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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:15-16; 1 Tim. 1:14; John 21:15-17; 1 Cor. 16:22-23
Ephesians 4:15 and 16 say, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” In these two verses we clearly see growth and building together. One is the cause, and the other is the effect; there is growth, and then there is the building. We need to learn how to grow and how to help others to grow.
The intention in sowing a seed into the earth is that the seed will grow up and bring forth something through its growth. Therefore, we all must be very clear that God’s intention is to put Christ as the seed of life into us in order to grow within us. This is very clear in the New Testament. However, when many of us Christians come to the Word of God, it is difficult for us to see this simple point. In my youth I listened to preachers, teachers, and pastors speak about Matthew 13 many times, but I was very puzzled by those parables. As a young Christian I tried my best to understand the whole Bible, and I spent all I had at that time to buy expositions. My intention was to buy sixty-six expositions, one for each book from Genesis to the end of the Bible, and I was able to acquire many of these. I thought that they would help me know the Bible. The more I read the expositions, however, the more I was confused. It became more and more difficult to understand the Word. Matthew 13 contains seven parables. I spent much time to understand this chapter, and I read many articles, but not one of those articles speaks concerning the growth in life. People always try to give a certain kind of exposition and interpretation of those parables, but they neglect the simple thing.
We need to be very clear that the Lord Jesus came to sow Himself into the human heart. He is the sower and the seed. He sows Himself into our heart with the expectation that we would give Him the ground, the opportunity, to grow in us; then we grow by Him, with Him, and in Him. In addition, Matthew 13 shows us—as do several passages of the New Testament—that out of the growth comes transformation. In the parables in this chapter, there is first the sowing of the seed, then the growth of this life, and immediately there is transformation, which produces materials that are good for God’s building. Therefore, three things are basically important: the birth of life, the growth of life, and the maturity of life, from which we have transformation. Then from this transformation we have the precious materials which are good for God’s building.
The same thought is in 1 Corinthians 3. On the one hand, the apostle Paul says that we are co-workers with God doing the work of planting so that God’s cultivated land, God’s harvest, may grow. Then on the other hand, we are builders to build God’s house with the material produced from the growth of life (vv. 6, 9, 12). This is also what is revealed in Matthew 13. However, we need the vision; otherwise, we can read this chapter time and again and still not see the birth of life, the growth of life, and transformation to produce the materials for the building of God.
The same thought is in 1 Peter 2. First we are the newborn babes who need to grow; then by this growth we are transformed into precious stones to be built up as a spiritual house (vv. 2, 5). God’s intention is to have a spiritual house, a building, as His corporate expression. How can God accomplish this building? It is by sowing His Son Christ into us so that He may grow in us and we may grow in Him and with Him in order to be transformed, changed in nature and in form, to be the precious materials for God’s building. As Christians, we need to be very clear about this.
There is no one passage that tells us all the things necessary for our growth. From the New Testament teaching and revelation, the way to grow is composed of four main items. If we practice these, then not only are we in life but we are on the way of growth, and we also will know how to help others to grow. In Matthew 13 we are first told that after the seed is sown, the enemy, signified by the birds in the air, comes to snatch it away. Then even with the seed that is not snatched away, the seed that remains, there is no growth because the heart is superficial, shallow; there is the stony condition beneath the ground. This means that apparently someone receives the word, but in actuality there is no depth in his heart. In the third kind of earth the seed begins to grow, but it cannot grow up because it is choked by the cares of this age, the anxiety of life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the matter of living; that is, it is choked by the world.
If we spend time to study these cases, we can see that the lack of growth is due to one thing: After a person is saved by the divine seed sown into him, he may not love the Lord. If we study our history and compare it with the New Testament, we will find that the first step, the first main thing needed, for a believer to grow is to love the Lord. If we do not have a love for the Lord, we are superficial; our heart is either stony or things other than the Lord Himself choke the seed in it. We need a love for the Lord.
Faith comes first; then love must follow. Paul says that “the grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith alone does not work. Having faith without love is like walking on one foot. We can walk a little bit on one foot, but we cannot walk all day like that; we need two feet. Love must come to accompany faith. We should read the whole Gospel of John. It tells us that the Lord Jesus only demands that we first believe in Him and then love Him. The last story in this Gospel is a story of love. After twenty chapters of John there is chapter 21, which contains only one story. The Lord Jesus appealed to Peter, saying, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” (vv. 15-17).
