In the last chapter we saw that our opinion is a big eater within us, hindering the growth of life, hindering our functioning, and frustrating the building up of the church. We also saw that the source and development of opinion are just ourselves apart from God and away from God. Finally, we saw that the medicine for this disease is just the one spirit. Just to say, however, that the medicine to cure this big disease is the one spirit is not so adequate. We need to spend more time to consider this matter. Opinion is a very serious disease in the church life and even in the work. For almost fifty years I have been observing that in the church life and in the work there are all the time some problems, some troubles, and some dissensions. For all these years this one thing has been bothering me very much. It is very apparent and so evident, yet it has been only recently that I discovered this big disease. Only recently did I discover such a big eater, which has been eating up the church life and the work. The Lord showed me that the name of this big eater must be opinion. We should not give him a better name, such as idea, concept, or way of thinking. These terms are too good and too nice; you have to call this big eater a cancer. Opinion is a cancer. I hope that all the saints would go to the Lord and spend some time to pray for a clear vision concerning opinion.
Although I have been with you for quite a number of years, I have never given you a message saying that opinion is just ourselves, our person, apart from God. When a person is apart from God, that person’s name is opinion. Do not say that opinion is simply different concepts, different ideas, and different ways of thinking. Opinion is just you apart from God. How good you are or how bad you are makes little difference; as long as you are apart from God, you are just the embodiment of opinion. It is not a small thing to have such a definition of opinion. Opinion is just us apart from the Lord. I expect that all of you would bring this matter to the Lord, considering it in a serious way. To consider such a thing in a serious way is to accept the perfecting. If you would just take this definition—that opinion is just you apart from God—and bring it to the Lord and stay with the Lord for some time, praying about this matter, you will sense the practical perfecting. You will have a practical dealing with opinion. You will see that opinion is just yourself. Nothing kills our spiritual germs as much as the spiritual light. When the spiritual enlightenment comes upon us, that is almost equal to the healing. The enlightenment is nearly the healing. Light heals by killing. Light kills our germs, so it heals.
I am concerned that you may hear this definition of opinion and yet not go to the Lord with it. You need to take this definition of opinion and stay with the Lord, dwelling upon it for a period of time. If you would do this, you will get the healing. More light will come to you. The light will expose you to the uttermost and will help you to understand fully that apart from God you are nothing but opinion. Under the light you will see this. The Bible says, “In Your light we see light” (Psa. 36:9). When you bring this matter to the Lord and stay with Him, in His light you will see light. It is not that you simply accept the word in this Perfecting Meeting but that you will have a kind of enlightenment that kills the germs and even kills you. It kills you as the source of opinion.
Even concerning the matter of the development of opinion, you still need a time with the Lord. Whatever is covered in this Perfecting Meeting as a kind of point, you need to bring to the Lord and stay with Him. Otherwise, you may make all the points of this Perfecting Meeting simply points of doctrines, teachings, and not practical dealings. If you want the practical dealings instead of doctrinal points, you surely must bring all these points to the Lord. Do not pray so much for other things. You should pray, “Lord, confine me within this one point. Lord, imprison me in this point. I want to fellowship with You and look unto You about my opinion. I want to talk to You, and I want You to converse with me.” You need to stay and dwell with the Lord upon that point. Eventually, that will become further light. You will receive more enlightenment. That will kill you, and actually that will be the practical healing. Then you will have the practical perfecting, which will transform you. This kind of light and enlightenment will transform you. It will make you very much different just to stay there with the Lord for half an hour, not distracted by anything else but dwelling on this one point. This will transform you.
Now we need to spend more time on the healing. The one spirit is the medicine, but we need to discover how to use this medicine. How are you going to apply the medicine? You may have the medicine, but you also need to know how to use it. For example, some medicines have to be taken in by eating. That is the way to apply the medicine. The one spirit is the unique and effective medicine for this big disease, but how shall we apply it? How can we use the one spirit? It may sound strange to you to say that we need to use and apply the one spirit. This is because in Christianity all the doctrines are so shallow, and there is little practical application of the doctrines. But with medicine you cannot be doctrinal; you must be practical and know how to use it. How can we apply this medicine?
We have to pray.
To say we have to pray is too general. Yes, we do have to pray, but this answer is too general.
Then I would say we need to enjoy His presence.
This is a question that is difficult to answer. To apply the one spirit is a very complicated matter because the Spirit is altogether a complicated matter. First, you must find out who is the Spirit and what is the Spirit. Medicines come in different forms and substances: some are in liquid form, some are in powder form, and some are in pill form. You must take it according to its form.
