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Before we consider an Old Testament picture of the Spirit and its relationship to our abiding in Christ, we will answer some questions based on the previous two chapters.
Question: I do not understand the difference between growing Christ and producing Christ.
Answer: We stressed that the Father wants us to live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ. Living Christ is the beginning and is somewhat general. By living Him we grow Him; this is the second step. Producing Christ comes out of growing Him and is the fruit-bearing. To produce Christ is to bear fruit.
While I was growing up, I lived near a vineyard. In the fall the vine would be heavily laden with grapes. When winter came, the branches would be severely cut back. In the springtime those sparse branches would begin living the vine and then growing the vine. Day by day I would see them growing and spreading. Eventually, fall would return, and the branches would bear fruit, that is, produce the vine. There was much fruit. This process illustrates the difference between growing Christ and producing Him.
Question: How can you tell when your heart is condemning you and when Satan condemns you?
Answer: We need to distinguish between God’s condemnation and the enemy’s accusation. God condemns; the enemy accuses. When we have something wrong or sinful, both the condemnation and the accusation will be present. In such a case there is no need to distinguish between the two. Just confess and get the matter cleared up: “Lord, I am wrong in this. How I thank You that You have enlightened me regarding it. Forgive me. I regret it, and I repent and confess, asking You to forgive me.” Then right away exercise your faith to take the Word, which says that if we confess, the blood of Jesus cleanses (1 John 1:7, 9). Next, turn your confession to praise and thanks: “Thank You, Lord. Praise You for the cleansing of the blood.” If something still comes to bother you after such a confession and thanksgiving, that is Satan’s accusation. To differentiate between it and God’s condemnation is now easy. Say to the enemy, “Get behind me, Satan. I refuse to listen to you. The blood has cleansed me.”
Question: I do not have the vision of the vine and the branches. Should I pray for this vision, or is it something that will be worked out in time?
Answer: When we use the term vision, we do not mean the strange seeing of something that the Pentecostalist refer to as a vision. Do not expect that while you are studying or praying over John 15, you will see before you a vine with some branches, one of which even has your name on it. If such a vision appears to you, reject it as demonic.
The first time I went to a Pentecostal meeting was with Brother Nee, who had been invited to speak. I had been in Christianity for many years, but I had never before seen such shocking behavior. One person fell over, another was laughing hysterically, another was in the corner claiming to see a vision, and some older women kept jumping in the air. It was wild. They talked about seeing a vision.
A few years later I was serving the Lord in Tientsin, China’s largest port, some two and a half hours from Beijing, the capital. Among us was an elderly sister, the wife of a medical doctor. She became involved in the Pentecostal movement. Whenever she prayed, she would roll on the floor. In time, she saw a vision of an old man with a white beard. Eventually, every time she prayed, she saw this vision. The old man would come, gaze at her, and then disappear. We warned her to be careful, but Pentecostalist are so subjective that they trust implicitly in their experiences. She would not heed us. At first she was happy about her vision, but after some time it began to trouble her. Then she became sick and was bedridden for a long period. During her illness that old man often appeared to her. She became quite disturbed and again referred her case to us. We told her that the old man was a demon, which she must reject. It was hard for her to believe our word and to reject the demon, but we prayed for her. The Lord eventually gained the victory, and the demon left.
Such is a Pentecostal vision. In our dictionary, however, vision does not mean this. Rather, it is a seeing without any Pentecostal vision. As you read John 15, for example, you are so deeply impressed within that you can no longer be the same. Before, you were engaged in making plans and carrying out activities. Now, whenever you turn to what you had been doing so easily before, you have the sense, “No, this is not life. It is activity.” You try to keep on making your plans, but the sense comes: “This is not the branch living the vine, growing the vine, and producing the vine. This is not life.” If you are getting this kind of reaction within you, you may be assured that you have the vision. Formerly, you may have enjoyed your work and even boasted about it. Now the sense of pleasure is gone, and a bothering has come, causing you to reduce, even stop, what you have been doing. Every spiritual seeing has this effect.
Question: In the matter of confessing, what about the things we do repeatedly?
Answer: When you clean a room in a hurry, it does not get very clean. Later, when you come to look it over, you can see that it needs a much more thorough job. The same is true with our confessing. If we go to the Lord in a rough, hasty way, we will not take thorough care of our confessing. The next time we go to Him, not in a rush, we will find that the same matters still need our attention. Do not think that this is a repetition of what you have already confessed; it is that you must complete your unfinished confession.
