It is an unhappy thing to be dependent upon another’s faith. In a measure, we are all dependent upon others, but in this vital issue of life, no believer should be dependent upon another’s ability to approach the throne.
We cannot afford to trust others with vital issues that we ourselves should be able to face.
Faith is measured by our appreciation of our position in the Father’s family.
When we know our place as a child, know our rights, know our righteousness, our ability to stand in the Father’s presence without the sense of guilt or inferiority, when we know that we have as good a standing before the Father as Jesus had in His earth walk, then the problem of faith is settled.
First Corinthians 1:30 should be a prominent Scripture in our daily walk: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
We need a consciousness of both righteousness and wisdom.
We need to know He is now our righteousness, and that 2 Corinthians 5:21—“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”—has become a reality.
You see, we have absolutely become, by the new birth, by our being partakers of the divine nature, the very righteousness of God in Christ.
That is not philosophy nor theology; it is a fact.
Just as hunger and thirst are facts, our righteousness and our standing before the Father is a definite, clear-cut reality.
Jesus was made unto us wisdom at the same time He was made unto us righteousness.
We desperately need wisdom to use our righteousness and to use the ability that has been given to us in Christ.
Ephesians 4:7 states a fact that has been ignored by the average believer: “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”
Grace means ability. Grace means everything that we need in this earth walk.
But we have lacked the wisdom to utilize our abilities, to take advantage of our position in Christ.
Now Jesus is made unto us wisdom.
Every believer ought to know that, just as they know they have an umbrella or a raincoat during the rainy season, and before they start out, they put on their rubber galoshes, don their raincoats, and take their umbrella and go to the office.
When you go out in the morning to face life’s hard problems, you should remember these facts:
You have His wisdom now to meet every need of today.
You have to meet a number of people. Some of them are going to be very difficult, but you have His wisdom and His ability to make the contacts and go through the business successfully.
You have wisdom superior to theirs. They have nothing but material, human wisdom. You have His wisdom.
He has been made unto you wisdom.
Not only that, but you are His righteousness.
That gives you access to the throne at any time.
You can stand in His presence just as Jesus did in His earth walk, because Jesus is your righteousness.
There can be no event so great but what His wisdom and His righteousness will enable you to meet it successfully.
You see, when you become the righteousness of God, that really makes you a master of circumstances.
That lets you into the inner circle.
That gives you the advantage of the Father’s wisdom and ability to put you over.
Satan cannot cope with the man who knows he is the righteousness of God in Christ, who knows that Jesus has been made unto him wisdom.
That man is a Master man.
You see, that leads you into the superman realm.
Take account of stock for a moment.
You have God’s very nature in you.
The old life that kept you in bondage has stopped being.
The old self that was dominated by circumstances and by Satan has stopped being, and a new self, a dominant self, a righteous self, a God-filled self, has taken its place.
You now have a legal right to the use of Jesus’s name.
Before the Master ascended, you remember He said in Matthew 28:18: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
That authority is for the members of the body.
Jesus doesn’t need it.
He and the Father are one, so all that the Father is, Jesus is. This authority was given to the church.
The ability to use that authority is given to us in the Holy Spirit.
We not only have this authority; but we have the great mighty Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwelling in us, and when He came into us, He brought all His ability, the ability that He exercised in the resurrection of the Master, the ability that He exercised in Christ. It is all in Him.
No wonder John said by the Spirit, in 1 John 4:4, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
You see, we are dominant people. We have the creative ability of God in us. There is no limit to where we can go.
It is not only these abilities, but there are other abilities that are ours.
Of his fulness have all we received. (John 1:16)
Perhaps among the most important assets that we have is the new kind of love.
Jesus brought it into the world.
When we are recreated, that new kind of love becomes our nature.
We become partakers of the divine nature, for the Father is love. When that love nature comes in, it brings an element into a man that makes him a master.
When a man loses his temper, the person who caused him to lose his temper is superior to him in some way.
He wouldn’t lose his temper if that person hadn’t outwitted him, “out-generaled” him in some way.
Love makes us impervious to these influences, makes us a master of them.
We rise up in God, that is, we rise up in love; we walk in love; we live in love, and that makes us masters of every person that does not walk in love.
The unpleasant things that he does or says, we know are said by an inferior.
Love never becomes irritated.
Love never loses its poise; never loses its temper.
It is master of itself, and that makes it master of every person outside of love.
This Jesus nature makes you a dominant personality, a master personality.
They can’t conquer you any more than they could conquer Christ. They may stone you; they may beat you; they may, because of numbers, take you captive, but you become their master the moment you become their captive. It is a strange fact, but it is true. His love nature makes you a master.
I want you to learn to believe in love.
I want you to learn to rest in it, to depend on it, to expect great things from it. You will not be disappointed.
You remember that passage, “Ye are of God, little children” (1 John 4:4). Then, in John 3:5–6, Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”
Then, He says another startling thing: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Well, then you do not belong to the old order of things. You belong to this new family, this new condition.
