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Let us read John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Here we have the life and the light. We are also told that the life is the light. This life which is the light is the Word who is God Himself (v. 1). In God Himself, the living Word, is the life, and this life is the light. Therefore, light is related to life.
John 6:63 says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Here life is related to the Spirit, and the Spirit, who is life, is also the Word. The life with the Word is related to the Spirit.
First John 1:1-4 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us); that which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write that our joy may be made full.” Here we see two more things that are related to life — fellowship and joy. Therefore, light is related to life, the Spirit is related to life, fellowship is related to life, and joy is related to life.
Verses 5 through 7 say, “And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth; but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” In these verses we see again that light is related to life.
We also need to read Romans 8:2: “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” Here we are told that the Spirit is the Spirit of life, and with this Spirit of life there is a law. Of course, the law of the Spirit of life is related to life. Then verse 6 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” Peace is also related to life.
In the above passages of Scripture there are at least six things that are related to life: light, the Spirit, fellowship, joy, the law of the Spirit, and peace. The burden in my heart in these days is to help the Lord’s children know the proper way to experience Christ as life. In other words, my real burden is to help people know the way of the inner life. Christ is living within us today to be life to us, but how can we experience Christ as life all the time?
Before we go on to see the way, I feel that I need to share a little concerning the matter of God’s intention. Although we have a physical life, a natural life, a human life by birth, God’s intention is that we take Christ as our life. This is something quite “troublesome.” We have a life already, yet God wants us to take another life. We are so used to living by the natural life that we already have, yet today God wants us to give up, to put away, to put aside, this natural life and take Christ as our life.
Many Christians do not know that there is the need of a change of life, not a change of their behavior or conduct. We have to put our natural life aside and take another life. However, the natural thought or concept is always to improve, correct, or even repair the natural life just like repairing a poor, old car. God’s demand, however, is that we put the “car” away and take an “airplane.” We may have a 1921 Ford, a poor little old car, and our intention is to repair it, to change some of its parts to improve it, and to paint it and make it look nicer. But God wants us to put it away and take the airplane.
The problem is that we are so used to the poor car and have developed some affection for it, so we are not willing to put it aside. Perhaps we put it aside, but we still go back to look at it. This is our story. What we are doing all the time is trying to repair the poor car to improve it a little. But God demands that we forget about the old car, the poor car, that is, forget about our old self, our own life. God wants us to put that life aside and take Christ who is the heavenly airplane. We need to take Him as our life.
In the past years I have seen thousands of Christians, even good Christians, in the Far East, in Europe, and in this country. But very few practice this matter of day by day putting away the “old car” and taking the “airplane.” They are good and religious Christians, but they are not living by Christ or taking Christ as their life.
In 1937 the church arranged for me to stay in a Christian home. The couple and their family were so good. Day by day I had the realization that both the husband and wife were nice and wonderful, but I was concerned that they did not know how to put themselves away and take Christ as their life. I could sense that they were good, naturally and religiously, but they were not taking Christ as their life. They talked with me about many things and about many persons, but what was their standard? Their standard was not Christ but good and evil. They knew how to be good and how not to be evil, but regrettably, they did not know how to take Christ as their life. They often remarked that a certain kind of conduct was not Christ-like. They knew how to be Christ-like, but they did not know how to take Christ as their life.
Do you realize that there is a difference between being Christ-like and taking Christ as your life? You may be Christ-like, but you may not know at all what it means to take Christ as your life. From my own experience I know it is easy for me to preach the gospel to a very evil person, but it is rather hard for me to preach the gospel to a good person. I learned that I had to be careful and patient in trying to preach the gospel to a good person. I might say something like this: “In the garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in contrast to the tree of life. Good is not life, just as evil is not life. Only Christ Himself is life. God does not want us to be good or evil. God wants you and me to take Christ as our life.” Brothers and sisters, we have to put away, to put aside, our natural life and take Christ as our life.
