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We all need more personal contact with the Lord Himself. In this chapter I would like to share with you how to carry this on in a daily way. We shall consider again this familiar chapter, John 15.
The Gospel of John is a book on life. Even our physical life, not to mention the divine life, is mysterious. Though what he is dealing with is mysterious, abstract, and profound, John’s words are very simple: “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God...In Him was life, and the life was the light of men...And the Word became flesh...full of grace and reality” (1:1, 4, 14). Then in chapter 15 this One who was the Word, the very God, in whom were life and light, and with whom were grace and reality, declared that He was the true vine, His Father the husbandman, and His disciples the branches (v. 1).
The Bible covers many different topics in its more than one thousand pages, but in this chapter, John 15, is the focus of what God is doing. Here the Father is a husbandman, a farmer, cultivating the true vine, Christ, with its branches, the believers in Christ. To see this is to see God’s economy, what God is doing in this universe. God is growing Christ, and all of us are branches in this vine. In chapter 1 we can see how Christ, the true vine, began attracting some of God’s chosen people to Himself (vv. 35-50). Eventually, in chapter 15 there was a group of New Testament believers around Him; to these followers He said that He was the vine and that they were branches.
We are here branching out this vine. A vine is mainly made up of its branches. In contrast, the tall pine trees have quite short branches. But if the branches of a vine are cut off, there is very little left of the vine. Do you realize that you are one of the branches of this universal vine cultivated by God the Father? Are you clear that God is doing nothing in this universe except tending this vine?
What do the branches of a vine do? They do not do anything! They have no work. They have no activities. Their living is just to live, grow, and produce the vine. We, as the branches of the true vine, must see that the Father, the husbandman, does not want us to do any work. All He wants is that we live, grow, and produce Christ.
Just two or three weeks ago the Lord burdened me afresh with this vision. “Where,” He asked, “among all the Christian works, is there a work that satisfies Me? I do not want works. I want Myself lived out of My people. Has there ever been such a people throughout all these centuries who would live Me out? Where is there such a people on the earth today?” In spite of the countless good, even prevailing Christian works, the Lord’s heart is still not satisfied.
I remind you again that in this universe God is a farmer occupied with nothing else but the growth of this vine and its branches. If you see this vision of God’s heart desire, you will say, “Lord, rescue me from everything other than this. I have been doing many things. I have been making many plans. But this is not what You are doing. Lord, rescue me.”
Years ago I saw this vision and lived according to it, but in these last six years I have unconsciously and unintentionally left the mountaintop and come downhill. I regret that many of you who have come into the Lord’s recovery have not been clearly shown what God’s economy is. We have been distracted by other things. The result has been dissension among us. May this vision bring us all back to what God wants. I do not trust in my words. Human words are vain. But I surely trust in the revealing Spirit that He would impress you that you are nothing but branches of the vine, and that all God wants of you is to live, grow, and produce this vine.
In Philippians 2:2 Paul exhorted the Philippians to think the one thing. For us to think the one thing, we must see the vision. Otherwise, we will be distracted by talk, works, or meetings. We will be saved many times from thinking or speaking something other than the one thing if we see that God is only cultivating this vine. We are not workers, not laborers, but branches.
God is only growing Christ, but we are busy in many other things. They may be scriptural things, considered good or even spiritual by us, but they are not what God is doing.
By His mercy and grace I would like to share with you how to live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ. In John 15:7 the Lord said, “If...My words abide in you,” and in verse 26 He said, “I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality.” Right in John 15 are mentioned the two matters of the Lord’s words and the Spirit. According to my experience, there is no other way to live, grow, and produce Christ except by receiving the word and by touching the Spirit. These are our direct means.
Besides the Word and the Spirit we have two other provisions. One is His name. When you come to touch the Lord and to touch His Word, you should realize that your condition is not what it should be. In yourself you are off; it is only in His name that you are accepted. If you will say, “O Lord, I am before You in Your name,” you will sense right away that you are no longer off. You cannot come in anything you are; you cannot come in anything you do. It is in His name alone that you are accepted.
When you come to the Lord with a sincere desire to live Him, grow Him, and produce Him, the light is there. You will sense not only that you are off, but even that you are sinful in many things. You may say to others that everything is all right, but there will be a question within: “Are you sure you are all right? Your present condition is not all right. It is too loose. You are too light. You are too much in the self and in the natural man. You are too much in your lusts. You are sinful.” If you think that you are all right, then you are in darkness. No one who is in the light would think that he is all right.
Why is it that whenever anyone comes to God, he needs an offering? It is because while we are walking on this earth, we are contaminated with the natural things. Because we are still living in our natural man, in the flesh, whenever we come to God, we need the trespass offering or the sin offering (see Lev. 4 and 5). Without the shedding of the blood we could not come into the presence of God. No one who is in the light would dare to say that there is nothing wrong with him. Without the light you may think that you are clean. But when you come under the light, you will see how dirty you are and that you need a thorough cleansing.
