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Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:27; Heb. 8:10-11
According to Hebrews 8:10-11, we have the law within us, and according to 1 John 2:27, we have the anointing within us. We have seen that the law within us is the law of life, the living law, the Triune God Himself with all His fullness living within us. Now we need to consider what the anointing is. First John 2:27 does not use the noun ointment but the gerund anointing. In Exodus 30:22-25 the holy anointing oil, or ointment, is a type of the Holy Spirit of God after Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. If the Spirit as the ointment only remained in us but was not working in us, He would be only the ointment, not the anointing. Consider the electricity in a building. We may say that in a building there is not only electricity but also the current of electricity. The electric current is not only electricity itself but the moving, working, and flowing of electricity. When the switch is turned off, although there is still electricity in the building, there is no flowing, no current, of electricity. When the switch is turned on, the electricity flows; hence, there is both electricity and also the flowing, the moving, and the working of electricity.
The Holy Spirit whom we have within us is a living Spirit. He is not only living but also working, acting, and moving. There is an action, a moving, and a working of the Spirit within us, and this is called the anointing. If we have only the ointment, we will have only the knowledge that there is an ointment in us; we will not have an inner consciousness, or feeling, of the ointment. But when we have the anointing, we know that we have the ointment, not because of objective knowledge but because we feel it and sense it. The Holy Spirit is indeed in us, but He is also working in us and anointing us all the time. This is not merely a matter of knowledge; it is also a matter of feeling. We not only know that the Holy Spirit is in us, but we also feel and sense that He is working in us all the time. There is a certain working, moving, and action within us. This is something we both believe and continually experience.
In these chapters we have seen three matters—the shining, the regulating, and the anointing. There is a shining in us because Christ is the light (John 8:12); there is a regulating in us because He is the law of life (Rom. 8:2); there is an anointing because He is the ointment (1 John 2:20, 27). The all-inclusive Christ, who is now within us, is life to us, and this life is the light shining and the law regulating. Moreover, today the all-inclusive Christ is also the ointment, because He is the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit within us is shining, regulating, and anointing all the time, for He is the light, the law, and the ointment.
As Christians, we have something within us continually shining and regulating. At the same time, the Spirit as the ointment is always anointing us. When we experience the anointing, we feel peaceful, joyful, comfortable, and restful within. This indicates that there is not only a shining and a regulating but also an anointing. We have all experienced this to some degree. In addition to the shining and the regulating, we have a deep feeling that something is gently and pleasantly moving within us.
We have seen that there is a difference between the shining and the regulating. The shining brings the light to us, making us clear and bright in everything, causing us not to be in darkness. The regulating keeps us right with God. By going along with and taking care of the inner regulating, we have a peaceful conscience, that is, a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16), without any kind of accusation, because we are right with God. In the Old Testament a person was right with God if he did not break the law, the Ten Commandments, in anything. By being right with the law, he was right with God in his conscience. Likewise, today whenever we go along with the inner regulating, we have a conscience full of peace and rest because there is no accusation in it. The regulating makes us right with God.
There is also a difference between the shining and the regulating, on the one hand, and the anointing, on the other hand. We may illustrate this difference as follows. The Old Testament is composed of two main parts, or sections—the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 22:40). The law with all its rules is unchangeable. For example, “Honor your father and your mother” and “You shall not steal” are commandments of the law (Exo. 20:12, 15). All the commandments of the law are rules that are established and do not vary with time, place, or person. Everyone, everywhere, at any time must honor his parents. Thus, there is no need to pray for guidance as to whether we should honor our parents or not. Husbands, wives, and children all must honor their parents. This is a rule established in the law. The prophets, in contrast, give living guidance. Whether I should go to the church meeting today is not a matter of law, nor is the question of which university I should enroll in a matter of law. These are matters of guidance. We need both the law and the prophets, the established rules and the living guidance. The same is true for us today in the New Testament. The law of life within us corresponds to the established rules of the law, and the inward anointing corresponds to the living guidance provided by the prophets. The law of life replaces the law written on tablets of stone, and the inner anointing replaces the prophets.
When to cut our hair and which barber to use are not matters of law but matters of guidance. However, once we are in the barber shop, the style in which our hair is cut is not a matter of guidance but a matter of the inner law. The law of life will regulate us, telling us, “You are a child of God. You should have your hair cut in a way that is fitting to your status.” This is not guidance but the regulating of an inward law. Therefore, we may go to a particular barber shop because we feel guided by the anointing, but we must have our hair cut in a way that is regulated by the law of life. Likewise, which day the sisters go to a department store to do their shopping and which store they go to are matters of guidance through the anointing. However, when they are in the store buying clothing, which designs and colors they choose are a matter of the regulating of the law of life. What they choose is not a matter of guidance but a matter of the inner regulating.
Therefore, within us there is the inner law, the law of life, regulating us all the time, and there is also the anointing guiding us continually. On the one hand, the Lord Himself within us is the law regulating us, and on the other hand, the Lord Himself is the ointment within us anointing us all the time.
