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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Cor. 3:16-18; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 3:17a; 1 Cor. 2:16
Romans 8:29 tells us that God predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. This is the desire of God’s heart. The Scriptures tell us that originally God had the only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:18). The Bible also tells us that after the death and resurrection of Christ, God had many sons, with Christ as the Firstborn among them (20:17; Heb. 2:10; cf. Rom. 8:29). In other words, Christ was originally the only begotten Son of God, but after He died and rose from the dead, He became the Firstborn of many sons.
God’s work according to His eternal purpose is to produce many sons with His Firstborn as the model. God’s firstborn Son is the pattern, and according to this pattern, this model, He has produced many sons. God has accomplished this through our regeneration. When we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit entered into our spirit. Because the Spirit is the reality of Christ, when the Spirit came into us, Christ Himself came into us. Now, by virtue of our having been regenerated, Christ is in us. Before Christ came into our spirit, our spirit was dead because of sin (Eph. 2:1, 5). However, Christ is life, and when He entered into us, He enlivened our deadened spirit. Because He as the Spirit has entered into our spirit, He is now our life (Col. 3:4). It is by the Spirit regenerating us with Christ as life that we have been made God’s many sons. Not only so, God put His Son into us so that Christ would grow and be formed within us (Gal. 4:19). This fulfills God’s eternal purpose and desire that we would be His sons in life, nature, and image.
I have been a believer for thirty-eight years. For the first years of my Christian life I was taught much and heard many messages. Within four and a half years I listened to more than one thousand messages. Not only was I taught much in the meetings, but I also read many Christian books. These messages, teachings, and books stressed mainly negative matters, such as how to overcome sin, pride, hatred, and falsehood. During those first years, I do not recall ever being taught that, on the positive side, God’s eternal purpose is that we would be conformed to the image of His Son. The teaching on the negative side, however, never enabled me to overcome these matters. The more I tried, the more frustrated I became. After a period of time I gave up trying altogether. It was then that the Lord opened my eyes to realize that there is no need for me to try to do anything. I realized that since the Holy Spirit was within me, He would work out my conformation to His glorious image. When I realized this, I forgot about trying to be humble and trying not to be proud.
We should forget about these negative matters. The more we try to deal with them, the more we will be troubled by them. For example, the more we try to be humble, the prouder we will become. God did not ordain us to live in such a way. Rather, He foreordained us to be conformed to the image of Christ. We have to focus on Christ and forget about sin. However, it is very hard for us to do this. As Christians, we constantly remember that we should not sin, that we should be humble, and that we should not do anything wrong. Consequently, it is very hard for us to forget about these negative things. It is God’s desire that we be conformed to the image of Christ. Let us therefore forget about doing good or evil. We should tell good and evil, “I have nothing to do with you anymore. I only care for Christ. Christ is my aim and my everything. I need to be conformed to the image of Christ. He is now in me as the Spirit. He is also my life. I no longer pay attention to good and evil. I only know to live by Christ who is my life.”
Our problem is that although Christ is in us, we do not apply Him. When I was a young man in China, I used oil lamps for light. Even after electricity was installed in my house, by force of habit I would often strike a match and light the oil lamp when I returned home at night. Even though I tried to remember that since I had electricity, I no longer needed to use the oil lamp, I would frequently forget. At the time of our regeneration, Christ came into us as an “electric lamp.” Nevertheless, because we are so accustomed to our “oil lamp,” that is, our old life, we forget to apply Christ in our daily living. In other words, although we have been regenerated in our spirit, we still remain in the old life and forget to live by Christ. This is an indication that after we have been regenerated, we still need to be transformed.
Transformation is very important. Yet among the children of God today, it is almost entirely neglected. Christians speak very much concerning sanctification and holy living. However, our being transformed is more vital than our being sanctified, for unless we are transformed, we cannot be sanctified. We must be transformed from the old life, form, and shape into another life, form, and shape. The old form is the form of Adam. The new form is the form of Christ. To be regenerated is one thing; to be transformed is another thing. Although we have been regenerated in our spirit, the remainder of our being—primarily our mind, emotion, and will—has yet to be transformed. Hence, we are still in the old man.
We are certain that our spirit is regenerated, but are we as confident that our mind, emotion, and will have been transformed? Are all these parts transformed, or do they remain in the old life? We all must admit that there is still a long way for us to go before we are fully transformed in our soul. In Romans 12:2 Paul uses the phrase be transformed by the renewing of the mind. This verse implies that although we have been regenerated in our spirit, our mind remains old. Our mind is about six thousand years old—it is the mind of Adam. Hence, our mind, and with it our emotion and will, stands in need of being transformed.
