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Have you ever felt you were lacking in faith, or found it hard to believe in the Lord at times? In previous posts, we discussed what faith is and where it comes from, and how we can be strengthened in our faith.
Today, we’ll focus on Hebrews 12:2 and accompanying notes in the New Testament Recovery Version that show us Jesus is the source of faith, and how to apply this fact in our Christian life.
Hebrews 12:2 says,
“Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.”
This verse tells us clearly Jesus is the Author of our faith. Note 3 on Author begins by explaining the meaning of the word in Greek:
“Or, Originator, Inaugurator, Leader, Pioneer, Forerunner. The same Greek word as in 2:10. All the overcoming saints in the Old Testament are only witnesses of faith, whereas Jesus is the Author of faith. He is the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of faith.”
Jesus, the Author of faith, is the unique source of faith.
What about us? Note 3 continues:
“In our natural man we have no believing ability. We do not have faith by ourselves. The faith by which we are saved is the precious faith that we have received from the Lord (2 Pet. 1:1).”
We don’t have the ability to believe; we can’t muster up faith by ourselves. Second Peter 1:1—the verse referenced above—also makes it clear we’re not the source of faith. It reads:
“Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have been allotted faith equally precious as ours.”
Here, we see faith is something allotted to the believers, which means we don’t naturally have it. God gives it to us as a share, or a portion. The faith we’re allotted is equally as precious as that given to the apostle Peter and to all the believers.
[[Free Study Bible]]
Now, let’s focus on the first four words of Hebrews 12:2: “Looking away unto Jesus.”
Concerning faith, we’re first exhorted to look away. What are we supposed to look away from?
Today, we lead incredibly busy lives. Responsibilities related to family, jobs, school, and so on demand our attention. We’re constantly receiving texts, emails, and calls. On top of that, many other things distract us, even alerts on our phone about the latest news event halfway around the world. It’s easy to be occupied by everything happening around us, both in our personal situation and in the world at large. Maybe that’s all we see before us. Filled with anxieties, cares, and things we have to do, we certainly can end up feeling we lack faith.
No wonder the Word of God exhorts us to look away! The more attention we focus on the things around us, whether they’re good or bad, the more we can feel our faith draining away. So we need to look away and turn our thoughts from all our cares.
However we’re not just exhorted to look away, but also to look unto Jesus. How can we do this? Where do we even look?
Hebrews 12:2 tells us Jesus sat down on the right hand of the throne of God, but the Bible also tells us when we believed in Him, the Lord came to live in us. He’s dwelling now in our human spirit. So to look unto Jesus practically is to turn to Him in our spirit. We can look away from all the distracting, faith-draining things and look unto Jesus, the Author of our faith, by setting our mind on Him in our spirit.
Note 2 on Jesus, the One we look away unto, is truly precious:
“He [Jesus] is like an immense magnet drawing all His seekers to Him. It is by being attracted by His charming beauty that we look away from all other things than Him. Without such a charming object, how could we look away from so many distracting things on this earth?”
The beauty of the wonderful Jesus is what attracts us. He is so lovely! Our dear Lord Jesus is a magnet, and by His attracting us, we can look away from everything unto Him.
By looking away unto Jesus, something wonderful happens in us. Let’s return to Note 3. It goes on to say:
“When we look unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) transfuses us with Himself, with His believing element. Then, spontaneously, a kind of believing arises in our being, and we have the faith to believe in Him. This faith is not of ourselves but of Him who imparts Himself as the believing element into us that He may believe for us. Hence, He Himself is our faith. We live by Him as our faith; i.e., we live by His faith (Gal. 2:20), not by our own.”
The spontaneous result of looking away unto Him is that we’re transfused with Jesus Himself as our faith. We don’t even have to ask for it; faith arises in us as we behold Him. The Lord Jesus, who was imparted into us, is the One who believes for us; He’s our living faith. The apostle Paul testified to this in Galatians 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, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Paul lived in faith, but that faith wasn’t his own; it was the faith of the Son of God who lived in him.
