and is in God alone, our faith will be sufficient.

Quite often, we stumble in our faith because we lack faith in God. But the problem is not God. It is man. God never breaks His Word. He is faithful in all things. Even though we may believe we need greater faith, God is still unchanging in His faithfulness to us. Faith holds onto what God has said and prays for God’s Will to be done. Faith is believing God will do what He has said He will do.

The question is not one of whether we have a little faith or a lot of faith. If our faith is from God, anything that God has promised, He will do for us. It is through our patience that we see His promises fulfilled. If we truly know God and His Son, we can rest in absolute assurance. He is more than able when we yield our lives to Him in absolute trust.

Faith in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ [Chapter Two]

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to [those who believe in His name: who were born], not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but [of God].

- John 1:12-13, [Emphasis added by Author]

Those born of God trust in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the name of Lord Jesus Christ to help us see and deliver us from the oppression and bondage of the devil. See Luke 4:18-19.

John tells us how we become reborn or regenerated. It is fact that not everyone who says they believe in His name receive Him because they are not born of God. Many misread the passage above and do not understand what is being said. Verse thirteen is describing those that have been born of God, as those that believe in His name. The verse states, "those who believe in His name’ [were born... of God]." It does not say that those that believe in His name become born of God. Instead, what is being said is those that are born of God, believe in the Name of Lord Jesus Christ.

When we understand that faith comes from God, we better understand the purpose of grace. It also comes from God. Paul states, For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8, KJV). We must see that the source of our faith does not come from us. The source of faith comes from God. The word grace comes from the Greek word charis pronounced khar’-ece. It means the merciful kindness by which God exerts His holy influence upon us turning us to Christ.[9] Our Lord Jesus tells us, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father. (John 6:65). His Grace not only saves us; it is the source of our faith. It is the power that is to govern our spirit, soul, and body.

Faith from God comes before salvation. We receive faith from the Spirit of God. Our Lord Jesus states,

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will