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Question: I realize that it is wrong to say that we have not seen anything of the Lord’s death on the cross, yet I feel that our seeing is not clear but rather blurry. I also realize the time of our seeing is not in our control; it is in God’s hand. What is our responsibility while we are waiting for light? Shall we simply go on according to our blurred seeing even if we may fail?
Answer: Your problem is that you analyze too much in your mind. There are three parts to your question. You indicate that your vision is somewhat clear but blurry, that you have seen something but not enough. You want to know what to do before you see further. According to what you have seen, you think that you could fail and be discouraged, but you still want to go forward by faith. This shows that you are both clear and confused. You have seen something, but what you have seen is somewhat clear and somewhat blurred. Since what you have seen is not thorough or sufficient, you will fall, but after falling, you will still want to rise up by faith. You are clear concerning these points. Your second question relates to what you should do before you see more clearly. Brother, you need to stop these distracting thoughts; these thoughts are the very reason you cannot see. The moment you stop this kind of thinking and analyzing, you will be able to see.
Seeing is the issue of three things: revelation, light, and sight. Revelation and light depend on God; we cannot produce them. However, sight is our responsibility. Those who have eyes should see, and those who have ears should hear (Mark 8:18). This means that we are responsible for our seeing and hearing. We must confess that we already have revelation and light; now the responsibility of seeing lies with us. Are our eyes open or closed? Are they clear or blurry? Are they transparent or opaque? Are they focused or distracted? God is not responsible for the condition of our eyes. Rather, this responsibility is altogether on our side; we must bear it completely.
We may use an illustration. Suppose someone prepares a meal and sets it on the table; our only responsibility is to eat. No one can bear this responsibility for us, not even God; only we can bear this responsibility. The revelation is here, and light is here, but if we want to see, we need the light of God to shine on our inner eyes. However, according to our experience, we are easily distracted and disturbed. Our anxiety keeps us from seeing, our analysis keeps us from seeing, our knowledge keeps us from seeing, our slothfulness keeps us from seeing, our indifference keeps us from seeing, and our begging of the Lord keeps us from seeing. This is very difficult. If you want God to bear the responsibility for your seeing, you may pray, “O God, save me from all the distracting and troubling thoughts.” But eventually, you need to realize that even after such prayer, we must still bear the responsibility for our seeing.
We should all be clear that spiritual seeing does not rely on our physical eyes or our soulish mind. If we rely on our physical eyes and our soulish mind to see spiritual things, we will be confused. This brother is confused in the matter of spiritual seeing because he has over analyzed his condition. Therefore, we must stop our distracting thoughts and learn to simply follow the light that the Lord has given us; the simpler we are, the better.
When we hear that the Lord’s death on the cross has dealt with all things, we should simply bow our head and say, “O Lord, I praise You. Lord, I thank You.” We should not analyze in our mind, saying, “I have seen only partially; I have not seen fully.” It seems that no matter what we have seen and how much we have seen, we always analyze. Moreover, in our analysis we anticipate that we will be unable to stand but, instead, will fall and be discouraged. Nevertheless, we want to continue to stand by faith. Anyone who analyzes in this way will be hindered from seeing the light.
Perhaps I have not answered your question directly. But my response shows you that there is no need to answer your question. In order to answer your question, we would need to sit down together. Otherwise, I would answer the first question, then after this I would answer another question, and then I would answer yet another question. There would be question after question, but in the end, even after I have answered all the questions, we still will not be able to see. There is not a problem with the questions that are asked but with the person asking the question. You must stop your analytical mind; do not analyze any longer; stop all your distracting thoughts. You need to simply receive what you have seen.
In fact, genuine seeing is not related to any feeling. For example, at the time of our salvation, we opened our heart and received the Lord Jesus as our Savior. But at that moment we did not feel that the Lord Jesus had entered into us, nor did we feel that there was something in us causing us to be joyful and radiant. Very few believers have a realization of being joyful and radiant immediately after receiving the Lord. Some have this kind of experience, but it is not necessarily typical. Rather, when we look back after a period of time, we realize there was joy and radiance. Therefore, we should not think that we have not received anything simply because we did not have an overwhelming experience. Rather, we did receive, but we simply did not have great feelings.
