Scripture Reading: Luke 1:53; Matt. 5:6; 2 Kings 4:1-6
Christians have two great deficiencies before God. One is the failure to know themselves, and the other is the failure to know the riches of the Lord. It would be wonderful if a Christian knew himself and knew the riches of the Lord. If he does not know himself or the Lord's riches, he is doomed to failure. All shortcomings, failures, and things that do not glorify God in the Christian life can be traced to one of these two deficiencies. These two matters are the roots of all our failures. On the one hand, the Lord's work on us shows us what we are and, on the other hand, what He is. If we knew ourselves and if we knew Him, all spiritual problems would be solved.
At this point I would like to bring one thing to our attention. What is the necessary condition for experiencing the Lord's riches? In other words, what is the necessary condition for receiving God's blessing or the working of the Holy Spirit? This is something we must see; it is a condition which we must fulfill. If we do not meet this condition, we cannot expect to receive anything from the Lord. This necessary condition is being empty before God. If we want to be filled with the Lord's riches continually, we have to be emptied continually. The emptying experience is an ever-deepening experience. Therefore, we can never say that we are completely empty or that we cannot be emptied any further. Brothers and sisters, we need to be emptied day after day, month after month, and year after year. We may be empty now, but after some time we will need a further emptying work. We should not think that once we are emptied, we will be empty forever. We also should not think that once we are filled, we will be filled forever. We should have an ever-deepening knowledge of ourselves, and we should have an ever-deepening knowledge of the riches of the Lord.
Luke 1:53 says, "The hungry He has filled with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty." This verse shows us that God's grace is reserved for one type of person — a hungry one. If a person comes to the meeting only for the purpose of observing and listening, he will not see anything or hear anything. If all that a person wants is some Bible knowledge, his real spiritual problems will not be solved. Only those with a pressing inward need and those who are determined to meet God will receive His blessing. We must realize that spiritual progress is based on our hunger. Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Those who hunger and thirst will be filled; they are the ones who are blessed.
According to the Word of God and the experience of many saints, the first thing the Holy Spirit does within a person (which is the same work He does within everyone) is to create a longing heart in him. All spiritual progress begins when God initiates a good work in a person through the Holy Spirit by creating a longing within. Every time there is any spiritual progress, the Holy Spirit has initiated it. The Holy Spirit makes us feel dissatisfied with our present condition; the Holy Spirit makes us feel that our present condition is wrong and that our spiritual life is too shallow. The first work of the Holy Spirit is to give us a sense of dissatisfaction and to create in us a desire to be better. Brothers and sisters, if we want to have any spiritual progress, we must first become dissatisfied with our present spiritual condition, and we must seek for something better. This is the beginning of spiritual progress. Putting it another way, all failure and decadence is the result of self-complacency. The beginning of failure is self-complacency. Our feelings of dissatisfaction with ourselves indicates the Holy Spirit has begun His work in us and that is the time for us to go forward. Whenever we are ignorant of our poverty and deficiency, we have come to a standstill. Decadence comes from self-complacency, whereas progress comes from hunger. This is a fact, and it is true throughout our Christian life. Invariably the Holy Spirit first creates a desire in us for more, and then God comes in to satisfy us and fill us. In order to perform His filling work, He must first carry out His emptying work. When we are empty, God will fill us.
Some brothers and sisters have a genuine desire before the Lord and are genuinely conscious of their deficiencies and shortcomings. They earnestly hope to live a better and fuller life. However, they do not know how they can achieve this, and they do not know how they can have an abundant life. Brothers and sisters, if we have such a feeling, we can rest assured that this life will be ours. This is because the desire does not originate from ourselves but from the work of the Holy Spirit in us. We should realize that God Himself fills up whatever He has emptied. God will not leave us empty forever; His purpose is to fill us. Since God has emptied us, He will surely fill us. If He did not want to fill us, He would not have emptied us in the first place. Emptying is merely the means; filling is the goal. Therefore, God never empties anyone without filling him again. If there is a longing heart in us, it proves that we are already under the operating power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never engages Himself in a fruitless work. The only question is whether or not there is some hindrance within us. If there is a genuine desire within us, we will certainly receive what we desire. Please bear in mind and be deeply impressed that once the Holy Spirit begins His work, He always finishes it. He will never stop until the job is done. Therefore, we may rest assured that when we are empty, He will fill us.
It is an amazing thing that in our experience the Holy Spirit can empty us. Many genuine Christians have passed through such an experience. When we first became a Christian, we considered ourselves to be rather good and capable in everything. But after some time we noticed that the life we were living was short of the Christian standard; we realized that we had failed and could not go on anymore. Consequently, we felt dissatisfied, and we prayed for God to fill us up and make us obedient. God then ordered some unbearable and distasteful circumstances to come upon us. Yet by the grace of God, we eventually overcame them. Then we had something to testify about, and we were be able to say that we overcame. We were able to say that we overcame a certain particular matter and that, at a certain point in time, God filled us. We may have even thought that we would be an overcomer from that point on. But surprisingly, after some time, the victory was lost, and failure came back again. We thought that it was very easy to overcome, but it seemed as if all strength was gone, and new obstacles were before us again. There seemed to be a wall in front of us; we could not find any way out, and there did not seem to be any way to bypass it. Consequently, we said that our previous victory was lost, and we were no longer filled with God.