Let’s now consider some practical ways for us to look away unto Jesus.
1. By turning our heart—2 Corinthians 3:16 says, “But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Then verse 3:18 says, “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord.” When we exercise to turn our hearts to the Lord and deal with anything separating us, we can behold His glory.
2. By calling on His name—Calling on the name of the Lord is the easiest way to look away from everything else unto Him. We can cry out, “Lord Jesus! Oh, Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus, I need You!” The more we do this, the more we sense all other things fading away as He becomes nearer and dearer to us.
3. By praying—We can bring every matter to God in prayer. We can open to Him concerning all our problems and difficult decisions we face. We can pray, “Lord Jesus, I don’t know what to do. But Lord, I just look away right now unto You. I want to gaze at Your beauty. Lord, You are the most lovely One.” Instead of being absorbed with our problems, we can absorb Jesus as the source of our faith.
4. By reading His Word—We can also behold the Lord Jesus in His Word. For example, reading the Gospels impresses us with the details of the wonderful life He lived on the earth. We read about His death and resurrection, and what He did to save us. In the Scriptures, we behold Him and are spontaneously filled with love and appreciation for Him. We can also use the words of the Bible to pray, allowing Him to infuse us with Himself.
5. By spending regular time in His presence—A major reason why we feel lacking in faith may be because we haven’t spent much quality time with the Lord lately. Instead, our time may have been spent beholding many other things—our devices, our circumstances, our problems. But we need to devote regular time to looking away unto Jesus. The best time to do this is in the morning. Instead of waking up and immediately checking our phones, we can first look away to the wonderful Person living in us. Spending time absorbing Him and being transfused with Him before we do anything else strengthens our faith.
Hebrews 12:2 and the notes in the Recovery Version help us realize we needn’t be discouraged or feel as if we’re a failure when we’re lacking faith. We shouldn’t think others are more able to have faith, while we aren’t. The Word of God tells us Jesus is the Author of faith. We simply need to get to the source of faith by looking away from everything else and beholding the Lord in our spirit. This is how He transfuses us with Himself to be our believing ability and the faith we live by.
How wonderful it is that Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, dwells in us! He’s so near; at any moment we can turn to Him. Let’s practice daily looking away unto Jesus and being infused with Him as our faith.
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
Most of us Christians would say we love the Lord Jesus, the One who gave His life on the cross for us. But what kind of love do we love Him with? More importantly, what kind of love does He want us to love Him with?
In Revelation 2, the Lord reveals the love He wants from us. This chapter begins with the Lord’s words of praise to the church in Ephesus for being faithful in many things. Then, in verse 4, He says,
“But I have one thing against you, that you have left your first love.”
This verse shows that the kind of love the Lord Jesus wants from us is our first love.
Note 1 on Revelation 2:4 in the New Testament Recovery Version explains the meaning of the word “first”:
“The Greek word for first is the same as that translated best in Luke 15:22. Our first love toward the Lord must be our best love for Him.”
In Luke 15, the Lord Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son. In verse 22, after being reunited with his long-lost son, the father says, “Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.” The father didn’t put just any robe on his son; he clothed him with the best robe he had, the top robe.
By using the same Greek word for first in Revelation 2:4 as best in Luke 15:22, the Lord is making the point that He cares very much about receiving our first, best, love.
The Lord is our Creator and we’re His creation; He’s our Master and we’re His servants. But our sweetest relationship with the Lord is one of love, like that of a husband and wife. He certainly loves us, and we enjoy His love. But He also needs and wants to enjoy our love for Him.
A marriage is a good picture of our relationship with the Lord. Two people marry each other because they love one another. And although husbands and wives do a lot of things for each other, what matters most is that they continue to love one another. What they do for each other should come out of their love for each other.
For example, we can all agree it’s much sweeter when a husband buys flowers for his wife out of his love for her, rather than out of a feeling of duty.
