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I. Beware of:
D. Not being conformed to the death of Christ — not denying (putting to death) your self, natural man, disposition by birth, flesh, preference, and ambition — Phil. 3:10b; Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20; 5:24.
E. Not walking and having your being strictly according to the mingled spirit — Rom. 8:4.
F. Not setting your mind on the mingled spirit — Rom. 8:5-6.
G. Not magnifying Christ by living Him through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ — Phil. 1:19-21.
H. Not living with Christ, walking, working, and moving with Him.
I. Not letting Christ make His home in your heart by your inner man being strengthened by the Father according to His glory with power through His Spirit unto the fullness (expression) of the Triune God — Eph. 3:16-21.
J. Not working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure — Phil. 2:12-13.
In this chapter we want to continue to see the things that we need to beware of in fulfilling the obligations of the co-workers and elders. In the previous chapter we have already covered three things on the negative side that we need to guard against, namely, ambition, pride, and self-justification. In this chapter we want to see that we need to be wary of not doing some positive things. The Bible mentions a great number of positive things. Furthermore, the things spoken of in Brother Nee’s books and in my books are the positive things in the Bible. I have released three to four thousand messages in the United States that cover all these positive things. What we need to beware of is the “not” with regard to these positive things. There are too many “nots” in us. Indeed, the Bible speaks of many positive things, and Brother Nee and I have also been speaking these things for several decades. However, few are those who practice what they have heard, and many are those who do not.
Some may say, “Brother Lee, does this mean that we don’t love the Lord?” Many people in the Lord’s recovery truly love the Lord and are willing to pay the price; they have also seen the light and the revelation so that they know God’s economy and, even more, the Lord’s recovery; moreover, they are living the church life in the Lord’s recovery and are learning to build up the Body of Christ. For this, I truly worship the Lord. When I observe carefully, however, I realize that the work being carried out by the co-workers and the condition of the churches under the shepherding of the elders are not quite satisfactory to us. We are not satisfied, because we do not practice what we have seen. The many clear revelations that we have seen in the Bible have been released among us and printed in books; also, many hymns have been written. However, I first ask myself frequently whether or not I live according to this light and revelation in the Bible. I admit before the Lord that although He has inspired me to release these messages and compose these hymns of high quality, I do not live closely according to the Lord’s revelation and inspiration to me.
The first stanza of Hymns, #501 says, “O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine; / God infinite, in eternity, / Yet man in time, finite to be.” This “God infinite, in eternity” came to be a man finite in time. Where is He being a finite man? He is in us as a finite man. Have we experienced these two lines? The Lord, who is the embodiment of the great God, was the infinite God in eternity, yet today He has come into us, human beings who are so small, to be a finite man. Praise the Lord that for us to live is Christ who is the infinite God, the God in eternity. Although we are finite men in time, He is living within us today. We should learn to apply the truth in this way. Otherwise, even though we have a very good Bible and hymnal, we cannot apply them to ourselves.
The chorus of this hymn says, “Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, / Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet! / God mingled with humanity / Lives in me my all to be.” We need to learn to apply these words to our daily life.
Stanza 2 says, “The fulness of God dwells in Thee; / Thou dost manifest God’s glory; / In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought; / As Spirit, oneness with me sought.” These lines are really good, but we should not simply remain in the appreciation of them. We need to ask ourselves whether this is the life we live. God’s glory was manifested in Christ, but is He manifested in us today? Furthermore, is the Spirit one with us today? Husbands, when you talk to your wife, is Christ one with you? Perhaps in experience you can only say, “In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought,” but you cannot say, “As Spirit, oneness with me sought.” Hence, although we sing this hymn, we do not have its reality.
Stanza 3 says, “All things of the Father are Thine; / All Thou art in Spirit is mine; / The Spirit makes Thee real to me, / That Thou experienced might be.” This is an excellent stanza. All that the Father has, was received by the Son, and all that the Son is, was given to the Spirit. This Spirit comes into our spirit to become our reality so that the all-inclusive Christ may be our experience. Have these words become our experience? Do we have this reality in our living? If we check our condition, we have to say that we are short of such experience.
In a previous chapter we saw that the degradation of the church is due to our not enjoying the Christ who is in our spirit. Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” To overcome today’s degraded Christianity, we need to enjoy Christ in our spirit as our portion to be the abounding grace to us. Brothers, we need to bow our heads and confess that we are short of this. Among us, we have the light in the books and the hymns, but we have neglected the practical experience in our living.
