A Christian does not live by the power of his will but by the power of life. Many Christians have never seen this, nor have they learned this lesson. They often say, "I will make up my mind. I have to make resolutions. I will promise and make vows. I will do this today and I will do that tomorrow." The power of their living is derived from their will. Even many co-workers work through the exercise of their will. Their work is controlled by their human will. However, Romans 7:19 says, "For I do not do the good which I will; but the evil which I do not will, this I practice." The man in this verse could only say that he willed; he could not do what he willed. Matthew 26:41 says, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." This verse proves that the spirit is willing but that the will is weak. A man may say that he wants God's will, that he will do God's will, and that he will perform all kinds of goodness. No matter how much he wills, he will not accomplish what he wants to do. The greatest mistake is to think that man does good because he wills to do good and that he does evil because he wills to do evil. However, doing good and committing evil are all a matter of law; they have nothing to do with the will. In order to do good, man needs a life that is good. However, man has become fallen and can no longer do good. A man who tries to do good by his will is like a man trying to drive a car that is out of gasoline. All he can do is push the car. If he pushes, the car moves, and if he does not push, the car does not move. This is the way many believers live today.
We have to realize that within a believer there is something deeper than the will. This is the life of God. This life has nothing to do with our will. It is something spontaneous. This life is a law. It lives out all kinds of goodness in a spontaneous way. In the physical life, a man eats when he is hungry. He puts on clothing when he is cold. He gets out of bed when he wakes up in the morning. These are spontaneous acts. The same is true with the spiritual life. We read the Bible because it is beneficial to our spiritual life; we eat the word spontaneously. We do not read just because we resolve to read. For a healthy person, eating is something spontaneous. Only a sick person needs others to force him to eat. The same is true with our spiritual life. God's life is good; therefore, doing good is a spontaneous thing. It is abnormal for us not to do good. We do not testify just because we resolve to testify; our testimony should be an outflow of life. Whatever is in us spontaneously comes out of us. If we are inwardly filled with God's life, we will outwardly express this life in a spontaneous way.
A sister once became sick on a journey. She suffered much, but the Lord brought her through. Later she testified that the Lord of glory literally carried her on His back and brought her through. She had experienced God's life, and she knew this life. Hence, her testimony was spontaneous. Many believers are physically weak because they love their own life. They are not able to bear even the slightest burden. They have not experienced the Lord's resurrection life, and they cannot testify of the riches of this life. Blessed are those who live by the power of the Lord's life. They are able to experience the resurrection power of the Lord and to testify of this power under any circumstance. In 2 Corinthians 1:9 Paul said, "We should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." This is the life that God wants us to live. It is a life that lives by the resurrection life of the Lord, not by ourselves.
What is the resurrection life? In John 11:25 the Lord said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live." The resurrection life is just Christ. Philippians 3:10 speaks of the power of Christ's resurrection. Hebrews 7:16 speaks of the power of an indestructible life. Acts 2:24 says that God raised Christ from the dead, because it was not possible for Him to be held by death. The greatest power in this world is death; the totality of the power of the gates of Hades is the power of death. But Christ has resurrected from the dead. He has overcome the power of death and Hades. Resurrection means that life has gone into death and come out of death. Revelation 1:18 is a precious verse. It says that the Lord became dead but is living forever and ever. Resurrection means that something "became dead, and behold...[is] living forever and ever." This life possesses the greatest power. It overcomes death, transcends death, and is not bound by death. The life that we have is such a life. Consequently, we can transcend over all sufferings and trials and overcome the bondage of the power of death in our daily living.
Once, when I was in Nanking, there was an air raid. I saw one man crawling out of a heap of debris. He was able to do this because he was still living; there was still life in him. Anything that was dead and lifeless would not crawl out. Ephesians 1:19-20 speaks of the great power that God operated in Christ in raising Him from the dead. This life is now manifesting itself through us. It can manifest itself through us because Christ is in us, and He is our resurrection life. Once we see this, we will no longer trust in our will power but in the life power of Christ. When a sick man is dying, he cannot just decide in his mind to live. Doctors tell us that only a very small percentage of people survive through the exercise of their will power. Living is a matter of life; it is not a matter of the will. Paul said in Colossians 1:29 that he labored and struggled according to the Lord's operation which operated in him in power. This is the secret to our Christian living. We live according to the power of the inner life, and not according to the power of our will.
The amount of burden a Christian can bear in his outward living depends on the working of God within; it does not depend on his will power. This is like filling a tire with air. When all the tires of a car have twenty-five pounds of pressure per square inch, the car can move smoothly. But if any of the tires are flat, the car will not move. A man who acts according to his will is like a man who is pushing a car with a flat tire. A Christian can never be energized by the power of his will. Every outward performance and work of the will will eventually be shattered. The Christian life should be spontaneous. Everyone who lives by the life of God is a spontaneous person; there is nothing unnatural about him. Anything unnatural, awkward, or artificial is a result of the human will. This is not the kind of life that God has ordained for a Christian. We have to see the futility of the will. We have to see that the power for our Christian living is not the power of the will but the power of the life of God. May the Lord show us the power of God's life, and may we always live by the power of this life.
