Now we need a little turn in the Perfecting Training. I would like to ask two brothers to tell us their conclusion of the past chapters concerning this ugly matter of peculiarity. After listening to so many messages, what is peculiarity according to your understanding? I am concerned that perhaps some may not have understood this matter of peculiarity in a proper way. Please tell us what is meant by peculiarity.
First brother: Praise the Lord! Maybe, brothers and sisters, my understanding is still quite doctrinal concerning this matter, but I think that one thing we have all seen through these Perfecting Meetings is that we are peculiar. We may not have a very specific definition of what our peculiarity is, but we do have the realization that all of us are peculiar. It seems to me, Brother Lee, that you have been sharing very much on peculiarity, and at the same time you have been sharing very much with us concerning living Christ. It seems that, on the one hand, we have peculiarity, and on the other hand, we have the lack of living Christ. Although my understanding may be quite doctrinal, it seems that peculiarity in our being is just that element that frustrates us from living Christ. It is a kind of blockade or a kind of frustration in our being that just keeps the Lord as our person from living out of us. I guess peculiarity is just what I am without Christ.
Second brother: I was not here last week, but according to the fellowship in the other meetings, I would say simply that peculiarity is what we are apart from Christ.
This is quite close, but still I do not think you have hit home with the answers. After many messages that may have puzzled you, I would like to tell you now that peculiarity is just to live yourself. Peculiarity is to live one’s self.
God’s intention in having man is for man to express Himself. Man was made in the image of God and according to His likeness. It is clear that God’s intention is to have man to express Himself. It is easy for any vessel without life to contain something and to express the content. The vessel has no life and no personality. So whatever you want to put into a vessel without life and personality causes no problem. But man as God’s vessel is a living person with personality. God created us this way—with a mind, a will, and an emotion. So it is not simple for man to contain God and to express God.
What is the fall of man? The fall of man is just to bring man away from God and to make man a biased character. As a result of the fall, man became biased. Man became not so cooperative with God’s intention. Furthermore, man’s eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge made him independent. All the mothers know that in the children there is the independent fallen nature. You do not need to teach your children to say no. From a very early age they say no. No represents the independent nature of fallen man. Every fallen man is independent. As an independent person, no one would live the life of another. Everyone likes to live herself or himself. In marriage life this is the biggest problem. Regardless of how much a husband and wife love each other, each still likes to live himself or herself. According to God’s ordination, the two should be one. One is the head, and the other is in subjection to the head, so the two become one. Yet in nearly every marriage, the two still remain two. Why? Because we are fallen. We do not like to live the life of another; we just like to live ourselves. Regardless of how much you love your wife, you still like to live yourself. And regardless of how much your wife is submissive and how much she loves you, if you touch her living of herself, she will react. So the wisest policy of the husband is just to honor his wife’s living of herself. If you honor that point, she will be happy all the time. If you let her live herself, she will be happy. Do not touch that part. When you touch that part, she will rise up. It is the same with little children. If the parents let the little children live themselves, they are happy. Why are many American children eagerly expecting to reach eighteen years of age? It is because when they reach eighteen, they are like birds out of a cage; they have the freedom to live themselves.
God’s purpose is to have man live Him. God’s redemption and transformation have this same goal. Since 1963 I have given many messages on transformation, but I did not point out strongly that transformation is just to make us flexible to live God. Transformation is not just to change us but to make us flexible to live God. However, we may get a lot of transformation yet still not like to live God.
What then is our peculiarity? It is just to live ourselves. According to our dictionary, peculiarity may imply some strange trait. That is the human interpretation. From the spiritual point of view you may be a very common and very general person with nothing particular and nothing strange, yet you are a strong person to live yourself. You just like to live yourself. You have to realize that the most common person, the most general person, lives himself the most. Some peculiar person may not live himself that much. Some who are very peculiar are also very flexible, but some who are very general and very common are altogether definite with no flexibility. Many peculiar people are very flexible. Yet some very common and very general people are not flexible, because they like to keep their way.