Let me explain it in this way: When I was writing the notes on Philippians, I discovered one factor. On the one hand, Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ” (1:21). He also says, “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death” (v. 20). On the other hand, he speaks of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (v. 19). Paul expected that all the things that happened to him would turn out to his salvation. We must see these two sides. If you do not have the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, you could never live Christ, and you could never magnify Christ.
If, however, you only know the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, yet you do not have the vision that God wants you to live Christ and to magnify Christ, you could not have a proper life. You may know the bountiful supply of the Spirit, but if you do not have the vision of God’s intention and purpose, you could not have a proper life. We need both sides: we need to be filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and we need to see a vision concerning the living out of Christ. We must see what the Spirit is for. For example, some Christians today are in the Pentecostal movement. Their concept is that the Spirit is for speaking in tongues, for manifesting the gifts, for healings, for miracles, and for prophesying. They do not have the concept that the Pentecostal Spirit must be for living Christ and magnifying Christ. So they become different from God’s intention. God’s intention in giving the Spirit to His people is that they may live Christ and magnify Christ. It may express and manifest the gifts, but it is not for the manifestation of gifts. It may have healings or miraculous things, but it is not for the healings and the miraculous things; it is for Christ. The one spirit is the medicine not just for healing your opinion but also for you to live Christ and magnify Christ. To apply this medicine of the one spirit, you need a vision of Christ. You need to see Christ; you need to see that Christ is your center and must be your circumference. You have to see that Christ should be the centrality of your living and the universality of your being. If you do not see this, even the Spirit cannot heal you. If you are going to apply the Spirit, you need to see that Christ has to be the centrality and universality of your whole being. In other words, your being has to be occupied by Christ and with Christ.
Philippians is really a book that deals with opinion. It says, “Think the same thing” (2:2; 4:2); “have this mind” (3:15); “thinking the one thing” (2:2); be “like-souled” (v. 20); “with one soul” (1:27); and “joined in soul” (2:2). All these are expressions dealing with what we call opinion. Opinion was there because Christ was lacking among the Philippian believers. They were short of Christ. They had too many thoughts; they had different minds; they had different souls because they were lacking Christ. They could not apply the medicine of the Spirit until they had seen the vision that God wanted them to be fully occupied with Christ. Christ had to be their center and circumference. Christ had to be everything to them; they had to drop all the other thoughts. Their minds needed to be fully occupied with Christ. If you want to apply this medicine of the one spirit, you need a vision to see that God does not want anything in you—your opinion, your thought, your idea, your concept, your thinking—He only wants Christ.
We need to see this not merely in a doctrinal way. If you see this only in a doctrinal way, there will be no perfecting. Suppose that you have had some different concepts and opinions than your wife. How did you deal with your opinions? You have heard that the medicine is the one spirit, but how did you apply the one spirit?
First, I went to the Lord, and I prayed concerning the word that I received. I also prayed concerning different aspects of my living: my church life, my work situation, and my family life. I prayed that the Lord would shine on my opinions in all those areas. I did experience some shining and enlightenment, and some things were exposed in my relationship with my wife. I felt that prayer with that light did something within me, but if I do not enjoy the Spirit and keep myself in prayer, breathing the Lord, when I am with my wife and an issue comes up, even though I received the light, still there is a problem.
I would say that all you have said is very good but rather religious and not so practical. Let me give you a practical illustration. Suppose you want to wash the dishes with warm water, but your wife wants to wash the dishes with boiling water. You argue with her, and she argues back. We all have these kinds of experiences. As a quick person, I do not like to spend much time washing dishes, but my wife likes to wash the dishes inside and outside again and again. That kind of washing bothers me, but I cannot convince her to take my way, nor can she convince me to take her way. How then should I apply the medicine of the Spirit? Just to pray and try to apply all the things mentioned in the points is too religious. In the past I tried to apply the points in this way, but eventually by experience I learned that there is no need to pray, but simply to ask, Is my way to wash the dishes Christ? My way simply is not Christ. Sometimes I might argue: Yes, Lord, my way is not Christ, but neither is my wife’s way Christ. But then, right away the vision comes: Is this argument Christ? All the time this question comes: Is this Christ? This question pins you down so that the Spirit can come to heal. This is the way to apply the Spirit.
