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Second Corinthians 3:16 says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” The veil is related to the heart. One who pursues the Lord and wants to participate in His service must bring his heart with him. Sadly, there is a problem: once a person comes, his heart comes, but his ways of doing things also come with him. We must see that God only wants our heart; all the other things have to be removed and broken by Him. All of our viewpoints and methods have to be broken by God; He just wants our heart. From the very beginning God has had just one purpose in His work, that is, to work Himself into us. For this reason He must gain our heart so that He will be able to work Himself into us.
Man is a vessel created by God for the purpose of containing God. We may use a glass as an illustration. A glass is a vessel created to contain water. For it to be used in any other way is inappropriate. Similarly, in the universe man is a special vessel for containing God. If man does not contain God, there is no meaning to his human existence because man was specially created for God’s use. However, how can God put Himself into man? Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being.” This indicates that we have a spirit within us. First Thessalonians 5:23 says that we human beings are of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Our outward part is the body, and our inward part is the spirit. In between the spirit and the body is our soul. The soul is our personality, our self, including our mind, will, and emotion. Our feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight are the functions of the soul, which belong to the emotion. Our choices and decisions are the functions of the soul, which belong to the will. Our concepts and thoughts are the functions of the soul, which belong to the mind. The soul is the true “I” and what the psychologists refer to as the metaphysical being—something that can be felt but not touched.
Often, certain things may cause the soul of a saved person to be full of pain and sorrow, yet still, deep within his being, there is a joy, which is unspeakable. This proves that other than having a soul within our being, there is a spirit deep within us. Hence, sometimes we may be sad because we have a soul, but the reason we can be joyful is that we have a spirit. When our soul feels sorrowful, the Holy Spirit will strengthen us and give us joy from within. Since we have both the soul and spirit, we have two different feelings. This also shows us that we human beings are of three parts: spirit, soul, and body.
The purpose of God’s work on us is to work Himself into us. The principle of God’s work is to work from the center to the circumference. For example, when we throw a stone into a pond, ripples are stirred up in the water, which spread out from the center circle by circle. The working of God in us is also from the center to the circumference. The center of our being is our spirit, and the circumference is our body. The work of God in us is similar to coloring in a circle. He gradually adds color beginning from the center and spreads outward until it is fully colored. He wants to reach our body starting from our spirit.
When we were saved, we used our heart and spirit to receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior, and the Lord’s Spirit came into our spirit. As a result, we have God in the center of our being. Before we receive the Lord, we do not have God in us; however, at the very moment we receive Him, the Holy Spirit enters into us, and we have God in us. Originally, we do not have God in our spirit, soul, or body, but when we repent and receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior, God comes in, and we have God’s life in us.
Whenever we encounter an outward environment that causes our soul to suffer, we still feel joyful and comforted deep within where the Holy Spirit and the life of God are. This is because the Holy Spirit in our spirit gives us comfort, support, and supply. However, at this point the Holy Spirit is merely in our spirit and has not yet entered into our soul. At the moment of our salvation God began to work in us. Now He wants to spread out from the center of our being, all the way to the circumference, so that the mind, will, and emotion of our soul will possess the element of God. Eventually, He wants to fill our entire being completely. In this way we will not only have God in our spirit, but we will have God in every part of our soul. Our joy, anger, sorrow, and delight will all be filled with God. At that time our viewpoint will be God’s viewpoint. Our joy, anger, sorrow, and delight will be God’s joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. How is this possible? It is because God is living out from us. We may liken this to a cotton ball absorbing red ink. The red ink saturates the cotton little by little, until finally the whole cotton ball becomes red.
Today no matter how spiritual we are, we are still not wholly spiritual. Only when God’s life in us spreads from our spirit to every part of our mind, emotion, will, and even to our body, causing our entire being to be filled with God’s life completely and making our body a glorious body, will we be entirely spiritual. But this will be fully accomplished only when the Lord Jesus comes back. At that time our body will be fully transfigured. First Corinthians 15 says that “this corruptible must put on incorruption” (v. 53). Not only will we have God in our spirit and our soul, but we will also have God in our body. This is God’s line of life in us.
God wants to work His life into every part of our soul, that is, into our mind, will, and emotion. How does God do this? The basic requirement of the work of God is that man must cooperate with God; man must let God work. It is not that God does not work, but that many people do not let God work. When some children are sick, they are not willing to take any medicine. When their mother takes them to a doctor, both the doctor and the mother hope that the children will take the medicine, but they are just unwilling. Similarly, it is not that God is unwilling to put Himself into us but that we are reluctant and unwilling.