So the human way to define peculiarity is different from the spiritual way. The spiritual way to define peculiarity is just to live yourself. The common ones from the spiritual point of view are the most peculiar because they do not live Christ. They only live themselves. It does not mean that they are selfish. Of course, they condemn their selfishness. But probably they have never condemned themselves for living themselves. You may have condemned yourself that you did not live Christ, but probably you have never condemned yourself that you live yourself. We do not live Christ, because we live ourselves. Unconsciously, subconsciously, unintentionally, even habitually, we live ourselves. You do not need to intend to live yourself. To live yourself is a habit. As long as you have life, you live yourself. We need to see a vision that regardless of what kind of good Christian we may be, we do not live Christ. We all must believe that we do not live Christ. Although I have tried and tried, still I do not live Christ that much. If you would receive such a vision that you do not live Christ that much, you would condemn yourself.
Furthermore, you need to hear an even sharper word; that is, you live yourself. This is your peculiarity. Your peculiarity is not a peculiar trait; it is just to live yourself. In a sense I do not need to ask you to condemn your living of yourself. As long as you know that to live yourself is your peculiarity, it is good enough. Then you have to practice all the day to live Christ.
Now we need to consider a few doctrinal points: who is Christ? and what is Christ? Doctrinally we know that He is the life-giving Spirit and that He is now in our spirit. You are clear that your peculiarity is just to live yourself, so you would reject this. You would practice to live Christ, realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit right now in your spirit. But what shall you do practically? Once again I tell you that you have to pray all day long. By prayer I do not mean prayer in your regular way; I mean prayer in your daily life. At anytime and anywhere you must always pray from your spirit, saying, “Lord, live in me. Lord, live out of me.” This brings us to the very crucial point—you must practice to live Christ. This is not a doctrinal matter; this must be a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment practice. Do not say something without praying, “Lord, You say it. I am going to say something to this man. Lord, You say it. You be my life.” Pray every moment in anything, in everything, and everywhere.
Again and again I have confessed that I did not live the Lord so much because this practice has not been fully and absolutely built up in my life as a habit. But you must believe that some day this will be built up in you as a habit. Then you will live Christ habitually. This needs some practice. If I were to play the piano, I would use my fingers in a wild way. To learn to play the piano is to practice using the fingers. It is to touch every key not in a wild way but in a trained way. We live ourselves in a wild way, but now we must have a change of habit. Instead of living ourselves, we must practice living Christ. Do not say anything before praying; do not go any place before praying. You must pray. Now you understand why Paul told us to pray unceasingly. And now you also understand how we could pray unceasingly. If you simply pray according to the way you have all these years, it would be hard to pray unceasingly. You cannot kneel or stand there unceasingly. Nor can you concentrate yourselves to pray all the day. But you can pray in this way. Before doing anything you can pray, “Lord, You live in me.” Pray in this way all the day long. Then you will build up a habit always not to live yourself but to live Christ.
Because we are fallen, we were trained according to some ethical points and also by some religious teachings. After we were saved, we desired to be sinless. We desired to be overcoming and victorious over sin. Although these matters are apparently in the Bible, actually the Bible does not want us to live a sinless life. The Bible wants us to live Christ. When you really live Christ, you are away from sin. If you are really living Christ, there is no need for someone to tell you not to love the world. When you live Christ, you are away from the world. If you do not live Christ, although you might overcome the world, you are still in the world. No one can be separated from the world if he does not live Christ. The Lord wants us to live Him all the day long in everything. Even when you are going to rebuke or discipline your children, you have to do it by living Christ. Before you discipline, you have to pray, “Lord, live Yourself through me.” If you would take this word and put it into your daily practice, I believe we could stop the Perfecting Training. You must realize that you have to pray unceasingly.
According to the context of the verse which says that we need to pray unceasingly, we should not quench the Spirit (1 Thes. 5:17, 19). This means that we should live Christ. It is not to pray unceasingly for your business affairs, for good food, for good blessings, for this, or for that. No. To pray unceasingly is to pray that the Spirit within you would never be quenched. This simply means that Christ lives within you. You need to pray that the Christ in you would live and that you would live Him. For this we need to pray all the day long. This is breathing. Our breathing never changes. Twenty-four hours a day we breathe in the same way. We do not change the subject in our breathing. We may change our diet many times, but we never change our breathing. Even while I am speaking, I am breathing unceasingly in order to stay alive. You have to pray this kind of breathing prayer unceasingly in order to keep you living Christ.
