The secret of God and with God is faith. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, a favorite Scripture of mine, says it clearly, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God…“, and conversely, Jesus says in Mark 9:23 and 10:27, “with faith all things are possible“.

The word “without” in Heb 11:6, is translated from the Greek as “choris”. This Greek word carries the meaning, “apart from”, or “separate from”. The meaning and interpretation is obvious; separate and apart from faith, the believer is in the natural, and in the flesh, and as Paul, inspired by the Spirit says in Romans 8:8, “those who are in the flesh cannot please God“.

Faith was integral to covenant Israelites. God drew near a people through the calling of Abraham after the dispersion at Babel (Gen 11 & 12). And in Abraham, the seed of David, Jesus Christ, would eventually come. This Savior was key to the covenant. Covenant faithfulness was a given from God’s end. The Israelites struggled. Until Christ came in fulfilment of all the prophecies based upon God’s promise that One will come who will crush the head of the serpent, and though bitten on the heel, would bring God’s lost sheep back to the land of promise, ultimately pointing to God Himself as the paradise garden of fellowship through the Spirit, by faith.

Jesus Christ comes personally to us to give us His grace to overcome our adversities and trials of life. Faith in Christ requires belief in God’s promises. I struggle with faith. I am so aware of the fragmentation of my heart. This fragmentation of my heart shows itself in how I live differently from the devotion to Christ in my prayer closet, to my life lived among loved ones at home, and finally, with the non-believing society present in my workplace or study place. I struggle to reflect Christ and my union with Him. It is a union brought about by faith in the word of the truth of the gospel.

Faith in Christ requires belief in God’s promises, believing in His word of the truth of the gospel, and speaking. Believing in His gospel promises and doing. We are simultaneously having our “location”, and our “locus” is both physically on sin sodden earth, and spiritually, and therefore psychologically, both “in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).

And faith is God’s gift to us to connect with Him. And faith works with God’s Word and God’s Spirit. Jesus said it stunningly in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (NASB 1995)

The Word of God, Christ in His Word, initiates faith through the action and power of His Spirit, energizing us, empowering us, and enabling us through faith, to faithfully obey God’s will and purposes in our life.

God gives to us everything first through the spirit realm, spiritually. In Eph 1:11, the Spirit inspires Paul to write, “In Him also we have received“, or “obtained an inheritance…” How conclusive and explicit is God’s will which He has given-past tense-to us! And this giving of such an inheritance, “being predestined according to the Purpose of Him who works ALL THINGS according to the counsel of His will.“

How amazingly water-tight is God’s sovereign grace in Christ for all His chosen, predestined, adopted children according to “the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in ALL Wisdom and Prudence”.

How much more water-tight, or how much more assurance do we need from God’s sovereign grace to us in Christ Jesus than the following points:

1. Eph 1:5, “according to the Good Pleasure of His will“
2. Eph 1:9, “according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself“
3. Eph 1:11, “according to the Purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will“

Can you see the implications of living when our hearts are full of these glorious truths of being united with Christ through the word of the truth of the gospel?

Here are some practical steps to living out these amazingly glorious truths of God:

1. In every single circumstance of life, I can confidently trust in God who lives in me that “all things” are “according to the counsel of His will”. Nothing happens randomly. Everything is from the safe hands of my Heavenly Father who has blessed me with every spiritual blessing according to the good pleasure of His will.
2. I can rest easy knowing that everything that happens in my life, and in the world, is under His sovereign will because it is according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself. God is not surprised at the macro events of my life where the world is concerned, or even in the micro events of relationships and circumstances around me.
3. I can be immensely thankful and filled with gratitude for the inheritance I have in Christ from the Father who works all things according to the good pleasure of His will.

See why in Christ, we are “more than conquerors”? This is indeed the victory we have in the world, even our faith in Christ, a faith that is held secured by Christ in us, our hope of glory!