Search
Scripture Reading: John 1:4, 12-14, 29; 14:16-20, 23; 15:4-5; 17:21, 23; 6:57
We thank the Lord for allowing us to gather once again in His name where we can worship Him and release our spirit. We can release our spirit vocally or silently. Either way allows us to release our spirit as long as we use our spirit and do not remain in our mind. I believe that in this series of messages the Lord will grace us and bring us on another step.
Our God has a purpose and a work. The Bible reveals that based upon His purpose God formed a plan in eternity past. This plan was made according to God’s heart’s desire. God had a desire, a delight, in His heart, and according to this desire, delight, He made a glorious plan in eternity past. This plan may appear to be rather simple, but intrinsically it is truly mysterious. In His plan God desires to gain a group of people as a corporate vessel to contain Him so that He might be expressed through them.
God’s plan is to express Himself. God is a hidden, mysterious God. Although one may search the heavens, the earth, and the entire universe, it is not easy to find God. It seems that there are many things in the universe but that there is no God. However, we know that above all things and in the midst of all things God does exist. God is real, actual, and living, yet He is hidden and concealed. God is hidden, but the Bible shows us that He wants to be expressed. In Himself He is hidden, but when He enters into us, He can be expressed through us. Although God is a hidden God, we can express Him. In fact, His expression depends upon us. This is God’s eternal heart’s desire. This is what He has ordained according to His eternal plan.
Since God has a plan, God also works. The Bible begins with an account of God’s first work — creation — and ends with a city that is called “the holy city, New Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:2). This city is not the result of God’s work of creation but of His work of building. God begins with creation and ends with building. Creation is His first step. Building is His final step. God’s creation is for God’s building. The two — God’s creation plus God’s building — accomplish God’s eternal plan and fulfill God’s eternal heart’s desire.
Between the two ends of the Bible, that is, between God’s creation and God’s building, God takes five major steps and accomplishes five major acts — redemption, regeneration, transformation, conformation, and glorification. We must inscribe these five great acts in our hearts. We were fallen, so God came to redeem us out of the fall. After redemption God in the Son came into us to be our life. Now in addition to our natural life, we have a spiritual life, the divine life. This life regenerates us, causing us to be born again. Once we have been regenerated, this life within us begins to transform us through a metabolic process, changing our nature into His nature. Then in addition to transformation, God takes a further step to conform us into His image. Every believer will eventually have God’s image and be like Him. Finally, God will bring us into glory, making us the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is God’s building. This is an overview of the whole Bible. The Bible speaks of God’s creation at the beginning and of God’s building at the end. Between these two ends the Bible reveals God’s work to redeem us, regenerate us, transform us, conform us, and lead us into glory. None of these great acts is according to our religious or natural concept.
Now we will consider how God accomplishes His plan. By using simple words we hope to present a picture of how God does this. To accomplish His plan, God has taken two steps. The first step that He took was to become flesh. If He had not become flesh, God would have no way to accomplish redemption. Thus, in order to redeem us God came from heaven to earth, brought divinity into humanity, and became flesh. The One who became flesh, God Himself, is Jesus Christ our Lord. We should never try to find God outside of Jesus Christ, for outside of Jesus Christ there is no true God. Jesus Christ is God Himself, the Lord of all creation, and Jehovah. Do you believe in God? If you believe in God, you must believe in Jesus Christ. The Jews believe in God but reject Jesus Christ. Consequently, they do not have God because Jesus Christ is God, and God is in Jesus Christ. God became flesh — an actual historical figure who was born in a manger more than one thousand nine hundred seventy years ago. As a man He lived on the earth for more than thirty years, and at the end of His life He was nailed to the cross, shedding His precious blood to accomplish redemption, solving the problem of our sin and of every negative thing. This was God’s first step to accomplish His eternal plan — He become flesh in order to redeem us.
God’s first step was to become flesh; His second step was to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In redeeming us God entered into death and passed through death. He took a journey through death, but death had no effect on Him and could not do anything to Him. Death did not take Him captive; rather, He willingly walked into death, gave Himself to death, and allowed death to do to Him all that it could. In the end, death had no power, so He passed through death and came out of death. This was His resurrection. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. His first step was to become flesh; His second step was to become the life-giving Spirit. He became flesh for our redemption; He became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us and to be our life. Today this life-giving Spirit is omnipresent — in the heavens and on earth, above us and below us, and inside of us and outside of us. God became flesh to accomplish redemption, and He became the Spirit to be our life.
