Prayer: Thank You for Your mercy that we all have been brought into You—into Your mercy. Lord, we have to be all the time in Your mercy. Thank You, Lord, that it is Your mercy that brought us here. Even, Lord, we have been preserved in Your recovery. Oh, it is altogether by Your mercy! We have no trust in anything else. Lord, even we do not deserve Your grace. But, Lord, there is such a mercy that bridges the gap, that brings us into Your grace. Lord, we trust in Your mercy. We say again, it is altogether a matter of mercy. And You will have mercy upon whom You will have mercy. Thank You, Lord, You have chosen us to be the object of Your mercy. We stand on this standing to meet together to look unto You for Your mercy. Have mercy upon us all tonight. We need some further mercy, Lord. The whole situation among the Christians is just pitiful. Oh, what we need is Your mercy. Oh, do bridge the gap with Your mercy! Thank You, Lord, You are the merciful God. You are full of mercy. Amen. Amen.
I feel that I should speak a very direct and very practical word to you. This training is not merely for doctrine or for knowledge or for anything else but for the practical experience of Christ and of the church. In the last meeting we pointed out that all the Christian doings and practices have become a kind of trap. Bible reading has become a trap; even prayer has become a trap. Everything has become a trap. Why? Because all these things have distracted us from the living of this living person, Christ. God’s intention is nothing but for us to live Christ. God’s intention in this universe is so simple and so central—it is for us to live Christ. If you have really seen this vision in such a simple way, you will begin to hate everything else. Whether it is good or bad, you will hate it because it is not to live Christ. Ever since I got this vision concerning the living of Christ, I have been very much bothered. In a good sense I have peace with the Lord, and I have a lot of enjoyment with Him, yet in another sense I have been bothered because I have discovered that I do not live Christ that much. I have labored for the Lord, for the Word, and for the churches, but I could not say with much confidence that this was living Christ. I surely have discovered that to live Christ is one thing, and to labor for Him is another thing. To live Christ is just to live Christ. God has no intention simply to do a work.
Most Christians misinterpret Acts 1:8, which reads, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Yes, the Lord did say go from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth. This was not, however, to do a work but to be His witnesses. The Lord never charged us to do a work; rather, He charged us to be His witnesses. According to the Bible, to be His witnesses is just to live Him. If you do not live Him, how could you be His witness? Of course, many Christians’ interpretation is that it means to preach the gospel. But here is the snare. To change the wording from being a witness to preaching the gospel is a snare.
I have gotten bothered that I do not live Christ that much. I have the confidence and boldness to tell people according to my pure conscience that I do not love sin, I do not love the world, and I do not even love myself. I do believe the Lord can testify for me. Yet I do not have the confidence to say that I am living Christ. This bothers me.
During the time of this Perfecting Training I also have been bothered by another point: how to live Christ. I have discovered that I need to live Christ and that I do not live Christ that much, but thus far I do not know the way to live Christ. You have to permit me to say that I am not a young man or someone who knows nothing of the Bible. I have passed through all kinds of Christianity. From my early childhood I saw all the things in organized Christianity. I saw how the Western pastors did things, and I saw how the native Chinese pastors did things. As a little boy, I saw how they celebrated Christmas and how the Western pastors and missionaries celebrated the Chinese New Year. As small boys, we went to see that, and we got some candy. I saw the Sunday school, and I saw all the different kinds of practices in organized Christianity. I saw how they were fighting, and I also saw how they were united in a falsehood. I even joined in a kind of Christianity march where all the denominations joined together to march and sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.”
Furthermore, I passed through fundamental Christianity. For seven and a half years I was under the fundamental Brethren education. Then I got into the inner-life matters. I read through a lot of inner-life books. I had many experiences, and I was there for quite a period of time. Even today I would not leave this inner-life field. Then I also got involved with Pentecostal Christianity. Finally, I got into the Lord’s recovery. For forty-eight years I have been involved in these things, and I have been observing these things. In July 1932 we had the first Lord’s table meeting in my mother’s living room.
