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Prayer: Lord, we ask You to help us and strengthen us while we are speaking something concerning Yourself and the way to experience You as life. You know how much we need You in such a ministry. In the understanding of such a mysterious thing, we need Your anointing and Your help. Lord, at this very moment do cover us; cover our mind that we may not be confused by any kind of thought. We pray that You would impress us with the mysterious way to experience Yourself in our daily life. Grant us the necessary utterance to speak what is on Your heart. In Your name we pray. Amen.
In a previous chapter we saw that Christ, the Son of God, is called the Father (Isa. 9:6), and that He as the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17 cf. 4:5). Christ was also incarnated to be a man, and this man is Jesus. Therefore, Christ Jesus is the Triune God incarnated and mingled with man. Included in Christ Jesus are the three of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—and man. When we receive Him, He comes into us not only as our Savior, our Lord, and our God, but even more as our life. The Gospel of John, in particular, tells us that when we believe into Him, we have eternal life (3:15-16; 5:24; 6:40, 47; 20:31). Moreover, it tells us that He is life and that life is in Him (11:25; 14:6; 1:4a). When we believe in Christ Jesus, He enters into us, that is, into our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), to be life to us (Col. 3:4). This very life is the light (John 1:4b), the function of which is to enlighten and shine. All the time this life, which is the wonderful Christ, is shining within us. In addition, this life is the law that regulates us continually (Rom. 8:2).
Whether as the light shining or the law regulating, the divine life works and moves within us in a very quiet, normal, and ordinary way. Our human thought is that God is wonderful and great and that we need His help in a supernatural and miraculous way. We could never imagine that God would become a man. The first four books of the New Testament are a record of the wonderful God who became a man. His desire in becoming a man was that we would receive Him into us as life. Today the very Christ whom we have received as our life operates within us in a very quiet, ordinary way, without anything special or miraculous. If you are clear about this, it will revolutionize your concept concerning the way God deals with you. You will see that today the wonderful God works within you in a quiet, normal, and ordinary way and that you need to go along with Him. By cooperating with His inner working, day by day you will be saturated with Him and mingled with Him, and your whole being, that is, all your inward parts, will be transformed. This is very ordinary, yet it is very vital.
All the material things, including the food we eat, are types and figures of Christ and can help us to know Christ. Day by day we eat at least three meals. Rather than eating a great amount of food at one time, it is better to take a little in the morning, a little at noon, and a little in the evening. Life is a matter of living continually by what we take in day by day and time after time. There is no need of anything miraculous. There is no need for God to send the angels to feed us. Likewise, we should not expect an extraordinary Christ to come and help us. Rather, the Christ whom we experience is seemingly very ordinary.
Luke 24:13-35 gives us an account of two disciples who, after the Lord resurrected, left Jerusalem to go to Emmaus. The Lord came to them in a quiet, normal, and even hidden way, a way that was very ordinary. He was Christ, yet the two disciples did not recognize Him. It seems as if He pretended not to be Christ and asked them what they were talking about. He listened to them and did not rebuke them. Rather, He talked with them, walked with them, and stayed with them without telling them that it was He whom they were speaking about. Then at a certain time the two disciples realized that He was the Lord. At that point He disappeared from them. It is often the same in our experience of Christ. If we do not realize that it is He Himself, we sense His presence with us, but when we are clear about our experience, the sense of His presence is gone.
The Lord Jesus dwells within us as life today in just such a hidden, normal way, without anything extraordinary or special. We must learn to know such a Christ. We Christians always expect to experience something extraordinary, because we are not clear concerning the Lord’s way of life. The Jesus Christ who dwells in us today is the same One who walked with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. He is within us in a quiet, normal, and ordinary way. Hence, we should not expect something special of Him. Day by day and moment by moment we must learn to know and experience this wonderful, profound, and marvelous Savior.
We have pointed out that the very God whom we serve today is not only God Himself but also a man, the God-man. We have also seen that His Spirit is not only the Spirit of the divine life but also the Spirit of the human nature interwoven with the divine nature. Today in the Holy Spirit of the wonderful God-man there is not only divinity but also humanity. In other words, in the Holy Spirit there are the divine nature and the human nature as well.
John 7:38-39 says, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” When the Lord spoke the word concerning the rivers of living water, He was not yet glorified. The glorification of Jesus was His resurrection (Luke 24:26, 46). After He died, He was resurrected from the dead, and this was His glorification. After His glorification the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost not merely as the Spirit of God but also as the Spirit of God mingled with man. In the Old Testament time the Spirit of God came down upon man only as God in His divinity. At a certain time God in Christ was incarnated to be a man and was mingled with man. This God-man died and resurrected and came down as the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit is a Spirit who includes not only God but also man. According to John 7:39, before Jesus was glorified, such a Holy Spirit who has both the divine nature and the human nature was not yet. Only after Jesus was glorified through His resurrection could this Holy Spirit of God, with both the divine nature and the human nature, come down to us. In the New Testament time the Holy Spirit who works upon us and dwells within us is a Spirit who has both the divine nature and the human nature.
First Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” This verse indicates that even today Christ Jesus, the one Mediator of God and men, is still a man. It is significant that, on the one hand, the enemy Satan would not allow people to believe that Christ is God. Many modernists believe that Christ is only a man and is not God. On the other hand, after we Christians believe that Christ is God, we may consider Him to be no longer a man. Many Christians truly do not realize that today our Savior, the Lord Jesus, is both God and man.
Philippians 1:19 says, “For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The word this refers to Paul’s suffering in prison. In this verse Paul does not speak of “the Spirit of the almighty God” but of “the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is a man, and although the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of God, Paul’s emphasis is that this Spirit is the Spirit of a man, One who has suffered and been persecuted by people. It seems that Paul was saying, “Today the Spirit of a suffering, persecuted One is within me. This Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, supplies me and supports me.”