Although we may sing a hymn of high quality, the husbands and wives still quarrel. We do not allow the Spirit to make the Lord real to us in order that the Lord may be experienced by us. Our experience is not “the Spirit makes Thee real to me.” Rather, we make our temper and our disposition real to us. When we sing such a hymn, we should sing it with tears, saying to the Lord, “Lord, all things of the Father are Thine; all Thou art in Spirit is mine; the Spirit makes Thee real to me, that Thou experienced might be. Forgive me, Lord, I am not like this. I need Your Spirit to make You real to me so that You may become my experience.” We need to weep while singing. This is how we should pray, even daily. Christianity is poor; the light we have is rich. However, we rarely apply these riches to our daily life. As a result, very little of the riches of Christ are manifested in our living. This is why the burden upon me today is very heavy. I am very happy to have such a meeting. A great number of elders and co-workers in the Lord’s recovery around the globe are here. I like to grasp this opportunity to speak a word of love. Brothers, awake! We have the messages and the hymns, but we are short of the practical living.
Stanza 4 of this hymn says, “The Spirit of life causes Thee / By Thy Word to transfer to me. / Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received, / Thy life in me is thus conceived.” In our daily life, do we allow the Spirit to cause the Lord to be realized in us through His living word? Do we, moment by moment, touch the Spirit and receive the Lord’s word so that we may receive the Lord as our supply?
If we compare the poetic words in this hymn with our living, we will find that there is quite a discrepancy. We have such a hymn, but we have very little of the reality of what it speaks. How poor our living is when we compare it with the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul says that he announced to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel (Eph. 3:8). If we desire to announce to people the unsearchable riches of Christ, we need to experience Him richly in our living. The riches of Christ are unsearchable, but how much reality do we have in us? Therefore, this is a warning; this is something we need to beware of.
Paul says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). To be conformed to Christ’s death is to take Christ’s death as the mold of one’s life. In your living, Christ’s death must work in you to such an extent that you are simply Christ’s death. You must be molded into the form of His death; you must be simply the form of Christ’s death. If a co-worker or an elder comes to the meeting late and still struts to the front and sits on the first row, is this the form of Christ’s death? Since you are late, you should be humble and not sit in the front; it is all right to sit in the back. While you are sitting humbly in the back, you should bow your head and pray to the Lord, “Forgive me, Lord, for being late in coming to the meeting.” This is the form of Christ’s death. As you are sitting there, you are simply the form of Christ’s death. Then at an appropriate time you may stand up and say, “Brothers and sisters, I have always encouraged you to come to the meetings early, even at least five minutes earlier than the scheduled time. Today I feel shameful because I came here five minutes late. I am really ashamed of myself; I am not worthy to sit in front. I will sit here in the back. I beg all of you to forgive me.” This is the form of Christ’s death. You are simply Christ’s death on display. If you are late and still sit on the first row in a haughty manner, that is not the death of Christ; that is a grotesque form of pride.
Likewise, a husband and a wife should not condemn each other; instead, they should always apologize to each other. In this way both the husband and the wife are Christ’s death, and they live out Christ’s death. Whoever sees them will be edified. The Bible tells us that even in disciplining our children, we should not provoke them to anger (Eph. 6:4). To discipline our children without provoking them to anger is something that we simply cannot do in our natural man. We can do this only by being conformed to the death of Christ and by living by Him. Unless we are conformed to the death of Christ, all that we have is flesh, pride, and quarrels. If you are not conformed to the death of Christ, this means that you do not deny (put to death) your self, natural man, disposition by birth, flesh, preference, and ambition (Phil. 3:10b; Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20; 5:24). This is something we need to beware of.
We have the mingled spirit within us. This mingled spirit is the Spirit of God, that is, the Spirit of the Lord, joined and mingled with our spirit as one spirit. The spirit mentioned in Romans 8:4-6 refers to such a mingled spirit. In our living we should beware of not walking and having our being strictly according to the mingled spirit (v. 4).
