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In order to eat Christ as the choice portion of the harvest, we need three things: the harvest, the unique place chosen by God, and the release of our spirit. We need to release our spirit so that Christ may be released. None of these three points are found in today’s Christianity. To have a harvest means to grow Christ. When some Christians hear this, they will say, “We never heard of such a thing as growing Christ. What does this mean? Isn’t Christ perfect and complete? How can we grow Him?” Throughout the centuries Christians have not held the concept of growing Christ. The phrase grow Christ cannot be found in Christian writings.
I am quite concerned that you understand accurately what it means to eat Christ. In a foregoing chapter I shared with you how to grow Christ as wheat in the midst of limited situations. However, this does not mean that we should eat the limitations; instead, we must eat the Christ who grows in limitations. The concept of eating the limitations comes from traditional teachings. These teachings began with the book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. Through the reading of this book many Christians have received the impression that they must suffer and bear the cross, that is, that they must eat their limitations. Many think that Christians should have long faces and wrinkled brows. Apparently, the teaching that we must bear the cross and sacrifice for others is scriptural; actually, it is mixed up with a natural concept. The main teaching in Hinduism is that of suffering. We have to be careful about mixing the truth of self-denial through the cross of Christ with the natural concept of the religious, ethical, or heathen teachings concerning suffering and sacrifice. Those religious and ethical teachings easily fit our natural concept. The revelation in the Bible is vastly different. According to the Bible, we need to live by Christ and with Christ. Hence, we need to allow Christ to grow in us. Instead of eating the cross, we need to eat Christ. The chapter on growing Christ as wheat and barley was not a word about eating the cross. It was a word about living by Christ and with Christ, a word about growing Christ in our limited situations.
Just recently I was talking with a young brother about marriage. When I asked him about his experience in married life, he said, “Before I was married, I thought I was quite patient. But married life has really exposed me, and now I see that I am not very patient at all.” This brother was saying that married life exposed his shortage of patience. Then I replied, “Brother, it is wrong to say that married life exposes your lack of patience. You should say that married life exposes your lack of Christ. One of the largest families in China is the Chang family. The Chang family was famous for patience. In their living rooms they were accustomed to hanging a picture showing the character for patience printed in a hundred different ways. In this way the Chang family boasted of its patience. Every member of the Chang family learned the lesson of patience. One day a member of the Chang family was married. Before he was married, he thought he had a great deal of patience. But his married life exposed him, showing that he was actually short of patience. Brother, in saying that married life exposes your lack of patience, you are not being a Christian; you are being a member of the Chinese Chang family.”
Many missionaries to China were not able to differentiate Christian patience from Chinese patience. Although I was born in China, I was born into Christianity, I was raised in Christianity, and I studied in Christian schools. I learned both the Chinese ethical teachings and the biblical ethical teachings. Some missionaries even told us that the ethics in the Bible were exactly the same as the ethics of Confucius. At that time, although I was unsaved and unregenerated, I was absolutely for Christianity because it was my family religion. Whenever anyone opposed Christianity, I was prepared to fight for it and defend it. At that time I was very troubled when I read the classical Chinese writings and compared them with the Bible. It seemed that the ethics in the classical Chinese writings were excellent. I told myself that the Bible and the Chinese philosophers teach the same thing as far as ethics are concerned. When I was nineteen years of age, I was genuinely saved and thoroughly converted. I was saved to know the Lord Jesus and to live by Him. After I was saved, I realized that there was a great difference between the teachings of the Bible and the teachings of the Chinese philosophers. The difference is that the Chinese philosophy emphasizes ethics, whereas the Bible emphasizes Christ. For His economy God’s concern is not ethics but Christ. Therefore, we should not say that we are short of patience; rather, we should say that we are short of Christ.