What is the way to take Christ as life? You have to be clear about several things before you can be clear about the way to take Christ as your life. First, you have to realize that today Christ is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b). Many Christians have the impression that the Holy Spirit is absolutely someone other than Christ. In fact, they have the impression that the Holy Spirit is just the power, the strength, of Christ. But the Holy Bible says that the Father is in the Son and that the Son is the Spirit.
Today we have the Father in us (Eph. 4:6), Christ in us (2 Cor. 13:5), and the Holy Spirit in us (Rom. 8:9). So do we have three in us or one in us? Actually, the three-one God is in us. I was very young when I got saved, and the more I prayed to the Lord in heaven, the more I felt that He was within me. When I was young, I went to some elderly brothers and asked, “When we pray, what do we call Him? Do we call Him Lord or Father?” Some said it is better to call Him Father, others said it is better to call Him Lord, and still others said it is better to call Him Lord God the Father. Actually, They are one. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is the Spirit.
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” By these two verses we can realize that Christ is the Spirit. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us that “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” If Christ is not the Spirit, how can we be one spirit with Him? This very Spirit who is the Holy Spirit of God is now in our spirit to mingle with our spirit as one spirit. If we are going to take Christ as life, we have to know that Christ today is the Spirit and this Spirit is now mingled with our spirit as one spirit.
He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit, and the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). These two spirits, the divine Spirit and our human spirit, cooperate together, work together, and mingle together as one spirit. The entire matter of taking Christ as our life hinges on the wonderful Spirit who is in our spirit. This is something wonderful that is beyond our comprehension. But what we are seeing here is something real and revealed in the Scriptures. It is so wonderful that we have a wonderful mingled spirit, a spirit which is the mingling of the divine Spirit with the human spirit, the mingling of divinity with humanity.
We also must realize that the Spirit is life. The Lord told us that the words He speaks to us are spirit and are life (John 6:63). The Spirit is life, and Christ Himself is life. But how do you know that you have this Spirit as life within you? If you have this life within you, which is Christ Himself and also the Spirit of life, you have the fellowship of life. The current of electricity is a good illustration of the fellowship of life. When the electricity is working, there is the current of electricity. This electrical current is simply the electricity itself flowing. If you have the current of electricity, that means you have electricity itself flowing and working. What is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit? What is the fellowship of life? That is the current, the flowing, of life within you.
We can also use blood as an illustration. We have blood within us and the circulation of blood. What is the circulation of blood? It is the blood itself circulating, flowing. If you have blood without circulation, that means you are dead. How do you know you are living? It is because something is circulating, flowing, in you. How do you know that you have Christ as the Spirit within you as life? It is because you have something within you flowing all the time. There is a current within. A stream, a current, is flowing within you. This is the fellowship.
If you do not have this flowing within, you are a dead person; you are a false Christian, not a genuine one. If you are a genuine Christian, I am sure that something within you is flowing all the time. That is fellowship. The fellowship of life is the current of the Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 we have the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The fellowship of the Spirit is the current of the Spirit, transmitting all the fullness of God to us. This is just like the current of electricity. While it flows, it transmits all the riches of the generator to the building. The Holy Spirit is the fellowship, the transmission, transmitting all the riches of Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead in Christ, into us.
How do you take Christ as your life? You have something within flowing in you; just take care of that flowing, follow that flowing, and go along with that flowing. If you follow and go along with the inner flowing, this means that you are on the right track to experience Christ as life day by day. When the inner flowing tells you to go to Los Angeles, do not say, “I don’t want to go.” Instead, go along with the inner flowing and do whatever it tells you to do. To take Christ as life is to go along with the inner flowing.
Not many people know this secret of taking Christ as life. Some may know, yet they are not faithful to the inner flowing. Many times something in you is flowing, yet you do not go along with the flowing. You try to be good and do good in order to make yourself Christ-like, but you would not go along with the flowing to take Christ as life. This is the problem.