Brothers and sisters, have you ever had such an experience? What is the significance of this kind of experience? You should bear in mind that in God's eyes the Christian life should be an ever-deepening life. A Christian should become emptier and emptier, and the Lord's riches to him should become fuller and fuller. After passing the first hurdle, you may think that there can be no higher life than what you have experienced; you may think that you can advance no further and that you have reached the summit. The Lord knows your condition. He does not want you to think that you have abundant life already. Therefore, He allows new difficulties to come upon you, and He places impossible things before you. Based on your past experiences, you may think that you will overcome again. But you fail at your first attempt. You may attribute your failure to the lack of vigilance and effort, and you may take greater care and exert more energy in tackling the situation the second time. Yet you fail again. You may think that your vigilance and effort is still too short and that you ought to exercise greater care and exert more energy. Yet the result again falls short of your expectation, and you fail once more. Eventually, you will find that you cannot overcome this hurdle; there is no way to handle the matter. You will be at a loss as to why you cannot overcome. You will wonder why you still fail and why the initial power of obedience is gone. At the same time, you will realize that it is not right that you repeatedly fail, and you will agonize over these failures. But God has only one reason for doing this — to lead you on further and to dig more deeply into you so that you may receive more filling. This is why new difficulties are in front of you all the time. Unless you have fresh filling, you will not be able to overcome these fresh difficulties. You should bear in mind that the further you go forward, the more difficulties there will be. All your difficulties are ordered by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of creating a stronger craving and hunger in you for Him.
The victory at Jericho can never be applied to Ai. Although Ai is very small and Jericho, which is huge, has been taken, if we attack Ai by applying our past experience, we will fail. This means we cannot apply our past victory to tackle our spiritual difficulties today. The past has become history, and new power is needed to deal with new spiritual difficulties. God puts new difficulties before us in order to make us sense new needs. We must never expect to have a once-for-all victory. Our eyes must be opened before God, and we must realize that the only way to have a continual filling is to have the continual working of the cross. Unless the Holy Spirit continues His work in us, we cannot continue to overcome. When any trial confronts us or any difficulty is placed before us, no past history or experience will do any good; we need new strength to go on.
Let us bear in mind that everything ordered by the Lord in our circumstances is intended to create a need in us and make us realize that we cannot overcome by past experience. Past victories remain unchanged, but trying to overcome new difficulties by means of past victories never works. Many people look at their past victories and wonder why they cannot overcome now. Brothers and sisters, we have to realize that God does not want us to have yesterday's manna. With each new difficulty there comes a new need which we have never realized before. Brothers and sisters, we cannot go on without new knowledge of the Lord and a new vision of Him. Whenever He brings us to our end and whenever we find ourselves crying, "I cannot make it!", our progress has begun. Then God is able to easily create a desire for Him in us. Is it not clear to us that our hunger begins from this kind of experience?
Thank God that everything we have is the result of His work; even the heart that seeks after Him comes from Him. If it were up to us, I wonder how long we would have to wait before we would seek after Him? Of course, there is a condition: we must be conscious of our weakness and inability as well as the hindrance and pride of the flesh. If we persist in our self-reliance, presume that we are already rich, and do not forget our Jericho victory, it will be impossible for God to give us a seeking heart even if He wants to. If we cannot forget our past victory, we will never make any progress. If we think that we can overcome with our first experience, we have been defeated already. Past victory can never be our present strength. We should remember that God gives difficulties to us in order to dig more deeply in us so that He can fill us more with Himself.
