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Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 44:9-26, 28, 31; Luke 17:7-10 (“minister” in Ezek. 44:11 can be translated “serve”)
The Lord wants us to serve Him more than He wants us to work for Him. Ministering to the house and serving before the Lord’s table are different things. Working for the Lord and serving the Lord are different things. Tilling the field and shepherding the flock are different from serving in the presence of the master.
What the sons of Levi did was different from what the sons of Zadok did. The Levites ministered to the house in the outer court; they killed the sacrifices before the people and ministered on their behalf. The sons of Zadok ministered to the Lord’s table within the Holy Place and served the Lord by offering the fat and the blood. The work of the Levites in the outer court was apparent. The work of the priests in the Holy Place was hidden. In the outer court one ministered to the people. In the Holy Place one ministered to the Lord. The ministry in the outer court appears to be serving the Lord. Actually, it is very different from serving the Lord in the house.
Many people like to exercise their muscles in the outer court. They like to help others move and kill the sacrifices, but they do not like to serve the Lord in the Holy Place. Many people like to run around in an outward way; they like to save sinners, edify the believers, and serve the brothers. But the Lord wants us to pursue a service to Him.
God’s work has its interests and attractions. The attractions of the flesh do exist within God’s work. Many people love to run around and work because this is what their flesh is inclined to do. Outwardly, they are saving sinners and serving the brothers. Actually, they are serving their own flesh and their own pleasures. One believer who has passed the veil and who is on the other side of the veil prayed after reading Ezekiel 44: “Lord, may I minister unto You, rather than unto the house!”
“They shall come near to Me to minister to Me” (Ezek. 44:15). In the outer court one comes near to the people. In the Holy Place one comes near to the Lord. It is possible to follow the Lord “at a distance” (Matt. 26:58), but it is not possible to minister to the Lord at a distance. In order to minister to the Lord, one has to come near to Him. The prayer that brings one near to the Lord gives him strength. It also requires that he exercise his strength.
“And they shall stand before Me” (Ezek. 44:15). Not only must one come near to the Lord, but he must also stand before Him. Many people cannot stand and wait. To stand is to wait for an order. All those who cannot stand and wait before the Lord cannot minister to Him. We have two kinds of sins. One is to receive a command and not obey it; this is rebellion. The other is to have no command and yet do something; this is presumption (Psa. 19:13). It is not a matter of good or bad but of having or not having God’s command. Good things can damage the believers very much; they are a great enemy to God’s will. In the outer court one takes orders from the offerers of sacrifices. In the Holy Place one takes orders from God.
“To present to Me the fat and the blood” (Ezek. 44:15). God’s righteousness and holiness fill the Holy Place, and His glory fills the Holy of Holies. The blood is for God’s righteousness and holiness, while the fat is for God’s glory. Glory is God Himself. Holiness is God’s nature, while righteousness is God’s procedure, His way. The blood is there for the forgiveness of sins; it satisfies God’s righteousness and holiness, and it enables us to come to God. The fat is to satisfy God Himself. The blood deals with the old creation, while the fat is for the new creation. When the Lord poured out His blood, it meant that He poured out all His natural life. Today the Lord has flesh and bones (Luke 24:39) but no blood. He does not have a drop of blood. Every day we have to learn to deny our natural life before the Lord; this is the aspect of the blood. At the same time, we have to offer up the resurrection life; this is the aspect of the fat (Rom. 6:13).
“It is they who will enter My sanctuary” (Ezek. 44:16). To be in the sanctuary is to be in the presence of the Lord. We are very afraid of being in the sanctuary because if we remain in the sanctuary it is easy to be misunderstood, slandered, and criticized. But we should dwell in the house of the Lord. We are not narrow; our hearts are broad and ambitious. Paul said in his Epistles that he was determined to be well pleasing to the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9). We have to pursue ministering to the Lord rather than to the house.
“No wool will come upon them” (Ezek. 44:17). “They shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat” (v. 18). Sweat is a condition of the curse (Gen. 3:19). To sweat is to be without the Lord’s blessing and to labor by the flesh. One can sweat when he kills the bulls and the goats in the outer court. But he cannot sweat when he is ministering to the Lord in the Holy Place. One can exert spiritual strength before the Lord, but he must not sweat. Committees, discussions, and propagandas all belong to the realm of sweating. Spiritual work touches God alone, while fleshly work touches men alone. The more spiritual a work is, the more inward it is. But the work of the flesh is all outward.