For example, after hearing a message, a brother may not have a strong feeling concerning what he saw, yet he does not analyze. He simply feels that he is full of the Lord’s presence. Before arriving home, he neither feels nor sees that all things have been terminated. However, a test comes when his wife loses her temper with him. As he is about to respond, he immediately senses something within telling him to die. He does not know how this sense entered into him. Only later does he realize that this sense was the all-inclusive death of Christ.
On the contrary, another brother is excited and joyful after listening to the message, because he has clearly seen that he has been crucified with Christ. On his way home he tells the people in the car, “I have seen it.” When he arrives home and his wife loses her temper with him, he tells himself that he must not react because of what he has seen. This type of seeing is in the mind, not in the spirit. When food enters our stomach, are we in control of how long the food will stay in our stomach before entering the intestines? Does it do any good to rebuke the food for lingering too long in our stomach or to tell it to enter quickly into the intestines? The Lord, who is in us, bears the full responsibility for us, and His word of life is like a seed that is sown into us. Although we may not know or feel it, once this seed comes into us, it begins to operate within us. We do not need to teach or remind ourselves; we do not need to say repeatedly, “I have seen it, so if my wife loses her temper with me when I go home, I must always remember that I have seen this fact: I have died with Christ. Therefore, I must not lose my temper.”
Spiritual seeing is inwardly clear and outwardly blurry. If a brother comes to us and says that he has the faith and the seeing, his faith and seeing are surely man-made. In brief, spiritual faith cannot be described. What one believes can be described only after he looks back at his experience. When he is in the middle of the experience, he is altogether unclear. Please bear in mind that spiritual seeing cannot be understood by analysis. The more a person analyzes, the more difficult it is for him to see. Spiritual seeing is not a mental exercise; it does not depend on our theoretical analysis and understanding. Rather, spiritual seeing lies in the fact that a reality, something real, has come into us.
Those who analyze with their mind often think that they are clear, but actual seeing does not necessarily involve much feeling. When we are in the midst of a spiritual experience, we often are not clear. The more genuine a spiritual experience is, the less clear we are throughout the process. However, if we are clear from the beginning of an experience, our seeing is questionable. In order to have genuine seeing, there must be a suitable condition, inwardly and outwardly, for God to shine in us, for the seed in God’s word to be planted in us, and for the seed of God’s life to be sown in us. When this seed is sown, we may call it seeing or receiving, and we may also say that this seed has been sown or shined into us. In any case, a certain spiritual matter has transpired within us. Once this spiritual matter is sown into us, it becomes our inward seeing. Even though we may not have any feeling outwardly, within us there is a spiritual fact that cannot be denied, nullified, or overthrown.
Although what is sown into a brother may not give him much feeling, when his wife loses her temper with him, it will be manifested; he will sense that there is something within that kills him and prevents him from talking back to his wife. At this time he will sense that there is an additional element within affecting him. He may not know when this element entered into him, that is, he does not realize if it came into him when he heard about the cross and the all-inclusive death of Christ or if it entered into him later. An even better example would be that when he is face to face with his wife and his wife rebukes him, he does not talk back to her loosely but later simply thanks and praises the Lord, without any realization of the killing of the cross. This is the best experience. Even though he does not feel it, there is something real in him.
Let us consider eating as an example. When food enters into us and supplies us inwardly, we do not have much feeling; it is at a time of hunger that we have feeling. The more normal a spiritual matter is, the less feeling we will have in our experience. When a spiritual matter enters into us, outwardly speaking, we do not have any feeling. But when we have a need, this spiritual reality in us will meet the need. If our situation is normal, we may not even have a feeling when a need is met within us. For example, a brother may be inwardly stopped from talking back to his wife after she scolds him. He may not realize that it is the Holy Spirit activating the effectiveness of Christ’s death on the cross within him. But when he looks back before the Lord, he will realize that this was an experience of the cross.
Question: In Acts 9, when the apostle Paul met the Lord on the way to Damascus, did the Lord appear to him inwardly or outwardly? Then in 2 Corinthians 3:16 Paul says that whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. In order to have the Lord’s appearing, must we first remove our veil, or must the Lord work in us first?
