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Concerning the dispensing of the Triune God, there are a few more crucial verses — 2 Corinthians 13:14 and Revelation 1:4-5.
The dispensing of the Triune God is the basic requirement for spiritual experiences. We cannot be separated from this dispensing even for a single day. Whenever we stay away from the dispensing of the Triune God, our spiritual experiences are empty and worthless. We have to know that not only Chinese Confucianism has its so-called moral cultivation, but even the other religions in the world, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, also have their so-called moral cultivation. In religion, self-mortification is a common practice, and moral cultivation is also considered necessary. For this reason, if a Christian pursues so-called spirituality apart from the dispensing of the Triune God, his pursuit is a kind of religious cultivation.
Whether in Buddhism, Hinduism, or Confucianism, the principle of seeking perfection in ethical pursuits is the same: it is the exercise of self-control. On the positive side, this is to control one’s emotions and to not do things according to the dictates of one’s heart. On the negative side, this is to restrain one’s lusts and to not indulge oneself in sinful things. Wang Yang-ming was the most famous one among the moral cultivators of the different schools in China. In the Catholic Church the most well-known ones were the mystics, including Madame Guyon, Father Fenelon, Brother Lawrence, and Thomas à Kempis, who were raised up three hundred years ago and who all had their form of moral cultivation. Among this group of people, Madame Guyon was the most spiritual one; however, if you read her autobiography, you will find that she had a very strong will, within which there was a considerable measure of her own natural element.
At its inception the Lord’s recovery in China was deeply influenced by the mystics, especially in the experience of pursuing spiritual life. In the first thirty years there was much exercise and practice in this matter. Later we found that without the Spirit, that kind of exercise is just like the practice of having strict, ascetic rules in religion. I use the expression the Spirit, because today the light of revelation is very clear, showing us that the Spirit is the Triune God processed and dispensed into us. The Triune God who has been dispensed into us has an abbreviated title, or we may say a general title — the Spirit. Paul wrote fourteen Epistles on the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity in which he concluded that we must walk “by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:4). We should not forget this word: our spiritual experiences are not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
In Romans 8:4 the word spirit denotes the mingled spirit, that is, our regenerated spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit to be one spirit. In this mingled spirit the main component is the Holy Spirit. Today in the Lord’s recovery we all know that this Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, the all-inclusive Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, and at the same time, Christ Himself. He is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God and the ultimate reaching of the Triune God to man. Once He reaches man, He enters into man’s spirit to be mingled with man’s spirit as one. This is the spirit referred to in Romans 8:4. Today we do not walk according to anything other than such a mingled spirit.
The word spirit is not that simple in the Chinese translation. Around A.D. 700, Christianity spread to China from Persia, where it was called Nestorianism. Today there is still a Nestorian tablet with an inscription on it that contains the expression ching-feng, which literally means “pure wind,” referring to the Holy Spirit. The Persians knew that pneuma, the Greek word for spirit, could also be rendered as “wind,” so, due to their inadequate knowledge of the Chinese language, they translated it as such. John 3:8 says, “The wind blows where it wills,” showing that the Lord also referred to the Holy Spirit as “wind.” As a result, the Persians called the Holy Spirit the wind. Today people obtain the “extract” of different substances to use as medication or for nourishment. It is wonderful that in English, extract can also be called spirit. For example, in English, strong alcoholic liquor produced by distillation can be called “spirits.”
Our God is so great, so mysterious, so wonderful, and so “extractive,” so He had to use a word that is comprehensible to us. Thus, He said that He is Spirit (4:24). God as the Spirit today is not the same as the Spirit two thousand years ago. Two thousand years ago, God — who is Spirit — was not yet processed, but today after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, God as the Spirit has already passed through four major steps — incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Two thousand years ago He had not entered into this process. He had only objectively passed through creation. Then over nineteen hundred years ago He Himself became flesh, lived the human life, was crucified, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). God became flesh, was born as a man, and walked on the earth. His name was Jesus; hence, Jesus was God. When He was put to death on the cross, He was still God. When He was buried and resurrected, He was still God. Today such a One is the life-giving Spirit.
The Spirit is the “wind” in John 3, but in chapter 20 He is referred to as “breath” (v. 22). In the evening on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, He breathed the Holy Spirit as the holy breath into the disciples. This is an exceedingly mysterious matter, which has been missed by Christianity. Christianity calls the Holy Spirit the “Holy Ghost,” considering Him something objective and vague rather than as a definite person. However, the Bible reveals to us that the Spirit is definite and substantial like “wind” and “breath.” This Spirit is the mysterious God.