God did not command all the Levites to minister to Him in the Holy Place. He only ordered the sons of Zadok to minister to Him in the Holy Place. God invites men to minister to Him in His Holy Place. He wants men to preserve His Holy Place, shine out from there, and separate the holy things from the common things, and the clean things from the unclean things. Acts 13:1-3 tells us when “they were ministering to the Lord and fasting,” the Holy Spirit sent them out on their missionary work abroad. Our work abroad should start with our ministering to the Lord. The Lord is after drafted workers, not volunteer workers. Hebrews emphasizes two things: our ministering to God within the veil and our suffering the reproach of the Lord without the camp.
In Luke 17:7-10, “plowing” is preaching of the gospel, while “tending sheep” is caring for the believers. To “serve me” means that one has to minister to the Lord even after he has worked. To “eat and drink” is to remember and to enjoy the fruit of our work; we must first allow the Lord to “eat and drink” before we enjoy eating and drinking. The result of our work should first satisfy the Lord’s heart before it satisfies our heart. After we have worked, we should not eat, drink, and enjoy; rather, we should say, “We are unprofitable slaves.” “Gird yourself and serve me” means that after one has worked, he should still be on the alert to minister to the Lord. May we pursue a ministry to the Lord. The work in the field is not as good as the ministry in the house, and the field and the sheep are not as good as the Lord Himself.
(Morning, January 22, 1934)
Scripture Reading: Song of Songs 4:12; Hosea 14:5-7; Mark 4:5-6, 16-17
Mark 4 speaks of the condition of man’s heart and how it receives the word. It does not apply only to sinners hearing the gospel, but also to believers receiving the word of edification.
What is the kind of life that pleases the Lord and lasts long? Why have some failed or turned back halfway? Why are there so few who have followed the Lord all the way? Some people are very willing at the beginning to give up everything to consecrate themselves fully to the Lord and to follow Him. But when they encounter something along the way which is contrary to their will, they decide not to follow the Lord anymore. If you have never been dealt with by the Lord or have not fully consecrated yourself, the day will come when the Lord will take you to a place where you do not want to go, and you will reject His choice. The price will be too high for you, and you will find that you cannot pay it. This is why you must be dealt with by the Lord until you are fully consecrated to take up the cross to follow Him all the way. All the ones who turned back or failed halfway are the ones with the shallow ground.
“It sprang up” (Mark 4:5). This refers to those who have received the word and made a start outwardly. However, the result is not good because there is no root; when the sun rises, it is scorched and withers. Every word brings with it affliction and persecution. God prepares circumstances behind every word of His to test if we have received His word properly. The sun is the ultimate sign of the Lord’s love. The cross not only separates the sinners as to who are saved and who are perishing; it also separates the believers as to who are the overcoming ones and who are the defeated ones. Spiritual dryness comes because one argues with God and defeats Him by allowing himself to win. Miss Barber once said, “All the bread that is in the Lord’s hand, He will surely break.” Many times we put ourselves in the Lord’s hand, while at the same time we pray privately, “Please do not break me!”
Why do the ones on the rocky place, who spring up quickly, also wither quickly? First, they have “no depth of earth” (v. 5). All those who live in their environment or their emotions are those who are in shallow earth. Those who are deep live above their circumstances; they deny their feelings and live in the Lord. They receive God’s supply, support, and power beyond their environments. Second, they are without root. Those who have life in an outward way are like the plant stalk, but those with life in an inward way are like the roots. Roots denote a hidden and secret life. The Lord says that we have to shut the door and pray in secret (Matt. 6:6). God will see us, not hear us, in secret. The most dangerous life is one that is only before men. The safest life is one that is before God. Those who have been dealt with by God in secret, who have deep roots, will overcome all affliction and persecution. Third, there are rocks under the earth. On the surface, one place is the same as all other places. But underneath, it is different; there are rocks underneath. (1) The rocks are the hardened heart (Heb. 3:15). If we want to hear the Lord’s word, we cannot harden our hearts or have our own prejudices. Those whose self is still hidden within them and who have not been broken by the Lord cannot have deep roots. (2) The rocks are also hidden sins. As long as these sins have not been removed, the roots cannot go down deep. Only those who tremble at God’s word and are feeble as little children will grow. The Lord has to smash all the hardened hearts and human prejudices. He can ride on a colt that has never been sat on before, and he can deal with those who have never obeyed Him before.
Hosea 14:5-7 mentions Lebanon three times: (1) the lily in contrast to Lebanon, (2) the olive tree in contrast to Lebanon, and (3) the vine in contrast to Lebanon. In the whole world, the trees with the deepest roots are the cedars of Lebanon. We should go down and take root in the depths; we should direct our growth to the depths.