Each of us who has believed into the Lord Jesus has Him within us. He is within us, and He does not want us to do anything. This is altogether different from our religious concept. Our religious concept always tells us that we should do many things and that we should do our best to be a proper husband or wife. We have heard enough of these teachings. Now I would like to tell you in the Lord that the Lord Jesus within you does not want you to do anything. You are not able to do anything anyway, and even if you could, it would be worthless. The Lord told us clearly in John 15, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (v. 5b). However, I am afraid that many people believe that apart from the Lord they can do many things. It is true that apart from the Lord we can do many things. We can do things like lose our temper and throw things at others. If a wife is apart from the Lord, she may even steal her husband’s money, and if a husband is apart from the Lord, he may even lie to his wife. We can do many things apart from the Lord; however, whatever we do is worthless. Therefore, the Lord said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Hence, all of us should stop all our doing. We need to resign from being humble and retire from loving others. Whether we are over sixty years old or we are teenagers, we must stop all our doing. Even if we try to do something, it is useless, because apart from Him we can do nothing. The way to be blessed is to inwardly resign and retire from all our doing. Then the Lord Jesus will be the One who is living with us. The Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4). He also said, “Because I live, you also shall live” (14:19b). In saying these words, the Lord seemed to say, “I want you to live in Me, and I want to live with you. You and I are meant to live and move together.”
I believe that we have all heard this teaching before. However, we cannot deny that in our living there is not much of this experience. From now on, we must be strict concerning this matter. We must say, “From now on, it must be no longer I who lives. It must be Christ who lives in me. When I love others, I do not want to be the one who is loving them; rather, it must be Christ in me who is loving them. Even when I sing hymns or pray, it must be no longer I who pray and sing but Christ in me who is praying and singing.”
Countless times young Christians have asked me whether or not they should do certain things. When asked questions of this kind, I often answer that it is not a matter of whether or not we can or cannot do something. What is important is that we ask the Lord. For example, if we want to go to a movie, we should simply say to the Lord, “Lord, my going to the movie is Your going. I am going to see this movie in You.” If we are able to say these words to the Lord, then we can go to the movie. When I answer the young people in this way, they often reply, “I know that Jesus does not go to the movies, so I cannot say this. Thus, I cannot go to the movies.”
I use this example to show us that the real Christian life is not something that is out of ourselves. It is not out of our own doing or behaving. The real Christian life is the living of the Lord Jesus within us. It is His living, not our living. Many Christians have heard this teaching, but very few live it. My burden in fellowshipping with you concerning this matter is that today we would make the decision that our living will be the living of the Lord Jesus, that our living will be the Lord Jesus living in us.
Each one of us must see that the Lord has done a great thing. Not only has He solved our problem of sin on the cross, but He has also become the Spirit. As the Spirit He has entered into us. Now He desires to live for us and that we would live together with Him. This is the unique characteristic of a Christian. A normal Christian is one who has the Lord Jesus as the living Spirit living within his spirit. No Christian should live by himself. Every Christian should have Christ living within him. Thus, we all must stop our doing and stop our living.
Our need is to practice living with the Lord in our daily living. However, I know that in practice many of us neglect this. When we come to the meeting, the Lord should be coming in our coming; we should come to the meeting because the Lord in us is coming to the meeting. We must have one life, one living, and one move with the Lord. When we come to the meeting, we should have the real sense that we are not coming by ourselves but that the Lord and we are coming together.
The teaching that we hear in the meeting is very clear — we are dead and buried, and it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us. However, when we are in the midst of our busy lives, the Lord Jesus is not there. We are busy with many things all day, but the Lord Jesus is gone. Outwardly, we may appear to be zealous Christians, but in reality the Lord is not present in all our busyness. We may be so busy that it is not until we sit down in the meeting hall for the meeting that we discover that we have abandoned the Lord and that He is not with us.
We must see the vision that as saved ones the Lord is within us and is one with us. We cannot be separated from Him. He is our life within, and He does not want us to continue to live by ourselves. In our daily living, in matters great and small, we must learn to stop ourselves and say to the Lord, “Lord, You are here with me, and I am living by You.” When it is time for a meeting, we must say to Him, “Lord, You go to the meeting, and I will go with You. I will go to the meeting in You.” If we pray in this way, we will spontaneously be living with the Lord when we enter into the meeting hall. As a result, we will not gossip, asking about this or that, because the Lord does not do this. When we are in the meeting, we will cooperate with the Lord and allow Him to flow out from within us to praise, testify, sing, or call upon the Lord’s name. Today the Lord needs a group of people on the earth who are like this.
Today we all need to repent and confess concerning one thing. We need to repent and confess to the Lord, saying, “Lord, for years I have known that You are living in me, but for years I have not lived by You. Although I do not commit any great sins or do bad things, I do not live by You. Instead, I always live by myself.” We all need to have this kind of repentance and confession. We also need to acknowledge that the Lord has suffered by being frustrated and limited within us. We need to confess to the Lord, “Lord, You have not been able to flow out from within me because I have not lived by You. I am still I, and You are still You. I have not allowed You to be my life. Forgive me. Outwardly, it appears that I have not done anything wrong — I do not scold or offend my spouse — but in reality You are not my living, and I do not live You.”
The Lord’s intention is not for us to be good or to improve ourselves. Of course, neither is it His intention for us to be evil or to do wicked things. The Lord’s intention is that we would give Him the absolute opportunity to live in us. The Lord wants us to completely stop all our doing and to take Him as our life, to live by Him, and to live with Him. Since this is the Lord’s desire, we must forget about everything else. We must forget about our zeal, diligence, and all the good things or bad things about us; simply be one with the Lord within. We must understand, realize, and know absolutely that the Lord Jesus is within us as our life, Lord, person, God, patience, humility, love, strength, and everything. Then we must stop ourselves and live by Him. Even when we share in the meetings, we should have such a realization and practice. We should pray, “Lord, as I stand and speak, I do not want to be the one who is speaking. I will not take the old way of speaking by myself. When I speak, I will not speak; I will let You speak.” The Lord’s desire today is to gain a group of people who are like this so that they may be His witnesses on the earth.