If you go along with the inner flowing, you will have joy. Joy is very much related to the flowing, the fellowship. If the flowing tells you to go to Los Angeles and you go along with it, you will be full of joy. A Christian must be a person who is always joyful, but you cannot be joyful unless you go along with the inner flowing. The joy is always with the flow.
How do you know that you are taking Christ as your life? Just ask yourself, “Do I have joy?” This is something that you cannot pretend. Some brothers came to me pretending to be joyful, but in my spirit I could sense their joy was false. Joy is something from within your spirit. If you have the flow and are in the fellowship, you have joy and are joyful. If you neglect the inner flow, the inner fellowship, you lose your joy. Remember that joy is always related to fellowship.
Now let us consider the next item — the light. The life was the light of men (John 1:4). In John 8:12 we have this term the light of life. The light of life is just life itself. The light within us is life, and the life within us is the light. Light is something shining, illuminating. Check your experience. Do you have something within you shining all the time? If you do, that means you are in the life. How do you know that you are taking Christ as your life? It is by realizing, sensing, that you have something within you not only flowing but also shining. I have no utterance to describe this inner shining, just as I have no way to describe the taste of sweetness. If you want to know what sweetness is, just take a piece of candy and taste it. Then you will know.
I believe many times you have the experience of the shining within you. That is the light of life, the life functioning as light. We know that electricity is one, but its functions are many. It gives us light, power, heat, etc. Just as there is one electricity yet many functions, there is one life yet many functions. It gives us the flow, the joy, and the light. Something within us is shining all the time. If you sense darkness within you, you should realize that you are not taking Christ as life; you are out of the experience of Christ as life. If you take Christ as life, you must have the shining within you because the life is the light, and Christ Himself is the light of life.
Let me share a little testimony with you. Just before I came here this evening, around suppertime, I was with the Lord considering the message tonight. I had prepared a message that was different from what I am speaking now. I had everything ready for that message, but I sensed a darkness in me. Somehow I was in a shadow. Then when I was with the Lord, the sense came to me that I had to give the message I am speaking here tonight. I said to the Lord, “Lord, no doubt, I will go along with You.” Right away within me it was transparent. The cloud was lifted, and the sky became clear.
How do you know that you are going along with the Lord? It is just by checking in this way, “Am I clear? Or am I cloudy, smoggy, foggy?” If you have the cloud, the smog, or the fog, that means there is something between you and the Lord. You are on the wrong track. You need to be adjusted within. Some brothers like to make jokes. I would ask you, “After you make a joke, do you feel that you are clear within? Or do you sense that you are foggy, smoggy?” There is nothing wrong with your morality when you make jokes, but if you are a person who jokes too much, I am sure that you are a person not taking Christ as life. If you are one who takes Christ all the time as life, you will not joke, because the life of Christ is not a joking life. Joking is unbecoming to the inner life. I use this illustration to show you how you can know whether you are in the flow or not, whether you are in the transparent spirit or under the clouds. When you take Christ as your life, you have joy, and you have the shining.
With any kind of life, in principle, there is a law. The divine life, which is Christ Himself, is the very law. Christ within you is not just the life, the light, the fellowship, and the joy, but also the law. You have an inner, living regulating. You have some regulations within you, not written in word but written in the Spirit. The inner regulating of this life is deep, strict, and fine.
You know what is right and what is wrong; you know what you should do and what you should not do. You know because you have the regulating within you. Since I learned the lesson of the inner law of life, I realize one thing — there is no need for you and me to tell people what is right and what is wrong, what to do and what not to do. Whenever a saint comes to me and asks me something about good or evil, right or wrong, I always answer him by asking, “How do you feel?” You know the answer. There is a living rule within you, and this living rule is Christ Himself. He is not only the life, the light, and the flow; He is also the law.