I say again, if we do not have love for the Lord, our heart will either be full of stones or choked by many things. There is no other way besides love. If we want the Lord to grow within us, our heart has to be dug. With what can our heart be dug? We should not think it is by something that seems prevailing; rather, it is by one thing—love. In my whole Christian life I never saw one person whose heart was dealt with by the Lord before he loved the Lord. No one and nothing can take away the hidden stones in our heart. This requires a love toward the Lord. If we do not love the Lord, it is very hard for any of us not to be choked. The enemy is subtle and skillful. He is waiting to utilize everything to choke the seed in our heart. We should not think there are only one or two items that can choke the seed; everything can be utilized by the enemy. There is only one way to escape the choking of the enemy; that is to love the Lord.
If we simply pray, “Lord, be merciful to me. Grant me a love for You,” our stony heart will be dealt with. It will be dug and made deep. There will be a digging within not by anything else but by love. In order to grow, we must go to the Lord to pray definitely and purposely that He will grant us a love for Him. I know one person who prayed this one thing for a long time, day by day, that is, that the Lord would grant him this love. I believe and I can testify that if we pray in this way, one day the Lord will reveal this love to us. This is not a matter of doctrine; it is a matter of inspiration. We can talk about the love of the Lord, but we still may not truly have the sense, the consciousness, of it. One day, however, when the Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ to us, we will have the tender consciousness, the sense, of the love of the Lord. Then this love will do much work to get rid of all the stones within us. It is this love that is so capable of delivering us from all the choking elements. The more we try, exercise, and endeavor by ourselves to overcome all the things that choke, the more we will be defeated. The only thing that can deliver us from any kind of choking is love. Therefore, we must learn to pray that the Lord would grant us such a love.
This is absolutely different from any religion. Not one leader of a religion demanded that his followers love him. Only the Lord Jesus demands this. He asks us to believe in Him and to love Him. We must have faith in Him, and we must have love toward Him. It may be good that we pray for a few weeks, even when we come together for the prayer meeting, “Lord, show us this love, and grant us such a love.” We must learn to love the Lord. Then we will see that we are starting to grow. When we start to love the Lord, we start to grow. There is no other way. The only way for Christians to begin growing is by first knowing how to love the Lord.
First Corinthians speaks much about growth. If we read the whole book, we will realize that it is a book of growth. Eventually, at the end it says, “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed! The Lord comes!” (16:22). Then the next verse says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you” (v. 23). If the grace of the Lord is with us, then we will surely love the Lord. Together these two verses mean that the grace of the Lord is with us so that we may love Him. There is no other way to grow.
A real revival is a revival full of the Lord’s love. Therefore, we ourselves must experience it. Then when we contact others, when we help others, we will know where to start. If we have never learned the lesson to experience the love, not only of the Lord but for and toward the Lord, it is very hard to grow, and we simply do not know how to help others to grow. If we do learn the lesson and we have this experience, then when we contact people, we will know where they are, and we will have an influence on them. We will realize who is in the light of such a love, and those whom we contact will be influenced to love the Lord. This is the beginning of growth. We cannot merely go to the brothers and say, “Oh, we have to grow.” To speak in this way is like speaking to the wall, “Wall, you have to grow.” We can talk in this way day and night, year after year, with no effect.
We need to pray that the Lord would touch the hearts of many saints. Among us we need this love. The seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3, dealing with the fall of the church, show us that the source, the origin, of the fall of the church is the loss of the first love (2:4). When the love toward the Lord is lost, regardless of what we do for Him, the life eventually is gone. To receive life requires believing, having faith, but to have the growth in life requires love. Faith is for life, and love is for the growth of life. If we do not have love, it is hard for us to grow. Therefore, we ourselves must have this experience; then we will know how to help others.
If we do love the Lord, we will spontaneously offer ourselves to Him. When we love the Lord, there is no need for others to tell us that we have to consecrate ourselves. Of the sixty-six books of the Bible, there is only one that deals entirely with the matter of growth, that is, the Song of Songs. This book is a book of growth. Brother Watchman Nee’s study of the Song of Songs shows us all the steps for growth. The Song of Songs tells us that after the lover of Christ is saved, she realizes the Lord’s love; this is the start. Then at the end of the book we can see maturity and building up. This shows us that growth starts with love, and when we have love, we spontaneously offer ourselves to the Lord. Therefore, I will not say that we have to consecrate ourselves, because consecration is included in our love for the Lord. If we do not have love, regardless of how much we consecrate ourselves, we still have not truly consecrated ourselves. The real consecration comes from love and goes with love. If we do not have such a love, our consecration is not real. This is the first main way to grow.