At the end of the Gospel of John, John tells us that the God who was in the beginning, who became flesh, and who is also the Spirit abides in us and we abide in Him. We and He, He and we, are united as one entity. He is the vine, and we are the branches; we and He are one. Our living is His living, and His living is our living. Our living allows Him to live out of us. For this we all need to go before the Lord, opening ourselves up, stopping all our activities, and saying, “Lord, now I see and realize that it is not a matter of whether I am good or bad. It is altogether a matter of Your living in me and of Your being lived out of me.”
God’s desire is only this — to work Himself into us to be our life and person and to be one with us. Today God has come into us to abide in us and to be our person. He desires that we would live Him, that is, live by Him, live with Him, and walk together with Him. Every time that I stand up to speak for the Lord, I inwardly exercise faith and say, “Lord, as I speak, You are speaking in my speaking. I am not speaking by myself. I have nothing to say in myself, so when I speak, You speak in my speaking. Lord, You and I, I and You, are united. When I open my mouth, speak through me, and when I speak, flow out through me.” We should be this way when we give a message and in our daily living. Every action in our living should be done in one accord with the Lord. When we love, the Lord should flow out of our love. When we are humble, the Lord should flow out of our humility. Every action that we take in our daily living should be the Lord living Himself out through us. I have spoken concerning this matter again and again, but many of us still have not opened ourselves to receive the Lord’s grace to live entirely in this reality. May the Lord have mercy on us to wake us up out of our stupor so that we would see clearly that we should not live or do, but that the Lord Jesus — the great God who is inside of us, who has become our life, who has put us on, and who is joined with us — should be the One who is living and doing. Our living must be His living, our speaking must be His speaking, and our moving must be His moving.
What do we need to do in order to live this kind of life? What do we need to do in order to live by and with the Lord and to abide together with Him? We need to do only two things. In telling you these two things, I do not wish to give you methods; my intention is simply to tell you the way to live this kind of life. First, we must always be open to the Lord. The easiest way to open to the Lord is to learn to open up our whole being — our spirit, our heart, and even our mouth. We need to learn to open up our whole being and call on the name of the Lord, calling, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” We must learn to open ourselves to the Lord and to call on the name of the Lord. This is the simplest and the best way. This way causes us to meet and touch the Lord. The best way to meet and touch the Lord is not to ponder or meditate on the Lord; the best way is to open ourselves to the Lord by calling “O Lord Jesus!” Each of us should practice this a little at home. We do not need to be very loud; neither do we need to scream and yell in a crazy way. We need simply to learn to open ourselves up to the Lord and to call on His name. The Bible says that the Lord is rich to all who call upon Him (Rom. 10:12). The Lord is living and real. Moreover, He is within us. When we call on Him, opening ourselves to Him, we will contact Him within.
The second thing that we need to do in order to live with the Lord is to contact the Lord’s word in a proper way. The way to do this is to genuinely pray-read and eat His word. To eat the Lord’s word is to eat the Lord Himself.
Every one of us must see the simple vision that the Lord Jesus is the all-inclusive Spirit dwelling in our spirit. Then we must live by the Lord, daily receiving His supply, contacting Him, and being joined to Him. This requires us to open our entire being to Him from deep within. Opening to the Lord in this way is exceedingly easy. We simply need to call on His name and pray-read His Word. We can use our spirit to contact the word, to eat the word, and to receive the word into us. We can also use the word to pray to Him, to seek Him, and to fellowship with Him. If daily and moment by moment we contact Him anew, receiving His fresh supply, we will be continuously refreshed, nourished, enlightened, and supplied within. Then we will be able to live, move, and walk in Him in spirit at all times. This is what the Lord desires.
The Gospel of John has twenty-one chapters. Together these chapters reveal that the eternal God became flesh to be the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption on our behalf. This entire Gospel also unveils that after this God entered into death, He came out of death and was transfigured to be the life-giving Spirit to enter into our spirit to live and move with us. In light of this we should consecrate ourselves to Him, stopping all our own living and moving, and open up to Him by calling on His name, eating His word, and contacting Him so that He can supply us and cause us to walk in newness of life. The Lord desires to gain such a group of people on the earth today. By living in this way we will not only be regenerated and redeemed ones; we will also be in the process of being transformed. Day after day He will change our nature into His very nature and conform us into His very image. Then one day He will bring us into glory, and all of us will be built up together to be His exceedingly glorious expression.
May our eyes be opened to see this one matter, and may we open our heart and spirit to Him and say, “Lord, I stop everything. You are not only my life; You are also my living. May my inner being contact You moment by moment and constantly receive Your supply so that in my daily living You and I will live as one entity.”