The sisters’ way to apply the Spirit may be to weep. First they weep, and then they apply the Spirit. But I would say there is no need for them to weep. Weeping is a waste of your time. But because you are used to weeping, if you do not weep, you cannot experience Christ. For a long time I could not experience Christ until I either bothered others or others bothered me. Then I went into my bedroom, closed the door, and knelt down. I sighed a while, I began to pray, and then I experienced Christ. But actually you do not need to weep and you do not need to pray. You only need to see a vision that what God wants of you is just Christ. Christ must be basic. Christ must be crucial. Christ must be central in your being. God does not want anything else. But whether we wash the dishes quickly or slowly or well or poorly, whether we drink tea quickly or slowly—all of these are not Christ. When we hold this vision, right away the Spirit will come.
In like manner, the proper way to arrange the chairs in the meeting means nothing. Only Christ counts. If you see the vision that only Christ counts, you do not need to wait for the supply of the Spirit; you just take it. You have to see the vision that Christ should be everything in your life practically. If you could see such a vision, from this time onward you would have no problem with your wife. Whenever you would have some debate with your wife, the vision would remind you: this is not Christ. Then you would say Amen. Whenever we have an idea different from others, it is easy for us to be offended. When others accept our proposal, we are happy, but whenever our proposal is rejected, we feel insulted and offended. What shall we do? We all need to see a vision. We need to see a vision that Christ is our center and our circumference. We need to see the vision that Christ is the centrality and universality of God in our being. God does not want anything else. We have to check every point of our living by Christ. Is this way to wash the dishes Christ? Once we see this, the eater within us, opinion, will have been already half-killed. Then the Spirit always follows Christ. All the young couples have disagreements on how to deal with the children. The young brothers have their concepts, and the young sisters have their concepts. While you are trying to debate with your wife concerning how to deal with the children, you have to ask, Is this Christ? If you would simply ask, Is this Christ? one-half of your opinion would be killed. Then the Spirit would come to clear up the rest. Then you would have no problem.
All of us have to be occupied fully by and with Christ. Not only in the church life and in the Lord’s work but also in the family life we need to be occupied by Christ. In the Lord’s work I have been with the co-workers for many years. If it were not for the fact that we always take care of Christ as the center and as everything in our work, there might have been some fighting with the co-workers. It is not that I am nice and you are nice, so we can work together in a nice way. No. I am bad, and we all are bad. Not one among all the co-workers is nice. You can be nice only for a few mornings. I can be nice for a few days among you, but to work together is a lifelong matter just like the marriage life. Sooner or later you will be exposed that you are not so nice. The only altogether nice one is Christ. Whenever a problem arose among the co-workers, the medicine came in by Christ being the center. Why should I fight with my brothers just for my interpretation of certain verses of the Bible? That is not Christ. For me to insist on a certain thing is not Christ. Therefore, I learned to drop all those other things except Christ. Eventually, we had no problems. At the beginning of the work there were many problems. But now there are hardly any problems because I have been healed by the vision that Christ is everything in the church and in the Lord’s work.
As long as you have this vision and you stand with this vision, your opinion will be fifty percent killed. Then the Spirit will always go along with Christ. He always honors Christ. Immediately He will follow Christ to wipe out the opinion and to fully clear you up. The shortest and the most effective way to deal with opinion is not to pray and not to weep. Rather, the best way to apply the medicine of the one spirit is just to stand with the vision that Christ must be everything to you. We all need to practice this. We have the medicine, and we also have the way to apply the medicine. The Spirit is all-inclusive and almighty, but the situation among many good Christians is that they are fighting. The Spirit is there, but He has no way to heal them. The Spirit is there, and the Spirit is strong, but He has no way because we do not practice the way to apply the Spirit.
Sometimes the Spirit will work to some extent after we have struggled a long time. Because of some problem in the Lord’s work, we may go to the Lord again and again and may even weep before the Lord. After one week’s prayer I may give the Spirit a little way to heal my opinion and to cause me to be one with a brother. But that is too slow and too late. But this has been our way. Even in the marriage life this has been our way. When the husband and wife have a problem, it may take three days for the situation to be cleared up. Is the Spirit so slow? Is the Spirit’s healing so gradual? He is not slow; He is dynamic, but our application is too slow. What we need is a vision concerning Christ being everything to us. Otherwise, in our family we will have a lot of problems, and in the church among all the brothers and sisters we will have a lot of problems. Furthermore, in the work among the co-workers we will have a lot of problems. A proper vision of Christ is the only base that the Spirit has to kill our opinion. We must see that God does not want anything but Christ. As long as you stand with this vision, you have no opinion. All the problems come from the sources apart from Christ. When you take Christ as everything, there will be no problem. This should not be a mere doctrine to us; this has to be our practice.
