Faith is to Believe that God is; we Deny the Self: No longer I but Christ who Lives

Faith is to believe that God is and we are not, for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is; without faith it is impossible to please God, for if we still are, then God cannot be everything to us.

Oh Lord, we love You! You are everything to us. We give ourselves to You. We take You as our life. Live in us. We don’t want to live in and by ourselves. We just want to live Christ. May You be everything to us in our daily life today! Amen!

We believers in Christ have this sixth sense, besides the five senses of our body; this is the sense of faith, which is our spirit of faith. If you want to eat something, you need to use your mouth.

If you want to listen to what others are saying, you need to use your ears with the faculty of hearing.

If you want to see what’s going on around you, you need to use your eyes, for only the eyes can see. Our five senses substantiate what is of the outside world and make it real to us to be subjective to us.

If we are sleeping, for example, our senses are not working, and we don’t realise what’s going on around us, nor can we enjoy or partake of what is around us.

But when our senses are exercised, when we are alert and ready, we can substantiate what is going on around us, what others do, what others say to us, etc.

Similarly, in the spiritual realm, there is a particular organ by means of which we can substantiate what is of God. It is not our mind; our mind can only know but it cannot taste what is of God.

It is not our feelings; our feelings can sense certain emotions, but they cannot grasp or touch God. It is not our eyes nor is it our touch or taste; God is in a different realm. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

If we want to know God, touch God, enjoy God, and contact God, we need to exercise the right organ; this is our spirit, and in particular, it is our spirit of faith.

When we believed into the Lord Jesus as a result of our hearing the gospel, we touched something of God, and Christ infused us with faith.

He came into us to be our believing ability. Now He is in us as the believing One, and we are one with Him in spirit.

We can believe simply because He is in us and He is our faith. We need to exercise our spirit of faith to substantiate what is of God, and also to speak what we enjoy and experience of Him! Amen!

Faith is to Believe that God is: He is Everything to us and We are Nothing!

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, for he who comes forward to God must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

God requires us only to believe; He wants us to believe that He is. God simply is; faith is to believe that God is. In Exodus 3:13-14 Jehovah told Moses that he should tell the people of Israel that He is, I am who I am. Wow!

Our God’s name is the verb to be; He simply is, and He is I am who I am. Only He is, He is the only One, and we are nothing!

In John 3:15-16 and 36 we are told that, if we don’t believe in Christ, we do not have life.

The real life, the divine life, the eternal life, can be ours only when we believe in Christ, that is, when we believe that God is. In the whole universe, God is, and we are not.

He is everything and He is in everything, and we are nothing. Actually, all these things that we see outwardly are not real; they are here today and tomorrow they are gone. Think about the things you had when you were a child; those things do not exist anymore.

Think about even the people you knew when you were younger; many of them are simply no more.

We read history and get to know so many things about our ancestors; these ones lived before us, some did great things and owned many things, but now they are no more.

Even the city we are in, the city we grow up in or move to, it is not real; in a few years it will be something different or it may be completely destroyed.

In the whole universe nothing is real except God. We are nothing. What we have is nothing. What we can do is nothing. Our city is nothing.

Everything else is nothing – only God is! We need to see and believe that God is: He is everything to us and we are nothing!

Without faith it is impossible to please God; without believing that God is, we cannot make God happy. When we hear the gospel, we realise that everything we knew and thought of previously is vanity, only God is.

Day by day as we come to the Lord’s word and enjoy Him, we believe that God is: He is the reality of everything we need, He is the reality of all the positive things, and He is everything to us.

On our side, however, we realise that we are not; what we think today is nothing, what we feel today is nothing, and even the sufferings we go through right now are just momentary – only God is! Faith is critical to us in our Christian life.

Without faith, we cannot make God happy. Without faith, we are meaningless, our existence is meaningless, and everything we are and do is in vain.

When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He said again and again that He is (John 8:58).

The Jews wanted to kill Him, for in saying this, the Lord implied that He is one with Jehovah God, the One who is the great I am.

To believe that God is, is to believe that He is everything and that we are nothing (Eccl. 1:2).

The Lord needs to shine on us and expose us to see how much we still think that we are, that we can do something, and that we can be something. Oh Lord!

We need to exercise our spirit of faith to believe that God is everything and that we are nothing.

To believe that God is implies that we are not; He must be the only One, the unique One, in everything; we, however, are nothing in everything (Heb. 11:5).

This was Enoch’s experience in the Old Testament; he walked with God so much that he was translated, that is, he believed that God is and he is not to the extent that God took him. He obtained the testimony that he was well pleasing to God, for he walked with God by faith.

Lord Jesus, we believe that God is and we are not. We come to You by faith to contact You and enjoy You as our everything. Amen, Lord, You are the, I am who I am. You simply are, and we are not. We exercise our spirit of faith today to come forward to God, believing that God is and that we are not. Hallelujah, God is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! Amen, Lord, unveil us to see in our daily experience that God is and that we are not! We come forward to You. We exercise our spirit to come forward to God, firmly believing that God is and that we are not! Hallelujah, God is the only One, the unique One in everything, and we are nothing in everything! Amen, Lord, we declare to the whole universe that today only God is and we are not! What we can do is nothing, what we are is nothing, and everything about us is nothing – only God is, and we believe that He is everything to us!

