What is faith in God? This is the most practical question, as well as the most basic truth that a believer must understand. Is faith in God a kind of conviction, or is it a direction and goal in a person’s life? In your heart, what is the ultimate purpose of faith? Why do you want to have faith in God? That is, what is your belief? What is the basis and foundation of your faith in God? What is your motivation? In other words, what intention and purpose do you have in believing in God? What is it ultimately for? These are the most practical questions. You can say that people believe in and accept God for the purpose of gaining blessings. People believe in God in order to have something upon which to pin their hopes, long for, and pursue in the realm of thought and spirit. This is the original intention behind all people’s faith in God. However, after people come to believe in God, after they come into contact with God’s words, the truth, God’s work, and all the various people, events and things under God’s sovereignty, unconsciously, their views on faith change. Once they understand the truth to a certain extent, they come to realize that faith in God allows them to gain the truth, that faith is what is most significant, that faith can indeed change people in many respects and ultimately solve the problem of human corruption. To have faith in God, you must first figure out the following questions: Why do people believe in God? What is the purpose of believing in God? What is the motivation to believe in God? What is the initial desire and aspiration in believing in God? How much thought have you given to these questions? Do you have the correct answers? (At first, I believed in God out of a desire to gain blessings. Upon experiencing some judgment and chastisement from God’s words, I saw that I only pursued blessings, that I really had no conscience or reason, and was too selfish. I felt that I had been profoundly corrupted by Satan, and so I longed to be someone possessing conscience and reason, someone who could assume the proper place of a created being and follow God. Currently, I only possess this little bit of knowledge.) When people start believing in God, they always want to gain grace, to gain blessings and benefits, to satisfy various wants and desires of the spirit and the flesh. Since the beginning of their faith when they pursued such things, they have suffered much, and now they understand that the significance of faith goes beyond these things. The significance of faith is too profound and too practical, and the benefits they receive are too many to be summed up in a few words. To have faith in God, one must first solve the problems of man’s corrupt disposition and sin, as well as achieve submission to and knowledge of God. Only in this way can one truly cast off one’s corrupt disposition and escape from Satan’s influence so as to turn completely to God. The purpose of believing in God and following God is to gain from God the truth and life, ultimately becoming a person who conforms to God’s will and is able to submit to and worship God. This is the true meaning of faith. Looking at people’s understanding of faith, we can see that their views, intentions, and motivations as to their faith have undergone a great change. What brought about this change? (It is the result of God’s expression of the truth and all the work He has done on people.) That is right. This change is not the result of the mere passage of time, nor is it imposed on you by anyone, nor is it the result of the influence or contagion of any religious teachings, much less did the goodness of your heart move Heaven to change you into a better, more human-like person. These are all human notions and imaginings. In fact, the most practical benefit gained is that, guided by God’s words, watered and shepherded by God’s words, people come to understand the truth and understand God’s will, can clearly see the darkness and evil among men, and their ideas and views are greatly changed. What brings about these changes? They are the result of the gradual and piecemeal experience of God’s work and God’s words. So then, what do these changes involve? They involve the greatest matter of faith—the matter of salvation. This is the ultimate significance of man’s faith. In fact, people do not demand much of faith. Their aim is simply to gain grace and seek peace. Then, this changes to a desire to be good people rather than bad people, and finally, they just want to receive a good destination. However, herein lies the biggest question: What effect does God actually want to achieve in His work of judgment and purification and His salvation of man? This is what people should understand. In God’s work to save man, what does He use to accomplish this salvation? He uses their understanding of the truth and His words, and then their experience of judgment and chastisement, trials and refinements, freeing them from sin and Satan’s influence. When all is said and done, what is the ultimate significance of people’s faith? Simply put, it is in order to be saved. And what is the significance of salvation? I want you all to think it over and tell Me what it really means to be saved. (It means that