Living faith never imitates past deeds. The Bible never tells us to imitate the deeds of others' faith even though it tells us to imitate others' faith (Heb. 6:12; 13:7). To imitate faith and to imitate the deeds of faith are two entirely different things. We should imitate the faith of the apostles, but we should not imitate the deeds of their faith. Their shadows, handkerchiefs, and aprons were capable of healing the sick (Acts 5:15; 19:12), but this does not mean that we can do the same. Even if we do the same thing, the sick will not be healed because we would only be imitating the deeds of the apostles' faith and not their faith. Sometimes a person suffers from a certain illness and God heals him. But this does mean that we can be sick with the same illness and expect God to heal us. God never allows us to imitate the deeds of others' faith. We often travel a long way before we find out that we are imitating the deeds of others' faith instead of imitating their faith. We often have to pass through many difficulties before we find out that imitating the deeds of faith is a dead end. When we cannot make it and realize that we have come to the end of the road, our prayer will become real and genuine. Only then will we really seek after God. Up to that point, our prayer will merely be mindless words, habitual and unintended. But when we reach that point, our prayer will become genuine. We will become genuinely empty, and we will confess, "I am useless. Even the victory I had before cannot help me now." When we compare the difficulty God has given us with the strength we now have, we will realize that there is no way we can overcome. Then we will genuinely seek after the Lord and be conscious of our uselessnes. We will not need someone to tell us to be humble; we will spontaneously be humble. Our humility will not be a thing taught by others but something that swells up within us spontaneously. Then we will truly know that everything we have is vanity, and we will understand the meaning of "apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
Brothers and sisters, God desires to see you seeking after Him in a genuine way. Therefore, He places trials and difficulties before you. When these things are before you, you should honestly seek after Him. When you really need His power, you will realize that you can do nothing apart from Him. It is true that when you do things according to your own design, you apparently can do quite a bit. But when you have to do something according to God's design, you will find out that you need His power. Without His power we cannot do anything. Brothers and sisters, we must realize that God has ruled us out on the cross already! We have often overestimated ourselves. In reality, we have been ruled out by God on the cross already. Golgotha is where we were ruled out. We ourselves no longer exist. Brothers and sisters, whenever we become empty, the Lord will fill us up. The Word of God plainly promises: "The hungry He has filled with good things" (Luke 1:53a). Therefore, He will certainly make the hungry satisfied with good things. Brothers and sisters, has God brought us to this point? Have we ever felt that we cannot make it? Those who feel that they have nothing at all are blessed because they will certainly be filled. Only these persons can receive God's blessing; only these ones will be filled. If you think that you are rich and feel that you are good in everything, you can only expect to be sent away empty. Only one class of people will be filled before God: those who are empty in hand and empty in spirit. Brothers and sisters, are you truly empty? Have you really reached the point where God can bless you? Can you say, "I am useless in the service of God, and I can do nothing at all"? If you are truly empty and if you are truly seeking after God's word, He will work and operate in you.
The story in 2 Kings 4 shows us an important spiritual principle.
What did the woman and her sons have? They only had a pot of oil. This same pot of oil was later poured into many empty vessels. The little bit of oil that she had at the beginning was crucial. In the Bible oil represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works only on those who already have the Spirit abiding in them.
The widow's problem was that she had too few vessels. Elisha told her, "Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full" (2 Kings 4:3-4). What did the woman do? "So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed" (vv. 5-6). She had to borrow empty vessels — this speaks of the need for empty room within us for the Holy Spirit. She was to borrow not a few — this means the more the better. There should not be only one empty room but many empty rooms. One empty space is not enough; there needs to be many empty spaces. The more empty spaces there are, the more fullness there will be. This is a principle which the Lord has shown us: spiritual progress is a matter of being continually emptied out and continually filled up. The work of the Holy Spirit is not "once empty then forever full" but "always empty and always full." Therefore, brothers and sisters, do not think that as long as we have been emptied once, we will not need any more emptying. The work of the cross in us is ever-increasing and ever-deepening.
Another very important thing is the place where the oil was to be poured. It was to be poured in the house and with the door shut. To shut the door means to confine the woman, her sons, and the oil within the door. This indicates that we have to deal with the Holy Spirit directly ourselves. Everything should be between us and the Lord. Difficulties and victories are all personal. If there is something wrong with us, we must not bear a grudge against anyone nor blame anyone. We should shut the door, which means we should deal with the Holy Spirit within us alone. Our relationship is with the Holy Spirit alone. It is up to us and the Holy Spirit to decide whether we should live a rich spiritual life or a poor one. As long as we have settled everything with the Holy Spirit, all will go well.
We should consider another very precious thing: "And he [the son] said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed." The Holy Spirit will fill every empty vessel, even the very last one. If there had been more empty vessels, there would have been more oil. We must bear in mind that the reason the oil stayed was because there were no more vessels. It was not the oil that first stayed, but the empty vessels that were first exhausted. When there were no more empty vessels, the oil stayed. The oil did not exhaust itself; it was the empty vessels that were exhausted. Brothers and sisters, God is waiting for us to empty ourselves. If there is an infinite emptiness in us, the Holy Spirit will grant us an infinite filling. Whether or not we will receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit depends on whether we have empty vessels. It depends on whether or not we have reserved room for the Holy Spirit and whether or not we have provided Him a place to work in us.
We need to pray and ask the Lord to dig more deeply in us and make more room in us so that the Holy Spirit can fill us. The filling of the Holy Spirit depends on our emptiness. I will repeat: our emptiness ought to be a continuous state. If we cannot empty ourselves, God cannot fill us. The Holy Spirit is waiting for empty rooms within us. The more empty rooms we give to Him, the more He will fill us. If there is empty room, it means there is more filling by the Holy Spirit to come. Therefore, we need not seek for the filling; all we have to do is to empty ourselves. The Holy Spirit alone is responsible for the filling; our responsibility is to empty ourselves. If we can empty ourselves, we will have the filling. We may not be conscious of the filling, but the fact of the filling will certainly be with us.
Brothers and sisters, God wants to fill the hungry with good things. If God has already created a seeking heart within us and if He is digging and emptying us, we ought to believe that He will certainly fill us. God will only send away empty those who think they are rich.