In the early years we used certain expressions that were not accurate. For example, when a brother said that he could not endure living with his troublesome wife, we would say, “Brother, you need to learn some lessons. You are short of patience and endurance. You need to learn the lesson of being broken. The reason you cannot bear living with your difficult wife is that you have not been broken. Brother, the Lord intends to break you.” Today I regret the use of certain expressions, such as learning the lessons and being broken. We are not short of patience, endurance, and brokenness; we are short of Christ. Suppose a certain person has very little of Christ. Even if he were broken into pieces, he would still be short of Christ. Thomas à Kempis taught us to bear the cross. But even if we bore the cross for thousands of miles, we still would not have Christ. We are not short of bearing the cross; we are short of Christ. It is very important to see this.
Consider the example of a young married brother who truly loves the Lord and seeks Him. His wife also loves the Lord. In fact, it was because they were both seeking the Lord that they fell in love and were married. However, although they both have Christ, they have not yet gained very much of Christ. Unintentionally, this brother’s wife gives him a great deal of trouble. The brother becomes so desperate that he goes to his pastor for help. The pastor opens his Bible to Ephesians 5:25, which says, “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” This brother’s pastor then proceeds to tell him that he must learn the lessons of patience, endurance, and sympathizing with his wife. The brother accepts the counsel of his pastor, returns home, and tries his best to sympathize with his wife. But although he tries to be patient and to endure, he is not successful. One day this brother and his wife come into the local church. When he brings the problem of his difficult wife to one of the elders, he is told, “Brother, after listening to you talk about your problems in your married life, I realize that you have never been broken. Brother, you need to be broken.” The brother accepts this advice, returns home, and tries to be broken. Eventually, this also is of no avail. Finally, he goes to yet another elder and presents the problem to him. This brother, knowing the way revealed in the Scripture, says, “Brother, you are not short of patience, endurance, or brokenness. You are short of Christ. What you need is more Christ. Are you willing to learn to breathe Christ in? You will never be able to bear your dear wife. Do not try to bear the cross — gain more of Christ. Are you willing to open up your spirit and call on the Lord? When you gain more of Christ, your problem will be solved.” The brother gladly takes this advice and gains more of Christ. Although his wife remains the same and is difficult to live with, this brother has more of Christ. Every time his wife troubles him, he grows more Christ, and the more he grows of Christ, the greater a harvest he has of Christ. Thus, he is able to eat of Christ, not just as the manna but as the produce of the good land. There is no need for this brother to eat his limitation or his cross. Instead, he needs to eat the Christ he has experienced.
Years ago we did not see this matter very clearly. Therefore, when the brothers came to me with problems in their married life, I told them to learn the lessons of patience, endurance, and brokenness. In my experience, however, I found that these teachings did not work very well. When I realized this, I was troubled. I was like a doctor who administered a prescription that did not heal the ailment. Eventually, I discovered another dose. This dose is not patience or endurance or brokenness — it is Christ. The reason a brother is unable to bear the cross of his wife is not because he lacks patience, endurance, and brokenness; it is because he is short of Christ. From that time onward, I began to practice this myself. I tested this prescription in my own laboratory by calling on the name of the Lord. I opened my spirit and my whole being to let the Lord Jesus come into me more and more. When Christ is added to me, defeat becomes victory. This does not mean that the environment changes, nor even that I change myself. It is that more of Christ is added into my being. This is what it means to grow Christ, to allow Him to increase within.
The Christ by whom we live and with whom we live becomes our enjoyment. We eat Him and we enjoy Him. We do not eat our sufferings. I eat my Christ and bring the top portion of the Christ I have experienced to the church meetings. When I bring this Christ to the meetings, share Him with others, and offer Him to God, I enjoy Him with God and with the saints. First, I came to recognize my need of the top portion of Christ. Then I began to help the saints to realize this. Eventually, this revolutionized our living. From then on we learned how to have the harvest. Second, I learned how to bring the top portion of the harvest to the church meetings. At the beginning, however, I did not realize the need to release my spirit. Therefore, I shared Christ in a rather dead way. I related my experience of Christ to the saints in a deadening way without the release of the spirit. When I realized what I was doing, I condemned myself and repented. After that, I came into the meeting and said, “Praise the Lord! I don’t need patience, endurance, or brokenness! I need Christ! And the best way to gain Him is to call on His name. O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” How refreshing this is!