This is an encouraging word. The only way to deal with your peculiarity is to live Christ. When you live Christ, you do not live yourself. Then your peculiarity is gone. As long as you live yourself, peculiarity is there. When you live Christ, you do not live yourself; spontaneously, peculiarity is terminated. Whether you are straight, peculiar, common, or general, do not deal with your peculiarity. As long as you do not live Christ, your peculiarity is there. Forget about the peculiarity. Just practice one thing—to live Christ. Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). If you get into the spirit of Paul in his writings, especially in Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Galatians, you can see that he surely practiced to live Christ. He made this his habit. Before he got saved, he practiced to live the law. Wherever he was, he was found in the law. But after he was saved, he aspired to be found in Him. How could he be found in Him? There is no other way but just to live Him. When he lived Christ, surely he was found in Christ. We may be good Christians, yet when people find us, they do not find us in Christ; rather, they find us in culture, in politics, in education, in dollars, in business, or in other matters. They may find us in many things but not in Christ.
But if we live Christ moment by moment from morning to evening, wherever people find us and whenever people find us, they will find us in Christ. By Paul’s words you can see that he was serious and desperate, so he, no doubt, practiced this habit a lot. From this point in the Perfecting Training I would give you one charge; that is, we all have to receive this word—to live Christ. Go practice this one thing. Every day, every hour, every minute, even every second, in whatever you are doing, you must practice the living of Christ.
This must be by the unceasing prayer. All the time you have to pray, “Lord, live through me. Lord, live through me.” At work, in your kitchen, doing your laundry, pray, “Lord, live through me.” We all need to practice this. When children are learning to play the piano, they need the proper daily practice. They do not need that many lessons, but they need much practice. To become a good pianist requires one to practice many hours a day. Some top pianists may practice as many as fifteen hours a day. If they were to miss three days of practice, an expert could tell from their playing that they had missed the practice. We need to practice not fifteen hours a day but twenty-four hours a day to live Christ. What we are speaking in this Perfecting Training is like a lesson. The crucial thing is that you need to go home and practice. Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ...that I may gain Christ and be found in Him...to know Him.” This is his aspiration for his practice of living Christ. For many years I tried this way or that way in order to go on, but now I can tell you that the crucial thing is for you to practice living Christ. Take this lesson and practice. Let us take the next half hour for you to ask questions.
Question: When did Brother Paul first learn the lesson of living Christ?
I do not know, but anyhow, he learned the lesson. In a sense you do not need to find out these things. He practiced it, so you can practice it. To ask this question means that you are like a theological student, studying time, geography, and so forth. Do not ask these theoretical questions. Ask some practical questions.
Question: Brother Lee, I believe that when you say we need to practice living Christ, it is the same as saying to practice exercising your spirit. The problem is, although we have known this for several years, and we know we should exercise our spirit, we do not. What can cause us to want to exercise our spirit?
Truthfully, you have to pray, “Lord, send me twelve angels to remind me minute after minute that I have to exercise my spirit, that I have to live You, that I have to practice You.” My experience in this is exactly the same. I knew that I should live Christ, and I knew that I should exercise my spirit, but every day I did not practice it adequately. But after many days of practice, my habit is better. This does not mean that I am so successful. Even when Paul wrote Philippians, he said that he had not obtained, that he was still pursuing. The matter of living Christ is not so simple. Although the apostle Paul never tells us that he was not successful, his writings indicate that he was not absolutely mature in this matter. Nearly every morning I have prayed, “Lord, remind me all the day that I have to live You.” One of the psalmists asked the Lord to set a watch before his mouth (Psa. 141:3). This means that we need a reminder from the Lord. It is so easy for us to forget this practice. We must be desperate to build this kind of habit. We need much prayer. “Lord, live through me.” We need to practice.
Question: It seems as though sometimes when you try to live Christ, you do not, and at other times spontaneously you just live Christ. I do not understand that experience. Yesterday I was trying to speak to someone. I really wanted to flow something of life out to her, but I was so dead. I was trying to exercise and to get myself into the spirit, but nothing came out. But today when I saw the same person, without even trying, something spontaneously rose up. Was that from my prayer of yesterday?