we can break free from Satan’s dark influence, turn completely to God, and ultimately, survive.) (People who live under the power of Satan deserve death, but people who are saved by experiencing God’s work will not die.) You all understand this and can explain it at the level of doctrine, but you simply don’t know what it really is to be saved. Is being saved casting off your corrupt disposition? Does being saved mean not lying, being an honest person and ceasing to rebel against God? What is it actually like to be saved? In plain terms, being saved means that you will be able to live on, that you have been brought back to life. You were once living in sin, and bound for death—as God sees it, you were a dead person. What is the basis for saying this? Under whose power do people live before they have attained salvation? (Under the power of Satan.) And what do people rely on to live under Satan’s power? They rely on their satanic nature and corrupt dispositions to live. Then is their whole being—their flesh, and all other aspects such as their spirits and their thoughts—alive or dead? From God’s point of view, they are dead, they are walking corpses. On the surface, you appear to be breathing and thinking, but everything you are constantly thinking about is evil, in defiance of God and in rebellion against God, all of your thoughts are of things that God detests, hates, and condemns. In God’s eyes, all these things not only belong to the flesh, but they entirely belong to Satan and to devils. So, in God’s eyes, is corrupt mankind even human? No, they are beasts, devils and Satans; they are Satans alive! All people live by Satan’s nature and its disposition, and as God sees it, they are Satans alive and garbed in human flesh, devils in human skin. God characterizes such people as walking corpses, as the dead. God is now doing the work of salvation, which means He will take the walking corpses that live by Satan’s corrupt disposition and its corrupt essence—the dead—and turn them into living people. That is the significance of being saved. One believes in God in order to be saved—what is it to be saved? When one attains God’s salvation, they are the dead become living. Where once they belonged to Satan, slated to die, they have now come to life as people belonging to God. If people can submit to God, know Him, and bow down to Him in worship when they believe in and follow God, if they have no more resistance and rebelliousness against God in their hearts, and will no longer resist or attack Him, and can truly submit to Him, then in God’s eyes, they are true living people. Is one who merely acknowledges God in word a living person? (No.) What sort of person is a living person, then? What are the realities of living people? What must living people be possessed of? Tell Me your opinions. (People who can accept the truth are living persons. When people’s ideological views and views concerning things change and align with the word of God, they are living people.) (Living people are those who understand the truth and can practice the truth.) (A person who fears God and shuns evil like Job is a living person.) (People who know God, can live according to God’s words, and can live out the truth reality—those are living people.) You have all spoken of one sort of manifestation. For someone ultimately to be saved and become a living person, they must at least be able to heed God’s words, and able to speak words of conscience and reason, and they must be thinking and discerning, able to understand the truth and to practice it, able to submit to God and worship Him. That is what a true living person is. What do living people often think about and do? They can do a bit of what normal people ought to do. Mainly, they perform their duties well, and they fear God and shun evil in what they think of and reveal, what they say and do on a regular basis. That is the nature of what they often think and do. To put it a bit more precisely, what they say and do by and large accords with the truth, at the least. It is not condemned by God or spurned by Him, but acknowledged and approved of by Him. This is what living people do, and it is what they ought to do. If you merely acknowledge God with your mouth and believe in your heart, can you achieve God’s approval and salvation? (No.) Why can’t you? Some people say, “I believe there is a God,” “I believe in God’s sovereignty over all things and the fate of mankind,” “I believe that everything about me is in God’s hands, that I have been led by God for the better part of my life, and that God can likewise lead me on my future path,” and “I believe that God can change my destiny.” Does having such “faith” mean they are saved? (No.) So what kind of faith means people are truly saved? (Faith that allows them to fear God and shun evil like Job.) How can people come to possess such genuine faith? Verbal acknowledgment and believing in their hearts: Can belief such as this produce a heart that fears God and shuns evil? Does believing like this mean that people have knowledge of God? Can it allow people to achieve submission to God? Can it achieve salvation? What else is missing here? These questions must be pondered and understood.

