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Date:Evening, February 2, 1950Place:Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
The following hymn was written about a person, Dara, whose heart was most sincere and whose spirit was most pure towards the Lord. It speaks of the proper attitude a man of God should have towards the world. As we sing this song, we touch a spirit whose purity rarely has been found in the past five hundred years. As we learn to touch the Lord's Spirit with our spirit and as we turn our heart fully to the Lord as the writer did, we can lay aside every earthly possession.
Five or six hundred years ago, there was a person by the name of Miss Bride who was greatly used by the Lord to perform miracles. She laid hands on Dara, and the little sister, who was born blind and who was then in her teens, recovered her sight. After Miss Bride prayed for her, her eyes were opened and everything around was new to her. She was very happy and greatly enjoyed the sight of the sun, the moon, the stars, and everything around her. After a few days, however, she went back to Miss Bride in great sorrow. When Miss Bride asked her what she wanted, she said she wanted someone to pray for her again. Miss Bride asked, "Do you have some other illness?" She answered, "Please pray for me to have my eyes blind again. The beautiful scenery is distracting me from the Lord." Later Miss Bride put Dara's words together in a poem and composed the above song. We can see that this is a song from the heart of one who is absolutely single for the Lord. It shows us the kind of attitude such a person has towards the world.
Tonight we want to talk about the matter of handing oneself over. In order to serve the Lord, we have to hand ourselves over. First, we have to see the meaning of handing oneself over. Next, we need to see what we should do after we have handed ourselves over. Before this, however, let us first talk about the loss and recovery of the truth concerning handing oneself over.
Roman Catholicism reached its zenith during the Middle Ages. During that time the truth expounded by the church became distorted; it became very different from the teaching found in the four Gospels and in Acts. In the four Gospels, while the Lord Jesus was on earth, He not only emphasized deliverance from sin but also emphasized deliverance from money (cf. Luke 16:19-24; 19:16-26). The Acts of the Apostles is a book on the teachings of the apostles. These teachings exhort men to flee from money, on the one hand, and from sin, on the other hand. The Christian foundation is built upon deliverance from these two things. If a man continues to live under the bondage of sin as a sinner, he cannot be a proper Christian. In the same way, if he continues to live under the bondage of money, he cannot be a proper Christian. In order to serve the Lord, a man must first be delivered from sin and money on the negative side. In the fourth century the world was brought into the church. It was no longer poor; it became very rich. Within the church, there was a gradual turning away from the teachings taught by the Lord Jesus and the apostles at the beginning.
The early church followed the teachings of the apostles and exhorted men to flee from both sin and money. It is ugly for a Christian to tolerate sin, but it is equally ugly for a Christian to tolerate money and the world. Yet after the first apostles passed away, the church gradually became relaxed in the matter of money. It still taught that Christians should not sin, but it allowed believers to keep their money. There was no end to the degradation. From that time onward, the trend has been ever downward. This went on until the Middle Ages. Since the sixth century, when the church developed into the system of Catholicism, there has been a toleration not only of money but of sin as well. Men began to accumulate wealth, yet spiritually they became extremely poor. Later the Catholic Church even came up with the teaching of purgatory. As long as a man had money, he could absolve himself from his sins by buying indulgences. To help finance the building of St. Peter's Cathedral, the pope greatly promoted the practice of selling indulgences, especially when he found out that little was coming in from the general offering. For example, those who had committed adultery could be absolved of their sin with four indulgences. Those who had murdered could be absolved of their sin with twelve, and those who had lied could be absolved of their sin with two. In this way society became corrupted, and there was much confusion.
At man's darkest moment God began His recovery work. It began with Martin Luther, but this does not mean that only Luther made progress towards recovery. Among his contemporaries, there were others who saw the same thing. Luther was a representative of God's recovery work in that age. Nine hundred years after the degradation of the church, we see a new beginning in Protestantism. For the first time Christians were again expected to turn from sin.
