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Scripture Reading: Deut. 12:5-9, 17-18; 14:22-23; 15:19-21; 16:9-10, 13-17
We thank the Lord that now we all are learning to eat the Lord. However, according to the revelation in Deuteronomy, there are many particular points in the matter of eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord. On the one hand, the Lord is the bread of life, and we simply need to eat Him. On the other hand, according to Deuteronomy 12, 14, and 15, the Lord Jesus, whom we eat, comes out of our laboring; He is produced from our sowing of the field and from our raising of the herd and the flock. Therefore, according to Deuteronomy, our enjoyment of the riches of the Lord is the result of our laboring on Him.
I can further describe the particulars of this type of eating. For example, if you open your Bible, call on the name of the Lord, and pray-read His Word, you can enjoy the Lord even now. However, this is only the initial enjoyment; it is not the enjoyment of a rich harvest, because it is devoid of your own toil and labor. You enjoy the Lord simply by opening up yourself, by using your spirit to call on His name, and by pray-reading His Word. This is the enjoyment in sowing but not the enjoyment in harvesting.
Many of you have testified regarding your enjoyment of the Lord, but all that I have heard pertains to your eating, your enjoyment in sowing. You have not yet reached the level of eating with regard to harvesting. The initial sowing is easy, but the final harvesting is not so easy. After the seeds are sown, whether or not there will be a harvest is still a question. Up until now, your eating of the Lord for enjoyment has been in the initial stage, the sowing stage.
Therefore, I have to make it clear to you, brothers and sisters, that you should not stop at the enjoyment of sowing but should go on to the enjoyment of harvesting. When you sow, you simply bury the seed into the ground. After sowing, you still need to take care of the sprout that it may grow and bear fruit. Only then can you have the enjoyment of the harvest. In our enjoyment of sowing, we receive something of the Lord into us. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord and pray-read His Word, we receive a portion of the Lord as a seed into us. Whether this will result in a harvest depends upon our willingness to let the seed grow. If we let it grow, it will surely yield a harvest. Otherwise, nothing will happen.
According to my own observation, the enjoyment of the brothers and sisters is mostly in the enjoyment of sowing. Most of the seeds that are sown into you have no result. Why is there no result? This is because after you eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord, you do not let Him grow, mature, and bear fruit in you.
Suppose you call, “O Lord Jesus.” I believe that this calling will have a definite effect on you. You cannot call on the Lord without any consequence. He comes to you whenever you call on Him. On the one hand, He will come to comfort you; on the other hand, He might come to bother you. If you as a husband call, “O Lord! O Lord!” He may come to touch you within, saying, “See? You have offended your wife.” You may say, “O Lord! Cleanse me with Your precious blood!” But He may go on to say, “Indeed, the blood can cleanse you, but it cannot confess your sins for you. Go quickly and confess to your wife!” What should you do? Some husbands may harden their hearts and refuse to obey. Because they refuse to turn, the Lord is through with them. If you were such a one and you tried again to call, “O Lord,” it would not be as effective as before. The Lord Jesus knows your story; therefore, when you call on Him again, He will not move. We all have had this kind of experience. In the past He came when you called, “O Lord”; now He does not come. The more you call, the less it works; the more you say “O...” the more deflated you are. Then you may begin to question the practice of calling on the name of the Lord to such an extent that you do not want to call any longer. Is this not pitiful? You only sow the seed into the ground, but you do not let the seed grow to have a harvest. Eventually, even the enjoyment of the seed is gone.
Isaiah 55:10 says, “That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” I sow a seed into the ground, and it yields thirty seeds; I consume fifteen of them and still have fifteen seeds to sow for the next year. But what is your situation? The seed you have sown is finished because it did not grow. Therefore, there are no more seeds. Why are you out of seeds? It is because you did not let the seed grow.
When you call, “O Lord,” and the Lord gives you a sense that you have offended your wife, if you would quickly confess your sins before the Lord and also go to your wife to admit your failure and ask her for forgiveness, then the seed in you will grow very fast. When you come back to call, “O Lord,” the flavor is completely different. However, the Lord keeps on bothering you. When you call, “O Lord” again, He comes to point out that your hair is not cut properly and that you have to take care of this matter. If you obey immediately and get a proper haircut, you will sense much joy in you. Dear brothers and sisters, when this is the case, the result is tremendous. Your inner being becomes a field, a big farm, that has a rich reaping every day. This truly fulfills the word spoken by Isaiah, to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. Today I want to check with you all. Do you as sowers truly have seeds? Do you as eaters really have bread? Perhaps you have only half a bowl of rice, which is not enough even for yourself. If you cannot feed yourself adequately, how will you be able to take care of others? What is the reason for this? It is because you sow the seed, yet you do not labor to let the seed grow.