Remember the three things necessary for eating the choice portion of Christ. First, we must have the harvest. This harvest is not a harvest of patience, endurance, lessons, suffering, or bearing the cross. We need a harvest of Christ. Day by day we are not growing patience; we are growing Christ. We need to live by Christ and with Christ, giving Him the opportunity to grow within us. Then we shall have a harvest of Christ. Second, we must discern what is the unique place of oneness. We must not go to a place of division, a place where there is neither the Lord’s presence nor His speaking. Third, when we come to the place of oneness with our harvest of Christ, we must function by releasing our spirit to share Christ with others. When we do all this, the meetings of the church will be filled with the riches of Christ. It is in this way that we enjoy the top portion of Christ. This enjoyment of Christ makes us strong and solid for the building. It will cause us to become a mountain out of which come the iron and copper needed to defeat the enemies. Hallelujah, this is God’s economy!
In Old Testament times the kingdom was established, and the glory of God came down and filled the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). However, this glorious situation did not last very long. The children of Israel became degraded, and idols were placed in the temple. Ezekiel 8:9-16 reveals that the temple was filled with idols and that the elders even took the lead to worship idols. According to the New Testament, the church established at Pentecost was full of glory. However, not too long afterward, the so-called church became full of idols. Today idolatry abounds in the Roman Catholic Church. If you enter a Catholic cathedral, you will see idols all along the walls.
According to the book The Two Babylons, many heathen things were brought into Catholicism. Take the example of Christmas. December 25, the day Christmas is celebrated, was originally the birthday of the pagan sun god. After Constantine the Great embraced Christianity, he encouraged others to be baptized. As a result, thousands of unsaved persons were baptized into Christianity. Formerly, they worshipped the sun and celebrated the birth of the sun on December 25. After they were baptized into Christianity, they maintained their heathen practice of worshipping the sun, and eventually, this practice was absorbed by Christianity. They changed the name of the sun god to Jesus and claimed that December 25 was the birthday of the Lord Jesus. What an insult to the Lord! What blasphemy! Easter also has a pagan origin. Furthermore, the Catholic Church worships Mary, calling her the mother of God. Actually, the Mary in Catholicism is a heathen goddess. This heathen goddess was brought into Catholicism, and her name was changed to Mary. Now she is called the mother of God, and Catholics worship her. This is idolatry, and it is abominable in the eyes of the Lord. A number of aspects of paganism have been brought into Protestantism through Catholicism. Christmas is celebrated not only by Catholics but by those in all the major denominations. This indicates that these denominations are involved in paganism.
Ezekiel 10:18 says, “The glory of Jehovah went forth from over the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim.” Due to the idolatry in the temple, the glory of the Lord departed. When the temple was built, the glory of God filled it. But in Ezekiel 10, because of the idols the glory of God departed and returned to heaven. This whole picture signifies first that on the day of Pentecost the glory of God came down and filled the church built up by the apostles. Later, due to idolatry and paganism, the glory of God left the so-called church. Today the glory of God is not in the Catholic Church or in any group involved with paganism. This involvement is blasphemy to God and an insult to Him. How can God dwell in such a place? It is impossible! The reason today’s Christianity is so pitiful is that God is not there. Catholicism, Protestantism, and all other groups involved with paganism are Babylonian in the eyes of God. The Catholic Church, the mother of the prostitutes, is the great prostitute, and all the other Babylonian groups are her daughters. This is not my teaching; it is God’s word in the Bible. Christianity may have the name of God, but the glory of God is not there. It is impossible for Him to dwell in a place filled with idolatry and paganism.
After God had departed and returned to heaven, the children of Israel were scattered. Some were carried away to Egypt, some to Assyria, and the majority to Babylon. The temple was destroyed, and all its vessels were carried away to Babylon and placed in the temple of Nebuchadnezzar’s idols. This signifies that at a certain time the entire church was destroyed by the Babylonians, who carried away the contents of the temple to Babylon and placed them in the temple of their idols. At a certain time in church history, Babylonianism came into the church, destroyed it, and carried away its contents. If you study church history, you will see that this was truly the situation. Therefore, in Revelation 17 the apostate church is called Babylon the Great, the great prostitute.
