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The purpose of God’s salvation is to build up the church as the Body of Christ. Hence, we must have the concept that we need to be built up. In terms of calling, we need to grow unto maturity. In terms of building, we need to be built up into the dwelling place of God. Growing unto maturity is related to life. Birds can fly because they have a flying life. It is possible and easy to fly with the bird life, but it is extremely difficult to fly without the bird life. The growing processes spoken of in the Bible, such as sanctification and renewing, are a matter of life; they are part of the process of growth in life. It is possible to grow with the life of God, but it is not possible to grow without the life of God. After we receive the life of God, we need to grow in this life unto maturity. We also need to be built up in this life into the dwelling place of God in order to accomplish the purpose of God’s salvation.
For building we need to allow the Lord to touch our natural constitution. Some Christians do not love the Lord and are not zealous, but some love the Lord zealously. Among the Christians who love the Lord zealously, some love the Lord and seek Him in a pure way. Mary the Magdalene was such a person. She truly loved the Lord, and her love was not mixed with the natural or selfish element. She had a pure desire to find the Lord. Therefore, people regarded her as foolish. There are also Christians who love the Lord zealously according to their natural taste and preference. Such people love the Lord, but their love is mixed with a natural element; it is not pure. As a result, their love for the Lord is void of revelation and cannot build up the church; rather, it can create problems.
Some people are constrained by the Lord’s love and respond zealously with the desire to serve the Lord and labor for Him. However, because their heart is not pure, they want to be at the top and love to be a leader. This is the mixture of their naturalness. The service of the church is a test to the purity of our love for the Lord. Some people are naturally independent. They can love the Lord individually but cannot love the Lord together with others. Some people naturally like to take the lead. Such ones love the Lord zealously when they take the lead, but they stop loving the Lord and lose their zeal when they come into the church and are not given the opportunity to take the lead. If the church does not give them the position of a leader, they will cause trouble in the church. This is very serious.
It may be harder for those who love the Lord with their naturalness to see light and receive revelation than for those who do not love the Lord. This is seen in the examples of Paul and Martha. Before his salvation Paul did not love the Lord; he even opposed and attacked the Lord Jesus. However, God had mercy on him. While he was on his way to Damascus, he saw light and received revelation (Acts 9:1-6). Martha loved the Lord and diligently labored and served Him. She was unable to receive the Lord’s revelation, not because she was too busy but because she held on to her own opinions and taste. She was strong in her naturalness. She rebuked the Lord for not understanding that she was toiling in service (Luke 10:40), and she complained that the Lord did not come on time to heal her brother Lazarus (John 11:21). Martha loved the Lord according to her natural taste, and she wanted the Lord to do things according to her will. As a result, she was unable to hear the Lord’s words or receive His revelation when He said that He is the resurrection and the life and that Lazarus would rise again (vv. 23-27).
We should not think that those who are quiet are Marys but that those who are busy running around are Marthas. The Lord Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41). Martha’s problem, however, was not that she was busy but that she was busy according to her natural taste. When some people do not love the Lord, they leave everyone else alone, but when they love the Lord, the whole church has to follow their taste and be subject to their control. They will complain if the church is not under their control. This was Martha’s problem. It is not wrong to be busy, nor is it right to be quiet. We need to ask whether our being quiet or being busy is according to our natural taste or according to the Lord’s command. If the Lord commands us to be busy, it is right to be busy. If the Lord commands us to be quiet, it is right to be quiet. Whether we are busy or quiet, we will cause trouble in the church if we love the Lord with our naturalness. This is the most common problem among Christians today.