Is there any difference between belief, conviction, and genuine faith? (Yes.) There are certainly differences, and you have to figure out what the precise differences are. If you can’t distinguish these things, you may feel that you have genuine faith in God when you only have a vague belief or a conviction. How can vague conviction substitute for your genuine faith in God? In fact, instead of having real trust, you have put your own convictions and beliefs in its place. If your faith in God is nothing more than a belief or a conviction, then you can never truly come before God, and God does not approve of such faith as yours. What are the differences between belief, conviction, and genuine faith? Belief and conviction are not easy to explain clearly, so let’s talk about genuine faith first. What is genuine faith in God? (Believing that all events and all things are under the sovereignty of God.) Is this genuine faith or a belief? (A belief.) (Genuine faith is established on a foundation of knowledge of God. Only when people know God can they possess genuine faith.) This understanding is only marginally correct. How can people come to possess genuine faith? What are the manifestations of genuine faith? If people have genuine faith, will they misunderstand or complain about God? Will they give any opposition to God? (No.) If people have genuine faith, will they rebel against God? Can people satisfy God when they try to do good and be good people based on their own notions and imaginings? (No.) Putting these three concepts of belief, conviction, and genuine faith to one side, let’s fellowship on one matter first. What did Peter famously do before he was saved and perfected? (Denied the Lord three times.) What else did Peter do before denying the Lord three times? When the Lord Jesus said that He would be crucified, what did Peter say? (“Be it far from You, Lord: this shall not be to You” (Matthew 16:22).) Was it genuine faith that caused Peter to say this? (No.) Then what was it? It was man’s good intentions, and it was a disruption of God’s work. Where did Peter get this sort of good intention? (From human will.) Why did he entertain such human will? He didn’t understand God’s will, he didn’t understand what the Lord Jesus’ ministry was, and he didn’t have a true understanding of the Lord Jesus. He merely followed the Lord out of admiration. He worshiped the Lord in his heart, so he wanted to love and protect the Lord. He thought, “This thing must never befall You. You can’t suffer that pain! If suffering is wanted, I will suffer. I will suffer in Your place.” He didn’t know God’s will, and he had something of the good intentions that come from human will and wanted to prevent the thing from happening. So what caused him to act in this way? In one respect, it was due to hotheadedness, human will, and a failure to understand. In another respect, he did not understand the work of God. Did he do this out of real trust? (No.) So why did he come to have such good intentions? Are such good intentions in line with the truth? Do they constitute good deeds? Although he sought to do good and acted from good intentions and sincerity, what was the nature of his actions? Were they behaviors and actions arising out of genuine faith? (No.) Now it is clear, the answer is absolutely not. So is this a belief? (Yes.) Let’s use this to talk about what belief is. Belief is a kind of good longing and good desire that is most closely aligned with human notions and imaginings. It is something mankind generally considers to be good, right, and positive. A kind of good thought, a sort of good idea, good practice, and good motivation that is completely in line with human notions and sentiments. It is what humans long for. This is belief. Belief is not genuine faith. It comes entirely from human will and does not conform to the standards required by God, so belief is not real trust. Peter was indeed a good man. He possessed a good humanity, and he was simple, honest, passionate, and earnest in his pursuit. In his heart, he harbored no doubts as to the identity of the Lord Jesus. Thus, from the bottom of his heart, he could utter these words: “Be it far from You, Lord: this shall not be to You.” That he could say such a thing shows his humanity and personality. Although this is a kind of desire, a kind of good intention, and it is only a kind of behavior, practice, and display arising from a kind of belief, we can see that Peter has a kind humanity. He held positive and right beliefs, but unfortunately, because he was too small of stature, knew too little about God, didn’t know God’s management plan, didn’t know the work God intended to do, and didn’t understand God’s will, he did a foolish thing that was completely based on human will and disrupted God’s work. It was a human action caused by belief, and was obviously not genuine faith. If someone holds such beliefs, which produce good behaviors and cause them to have some good intentions, will God remember the things they do? God does not remember these things, so they are done in vain! Instead, God said this: “Get you behind Me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23). Ponder this over. Why did the Lord Jesus speak words people find so inconsiderate? Why didn’t the Lord Jesus show understanding when He saw Peter’s good intentions? What was God’s attitude toward this matter? Did God approve of this good intention of Peter’s? (No.) God scrutinized Peter’s heart and saw that he had no evil intentions, so He didn’t need to expose the essence of this matter. Is that okay? (No.) Why? What does God think when people’s intentions, beliefs, and thoughts are good, but do not align with God’s will? God says that such things come from Satan and are a resistance to God. This is what God believes. Is such thinking at odds with human ways of thinking? (Yes.) Acting from human affection, what would an average person do in response to Peter? They would allow Peter to save face and give him leeway, thinking in their heart, “Peter’s