Since Luther's time God has been recovering His truths one by one. First, the church saw the need of turning away from sin. All the spiritual giants in church history, such as Moody, Spurgeon, and Finney, paid attention to turning men away from sin. They said that in order to receive salvation and become a Christian, one had to be sincere. He should not lie, debauch, or commit adultery. But the church has never been bold enough to proclaim, as the Lord Jesus proclaimed, that one should forsake everything to follow the Lord. I am not saying that there have been no real followers of the Lord. Thank the Lord, there has never been an interruption in the line of true Christians. First, we have St. Francis of Assisi. He was the son of a rich man, but he sold all of his possessions and gave to the poor. He began to practice a life of voluntary poverty. Later in Moravia God raised up Count Zinzendorf. He was a nobleman, but he opened up his estate to receive saints from everywhere. The result was the establishment of the Moravian Brethren. After this there was Sister Eva, a German, who also took the way of voluntary poverty. In the last century the Brethren were raised up by God. Among them many truths were recovered. Many leading brothers among them, such as Darby and Kelly, practiced voluntary poverty. They forsook everything to follow the Lord. This is the reason the Lord could have a way through them. In 1922 when I was just saved, I saw this truth and I began to practice forsaking everything to follow the Lord.
In the light of the entire history of the church, we can say that today is our day. In China many of God's children have risen up to take this way. More and more Christians are rising up and forsaking all. In the past the church did not have the courage to preach this truth. It did not have the boldness to tell men that they have to forsake everything to follow the Lord, that unless they forsook everything, they could not be proper Christians. In 1943 the Holy Spirit began a great work in Chefoo. Many brothers and sisters obeyed the move of the Holy Spirit and offered up everything for the Lord. Later Shanghai followed and then Foochow. I hope that today Hong Kong will follow. To be a Christian, one must be a Christian in accordance with the truth of the Bible. To serve the Lord, one has to be absolute; it is useless to be otherwise. In singing the hymn about Dara, we can sense the joy within her. The most foolish thing is to be a half-way Christian. Such a one does not have the joy of the world (John 15:19) or the joy of the Lord in his spirit. He wants to have a little of the world's joy and a little Christian joy. He is not absolute, and he does not grow.
Why must a child of God hand himself over completely and forsake everything? This is because this is the only way to be a proper Christian. Many people do not have many problems in other areas, but they have a problem with their consecration. Today many Christians have hundreds and thousands of problems. Actually, the root of their problems is only one thing — a lack of consecration. If a Christian does not have a problem with his consecration before the Lord, he will not have a problem with anything else.
What does it mean to hand oneself over? It means to forsake everything. Selling one's all is a matter of being delivered from the power and bondage of mammon. The Lord shows us in the Gospels that a man is bound not only by sin but by mammon as well. The Bible does not say that sin is versus God. Rather, it says that mammon is versus God. The Bible does not say that sin is man's god, but it does say that mammon is man's god. In Matthew 6 the Lord Jesus said that God and mammon are against one another. We cannot serve two gods. Either we serve God, or we serve mammon (v. 24). Nothing opposes God as much as mammon. Today mammon has gained many people in the world. Many people do not necessarily serve sin, but they serve mammon. We are Christians today. We cannot serve both God and mammon. A Christian must not only be saved from sin but also from the power of mammon. We should hand ourselves over. This means that we should consecrate everything. We should offer up everything for the Lord's use. This is the only way to be delivered from the control of mammon.
Today we have two groups of people in the church here. One group has touched money. The other group consists of students who are still in school. The way to be free from the power of mammon is to sell all. We should get rid of the mammon in our pockets. Today the gospel has needs, the poor have needs, and the brothers and sisters have needs. All these needs are beckoning us to hand ourselves over. Handing ourselves over means to break the backbone of mammon within us. From now on, we should no longer be under the influence of mammon. Students may think that they have no problem with this word. The brothers and sisters who have touched money and who have learned some lessons about money have experienced the power of money. This word is not easy for them to take. Perhaps none of what we have now has come through unrighteous means. We did not sin or cheat. But we cannot free ourselves from its power as long as we allow mammon to remain. You may say that my words are too harsh and severe, but being a Christian requires one to be harsh. The Lord told the disciples to forsake everything for His sake and for the gospel's sake (Mark 10:29).