We all know that when a farmer labors on a field, he has to remove the stones, eliminate the weeds, water the soil, add fertilizer, and sometimes apply some pesticides. What do you do? You have done very well in eating the Lord and pray-reading His Word, but you do not remove the stones, nor eliminate the weeds, nor water the soil, nor add fertilizer, nor apply pesticides. In the end you might as well have not sown at all. If you do not sow, your seeds will remain intact, but once you sow, you lose the only seeds you have. There are some people who indeed have a reserve of a small portion of the Lord before pray-reading the Word, but after they gained the Lord through pray-reading and then are disobedient by not laboring, they lose the presence of the Lord. The Lord went farther away from them.
In Deuteronomy laboring on the land of Canaan was altogether different from gathering manna in the wilderness. Indeed, the land of Canaan was God-given, the seeds were God-given, and the necessary things, such as the air, the sunshine, and the rain were all given by God. However, in addition to these gifts, the people still needed to labor. If they did not labor on the field, the Lord could not do anything. In typology the seeds, the sunlight, the rain, and even the physical strength the people had with which to sow and labor on the land were all the Lord Himself. Nevertheless, their cooperation with the Lord was required. They could not reap the produce of the land unless they cooperated. The produce of the land is different from the manna. Manna was given purely from heaven. There was no need for man to sow, reap, or cooperate with God. Of course, in order to have the manna to eat, one still had to go out and gather it early in the morning. If someone were lazy and went out late, there would be nothing to gather. Yes, this going out in the morning may be considered cooperation, but this was a minimal amount of cooperation. To gain the produce of the land was entirely different. To gain the produce of the land required the people’s cooperation from the beginning to the end. God gave the water, sunshine, air, and seeds. However, God would not labor for them; they had to do their own laboring.
Let me ask you this: Which is better and higher, manna or the produce of the good land of Canaan? Naturally, you will say that the produce of the land of Canaan is superior. In what way is it superior? First, the produce is for offering. The manna that descends from heaven is good in the eyes of man, but God does not want manna as an offering. God did not say that we should offer manna as a burnt offering, a wave offering, or a heave offering. Rather, He said, “Eat! It is only good to be your food; it is not good enough to be My offering.” Manna does not qualify as an offering. Offerings are for the worship of God. Manna is good, but it does not qualify to be used in the worship of God. If you want to worship God, you have to bring the produce of the good land of Canaan; only the produce of the good land can constitute your worship to God. Regardless of how much manna you eat, as in the case of the people of Israel who ate manna for forty years, it is not sufficient to constitute your worship to God. You have to eat the produce of the land of Canaan; only this produce can constitute your worship to God. Therefore, by this you see that manna is inferior, whereas the produce of the land of Canaan is superior.
Let me ask you, brothers and sisters, what do you eat today, manna or the produce of the good land? Some say that they eat manna; others say that they eat manna as well as the produce. This is true. However, I hope that those who eat manna will gradually stop eating it. Do you know where manna was eaten? It was eaten in the wilderness. Therefore, eating manna is a strong proof that you are a wanderer. Where was the produce of the good land eaten? It was eaten in Canaan! Moreover, the top tenth of the harvest of the land — the firstborn of the herd and of the flock and the firstfruits of the grain — was not to be eaten at home. It had to be brought to the temple and eaten before God. This shows that the wandering of the children of Israel had ceased.
Do you want to be a Christian who eats manna or a Christian who eats the produce of the good land? Everyone wants to be a Christian who eats the produce of the good land. True, manna is good; but it is not good enough, because it is the diet of those who wander about in the wilderness. Joshua 5 shows clearly that the manna ceased to descend from heaven immediately after the children of Israel entered into Canaan and began to eat the produce of the land (v. 12). Once you have eaten the produce of the good land, you do not need manna anymore, because you experience something deeper and enjoy something better. Henceforth, we have to exercise not to eat manna anymore. Yes, manna is Christ, but it is Christ as our supply during our wandering days. We need to enter into the land of Canaan, where the produce is far better than manna.
To obtain manna does not require our laboring, but to get the produce of the land of Canaan does. While we are enjoying the Lord and receiving Him into us, He often raises up circumstances and allows many things to happen for our good so that the seed in us can grow and produce something. For example, a sister, whose husband always makes things difficult for her, prays every day, asking the Lord to cause her husband to love Him as much as she does. However, the more she prays, the less he loves the Lord; the more she calls “O Lord, Amen!” and the more she pray-reads, the more her husband is annoyed. Previously, her husband attended two meetings a week; after her calling and pray-reading, her husband would not go even for half a meeting. In a case like this, what should you do? Let me tell you that all those things that happen are the Lord’s raising up the north wind to blow upon you (S. S. 4:16). Instead of asking the Lord to change your husband, pray that the Lord will grow in you: “O Lord, make me willing to accept Your dealing. O Lord, subdue me from within. O Lord, cause me to submit myself under Your hand and take the breaking.” Later, you will thank and praise the Lord that because you were willing to be dealt with in that way, the life in you grew a little.