The second main item that we must have is confession, or clearance. After we begin to love the Lord, we must have a clear dealing with ourselves in order to have the real growth in life. We must have a clearance and make a thorough confession before the Lord. In other words, we must deal with our conscience. Then we will have a pure, good conscience without accusation, a conscience void of offense and very much at peace. We have seen how important the conscience is regarding spiritual things. We need a pure conscience, and one who has a pure conscience is one who has thoroughly confessed all the sinful things, dirtiness, failures, and trespasses. We must go to the Lord to have such a dealing. Sometimes we need three days for this. I do not believe that we can finish our confession within only one or two hours. If we mean business with the Lord, we will need a longer time to have a thorough dealing. This is not something legal; it is a principle.
Why are many Christians not spiritually healthy? It is simply because their conscience is not purged. Within their conscience there are many accusations and offenses. Some even realize this, but they are not willing to make a confession, so to one degree or another they are frustrated. This brings us back to the first point above: if we are not willing to confess, it is because we do not love the Lord. The more we love the Lord, the more we sense our failures, shortcomings, weaknesses, and wrongdoings. Perhaps at this time we do not feel that we are wrong in anything, but when we start to love the Lord, we will realize that we are wrong in many things, with people and with the Lord. We will sense the need to confess to the Lord.
All these matters cannot remain as mere doctrine. I have no intention to give more doctrine. Rather, if we do not put all these things into practice, they mean nothing. If we put them into practice, we will see that they truly help us. We need to pray that the Lord would grant us a love for Him. Then we must be faithful to make a thorough dealing with the Lord. We should not argue with this, and we should not care for mere theology.
More than twenty years ago, when I was in northern China, I learned all these lessons from the Lord and with the Lord; this is how I now know them. At that time some people opposed this very much. They said, “There is no need for us to deal with our conscience, because the blood is good enough. The blood covers and cleanses us.” There is no need to argue with people in the way of doctrine and theology. The best way to defeat the opposing ones is to touch their conscience. If we touch their conscience, there is no need to argue; rather, we must help them to check their experience. We should not take these matters in the way of doctrine. If some would come to argue with me, I cannot answer them in a doctrinal way. I know the problem with people, especially with those who study theology, but if we would put these things into practice, we will see they are right. I am not here taking care of doctrine; I am here trying to help people to have the proper practice.
After loving the Lord and having a thorough confession, we right away have to know the spirit. When we say spirit in this way, we mean our human spirit, not the Holy Spirit. This is a difficult matter among Christians today. It is not so hard, however, with new believers. A certain older brother had been a Christian for many years. He studied at Bible institutes and was a preacher for years, preaching, teaching, reading, and listening. After I delivered some messages about the exercise of the spirit, this brother came to me and said, “Brother Lee, what do you mean by the exercise of the spirit? Do you mean to have a whole heart?” I found out that it is difficult to speak concerning the spirit to people with old concepts.
However, I have the assurance that if we do not know how to discern our spirit from our soul, we may know the entire Bible in a doctrinal way, but we will not have an inch of the growth in life. We may also experience many so-called spiritual things, but we still will not have the growth. Spiritual growth is a matter absolutely in the spirit. This is why the phrase in the spirit, or in spirit, is so important and is mentioned so often in the New Testament.
We ourselves must learn how to discern the spirit and exercise the spirit. Then we will know how to help others. I believe that we all know something about the discernment of the spirit, but we still do not know much. In the past few days a brother and his wife stayed in my home, and we had many talks. If you would ask me what I learned from all these talks, I would have to testify that I learned only one thing: I did not exercise my spirit enough. I exercised some but not adequately; that was my failure.