We have to go through the experience of thoroughly giving up everything at least once. After we have given up everything, God's blessing gradually will bring us into contact with mammon once again, and it will try to recover its power in us. This is the reason some of us have to deal with our possessions once every few years. We have to fear mammon as much as we fear sin. The Lord Jesus' cross delivered us from the judgment of sin, but we still sin and need to apply the Lord as our propitiation offering (1 John 1:7—2:2). Similarly, the problem of mammon is not solved forever once we have given up our all. After we have given up everything, we have to learn to deal with mammon continually. This will ensure that we have a way to go on before the Lord. We should not think that everything is settled once we have forsaken our all. It is only a beginning.
Handing oneself over means to thoroughly give up everything. The emphasis is not only on the words give up everything but on the word thoroughly as well. Thorough means a clear-cut liquidation, termination, and dealing. Objects related to sin cannot be sold; they have to be burned or destroyed. Acts 19 speaks of Paul's work in Ephesus. Many who had practiced magic brought their books, put them in a pile, and burned them on account of the strong testimony. The value of the books was fifty thousand pieces of silver (v. 19). If Judas had been there, he would have been in rage, saying, "Why this waste? These books at least could be sold at twenty percent discount, and we could give forty thousand pieces of silver to the poor." The Holy Spirit wanted to burn them because these objects were related to sin. Sin was in them. They were offensive objects and, therefore, needed to be burned.
A brother in Shanghai was in the business of selling comic books. He could earn seven thousand People's yen a day. He depended on this business for his living. His books were worth over eight hundred thousand People's yen. For many years he kept his occupation. When filling out the personal data card from the church, he would leave the "occupation" column blank. If anyone asked him about his occupation, he would dodge the question. One day the Lord touched him and would not let him go. He felt that he had to deal with this matter. He went to the brothers and spoke with them. He was willing to hand himself over, and he asked the brothers and sisters to burn the books for him. When Brother Chang Yu-zhi heard this, he praised the brother and promised to burn the books for him. When I heard about it, I stopped him. I asked the brother to burn the books himself. This is like Abraham killing Isaac; he had to do it with his own hands.
The young brothers and sisters who are in school have not yet touched mammon. I would say this to them: From now on keep yourself pure. You have to make up your mind not to touch or be defiled by many things. You have to separate yourselves from these things. You have to ask God to keep you pure and to grant you the grace to be blind to mammon. Today man's heart is open to mammon. But I hope that you can touch the hymn we sang earlier. I hope that you can maintain a pure heart and never fall to the power of mammon for the rest of your life. Do not wait until you have become rich to seek deliverance from mammon. In the Bible the Lord speaks of "the mammon of unrighteousness" (Luke 16:9). Its very nature is unrighteous. It is versus God, and it turns men away from God. You have to be saved from it just as you need to be saved from sin.
In the past we put the blame on the co-workers, but the church should bear the blame as well. It did not have the boldness to speak as the Lord Jesus did concerning selling everything, forsaking all, and following Him. Being delivered from mammon is not just a simple act of handing oneself over. Some people do not have mammon in their hands, but they do have it in their heart. Actually, there is a greater love for mammon in many poor people. The Lord Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3), but many people are not poor in spirit. They crave mammon. They crave it because they do not have it. This proves that they have not been delivered from the power of mammon. In 1 Timothy 6:9-10 Paul said that those who intend to be rich and aspire after money have pierced themselves through with many pains. This word shows that those who desire to be rich are under the power of mammon. Today I hope that we all will advance step by step and be totally free from the power of mammon. We have to hate mammon as much as we hate sin. It is wrong for a Christian not to hate sin. Such a one is a fallen Christian. In the same way, when we find that we cannot hate mammon like we hate sin, we have fallen. We should be like the apostle Peter who said, "Silver and gold I do not possess, but what I have, this I give to you..." What he had was the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene (Acts 3:6). The early church did not have silver or gold; it only had the name of the Lord Jesus. Today we have to go back to the very condition at the beginning.
If we take a look at this generation, we can see that our age does not allow us to accumulate mammon. Christian poverty is a voluntary poverty that results from salvation. This was Zaccheus's experience (Luke 19:1-10). Many people are poor because of their environment or upbringing. Others become poor as a result of persecution or class struggle. These are not poor voluntarily. The last time I was in Shanghai, I saw many people who are poor outwardly but not inwardly. I also saw many brothers and sisters who once were rich but are now poor for the Lord. They are very happy. In the future the greatest suffering in hell will be the suffering of unfulfillment. In hell none of man's lusts will be fulfilled. This will be the greatest suffering. There still will be sin in hell, in fact, many sins (Rev. 21:8), but man will not be able to indulge himself or find satisfaction in his lusts. Today many people crave the riches of the world but cannot get them. They are not only suffering in this age; they also will suffer great chastisement when their soul goes through Hades's fire for their avarice. How unnecessary this is!