To Believe that God is, is to Deny our Self: No Longer I but Christ who Lives in me!

When we hear that God is and we are not, we may agree with this, but there may be a little uneasiness in us, for we may wonder what this means to us, and how come we are not.

We may be quite living, active, and present, and God may be quite absent and abstract in so many things in our daily life.

To say that God is and we are not may be a little drastic; what does it mean that God is and we are not: does it mean that we just don’t exist and He’s everything?

If we pray over this matter and consider this before the Lord, we realise that, as Paul testified in Galatians 2:20, we are crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us.

We are living, that’s true; but the life we live now in the flesh is in the faith of Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself up for us.

Who lives? It is no longer I; I don’t exist anymore, I was terminated, and I was crucified, and now Christ lives in us. Christ lives in us. Christ is.

Christ exists and we do not exist. May we exercise our spirit of faith and realise that God is and we are not; He is the only One and we are nothing.

We have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live – it is no longer I but Christ who lives in me! It is really deep to believe that God is.

To believe that God is implies that we are not; only He is, and we are not. When we’re about to do something, we need to believe that God is and we are not.

We may go shopping, and there may be a sale or something in the clearance section; in doing everything, we need to turn to the Lord and let Him live in us.

No longer I but Christ. Christ goes shopping with us, and He is the One doing the shopping.

When we speak to our spouse and they say something that would upset us, or when they pretend to not listen to us, we need to realise that we are not but Christ is.

We are finished; we are crucified with Christ, and now Christ lives in us and does everything in us.

When a sister is about to get married, she should not think that she’s the most beautiful person in the world; rather, she should believe that God is and she is not.

When we live our Christian life in the family life and the church life, even at work, we need to believe that God is and we are not.

To believe that God is, is to deny our self. In Luke 9:23 the Lord Jesus said, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself.

We believers in Christ are followers and imitators of the Lord Jesus, and we follow Him by denying ourselves.

To believe that God is, is to deny ourselves; when we deny ourselves, we come forward to God and believe that God is and we are not.

In the whole universe, He is, and we are not. The Lord Jesus was in essence saying to us, I am the great I am. I am the One who is.

You must believe that I am and you are not (see John 8:24, 28, 58). In the scheme of things, as far as determining value, this is really true. Apart from the Lord, we are nothing and we can do nothing.

We need to deny ourselves, pick up our own cross, and follow the Lord, for we are nothing and He is everything.

This is not to humble ourselves or demean ourselves, nor is it some sort of self-imposed humility or meekness. Rather, we see that God is and we are not.

God simply exists. He depends on nothing. We are created human beings, and we depend on God for everything.

Apart from God, we have no existence; therefore, we are nothing and God is everything. The more we realise this in our Christian life and church life, the more this will be a help to us.

Sadly, however, many people in the world, and even many Christians, mostly act and behave by believing that they themselves are.

What comes out of them is not Christ living in them but themselves; they believe that they themselves are, and Christ is there to help them be. Oh Lord!

It is rare to see a brother who shows in his attitude and expression that he does not believe that he is but only that God is.

A person who does not believe that he is but that God is, this one is the Lord’s overcomer. May we tell the Lord that we want to receive His mercy and grace to be one of His overcomers; these overcomers will close this age.

Like J. N. Darby once said, O the joy of having nothing and being nothing, seeing nothing but a living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but His interests down here.

The more we go on with the Lord, the more we should realise that we are nothing; we deny ourselves and believe that God is. We don’t look at others to compare ourselves with them. We do not look at our condition to see how good we are. We look away unto Jesus, for God is and we are not!

Lord Jesus, grant us Your mercy and Your grace that we may believe that God is and we are not. Amen, Lord, we love You and we want to follow You; we want to live the same way You lived. We deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow You. Amen, Lord, we are not, but You are. We are nothing, but You are everything. We realise that we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. Amen, Lord, the life that we now live in the flesh, we live in faith, the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us. We believe into You, Lord, and we believe that we are not. You are everything and we are nothing. O, what a joy to be nothing, have nothing, and see nothing but a living Christ in glory! What a joy to be careful for nothing but His interests down here! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to be Your overcomers today, those who believe that God is and they are not!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ray Mulligan on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” ch. 7, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 32, Looking Away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of Our Faith – day 5.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Old Testament believers give the call, / “Forward come, forward come!” / For complete perfection they depend on us / Going on! Going on! / We are at the consummation now / Of our God’s economy; / Better things we are experiencing. / Praise the Lord—reality! (Hymns #1207 stanza 3)
  – Look away from all the past—Hallelujah, / Look away from both the good and sin; / To the living One hold fast—Hallelujah, / Look away from everything to Him. / Look away into His face—Hallelujah, / He who’ll finish what He did begin. / O what grace to run the race—Hallelujah— / We obtain by looking off to Him! (Hymns #1206 stanzas 4-5)
  – Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! / The Christ who’s all within me lives. / With Him I have been crucified; / This glorious fact to me He gives. / Now it’s no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives. / Now it’s no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives. (Hymns #499 stanza 1)