When some Christians are zealous, a new sect is formed. For example, a brother who has a natural taste for foot-washing may demand that others practice foot-washing according to his taste. This brother may love the Lord zealously and sacrifice his time, spend his energy, and offer material riches to the church but insist on foot-washing and ask the elders to lead the whole congregation to wash each other’s feet. If the elders cannot agree to his demand, he may form a sect that practices foot-washing. Never think that we do not have such a natural preference. Every person has his own taste. We are willing to love the Lord, but we often require the saints to do things according to our will and to serve according to our taste. Some people boldly say that they will accomplish great things if they become elders in the church. This is an expression of their natural taste. If such persons become elders, they will not serve according to the Lord’s will but according to their own taste. As a result, they will create problems in the church.
When someone loves the Lord zealously according to his own taste, it is hard for him to see light and to receive revelation. Such a person holds on to his own taste and condemns others. There was a brother from Shanhsi who loved the Lord zealously, but his taste was to preach the gospel. No matter what the occasion was, he would speak about preaching the gospel. At the table meeting he did not care whether the saints were remembering the Lord or worshipping the Father; he would give a long prayer and preach the gospel in his prayer. Later, the saints became frustrated, and a few elders fellowshipped with him to focus on remembering the Lord at the table meeting and to pray according to the atmosphere in the meeting. This brother refused to receive the fellowship and continued to preach the gospel in the table meeting. Eventually, the elders had no choice but to say, “Even if you feel that you are justified, we would still like to ask you to not pray in such a way in the next table meeting.” But at the next table meeting he prayed, “Lord, the responsible brothers do not want me to pray, but no one else will pray, so I have no choice but to pray. You died for sinners. You visit men. You love sinners.” Later, this brother left the church and started broadcasting the gospel on a radio station. Even though this was not very effective, his zeal was satisfied. This is what it means to love the Lord according to one’s natural taste, caring only for the self and no one else. Such zealous love for the Lord is unlikely to last long, but if it is long lasting, it will cause other problems or bring trouble to the church.
For us to be built up together in the church, we must have a pure love for the Lord and accept the purging of the cross so that the Lord can deal with our natural taste. Mary did not know much, but her love for the Lord was pure, without the mixture of her personal taste. The more a person loves the Lord and fellowships with Him, the more the Lord will appear to him and deal with him. This is the experience portrayed in Song of Songs. In chapter 1 the seeker is likened to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots (v. 9). This indicates that her natural strength is very strong. Hence, she needs to be stripped and dealt with by the Lord in order to be delivered from her own taste.
In chapter 2 she continues to seek and love the Lord, and she gains satisfaction and a degree of rest from His presence (v. 3). However, she begins to love the strong feeling of His presence. Hence, she is tried and dealt with by losing the sensation of the Lord’s presence. The seeker is in the house, but the Lord is outside leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills (v. 8). The seeker cannot stay within her house if she wants to respond to the Lord. The Lord wants us to come out of our own condition. This is a kind of spiritual stripping and dealing.
In chapter 3 the Lord requires His seeker to be delivered from the self and from focusing on the feeling of His presence. Therefore, He turns away from the seeker, and she seeks Him whom her soul loves but finds Him not (v. 1). This trial forces her to rise up and seek the Lord everywhere (v. 2). Often those who love the Lord have their own spiritual taste, but the Lord requires them to be delivered from their self and their natural constitution when He appears to them. If we remain in our self, we will face problems on the path of loving and pursuing the Lord. We cannot love the Lord according to our own taste.
When the Lord first came out to minister, no one loved Him. Then the disciples developed a loving response to Him. They were lovers of the Lord. However, they needed to be stripped and dealt with because they each had their own taste and element. Peter loved the Lord, but when he heard that the Lord would be killed and would be raised on the third day, he immediately rebuked the Lord, saying, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (Matt. 16:22). This was Peter’s naturalness. Hence, the Lord dealt with Peter in a strong way, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men...If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (vv. 23-24). Peter had his own taste, and James, John, Martha, and Mary also had their own tastes. Our love for the Lord must be dealt with by the Lord; otherwise, we will not be freed from our strong, natural taste at the end of our journey of following the Lord, even though we have paid the price and spent our energy. It is even possible that one day we will lose our love and be unable to go on if we can love the Lord only according to our taste.