Our mind is always a “strange creature” dominating us. If you cannot go to sleep, it is because of this strange creature. If your heart is troubled and anxious, it is also because of this strange creature. The Scripture says that we should be anxious in nothing (Phil. 4:6), but are we like this? Do we set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:5-6)? Do not separate your mind from your spirit; rather, let your spirit become the spirit of your mind (Eph. 4:23). Such a spirit of the mind is a renewing spirit. To be renewed means that we are renewed in the spirit of our mind. When our spirit and our mind are blended together, we can praise without any worry; we can be full of peace without any anxiety; we can be at rest without any agitation. Otherwise, we will have insomnia, worry, anxiety, fanciful thoughts, and wild imaginations. Our mind is like a wild horse. We have to bridle our mind and set it on our spirit so that it may come under the control of our spirit. Brothers and sisters, do we practice setting our mind on the mingled spirit in our daily life?
Furthermore, we need to beware of not magnifying Christ by living Him through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21). The bountiful supply is a mystery, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is also a mystery. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is not merely the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of the One who was incarnated, who experienced human life, and who died and resurrected. Such a Spirit of Jesus Christ has a bountiful supply. Do you need patience? He is patience. Do you need calm? He is calm. Whatever you need, He is. He is the bountiful supply.
Often, instead of living Christ, we live ourselves, and instead of magnifying Christ, we belittle Him. We are the servants of Christ, yet we live a life of worrying, of blaming others, of criticizing others, of being unsatisfied, and of murmuring. If we do not live or magnify Christ, how can we serve God and minister to the churches?
Dear brothers and sisters, we should not merely read these items and let them go. We need to check them, item by item, and beware of them. We should not only be wary of ambition, pride, and self-justification, which are not deadly but merely little foxes and small fleas. Much more, we need to beware of the items given in this chapter, all of which are deadly.
What we speak of in this chapter is like the many sicknesses in our body. Today we need to guard against high blood pressure, heart attacks, and many other sicknesses. A flea means nothing. A little fox running around in the garden is also insignificant. However, if our body is entirely sick, that is fatal. Hence, we must beware. If our meetings are not living, fresh, uplifting, or rich, it is mostly because we, the co-workers and elders who are taking the lead, are negligent in these crucial items, not guarding against them.
The co-workers and elders also have to beware of not living with Christ, not walking, working, and moving with Him. Many people walk, but not with Christ; they work, but not with Christ; and they move, but not with Christ. Yet they acknowledge that Christ dwells in them. Surely, Christ is dwelling in us, but we often ignore Him. I do not know how many times I have confessed my sins to the Lord, saying, “Lord, I just made a phone call, but I didn’t do it with You.” The proper thing to do is to say, “Lord, now I am going to make a phone call. I desire that You make this phone call with me and that I make this phone call with You.” How beautiful this would be! Sometimes I felt that my wife had a shortcoming in a certain aspect. Then I prayed, “Lord, I want to fellowship with her. Please go with me. If you don’t go with me, that means You don’t want me to do it; then I won’t do it. If You want me to do it, You have to do it with me and I with You.” This is my experience of living with Christ in my personal life.
In a newly written hymn there are these two lines: “No longer I alone that live, / But God together lives with me.” Our daily life must be “God together lives with me.” We cannot just say this in our prayers and sing this in our hymns, and not live together with God day by day. We are too free. If we want to make a phone call, we do it instantly. If we want to write a letter, we do it immediately. We are short of the experience of living with Christ. Often, as soon as I left my seat to go and do something, I had to sit down because I was going alone without the Lord; I had to ask the Lord to forgive me for acting alone. Consider as a Christian how many things you have done by yourself alone and not by you with the Lord. To be a co-worker you have to do everything in the work with the Lord; to be an elder you have to do everything in the eldership with the Lord; even to shepherd the brothers and sisters you have to do everything with the Lord. The Lord is our Chief Shepherd and our great Shepherd. It must be He who is in us urging us to shepherd others. Unless the Lord is doing the shepherding, how can we be shepherds? When we go to visit a brother and the Lord goes with us, that truly makes a difference.
When you go to visit a brother, you must have the Lord going with you. You must not go simply because you have the burden and the willingness to go. If you go in this way, your visiting will be futile. You do not have the Spirit, the life, or the Lord; you are acting alone. Before you go, you must pray to the Lord, “Lord, I pray that You would give me a real burden to visit this brother. I am in fear and trembling before You, Lord. I am afraid of bringing myself there to visit him. Have mercy on me, Lord. If You do not go with me, I will not go. You must go with me. Also, enable me to speak with You, and You must speak with me. Although I am a shepherd to this brother, I want to take You as my Shepherd. Unless You shepherd me, how can I shepherd him?” If you do this, you are one who lives entirely with Christ. You are not in the old creation but in the new creation in resurrection. Hence, when you go, the sensation, the flavor, and the atmosphere that you give him are simply Christ. This is to minister Christ, to dispense Christ. Otherwise, dispensing Christ and ministering Christ become mere terminology that is found in our messages and hymns but is rarely seen in our daily life.