This mysterious God has been consummated as the Spirit, and this Spirit is just His “extract.” Today physicians heal their patients by giving them medicines. Every pill is an “extract,” a substance obtained through a refining process. There may be seven or eight elements blended together in one pill: some for killing germs, some for nutrition, and some for strengthening the immune system. Similarly, the One who is mingled with our spirit is the “extract” of God, the “distillation” of God. This One includes everything, so He is called the all-inclusive Spirit. In this Spirit there is divinity, humanity, the experience of human living, the element of crucifixion, and also the element of resurrection. The subject of Romans 8:4, where it speaks of “the spirit,” is the all-inclusive Spirit coming to mingle with our spirit to be the mingled spirit. This is really a mystery.
What does it mean to be saved? To be saved means that a person repents, confesses his sins, and receives the Lord Jesus, with the result that the “extract” of God enters into him to regenerate him. Once he is regenerated, he has God’s life and God’s nature, as well as God’s element, that is, God Himself. This God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The entire God, the complete God, enters into man. Henceforth, man should live and walk according to this Spirit. This is why in the Epistles Paul says that we should live, walk, and have our being according to the Spirit. When we walk according to the Spirit, we are victorious, spiritual, and sanctified. When we walk according to the Spirit, we live Christ and express God. When we walk according to the Spirit, we have life, light, holiness, love, and righteousness. When we walk according to the Spirit, we have everything, that is, all positive things. All human virtues and divine characteristics are in this One and are this One. The Spirit is holiness, righteousness, love, life, and light. The Spirit is all-inclusive.
We may not have that many spiritual experiences because we may not have gotten saved very long ago, but I believe that we all have some experiences. Whenever we walk according to the Spirit, there is light within. Whenever we do not live according to the Spirit, especially when we lose our temper and are altogether not in our spirit, we are confused and even become “muddle-headed.” For example, when a couple is quarreling, both the husband and the wife may become so furious that they begin to throw dishes and hit their children, creating chaos. At this point they really are muddle-headed and totally in darkness. However, whenever we are according to the Spirit, everything is clear to us. Let us use another example: during our service coordination two people may have an argument. They argue about who is right and who is wrong, and the more they reason, the more they justify themselves. Even after the argument they are still very angry, thinking that even if they are wrong, they should still be excused and forgiven. But when they calm down and turn to their spirit, each one of them will be clear that it is his own fault. This principle is the same concerning whether we should serve the Lord full time or have a regular job. The more we analyze, the more confused we are. Once we are according to the Spirit, however, we are crystal clear within.
The life of Christ in us is altogether a story of the Spirit; it is not a matter of seeking to be perfect through ethical pursuits, and it has nothing to do with the personal cultivation of morality. Several days ago I hurt my back, so I have not been able to move around too much. One day I heard my wife singing a chorus: “Each blow I suffer / Is true gain to me” (Hymns, #626). I immediately remembered stanza 1 of that hymn, which says, “Olives that have known no pressure / No oil can bestow; / If the grapes escape the winepress, / Cheering wine can never flow.” Of course, she was not intentionally singing this to me, but I felt that this hymn is not bad — it is half right and half wrong. Do not think that as soon as you toss something into the winepress, oil and wine will come out. What comes out depends on what you toss in. If you throw stones, coal, or wood into the winepress, you will only get some powder; you will have no way to press out a drop of oil or wine. Hence, in order for oil to be pressed out, the thing that is being pressed must have oil within it. Whether or not each blow is a true gain depends on whether or not we have oil within us.
The disciples of Confucius and Mencius, the Confucianists, do not have oil within them, so no matter how much they are pressed, no oil will come out. But we thank and praise the Lord that we Christians are the fruit of the olive tree. Once we are pressed, a large amount of oil will come out. For the purpose of pressing out the oil, the Lord prepares marriage for us. In fact, marriage is a winepress, and to get married is to get into a winepress. This is not a joke. The difference is that when the unbelievers get into the winepress, nothing comes out except pieces of coal, wood, and stone. Christians, however, have oil in them, so when they are pressed, oil comes out.
It is very sad that in Christianity when people speak about bearing the cross and experiencing the cross, they mostly stress self-improvement and care only for moral cultivation. They forget the matter of the oil and do not care for the inner life. Please remember that all the experiences of our spiritual life must be in the dispensing of the Triune God. If we are not in the dispensing, we are just wood, grass, and stubble. Regardless of how much we are pressed, there will not be any oil but only wood chips and grass clippings. We may be genuinely broken, but what matters is whether or not there is oil. For this reason we must contact the Triune God continuously and fellowship with Him moment by moment. Therefore, the New Testament tells us that we should pray unceasingly and give thanks in everything (1 Thes. 5:17-18). This means that we have to contact Him unceasingly. To contact the Triune God is to allow Him to add oil into us continually. In Matthew 25 there are ten virgins. The five prudent virgins have oil added into them all the time; that is, they maintain a constant flowing in of oil so that their vessels always have oil (v. 4). From this we see that we must learn to contact the Lord all the time and allow the Triune God to dispense Himself into us moment by moment.