What should we do with all the money that has been handed over? There are three ways to manage money that has been handed over. First, use it to spread the gospel, second, use it to help the poor, and third, spend it on the brothers and sisters in the church.
Money that has been handed over should first be used in the spread of the gospel. In Matthew 19, after the episode with the young ruler, Peter asked the Lord about the reward he and the others would receive since they had forsaken everything for the gospel (Matt. 19:27; Mark 10:28). The Lord answered, "There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now at this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the coming age, eternal life" (Mark 10:29-30). The Lord showed Peter that he would receive a hundredfold reward, but Peter had to be genuinely ready to forsake everything. Everything means everything, including houses and fields. Everything has to go because the Lord said that it is not only for His sake but for the gospel's sake. When we forsake everything and hand over all, we should use the money first for the gospel.
The second use of our money is to take care of the poor around us. The Lord said that we have the poor with us always (John 12:8). In Matthew 19 the young ruler asked the Lord how he could inherit the kingdom. The Lord told him to sell all that he had and give to the poor. The Lord wanted him to dispose of his possessions and give them to the poor around him and then to follow Him (v. 21). St. Francis of Assisi saw this truth, and he sold all that he had and gave it to the poor. He vowed to live a poor life. Count Zinzendorf was a nobleman. He was very rich, but he opened up his estate to receive the believers. Helping the poor is a principle as well as a requirement in the Bible. The Lord always cares for the poor. However, the purpose of caring for the poor is not just for the sake of the poor themselves. The main purpose is to make us poor so that we can be free from the power of mammon. A Christian should not be an accumulator of mammon and wealth. He should only be one who is rich in faith, and one who enriches others (James 2:5; 2 Cor. 6:10).
Acts shows us the third way to use our money. We have to hand it over to God's household and to share it with other children of God (2:44). We are in the church, and there are many brothers and sisters around us. In order that they do not lack, we have to give away what we have in excess. The church has to be the household of faith.
Handing ourselves over does not merely mean offering up our whole person; it also means offering up all our possessions. We should not make the mistake of thinking that we only need to give our hearts to the Lord. Many people make the mistake of thinking that giving everything to the Lord means offering their heart to Him. Many people preach this way. They exhort men to give their hearts to the Lord, but they dare not preach on giving the body to the Lord. We have opened up a big back door if we cannot preach a total consecration, including ourselves and all that we have, instead of just pledging our heart to Him. The most practical consecration is one in which we give our bodies to the Lord. Romans 6:13 says that we have to present our members as weapons of righteousness to God. Romans 12:1 also says that we have to present our bodies a living sacrifice. In both instances, the word body refers to the tangible physical body. If a man comes to us and says that he will give us his heart and hands, which would you take? I would choose the hands. The heart is too arbitrary; it is not easy to pin down. If we can lay hold of the body, we will know where the heart is.
We say that we are giving our heart to the Lord, yet our mammon is in the bank. First, let us consecrate the mammon in our bank, and then the heart will follow. Only the Lord can see our heart, because only He is the one who searches the inward parts and the hearts (Rev. 2:23). This is the reason the Lord said that where a man's treasure is, there is his heart also (Matt. 6:21). It is very easy for us to set our heart on the things above. All we have to do is to send our money there. It is impossible for our heart to be set on the things above while our mammon is in the bank below. Every man's heart is set on the earthly things because his mammon is on earth. The Lord never tries to eradicate the root of sin in us. Similarly, He never asks us to give up mammon to love God. He only says, "If your heart is truly after God, you have to place your mammon on God's side. If you bring your mammon to God, your heart will truly love God." The Lord does not ask us to give Him our heart, but He does ask us to bring Him our money. Our mammon must be deposited in heaven first before our heart will go to heaven. When we say that we want to hand ourselves over, we have to bring our heart and mammon to God at the same time. Let me shout this again: The Lord does not say that we should not love mammon and love God instead. Rather, He says that we should send our mammon to heaven. This is because our heart follows our mammon. Not only does the world's heart follow mammon, even a Christian's heart follows mammon. Our heart will always go where our mammon is.
