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“When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”—Luke 18:8b:
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Literally, the Greek words rendered “faith” mean “the faith”; this denotes the persistent faith for our persistent prayer, like that of the widow.
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The faith through which we were saved is the initial stage of faith; the faith that brought us into a life union with Christ is the linking faith— the faith that comes into us through our contacting the Triune God continually so that we may live by the Son of God—Rom. 1:17; Gal. 2:20; John 14:19.
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The linking faith is the divine requirement for the overcomers to meet Christ in His triumphant return—Luke 18:8b:
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Linking faith is the Triune God moving in us to link us to His unsearchable riches—Eph. 3:8.
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Linking faith is the faith of the believers who have no trust in themselves; rather, their trust is in God—2 Cor. 1:9.
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When the Lord Jesus returns, He will find a number of overcomers who are living by the linking faith and will regard them as treasures for His kingdom in the thousand years of His reign—Luke 18:8b; Rev. 20:4, 6.
Morning Nourishment
Luke 18:8 …When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?Rom. 1:17 …“But the righteous shall have life and live by faith.”
Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God…
When we were sinners, one day under God's sovereignty we heard the preaching of the gospel, that is, the word of Christ. Through that hearing of the word, faith came into us. This faith brought us into a life union with Christ. This union is a kind of linking.
Right after we have received Christ into us as our Savior and life by being attracted by Him, the divine grace, which is the consummated Triune God, begins to abound in us. The first issue of the abounding of the divine grace is the linking faith, which is the living God moving in us to link us to all His unsearchable riches. This linking faith is the measure according to which God dispenses into us His superabounding grace to meet our need (Rom. 12:3). Such a faith is the indicator of the living of the Christ-pursuing God-man, which is the real expression of the consummated God in Christ as His embodiment for the building up of the organic Body of Christ to be the organism of the consummated Triune God. So, such a faith constitutes the overcomers for the satisfaction of Christ's desire. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, "Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans," pp. 307, 324)
Today's Reading
The linking faith is the divine requirement for the overcomers to meet Christ in His triumphant return. This is based upon Luke 18:8, where the Lord said, "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Today the entire world is unbelieving. Where is faith today among not only the Gentiles, the pagans, but also among the Jews, the Catholics, the Protestants, and the Pentecostal people? If the Lord came today, where could He find faith? Nearly no one on this earth is believing. But by His mercy, in the past years, through Brother Nee's leadership, we have been brought into a situation of learning not to trust in ourselves for anything, but to believe that our God is everything.I hope that when the Lord comes back He can find you and me as the believing ones, who always trust in Him, not in ourselves, and who always have no assurance in ourselves. Our full assurance is in Him. This is the linking faith. This faith qualifies the overcomers. It is the divine requirement for you and me as the overcomers to meet Christ in His triumphant return.
People may say concerning us, "They can do nothing. They only say, 'O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah.' When they come together they say, 'Lord Jesus, I love You. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Amen.' This is all that they can do." This is because we are only for Christ Himself. We are not for big miracles, big works, or big careers. When the Lord comes back, He is expecting to find such people. Christ expects to find, at His coming back, the ones who live by the linking faith. Christ expects to find us as His hidden overcomers.
We are now making ourselves ready for that day. To make ourselves ready is to become an overcomer, who is always linked by the living faith with the Triune God. Every day, morning and evening, you have to say, "Lord, I praise You that from morning to evening, I am linked to You. There is a living faith that links me with You so that I live You, walk with You, and live with You. I am one with You, just as You are one with me." This is the qualification for you to be an overcomer, to meet Christ at His coming back. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, "Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans," pp. 322-324)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, "Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans," chs. 10-11