Christmas is marvelous and important. Luke 1, John 1, and Hebrews 11 present profound things connected with the birth of Jesus. Wondrous treasures in the words themselves perfectly explain how God made Jesus, the man.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus was the source of all life. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). We’re talking about the source of life, the source of the life of all men. The life that was in Jesus was the living substance of faith. This living, heavenly substance is the matter of faith, the matter by which all things are made.
We speak about faith many times, but we need to grasp that faith is the living substance that was in Jesus. The angel told Mary, “The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35). This is what happens when faith is released. Faith creates the movement that brings into existence the form desired. It’s always about a movement.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for …” (Heb. 11:1). We can never get away from the substance. You cannot see it; it is infinitesimal. Nonetheless it’s there, and EVERYTHING is comprised of it. You are comprised of it. I am comprised of it. The substance is everywhere in the universe, permeating all space. You don’t have to go anywhere to get it. It’s just there waiting for you to interact with it.
It waits for you to interact with it as God interacted with His living substance, and the Word was made flesh. Many times, we interact negatively with things around us, creating more negative things in our own environment. But we can get rid of that. Everything can be changed by faith because faith changes everything.
If you believe the Lord Jesus, you can have an extraordinary life. All that life can be is promised by Jesus. Scripture calls it abundant life, and if you believe Jesus, you can have it. Life can be much better, more successful, more satisfying, and more prosperous than it is right now – if you believe Him and if you want it.
You have to want it. God wanted man to have a living example of Himself. Because He wanted it, He made the Word become flesh. You can cause your life to become what you desire if you want to. All that is promised to us came from Jesus because in Him is the fundamental source and principle of life.
Charles Spurgeon defined life as correspondence with your environment. What kind of correspondence do you have with your environment? You don’t like it, so you think and talk about how you don’t like it, and you get more of what you don’t like. It increases because you are interacting with this living substance.
All life comes from this substance. Everything comes from this substance. It is the source of all life. This is how God created everything. He imagined and spoke the form He sought to create, initiating the movement that would create the form He wanted to exist. The movement is very important because the substance is alive, and it moves.
So if we want to see ourselves reach the pinnacle of something, we have to see ourselves moving up to that pinnacle. If you want to run a race, you have to see yourself running it, whatever those particular movements describe that race to be. This is the essential truth of faith and of life. Everything is made from this substance. We have been given the ability to exercise the God kind of faith, and we forget it!
We often focus on what we don’t want. How much time do you spend thinking about what you desire and how it is to function? The negative operation of faith creates more of what we don’t want, but we are promised an abundant, wonderful life, not a negative one.
Everything is made from this substance, and it is everywhere. It’s in your thoughts and in your feelings. It’s in your body. It’s in the air all around you. God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. The New Testament tells us to have the mind of Christ. Get rid of your own thoughts and ways, and you’ll get rid of everything you don’t like and don’t want in your life.
Embrace God’s thoughts and ways. This is how the Word was made flesh, and this is how our flesh is affected. Whatever is being conceived in us begins its growth process because it is made of matter. We’ve already created our life; with our thoughts, we created the life we have. We’ve affected ourselves greatly.
I believe we’re entering an era where the greatest asset that we can have is not going to be money. It’s not going to be stocks or the assets of this world. The greatest asset is going to be the God kind of faith, and it will save the day. “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). We are not saved by any other way.
We all need to be at January’s conference, where the grace of the Throne of God is going to be poured out. We are saved by grace through faith. And the God kind of faith gives us all the grace that is necessary to go with it.
I’d like to give you an empty picture frame this Christmas, and you fill in the frame. This is what God did. He filled in the space of an expanding universe. The Kingdom expands, too. Take the empty frame and fill it in. This is not fantasy, it’s faith!
Look to the birth of Jesus. The angel told Mary of “that holy thing” she would bring forth (Luke 1:35). Interesting words: why is it called a thing? What is the holy thing in you right now? What holy thing do you want put inside of you?
The birth of a child takes nine months, but it is set in motion at conception. When you conceive by faith that which you desire, the motion goes into operation to bring your desire into manifestation. Say it’s a health issue. You just thank the Lord that you have the health you desire. Conceive of this. By faith, it is so. The motion is set, and all of a sudden, everything that has to bring this about inside your physical body is set in motion.
Without the faith to conceive of it, the motion will not go into operation. Conception is when the motion goes into operation. Say you want to plant an oak tree, so you plant a sapling in the ground. It will take years before the tree becomes huge, but the motion was set when it was planted.
Whatever words you are thinking become what they are, be they flesh, something in our flesh, or in our environment. Life is the word we want to think about. Faith is this living, heavenly substance. It is matter. It’s the substance of things we want. It’s not “Please, Lord, don’t let this happen.” That is not faith. If that’s how you think and pray, it’s going to happen. Determine what you want to happen, not what you don’t want. All the promises are “YES.” There are no “Nos” in God’s thought process. They are all yesses.
“Through faith, we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Heb. 11:3). The good news is if there is something in your life that needs changing, you, by faith, can change it. We all have been given faith to change our lives. God gave us Jesus so that through His life, the change and changes that need to be made in the world could be made because God made the Word become flesh.
Accepting the Good News of the Gospel gives you a good report. You cannot have a good report without accepting everything about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we think of our life in God, we must see ourselves being the people of the Lord. See yourself going to the nations or helping others to go. See yourself praying for people with results.
When a child is born, we marvel at the miracle of life. Just think life. Think an increase of life, and realize that the way in which the Word was made flesh is exactly what happens with our own faith construct. The Holy Spirit enters the picture. He works in the movement. He helps our spirit lay hold of things we hope for. Because we know the process, we already have the evidence. We are not looking for evidence. We acknowledge it already is in operation.
This is what happened to Mary, and it is extraordinary. It required her faith and her cooperation. Yes, it was a virgin birth. There was no man. But there was the operation of faith, and God’s faith caused the Word to be made flesh.