What then will God do? Doctors and mothers should know that there are three methods to help a child to take medicine. First, they can “trick” him. They can cover the medicine with a sugar coating, and the child will think that he is eating candy; in fact, though, he is taking in the medicine. Second, they can make him happy. When the child is happy and satisfied, he will be willing to take in the medicine. All doctors and nurses use this kind of method to “deceive” their patients, yet their intention is simply to help the patients and gain their cooperation. Third, if the child is reluctant to take medicine, the doctors and nurses can give him a shot. This is a stronger way. They can do this by restraining his hands and feet, not allowing him to resist, and then injecting the medicine into him. For God to fill our inmost part, the methods He uses are similar to these. Some people may ask, “Does God trick us like this?” God does not trick us. He is just like the doctors and nurses, seemingly “deceiving” the patients to take the medicine, but actually trying to gain the cooperation of their patients. It is the same with God; He wants man to cooperate with Him.
There was a couple who went to America for school. Both of them were unbelievers. The wife was the daughter of a pastor. She had both wealth and position, but she did not have God, and she felt pain and emptiness within. One day God gave this couple a very good child. They treasured the child very much, and they knew that God had given him to them. The couple said, “If God had not given us this child, we surely would not have been able to have one by ourselves.” However, they only received the gift but not the God who gave them the gift. They treasured the child, but they did not treasure God. Two years later the child drowned in a river. The couple was very sad. They seemed to have lost the heavens and the earth. It was at this moment that a believer came to them and said, “In the past you only wanted the child that God gave you but not God Himself. You had a child, but he could not give you any comfort.” After the couple heard this, they knelt down before God and confessed their sins, saying, “O God, forgive us, for we heard the gospel in the past, but we were not willing to receive You.” In this way they received the Lord and God came into them. God often allows similar things to happen to show us that we need Him.
There was a sister in Shanghai who was a nurse. She was married at the age of forty. She and her husband had a child, and they loved him far more than they loved God. The situation of this sister was like a knotted piece of wood, which is not easily split. Then one day her child died. Many brothers and sisters went to help her. When the child was about to be put into the coffin, his mother was crying and said that she wanted to be put into the coffin with him. When the brothers and sisters saw this situation, they were grieved in their hearts, not knowing what to do. However, a few days later this sister went to see a brother and said, “I truly thank God. The way He has dealt with me is right.” After saying this, she burst into tears. If these things had not happened, God would have had no way to enter into her mind, her will, and her emotion. Now, however, God filled her entire being.
If God wants to work in us but we do not cooperate with Him, He will use some ways to make us willing to cooperate with Him. Here we see that if we want God to work in us, we have to cooperate with Him; otherwise, we are asking for trouble. But what is the way to cooperate with God? First, it is a matter of our heart. If we want to cooperate with God and allow Him to work in us, first of all we must turn our heart to God, for those who are pure in heart shall see God. A pure heart in the Bible refers mainly to a heart that desires God. The object of those who are pure in heart is God Himself. They do not want money, position, or beautiful clothing and expensive perfume. They also do not focus too much on their husband or children. Their heart is solely for God. Matthew says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (5:8); and the Psalms say, “Whom do I have in heaven but You? / And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth” (73:25). The pure in heart have a heart so pure that they just want God and nothing other than God.
If Christians are willing to allow God to work in them, the first thing they have to do is to turn their heart to God. God does not have the way to work on many people because their heart is not set on Him. We cannot say that they do not want the Lord. They really do want the Lord, but they also want something other than the Lord Himself. The elderly sisters desire the Lord, but many also desire their children, and many also desire to find a good wife for their son. Many people love the Lord on the one hand, but on the other hand, love money and the respect of the saints. They come to the meeting hall to clean the chairs. This shows that they really love the Lord; however, after they have cleaned the chairs, if the responsible brothers do not show their appreciation of them, they feel uncomfortable. So if we say that they do not love the Lord, we do them an injustice, but if we say that they love the Lord, we do the Lord an injustice. Their inner being is very complicated, but love should be very simple. A wife should love her husband, not for the money that he gives her. In the same way, Christians should love God, not because God gives them money. However, many people love God as the One they can go to when they want to ask for something. Psalm 73:2 says, “As for me, my feet were nearly turned aside; / My steps had almost slipped.” Even the psalmist said that his steps had almost slipped; what is our situation?
Many times we may be perplexed and wonder why those who are pure in heart are often not prosperous, while those who do not love the Lord are often very prosperous. The answer to these questions is made clear when we enter into the sanctuary of God (v. 17). Other people gain only earthly joy and earthly peace, but the pure in heart gain God Himself. This is what a clean heart possesses. We have to bear in mind that the reason why God cannot work in us is that our inner being is not clean enough. It is hard for God to work in us because our heart is not pure. Once our heart is not proper, our focus is also incorrect. This is why the Bible says that whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:16). For this reason it is hard to see God’s work in many of God’s children. All their problems hinge on whether their heart is on money, on their children, or on God. Judging others does not avail, neither does merely searching the Scriptures. Only turning our heart to God is profitable to us. Some people have half of their heart turned to God, while other people have their heart completely turned away from God. We have to bear in mind that how much our heart is for God determines how much work God will do in us. May we all be those who are pure in heart toward Him.