We need the blood. This is the other provision God has made for us. In ourselves we cannot come to God. We need both the name and the cleansing blood. When we come, we say, “Lord, I come to You not in myself but in Your name. I come under the blood and with the blood. I take the cleansing of Your redeeming blood.” This will clear the way for us to receive the Word and touch the Spirit.
You must spend time in the Word regularly. You can no more neglect the Word than you can neglect your regular meals. Before you leave for work in the morning, you must spare at least ten minutes for reading the Word. Build up this habit in a legal, strict way. You will see what a difference it makes in your life.
When you get home from work, again you must get into the Word. First take a short nap, then kneel down, open the Word, and begin to read, pray-read, study, and search for half an hour or so. Do not say that you are too busy. You are not too busy to talk on the phone. Leave the yard work for another time. This is your time to be watered and pruned.
If you really touch the Word, you will find life. You will know that there is life in the word because you will be enlightened. Even in small things the light will shine brightly. You will have no place to hide. Whenever you come to the Word, you should experience this light searching and exposing. If you do not, you must pray, “Lord, have mercy upon me. Why do I not sense the light? Take away the dullness, the numbness, the blindness, and the veils, that I may sense Your light.”
Besides being enlightened, you will experience being nourished and strengthened. The word first comes as light, then as nourishment and strengthening. Eventually, it does a killing work. Once the light exposes and the nourishment strengthens, you will say, “Lord, I am willing. Take this away. Cut it off.” In receiving the word, you will find that it does much killing within you. It will kill your natural concepts about your husband or wife, about the brothers and sisters, about the church and the elders. It will kill your carnal desires and fleshly lusts. You will find yourself praying, “Lord, kill my pride. Kill my natural humility. Kill my performed meekness. Kill my hypocrisy. Kill my politics with the brothers and with my wife.” If you build up the habit of getting into the Word, you will have this experience daily.
Eventually, you will find this Christ so close and so precious to you. You will begin to breathe Him and to live Him. By taking the Word in this way, you will live Him, grow Him, and produce Him. You will have the soil of your heart cultivated by the Father to grow Christ. He will cultivate the soil of your conscience, which is the gate. He will cultivate also the soil of your emotion, your will, and your mind. This will make a way for the vine to spread into every part of your soul.
If you will all go to the Word in this way over a period of time, the outcome will be a genuine revival in the church life, brought about from within, without any stirring up, promotion, or performance. This is what the Lord’s recovery needs today.
Do not correct or adjust yourself. Just come back to the Word and to abiding in the vine by abiding in His words. When it says in John 15:7, “My words abide in you,” in Greek words is the plural form of rhea, the present, instant speaking. We digest the logos, and it becomes the rhea to us. Then we get the enlightening, the nourishing, the strengthening, the killing, and the living of Christ.
We have the Bible in our hands and the Holy Spirit in our spirit. Whatever our condition — weak, backsliding, or wrong — thank God we do have these two legacies. The Spirit and the Word are inseparable. As you read, the Holy Spirit cooperates with the Word. In contrast, if you try to exercise the spirit in reading the Los Angeles Times, there will be no inward response. But every time you come to the Bible, in the name and under the blood, something inside works in coordination with what you are reading outside. That is the corresponding Spirit.
Obedience is the only way to touch the corresponding Spirit. You may be weak, but you cannot deny that the dear Spirit of our God is in you. You may grieve Him, but He will never leave you. This is why, whenever you have a heart to come to the Lord in His name and under His blood, the Spirit within will echo what you read in the Word. Then the more you say Amen to this speaking, the more the responding Spirit will work within you. You will be either rebuked to the depths of your being or rejoicing in the heights. You will never be indifferent.
With the word occupying and saturating your mind and the Spirit dwelling in your spirit, you will live, grow, and produce Christ. You will have the fragrance of Christ, which others will sense without any advertising. How does this come about? By receiving the word into your being time after time, the Spirit has wrought Himself, even Christ, into you. Your mind will be possessed by the word, and your spirit will be permeated with the Spirit.
The word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psa. 119:105). The word that occupies your mind will shine before your feet, lighting your way. You will not be walking in darkness, because the mind-occupying word will shine over your steps.
At the same time the indwelling Spirit will keep speaking to you, comforting and nourishing you all day. It is like the food we take in; we may finish a meal in thirty minutes, but for several hours afterward that food sustains us.
May we take Christ as our food through His Word and drink Him as our water through the Spirit. Thus we shall live, grow, and produce Him, fulfilling the Father’s desire.