We may illustrate how we do not exercise our spirit adequately in the following way. I may come to two brothers and say, “Brothers, do you know Matthew 13? Tell me a little about it.” This will put them on the test, because it will be very easy for them to be tempted not to exercise their spirit when they answer. They may explain at length, saying, “We have heard a message that tells us that the parables in Matthew 13 are composed of six plus one, and also four plus three. The first four are of one kind, and the last three are of another kind.” They may speak for two or three hours, but their talk may be miserable. If we learn the lesson adequately, then when someone asks a question, we will not care for the question. Rather, we will care for contacting the Lord. While we are being asked, we will right away contact the Lord, saying, “Lord, what will You have me to say?” We will not exercise our mind to consider six plus one or four plus three. Instead, we will see something from our spirit and from the Holy Spirit.
It is easy to be tempted to talk about many things. After my many talks with the brother in my home, I had to ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. I talked about many right things, but I did not exercise my spirit adequately. The only way to minister life to others is to exercise our spirit. If we are not in the spirit, regardless of how much we speak, we can help people only in their mentality; we can never minister life to them. This is a real lesson. I have been practicing this for more than thirty years, but concerning this matter I may not have graduated from “high school.” To say “Exercise the spirit!” is easy, but the entire, proper Christian life depends on this one matter.
If we do not have a love for the Lord, we cannot exercise our spirit. Likewise, if we constantly have something accusing us in our conscience, we are finished with the exercise of the spirit. To exercise the spirit requires a love for the Lord and a pure conscience. After we have love and a pure conscience, we must learn the lesson of always exercising our spirit. To be soulish is easier than to be sinful. It is not easy for someone to induce me to be sinful, but it may be very easy to induce me to be soulish. For many seeking Christians it is not easy to be sinful—it is not easy, for example, to tell a lie—but it is very easy to be soulish, to say things in the soul, to do things in the soul, to contact people in the soul, and to deal with things in the soul. If we do not exercise the spirit, we are merely in the soul.
If we are about to argue with someone, and we say to ourselves, “I must try not to argue with people,” that will not work. The more we try not to argue, the more we will argue. Everyone who makes up his mind not to argue, argues all the more. We should forget about arguing and learn to always exercise our spirit. When we exercise our spirit, all the arguments are gone. The only way for us to be delivered from arguing, or from anything in the soul, is to forget about the soul, forget about all things related to the soul, and learn to exercise the spirit. Then when we meet a brother, we will not need to tell ourselves not to argue; we will know only to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord. Then we will have the growth.
We can be assured that regardless of how many messages we have heard, how many books we have read, and how many times we have read the whole Bible, if we do not start to exercise our spirit, we will not have real growth. We will have only the growth of knowledge in our mentality. We may know more Bible teachings and more of Christianity, and we may have a certain kind of increase and growth, but we do not have the growth in life until we know how to exercise our spirit.
To know the spirit in this way is to be strengthened into the inner man. Ephesians 3:16 says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” The inner man, that is, the spirit, needs to be strengthened. We all have to learn to exercise the spirit. All weaknesses, problems, confusions, and disturbances come from the soul. There is no need to deal with all these things. Simply forget about the soul and learn to exercise the spirit. Then all the problems will be resolved. We must try this and put it into practice; then we will see that this is exactly true. We are short of this today. I have been in Los Angeles, ministering something of the spirit at least one or two hundred times, but I do not have the confidence that many of us practice this daily. If we practice this, there will be the real growth.
We also must always stay in contact with the Lord. Any time we are not in contact with the Lord, we are in degradation, not in growth.
What I told people many years ago about the way to grow was not this simple. Even ten years ago what I said was not very simple. Today, however, if you ask me how to grow, I will tell you something simple but very practical. The simpler something is, the more practical it is. But even though it is simple, if we do not practice it, it will not work. From my own learning and experiences, I have come to realize that the simplest way for Christians to grow is the above four matters: love the Lord, deal with Him thoroughly, learn to exercise the spirit, and keep in contact with Him. If we do these things, we will see the growth. Then because we are in the growth of life, we will know the right way to read the Word, the right and simple way to listen to messages, and the right and proper way to get help and profit from reading a book. We will not care for anything but one matter: the growth of life in the spirit.
The more we grow in the spirit with life, the simpler we become. Suppose there is a brother who does not grow. He meets, listens, learns, reads, and studies, but without growth. Such a brother will become the most troublesome one. When we grow in life, we are so simple. There is a simplicity with all the matters related to life.