The following story illustrates the functions of the inner law of life and the anointing. In 1943 northern China was under the occupation of the Japanese army. The church there was very much blessed by the Lord, and this caused the Japanese military police to arrest me and put me in prison. Approximately one week before I was arrested, I had the sense deep within that something might happen to me. A few days later, on the Lord’s Day morning, the church had a gospel preaching meeting. Because it was customary for someone else to be responsible for that meeting, I was free that morning. During the meeting I was sitting in the deacons’ office, and inwardly I had a clear sense, an anointing, to clear my bag of all my mail. For a number of years I had been working for the Lord and had corresponded with nearly all the provinces in China, including Chungking, Nanking, and the South Sea islands. Thus, there were many different names and addresses in my correspondence. The inner sense was very clear: I had to tear those letters up and throw them away, which I proceeded to do. At noon I went home. After lunch the same inner sense prompted me to clear the drawers of my desk and cabinets of all the old correspondence, which stretched back about fifteen years, and burn them. My family wondered what I was doing, but all I said was that I felt I should do this.
This was indeed the Lord’s leading. At eight o’clock the next morning, while I was still at home, a brother came to tell me that two men from the Japanese military police were waiting for me at the meeting hall. I went to meet them, and the officer said to me, “Mr. Lee, there are certain things we do not understand about you. Would you come with us?” This was actually an arrest, so I told the brothers to inform my family. At that time everyone was afraid of the Japanese military police, because once a person was in their hands, his life could end very quickly.
They brought me to their office and told me to sit down and wait; then they left. At that time I did not know where they went, but later, after I was released, my family told me that they came back to my home and searched it thoroughly. However, they found nothing there except a notebook containing one page of notes on Song of Songs. These notes concerned Christians loving Christ, as a lover seeks her bridegroom. They brought this notebook back to the office, and that night they put me in prison.
The very next day the tests began. Before they arrested me, I had the anointing, and now during the tests the anointing came to me many times. Undoubtedly, I experienced the Lord’s word which says that when we are brought before rulers and authorities, the Holy Spirit will teach us in that hour what we should say (Luke 12:11-12). Although they had found almost nothing in my home, they were still suspicious that I was working against the Japanese occupation. Whenever they began to ask me a question that would be difficult to answer, I prayed, “Lord, help me.” Then I noticed that their questioning would immediately turn to another point. Moreover, at that time I also experienced something regulating me, that is, the law of life. In certain instances there was no need for me to seek guidance. I only needed to stand with the law of life.
Over a period of thirty days there were several tests each day, each test lasting several hours. One day, approximately three and a half weeks into my imprisonment, I was asked, “Mr. Lee, tell us which is first: your nation or your God?” This question was very threatening. If I had said that God was first, they might have put me to death. However, I was guided by the inner anointing to remain quiet and not say a word. Although the officer demanded a response, I had the inner anointing not to speak but just to look at him. Then he asked me why I would not answer, and I had the inner anointing to say that I was afraid my answer might offend him. He responded that I would not offend him but that I had to give him an answer. According to the inner law within me, I could never say that anything other than God is first. I told him boldly, “Of course, God is first. The nation is something given to us by God.” Then he said, “You are a fool! Today we will not give you any food. Let us see what your God will do for you.” After this they sent me back to my cell.
What followed is a testimony to God’s glory. Because the Japanese police were suspicious of me, they did not put me in a cell with other Chinese prisoners; they feared that news about me would leak out. A young Greek man had been arrested, and because all the cells were full, he was put in my cell. That day when the Japanese soldiers distributed the food to the prisoners, they gestured to me that they had no food for me and that they would let God give me some food. The Greek man, as a foreigner, was given better food than the other prisoners. When he saw that there was nothing for me, he asked me why, and I explained to him that I was a servant of the Lord who was being treated this way for the sake of the church and the gospel. This man was a Greek Orthodox Christian, and he insisted that I take his food, asking me to afford him the privilege of helping me in the name of the Lord. Thus, that day I ate better food than the local people. The next day when they brought me out of the cell and asked about the food I had eaten, I told them that I had indeed eaten better food than usual.
The anointing gives us living guidance time after time, and the inner law regulates us all the time. The latter is something established and unchangeable. Wherever we go, we cannot say that anything is first other than God. This is not only the law written in the Bible (Exo. 20:3) but also something written within us. We do not need to seek the Lord’s mind and guidance as to whether or not God is first. On the other hand, for many matters, including what we should do or say and where we should go, we need the living, present guidance of the inner anointing.
In these chapters we have seen three main items: the light of life, the law of life, and the anointing. The Lord Jesus Christ today is the all-inclusive One. He is the Triune God incarnated as a man. He is man as well as God and God as well as man. He passed through human living on the earth, He entered into death and passed through death, and He entered into resurrection and ascended to the heavens. Although He is now in the heavens, today such a wonderful One is also within us as life. If He were merely God, the Lord, and the Savior to us, there would be no need for Him to come into us. It would be sufficient for Him to be only in heaven. But in order for Him to be life to us, He had to come into us. Now we are very clear that we have this wonderful One within us as our life (Col. 3:4). On the one hand, this life works within us as light to shine within us (John 1:4-5). On the other hand, it works as the law to regulate us and as the ointment to anoint us. Hence, we have Christ Himself, the living One, within us, continually shining in us, regulating us, and anointing us.