Answer: If we were to ask Paul whether he saw Christ when he saw the great light on the way to Damascus, or whether he saw Christ later when he wrote 2 Corinthians 3, he would definitely say that he does not know. He only knows that he met the Lord on the day when he was on the way to Damascus. After he met the Lord, what was formerly clear to him became blurred. Formerly, his eyes were bright, but now he was blind. If we were to ask Paul where God revealed His Son in him, he would say that it was in Damascus at the time Ananias laid his hands on him. Paul could say that although it was Ananias who laid his hands on him, from that point on, it was God who revealed His Son in him. This is good enough. We really do not need to study whether the scales fell from his eyes first or whether the Spirit of Christ entered into him first, because Paul himself was not quite clear. If we engage ourselves too much in this kind of study, we will easily be blinded. This is an insignificant thought, which greatly frustrates us from seeing light. The story of Paul on the road to Damascus simply shows that we need to be met by the Lord before we can meet Him inwardly.
Second Corinthians 3:16 says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” This shows clearly that if our heart does not turn to the Lord, a veil is there. The veil is taken away not by God’s removing it but by our turning our heart to the Lord. Actually, our turned-away heart is a veil. What is a veil? A veil is something that hinders us from seeing. If I am face to face with you, and there is a veil between us, I cannot see you. But if the veil is taken away, I can see you. If I turn my back toward you, I cannot see you; this is to be veiled. But if I turn toward you, I can see you, and there is no veil between us.
Similarly, as soon as we turn around and look at the Lord, we will see the Lord. Not facing toward the Lord is the veil, but once we turn toward the Lord, the veil is gone. Whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The children of Israel began to have the veil from Mount Sinai. The veil that Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians 3 does not refer to an outward, visible veil but to an inward veil, which obstructs man from seeing God’s glory.
With the children of Israel, the veil came in at Mount Sinai. The veil came in because the children of Israel began to rely on themselves when they were at Mount Sinai. God said, “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My personal treasure from among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine” (Exo. 19:4-5). Then all the people answered together and said, “All that Jehovah has spoken we will do” (v. 8). From that time on, a veil came upon the children of Israel and remains on them until now (2 Cor. 3:15).
Then in verse 16 Paul says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” The principle is the same today. In Matthew the Lord said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (5:8). To be pure means that we want only God, and we do not want anyone or anything besides God. God is light (1 John 1:5). If our heart is facing toward the Lord, we will have light.
We must see that with the Lord Jesus, He first bore the cross and then was crucified; but with us, we first are crucified and then bear the cross. The Lord’s living on the earth began with bearing the cross and ended with crucifixion. Our living — the Christian living — should begin with crucifixion and continue with bearing the cross. In other words, our Lord took the cross and bore it the moment He was born on earth, and He continued bearing the cross for thirty-three and a half years. He never lived a life apart from the cross. However, we should not understand the cross merely as a suffering; at the same time, we should not consider that the Lord was ever free from suffering during His thirty-three and a half years on earth. The significance of the cross is death and termination. Throughout the thirty-three and a half years of the Lord’s living on earth, He was never freed from death. He served God by standing in death day by day. He stood in death and lived in death. In those thirty-three and a half years, He always bore in His body the brands of death. He was in death, He lived in death, and He did the work of God in death.
In the end He was crucified, and before the entire universe He thus displayed the death He had borne for thirty-three and a half years and accomplished the fact of His death. From the day the cross was displayed, His all-inclusive death has become a glorious fact in the universe. This fact includes you and me and all the created things.
There is one goal in God’s plan, and this goal is Christ. The cross is God’s procedure for attaining the goal. His death on the cross is a great “surgery,” because the entire universe was crucified and dealt with by Him. Everything has been dealt with on the cross, whether it be the angels, Satan, or man. That was a great “surgery.” The unique and greatest surgery in the universe is the cross through which God reaches His goal. The cross is the procedure that God needs for His eternal plan.
In order to carry out this procedure, one day Christ became flesh; He came to be a man, joining Himself with His creatures. The process of His death was not completed when He was born into humanity; it merely became a possibility for Him. Hence, He Himself first lived in that “surgery” — death. Even though His physical death was not yet accomplished, He was already living in it for thirty-three and a half years. At the end He carried out the actual procedure of death on the cross at Golgotha. What He did on the cross that one time fully accomplished the procedure foreordained in God’s eternal plan.