Suppose that the electricity is suddenly interrupted. All the lights will go out, and all the electrical appliances will stop operating. The Spirit may be likened to electricity. When the Spirit stops flowing, all our spiritual functions come to a halt. Hence, do not pray by yourself and then try to do good by the determination of your own will. This is the way things are done, and must be done, in the realm of self-improvement in Confucianism, but this way is altogether useless in the realm of the spiritual experience of a Christian. The only effective way for us to take is to contact the “electrical source” and the “oil field,” so that we will be connected to the current and filled with oil continually. This is to continually contact the Lord so that the dispensing of the Triune God can be carried out in us unceasingly.
All those who have studied in school know that whether in high school, junior college, or a university, the education provided covers many subjects. Even if you specialize in a certain subject, the school will provide an education that covers multiple lines rather than just a single line. For example, if you major in a foreign language, you still have to study other subjects, such as history and Chinese literature. You will also need to receive training in other areas, such as physical education, ethics, and character. In the same way, while we are learning to work for the Lord and live for God, we must be equipped in many ways. We must realize that just because we have “passed beyond all earthly bribe” (Hymns, #473, stanza 1), this does not mean that we can be full-timers who forget about everything and simply work for the Lord. Instead, we still must learn many things and be equipped in many ways. A person who desires to work for the Lord and live for God must learn many things and be exercised in many aspects.
The first thing you need is to grow in life. Life is a matter of primary importance. Without life, there is no way to live the Christian life, to work for the Lord, or to function in the church. The second thing you need is to be equipped with the truth. The third thing you need is to be built up in character. The fourth thing you need is to exercise to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The fifth thing is to exercise to fellowship with the Lord moment by moment. Due to their negligence in this matter, many have gotten themselves into trouble. The sixth thing is to walk according to the Spirit. The seventh thing is to consecrate yourselves to the Lord every day. You all need to learn these basic things. Finally, you need to be equipped with languages. In addition, there are two important things that you need to learn: to exercise faith and to exercise to learn to endure suffering.
The exercise of faith is a very fundamental matter. We must see that today our living is entirely contrary to communism. Communism is materialistic, being concerned altogether with material things, whereas we are God-centered, being concerned altogether with spiritual things. To live a life that is altogether centered on God, we need faith, not sight (2 Cor. 5:7). With communism, everything is by sight; with us, everything is by faith. Hence, we must exercise faith.
First, we must learn to exercise faith when we are sick. This does not mean that we are superstitious. When we are sick, we still have to see a doctor and take medicine. This is a two-sided matter. For example, every day God sustains us not by signs and wonders but through a normal diet. We should not think that since we trust in God, we can survive without eating, just like the Lord Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan for forty days. This is superstition. On the other hand, we should not think that as long as we eat, we will be healthy and strong and will live long. In fact, even if we eat properly, we may still get sick, even with some fatal illness. Therefore, we must trust in God.
For this reason, even if we have only a cold, we still have to learn to trust in God’s healing. We should not seek miracles but should see a doctor and take medicine while also trusting in God. This is not an easy thing. With some, once they go to a doctor and take medicine, they give up their trust in God. With others, once they believe in God, they become superstitious and would never go to see a doctor. Both are too much.
When Brother Watchman Nee was young, Sister M. E. Barber was the person who gave him the most help. She never went to see a doctor or took medicine in her whole life, so she lived to only around sixty years of age. Even Paul told Timothy, “No longer drink water only, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (1 Tim. 5:23). We cannot say that Paul had little faith. I feel that M. E. Barber was a little bit too much. Otherwise, she could have lived longer and could have been more useful in the Lord’s hand. Therefore, for our benefit and the Lord’s, we must learn this matter of exercising faith.