intentions are good and he wants to protect You. To reproach Peter in this way seems inconsiderate!” But God’s acts do not conform to human notions. What is the nature of the words spoken by God? In one respect, they are an exposure, in another, they are a condemnation, and in a third, they are a judgment. How did Peter feel upon hearing these words? He was chastised, and it was as if a knife was twisted into his heart. He felt terrible and did not understand, thinking to himself: “Oh God, I sincerely love You! I believe in You so much, love You so dearly, and want to protect You so much, but why do You treat me like this? You say that I am Satan and order me to stand behind You. Am I Satan? Aren’t I someone who sincerely follows You, so how can You see me as Satan? More than that, You are so inconsiderate, telling me to get behind You. It is too hurtful, too painful!” From God handling and treating such things in this way, can you see God’s attitude toward human belief? (Condemn, judge, and expose.) That is right. God not only dislikes such things, but loathes them and, most seriously, condemns such things. From these things God has revealed, have you seen God’s disposition? (God’s disposition is righteous.) This is certainly so. And what else? For God, although tolerance, mercy, patience, and lovingkindness are very beneficial to people, although they are the parts of what God has and is that people find easier to accept, and although they are things God always reveals and bestows on people, once people offend God’s disposition and violate His principles, how will God deal with them? God condemns them! God does not make ambiguous statements to people, saying, “People did this with good intentions and no ulterior motives, so I will spare them this time.” Unlike man, God permits no middle way and allows no adulteration with human will. One is one, two is two. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. For God, there are no ambiguities. By dissecting what Peter said to the Lord Jesus, “Be it far from You, Lord: this shall not be to You,” people can see what belief is. Can people who hold beliefs satisfy God? Can beliefs produce genuine faith? Can they replace people’s genuine faith in God? (No.) No, that is absolutely true.

What are beliefs in the end? They are a kind of imagining and notion, good desires, good goals, and lofty ideals that people establish. After these things are established, people run in this direction, pursuing and attaining them by relying on human good intentions, human effort, human will to suffer, or more human good deeds. What is lacking here? Why is it that people who hold beliefs cannot satisfy God? (Based on their beliefs, people disrupt and disturb God’s work.) This is one obvious aspect. In addition, when people do things based on their beliefs, is there any truth in what they do? (No.) Let’s dissect what Peter did. Peter said, “Be it far from You, Lord: this shall not be to You.” Is there truth in these words? (No.) What does he mean by saying “this shall not be to You”? Why cannot this be to God? Could it be that all of this is not under God’s sovereignty? Does God not have the final say in all this? If God allows it to be, it will be. If God does not allow it to be, won’t it be avoided? Could Peter’s words, “this shall not be to You,” be able to change all of this? Who determined the occurrence, progression, and outcome of this whole matter? (It was determined by God.) So then, what are these words spoken by Peter? They are foolish words, words spoken in ignorance, words spoken on behalf of Satan. This is the consequence brought about by human beliefs. Is this a serious problem? (It is serious.) How serious is it? (It is resistance to God and acting as an outlet of Satan.) Correct. It is acting as Satan’s outlet, which means resisting God and tearing down God’s work on behalf of Satan. If, in the matter, the Lord Jesus did as Peter said, wouldn’t His work of redeeming mankind be ruined? What is the nature of these words spoken by Peter? (They disrupt God’s work.) This is why God mercilessly spoke those angry words—“Get you behind Me, Satan!” These words are a condemnation as well as a judgment. In them, lies God’s disposition! When people hold such beliefs, beliefs admixed with good intentions, human desires, beautiful human wishes, and all those things that humans hold to be positive, right, and good, does God approve of this? (No.) People see all these things as good, so why doesn’t God give His approval? In one respect, it is because people do not have true knowledge of God. This is the general cause. In addition, from a practical point of view, people do not truly submit to the words spoken by God and the acts performed by Him, nor do they truly comprehend these things. On the basis of human thinking, they always want God to not do this or not do that. They always think, “It’s not really good for God to act like this. Acting like this is not what we would expect, it’s not very considerate to people.” When people encounter such things, they often develop notions, are full of man-made imaginings, and resort to all sorts of human ways of doing things. Here, there is no submission, no true knowledge, no true fear of God, only a disruption and tearing down of God’s work. It lacks any element of genuine faith. Therefore, Peter was judged after he spoke those words. Did he gain anything after receiving judgment? (He was able to understand a bit more about himself and about God’s disposition.) Is such judgment a good or bad thing? At the very least, it was a hard knock on his head that made him stop and think, “Lord, am I Satan? I truly believe in You, I am one who loves You, I am Your faithful follower! How can I be Satan?” Pondering it over again, he thought, “The Lord Jesus rebuked me with such clear and plain words. He told me to get behind Him and rebuked me as Satan. This means that, in this matter, I acted in Satan’s stead! What sort of person can act on behalf of Satan? A person who is not compatible with