Our Lord can be compared to the best cook who, after preparing a meal, makes it available for us to enjoy. On that day the Lord Jesus accomplished death for us on the cross and made it available for us to receive. If He had not died on the cross, He could not have made His death available for us to enjoy, even though He lived His life in death. For thirty-three and a half years, only He was in death. Peter could not enter into His death, neither could John nor James; no one could enter into His death. It was not until the day His death was accomplished on the cross that His divinity, humanity, human living, and all-terminating death could become our enjoyment through His resurrection life.
From that time Christ in His resurrection has become our life. He brought His death and resurrection into us, completing the work of the cross that we need to bear. God in His eternal plan determined to perform a great “surgery” to terminate all things through the death of the cross. This death was produced through Christ becoming flesh, becoming a grain that would fall into the earth and die (John 12:24); this is the first step. After He became this grain, for a period of thirty-three and a half years He bore this death and lived in it. The Bible repeatedly shows that His death has terminated everything outside of God. This is the cross the Lord Jesus bore.
For thirty-three and a half years this death was the cross that He bore. Although the Lord Jesus experienced this death, it was not yet an accomplished fact in the universe. For example, a man and a woman may love and trust each other, but as long as they are not married, they are not a couple. Once they are married, however, their marital relationship becomes a fact in the universe. In the same way, although the Lord Jesus lived in death, this death was not displayed or accomplished as a fact, a procedure, in the universe. Hence, after thirty-three and a half years He went to Golgotha to fully accomplish this death; then He transmitted it to us in His resurrection. Only in His resurrection can we enjoy His death. In His resurrection we partake of Christ and all that He has accomplished.
Hymns, #481 says, “’Tis not hard to die with Christ / When His risen life we know” (stanza 2). What a statement this is! Christ in resurrection has become our enjoyment. When Christ was raised from the dead, He gave His life to James, Peter, and John. When we receive the resurrection life of the Lord, this resurrection life becomes our life. The Lord Jesus first bore the cross, and then He was crucified. Once the death of the cross was accomplished, He gave His life to us through resurrection. We were crucified with the Lord Jesus. We were crucified at the same time that the Lord Jesus was crucified.
Because the Lord has given us His life of death and resurrection, this life causes us to be united with His death. In His crucifixion He included us in His death. After He was crucified, we did not leave the cross. From that day forward, we receive the cross in the resurrection life; from that day forward, the cross has been on us and in us, and we are continually under the cross. This is to bear the cross. Bearing the cross is based on our crucifixion with Christ. He first bore the cross and then was crucified; we first are crucified and then bear the cross. Our crucifixion and His crucifixion transpired simultaneously. This shows that the Lord bore the cross before He was crucified; He was crucified after He bore the cross. Today we still have the cross upon us. Whenever the cross is not upon us, the death of Christ is not upon us.
Question: Is there a higher experience related to the cross?
Answer: One day I was going to invite a brother to have fellowship about the problems he had in serving the Lord. Right after I decided to invite him, death began to operate in me. The operation of death asked me inwardly, “Concerning your invitation, who is inviting him, you or God?” As the cross was operating in me, I immediately asked myself, “Am I inviting him, or is God inviting him?”
We need to see that the cross does not merely touch our behavior; it works so deeply that it touches us even in the matter of serving God. This aspect of the killing of the cross is not as simple as the killing that we experience when we are about to lose our temper with our family or when we are watching a movie; that kind of killing is too low. When we want to work for God, the cross operates in us at a higher level, asking, “Is this of you? Or is it of God?” If the cross checks us inwardly, we must submit to it immediately and say, “O Lord, I will not invite the brother.” In such cases, we need to be able to bow our head and say, “Lord, I do not want any element of myself to be here.” Therefore, whenever we are about to speak to a brother, there will be an inward operation, asking, “Does this word come from you or from God? Is it just for your own interest?” This is the operation of the cross.
One day the Holy Spirit will reveal to us the universal death of the cross. Once it enters into us, it will begin a deep operation that not only touches us regarding our outward behavior but also gives us a deeper seeing. This is a higher experience of the cross. Our deliverance from the self and denying the self must be the issue of the work of the cross, because in ourselves we have no way to be delivered from the self and to deny the self. To be delivered from the self and to deny the self altogether depend on our receiving the work of the cross.