Additionally, a husband and wife want and need the first and best love from each other—not just any kind of love. Their marriage would be weakened, and even damaged, if one of them were to love their job or their friends more than their spouse. What nurtures and strengthens their marriage is loving each other most of all, with their first and best love.
On the Lord’s side, He loves us purely, with an unchanging love. But what about on our side? The Lord doesn’t want the love that’s left over after we’ve loved the world, our career, or anything else. He wants us to love Him first and best.
In note 2 for Revelation 2:4, we see something more about the importance of our love for the Lord. The note includes this sentence:
“Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord.”
How incredible is that statement?
It’s not doing things for the Lord that keeps us in a proper relationship with Him. After all, the church in Ephesus did many good things for the Lord, but He had one thing against them: they had left their first love. Loving Him with our first love is paramount.
Often, we care too much about doing things for the Lord. We may even unwittingly begin to love serving the Lord more than the Lord Himself. But what we do for Him should issue from our fresh and first love for Him, and from our oneness with Him. Loving the Lord with our best love is the top priority of our Christian life.
Note 2 also says,
“The leaving of the first love is the source of all the degradation in the succeeding stages of the church.”
If we experience degradation in our spiritual life, whether as the church or as an individual, we can be sure it’s because we’ve left our first love for the Lord. Loving Him with our best love and not letting our love for Him fade or wane saves us from degradation.
[[Free Study Bible]]
It’s not hard to maintain our first love for the Lord, or to rekindle our love for Him. The truth is, the Lord is so lovable. He’s the most attractive and loving person in the universe. Our love for Him can be renewed by just spending time with Him and opening our hearts to Him. For example, we can consecrate ourselves to be with Him first thing in the morning, rather than immediately checking our phones or doing other things.
A simple way to maintain our love for the Lord is to tell Him we love Him. Throughout our day we can quietly say, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” Our spouses may know we love them, but saying “I love you” to each other keeps the love fresh. Likewise, the Lord knows we love Him, but He wants to hear us say it. Telling Him “Lord Jesus, I love You” helps us maintain our first love for Him.
We can also pray, “Lord, You’re my first and best love. I love You more than anything else.” Even if we don’t feel like this is true, we can still pray these words to the Lord in faith. As we do so, we’ll be reminded and strengthened to love Him until eventually, loving Him first and best becomes our reality.
Singing to the Lord helps us love Him with our whole heart. For instance, a song like this encourages us to love the Lord with our best love:
Jesus Lord, You’re our first love; You’re the One we love the best. When our heart is loving You, How we’re filled with Your sweet rest!Lord, we love You for Yourself, Not for what You give or do. Nothing else could e’er compare With the joy of loving you.Lord, we’ve been drawn off by many things; Now we turn our heart back—how it sings! We repent of loving other things— Jesus, Lord, You’re our first love.
To hear the tune and see the words to the whole song, visit this page.
Let’s conclude with a short prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I love You. Increase my love for You day by day. Don’t let me leave You as my first love. Please keep me in a proper relationship with You and remind me to turn to You and love You with my first and best love. Amen.”
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
The apostle Paul uses an interesting phrase in 2 Timothy 1:6: “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you. ”
What is the gift of God in us? Why do we need to fan it into flame? And how do we do that?
Verse 7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sober mindedness.” Since this immediately follows verse 6, it’s easy to see the gift of God in us is our human spirit. Note 1 in the New Testament Recovery Version explains what spirit means here:
“The spirit here denotes our human spirit, regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 3:6; Rom. 8:16). To fan into flame the gift of God (v. 6) is related to our regenerated spirit.”
Before we were born again, our spirit was completely dead, cold, and empty. But when we believed in Christ, He as the life-giving Spirit came to be mingled with and live in our spirit. Our regenerated human spirit was ignited with the divine fire of the Spirit of God. The precious gift of God in us is our spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This is the gift we must fan into flame.