We should never think that only the world loves money and that Christians do not love money. There is not such a thing. A Christian can love money too. A Christian's heart is the same as the heart of someone in the world; both go after mammon. The only difference is that a Christian's mammon is in heaven. We are Christians, and we love the Lord. What should we do now? We should send our mammon to heaven. Spontaneously, our heart will follow. Man's heart always loves money. If a man says that he does not love mammon, he is deceiving himself. Men in the world put their mammon in one place, while a Christian puts his in another place — heaven. This is the only difference between a Christian and a person in the world.
We can feel our love for the Lord by offering up our mammon. Moreover, we should not just offer up what we have in excess. We have to offer until our heart hurts. When the heart hurts, we know that our heart has gone out to where our money is, and we will find joy. It will be easy for us to love God, and our love for Him will flow out. Let me repeat this: Where our treasure is, there is our heart also. Following this statement the Lord said that no man can serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). When the Lord says no man, He means no man. No man can serve two masters. If we want to serve God, our money has to go. I do not aspire to be anything in this world. I only aspire to gain God. Let me say this in a most respectful way: Our God can be bought with money. No one can accumulate mammon on earth yet have his heart in heaven. We should not fool ourselves.
The matter of handing oneself over is not just an exercise of the heart. One has to hand over his person as well as his possessions. It is very easy to shift the heart, but it is not easy to shift material things. I want to emphasize this: It is useless to say that one offers up his heart without offering up his things at the same time. If our heart goes to the Lord, our things have to go to Him as well. Our heart is very arbitrary; it can turn back and forth. The Lord said that where our treasure is, there is our heart also. If my treasure is not with God, my heart cannot rest in Him. It will be in God one moment and in the world the next moment. The Lord says that no man can serve two masters at the same time. When He says no man, He means no man.
Perhaps some will ask to what extent we have to offer ourselves before we can say that we have handed over our "all." Whatever we have, we should offer it and hand it over to the church. When we really feel the hurt, we have handed over our "all." When a man truly hurts from his giving, he enjoys the greatest joy in giving. A man laughs when he is happy, but he also weeps when he is happy. The greatest happiness is a happiness that makes a man weep. This happiness has a special taste.
How do we forsake everything? How do we hand ourselves over? In the Gospels we only see individuals forsaking everything. They sold their all and gave it to the poor; they did not give it to the church. This is because, in a strict sense, the church had not been established. In Acts the church was formed as a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. At this time the forsaking of all things became related to the church. At Pentecost there was a proper arrangement for everything that had been handed over to the church. The disciples sold their fields and possessions, and placed the proceeds at the feet of the apostles. The apostles then disposed of them and distributed them to everyone according to need (2:45). The church became involved. It was not a random selling; everything was done for the good of the church.
The church has to be bold to speak, and it has to be bold to act. The apostolic churches did not teach about selling one's all. The disciples acted this way spontaneously. The result of this giving was a great revival. This pattern is recorded in the Bible. The church should now be bold to preach this, but it must back up this preaching with the proper arrangements. When the brothers and sisters hand themselves over, they should do so in coordination with the church. They should not follow the examples in the Gospels. It should not be a random and haphazard giving. Rather, the handing over should be done with much arrangement. Some have handed over their factory or business to the church, but the church cannot conduct business or run a factory. Therefore, under the church's direction, some businesses are returned to your hand. You must manage these businesses yourself, but you should feel that the boss has changed. The Lord through the church is now your boss, and you should not take any profit for your own use anymore.
When we see the brothers and sisters hungry and lacking food, we have to take care of their needs more urgently than we take care of our business. If the brothers and sisters do not have daily necessities such as towels or toothbrushes at home, would we have the audacity to keep many of these items at home or, worse still, to display other useless objects around our house? The best thing for us to do is to ask the responsible brothers to come to our house and see if there are things that need to be given to the needy saints or see if there are things that need to be sold for the poor saints. Some brothers say that they have very little, but they are not the ones to judge whether they have much or little. Leave it to the church to decide this. We would rather overdo than not be enough. Even if we offer an item to the church and the church returns it to us, we will have the feeling that the item has been consecrated.