Question: What is the difference between the killing of the cross and our submission to the discipline of the Holy Spirit?
Answer: Anyone who is not on the cross cannot submit to the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Only those who live in the death of the cross can submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit, the discipline of the Holy Spirit, and the environmental dealings of the Holy Spirit. For thirty-three and a half years the Lord Jesus lived in death and under death. Death left a mark on Him; He carried the brands of death with Him and never departed from death.
Because death was always with the Lord Jesus, He could submit to the ruling of God continuously. We are identified with Christ’s death in the resurrection life. This death in the resurrection life enters into us, operates in us, and enables us to submit to the authority, the restriction, and the dealings of the Holy Spirit. In this way, when we receive dealings in the environment, not only are we without murmuring, but we also rejoice. Anyone who does not live under the death of the cross cannot live under the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
There was a sister who was always submissive; she would do whatever she was told. However, although she was submissive and would do whatever people asked her to do, she would murmur afterward. When someone said, “Sister, please wipe the chairs,” she would wipe the chairs with smiles. Afterward, however, she would murmur and say, “Why did you not ask someone else? Why did you choose me?” I had never seen her refuse a request, but neither had I seen her do anything without murmuring. Although she was willing to accept all kinds of arrangements, it was always accompanied with murmuring. Outwardly she would accept and receive the arrangement with smiles, but inwardly she would murmur. Then when she saw someone close to her, she would say, “The brothers’ arrangement is too much to bear.” Her initial response was apparently submissive to the authority of the Holy Spirit, but actually it was not. Only those who live under the death of the cross can submit to God and say from the bottom of their heart that every arrangement of God in the environment is sweet and pleasant. Only such ones are really bearing the cross.
Bearing the cross began with Christ’s crucifixion. Our bearing of the cross is based on His crucifixion. He bore the cross to Golgotha, and His death on the cross was sown and imprinted in us. Hence, our way does not depend on asking or begging but on seeing that we have already died on the cross and have no way to escape His death. Taking the way of the cross in death involves neither being humble nor suffering. Whenever we touch this death, we touch Christ, we touch life, and we touch the Holy Spirit. At the same time we also touch the defeat of Satan and the losing of sin’s power. In the death of the cross we see that all that the cross has accomplished, delivered, solved, judged, and dealt with is our portion.
Question: When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He was obedient even unto death. Do we also need to be obedient unto death?
Answer: The Lord Jesus first bore the cross and then was crucified; He was obedient unto death. We, however, are crucified and then bear the cross; the bearing of the cross also requires obedience from us. When we believe in the Lord, the first thing we need to do is to be baptized. This means that once we receive the Lord as our Savior, the first thing we need is to be baptized. What is baptism? Romans 6:3 says, “Are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” The first thing that God wants us to do, after receiving the Lord, is to enter into the death of the cross of Christ, to be baptized into His death. After baptism we must begin to take the way of obeying the Lord. After we believe into the Lord, we need to be baptized; after baptism, we need to begin living a life of obedience and taking the way of obedience. This obedient living begins with Christ’s resurrection. After we believed into the Lord, He put us into the death of Christ, and from that point forward, we could begin to obey God.
After baptism, however, many people turn from the Lord’s death and do not bear the cross. Not bearing the cross means that we are not living in the death of the cross. If we have seen what it means to be baptized into Christ’s death, we will know that we are in the Lord’s death, and this death has been wrought into us even after our baptism.
For example, a renowned doctor of chemistry, who had a strong mind, having read many books and having studied in Germany, believed into the Lord. Then we told him that he needed to be baptized and that the meaning of baptism was to die and be buried with Christ. The day after his baptism, we saw him again and talked about his believing into the Lord. As we began our conversation, his doctor-of-chemistry mind began to come out again. But immediately after saying, “I think,” he stopped himself.
From his fellowship with the brothers he knew that believing into the Lord is to be joined to the Lord and to fellowship with Him, and that being baptized meant to die and be buried. On the day of his baptism, God shined a mysterious light into his being. The next day when he was about to express his opinion, he could not continue. Death was operating in him, saying, “I thought the I in I think was buried. Why are you trying to come out of the tomb?” After this he could only say, “O Lord, what do You think? What will You say? It is no longer I but Christ. It is no longer I that live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” The words he sang in his baptism, “Already dead! And buried too! / With the old man I am through!” (Hymns, #938), was not merely a saying but a revelation, which was sown into him and was operating in him so that I and I think would no longer be expressed.