We must learn to exercise faith especially in the matter of material supply. It is true that the church and the saints will follow the Lord’s leading to supply us in love; nevertheless, we still have to learn to trust in God. Consider Paul’s case. On the one hand, he trusted in God, and God really supplied him. When he was in Thessalonica, the church in Philippi sent people “once and again” to supply his need (Phil. 4:16). When he was working in Corinth, the brothers who came from Macedonia filled up his lack (2 Cor. 11:9). Yet on the other hand, when he was in Corinth, he worked with his own hands as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3; 1 Cor. 4:12). Moreover, he told the elders in the church in Ephesus, “You yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my needs and to those who are with me” (Acts 20:34). Here we see a two-sided principle: on the one hand, Paul trusted in and received God’s supply; on the other hand, he worked with his own hands to meet the needs of himself and his companions. He did not refuse the supply from the saints even though he made tents, nor did he give up his occupation even though he trusted in God completely. This is different from the way of Christianity. Therefore, whether we work by “making tents” to make money for our livelihood or we serve full time and receive the supply from the church and the saints, we have to learn to trust in God, believing that everything is planned by Him and trusting absolutely in His sovereign provision.
Second Corinthians 5:7 tells us that we walk not by appearance or sight but by faith. This is to say that everything is by faith. We should not complain, saying, “Since I have been serving full time, there has been very little supply.” We should not have such murmuring. Whether we receive much support or little support, we have to trust in God. This does not mean, however, that we simply trust in God and stop relying on the love and care of the church and the saints, even to the extent that when someone sends a monetary gift, we return the whole amount. If this is the case, God will not supply us any longer, and there will not be any more manna descending. The saints supply you because they love you, but if you think that they give because they look down on you and therefore you would rather starve than accept their offering, you are too proud. If you are this way, God will let you starve. Since you would not accept anything from others, God would not give you anything either. This is true. So we have to see this two-sided principle.
You should not murmur, saying that since your minimum living expenses require hundreds of dollars and you have received only a few dollars or even less for support (only enough to buy something to drink to quench your thirst), you might as well give that money to someone else. If you have such an attitude, God sees this clearly and may allow you to continue receiving an amount that is only enough to buy something to drink. Therefore, we should learn to have faith and not to murmur, trusting in the Lord’s sovereignty and believing that we are in His hands and are living for Him.
Stanza 1 of the Chinese version of Hymns, #473 says, “When one refuses all earthly bribe / And comes to live for God, / The boundless riches he receives / Are indescribable.” It is said that the writer of this hymn is Catherine Booth-Clibborn, the daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. After singing this hymn, we should not say, “Where are the ‘boundless riches’? This hymn should say ‘limited riches.’ What good is it to have one dollar? This is not enough even to pay for a bus ticket. A gift of a thousand dollars would be more acceptable.” I believe that the author of this hymn might have often received a supply of only several British pence, yet she still had such great faith. Therefore, we must learn to have faith. Do not be proud and say, “I will not rely on the church or on the saints; I will learn to depend on God.” To depend on God in the matter of material supply is very practical, because God is truly trustworthy. However, you should act properly and maintain a proper attitude. This requires much learning.
We should exercise faith not only in dealing with our bodily illnesses and for meeting our material needs but also for dealing with our environment in our service to the Lord. Our environment is changeable and complicated. Regardless of whether or not we are Christians, we cannot live alone, apart from human society. We have relatives, neighbors, and friends, who all are a part of our environment. Suppose that the Lord would exercise His sovereignty and allow our neighbors to be either crazy people or activists, the children in the neighborhood to always quarrel and be very noisy, and the couples to fight continuously. If this were the case, how could we have peace? If we were to move to another location, the environment might be even worse. Sometimes when we hire a nanny to take care of our children, she turns out to be a poor nanny. Then when we change to another one, the new one turns out to be even worse. There is a Chinese colloquial saying: “A soldier goes, and a sentry comes”; this means that when the military man leaves, he is replaced by a policeman. Regardless of how hard you try, you simply cannot find a good nanny. It seems that all you can find are strange or peculiar ones. This is very interesting.
Actually, in all these situations we have to see the Lord’s sovereign authority behind the scene. Instead of blaming the environment, we should believe in God and learn to trust in God’s arrangement. On the one hand, we need to believe in God, while on the other hand, we need to deal with the environment by faith. We should not argue or complain. For example, when you get on an airplane, do not fight for a good seat. You need to trust in God and learn to rely on Him in both great things and small things. This is the lesson that we must learn.
In your coordination with the brothers and sisters who work with you, you should also exercise faith and not have your own choice. You should not say, “I prefer to coordinate and serve with Brother So-and-so.” I can tell you that very often the companion you choose will end up hating you. Today you love him, but he will hate you in the future. It is really strange that none of the companions you choose will work. Therefore, in the matter of coordination you need to learn to leave it in the Lord’s hand and trust in the Lord. Take myself as an example. In these many years of serving the Lord I have not chosen any particular person to be my co-worker, nor have I selected any particular one to receive my training. I do not make my own choice as to whom I would work with, nor do I make my own choice as to whom I would train. Throughout all these years the Lord has been arranging everything for me; I just learn to trust in Him and to exercise faith rather than struggling by myself or having my own demands, choices, inclinations, and preferences. Of course, we should also not have any anxiety or worry, but we should believe that whenever we have a particular need, God knows about it. This is faith.
