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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 12:12-13
In the two previous chapters we covered two kinds of living. The first kind of living is one that is out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit. The second kind of living is one that walks solely according to the spirit. In this chapter we come to the third kind of living. Actually, these three kinds of living are just three aspects of the one living. In the two previous chapters we did not see the constituents of this living. This is like saying that a certain kind of tea is good, thirst-quenching, and invigorating without telling people what elements are in the tea.
In this chapter we want to go deeper to consider the normal Christian living. No doubt the normal Christian living is one that is out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit, and no doubt it is a living that walks according to the spirit. But that is not enough. We need to go on to see what the constituents of this living are. This is my burden in this chapter. Hence, the subject of this chapter is “A Living That Is Outwardly Baptized in and Inwardly Saturated with the Holy Spirit and in Which Our Whole Being Is Constituted with the Elements of Christ.”
The proper service in the church is based on Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Romans 12 speaks of service to God in the church, that is, in the Body of Christ. In this service the first thing is that we must present our bodies (v. 1). To present our bodies is to present our time. If your body comes, your time comes also. This is very practical. But when the body comes, problems also come. This is because when the body is here, opinions are here as well. There is no one in the world who does not have an opinion. Everyone, whether he is old or young, has his opinions. Opinion is a great problem to the church. For this reason Paul says that we need to present our bodies and not be fashioned according to this age (v. 2).
Recently, I was holding a conference in a certain city. One sister in the congregation was a medical doctor. When she heard my message, she was very impressed. After the meeting she came to see me and said, “Brother Lee, our church is very good. Only one thing is lacking. I feel that we should have a hospital.” You see, her body came, and her opinion came also. This is to be fashioned according to the age. If we allow a hundred people to speak in the meeting, there may be a hundred opinions. Some may suggest putting house plants all over the meeting hall. Others may suggest having a four-part choir. This is being fashioned according to the age, that is, to the world.
The church is heavenly and spiritual. This is why, immediately after Paul mentions the presenting of the body, he goes on to say that the mind must be renewed (v. 2). This renewing of the mind is a turn in our concept. We are not a social club, nor are we a society or an association. We are the children of God meeting together in spirit. For this reason, when we come to serve in the church, we should take our concepts from the Bible and not from the world. It is right for you to present your body, but the opinions in your mind should not come along with it. Your mind should be renewed and be transformed. Furthermore, your spirit must be burning (v. 11). Our service to God in the church should be one where the body is presented, the mind is renewed, and the spirit is burning. This is the service described in Romans 12.
The service mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 has a foundation. This foundation is the constituents of a Christian’s spiritual life. These constituents can be found in verses 12 and 13 of that chapter. The section from 12:12 to the end of the chapter covers only one subject — the Body. There we see that the church is a body. The church is not an organization; it is an organism. An organization has no life, while a body has life because it is organic. For example, a chair may be considered as an organization. It is very orderly, but it has no life. Our body, on the contrary, is not merely orderly; it also has life. The church is the Body of Christ. It is not an organization but an organism.
First Corinthians 12 also talks about the service of the members of this Body in the church. In this service everyone functions according to his part. However, this service of the Body has a foundation. This foundation is seen in verses 12 and 13. In this foundation we see the constituents of the daily life of those who serve. This is a deeper point. To talk about the outward function is easier and more readily understood, but to talk about the inward constituent is deeper and more difficult, because man does not have this concept within him.
These two verses show us the constituents of the living of those who love the Lord, follow Him, and serve Him. The first constituent is the Spirit, and the second is Christ. Verse 12 says, “Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” This Christ is not merely the Head; He is the whole Body. Hence, this Christ is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ. This verse reveals that Christ is not only the Head but the Body as well. Here we have Christ and the church. Christ and the church together make one universal man. The Head of this man is Christ Himself, and the Body is the saints, who are the members. Paul says that this Body, which is composed of all the saints, is also Christ.
After this, in verse 13 Paul says, “For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” On the one hand, we were all baptized into one Body. This is outward. On the other hand, after being baptized, we were all given to drink one Spirit. This is inward. We were baptized into the water once, but we drink water every day. This does not mean that the water into which we were baptized and the water which we drink are two different kinds of water. They are the same kind of water, but this water has two functions. Today the Lord is only one Spirit; He is not two Spirits. But this one Spirit has two functions. One function is to baptize us. This Spirit has baptized us into one Body. After we are baptized, we go on to drink this Spirit. To drink is to take something into our being. Baptism is the outward function, and drinking is the inward function. We get into the water, and the water also gets into us. All these are illustrations. Because spiritual matters are too deep, the Bible uses illustrations to describe them to us.
