Scripture Reading: Isa. 6:8; 1 Sam. 1:10-11; John 7:17
The Bible shows us that God needs man. God needs man to cooperate with Him before He can fulfill His eternal plan. In the six days of creation, man was the center of God's creating work. God could only rest after He had created man; He could not rest without man. Although man later fell, God's intention concerning man has not changed. He still wants to gain man. Man's salvation, edification, and maturity in spiritual life is for the satisfaction of God's need. The greatest necessity in God's work is human cooperation. At no time and place has God's work been carried out without human cooperation. Man works together with God, and God cannot do anything without man. (The work of God here does not include His work of creation in the six days. The work of creation in the six days was God's own work, and man had no part in it.)
From Genesis to Revelation, we can see that God has always been seeking man, gaining man, guiding man, and working through man. In order to do anything, God first gains some men. If He has not gained some men, He cannot work. We can see this from a few examples.
Consider the story of Noah and the ark. At the time of Noah, God clearly wanted to save men. But if He did not gain Noah, He could not fulfill His purpose. God had to find Noah, work through him, and accomplish His will by means of him. God wanted an ark, but He also had to find a person who had a heart for Him. God had to find a person who could cooperate with Him before He could build an ark. He had to find Noah, who sympathized with Him, walked with Him, and received His commission before He could accomplish His work. God had to gain man before He could do anything. In order for the story of the ark to be written, God had to first secure Noah. In him we see a man walking with God and working with Him.
Consider the story of Moses. God intended to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, but He first had to gain Moses. Without Moses, God had no way to save the Israelites. It is true that God is omnipotent and almighty. But if He did not have Moses, it would have been impossible for Him to deliver the Israelites. If Moses had not allowed God to use him, God could only have waited until someone was raised up and then use this one to deliver the Israelites. In Moses' deliverance of the children of Israel, we also see God's need for man's cooperation. The principle here is very clear.
After the Israelites reached the foot of Mount Sinai, God ordered them to make a tent. He intended to fill the tabernacle with His glory and dwell among men through the tabernacle. Yet He needed a group of men to build the tabernacle. If God had not found Moses and a group of people to build the tabernacle, He could not have revealed Himself to the Israelites or dwelt among men.
In the coming of the Lord Jesus, we have a clearer picture of man's cooperation with God. Who is our Lord Jesus? He is God becoming a man. There was no one in the universe who could meet God's standard. As a result God Himself became a man. The Lord Jesus was more than a man, yet throughout His life on earth, He always maintained His stand as a man. Although He is God and the Son of God, He always did things as a man. When He was tempted, Satan told Him more than once that He ought to do things as the Son of God. Satan tried to lure Him away from the position of a man to the position of God. But the Lord Jesus answered, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). He meant that He was on earth as a man. He was tempted by Satan because He became flesh and was made a Nazarene. When He cast out a demon, the demon cried, "I know who You are — the Holy One of God." But the Lord silenced him (Mark 1:23-26). The main purpose of the Lord coming to the earth was to be a man. He said, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost" (Luke 19:10). When Nathanael came to the Lord, he said, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel." The Lord answered and said, "You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:49-51). He always said the Son of Man did such and such. This shows that while the Lord Jesus was on earth, He always stood in the position of a man. God can only accomplish His work through man. When man could not satisfy God's demand, He sent His beloved Son to earth to become a man, to satisfy His own demand, and to accomplish His work. Later, we see the Lord Jesus sending the twelve and then sending the seventy (Luke 9:1-2; 10:1). In order to accomplish His work, God needs a group of men. All of God's work among men from Genesis to Revelation requires the cooperation of man. Without man, God can do nothing, and His work cannot be accomplished.
In Isaiah 6:8 God said, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?" God has the desire to spread the gospel and save some men, but there is no one whom He can use. Some people are occupied by vainglory. Others are occupied by enjoyment, families, or ease. These ones only care for their own affairs, and they have no heart for the propagation of the gospel or for God's work. Brothers and sisters, do you realize that many people are not saved because of your refusal to cooperate with Him, rather than any unwillingness on God's part? God has the desire to save, but you have no desire to cooperate with Him. If every brother and sister was willing to cooperate with God, the number of saved ones would be beyond your ability to calculate. God's work cannot go on because He has not found men. Brothers and sisters, God must gain you before He can accomplish His work.
There is a very precious thought in the Bible: God treasures man's aspiration for Him. The story of Moses shows us that he had an aspiration to save the Israelites on God's behalf. Although he was not used by God until he was eighty years old, his aspiration did not begin at the age of eighty; it was there when he was forty years old. God did not forget his aspiration during the next forty years. He came back to Moses.
Not only do we see this in Moses, we see this in the story of Samuel as well. Hannah prayed to the Lord and vowed, "If thou wilt...give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life" (1 Sam. 1:10-11). God gained Samuel and accomplished His purpose through him in that age because Samuel's mother had an aspiration toward God concerning her son. God cares for man's aspiration toward Him; He treasures such an aspiration.
If we read God's Word carefully, we will find that God only gives spiritual life and light to one kind of people. Who are these people? They are the ones who have an aspiration to be used by God. The same is true in the case of spiritual power. No spiritual power is outward. All spiritual power comes as a result of man's aspiration for God and his consecration to God. Genuine power is based on man's heart toward God and his love for God. In the Old Testament Samson was very powerful. His enemy, the Philistines, did not know the source of his power; through Delilah they found out that his strength was with his hair. Once his hair was cut, he lost his power (Judg. 16:15-17). What was his hair? It was the hair of a Nazarite. A Nazarite is one who is fully consecrated to God. All genuine spiritual power comes from one's consecration to God. If a person is not thorough with his consecration, he is still crippled and powerless. But if a person has a thorough consecration before the Lord, he will become powerful. No matter how seeking we have been, we must always remember that power comes from consecration.
Suppose God puts His hand on a sister, and she struggles with the Lord for a long time without yielding to Him. Although she is willing to pray with others, her condition is not healthy because she has not satisfied God's demand. No matter how much she tries to help others, she cannot have a breakthrough. One day when God's love constrains her, she decides tearfully to yield to God. Once she answers God's demand, the help she renders to others will begin to touch others. This is why we say that power comes from consecration. The more consecration we have, the more power God will give to us.
Some may ask: "Why is it that others can have the light, but I do not have the light?" According to the story of Samson, whenever his hair was shaved, his power was gone, and he lost his eyes (Judg. 16:20-21). We do not have the light and we are blind because we do not have a thorough consecration. The Lord said, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye....But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Matt. 6:21-23). The degree to which our heart is turned to the Lord determines the degree to which our spiritual eyes are opened within. God's children do not have light because they do not have a heart for God. They do not have power because their consecration is too little. When our heart is not turned to God sufficiently, when our consecration is inadequate, and when we do not answer God's demand completely, God cannot get through in us. If our consecration is thorough, it will bring in spiritual riches and heavenly blessings. I believe that when all the brothers and sisters are for the Lord and are thoroughly consecrated, the gospel will be preached everywhere and heavenly blessings will pour down everywhere.
Brothers and sisters, there is no other way to genuine power, light, and heavenly riches except through answering God's demand. The amount of consecration we have to God determines the amount of power we have from God. May we not hinder Him. In order for God to have a way, our heart must be turned toward Him; we must answer His demand and allow Him to flow through us. Otherwise, we will only hinder our God. God desires that we turn our heart to Him and answer His demand. In His work God needs man. If we do not answer His demand, He will have to find someone else to answer Him and carry out His will. May God strengthen our aspiration toward Him, and may His will be carried out through us.