In these recent days, through many contacts in my visits, I learned that there is only one way to have the church life, which is by the growth in life. We brothers and sisters must pay our full attention to the growth of life. Certain other things are helpful, even helpful for the growth, but they are not the growth itself. We must be simple, not considering that we know many things. I would beg that we not to consider we know anything. We must forget about the old knowledge. As Christians, we had all those old things for years, but we had no growth. We are too foolish if we would still keep the old things. However, it is hard to drop the old things to become simple.
Some may ask what I mean by being simple. We may illustrate it in this way. When we come to hear a message, we may come to listen by exercising our spirit and receiving the nourishment from it. This means that we are simple. However, because we have been Christians for many years, when we hear one sentence or one point, we may have more than ten points to consider in our mind. We may say, “This is right, but...” or “This is good, yet...” If we do this, it means that we are old. If we learn how not to say “but” or “yet,” we are blessed. I am the same as others, so I also had to learn this. This is the fallen human nature, but we may not realize that it is fallen.
The more we grow, the more we become simple, and we just receive the nourishment for life. Then we will grow, and we will be those who always spontaneously minister life to others. We will have only one thing to share with others, that is, life. Some brothers may say that we also need fellowship, because the fellowship gives us help. However, many times what we have is not fellowship that helps but something else that damages.
We Christians need to be as children. We should not be childish, but we have to be childlike, simple like little children. We need to forget about the old things, old knowledge, and old learning. Regardless of how much we know, we still may not have a love for the Lord. We need such a love. We also need to have a thorough dealing with the Lord and to be thoroughly dealt with by Him. Then we need to know how to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, live by Him, live in Him, and live with Him. We should not know anything else.
In my earlier ministry and service, whenever anyone came to me, I always had much to say. I would talk about Matthew, John, Romans, Corinthians, Timothy, Peter, and Revelation, and then I would go back around to Genesis. Today, however, many brothers do not like to talk with me because I seem not to know anything. They know that there is no need to come to me; if they come to me, I will have only one answer: “Learn to exercise your spirit.” I have been in this line of “business” for more than thirty years. I know that everything else wastes our own and others’ time. Only one thing avails: we must learn to love the Lord, deal with Him thoroughly, exercise our spirit, and contact Him. Then we will grow. This solves all the problems. There is no other answer as prevailing as this. This is the most efficient course.
The church here needs this. We have to pray for this. Then we will be brought into the reality of growth. It is not a matter of knowledge, not a matter of learning the messages; it is a matter of the real growth in life. There is no other way. In our prayer meeting we should pray for this. We should pray, “Lord, cause us to love You. Reveal Your love to us, and grant us an inner love for You.” This is wonderful. I know what I am speaking; when the Lord reveals His love to us, we can choose no other way but to love Him. It is by this love that the ties with the worldly things are cut. Worldly ties can be cut only by the tie of love. Nothing else is prevailing to cut the ties. May the whole church be granted to love the Lord.
Moreover, we must know how to be dealt with by Him, to have a pure conscience not only cleansed and purged by the blood but also dealt with by the Holy Spirit. Then we will have a pure, transparent conscience, and we will be strong in exercising the spirit and contacting the Lord. Then, I say again, we will see the growth, and many things in the church will change. In actuality, the things will be the same, but our eyes will be changed. We will have another kind of sight, an insight and foresight. We will see things thoroughly and truly, because we will have the growth of life. In addition, all our problems with others will be spontaneously solved by this growth of life, and we will be built with others. We need the growth, which comes from the aforementioned four items.
If we take this message as a mere doctrine, it will mean nothing; it will be no message at all. This message is just like a map to give directions. If we put these things into practice, we will be led into boundless riches, a boundless realm of spiritual riches. Then we will be built up. We will hold to truth, to reality, in love so that we may grow up into Him in all things. We as members will receive something from the Head to share with others. Something of the Head will be transmitted through us into others. Then the Body will be built up. This is the only way for the building up of the Body life. In other words, the genuine church life depends on this growth. There is no other way to realize this growth except by loving the Lord, dealing with and being dealt with by Him, and learning to exercise. That is why in many places I not only told the saints, I even begged them, “Do not try to learn doctrine. Rather, pray that the Lord will grant you the real growth. Learn to be simple. Simply love Him, deal with Him, be dealt with by Him, and exercise your spirit to contact Him.”