When we drink water into us, it quenches our thirst. Moreover, it has the function of moistening and dissolving our food. After we have eaten some solid food, the only way for the nutritious elements in the food to get into our cells and blood stream is to dissolve them with water. This also is an illustration. Please do not think that because the Spirit is mysterious, He is therefore abstract. Although the Spirit is mysterious, He is not abstract. Rather, He is very practical. We must daily drink this Spirit. Only then will we be able to live a proper Christian life.
If we study thoroughly verses 12 and 13, we will see that the functioning of all the members of the Body of Christ is nothing but a living. And this living is composed of two kinds of elements. One is the Spirit, who is like water; the other is Christ, who is like food. The growth of the human life depends on these two elements. Food is solid, and water is liquid. Within these two elements are many rich nutrients. The nutrition in food is greater than the nutrition in water. However, food is dry. When it gets into us, without water to dissolve it, it is difficult for the nutrition in the food to saturate our cells and blood stream. We need the solid food, and we also need the liquid water. The food is Christ, and the water is the Spirit.
My body can stand upright because it is sustained by food and water. All of us grow and live by the supply of food and water. They sustain our work and activities. For our physical being to grow up healthily, we need to eat rich food and drink nutritious drinks. The Chinese who are born in America are all tall and strong. This is because the American food is exceedingly rich. American milk, American steak, American chicken, American fruits, and many other kinds of American food are eaten and constituted into their being. As a result, they are constituted with American food. But if they do not eat the riches of American food, then naturally they will be small, skinny, and unhealthy. Today many Christians are small, skinny, and bony. This is because they have not been eating Christ and drinking the Spirit. Christ and the Spirit are the two necessary constituents for the growth in life of the believers. They are also the foundation of the service of the believers.
In this chapter we are considering the small group meetings. We have no desire to gather the brothers and sisters together merely to have one person speak while all the rest listen. We desire to see all the saints functioning in the meetings. But if we have a few hundred or a few thousand people meeting together, how could it be possible for everyone to function? It is for this reason that the Bible mentions both the big meetings in the temple and the small meetings from house to house. This is where our difficulty lies. Suppose you have begun to meet in your home, and you have seven or eight people meeting together as a small group. The first two meetings may be very good. But by the third time, you run out of content; there is no more supply. One brother may say, “I am going home,” and another may say, “I am leaving.” In the end you find that you cannot carry on such meetings any longer.
This situation may be likened to a group of children growing up in America who refuse to eat hamburgers or drink milk. They do not want to eat anything or drink anything. If you put five of them on a team and ask them to play ball, of course they will not have the strength to play. The reason that our small group meetings are not attractive is that we are all dry and skinny, weak and dead. We do not act like living persons. In such a condition it is all right for us to come to attend a “service” or to sit in a pew. There we may have a few who can sing professionally and who can lead us in singing. We may also have a few who are trained in praying who can lead us in prayer. Of course, there is also the preacher who will preach to us. It is easy to attend a “service” in that way. However, if six or seven of us are put together by ourselves, what should we do? Who will pray for us? Who will preach to us? In such a situation we may look at each other or just talk to each other about many irrelevant things. In the end there is nothing more to say, and the meeting cannot be carried on any further. For this reason, we cannot talk about propagation or increase. We can only remain where we are, get by with what we have, and overlook our real needs. This is why my whole being is overloaded with this heavy burden. My hope is that in every local church we would see a total mobilization of all the members. In order to have a total mobilization, there is no other way but to have the small groups. Only in the small groups will everyone be able to function.
We must have a kind of living that is initiated from the Holy Spirit and which passes through the human spirit. In other words, we must have a living in which we walk according to the spirit. However, that is not all. Tonight the Lord has shown us the constituents of this kind of living. The first constituent is food; the second is water. The food is Christ, and the water is the Spirit. According to the Bible, Christ is in the Spirit. This is like all the nutrition in the food being in the water. From Revelation 22 we can see that the tree of life grows in the river of water of life (vv. 1-2). Wherever the river of water of life flows, there the tree of life grows. The fruit of the tree of life comes out of the two sides of the river to supply man’s need. Christ must be in the Spirit before He can be our supply.
How then do we drink this spiritual water? Both milk and honey are not solid but are liquid food. There is rich nutrition in the milk, but it is all in the liquid. Likewise, all the riches of honey are in the liquid. Today, all the riches of Christ are in the Spirit. However, in Christianity the question of the Spirit has never been resolved during the past two thousand years. This is because the Spirit is too mysterious and deep. Many Christians do not have an adequate knowledge concerning the Spirit; hence, they have no way to experience the Spirit. For this reason they are constantly in poverty.