Although the lily looks pretty, it grows in the wilderness. We are the lily in the valley, not in the pot. We are not cared for by the gardener but by God. We do not receive any supply from men but from God alone. The rain from heaven is watering us, and we are sustained by God.
The beauty of the olive tree is not in its flower but in the oil-bearing fruit. We should bring forth the fruit of the Spirit.
The flower of the vine is very small. Before a man can discover it, it has turned into grapes. The flowers are for fruit-bearing, not for beauty.
The Song of Solomon 4:12 mentions “a garden enclosed.” It is a garden, not a park. It is enclosed, not open. Within the garden are fruits and flowers. The things we have which are for the Lord alone should be enclosed. All the things we have within us should be for the Lord alone. As such, they should be enclosed.
“A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” In the Chinese Union Version, spring is translated well. A well is something man-made, while a fountain is something natural. A well is there to serve man, while a fountain is there to receive from God. The well is directed toward men, while a fountain is directed toward God. Although we are directed toward men and are for men’s use, we are “shut up,” and we wait for the Lord to open us and use us. Although we are directed toward God and are here to receive from God, we are “sealed.” We should be closed to both God and men. We should allow the cross to do a deeper work in us and deal with our self, so that we can have a deeper life. We should maintain a hidden life before God.
(Afternoon, January 22)
Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 4:1-6 Matthew 5:6; Luke 1:53
The only reasons for the believers’ failures and lack of growth before God are (1) not knowing themselves and (2) not knowing the fullness of the Lord. At a Keswick Convention, one anonymous Christian said that all the failures of believers are from these two reasons.
The only condition for God’s blessing, spiritual growth, or the experience of the fullness of the Lord is to be empty. We have to constantly realize our own fullness, and we should also constantly empty ourselves of our own fullness. We should constantly empty ourselves. Only those who are hungry will be filled with good things (Luke 1:53). All God’s spiritual grace is only for the hungry ones.
The order of the Holy Spirit’s work in us is first to create a desire in our heart so that we become dissatisfied with our present life. The beginning of regression is satisfaction, and the beginning of progress is dissatisfaction. The Holy Spirit first does the work of emptying and then the work of filling. God empties us in order to fill us. The emptying is God’s means, while the filling is His goal. In order to empty us, the Holy Spirit puts us against a wall and allows us to encounter crises. All the difficulties are arranged by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of making us pursue in a deeper way. The victory at Jericho cannot be relied upon for the battle at Ai. We cannot apply the big victory of yesterday to even the small battle of today. Past experiences cannot meet present needs. God never asks us to eat the manna of yesterday. Thank God that we have crises! Through the Holy Spirit, God has created crises for us in our environment and in our lives. He allows us to fail when we try to meet present crises with past experiences. The failure creates a need and a fresh desire in us. Faith never copies the things of the past. We cannot imitate the works of faith of the believers in the past; we can only imitate their faith. Since the disciples saw the Lord feeding the five thousand with the five loaves, and the four thousand with the seven loaves, they should have known further that He could fill them even if there were no loaves. They did not know the Lord in a deeper way. This was why they said, “It is because we did not take bread” (Matt. 16:7). God arranges the environment for us that we might know the Lord more, know ourselves more, and know the vanity of the self. He allows us to fail so that we could realize our emptiness and uselessness. Our person has already been nullified by God on the cross.
Second Kings 4:1-6 says, “Now a certain woman from among the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared Jehovah. And the creditor has come to take my two children to himself as servants. And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? And she said, Your servant has nothing at all in the house, except a jar of oil. And he said, Go and borrow vessels outside, from all your neighbors, empty vessels, and not just a few. Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and each one you fill set aside. So she went away from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons; and they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out into them. And when she had filled the vessels, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. But he said to her, There is no other vessel. And the oil stopped.”
The woman became a debtor because of the poverty of her husband. But she had a jar of oil. This jar of oil was the basic ingredient. It was this jar of oil that allowed her to pay her debt and that supplied her daily needs. She needed empty vessels. Elisha ordered her to prepare empty vessels, and not a few. Through Adam we have become poor. But praise the Lord, we have the Holy Spirit. What is lacking are empty spots for the Spirit to fill. The fact is not that we cannot be filled, but that we do not have the empty spots for the Holy Spirit to work into. The Holy Spirit will only fill the empty spots. For spiritual progress we must be continually empty to be continually filled. It is not to be emptied once and then remain full forever. Time after time we need further emptying and further filling.
One has to deal with the Holy Spirit secretly in the hidden place. The flesh has to be locked outside, and the Holy Spirit locked inside. Whenever one encounters problems, he has to go to the hidden place to deal with the Holy Spirit. When we deal with the Spirit, the problems in our lives are solved.