Furthermore, we need to beware of not letting Christ make His home in our heart by our inner man being strengthened by the Father according to His glory with power through His Spirit unto the fullness (expression) of the Triune God (Eph. 3:16-21). This item is very high. God the Father is strengthening our inner man, which is our spirit, according to His glory with power through His Spirit. When we are strengthened in this way, Christ can make His home in our heart, step by step, smoothly and without hindrance. If we want to let Christ make His home in our heart, we must give Him the room so that He may make home in our mind, emotion, and will. Thus, we become His dwelling place. We are fully occupied by and saturated with Him to become the fullness of the Triune God. Not only are we filled with God, but also we become the very fullness of God. The fullness of God is the enlargement of God. In Genesis 1 God was merely God Himself without His fullness, but now He has gained many children. When these children are occupied by Him and let Him make home in every part of their being, they become Him to be His fullness. This fullness is the expression of God. When we meet together, we should express God. When people come to our homes, whatever they see should also be an expression of God.
We have clearly spoken and released many messages on letting Christ make His home in us. But when I observe the condition of the saints in the Lord’s recovery, it really makes me sigh. On the one hand, I thank the Lord that He has spread His recovery to many places throughout the world; on the other hand, the true condition of the saints makes me sad because we lack the reality. Today God is confined by us and cannot make His home in us. He is with us in our spirit, but He is frustrated and imprisoned in our spirit, not being allowed to spread out to every part of our heart, including our mind, emotion, and will. We have Him in our spirit but not in our mind, emotion, or will. He is truly frustrated within us.
After Paul spoke concerning the transcending truths in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2, in chapter 3 he bowed his knees in prayer to the Father that He would grant the saints in Ephesus to be strengthened that they might let Christ make His home in their hearts unto the fullness of God. Today we are short of this among us; this is what makes me sorrowful. On the one hand, I worship and thank the Lord that we love the Lord and know the Lord’s way in His recovery. But we still need the Lord’s mercy, because our practical living is far off from the things mentioned here.
If we beware of the above six “nots,” that is, if we are conformed to the death of Christ, walk and have our being strictly according to the mingled spirit, set our mind on the mingled spirit, magnify Christ by living Him through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, live, walk, work, and move with Christ, and let Christ make His home in our heart by our inner man being strengthened by the Father according to His glory with power through His Spirit unto the fullness, the expression, of the Triune God, then we can attain this last item, which is the working out of our own salvation.
Philippians 2:12 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” When I was young, I could not understand this verse. Martin Luther stressed that we are not saved by works but justified by faith. Why is it that this verse in Philippians 2 says that we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling? Later, I saw that although justification by faith and God’s selection in eternity, stressed in the Reformed theology, are right, they are just partial truths. The Bible tells us that although we have received salvation, we still have to live it out practically. When we live out our salvation, that is the working out of our own salvation. We have received God’s organic salvation, but when we observe the attitude of the husbands toward the wives and the response of the wives to the husbands, we see that what is being lived out is not salvation. This means that we do not work out our own salvation. Hence, we should be in fear and trembling to work out our salvation. Fear is the inward motive; trembling is the outward attitude. We should be in fear within and trembling without, lest we do not work out our salvation.
In Philippians 2:13 Paul goes on to say, “It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” This God is the Triune God, the very God who is Christ and the life-giving Spirit. It is this God who operates in us so that both our willing within and our working without may be according to His good pleasure. This enables us to live out God’s salvation. To live out God’s salvation in this way requires us to have the previously mentioned items. If we beware of the six aforementioned items, the result is that we will be in fear and trembling to live out the organic salvation that we have received.
I hope that the items mentioned in this chapter will become the practical living in the homes of the brothers and sisters and the practical living in the churches. The work that we do for the Lord must produce this kind of result. If our work does not produce this kind of result, it will not be satisfactory to God or to man. When we were baptized, we entered into the Lord’s death and were buried. We have died with Christ, and now it is no longer we who live. This is the attitude that we should have in our living so that we may work out God’s salvation.