Many of the saints who are in the Lord’s recovery surely love the Lord, and they love the Lord’s recovery, and they have seen the church. But, I am sorry to say, they do not have the building. They do not have the church life in a practical and full way. What is the problem? The problem is just opinion. We are full of opinion after opinion after opinion. We cannot stay away from the church, because we have seen the church, and we cannot stay away from the recovery, because we know that this is the way of the Lord today. And we cannot stay away from the saints, because they are the members of the Body, yet we do not have that much building up. We do not have the practical church life adequately in full. What is the trouble? What is the problem? Opinion. Something is hidden there—opinion. The opinion is eating, undermining, frustrating, and holding you back. The opinion is the biggest enemy to the Spirit. The Spirit must have a ground to come in to heal this disease and to fight down this enemy. That ground is to have the overall vision of Christ being everything to us. In the church life we only care for Christ. In the Word we only care for Christ, and even in our family life we only care for Christ. In our personal life, our daily life, God only wants Christ. If we have such an overall vision concerning Christ, this will become a base for us to apply the medicine of the Spirit.
Suppose two brothers are quarreling. How will you help them? The general way, the common way, the ordinary way, is to encourage them to exercise their patience, to love one another, to consider others better than themselves. Actually, this will not help. The first point is that you yourself must have the proper and adequate experience of Christ. If you have seen the vision that Christ is everything to you, and you enjoy the Spirit coming to supply you, you will have the adequate experience. Then you will have the way to help two brothers who are quarreling. It is not a matter of being a peacemaker but of ministering Christ to them. It is a matter of revealing Christ into them. If you practice this daily, when you see this kind of situation, the Spirit will lead you and give you a way to approach them and give you the proper utterance. Through the Spirit-given utterance, Christ will spontaneously be ministered to them, and they will see the same vision. They will see that it is altogether worthless to argue. The Spirit will honor Christ and eventually will come to clear them up and heal their opinion.
The hardest thing among human society is to calm down people’s opinion. It is almost impossible to calm down another’s opinion. Yet in the church life the biggest eater is our opinion. What shall we do? How can we get this big disease healed? Of course, the only medicine is the Spirit, but how can we apply the Spirit? The Spirit can never work unless Christ is honored. Christ is always the base, the ground, for the Spirit to work in people. If a sinner prays, “Lord Jesus, I love You,” the Spirit comes in right away because the Lord Jesus is honored. The Spirit always honors Christ and always goes along with Christ. If in our lives we do not honor Christ, there is no base for the Spirit to come in to work on us. We must stand on Christ in everything. We must stand on Christ in every thought, every concept, and every bit of our opinion. If we would do so, right away the Spirit would come to honor Christ and to wipe out our opinion and to heal us. This is the quickest and most effective way. There is no other way to calm down people’s opinion. No husband can calm down his wife’s opinion, and no wife can conquer her husband’s opinion. But in the church life we need to have no opinion.
According to the human view there is no possibility for this to happen, and this is why the church life has had no way for nearly two thousand years. In Christianity this opinion matter has never been conquered. It has always been there damaging, killing, scattering, splitting, and dividing the Christians. Even among us the building has been going on very slowly, the growth is too slow, and the function is not so high. This is altogether due to one thing: the hidden opinion within you and me. There is always something undermining and damaging, yet hiding. How can we get rid of it? There is no other way except to see Christ so that the Spirit may have a way to come in and heal us. You need Christ as a base, as a ground. If you simply pray without taking Christ as your center, there is no base or ground for the Spirit to come in to kill your opinion. May I speak a strong word? You do not need to pray; you need to see the vision. You need to take Christ as the base and as everything to your life, your work, your marriage, and your church. Once you take Christ, there is the ground for the Spirit to come in to kill your opinion. Then you will be delivered. We must see Christ.
The book of Philippians tells us to think the same thing (2:2; 4:2). This really means just to see Christ as everything. How could we think the same thing unless we see Christ as everything? When we see Christ as everything, we will have no other thinking. Our thinking, our thought, will just be Christ. Then spontaneously, regardless of how many hundreds or thousands we may be, we will still think the same thing because we will have the same vision. We will have the same Christ occupying us fully. Christ will occupy our life, our family, our home, our church, and our work. So we will think the same thing. When we think the same thing, it gives the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ the way to come in to support us and to heal us from our opinion.