He did not live by man’s exhortation; he lived by the spiritual reality of death. This is the way of a Christian, and this is the need of a Christian. Asceticism is futile; neither does devotion avail anything. The way of a Christian is the seeing of “death”; the way of a Christian is death. Hence, we need to bear in mind that death is what God accomplished, and it is the mark of the Christian life. The Christian life begins with baptism, and the meaning of baptism is that we leave, and Christ comes; we are finished, and Christ begins; we die, and Christ lives. This is not only the case on the day of our baptism; it will be this way to the last day of our life. Only those who know the death of the cross of Christ know the deep mystery of being a Christian.
Question: Is seeing progressive? Is the degree to which we see the degree to which we stop?
Answer: The first thing is not to see but to stop. Of course, there are some stronger ones who first see and then stop, but ordinary people generally stop first. Saul of Tarsus, a well-known person throughout the centuries, was breathing threatening on his way to Damascus. There were some people he wanted to seize, and others he wanted to kill. However, the shining in Damascus subdued him. Once the light shined upon him, his entire being stopped. Previously, he led people, but now he had to be led. Moreover, because his eyes were blind, he had no choice but to stop. When we pause, God’s light will be able to shine in us. If we are willing to stop for a little, God’s light will shine in us a little; if God’s light shines in us more, we will see more. The more we see, the more we will stop; the more we stop, the more we will see. This is the principle.
In church history Andrew Murray was a good example of one who saw gradually and stopped gradually. In his writings he often spoke of being quiet and fearful. When we stop ourselves a little, God will speak to us a little; if we receive His speaking, we will continue to stop ourselves. Hence, it is exceedingly important for us to learn to stop our mind before the Lord.
Question: Does the cross have a positive aspect? As far as the experience of the cross is concerned, is the filling of the Holy Spirit an inward filling or an outward pouring?
Answer: The cross has two aspects, a positive aspect and a negative aspect. On the negative side, the cross is for termination; on the positive side, the cross is for life dispensing. All our experiences of the Holy Spirit must pass through the cross. After the Lord’s crucifixion the Holy Spirit was manifested on the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection and on the day of Pentecost. Two events transpired on two days. On the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection the Holy Spirit as breath was breathed into man as life (John 20:22); on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit as wind came upon man as power (Acts 2:2-4). Many people acknowledge the aspect of the Holy Spirit seen on Pentecost but not the aspect of the Holy Spirit seen on the evening of the Lord’s resurrection. Even Andrew Murray was not clear regarding this point. He had the experience, but he was not clear regarding the truth. He said that the experience of the indwelling Spirit is the same as the experience of the outpoured Spirit, and the experience of the outpoured Spirit is the same as the experience of the indwelling Spirit. This proves that he was not clear concerning the two aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit.
From his writings we can see that he was confused in the experience of these two aspects. According to the truth, it is one thing for the Holy Spirit to dwell in man, and it is another for the Holy Spirit to come upon man. On the day of the Lord’s resurrection the Lord breathed into His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Therefore, we cannot say that they did not have the Holy Spirit. Forty days later, however, the Lord told them that the Holy Spirit had not yet come and that they were to wait for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3-5). This shows the two aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. Although there are two aspects, there are not two Spirits but one Spirit with two aspects of work.
Revelation further tells us that the Spirit is now the seven Spirits (1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). Are there actually seven Spirits? No. There is only one Spirit, but this Spirit is intensified in function sevenfold. From the Bible we can see that the Holy Spirit has several aspects in His work. His descending upon us is one aspect, and His being breathed into us is another. His being breathed into us is for us to receive life; His descending upon us is for us to receive power. Both of these aspects came into existence after the Lord’s crucifixion.
Thus, without passing through the cross, there is no way to reach a “day of resurrection,” and without passing through the cross, there is no way to reach a “day of Pentecost.” Without passing through the cross, it is difficult to receive the Holy Spirit into us as life, and without passing through the cross, it is difficult for the Holy Spirit to come upon us as power. The cross is necessary to experience these two aspects of the Holy Spirit. Not a single experience of the Holy Spirit can bypass the cross. There is nothing that God wants to do in us that can be separated from the cross.