Question: How can we avoid confessing according to knowledge and be sure that we are confessing by life?
Answer: Sometimes we may confess by knowledge, yet because we do so before Him, the Lord extends His mercy. When you have a little feeling that you have touched the Lord’s mercy even in confessing by knowledge, go on to the confession by life. The test of genuine confession is whether it results in life. The phrase in Acts 11:18, repentance unto life, can be translated “repentance issuing in, or resulting in, life.” You may think that your confession is by life, but if there is no change in your life, it is not genuine. On the other hand, you may go to the Lord one night and say, “O Lord, forgive me. I offended the brothers,” and go to bed feeling that you have confessed by knowledge without any inspiration. The next morning, though, when you are about to talk to your wife and say something negative about the brothers, you are stopped by fear. This change in life proves that the previous night’s confession was genuine. This “repentance unto life” produces fruit worthy of repentance (Matt. 3:8). Every time you repent, there must be fruit. Your feeling about your confession is not reliable. Do not go by your feeling; go by the fact of the resulting fruit.
Question: I am not clear about the matter of the blood in our confession.
Answer: There is no need to say, “Lord, I apply Your blood to my situation.” First John 1 says that if we confess our sins, God forgives. It also says that if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses. In these verses confession is implied. If I offend a brother, when I am in the fellowship, the light will expose. Then I will ask the Lord to forgive me for offending Brother So-and-so. Spontaneously, I will also go to that brother and ask him to forgive me. It is at this point that the blood cleanses. If I repent and confess, the blood is effectual for me, without my applying it.
Question: When you really want to repent but feel that you are just in the area of knowledge, how do you get from knowledge into life?
Answer: Just confess sincerely. Pray, “Lord, have mercy on me so that I may confess to You from a sincere heart.” Life is just the Lord Himself. Today as the Spirit He is waiting within us. When we turn our heart to Him, we touch Him. In Him we spontaneously confess by life. Alas, sometimes our confession is just a performance for the purpose of deceiving others. How much we need the Lord’s mercy!
Question: Could you share a little more about getting into the Word consistently?
Answer: It is profitable for us to cultivate good habits and not to take up bad habits. Doing something that is not wholesome can lead to worse things. This is like walking around a well; you may feel quite safe and certain that you will not fall in, but a naughty boy may come along and give you a push. Beer, for example, is a threshold to wine. Stay away from the one lest you be lured to the other.
Not only your own well-being is at stake. We must “abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thes. 5:22, KEV). C. H. Spurgeon was once invited by the manager of a newly built theater to go there for an open house to preach the gospel. After agreeing to go, Spurgeon did not feel peaceful about it. Some circumstance arose that made it impossible for him to keep his commitment. When the manager came to find out why Spurgeon had not fulfilled his promise, Spurgeon apologized. Then the manager told Spurgeon that if he had gone to preach the gospel in the theater, its business would have flourished. Spurgeon realized why God had intervened and prevented his going. To go into a theater, no matter how good the motive, is to give an appearance of evil.
After saying so much about Christ in the earlier part of Philippians, Paul admonishes us in 4:8, “What things are true, what things are dignified, what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are lovely, what things are well spoken of, if there is any virtue and if any praise, take account of these things.” Taking account of these things, most of which are not Christ, still is a good habit. This is the kind of habit that we need to build up. Praying, studying the Bible, and contacting the Lord are also good habits that we need to cultivate in a legal way. Do not wait till you are moved by the Spirit to contact the Lord. It may be a long time before any inspiration comes; make it a habit to contact Him regardless of how you feel.
Building up these good habits will keep you from sin. Do you think that if you spend time in the Bible every day you will want to go to the movies? On the other hand, if you neglect the Bible day after day, you may feel free to go. Do you call that liberation? It is your lusts that are being liberated. Do you feel free to pray and to thank the Lord for His mercy when you walk into a movie? Contrast your feeling on entering a theater with your feeling on entering the meeting hall. There is an atmosphere in the meeting hall that constrains you to pray and praise even as you are walking up the stairs.
Be faithful to build up these good habits of touching the Lord through the Word and through prayer. If you do not sense His mercy and grace toward you today, you may tomorrow. Our consciousness fluctuates, but actually His grace and mercy remain the same. His blessing is upon us, whether we sense it or not, every time we come to the Word.
Question: When is confession enough, and when is restitution also required?