[[Free Study Bible]]
Since we have this gift of God in us, why do we need to fan it into into flame? Yes, our regenerated spirit was ignited by the divine fire of the Spirit. But after we’re saved, our zeal for the Lord may eventually fade. We’re not as hot and burning as when we first received the Lord. But Romans 12:11 exhorts us not to be “slothful in zeal, but be burning in spirit, serving the Lord.”
The Lord wants us to be hot, burning in our love to Him and our service to Him. This is why we need to fan our spirit into flame.
To illustrate what it means to fan our spirit into flame, let’s say you go camping. To make a fire, first you lay down some dry twigs as kindling, followed by layers of small branches and logs. Then you light a match and set the kindling afire. The flames spread, and you soon have a nice fire. Warmed by the fire in the cold night air, you eventually fall asleep.
Later, you awaken to find you no longer have a fire burning. But you do have some live embers. You realize you don’t need another match to relight your fire; you just need to get down close to blow on the embers and then fan them. With the increased oxygen, they become even hotter. You add small branches and keep fanning until they’re set aflame. Then you add logs, and soon you have a roaring fire again.
After we’ve been saved for a while, we may no longer be “burning.” Our need is not to “relight” our spirit by getting saved all over again. In fact, this is impossible; once we’re saved, we’re saved forever. Even when we aren’t burning, our spirit is still a “glowing ember” that was ignited with the fire of the Holy Spirit already. We simply need to fan our spirit to give it more “oxygen” until it’s burning once more.
Just as a fire needs oxygen to burn, for us to be burning in spirit, we need the oxygen of the Spirit. Daily we need to open up to breathe in the divine oxygen of the Spirit. By opening our mouth to pray, sing, or call on the Lord’s name, we inhale the Spirit as the divine oxygen. This is how we fan our spirit into flame.
Let’s look at four great ways to do this.
By praying out loud, we can fan our spirit into flame. Instead of praying silently in your head, try praying out loud, even if it’s just softly or quietly at first. God certainly knows what’s on our heart, but the problem is we have a very active mind. One minute we’re here, and the next second, we’re halfway around the globe. Praying out loud helps us focus and subdue all distracting thoughts so we can contact the Lord in our spirit and breathe Him in through prayer.
Singing to the Lord is a very enjoyable way to fan our spirit into flame. Instead of staying silent, we can open our mouth in song to the Lord. The more we open our being to the Lord when we sing, the more He fills us. We can start by singing a hymn or a spiritual song while getting ready for work in the morning. We can sing while walking to class or driving our car. Singing to the Lord fills us with the oxygen of the Spirit.
Calling on the name of the Lord is a simple way to fan our spirit into flame. Usually we aren’t burning in spirit when we first wake up in the morning. Sometimes it’s even hard to pray, or we don’t know what to pray. But we can simply say, “Oh, Lord Jesus,” or, “Lord Jesus, I love You,” or, “Lord Jesus, thank You for a new day.” As soon as we open our mouth to call on the Lord’s name like this, we begin to fan our spirit into flame.
Sometimes we’re very low. We don’t have to wait for something to change before we can feel better. Even in our low state, we can call on the Lord to contact Him and receive more of Him. In Lamentations 3:55 the prophet Jeremiah said, “I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, from the lowest pit.” Calling on the Lord not only lifts us out of our low pit, but it also causes us to become burning once again.
One of the best ways to open to the Lord and fan our spirit into flame is to cry out to Him. Isaiah 12:6 says, “Cry out and give a ringing shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Psalm 47:1 says, “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with the voice of a triumphant sound.”
Crying out is even louder than praying out loud, and it may seem awkward when we first do it. But we can receive more of the Spirit by crying out to the Lord. The more we shout our praise to Him, the more burning in spirit we become. You can experiment with fanning your spirit into flame by crying out or shouting praises to the Lord for all He is and all He’s done.
We hope this discussion on the phrase “fan into flame the gift of God which is in you” in God’s Word helps you to better understand its meaning. Even more, we hope it becomes your experience more and more with the four ways we touched on.
Let’s practice fanning into flame the gift of God in us every day so we can be burning in spirit!
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