Question: What is the operation and work of the Holy Spirit within us? What is it to feel oppressed inwardly?
Answer: All the problems in our spiritual experience need to be dealt with by the cross. The problems in our mind, emotion, and will need to be dealt with by the cross. This means that the more we know the cross, the more the cross can do a killing work within every part of our being. When we are in our mind, the death of the cross deals with our mind; when we are in our emotion, the death of the cross deals with our emotion; when our will is especially strong, the death of the cross breaks our stubborn will. Hence, the way of a Christian depends upon the cross.
Sometimes we sense that our will is too strong and that we should suppress it so that it would not be so strong; sometimes we also feel that our emotion is too strong and that we should change it so that we would not lose our temper easily. But this does not work; this is not the way of a Christian. The way of a Christian depends on God’s mercy to reveal that the death of Christ on the cross has terminated our mind, emotion, and will and that this death has entered into us and is operating in us. When our will is stubborn, the death of the cross will touch our will and defeat our will. The cross is like a long sword that chops our will off at the “waist,” and immediately our will succumbs. In the same way, our emotion will be softened, and our mind will be restrained. At that time the Holy Spirit will be able to move within us in a spontaneous way.
A will that is no longer stubborn, an emotion that is no longer wild, and a restrained mind that no longer hinders God show that the cross has worked in our soul, and the Holy Spirit has a free way to move in us. Hence, the way of a Christian is to allow the death of Christ on the cross to have the inward ground to work.
Question: In the spiritual experience of a Christian, does consecration follow immediately after baptism?
Answer: Strictly speaking, consecration has a limited impact on one’s spiritual experiences. After a person believes into the Lord and is saved, he should consecrate himself, but strictly speaking, consecration alone is not enough in one’s spiritual experience. Even though many people have thoroughly consecrated themselves, they still have never seen the cross. Christianity appeals to many people who have a desire to consecrate themselves in a thorough way; they are willing to give up their position and wealth in the world and to focus only on His work. There are not just a few people in this category. Nevertheless, they deviate in their spiritual experiences because they have not seen the cross.
With regard to speaking on consecration, throughout the two thousand years of church history no place can be compared with the Keswick Convention in England. These meetings are still held twice a year. People have traveled from Europe and America as if they were on a pilgrimage in order to attend the convention, and the hotel business makes much profit from this. The book The Spirit of Christ says that the Keswick Convention also has branch associations in India and South Africa. The focus of the convention is consecration. They think that the reason a person does not know how to take the Lord’s way, does not have the presence of the Lord, and does not have light in reading the Bible is a lack of consecration. In other words, if a person wants to have the strength to take the Lord’s way, the presence of the Lord, and light, he must consecrate himself. They consider consecration to be the turning point in all spiritual matters.
It is only in recent years that many people have begun to realize that consecration cannot solve the problems of a Christian and that it is not the way of a Christian. In response to this realization God raised up Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis to show people that the way of a Christian is not with consecration but with the cross. I am not belittling consecration, because we are consecrated ones, and we have even consecrated ourselves more than once. However, consecration is not the way of a Christian; it cannot solve the problems of a Christian.
In the meetings many brothers and sisters have been touched by the Lord to kneel down and consecrate themselves to Him. This is good. But we need to ask how much we know spiritual matters after our consecration. Although our consecration causes us to be more zealous for the Lord, does it cause us to love the Lord more, to know the Lord more, or to see the death of the cross more? Consecration does not need seeing; it merely needs encouragement and exhortation. But in order for us to see the death of the cross, encouragement and exhortation are futile. Preaching the doctrine of the cross without seeing the cross is only a sermon. The listeners may be touched to shed tears and give themselves and everything to the Lord, but this kind of speaking can be compared to exhorting people to be humble and faithful; it is a word of exhortation, not a word of revelation. As long as the speaker is eloquent, this kind of word will be able to move listeners in their emotion and cause them to shed tears and bow their heads to consecrate themselves. In the end, however, the more people appreciate this kind of speaking, the more difficult it will be for them to see. The word of the cross requires our eyes to be opened to see a spiritual matter; hence, seeing is such a great matter.