Another thing that all of God’s serving ones should learn is to exercise to endure sufferings. This is also a most necessary item of the Christian character. This does not mean that we should create or seek out sufferings for ourselves; rather, it means that we should learn to suffer. What is a suffering? Anything that is not according to our desire is a suffering to us. As a northerner, I grew up eating food made from wheat and seldom ate rice. In the fall of 1934 I was invited to work in Pingyang, Wenchow, where it was impossible to buy authentic northern steamed bread, even with gold. At that time I had indigestion due to a serious stomach ulcer. This kind of illness is very sensitive to the fall weather. After I arrived in Pingyang, the saints served me rice every day. The strangest thing was that the rice that the southerners cooked was dry and hard, unlike the rice that the northerners cooked, which was sticky. Even before I ate the rice, I was scared just to look at it, and I wondered how I would be able to digest it. During that time I gave messages two or three times a day, in addition to service meetings. Eventually, I had indigestion due to the half-cooked rice, and my body was weakened.
When the saints saw this, they took extra efforts to find someone to make steamed bread for me. At that time I had been eating steamed bread for thirty years, so the first day that I saw the smooth, shining surface of the bread that they brought me, I knew that the inside was still raw and not thoroughly leavened. I dared not say anything because it would have been improper to do so. When the saints served the bread, I just ate it. They said that the bread was the best local bread because it was made by the only person who knew how to make that kind of bread. I just had to eat it. This is what it means to suffer.
Brother Watchman Nee had a similar story. He was a southerner. He began to labor for the Lord in 1921 around the age of twenty. One time he was invited to work in Hsuchow, in Anhwei Province, north of the Yangtze River. The northerners did not have regular beds. They slept on brick beds warmed by a fire underneath. In order to provide hospitality for Brother Nee, the saints borrowed a bed that had a framework of metal strips without any bedding except a bedsheet. They told Brother Nee, “We borrowed this bed especially for you.” Thus, Brother Nee slept on a bed of metal strips, something he had never before experienced.
When we go forth to work for the Lord, we have to learn to commit ourselves to the circumstances. We cannot expect the circumstances to always be accommodating to us and working for us. This is impossible. Some of you will go to different towns and villages for propagation. You do not know what kind of circumstances you will be in, what kind of things you will encounter, and how much financial support you will receive. Everything is an unknown. Therefore, you need to live by faith and learn to suffer. You should arm yourselves with a mind to suffer so that you can be a good soldier of Christ. Peter also exhorts us to follow the Lord with the mind of Christ, a mind to suffer (1 Pet. 4:1). When a real soldier goes to fight at the frontline, the environment is beyond his control. Therefore, he has to get ready in ordinary times by exercising to endure sufferings.
We said earlier that anything that is not according to our desire is a suffering. For example, we may be afraid that others will snore, yet it may happen that the one who sleeps on the same bunk bed with us snores terribly. We should not say that we cannot take it. Instead, we have to exercise. If we have such a mind, it will take us only a week’s exercise to be able to fall asleep. If we do not pay attention to a certain thing, we will not suffer because of it, but once we direct our attention to it, we will suffer. Hence, to learn to suffer is to learn not to be mindful of anything.
That time while I was eating the uncooked steamed bread, I was really not able to eat it, but I remembered that the Lord had said, “Into whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you” (Luke 10:8). So I prayed, “Lord, You said that we should eat what is set before us; now they have set before me something raw, so I should eat it raw.” Eventually, I ate it. Thank and praise the Lord that my stomach problem was not worsened, although I indeed became thinner. A month later Brother Nee had a conference in Hangchow, so I finished my work and rushed to that conference. When I arrived there the next day, he was speaking on the podium. Once he saw me, he said, “Alas! Brother Witness is as thin as a stick!” Afterward in the next meeting, he shared in the message that co-workers who go out to labor for the Lord should learn to suffer hardships.
We must learn to endure hardships if we intend to work for the Lord. We should not forget that as soldiers we must be ready to go to war, not to attend a feast. As a result, we need to get ourselves prepared. When we go out to spread the gospel, we have to prepare to go to the battlefield to suffer. We have to pave the way for ourselves in every matter. We need to take care of our living quarters and find a way to prepare our meals. In dealing with gospel friends or brothers and sisters we must learn to relate to them on their level. All these things require us to exercise faith and to learn to suffer.