According to my limited experience, I would say this: If we try to live Christ beyond or apart from praying, we cannot make it. If you try to live Christ without praying, you will fail. Do not try to live Christ, but pray. It is only by a continual living prayer, a breathing prayer, that we spontaneously will live Christ. If we make up our mind to try to live Christ, that is actually the living of our self. This is why Paul charges us to pray unceasingly. To pray unceasingly simply means to stop our own effort. If you do not pray, yet you try to do something, that is your own effort. This point is like a small screw in a large machine. When a large machine works, it depends upon some small screws. Not to try to live Christ but to pray is a small thing, yet it is very crucial. Do not make up your mind to try to live Christ, but all the day long pray, “Lord, live through me.” Do not have an intention to live Christ before someone. Simply have an aspiration to live Christ. This needs prayer all the time.
Question: The kind of work I do requires a lot of concentration. A lot of times I get into the Word, but I find that I am out of my spirit and not living Christ. What do we do when we are working or studying and find ourselves out of Christ? How do we keep this kind of living prayer going on while we are concentrating on our work?
Again, we need to practice to pray. Regardless of how busy we may be and how heavy a burden is upon us, we must practice to pray. While you are under the burden of the work, you have to pray. Practice this. Of course, this is not habitual to us; this is why we need to practice. Regardless of how busy you are, you do not stop breathing. So we must practice this kind of prayer regardless of how much work we have. Even while I am speaking, I must keep a kind of contact and prayer with the Lord—a kind of praying spirit. Learn to practice this. This is very, very crucial. The real holiness, the real victory, the real spirituality, is here. Even the real church life is here. When we practice this way, we will live Christ, and then we will have the victory. So no matter what kind of situation we are in, we have to practice this kind of breathing prayer.
Question: How much is the matter of growth in life related to the living of Christ? You said that transformation is just to make us flexible. Is that only a kind of outward working upon us, or is there still the aspect of being saturated and permeated with the Lord? This aspect of transformation seems a little different from what you have shared with us in the past.
When we practice living Christ, no doubt we give the Lord much ground and much opportunity to change our being. You have to realize that our natural being is so raw and so wild. Our natural being just does not fit the living of Christ. As a new learner, it is hard because your being is raw and wild. Even when you pray, your being is wild and raw. But if you would practice and continue to practice, the Lord will gradually do something to transform your natural, raw, and wild being. Then your being would become so fitting in the living of Christ. This is the proper definition of transformation. We may have thought that transformation was just to change our nature. Although this is correct, the purpose is also for us to live Christ. Transformation is not just to change us but to adjust us to fit in to the living of Christ. The key is to practice. If you practice the living of Christ, all these things will transpire in your being. Gradually, things will be happening to you if you practice Christ.
Question: Brother Lee, would you share more to guide us so that our practice may not turn into a form of self-improvement or a kind of behavior? Otherwise, we may decide to pray without ceasing and set our energy to do it. Then we will get into the cycle of trying and failing and being condemned and giving up. I find there is such a capacity in our being to distort what we hear and to turn it into a kind of behavior. Is there anything you could share with us that would help us to take the word in a simple and pure way? Otherwise, we may try to behave as if we are living Christ.
You do not need to make up your mind, and you do not need to make a strong decision. You do not need to think about trying to improve yourself. Forget about all these things. You only need one thing—to pray. Learn to pray all the time. Learn to contact the Lord. To make up your mind in this matter does not work so well. To make a decision always becomes a failure. If you try to behave yourself, you may make it for three weeks, but eventually you will fail. Forget about these things and simply practice one thing, that is, to pray. Practice to pray all the day long.
The basic foundation for us to pray is that we love the Lord. We just love Him. Therefore, we seek Him, and we like to contact Him, and we like to pray to Him. We like to call upon Him. The basic stone is the loving of the Lord. I just love the Lord. Here you can remember the Song of Songs. In the Song of Songs the seeker became so desperate that she only knew one person, and she was only seeking after that one person. The Song of Songs shows us this. Even the Song of Songs is full of prayer. All the time the seeker was praying to her beloved. There was a kind of praying atmosphere. The most helpful thing to us is to pray the unceasing and breathing prayer. But we must have a foundation of loving the Lord.