How then can we be transformed? This matter has much to do with our heart. Ephesians 3:17 speaks of Christ making home in our hearts. Again, we have all been regenerated, but I doubt that Christ has made His home in many of our hearts. Is your heart Christ’s home? Does Christ really make His home in your heart? Do you love the Lord so much that you offer your heart to Him to let Him occupy it fully? This is a vital matter. The Lord already dwells in our spirit. The problem is whether or not Christ is making home in our heart. The spirit and the heart are not the same. The Scriptures tell us that the heart includes all the parts of the soul—the mind, emotion, and will (Matt. 9:4; 6, John 16:22; Heb. 4:12)—plus the conscience (10:22; 1 John 3:20). Although we have been regenerated in our spirit, we have to be transformed in our mind, emotion, and will. This transformation can take place only when Christ occupies our heart as a home. We have to love Christ with our whole heart, offer our heart to Him, and let Him take over our whole heart so that He may dwell in it. We should tell Him, “Lord, here is my heart. Come and occupy it fully. Come to make home in my heart.”
First Corinthians 2:16 says, “Who has known the mind of the Lord and will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” That we have the mind of Christ means that our mind has been transformed into the mind of Christ. We have Christ, but we have Him in our spirit only. Whether or not Christ occupies our mind, emotion, or will is the problem. If we are going to enjoy and experience Christ, we must learn this lesson absolutely. We have to love the Lord with our whole heart, offer our whole heart to Him, and give up our mind, emotion, and will to Him. As those who are regenerated, we have to learn that we cannot go along with our own mind, emotion, and will, for they are old and natural. Rather, we must deny them.
A number of believers genuinely experience the Holy Spirit when they pray. But after they pray, they remain in the old mind, old emotion, and old will. Although it seems that in their times of prayer they are in the spirit, after their prayer they are in the natural mind, emotion, and will. These ones do not know how to live by Christ and deny their mind, emotion, and will. If you are going to experience Christ, the first lesson you have to learn is that of rejecting and denying your natural mind, emotion, and will. This point cannot be emphasized enough. If you deny the natural mind, emotion, and will, the Holy Spirit within your spirit will take over these parts of your being. To be a Christian is to live a life in which we do not live by the mind, emotion, and will but instead live by Christ in the spirit.
A sister once came to me and said, “Brother Lee, my temper is very bad. As a wife and mother in a family, my bad temper hurts others. It was because of my temper’s ill effect on my husband and family that I believed in the Lord. I believed that He would deliver me from my bad temper. But even though I have been saved, I cannot overcome my bad temper.” After telling me these things, she asked me what she should do. It is very hard to help people overcome their temper. I said to her, “Sister, do you realize that since you are regenerated, Christ lives within you?” She answered that she did. I continued, “If you go along with your emotion, it will be very hard for you to overcome your temper. If you go along with Christ, it will be very easy for you to overcome your temper. With what will you go along? There are two possibilities. Will you go along with your emotion, or will you go along with Christ? If you go along with your emotion, you must be prepared to lose your temper. If, however, you go along with Christ, you will surely overcome your temper. You have the emotion, and you have Christ. Which one will you go along with?” She replied, “Brother Lee, I realize that I must go along with Christ instead of going along with my emotion.” I asked her if she really meant this—if she would actually go along with Christ instead of with her natural emotion. She was unable to answer. This sister realized her problem was that since the time she had been regenerated, she had not practiced going along with Christ. Instead, she still went along with her own emotion with the hope that Christ would help her overcome her temper. This sister’s experience points to a principle: you cannot go along with your emotion and at the same time hope that Christ will help you overcome it. You have to give up one or the other. If you go along with your emotion, you must give up Christ; if you go along with Christ, you must give up your emotion. When I explained this to her, she told me that she was clear. Nevertheless, I continued, “Sister, you are clear, but you need some practice. You are quite accustomed to going along with your emotion, but you are not used to going along with Christ. You have to practice going along with Christ.” The sister took my word and practiced. After some time she came back to me and said, “Brother Lee, I practiced going along with Christ. But many times I forgot to go along with Christ and instead went along with my emotion.” I responded, “Sister, you are a Christian. As such, whenever you are going to do something, you must first check to see whether it is according to Christ or according to your emotion. In everything, check and pray. Do not pray that the Lord would help you overcome your temper; pray rather that you would go along with the Lord and give up your emotion. Practice by praying.”
Our need is to practice. We are fellowshipping concerning how to experience, enjoy, and apply Christ in a very practical way. In our daily life we should always practice going along with Christ, on the one hand, and giving up our mind, emotion, and will, on the other hand. If we practice this—the daily giving up of our mind, emotion, and will and going along with Christ—the Spirit, who is the reality of Christ, will occupy our mind, emotion, and will. In other words, Christ will make His home in our heart. Then our entire being—mind, emotion, and will—will be full of Christ. To practice this is the way for us to experience Christ practically in our daily life.