This kind of handing ourselves over will give us a "joy of poverty." It will give us a joy that we have never tasted before, the joy of "not having." Many have tasted the joy of "having," but when we hand everything over, we will taste the joy of "not having." It will be the same joy as the joy of "not having" sin. I hope that the brothers and sisters will all take this way.
If sin does not go away, the gospel will not go out, and if money does not go away, the gospel will not go out either. Mammon must first go away before the gospel can go out. The going away of mammon is only a way for our love to go out. It is not easy for me to ask someone to consecrate his heart. It is, in fact, impossible to exhort anyone to just consecrate his heart. The heart can be offered up, but it can be taken back in an instant. Our heart is at our own disposal. It is not easy to tell a person to "love the Lord your God from your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength and with your whole mind" (Luke 10:27). We are here to urge ourselves to send away our mammon. When we do this, our heart spontaneously will go where our mammon is. Once we hand over everything, our heart will go out with it. If we do not first send our mammon to the kingdom, it will be hard for us to enter the kingdom. Luke 18:24 shows us that it is difficult for those who have riches to enter the kingdom. The Lord told the young ruler to send away his mammon. If he had sent his mammon away to heaven, he would have entered the kingdom spontaneously.
Let us talk a little about what one should do, how one should live, and how one should coordinate with others after he has consecrated himself. A man who has handed himself over naturally has questions concerning his dwelling, living, and employment. He will ask, "What should I do now that I have handed over all my possessions?" This is important because we have not only handed over our possessions, but ourselves, our very person, as well. We have to live for the gospel and for the church. From this point forward, where we live, the job we take, and the future we have must all be determined by the gospel. It is for the brothers and sisters' benefit that we tell them to sell their all. When they sell their all, they can coordinate in the church life, and they can live for the gospel. For example, a student who used to go to school for his own study, after selling his all, must go to school for the purpose of spreading the gospel. Perhaps his last term in school had only one goal — his own study, but now he has two goals. In the same principle, we are not living in Hong Kong for ourselves but for the sake of the gospel. If the church needs us to go to Sinkiang, we should be able to respond and go. We do not wish to see personal choices here. We do not want to exercise personal freedom.
Some Chekiang brothers and sisters have migrated from Hangchow to the Yi-Yang region. The Communist Party commended us for this. Recently a group of brothers in Shanghai followed in their footsteps. They did not move there by choice but for the sake of the gospel. There are over two hundred people now living in straw tents. Some saints from the church in Chefoo moved to the northwest some time ago. A Christian lives on the earth for the Lord. Everything is for the Lord and for His gospel. We should be able to find more than just the Christians of past generations forsaking everything for the gospel. In the coming days, we also have to forsake everything for the gospel. Either we will not do it at all, or we must do it properly. We do not want unbelievers to laugh at us. For the sake of the prospering of the gospel, we are willing to go to any length. The responsible brothers have no interest in interfering with your personal business. This only adds to their burden of management. This is not something that we want to do, but we are forced to do it for the gospel's sake. Today there are still brothers and sisters in Shanghai who are ready to be sent to the northwest. They do not want the gospel to stop because of them.
You have to do the same in Hong Kong. Today there are two million people in Hong Kong. This number will increase. Now we have only a hundred saved ones among us. Even a thousand is too few. If just a tenth of the population in Hong Kong was saved, we would have two hundred thousand people. That is far greater than a thousand people. Your heart must not be satisfied. It is a foolish thing to be satisfied with your present condition. The Lord desires that all men be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). May we all have God's desire. Our view must be enlarged. The Lord's commandment is that we go into all the world to preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15). If we have this heart, it will be easy for us to spread the gospel throughout Hong Kong. But first we need a group of brothers and sisters to hand themselves over in a thorough way. No one should have any reservation for himself. No one should fool himself. If we all do this, other brothers and sisters will be attracted to follow. The responsibility is on our shoulders. We have to rise up to consecrate ourselves first. Eventually, this consecration will spread to the whole church. Unless the whole church rises up to take this way, we will have problems in the church life sooner or later. Some will see the truth and sell their all, while others will not want to give up their possessions. How can there be one accord if this happens? We have to see that the Lord's requirement is high. He requires that we forsake everything. The leading brothers must go on in a proper way and not have any reservations within. Only then will we be able to lead others on.