I passed through all these things, but I was never told by anyone how to live Christ. I read many books on “how to,” but not one book was on how to live Christ. So over the years I got so much doctrine and knowledge, but now I have been brought to a crucial point; that is, God wants us to live Christ. We could do a lot of things yet still not be living Christ. As long as we do not live Christ, whatever we do means nothing in the eyes of God. I surely agree that in one sense God is sovereign. God even uses Satan. Even Paul used Satan. Paul said he delivered an evil man to Satan for Satan to do something (1 Cor. 5:5). Furthermore, God used Satan to perfect Job. Some would ask: Is it not good enough that people go to the mission field to bring the name of the Lord to the heathen? Is it not good that someone would sacrifice their country, their family—everything—to tell heathen people the name of Jesus? I surely would say that is good. However, there is a big “but.” But God’s desire is for us to live Christ. According to the light I have received, I simply could not do anything else. Especially within the last two years I have been much strengthened and charged, confirmed, and even forced to this point. Even if today you offered me the biggest Christian work, I would have no interest in it, because I have surely seen something of what God wants. What God wants is just for you and me to live Christ.
In the last few months I have been bothered for a further step, that is, how to live Christ. No doubt while I have been so seeking, the Lord has answered His promise that if we seek, we will find (Matt. 7:7). Recently, I have told you that the first way to live Christ is that you have to pray before doing anything. Second, I also discovered that you have to continue your prayer. While you are doing certain things, you have to pray. Third, we have seen that we must practice a kind of breathing prayer. We have to make our prayer a matter of breathing. This means that we have to pray unceasingly; we have to pray continually.
Fourth, I also shared with you that we have to get into the Word not only by reading and not only by praying but also by singing, psalming, and thanking. You must get into the Word because the Holy Bible is God’s word, God’s breath. It is even the consolidation of God’s breathing. Do not get into the Word like a scholar or a student, but get into the Word to pray-read it, to sing it, to psalm it, and to thank God all the time through it. I believe all these give us the way to live Christ. Although our experiences in these matters may be limited and shallow, yet we can testify that this is the right way to live Christ. When we pray-read, when we sing, when we psalm, when we thank God for the Word, we have the inner conviction that we are really one with the living One. At that time we really get some fresh air into our inner being. Every day I need about one hour’s exercise, either to walk or to do this or that. Otherwise, I could not sleep well. But by exercising I breathe, and it refreshes me. In the same way when you pray-read the Word, when you sing the Word, when you psalm the Word, and you thank God for the Word, you get the fresh air into your inner being.
In the last meeting we saw that many Christian practices become a trap to keep us from living Christ. Now I would mention a further thing that keeps us from living Christ and is a kind of current that carries us away unconsciously and subconsciously. We may be able to avoid stepping into a trap, but we are simply in the current. When the current flows, we are carried away. What is the current that unconsciously and subconsciously carries us away from living Christ? It is our habitual living. In our daily life we live according to habit, and this habit is a current carrying us away from living Christ. Although we know we need to pray and we need to sing, still we do not practice these things that much. Our habitual living frustrates us from practicing these matters. We have to see that our habit of not living Christ is even sinful.
When a married couple sits down to eat, they nearly always talk in a habitual way. Sometimes they may have some good news or bad news to talk about, but at other times they may hunt for some material to talk about. They may talk about a brother’s new suit or a sister’s testimony in the meeting. This is a kind of trend. Unconsciously and subconsciously, all the day long we are living in a trend. Years ago I learned that there is a kind of lust to know things about others. This is evil. If we have learned the real spiritual lessons, we would not like to know things concerning others. To know things concerning others always kills us and always damages others. It does not help, and it does not build up. When I come to your home, I do not like to look around. I do not like to look at your kitchen or your bedroom or your closet. I have learned that this is a temptation. To want to know how many suits someone has and what color they are is an evil, lustful desire. Many Christians today and even many among us have not been delivered from this desire. This is why so much death has been carried on and on. It is because we have gotten to know too many things about others. If I never get to know anything about you, I could never carry out any death.
When we sit down together, whether as a husband and wife or as brothers with brothers or as sisters with sisters, we must be alert not to speak things, to talk of things, and to do things in a habitual way. Recently, when I have wanted to talk about some brothers or some churches, I have been stopped. The question came to me: why talk about this? This is just your habit. Why do you not pray? Why would you talk about that church? Why would you not pray? To talk about things, to talk about certain persons, to talk about certain churches, is our habit. I do not mean that we criticize others. We may talk about others in a nice way, but still it is just a habit. Why not spend that time pray-reading the Word? Why not spend that time singing or praying? Do not talk about the things that you do not need to talk about.