In the Gospels every follower of the Lord had a different natural flavor. At the beginning of Acts the one hundred and twenty were willing to pay the price and drop their personal tastes. I do not believe that these one hundred and twenty were the only ones who believed in the Lord at that time. However, these one hundred and twenty had learned the lesson and had been dealt with. Mary the Magdalene, Martha, and Mary the mother of Jesus were among these people who had been led by the Lord, had been dealt with by Him, had learned the lesson, and did not have many opinions. Hence, so many could come together to pray in one accord for ten days (Acts 1:12-15). This was the issue of being stripped of their natural constitution and having their taste dealt with. As a result, Peter was a different person when he stood up to speak, and he expounded the Bible with clarity and understanding. The disciples were like one man; no one voiced his own opinion (vv. 15-26). It was not that Peter became the pope and practiced dictatorship; rather, everyone was freed from their natural tastes because they had learned the lesson, and their natural constitution had been dealt with by the Lord. This experience of the one hundred and twenty was the genuine church life.
As those who desire to have a genuine and pure love for the Lord and to be without opinions and natural tastes, we should rise up early, come to the Lord in purity, and spend time with Him. We should meet Him in a genuine way to be touched by Him and to allow Him to work in us. A brother may have consecrated himself in the past and yet feel the need to consecrate himself again while spending time with the Lord in the morning. A sister may be high-minded, but while she is spending time with the Lord in the morning, she may see that she is at fault and is more sinful than others. A brother who serves the Lord zealously may have always followed his own will and never answered the Lord’s call. It is not until he is touched by the Lord, who makes some demands of him, that he will understand the Lord’s intention and will answer the Lord’s call. If we rise up early to touch the Lord and enjoy Him, our spiritual experience will become deeper and more genuine, and the experience of our salvation will be deeper and more solid. We will sense that every consecration is deeper and more genuine. Therefore, our time of meeting with the Lord in the morning is a time for us to be saved again.
Some of the young saints heard the gospel in their childhood because their parents zealously love the Lord. These saints believed in the Lord and began to love Him from their childhood. However, they cannot specify at what point in time they were saved. They believe in the Lord, but they may not have touched the Lord experientially. This may be the case with their experience of believing in the Lord for salvation as well as their experience of consecration. Many saints were led by their parents to consecrate themselves to the Lord while they were still young and were also taught to pray at home. Their parents offered them to the Lord, and they said Amen. They were also taught to consecrate themselves in the children’s meetings and were baptized. Then every summer they were helped to consecrate themselves again and again during the young people’s edification conferences. These experiences are not wrong, but some of these consecrations were the result of being taught; they might not be the issue of meeting the Lord.
Therefore, we must rise up early to seek the Lord and touch Him. When we touch the Lord, the opaque and unclear experiences from our childhood will become transparent and clear. A consecration that formerly was the result of outward teaching will become an inner requirement after we touch the Lord. Only when we contact the Lord and spend time with Him can we have a genuine beginning in our spiritual experiences. The teachings that we received in our childhood were helpful, but genuine experiences can be gained only when we meet the Lord in a personal way.
When a person meets the Lord, he will sense something fresh. When a person meets the Lord, he will sense that his faith was not solid and that his former consecration was not deep enough. He knew that he was a sinner, but when he meets the Lord, he will sense that he is the foremost of sinners. He knew that he should preach the gospel before, but when he meets the Lord, preaching the gospel will become a genuine burden. When the Lord touches our inner being, we receive a burden. Such experiences are gained by meeting the Lord.
