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Man has a problem that originated in the fall. The cause of the fall is that man ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil enabled man to act without needing God, apart from God, and separate from God. Man’s fall is fully related to this matter. The issue of the fall is that man was enabled to do things by himself, independent from God and without needing God. This issue has become part of our human nature; it is part of our fallen constitution.
God created man as a vessel to receive Him and contain Him. God did not intend for man to do anything by himself or to do anything for God. He did not intend for man to do anything independently, apart from Him, or in isolation from Him. God is the Potter, and we are the clay. God made us as vessels of clay to contain Him. Because God is honorable and glorious, we as His vessels are also honorable and glorious. God had no intention for us to do anything for Him. He created us as vessels so that we would contain Him.
The fall changed man’s position from receiving God to doing things for God. God created man as a vessel and placed man in front of the tree of life so that man would receive Him as life and be joined to the life of God. But Satan came and tempted man to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By thus receiving the element of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man became fallen and natural. When this element entered into man, he became independent from God, having no reliance on God, living by himself, and even wanting to do things for God by himself. This is the basic problem of fallen man.
Beginning with the second generation of mankind, after Adam’s fall, the natural man has had the problem of being independent from God, of not needing God, and of thinking that he could serve God by himself. Hence, it is difficult for us to see the pure revelation of God when we read the Bible. The central revelation in the Bible is that God wants to enter into man to be his life. If man receives the breath of life, absorbs the life of God, and enjoys the riches of God, God will be lived out from him. Man is designed to be only a receptacle, a container, to receive God.
The light in Genesis 1:26 is very clear. God created man with a body that was according to His likeness. Then God breathed the breath of life into man. This breath of life became the spirit of man. When the breath of life was breathed into man’s body, man became a living soul (2:7). The soul is in the image of God, because the soul involves the mind, emotion, and will. The Bible reveals that God has a mind, emotions, and a will. A glove is a good example. Our wisdom, intelligence, and thoughts are the glove, but God’s wisdom, intelligence, and thoughts are the hand. Our joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure are the glove, but God’s joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure are the hand. We know how to propose, judge, and consider pros and cons; this is the glove. God’s proposals, judgments, and considerations are the hand. Everything related to our soul, the glove, was created according to the image of God, the hand. Man’s soul was created in the image of God. An image is like a picture, which does not have life. God created man with a body according to His likeness, an inner soul in His image, and a spirit for receiving Him. After man’s spirit receives God, He will fill man’s soul and fully express Himself through man’s soul. When the Spirit enters into our spirit, the two spirits are joined as one spirit and live as one spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This statement is greater than John 3:16. Regrettably, many Christians do not pay attention to this verse. This verse shows that the life of God and the life of man can be joined as one. The life of man can be joined to God, and the life of God can live in man and out from man. When the human life is joined to the divine life, man will live out the church in the present age and the New Jerusalem in the future. This is the essence of the entire Bible.
When we look at a person, it is easy to see his physical body, but it is not easy to see his inner being. We may be able to understand his thoughts, touch his feelings, and know his intentions, but it is impossible for us to touch his life, because life is hidden. The Bible has many layers. Most people, however, read only the outward things in the Bible. They touch only the surface of the Bible, but they do not touch the spirit of the Bible.
John 5:39 and 40 are precious verses. Here the Lord Jesus was rebuking those who liked to search the Scriptures. He seemed to be saying, “You Pharisees and scribes search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life, but the Scriptures testify concerning Me. The letters of the Scriptures are not eternal life; I am. But you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.” It is possible to search the Bible but not want the Lord Jesus, and it is also possible to read the Bible but not want life. The Jews held tightly to the Old Testament, but they held only a picture, an outer shell; they did not have reality or the life contained in the Scriptures. One day this life came, but they rejected Him and did not receive Him. They understood the teachings and the prophecies in the Old Testament, and they knew God’s name, His character, and His deeds, but they did not receive Him as the reality. They kept an empty Bible and embraced a vain picture, but they did not have the real thing. The reality is God Himself. The Jews made a gross mistake.
The Jews were not the only ones to make such a mistake; the early New Testament believers also made this mistake. When John wrote Revelation, the New Testament believers had begun to keep what the apostles considered as empty letters, just as the Jews kept the Old Testament. The Jews wanted the revelation in the Old Testament but not the revealed God. Likewise, the believers in the first century neglected Christ as the living Spirit. Instead, they debated over the doctrine concerning Christ, especially concerning the person of Christ. Is He God or man? Is He God and man combined as one, or did this combination become a third person? There were at least seven schools of thought during this time. When Christ enters into man, the church is produced. But instead of paying attention to Christ as the reality, people debated over doctrines. As a result, the church became divided. When people stopped paying attention to the Spirit, the church became degraded.