How we thank the Lord that He never forsakes His purpose! After the seventy years of captivity the Lord came in and told His captured people to return to Jerusalem. The Lord seemed to be saying, “Now is the time for you to return from your captivity. Go back to Jerusalem and build My house.” Ezra 1:5 says, “Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites rose up, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred up to go up to build the house of Jehovah, which is in Jerusalem.” The Spirit of God was moving to stir up the spirit of the children of Israel. This indicates that the recovery, the return from captivity, is absolutely a matter of the spirit. Ezra does not say that the Spirit of God stirred up their mentality. No, he says the Spirit of God stirred up their spirit. The Lord’s recovery does not take place in the realm of our mentality. If the children of Israel had exercised their mentality regarding the call to return to Jerusalem, they would have said, “Many of us were born in Babylon. Our homes and our jobs are here. Surely the Lord is omnipresent. If He could be in the Holy Land, could He not be here with us in Babylon? Look at how spiritual Daniel was. Even here in Babylon he was able to be so spiritual and do something for God. We all have been helped by him. It is crazy to go back to Jerusalem. Those who say that we must go back are narrow-minded. God is not that narrow; He is everywhere. We don’t want to be bothered traveling all that distance to a desolate land. We would have no houses or businesses there. What would we do when we got there? This must be Ezra’s crazy idea. We don’t think it is God’s command.”
Likewise, if you exercise your mentality to analyze the Lord’s recovery today, you will think that it is needless to return to the unique ground of oneness. Today there are many who have performed some work for God, but none of them are willing to go back to Jerusalem. Rather, they say, “Why should I return to the ground of oneness? This is Witness Lee’s crazy idea. Forget about it! He is too narrow-minded. God is everywhere, not just in the local church. As long as we have the Bible, preach the gospel, meet together, help others grow and seek the Lord, everything is all right. God is broad-minded. It makes no difference whether you are in the Catholic Church, the denominations, the free groups, or in your own home. God is gracious, and He is everywhere. Don’t listen to the crazy talk about returning to the ground of oneness.” Such Christians may be successful in their work, but they do not have the glory of God. Deep within, they are not satisfied. Thus, our spirit must be stirred up. Forget your troublesome mentality, turn to your spirit, and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus from deep within. If you do this, you will sense deep in your spirit that you should go to the church.
Hallelujah for the minority, the remnant, that returned to Jerusalem! Most of those who returned were not strong ones. Nevertheless, they went back, bringing with them the vessels of the house of the Lord, “which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and had put in the house of his gods” (v. 7). After we come back to the church, the riches of Christ are gradually recovered. This is the return of the vessels.
After the children of Israel had returned to Jerusalem, they laid the foundation of the house of the Lord (3:8-10). Then, according to Ezra 3:11, “they sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to Jehovah, saying, For He is good, for His lovingkindness is forever upon Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid.” Verse 13 says, “The people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.” Some Christians today do not agree with the matter of shouting. The reason they oppose shouting is that they have not been recovered. In Babylon people weep rather than shout (Psa. 137:1). Those still in Babylon would say, “Lord, have mercy upon me. I love You, Lord, but I’m still in Babylon. Although I am for You, I don’t have the temple. How pitiful!” How could such a person shout? However, when we return to Jerusalem and lay the foundation for the temple, the foundation of the recovery, we have something worth shouting about. We must shout because we have the foundation for the rebuilding of the temple. For this reason many times in the church meetings we became so excited that we were beside ourselves. Where else could we experience such joy? Because we are so full of joy, we can hardly control ourselves. This is why the church meetings are often noisy and full of shouting. Some may say that our meetings are too noisy and that this is altogether unscriptural. But read Ezra 3. The people shouted with a great shout. How can you say that shouting is not scriptural? It is more than scriptural. We have not yet shouted enough. We must shout a great deal more. Hallelujah, the foundation of the temple of the Lord has been laid!