By this you can see that we have wasted and misused our time by our habit. We say that we do not have time to pray, but we all agree that we have a lot of time to talk. Consider how much time you use daily for talking. You talk concerning that sister being weak and that brother being sick and that church not being good and another church being pitiful. You do not need to talk about these matters; you need to pray for them. You do not need to tell people that a certain church is pitiful; even you do not need to say that a certain church is wonderful. Why do you need to talk about it? I do not mean that we always are talking in a way of evil gossip. Even if we talk about things in a so-called holy way, it may be a waste. It may be just a habit. For you and me to talk is very easy, but for us to stop talking and to pray is very difficult. Why? Because a habit has been built up. Even today we are still living in that habit unconsciously and subconsciously. This means that we are in a trend, a current. This is a crucial point. God wants us just to live Christ, but we like to do this, and we like to do that. All the Christian practices become a trap to us. We have a kind of living that has altogether become a habit to us. In this habit we do a lot of things habitually without any thought. We just talk spontaneously. We need to be bothered by this matter, and we need the Lord’s mercy. We need the Lord’s mercy to rescue us from anything of our habit. We have to hate our entire habit, not only our bad habit. It is not that we simply need to hate a drinking habit or a smoking habit or a gossiping habit; we need to be rescued from our habitual living. Our habitual living is the biggest frustration to living Christ. Our habitual living is a kind of trend, a kind of current, a kind of downhill current, carrying us away from Christ unconsciously.
When we come together, we do not have the habit to sing. Our singing is altogether formal, not habitual. Habitually, you simply ask about a brother’s wife or children, or you discuss a certain word of fellowship that a brother gave in a previous meeting. This is just habitual talk. Ever since I have been bothered concerning the matter of living Christ, and since I have seen some light concerning this matter, when I hear this kind of habitual talk, I am disgusted. When we come together, why do we not have the habit to pray-read? If we just pray-read two minutes, how good it would be! Let us pray-read John 1:1 even for half a minute. Do you really have that much concern in your asking about that brother’s wife and children? Actually you do not; you just ask habitually. Eventually, that is a kind of hypocrisy. Do you really have a loving concern? I am afraid you are just talking habitually. Based upon this you can see how much time has been wasted day after day by our habitual living.
How could we give up our habitual living? We need the Lord’s mercy. On the one hand, to see some practical light in this way is a pleasant thing, but on the other hand, it is not a pleasant thing. This is why the Lord said we have to weep and we have to mourn (Matt. 5:4). Look at the present situation among Christians. Who is living Christ? Not only among the denominations but even among us, how little we live Christ! It is altogether a pitiful situation. How much has the Lord gained for His purpose even among us? I am afraid not much. We know a lot, yet we do not live Christ that much. So we need the mercy of the Lord. Only one thing is true, that is, to live Christ.
To live Christ requires us to drop everything, and the hardest thing for us to drop is our habitual living. Do not think this means that we need to be a mental case. I do believe that the more we give up our habitual living, the more we will be sober. Many times we are not sober; we are just habitual. Many times the things we do are a waste of our time because of our habitual living; that is not sober. If we would drop our habitual living and gird up our loins (1 Pet. 1:13), we would be sober. In our home we would sing and pray, and when we see each other and come together, we would sing, pray-read, and psalm together. We all have to admit that nearly every day we are committing a kind of unconscious sin in our habitual living. Hardly any of our habitual living is something that God wants us to do. We simply do it unconsciously; we do it subconsciously. We just do it because that is our habit. I feel that this is a very practical word. If we would drop our habitual living, all the sinful things would be gone; all the negative things would be gone. No time would be wasted. To redeem the time (Eph. 5:16) is mainly to drop the habitual living. If we do not drop our habitual living, every bit of our habitual living is a waste of time. But if we do, then spontaneously we will be persons praying unceasingly, praising our Savior all the day long. If we become persons like this, we will not waste our time.
Also we will be so simple. The more we live Christ, the more we become simple. What I mean by being simple is that we do not know anything concerning anyone or any church or anything; we only know Christ. Many among us know too much concerning others. They are like an information desk. If you want to know something concerning a certain brother, you go to that desk, and you can get the full information. But if you would drop your habitual living, you would not know anything about any brothers or any churches. Then you would never spread any death. You would never pass on any rumor. You would never be involved with any gossip.