Thank the Lord that by His mercy I was saved sixty years ago. After I was saved, I loved the Bible to the uttermost. There was hardly a day when the Bible was not in my hand. I read it every day. Later the Lord called me and gave me grace to give up my job, and from then on I did almost nothing but study the Bible. After all my studying plus my experience, I arrived at a conclusion: in order to enjoy this Spirit we must believe what the Bible says.
The Bible tells us first that the God in whom we believe and whom we worship, serve, and enjoy, is a Triune God. In the Triune God we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the consummation. Although the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are distinct, They are not three Gods. They are still one God. There is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, with one source, one course, and one consummation. In the consummation there is not only the Spirit but the Son and the Father as well. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not only coexistent; They are also coinherent. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Both the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in both the Father and the Son. The Lord Jesus said clearly in John 14 that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him. Hence, His speaking is the Father’s working. He said that when men see Him, they see the Father, for the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father (vv. 9-11). Therefore, the Father and the Son cannot be separated. Although there is a distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, They are inseparable.
God is triune because He desires to work Himself into His created and redeemed people, that is, into us who have believed. How then does the Triune God work Himself into us? First, He accomplished creation. In His creation the Father, Son, and Spirit were there together. The Triune God worked together to accomplish creation. In creation His main goal was to create man as the center so that man could become the object of His dispensing. But after He created man, man fell. Because of man’s fall, the Triune God became flesh (1:1, 14). It was not merely the Son of God who became flesh. The Lord Jesus told us that when He came, He brought the Father with Him (8:29). This is contrary to the concept of most Christians. Their concept is that when Christ came to put on the flesh, He left the Father in heaven. The fact is that when the Son came to be incarnated, the Father came also. Furthermore, the Son became flesh in the Spirit. That is, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit through Mary (Matt. 1:18, 20). Hence, the Father, Son, and Spirit were all involved in the incarnation. For this reason, the Bible does not say that the Son became flesh. Rather, it says, “Who [God] was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). It was not a partial God, but a complete God, who was incarnated.
The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — became flesh and lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. He passed through human life and tasted all the joys and sufferings of human living. At the end of His human life He went to the cross to accomplish the all-inclusive death. Then He was buried. He entered into Hades, but death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24); neither could Hades detain Him, for He is life (John 11:25). He came triumphantly out of death, and in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This Spirit has passed through creation, incarnation, human living, and death and has entered into resurrection. This Spirit, who is the very consummation of the Triune God, has passed through so many processes and steps to become the life-giving Spirit. In this life-giving Spirit there is the Son, and there is also the Father; there is God, and there is also man. The Bible tells us that this Spirit in resurrection is the resurrected Christ (John 14:17, 20), who is also the pneumatic Christ. It was this pneumatic Christ who came into the midst of the disciples on the night of His resurrection to breathe into the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:19-22). From that time on, the Triune God has entered into His chosen people. This is what happened on the day of resurrection.
Essentially speaking, the Triune God entered into the disciples on that day to become their life and life essence. Economically speaking, forty days later He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9). This does not mean that in His ascension He left His disciples. He was still within the disciples as their essence. Ten days after He ascended, He poured Himself out from the throne (2:1-4, 16-18). This is the Spirit at Pentecost. By this time, you can see that this Triune God had become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. On the one hand, He entered into His believers to be their life essence. On the other hand, He fell upon them to be their power for work.
What should we do with such a record of the Scripture? We must believe! We need to say Amen to every point recorded in the Bible. The Bible says that God is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. To this we should say Amen. The Bible says that this Triune God created the heavens, the earth, and all things, including us. To this we should also say Amen. The Bible also says that the Triune God became flesh and lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. Again we should say Amen. The Bible says that this Triune God died on the cross for our sins and dealt with sin, the world, Satan, and all the negative things. We should say Amen to this. The Bible says that He rose from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit and that He has entered into those who believe in Him. Again we should say Amen. If you believe in Him, He will enter into you. There is no need to analyze with your mind. Simply Amen what the Bible says from the depth of your being. Do not be deceived by your unreliable feelings. If you say Amen, you will realize that He is in you. This is real.
Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” What is faith? Faith is the substantiation of the substance. Let me explain this with an illustration. Suppose that in a certain house there is a sweet fragrance, but you cannot see it, nor can you touch it. How then can you substantiate this fragrance? All you need to do is to exercise your nose a little, and the fragrance will be substantiated. You must use the right organ to substantiate a particular substance. For example, you must use your ear to hear. The hearing of the ear is the substantiation of sound. Likewise, faith is the substantiation of spiritual things. All spiritual things are substantial, but we must use our spirit to believe in them. This believing is the substantiation of the substance of spiritual things.