Later, when the Bible was locked up, there was no life, no Spirit, and no revelation. Martin Luther rose up to carry out a work of reformation, but he recovered only the first step of the truth and revelation, which is justification by faith. He did not touch the Spirit or life. During the five hundred years after Martin Luther many items were recovered. Today Christians have the Old Testament, the New Testament, the writings of Luther, and also the writings of many spiritual men. These writings are of many categories. There are the writings of Madame Guyon and the mystics, the writings of Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren, the writings of the Brethren, and the writings of Brother Nee. After we came to Taiwan, we conducted many trainings and conferences. When we went to the United States, we held many Life-study trainings. However, no matter how many trainings a person attends and how much he reads, if he does not touch the Spirit, everything is empty and vain. I bear a heavy burden. Everyone wants me to release more messages, but I have spoken much over the years. We can listen to messages for twenty years, but it will be in vain if we do not touch the Spirit.
The Lord said, “You search the Scriptures...Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). The Bible can be a book of letters, but the Spirit is life. Paul says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). When Paul was raised up by the Lord to write the Epistles, the Jewish scribes and lawyers might have condemned Paul for writing something contrary to Leviticus and Numbers. I believe that Paul was strongly condemned. However, Paul had a strong burden and continued to speak in spite of the condemnation. He seemed to say, “You Jews teach people letters, but the letter kills! I was trained by Gamaliel, but I was killed. Then one day, on the road to Damascus, the Spirit touched me and entered into me. The Spirit made me alive. I am no longer bound by the letter. I am not contradicting the Bible; rather, I live in the Spirit, who fulfills the reality of the Bible. The Bible can be fulfilled only in the Spirit.”
We do not have the power to obey the Bible or to keep the law, but Paul says that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit” (Rom. 8:4). Is this statement not proud? Paul seems to have said to the Jews, “You talk about the Ten Commandments, but you cannot keep them. I can. Can you deal with the flesh and the self? You cannot, but I can. If you deal with the flesh and the self by yourself, it is merely asceticism. But when I walk according to the spirit, the divine Spirit kills my flesh and my self.” John Wesley’s holiness group taught that everyone should pursue holiness. But just as people do not have the power to keep the law, so they do not have the power to pursue holiness. Only when people live and walk according to the spirit, can the Spirit become holiness in them.
We should not merely study the Life-studies with our mind. We must use our spirit to pray-read them. To pray-read is to eat and drink. A person may be so busy that he does not pay attention to what he eats. He cannot remember what he has eaten. However, as long as he eats food, he will gain the benefit. If instead of eating, he studies the food on the table to know its nutritional value and how it was prepared, the food will not benefit him. Therefore, I hope that we will not just study the Bible and other spiritual books with our mind but that we would pray-read the Bible with our spirit.
Because we have been taught to use our mind since our youth, we tend to use our mind in spiritual things and in the church. However, we cannot use our mind in the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem we will do only two things: drink of the river of water of life and eat the fruit of the tree of life. Therefore, we do not need to spend much time studying. Instead, we need to use every minute to live in the spirit.
Someone once asked me, “What do you pray for in your daily prayer time?” I told him that I pray, “Lord, remind me to live in the spirit. Remind me that You and I are one spirit. Remind me to speak and think in the spirit. I agree to think in the spirit and to speak in the spirit.” I can testify that His grace is upon me. Hence, even though I rarely sin, I confess my sin every day. I confess the sin of not living in the spirit. Sometimes, immediately after talking with my wife, I say, “Lord, forgive me. I just spoke a word of love to my wife, but I was not in my spirit. Lord, have mercy on me.” By so doing, I turn to the spirit. My focus is not on the committing of sins but on the use of my mingled spirit. A stone does not sin, but God does not want stones that do not sin; He wants man to live in the spirit.
If we would see that God wants us to live in our spirit, we would care about whether we are in the spirit in our daily living, not about right and wrong. If I am in the spirit, I will not be bothered whether people say that I am right or that I am wrong; instead, I will say Hallelujah. If I am not in the spirit, my words may seem to be full of love, power, and holiness, and I might be praised by all, but I will still need to confess my sin and ask the Lord to forgive me because my words were not in the spirit; they were merely human words.