You are a partaker of the divine nature.
You are in the realm of life with God, and you reign as a king in this realm of life.
You are a master. What makes you a master? The very nature of the Father that has come into you.
This love gift has made you superior to everything surrounding you.
The forces that surround you emanate from the selfishness of natural man.
You now have the love nature of God. That makes you superior. You must learn to trust this. Think about what you are in Christ. Never think of your lack; think of the vast inheritance that is yours, for you know that He has given you the ability to enjoy all that belongs to you.
Let me give you Colossians 1:12:
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
You have the ability to enter into all the fullness of Christ.
John 1:16 means nothing unless you take advantage of it: “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.”
That was not said for angels nor for men during the millennium; that is for us now.
You have His fullness. It may be an undeveloped property in you. You may never have taken advantage of the riches of the glory of your inheritance in Christ.
You may have stayed in the babyhood realm where you are always struggling and trying to get something and to be something. You have passed that; you are something.
He has made you to be what you are in Christ.
You see, you were created in Christ.
Ephesians 2:10 ought to solve every problem of our spiritual conflict:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
There is no limit to your walk and to your ability.
The only limit is the limit you set, and just as soon as you take your hands off of this new creation and let it function and develop in Christ, you become at once an outstanding blessing to the world.
You have an unconscious fellowship with the Father and with Christ.
That fellowship is three-fold: it is with the brethren who walk in the light, and oh, what a heavenly thing that is; walking in fellowship with those whom you love and who love you and love our Lord.
Second, it is with Christ as Lord. First Corinthians 1:9: “Ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Third, you have fellowship with the Word. The Word becomes to us the very voice of the Master.
It speaks to you; it strengthens you; it comforts you.
You read a passage like this in Colossians 1:27:
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
You have the riches of His very ability in you.
Or take this one in Colossians 2:6–7:
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
You are in it; you are a part of it. It is yours.
You are not struggling for anything.
You have entered into your rest.
He has become your ability for every emergency.
There was a time when you struggled and prayed and groaned to be something.
But Colossians 3:1–2 is a photograph of yourself:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
And then He tells us Christ is our life.
We are absolutely one with Him.
He has become a part of us and we have become a part of Him.
We have learned what John 8:12 means: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Light means wisdom. It is the wisdom of this new kind of life. You have that new kind of life. You have His wisdom, and that wisdom gives you the ability to make the right choices, to do the right thing at the right time. Not only that, but it gives you the ability to enter into all the fullness and all the blessings, and all the riches of His redemptive work. You are outstanding immediately. You are not common.
Now you are reveling in 1 Corinthians 3:21, “for all things are your’s,” whether the revelation of them came to Paul or to Peter or to John, it doesn’t make any difference; they are all yours.
And then another strangely beautiful thing is, “And ye are Christ’s” (verse 23). You see, you belong to Him. He is yours and you are His.
Just as a husband owns the bride, He owns you and it is an ownership of love.
But that isn’t all. Second Corinthians 9:8 ought to thrill our hearts:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
You see, there is nothing narrow or lacking in the Father’s blessings. There is a wholesome fullness in His blessings.
He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Christ. There isn’t a need of yours that hasn’t been met.
The ability of the Father is at your disposal in every crisis of your life, and in your daily life, His love so enriches you that there is no wear and tear.
You just pass along on a smooth, easy road, carried by His grace, upheld by His love, but His very fullness of love and grace overshadow you.
You are rich. You are God’s cared for.
The reason I am writing this is to give you a photograph of what you are in Christ, so that you will rise up and take your place and enjoy the riches that belong to you, and that you will learn to give place to His ability in you.
You will learn to have confidence in the God who is in you.
You will learn to talk about Him as you talk about a strong man who is working for you, or you brag about a car that laughs at hills and mountains.
Why, greater is He that is in you than any mountain, any difficulty, and any combination of circumstances.
You are tied up with God.
God is on your side. He is fighting your battles.
All you have to do is just to act on His Word; walk in His Word. That is His will for you, and you will be amazed how sweet and beautiful life becomes.
You will learn another thing: the authority and power of the living Word in your lips.
You can say to sickness and disease, “In the name of Jesus, leave this body,” and that living Word in your lips will be obeyed by the author of sickness and disease.
His Word in your lips puts Him to work at once; gives Him an opportunity to demonstrate His ability to help man.
His Word in your lips will lead men and women to Christ; will break the power of Satan over the weak.
You will not need another man’s faith.
You have passed into the realm of the ones who are not begging for a free ride, but you are able to give a free ride to another.
You have become a dominant spirit rather than a hectored, broken, helpless one.
You have passed out of the realm of liability into God’s assets. You are becoming strong, and you are taking over the weaknesses of others.
You see that brother’s overload and you get under it.
You will have a joy that is unspeakable now and full of His glory.