In the Old Testament times God gave Moses the Ten Commandments as the law. That law is the description, the definition, of God. By that law we know what kind of God He is. But today in the New Testament times, God Himself comes into us as the law. The old law of letters consisted of words written as the description of God. Today God Himself comes into us as the living law. This is something subjective, something inside of us; it is not something objective, something outside of us. The Lord Himself, the living One, is the law within us. What kind of relationship should you have with Him? It is not according to the regulations of the so-called church or according to doctrinal teachings, but according to the inner regulating.
In the Old Testament times, an Israelite could do a lot of good things, and he could even sacrifice himself and all that he had for others. In spite of all the good things that he had done, if he did something against the law, he still had a problem before God. Today it is the same with us related to the law of life. If we are not right with the inner regulating, no matter how many good things we may have done, we know that there is a problem within between us and God. Maybe we would preach the gospel, minister the word, and do many things to help others, but we know that there is a problem between us and God because we are wrong with the inner regulating.
One time a brother was going to do a certain work for the Lord, yet he realized that the inner regulating was demanding him to stop the work. However, he had the intention and the desire to do it. He argued with the Lord, saying, “Lord, that work is so good and so helpful to others, and it is also profitable for You. Besides if I do it, the church will be helped very much.” But no matter how much he argued with the Lord, the more he went to do it, the more he lost the inner peace. The more he went to work on that project, the more he lost the inner anointing. He did many good things, but he was wrong with the Lord.
Today we maintain a proper relationship with God not by doing good things but by going along with the inner regulating. You need to take care of the inner anointing. How do you know that you are taking Christ as life? If you are really taking care of the inner anointing, you will go along with it even if it stops you from doing good things such as sacrificing yourself to love others. You should not argue with the Lord that this is something good, something for Him, or something for His people. The Lord just wants you to take care of the inner anointing and regulating.
You need to take Christ as life by taking care of the inner regulating. If you do not go along with the inner regulating, you are not a person taking Christ as life all the time. Christ as life is in you as the living law regulating you. In all things He is the law; you are not the law. He is the rule; you are not the rule. He is the living rule, the living law, always regulating you from within.
Then there is also the matter of peace. Romans 8:6 tells us that “the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” How do you know that you are taking Christ as life? It is by the sense of peace in you. Everything within you and every part of your being is peaceful, restful, and at ease. When you are taking Christ as life, when you are in the light, in the flow, and under the regulating, you have the wonderful, perfect peace. This is not an outward peace but an inward peace. This is the peace in the heart, in the spirit, and even in the soul — in the mind, emotion, and will. You have the whole peace, the perfect peace, the heavenly peace, the divine peace within you.
How do you know that you are taking Christ as life? It is just by checking if you have the fellowship, the joy, the shining, the regulating, and the peace all the time. Many Christians neglect their inner life. They work, walk, and have their being on their own and according to their moral standard. To them, as long as they are not doing something evil, it is good enough. They do not take care of Christ within them. Brothers and sisters, we should not be such poor Christians. We have to take care of the inner life all the time. Today Christ is the living One (Rev. 1:18) within us as life.
Thus, we have the flow, the joy, the light, the law, and the peace. We have the living One within us flowing, shining, and regulating. This means that we are in Christ, taking Christ as life, living by Him, and consequently, having the image of Christ expressed in our daily walk. When we have Christ within as our life, surely we will have the expression of Christ without.
The way to take Christ as life is to take care of the inner sense, the inner registration, and to check if you have the inner flowing, the inner shining, the inner regulating, and the inner joy with the inner peace. If you have all these inner things, you are in Christ, taking Him as your life. If not, you are outside of the experience of Christ as life. Furthermore, no matter how good you are apparently and outwardly, you still need to check with your inner sense. You are in Christ taking Him as life only when you have the inner flowing, shining, and regulating with joy and peace. This is the right way for us to experience Christ as life.
Very few Christians are living in the inner life, but many Christians are living in an outward way. We have to be Christians in the inner life, always learning to take Christ as our life. We need to forget about ourselves and take Christ as our life by checking to see that we have the inner flowing, shining, regulating, joy, and peace.