God. Anytime and anywhere, such a person can resist and betray God, can tear down God’s work, and can disturb and wreck God’s work, becoming the enemy of God. This is awful! In that case, I will hurriedly retreat behind God and shut my mouth.” Doesn’t this show that Peter slowly came to his senses, gained understanding, and realized the seriousness of the problem? He realized that man is always man and God is always God, and between man and God, there is a distance. When man acts on the basis of good intentions, God sees this as a disruption and disturbance. By gradually proceeding in this way, does God’s judgment on man turn out to be a good thing? (Yes.) So is it a bad thing for a person to reveal a bit of foolishness? Looked at like this, it is not a bad thing, but a good thing. Why do we say it turns out to be a good thing? (People benefit from it.) Right, people gain some benefits. How do these benefits come about? When you are subject to God’s judgment and you submit to it, examine yourself, and accept everything that comes from God—all of God’s expressions, God’s revelations, and everything God requires of you—and it becomes your reality and becomes your life, then without even knowing it, your corruption will be cleansed away. So is being judged a bad thing or a good thing? (A good thing.) Are you willing to receive judgment? (We are willing.) So would it be okay if you were judged every day? This would not allow you to eat, sleep, or rest as normal. When something happened, God would tell you to step back. When He had the time, He would judge you. Would that be fine? Could you stand this? People would not be able to stand this, and God would not do such a thing. God earnestly wants you to grow and mature quickly. That is why there are many steps in God’s judgment. Sometimes He may become angry, and then offer you some comfort. Sometimes He may strike you, and then offer you mercy. Although God often becomes angry, there are intervals between His anger that give people time to catch their breath. Only when God directly judges and condemns people in this way will it help their growth in life. It is worth a bit of suffering to gain the truth.

People who only hold beliefs are far from being able to satisfy God’s will, and beliefs are far from an adequate substitute for genuine faith in God. If they have faith in God based on a belief, people can never truly come before God, let alone truly submit to Him and possess a God-fearing heart. Why is this? People’s beliefs have nothing to do with the truth, and are far from meeting God’s requirements. When people have beliefs, this does not mean that they understand the truth. With faith in God based on belief, people will never understand God’s work, and can only disrupt and disturb it. Faith based on belief does not mean that people will be mindful of God’s will, much less submit to God. So then, what happened next to Peter? Before the Lord Jesus was crucified, He said this to Peter: “Truly I say to you, That this night, before the cock crow, you shall deny Me thrice” (Matthew 26:34). What did Peter say in response? (“Though I should die with You, yet will I not deny You” (Matthew 26:35).) This upset Peter, and he denied he would do as the Lord said, but in the end, the facts bore out the words of the Lord Jesus. Was Peter’s trust at that time greater or lesser than yours? (Greater, he cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant in order to protect the Lord.) That was due to hotheadedness. His knowledge of the Lord Jesus and acknowledgment of His identity represent the degree of Peter’s faith in the Lord Jesus. This allowed him to fight desperately for the Lord Jesus, saying, “Whoever touches my Lord, I will risk my life to fight!” His faith had reached this level, but is it man’s hotheadedness that God wants? Certainly not. Peter’s faith reached the level where he would lay down his life for the Lord, but then why did Peter still deny the Lord three times? Was it because he was destined to do this by the prophecy of the Lord Jesus? (No.) So what was the reason? Why was he so cowardly? He could risk his life fighting others for the Lord Jesus and cut off someone’s ear. Out of his love for the Lord Jesus, he was able to speak those words from the bottom of his heart and act on them, which showed his exceptional sincerity. So, when the time came, why didn’t he dare to acknowledge the Lord? (Because he knew the consequences. If the Roman soldiers had caught him then, he would have been put to death. He was afraid of being caught and likewise afraid of death.) The main reason was his desire to save his life. It is true that Peter held beliefs, but did he have the elements of genuine faith? At that time, Peter had already realized that the Lord Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and God Himself. He had such genuine faith, so why was he still so cowardly? (He lacked that stature.) He cherished his life and feared death, suffering, and physical torture. No matter what the reason was, in the end, he still denied the Lord three times. It was just as the Lord Jesus said, “This night, before the cock crow, you shall deny Me thrice.” These words were indeed fulfilled in Peter. Why was the Lord Jesus able to say such things and come to such conclusions about Peter? (God scrutinizes people’s innermost hearts.) What did God scrutinize in Peter’s heart? (Peter’s stature and his faith in God.) The Lord Jesus saw Peter’s stature and the extent of his trust. With such a small stature, is it such a surprise that he denied the Lord three times? Due to his stature, it is inevitable that he would act as he did given the situation. Why did he only have that little bit of trust at the time? (At the time, Peter had followed the Lord Jesus for about three years, so he had experienced too little of God’s work.) After three years of following the Lord Jesus, his trust could only be so great. That was his stature at the time. His growth in stature was achieved through the continuous deepening of experience.