Finally, Acts 16:6-7 says, “And they passed through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” Verse 6 speaks of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and in verse 7 the same Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Jesus. On the one hand, this Spirit is the Spirit of God, and on the other hand, He is the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of a man.
We have seen clearly that after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit is in us as a Spirit who possesses both the divine life and nature and the human life and nature. Before He came into us, He was God mingled with man already. Do not think that He begins to be mingled with man only when He comes into us. When He comes into us as the eternal life with the divine nature, the human nature is included. When Christ comes into us as life, He is the eternal life with both the divine life and nature and the human life and nature. We may wonder why the eternal life that we have received is a life of the divine nature and the human nature as well. It is so that this life can work in us not only in a quiet, normal way but also in a human way. The wonderful Savior works, moves, lives, and acts as life within us in a quiet, normal, ordinary way and also in a very human way. This matter is something that most believers have neglected.
Many times I had a little feeling deep within me to visit a certain brother and to speak with him concerning a certain matter. At the same time there was always some doubt as to whether this feeling was something of the Lord, because it was quiet, normal, and ordinary and also very human. I thought it might be only my desire and not something of the Lord. Yet while I was doubting, the little feeling within, though not very strong, was constant, steady, and lasting. Eventually, I had no choice but to go. After I went, the feeling was confirmed to be of God.
Although this was a leading from the Lord, there was nothing extraordinary about it; instead, it was very ordinary, normal, and human. The way Christ works in us as life is very ordinary, for He as the indwelling Spirit has not only the divine nature but also the human nature. Many times before ministering to the Lord’s children, I have no special sense concerning what I should speak, but only a little feeling or registration. Though I always doubt this, wondering if it is just something of myself, after I minister, I realize it is genuinely something of the Lord. The Holy Spirit who dwells within us is a Spirit not only of the life and nature of God but also of the life and nature of a proper man. In Him there is not only the full element of divinity but also the element of humanity. Therefore, He works within us not in a miraculous way but in a very normal and human way. This can be fully confirmed by our experience.
The primary reason that the Lord needed to become a man and mingle Himself with man before coming into us is that we may live by Him not in an extraordinary way but in a very ordinary and human way. The four Gospels are a record of a man who took God as His life. In that record we see that the life of this man on earth was absolutely human. It is true that sometimes He performed miracles to prove that He was the almighty God, yet His living as a man, with God as His life, was always very human and ordinary and not at all special. Once He was thirsty and asked a certain woman for water to drink (John 4:7). Another time He wept with tears (11:35). He was very human in a most ordinary way. In contrast, many Christians consider that if we take Christ as life and live by Him, we need to be like angels, not like human beings. However, the more we take Christ as our life, the more we will be properly human in a very ordinary way.
There was once a servant of the Lord who was invited to minister in a certain city where the people considered him to be very spiritual. At the time he was due to arrive, many went to meet him. Interestingly, before he reached the town, he turned aside into a children’s garden. Those who were waiting for his arrival began to discuss where he might be. Eventually, they found him in the garden playing with the children. Many of his admirers were disappointed because they thought that a spiritual person should be like an angel. However, a spiritual person is not a special person but an ordinary person, one who is very human and normal. The more spiritual we are, the more normal and human we will be.
We need to be impressed that the Savior we have received into us as our life has both the divine nature and the human nature; He is not only divine but also human. Today He works within us not in a miraculous way but in a very human way. Many times it is difficult for us to believe that it is His working. One morning when you rise up, read the Scriptures, and pray, you may have just a little feeling or sense within to give up certain things. You may doubt whether this is something of the Lord. Do not doubt but believe, for this is the way the Lord works within us today, not in a miraculous way but in a very human way.
In China there was a young girl with a strong will and a peculiar character. During one winter vacation her mother, who was a genuine believer and had been recently revived by the Lord, brought her to a church meeting. Although there were several hundred people there, I noticed her immediately because of her peculiar hairstyle. Two or three weeks later she came to the meeting, and I noticed something had changed. Her hairstyle had changed somewhat. After two or three more days she came again, and something more had changed. From then on, each time she came to the meeting, something had changed. Eventually, after several more weeks she came dressed in a very simple way. Many things related to her appearance had changed. When we asked her mother about this, she told us that she had not dared to touch this matter with her daughter. Later, we discovered that the daughter had believed in the Lord, and subsequently nearly every day there had been a sense within her to give up certain things. Many times she had thought that this might be herself and not the Lord, but the more she doubted, the more constant the sense was. It was present with her not in a peculiar or miraculous way but in a very ordinary and normal way.
As a newborn Christian, this sister grew rapidly. In time she testified that the secret of experiencing Christ as life and of taking Him as our life is to take care of the little inner feeling and sense. That feeling, though it may be small, comes from the wonderful One. He is all-inclusive and unlimited, yet He works in a way that is small, quiet, normal, ordinary, and human. If we go along with Him, He will be real, rich, and available to us. We will enjoy many items of what He is and will gradually grow. Day by day, little by little, we will be saturated and permeated by Him. Although our spiritual progress may seem very slow, it will be very steady. This is the way to experience Christ.
We should not expect the Lord to give us marvelous, miraculous, supernatural, or extraordinary experiences. Even though some may occasionally have such experiences, the ordinary way to experience Christ is in a normal, quiet, and human way. By being honest and faithful to this wonderful One who lives and works within us in such a small but normal and human way, we will be saturated and permeated with Him, transformed from glory unto glory, and become a living witness to Him in this age.