There is no need for us to pay much attention to the sinful matters in our lives. We do not need to try to overcome our sins. Our only need is to practice going along with Christ, denying our mind, emotion, and will, and giving our heart wholly to Christ. When we do this, Christ will take our heart and make it His home. This is the renewing of the mind, the renewing of the emotion, and the renewing of the will—the transformation of our whole being.
We have been regenerated in our spirit. Now we have to be transformed in our mind, emotion, and will. We do this by practicing to always go along with Christ and always deny our natural mind, emotion, and will. This is a great part of the work of the Holy Spirit. This is not merely some sort of teaching, nor is this a matter of merely being filled with or baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is something that we must practice day by day in all aspects of our life. After we have been filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized by Him, every moment of every day for the rest of our lives we have to practice denying our natural mind, emotion, and will and going along with Christ. The unbelievers can never practice this, because they do not have Christ as the Spirit within them. However, we do, and He is waiting for us to go along with Him. Again—and I stress this very much—we must reject and deny the natural mind, the natural will, and the natural emotion and go along with the Christ who indwells us. We have to love Him with a sincere and single heart. Day by day we should tell the Lord that we love Him. When we do, we must realize that the real, sincere love for Him is shown in our denial of ourselves. We go along with the Lord because we love Him. To go along with Him simply means to deny ourselves.
As an illustration, let us say that I am serving the Lord with a brother. As a Christian, I have to practice the day-by-day and moment-by-moment denial of my natural mind, natural emotion, and natural will. This is to go along with my Lord, whom I love. If I do not deny myself and do not go along with the Lord and instead remain in my old mind, emotion, and will, it may take only one week before the brother and I part ways. This is because in my natural emotion, I may not feel happy with him. If I am to go on with this brother and serve with him in a proper way, I have no choice but to deny my natural mind, emotion, and will and go along with the indwelling Christ. The problem is not the relationship between the brother and me; the problem is the relationship between me and the Lord Jesus. If I go along with the Lord, I will be at peace with my brother. However, if I do not go along with the Lord and instead go along with myself and my natural emotion, I will no doubt leave the brother. As Christians, we all have to practice rejecting our mind, emotion, and will and going along with the Christ who is making home in our hearts.
Simply praying, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and believing that Christ lives within us is not enough. We have to practice denying our mind, emotion, and will and going along with Christ. This will renew our mind, our emotion, and our will, transforming our whole being into Christ’s image (2 Cor. 3:18). It is not enough that we have been regenerated in our spirit. We need to be transformed in our soul. Christ is in our spirit, awaiting a chance to take over our whole being. He is always waiting. We only need to give Him the opportunity. I am afraid that although many of us love the Lord very much, we still do not know how to experience Christ. The way to experience Christ is very simple. Every day, moment by moment, we need only to practice one thing—denying our mind, emotion, and will to go along with the indwelling Christ.
At this point, you may ask me how we can practically go along with Christ. To answer this question, we need only remember that Christ is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; 2 Cor. 13:5). Instead of going along with our mind, emotion, and will, we should go along with our spirit. To go along with our spirit is actually to go along with Christ because Christ is in our spirit. We should not think that Christ is only in the heavens. Christ today is also in our spirit (10, Rom. 8:34). Hence, to go along with our spirit is the practical way to deny the soul and go along with Christ.
I have had many difficult experiences with various brothers over the years. In such situations I have gone to the Lord and told Him, “Lord here I am. I know that I cannot go along with my mind, emotion, and will. I know that I must go along with You by going along with my spirit. My spirit tells me that I have to be one with this brother, but my will has already made the decision to leave him. Lord, what shall I do? Should I go along with my decision—with my will—or should I go along with You who indwell my spirit?” Although in my spirit the Lord has already answered my question, and my innermost part tells me that I have to stay with this dear brother, my will is stubborn, having already made a decision to leave him. In such a situation, what shall I do? This is a lesson for us as Christians. Will we go along with our will, or will we go along with the spirit? Many times we have to tell the Lord, even with tears in our eyes, “Lord, I cannot go along with my will. I have to go along with You.” It is not enough for us simply to praise the Lord that He is our life, for we still have our natural mind, natural emotion, and natural will. We must learn the lesson of giving up the mind, emotion, and will to go along with the spirit, where Christ lives.
Having been regenerated in our spirit, our need is to go along with our spirit and to forget, deny, and reject our mind, emotion, and will. This is very simple, but it needs our daily practice. I assure you that the more we practice this, the more we will experience Christ day by day and the more Christ will be real, close, dear, and rich to us. The more we practice this, the more we will have the experience of Christ in a rich and sweet way. Sometimes our enjoyment will be so sweet that our tears will flow. Then we will help people know and experience Christ, not just in teaching but in real experience. This is what we need today. We do not need more teachings or doctrines; we need the real practice of experiencing Christ in the spirit. This way is simple, but it needs our practice. I am deeply burdened concerning this simple way, and I offer it to you for your practice.