You may begin to feel good about dealings such as these when the life in you grows a little today and a little more tomorrow. However, on the third day even your children may take sides with their father and begin to help him to deal with you. What should you do? This is again the blowing of the north wind to deal with you. You have to learn to accept it. Do you know that once you accept the dealing and call on the Lord again, the taste will become so wonderful? Whenever you call on Him, He comes. Then there is a harvest in you. Thus, you have an abundant supply of seeds to sow and of bread to eat. At the same time you can bring the top tenth, the firstfruits, of the produce to the meetings to eat and enjoy with the saints. This eating is your worship. This is what is lacking in Christianity and even in our midst. However, the Lord wants to recover this. Without recovering this, it is difficult for the church to mature, for the bride to be made ready, and for the Lord to return. Therefore, this matter is crucial.
Brothers and sisters, I have the full assurance that this is what the Lord is recovering today. The Lord is not recovering your small virtue, your small victory, or your small holiness. What the Lord wants is a group of people who enter into His Word and into His eternal plan. This is not a matter of restraining yourself from losing your temper, a matter of being victorious, or a matter of being holy. Rather, it is a matter of touching the Lord in a real way and of allowing Him to grow and mature in you. When you have an abundant harvest, you have enough not only to feed yourself but also for inviting brothers and sisters to eat with you. Moreover, you will have the topmost portion that can be brought to the meetings to offer to God. This is the genuine church life. In the meeting you testify Christ, and I also testify Christ. We all offer Christ before God, and we enjoy Christ together with the brothers and sisters after God has been satisfied. This is the church meeting. This is our worship and the practical living and testimony of the church.
I truly feel that in what we saw formerly concerning the testimony of the church and the church being the expression of Christ, there were more or less some natural elements; we did not thoroughly see these matters of eating and growing. Twenty years ago, when I saw brothers who had good character and proper behavior and who gave good impressions wherever they went, I greatly appreciated them. However, now in retrospect, those brothers with good character and proper behavior did not bear any good fruit. On the contrary, some careless and sloppy ones were able to bring people to salvation. The church life, the testimony of the church, is not a matter of behaving well or not behaving well, nor is it a matter of being or not being above reproach. The church life, the testimony of the church, is a matter of eating the Lord as the seed and allowing this seed to grow. Like a farmer, you remove the stones, eliminate the weeds, water the ground, add fertilizer, and apply pesticides so that the Christ in you will gradually grow into a harvest. This is not a matter of being well behaved or not; it is a matter in a totally different realm. Behaving and not behaving are in the realm of good and evil. What we are speaking about is the realm of Christ. You are full of Christ, and you bring in your topmost portion before God to enjoy with the saints in the meeting. This is our proper meeting today. The emphasis in the meeting is not on singing, praying, praising, speaking in tongues, or functioning; the emphasis is on bringing in the topmost portion of the Christ that you have produced. I bring my portion, and you bring yours. Apart from any forms, we all present our Christ.
I feel that the great lack we have today in the matter of bringing Christ to the meetings is that our harvest is not rich. This is why sometimes when you come to testify, you try to use some gimmicks. I am not saying that you should refrain from all kinds of methods, but I am afraid that you have these without content. The gimmicks are for embellishment; they are not the content. I would prefer not to have any gimmicks or methods but rather to have more content. We cannot gain substance in our testimonies in only a few days; we need to labor for an extended period of time.
Brothers and sisters, we have to turn back to the Lord to have a harvest. We have to labor so that we may grow something. Sometimes the Lord is like the grain sown into us; at other times He is in us as a small tree. This tree may be an olive tree, a vine, a fig tree, or a pomegranate tree. You need to cultivate it in order that it may grow and bear fruit. Then when you come to the meetings, you will have the firstfruits to offer to God.
The problem today is that when we come to the meetings, we only know how to release our spirit and call on the name of the Lord; we cannot present anything with substance to enjoy with others. This may be likened to coming to the feast empty-handed or with only a small pigeon, which is enough for only one meal. Since many are devoid of things to present, they have to resort to some amusing activities to make people laugh. Regrettably, everyone then remains empty within.
If we have an abundant harvest and are rich in grain, new wine, bulls, sheep, and pigeons, we can bring in our produce, basket upon basket and pile upon pile. We can present our bulls, sheep, pigeons, and fruit. That will be very rich. Everyone will be very supplied and will want to come back the next time.
I hope you will not spend your energy on gimmicks; rather, you will use your effort to produce a content. You need to sow the field, cultivate the fruit trees, tend the cattle, and take care of the pigeons. Subsequently, the crops in the field, the trees on the mountains, and the bulls, sheep, and pigeons on the farm will all grow. You will be rich because everything in you will be continually growing. By this way the sower has seed, the eater has bread, and the offerer has something to offer. When everyone brings his riches to the meetings, the meetings will be delivered from all the old ways.
I have this much to say at this time. Now we all have learned to eat. We have learned that there are two kinds of eating. One is the eating in sowing, and the other is the eating in harvesting. The eating in sowing cannot constitute our worship; we need the eating in harvesting. When you bring the eating in harvesting, that will constitute the true worship and the genuine church life. The church needs this. We have to look to the Lord and open up to Him so that we all may learn to be exercised in the matter of eating.