Is it okay to follow God without real trust? What does it actually mean for people to have genuine faith in God? To put this in the simplest possible terms: It is the extent of your trust in all of God’s words and work and the extent to which you can truly believe. Specifically, it is the extent to which, in your heart, you can believe and acknowledge the ultimate fulfillment and means of fulfillment of the words spoken by God, the things that God has ordained, God’s sovereignty, the orchestrations and arrangements of God, how God arranges the future destinations of people, and all other such things as well as the extent to which you have real trust in these things. At that time, Peter didn’t even dare to acknowledge the name of the Lord Jesus, or to acknowledge his relation to the Lord Jesus. He had only a little trust, and this little trust indicated his actual stature. What was his actual stature? (He only acknowledged the Lord Jesus to be the Christ, but he knew little of God.) He had such a small stature and could go no further than this. So as for you, to what degree do you currently have faith in God? Is your faith stronger than Peter’s? Is it weaker? Is it about the same? (It’s the same in terms of recognizing Christ. We understand a little more of the truth than Peter, but we have yet to enter into many of these truths.) If people’s faith in God stops at merely acknowledging that He is God, acknowledging that God can orchestrate and arrange everything, and that He has sovereignty over all things, over your destiny, and over your life—if you only acknowledge this, but have few of the elements of believing, even less, almost none, of the elements of submission, and none at all of the elements of waiting for and seeking God—what sort of faith is this? You always say that you believe in God, you believe that God is sovereign over all and orchestrates everything, that people’s lives are given to them by God, and that you will do whatever God asks of you, even laying down your life for God. But then you encounter a situation like that Peter experienced, where people ask, “Is that your God?” You will ponder the matter over, thinking, “There are nonbelievers all around, won’t I be arrested if I acknowledge Him? God has said that we can use wisdom at critical times and refrain from acknowledging Him, so I will use wisdom, and God will not hold it against me.” If you cherish your life and are cowardly, you will dare not acknowledge God, and may even deny God. At such a time, where is the trust by which you believe that God is sovereign over all things? (It doesn’t exist.) Was the trust you thought you had during ordinary times real or false? (False.) When something happens that especially violates your notions or tastes and God’s will in the matter has yet to be fully revealed, God requires you to submit in the matter. He has arranged this environment so that you can learn a lesson. So what do you do? For example, say you have especially strong faith and are especially pious and sincere, but God arranges an environment that does not fit your notions, treating you as if you were an unbeliever. Feeling wronged, tears will fill your eyes and you will complain to God, saying in your heart: “Oh God, I believe in You, I live for You, yet You arranged for me such an environment as this, placing me among the unbelievers and mixing me with unclean spirits. Won’t I become polluted by this? I am set apart as a holy person, a person who belongs to God. You shouldn’t have arranged this. Do You know how much I miss You, how much I love You? I cannot be apart from You. You can’t treat me like this, it’s not fair to me!” What about this? When you encounter things that do not conform to your notions, where is your submission? (It doesn’t exist.) What do you replace submission with? (Complaints, misunderstandings, and resistance.) Is this real trust? What should genuine faith possess? How does it show itself? (Seeking God’s will and submitting to God.) A single incident reveals whether someone has real trust.