I have been in elders’ meetings in which at first I did not speak, because the Spirit was not present. However, because I knew the elders well, I would speak, and the elders would appreciate my words. They would even say, “Brother Lee, your words are a great help to us. We have seen light and received the benefit.” They did not know that afterward I had to confess to the Lord because I spoke from myself instead of from the spirit.
Those who are experienced know that a person can speak concerning spiritual things but not be in the spirit. We can talk about human things and about divine things without speaking from the spirit. My mouth may be full of the word of God, but I may not be in the spirit. A well-spoken message does not necessarily supply people. At best, a well-spoken message can open a person’s mind and give him understanding. However, understanding is one thing, and receiving an inward supply is another.
I want people to not only understand what I say but to also touch life. When I speak, I want the Spirit to touch their spirit. The secret of being an elder is the Spirit touching others’ spirit. This is not so easy to practice. First Timothy 4:7 says, “Exercise yourself unto godliness.” To exercise oneself unto godliness is to exercise the spirit. We need to exercise to let the Spirit touch others’ spirit.
We must constantly practice to do things in our spirit. We should not speak if our words are not in the spirit, we should not entertain thoughts that are not in the spirit, and we should not express an opinion if it is not in the spirit. We should also study with our spirit. This practice is quite difficult and requires us to be exercised because besides our spirit, we also have two very active parts: our body and our soul. Unbelievers live either in the body or in the soul. They do not live in the spirit. As believers, we are often better than unbelievers, but we also live in our soul instead of in our spirit. The Lord desires that we would live in the spirit and walk according to the spirit so that the righteous requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us (Rom. 8:4). A common mistake among believers is that we only care for doctrine concerning the Spirit and statements in the Bible concerning the Spirit. However, we need to practice living in the spirit and walking according to the spirit moment by moment.
In order to live and to walk in the spirit, we must pray. For many years I thought that I knew how to pray unceasingly. But now I realize that to pray unceasingly is to exercise the spirit. If we do not pray, we are not in the spirit. To stop praying can be compared to turning off the light switch. When we pray, we turn on the switch. Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying at every time in spirit.” Only prayer can keep us living in the spirit. Therefore, we need to practice to not do anything without prayer.
We must realize the glorious fact that we are saved. True salvation is our spirit joined to God and His Spirit living in our spirit. This is regeneration. Prayer keeps us abiding in the spirit, which is to abide in Christ. To abide in Christ is to remain in the spirit. The Triune God has been processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the true vine, and this Spirit is in us. Hence, when we remain in the Spirit, we remain in the vine. This is what the Lord desires.
The way that we are taking is right, and the ground that we stand on is also right, but our content is not solid, because we are short of living in the spirit. The saints need to live in the spirit. I believe that if some saints would live in the spirit every day, the Lord would come back, because this is what He desires.
Because of the turmoil among the churches in the United States, over the past few years I have had a turn before the Lord. Although my ministry never deviated from the Spirit, my valuation of the Spirit and of life has greatly increased. Therefore, in message after message I am telling the saints to live in the spirit and to live out life. The work may propagate throughout the United States, but if we are not in the spirit and in life, there will be no benefit to the Lord’s testimony. The Lord is not after the propagation of the work or an increase in the number of saints. He wants a group of people living in the spirit and living out the divine life in a genuine way. This does not mean that we should not develop or propagate but that our development and propagation should be like a vine that grows and bears fruit spontaneously. Our development and propagation should be the outflow of life and the expression of life.
We have seen that the Lord’s recovery is the recovery of “one city, one church.” Although this is true, this ground must have content. Our content is our living in the spirit, living out Christ. Without this content our testimony is empty, and the Lord will not have a way. Our ground must be right, our way must be right, and our content must be solid, but we are short of content. To shout that we are living Christ is mere doctrine. If we do not touch the Spirit, there is no experience of living Christ, because the Christ whom we live out is the Spirit. If we live in the spirit, we will live out Christ practically. Therefore, we must practice to live in the spirit every day. The Lord is the Spirit. He is the Triune God who has been processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit in order to live in our spirit. We need to remain in our spirit so that we may fellowship with Him and live Him out. This is our present need. Holiness is to live in the spirit, spirituality is to live in the spirit, victory is to live in the spirit, and the church is to live in the spirit. Living in the spirit produces the reality of the church, which is a miniature of the New Jerusalem and the testimony of the Lord. Living in the spirit will bring the Lord back.