Answer: If only God knows of your wrongdoing, there is no need to tell others; just confess to Him. If others know of it, even if the offense was not against them, it is best to confess to them too, to clear up their poor impression of you and also to be a testimony to them.
One of the Old Testament pictures that helps us to understand the mysterious abstraction of the Spirit is the anointing ointment, described in Exodus 30:23-25. It is this passage that is referred to in 1 John 2:27, the New Testament verse on the anointing. To understand the anointing we must understand this ointment. Notice that it is a compound; that is, it is made up of different elements chemically combined into one unit. This signifies that the Spirit of God is compounded of several elements.
Here is a list of the spices that were added to the hin of olive oil representing the Spirit. The quantity and the meaning are also given.
The one hin of olive oil is compounded with these four spices so that it becomes a compound ointment. It is clear in the Bible (Psa. 45:7; Isa. 61:1) that oil represents the Holy Spirit. With what is the Holy Spirit compounded? These spices indicate that it is with the death and resurrection of Christ.
If you notice the measure of the spices, you will see that by combining the middle two spices there are three units of five hundred shekels each. All three units are added to the one hin of olive oil. Together they form a picture of the Triune God. Why is the second unit of five hundred shekels divided into two? This reminds us that the second of the Triune God was split on the cross.
When was the Spirit of God compounded with these spices of death and resurrection? In John 7:39 we are told that “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” There was surely the Spirit of God before this time but not the compound Spirit. It was after the death and resurrection of Christ that the Spirit was compounded.
We abide in Christ according to the teaching of the anointing. This anointing is the moving and working of the compound Spirit. His teaching reflects Himself and is also compounded with Christ’s death and resurrection.
When 1 John 2:27 says that the anointing “teaches you concerning all things,” it implies that the anointing is related to the Bible. Without laying a firm foundation in God’s Word, you have no way to interpret what the anointing is speaking to you. This Word outside us is always one with the Spirit inside us. And the Spirit within always echoes the Word without. When the Word gets into us, it becomes the Spirit. When the Spirit is spoken out from us, He becomes the Word. How can we get the Word that is outside us into us? By praying. The writings of godly men down through the ages all attest to the value of the prayerful reading of the Word. We must stay with the Word till it becomes the Spirit through our spiritual breathing, that is, our prayerful reading, of it.
All that the Father is and does is embodied in the Son, who in turn is embodied in the Word. Whenever you touch the Bible in a sincere way, with some exercise of the spirit, you touch Christ, as well as life, light, and the Spirit, for these abstract, mysterious verities are all embodied in the solid Word. Now do you see the importance of having the habit of regularly getting into the Word? Even if you have no consciousness of touching the very Christ and all He is, that is what will be happening. The prayerful, regular reading of the Word will make a tremendous difference in your life. You will never regret being legal about reading the Word, but you will surely regret being loose in your daily living.
The Spirit, as we have said, is compounded with the death and resurrection of Christ. What is true of the Spirit is also true of the New Testament. The death and resurrection of Christ are both compounded in the Word. Abiding in the Lord is according to the anointing’s teaching, which is based upon your knowledge of the Word. Since the Word is mainly compounded with death and resurrection, this is the teaching of the anointing. You need knowledge concerning His death and resurrection. Then you will find that the more you abide in Christ, the more you experience His death and participate in His resurrection. This kind of abiding is the real release of the spirit, based upon the termination of everything natural. The spirit we release should not be mixed with our natural ability, our flesh, our self, or anything else of the old creation. Our spirit needs the imprint of the death of all these natural things.
Abiding in Christ, then, is according to the working of His death and resurrection in you. All your natural being, all the old creation, must be put on the cross. When you experience this killing, your abiding in Christ will be genuine and deep. On the positive side, you will also experience the resurrection, and your release of the spirit will be without any mixture.
To experience more of this putting to death of whatever is of your self, your flesh, and the old man, read the Word, pray, and breathe in the compound Spirit. If anything of the old still remains, it becomes an insulation between Christ and you, making your abiding superficial. Abiding in Christ in a thorough way depends upon a thorough killing, carried out by the Word and executed by the Spirit. With this killing comes resurrection. Then whatever comes forth from you will be from a crystal-pure spirit.
Herein is the way for the living, growing, and producing of Christ. This will make us shining luminaries individually (Phil. 2:15) and a shining lampstand collectively (Rev. 1:20). The Lord will be expressed, and God’s economy will be fulfilled.