To be a normal Christian is simply to take care of this inner shining, regulating, and anointing. Day by day and moment by moment we have these three things within us. If we take care of them and go along with them, we will be normal, spiritual, and even mature Christians. We will also sense the need of a corporate life with other Christians. If one day you go along with the inner shining, regulating, and anointing, the next day you will sense that you need to fellowship with other Christians, to meet together with them, and to serve and worship the Lord with them. In other words, you will sense that you need the church life, the corporate life. The church life comes into existence by the inner shining, regulating, and anointing. The more we experience Christ in the way of the inner life, the more we will sense the need of a proper church life; moreover, the more we have a proper church life, the more we will be helped to experience Christ in full. Indeed, the more we have the full realization of Christ as the inner life, the more we will have a full expression of the Body as the corporate expression of Christ. This is the proper Christian life and church life, and this is the right way for us to follow the Lord.
I have the full assurance that the inner life and the church life are the two main items the Lord is going to recover in these last days. The inner life is Christ Himself experienced by us as our life, and the church life is the expression of Christ in a corporate way. Furthermore, I also have the full assurance that the Lord has begun to recover these two things in the United States. If you travel throughout the country, you will see that within just the last two or three years the Lord has raised up people everywhere who are seeking something better, something real, and something of Himself. This better and real thing is the inner life and the church life—Christ experienced by us as life and the church life as the expression of Christ in a corporate way.
There are two passages in the New Testament which tell us that there is no need for any man to teach us. First John 2:27 says that we have received an anointing that now abides in us. Because this anointing teaches us concerning all things, we have no need that anyone teach us. Then Hebrews 8:10-11 tells us that God has covenanted to put His law into us. This wonderful law is God Himself. It is the law of life within us that regulates us all the time and is the means through which we can know God. Therefore, there is no need for others to teach us and tell us to know God, because we know Him through the spontaneous capacity of the law of life.
However, although these two verses tell us that we do not need any teaching, throughout the Scriptures, including the New Testament, there are many passages which indicate that we still need teaching. Apparently the Scriptures contradict one another, but actually they do not.
Teaching has a twofold purpose. First, the proper Christian teaching does not replace the inner teaching but rather develops it. What I have been teaching in these days is not a substitute for the teaching within you; instead, these teachings help the inner teaching to develop. The more you receive these teachings, the more the inner teaching within you, the inner anointing and the law of life, will be developed. Second, the proper outward teaching is a check to the inner teaching. We have the Holy Spirit within and the Scriptures without. The inner anointing needs to be checked by the Scriptures. If the inner anointing is contrary to the Scriptures, our understanding of the anointing is wrong. The inner anointing is quite living, but because of our weakness it may not be accurate. The Scriptures are accurate, but they may not be living. If we have only the Scriptures and not the inner anointing, we may be very accurate but very dead. Conversely, if we have the inner anointing and forget the Scriptures, we may be very living but also very misguided. Therefore, we need to be balanced, having both the anointing within to make us living and the Scriptures without to balance and check us. With everything God has created, there are two sides; for example, we have two hands, two ears, two eyes, and two feet. In our Christian life we have both the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures. Today many fundamental Christians are too fundamental in caring for the black and white letters of the Bible, and many Pentecostal Christians are too Pentecostal in shouting, in speaking in tongues, in prophesying, and in healing. Consequently, the fundamentalists are dead, and the Pentecostals are mistaken in their emphasizing of Pentecostal things. However, the balanced way is to have the Holy Spirit within and the Holy Scriptures without. Day by day these two are our guidance.
We may illustrate this by the two pillars that were with the children of Israel in ancient times. During the day there was the pillar of cloud, and in the night, because there was no light, there was the pillar of fire (Exo. 13:21). The pillar of cloud was a type of the Holy Spirit, and the pillar of fire was a type of the Scriptures, the Word of God. These two pillars signify the Spirit within and the Word without.
Furthermore, the word and the Spirit are one (Eph. 6:17). When we receive God’s word into us, it becomes the Spirit. When the word is outside of us, it is the word, and when it is within us, it is the Spirit. When we speak the word, it becomes the word again, and when this word enters into someone else, it becomes the Spirit again. We must follow the Spirit within as well as the Scriptures without. The inner anointing must be checked by the Scriptures. This is why we must read the Scriptures. In our receiving the teaching of the Scriptures, the inner teaching of the anointing is developed. We experience more of the inner anointing, and we experience it in an accurate way. Therefore, by taking care of the inner anointing and the Holy Scriptures, we will be living and accurate. This is the way to follow the Lord.