But the point is this: you have been carried away from living Christ by your habitual living. This is the problem. We all can testify that many days in the morning we had a good time in prayer. But right after the prayer we came to breakfast, and our habitual living began. And this caused trouble. Later in the morning and at noon we endeavored to have another time to contact the Lord. After that we went back to the habitual living. Later during the day, we endeavored to have another time to be with the Lord. We did this many times day after day. What caused us this trouble? Our habitual living. We do not condemn it, and we do not hate it. What wasted our time? Our habitual living. I hope that we all may see a vision concerning this matter and that we would pray, “Lord, have mercy upon me and deliver me from my habitual living. Lord, I do not like to have one wasted word out of my mouth. I do not like to live a habitual life. I want to live a life of being watchful and on the alert minute after minute. I want to watch and pray with no idle word, no wasted word, no unnecessary word, coming out of my mouth.”
For many years I have been ministering the Word to God’s people, yet I must confess I was there still so much in the habit. I do not mean in a bad habit. I must boast to you that for over fifty years I have not had any bad habit. But I have a lot of habits that have wasted my time. We all must stand up against our habitual living. Stand up against your habit. Rise up against your habit. You must do this in order to be emancipated and released from your imprisonment. Your habitual living is a strong imprisonment.
This applies even to functioning in the meeting. Have you noticed that through all the years the functioning ones are the functioning ones, and the unfunctioning ones are the unfunctioning ones? Sometimes in the prayer meeting we know who will pray tonight and who will not pray. You must realize that probably those who do not pray do not pray out of habit. It is their habit not to pray. Even with those who do pray, it may be only half spiritual and half habit.
Our meeting is not that normal because the brothers’ habits are there and the sisters’ habits are there. The Texas brothers have their habit, the California brothers have their habit, and some particular ones have their particular habit. I do not like to offend you or hurt your feelings, but this is our situation. When you come to the meeting, you do not like to be bothered. You just come to the meeting in your habit. If a brother says, “You need to function,” you feel he is forcing you to do something. This is a matter of your disposition. Disposition, character, and habit are three demons forming one company. They are the board members of one company. This is the executive committee of your being. You are under this administration of your disposition, your character, and your habit. So we have to rise up against these three things.
In the Northeast there is a clear summer and winter season. I notice that sometimes certain brothers and sisters also have seasons. When some brothers are in the winter season, no one can open their mouth. They are absolutely frozen. They become a frozen port. After this winter season is over, though, summer may come, and they get very excited. Then they have not only a loud mouth, but they seem to have twelve mouths. This is all habitual.
My point is this: the habitual living carries us away from living Christ. We fail to live Christ not because we are sinful but because of our habitual living. The most striking item of our habitual living is our talk. If, by His mercy, we would be delivered from our talk, we would be mostly delivered from our habitual living. This is not a kind of doctrine or theology. This is a discovery that has come to me through much pain. Now I am fully occupied by one thing, by one burden, that is, to live Christ. Through all the years my ministry has been to minister something concerning Christ for the church life, yet it has been even more so in these past two years. No doubt, the Lord has zeroed in on this one point of living Him. If we do not live Christ, although we may minister Christ to people for the church life, there will not be much reality. The church life will not be that rich, that strong, or that uplifted.
We need this focal point—to live Christ. If we are going to pray, if we are going to sing, if we are going to psalm unceasingly, if we are going to pray continually and daily, we must be delivered from our habitual living. We need a great amount of mercy for this. Be assured that one day the Lord will open your eyes, and you will see a wide gap, a deep gap, that only mercy can bridge. You have gotten to know a lot concerning the spiritual things, yet you are still living in your habit. To pray, to sing, and to psalm are still something formal and not habitual to you. We must have a kind of life that lives Christ habitually. Our habit must not be to talk but to pray. Our habit must be to sing and psalm and thank the Lord. These things must be built into the fibers of our being so that they become habitual. But today the opposite is true. All other things are habitual, and these things are formal.
We need morning watch, but morning watch is not something habitual to us. It is still a kind of formal thing to us. Habitual living does not need any practice. As a wife, you do not need practice to talk to your husband. It is simply habitual. But to pray-read, to sing, and to thank are not habitual to us. A husband or a wife would never have the consciousness to say, “Let us talk.” But they may say, “Let us pray,” or “Let us pray-read.” Why? It is because it is formal. This is a kind of demonic, subtle thing. It is unconscious and spontaneous. It kills you from living Christ. We do not live Christ that much mostly because of our habitual living. I hope that one day our spiritual living will be habitual so that we do not need to practice. We will not need to say, “Let us pray-read.” We will simply pray-read. We will not need to say, “Let us pray. Let us sing.” We will simply pray and sing. Praying and singing will become habitual. From these examples we can see how little we live Christ.