The oil ceased because there were no more empty vessels. The filling stops when there is no more emptiness. If there is unlimited emptiness, there will be unlimited filling. Esau was the first self-satisfied person. In the end he became an empty person. We should continually empty ourselves, instead of emptying ourselves just once. We should continually empty ourselves so that we can be continually filled. We are responsible for the emptying, and the Holy Spirit is responsible for the filling.
(Morning, January 23)
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 62:6; Ezekiel 36:37; Philemon 14
God works along certain lines and according to certain principles. He does not do things haphazardly or carelessly. He would rather not work than have work that is done contrary to His principle. If we want to receive His blessings, we have to fulfill the conditions for Him to bless.
God transcends all principles and rules. Yet He likes to lay down principles for His work so that both He and man would abide by these ordained principles. God’s principle is God’s will.
God never works by Himself. He always puts His desire in His children’s heart so that they would pray for it. Mr. Evan Roberts said that the order of all God’s works is:
(1) God has a desire.
(2) Through the Holy Spirit, He puts this desire within His children’s hearts.
(3) God’s children turn this desire back to God through prayer.
(4) God accomplishes this desire.
The whole thing begins with God’s desire. Through the Holy Spirit, God puts this desire in the hearts of His children so that they will know what is His heart’s desire. His children then turn this desire into prayer and send it back to God. As a result, He works to accomplish that which is according to His desire.
Ezekiel 36:37 says, “Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Moreover for this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”
(1) God ordained that the number in the house of Israel be increased. This is God’s decision and what He will do. It is the first point and also the fourth point mentioned earlier.
(2) But God still has to be inquired of by the house of Israel. Although God made the decision to increase the number of the house of Israel, He could only accomplish it after He had been inquired of by the house of Israel. This is the principle of God’s work. God only has His will; He does not work. He must wait until His children inquire of Him and then He will work. God is not trying to hold back on any of His work. He is waiting for His children to inquire of Him before He will work. He is willing to put Himself under the authority of and be limited by His children’s prayer. If they do not pray, He cannot work. For over twenty-five hundred years, God has not increased the number of the house of Israel because no one has inquired this of Him.
Isaiah 62:6 says, “Upon Your walls, O Jerusalem, / I have appointed watchmen; / All day and all night / They will never keep silent. / You who remind Jehovah, / Do not be dumb.”
(1) God has ordained that Jerusalem would be a praise in the earth. This is God’s desire.
(2) For this He has set watchmen to cry out to Him. He told them not to hold their peace and to give Him no rest. We should pray continually and not rest until God accomplishes what He has ordained. The carrying out of God’s will is fully determined by our prayer.
Philemon 14 says, “But without your mind I did not want to do anything, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but voluntary.”
Paul represents God, and Philemon represents us. Paul would not do anything without knowing Philemon’s mind. God will not do anything without knowing our mind. His will is limited by us.
Mr. Gordon Watt once said that God’s will is like a locomotive, while our prayers are like the tracks. The locomotive is powerful, but it can only run on the tracks. God’s will is powerful, but it needs our prayer as the tracks before His will can be done. God would not work alone; He has to wait for His children’s will to agree with His will before He will work. There are three wills in the universe: God’s will, man’s will, and Satan’s will. God does not remove Satan’s will by Himself. He desires that man’s will become one with His will, to deal with Satan’s will. A spiritual prayer is an utterance of God’s will. How useless is a prayer that merely utters one’s own will! Our prayer cannot change God’s will; it merely expresses His will. God is the initiator of everything; we are merely the channel through which His will can flow. God ordains, and we obey. He initiates, and we agree in prayer. We cannot force God to do what He does not want to do, but we can stop Him from doing what He does want to do. When God’s will is turned into our prayer, He will begin working. Every revival comes from prayer. Our prayer cannot change God’s will; it only speaks out His will. No one can direct God’s will, and no one can make Him do what He does not want to do. However, what He does want to do can be limited by man’s prayer. Although Pentecost was prophesied by God in the book of Joel, there had to be the prayer of the one hundred and twenty before He could accomplish this. God’s will reaches only as far as our prayers have reached. Therefore, the more thorough our prayers are, the more the will of God will be accomplished, and Satan’s deceptions will not be able to come in. We should cast a net of prayer “by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time” (Eph. 6:18), so that God’s will can prevail in all areas, and Satan will not find one crack through which to come in. In our prayer we should pay attention to three things: (1) to whom we are praying, (2) for whom we are praying, and (3) against whom we are praying. All our prayers should fulfill God’s will, afford others a profit, and inflict Satan with a loss.
(Afternoon, January 23)