Concerning coming together for morning revival, there are a few things that we need to pay attention to. First, we should not turn morning revival into a teaching or regulation by requiring everyone to attend. Only when we have a heart to seek the Lord can we meet Him in morning revival. Second, we should ask the saints to read the Bible and give them adequate time to pray-read in spirit. We should not repeat doctrine. The elderly saints do not need to show off their seniority by giving a message. This will disrupt the morning revival. Those who speak must have inspiration from the Lord. Third, we should not consider morning revival as a meeting and therefore arrange for people to pray or to speak a message in order to fill up the time. It is better not to fill the time with speaking. If no one speaks, the saints should quietly read the Bible and pray before the Lord. Morning revival is not a Sunday service in which someone must give a message. Rather, morning revival is our looking to the Lord and quietly seeking Him together so that He may speak to us and give us spiritual milk. We must learn to always pray with our spirit. If we receive a word or inspiration from the Lord, we should not be bound but should release it. If there is no word or inspiration, we should not fabricate something in order to fill up the time.
I studied at a Christian school that emphasized religious rituals. Classes started before eight, and the fourth period ended at eleven thirty. There was a period of thirty minutes, from eleven thirty to twelve o’clock, for the whole school to attend a short service. The dean or the principal would host the ceremony, and a speaker would be asked to give a sermon. All the students were forced to attend the service. To the students, those thirty minutes felt like years. Every seat had a number so that the teachers could mark who was absent. Neither arriving late nor leaving early was allowed. It was hard to endure those thirty minutes. When the speaker did not stop after thirty minutes, the audience became very impatient. Eventually, the non-Christians and the Christians did not like to attend this service. The Westerners who established the school were very patient and persistent in holding the service daily, but because they did not know the right way, some students refused to believe in the Lord. The Christian school administrators thought that it was beneficial for the students to attend worship service every day but did not foresee that regulations have a negative effect—the students hated Christianity.
The same principle applies to our coming together to enjoy the Lord in the morning. We should not turn this time into a worship service or regulation. Five brothers should rise up early and come together to meet the Lord, not to suffer. If one of them likes to speak doctrine, the others will have to endure until he finishes. This disrupts the morning revival. Therefore, we should not arrange for someone to speak or to pray in order to fill up the time. Something is wrong if we must fill up the time in our morning revival. We would rather not hold this kind of morning revival. Those who come to the morning revival must have a heart, be willing to seek the Lord, and desire to fellowship with Him in spirit. We do not want doctrine or set prayers. Our only desire is that everyone would touch the Lord, hear Him, and receive inspiration. This is the way for the Lord to deal with our natural constitution so that we may grow unto maturity in life and be built up in the church.
Question: How can we receive inspiration?
Answer: Inspiration comes when the Spirit inspires our human spirit. This depends on the condition of our heart. We will receive inspiration if our heart is strong for the Lord, but we will not receive inspiration if we do not have a heart for Him. In order to receive inspiration we also need to deal with our sins. If we sense that we have spoken too much, are wrong, have failed the Lord, or have offended someone, we should deal with it immediately. If we would deal with our sins in such a way, it will be easy to receive inspiration. Those who do not deal with their sins rarely receive inspiration, nor do they care to receive inspiration. If we do not deal with our sins in a proper way, our speaking and prayer in the meetings will be to fulfill a duty. Others will not have the way to touch the Spirit. If we have a heart for the Lord and are willing to deal with our sins, it will be easy to receive inspiration.
Question: How do we deal with sins?
Answer: We deal with sins according to our sense. When we sense that something is wrong inwardly, we should deal with it immediately. We should not reason. If we sense that we have offended the Lord but not man, we should deal with the offense before the Lord. If we have offended someone, we should deal with the offense before him. Not many Christians can deal with sins in such a way. Most Christians do not deal with sins thoroughly but would rather reason with the Lord. Dealing with sins involves paying a price. It is the Lord who asks us to deal with sins; hence, we need to pay the price and respond to Him without reasoning. If, instead of reasoning, we would do whatever the Lord says, it will be easy for us to deal with sins. The more we deal with sins in such a way, the keener our inner sense will be.