When you pray, do not exercise your mind as you do when you recite something from memory. Neither should you preach to the Lord in your prayer. The Bible has no preaching prayers, but it has prayers of confession, in which a person confesses his failures. D. L. Moody said a hundred years ago that long prayers kill the prayer meetings. The most living prayers are those with two or three sentences. I can still remember a story about Moody. One time in a meeting, a person began to pray a long prayer. Moody said, “While our brother is still praying, let us go ahead to do such and such.” Sometimes I think that this is a good way. If someone should pray without stopping in our prayer meeting, we should say, “While our brother is praying, let us all have some fellowship.” We do not want any long prayers.
Once a blind man came to the Lord and cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The Lord said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The answer was simple: “Lord, that I may receive my sight!” (Luke 18:35-43). That is enough. If the Lord asks you today, “What do you want?” and you say, “Lord, I am thirsty today; I want the Spirit,” that is very good. All you need to pray in the prayer meeting is, “Lord, I want the Spirit! I am so thirsty. I want a drink.” Do not say, “Lord, You know that I am very thirsty, and because I am thirsty, I need a drink. The drink today is the Spirit, and without the Spirit there is no drink. Only when I have the Spirit can I have the drink.” This is preaching prayer. You are praying as if God needs you to preach to Him. When God asks, “What do you need?” you should say, “Lord, we need a revival! We are all nearly dead. We want to be alive. We are neither hot nor cold. We want to be hot. Lord, burn us!” Do not say, “Lord, You know that unless You do the burning, nobody can burn. Even if we try to be burning, we cannot burn. Only You can burn. If You do not burn us, what can we do? For this we come to beseech You.” Simply say, “Lord, burn us at once!” Do not preach so much doctrine. The Lord will do the burning.
When we were in Shanghai we had a slogan that had been developed through the years. Some brothers and sisters would come to every meeting, and at every meeting they would pray. Furthermore, every prayer they prayed was long. We tried for some time to find a way to help these saints. Eventually, we found the way from Moody’s story. We do not need to pray for so many things. God knows that we lack clothing or food. We should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us (Matt. 6:33). We should especially avoid praying for big houses or fancy cars. We should say, “Lord, I am not burning today. Burn me!” or, “Lord, I am half dead now. Make me alive!”
If you sense that there is a lack of air in a particular room, open the windows. Once you open the windows, the air will come in. Although you cannot see the air, you can feel it. Likewise, when you wake up in the morning, simply open up the window of your being to the Lord and say, “Lord, I am open to You. Breathe on me. Lord, I want You to fill me. I want to walk this day according to the spirit.” If you would pray this way for a few sentences, you will feel that the Spirit is moving in you. Brothers and sisters, if you have breathed deeply, how can you not feel anything? Surely you will feel refreshed. The Lord Jesus Christ today is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). This is why the Bible says, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Try it! You will receive the Spirit. You need to believe the words of the Bible, and you need to claim them by living prayer.
Then you must pray according to the words of the Bible. The more you do this, the better it is. You should do this ten times, even twenty times, a day. You need to spend time on this, the more the better. Our prayer to the Lord is our breathing of the Lord. Spend five minutes before the Lord to breathe and pray, and you will feel like a tire having air pumped into it at a gas station. You will be filled with the spiritual pneuma. The Spirit in you will become your inward constituent, and in this Spirit Christ comes and is added into your being. In other words, the reality of the Spirit is Christ. Hence, Christ today is the pneumatic Christ. This Spirit will fill you from within, and the elements of Christ will be constituted into your being. You will no longer be a natural man. Rather, you will be a man of Christ. You will be one who is constituted with Christ. Only then will you be a living member of the Body of Christ, and only then will you be a part of Christ as His member.
For this reason, 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “Even as...all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” We must be constituted with the elements of Christ so that we may become the members of Christ. The elements of Christ are constituted into us by the Spirit. How do we receive this Spirit? To receive this Spirit, we need to believe the words of the Bible, and every day we need to come before the Lord to open up to Him. You need to open up yourself like opening up a window. Let the Spirit come in; then breathe Him in by prayer. The more you pray, the more you will be filled.
Stanza 3 of Hymns, #841 says,
Thy anointing Spirit
Me shall permeate,
All my soul and spirit
Thou wouldst saturate.
When this pneumatic Christ operates in you, He will move into your mind, into your emotion, and into your will. When He moves and if you would give ground to His moving, He will permeate your whole being with His elements, and you will be transformed into His image, full of His stature. This is like taking food into you. After a few hours of softening up by water and digestion by the stomach, the food will permeate into your cells and blood stream. After the completion of this process, the food will become your constituent. This is our need today. I hope that all of you will exercise yourself in this way, so that you will be full of the Spirit and full of Christ within. In this way our lives will be filled with the Spirit and with Christ, and whether we go to the small group meeting or to other meetings, we will go with the supply. In fact, we will all become a supply to others. This is my burden in this message. May the Lord be merciful to us.