You do not have to be afraid. Brother Qu, Brother Lee, and other elder leading brothers are walking ahead of you and taking the lead among you. You have to be led to the point where you realize that no further progress will come unless you sell your all. To be a Christian we have to act decisively. It is meaningless and senseless to be a half-way and indifferent Christian. Brother Witness Lee once said that the church's channels have to be dug deep before water will flow abundantly. We can say the same thing about consecration. The more we consecrate, the more the blessing will come, and the more we will see men saved. The more hesitation we have, the less useful we will be. In every place many saints have experienced this. Once a child of God hands over his all, the gospel breaks forth. When the disciples sold their all in Acts, God added to them daily those who were being saved (2:47). If there is not a single soul in Hong Kong who wavers, who is held back, who keeps his body and possessions, and who lives for himself and if everyone is willing to rise up to serve under the church's direction, I believe there will be great hope in Hong Kong.
I have wanted to say a word for many years. Before the Lord entered Jerusalem, many people broke branches and took off their garments and laid them on the street. Had they not done this, the Lord could not have entered Jerusalem. This does not mean that the branches and the garments are the way in and of themselves, but it does mean that these ones first had to break many branches and take off many garments to cover the way before the Lord could enter the city in His glory. The Lord rode into Jerusalem on a colt as a King. Some had to break branches, remove garments, and lay them on the street so that the Lord could pass over them. If the gospel is to go out, we have to consecrate ourselves to be the way. Today it is not enough to merely break branches and take away garments. Our very person has to be the way. If we have any reservations, if we hold back anything, or if we are unwilling to fall down, the Lord will have no way. The Lord must have a way through us before the gospel will have a way in the world. We must regard the gospel like chariots, horses, and colts, and we ourselves have to be the way. The gospel has to roll over us so that more people in the world will hear the gospel.
In this matter we have to be very desperate and violent. If we are desperate enough, we will spread the gospel throughout China no matter who is in control of the government. If the Lord has a way through us and the gospel has a way through us, it will be very easy for the gospel to spread throughout China. As long as something is for the Lord, we should not count the cost. We should not save anything from the Lord. For His sake, we should not spare anything. No spending is excessive when it is spent on the Lord and His gospel (John 12:7-8). We must have absolutely no reservation. We should not leave anything for the world.
This world is very dangerous. We have to ask the Lord to keep us from touching the world. May the Lord be gracious to us, and may He grant us a way. In order to be a proper Christian we have to be violent and decisive. Those who do not consecrate themselves invariably go away in sorrow. The more absolute our consecration is, the more joy we will have. If we do not consecrate ourselves, even the life within us will rise up to protest against us.
Lord, when we were blind, we did not see Your preciousness. When we were blind, we saw only the world; our eyes were filled only with mammon. Tonight we ask You to show us Your glory. May we be willing to drop everything and forsake everything on account of Your shining face on the throne.
Lord, stir us up so that we will be more violent, desperate, and thorough, abandoning everything to follow You. May more people give themselves through our giving. Show the brothers and sisters that mammon and the world are hurting them; they do not help them. Lord, we do not belong to this world but to You. Just as You have shed Your blood on the cross for the gospel's sake, may more people shed their sweat for the gospel's sake. Perhaps some will even have to shed their blood for the gospel's sake. Since You have shed Your blood on the cross for the gospel's sake, may we suffer a little for Your sake, and may we shed our sweat and deny ourselves for the gospel's sake.
Lord, may You turn the church around fully in the coming days. May the whole church be conquered and subdued. First gain the church in Hong Kong, and then spread the gospel through it. It seems that men do not know You today. It seems that You are hidden. But we deeply yearn for the day when the gospel will have a breakthrough from the church.
Lord, we ask again: Reveal Your shining face to us. Teach us to forsake everything and to have a change in concept and valuation towards everything. May we be blind to the world and to mammon, and may we have a high and glorious valuation of Yourself and Your gospel. Be merciful to us. Amen.
