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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:5-6 “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Each of the two Bible verses above mentions two different sources. The two mentioned in verse 5 are “ourselves” and “God,” and the two in verse 6 are “letter” and “Spirit.” Although these two verses speak of four sources, it does not mean that our service has four different sources. These four sources are actually only two. The first two sources are embodied in and joined with the latter two. Just as “ourselves” is joined with “letter,” so “God” is also one with “Spirit.” Just as serving God by the letter is actually serving God by ourselves, so also serving God by the Spirit is serving God by God Himself. If we intend to serve God by ourselves, we must serve by the letter. Likewise, if we intend to serve God by God Himself, we must serve by the Spirit. Just as the service by the letter is the service in ourselves and from ourselves, so also the service by the Spirit is the service in God and from God. Therefore, there are only two kinds of services with two kinds of sources. One kind of service is by the letter and from ourselves, and the other kind is by the Spirit and from God. If our service is not from the first source, then it is from the second source, and if it is not from ourselves, then it is from God. Or conversely, if it is not from God, then it is from ourselves. Besides these, there is no third source.
We do not have time to closely examine these two sources of our service. We can only consider one of these two: the service that is from God. This kind of service is not from ourselves or by ourselves, and of course, it is also not for ourselves. Rather, it is from God and by God, and certainly it is also for God. The service that is from ourselves takes ourselves as its source, and it is performed by us according to the ordinances and rituals of the letter. It can be carried out by us outside of God and independently of God, without any need to rely on God, seek God, or fellowship with God. But the service that is from God is not like this. It requires us to rely on God, seek God, fellowship with God, be in God, and absolutely take God as our source. This kind of service is not from man’s wisdom, does not rely on man’s power, and is not for man’s pleasure. Rather, it is from God’s revelation, relies on the Holy Spirit of God, and is for God’s purpose. Hence, it requires us to live in and by the spirit. We must reject the mind, emotion, and will of the soul and live in the spirit and by the sense of the spirit, walking according to the leading of the spirit. Only then can we have fellowship with God and receive His revelation to render the service that is from God, that takes God as its source, that relies on God, and that is for God.
This kind of service from God requires us to have fellowship with God and not be detached from God. In order to have this kind of service, we must be in fellowship with God; we cannot act independently of God, that is, God and we being separated. Every service that is from God and pleasing to Him is carried out by contacting and touching Him. We serve Him while contacting Him. We cannot stand apart from Him and lose touch with Him. If we serve outside of Him, regardless of whether by our zeal or anything else, our service is not from Him and therefore has no spiritual value. A service that is from God and has spiritual value must be one in which we are joined to God and in fellowship with Him by abiding in Him. On the one hand, He operates within us, and on the other hand, we serve Him outwardly. Therefore, this kind of service is an activity issuing out of God’s operation within us. Outwardly, we are serving Him, yet inwardly He is operating.
Brother Andrew Murray said that prayer is the Christ within us praying to the Christ on the throne. This word is both deep and to the point. What is prayer? Prayer is Christ praying to Christ, and it merely passes through us. A genuine, spiritual prayer does not originate with us or come from us and is not prayed by ourselves alone. Rather, it originates with Christ and comes from Christ and is prayed by the Christ abiding in us to the Christ sitting on the throne.
Just as it is with prayer, so it is also with all other kinds of service. Any kind of service must be a service rendered through us by the God abiding in us to the God sitting on the throne. This is the service that God wants and accepts. We cannot serve Him without Him having any ground in us. We cannot merely serve Him on earth and He merely receives it in heaven—He and we, we and He, standing apart from each other instead of being joined with one another. We cannot merely think of Him one minute and then immediately serve Him zealously without contacting Him or being mingled with Him. This kind of service is from ourselves and by ourselves, not from God or by God. Therefore, it has no element of God in it.
The apostle Paul said that his service in the new covenant was not from himself or by himself; it was from God and by God. It is true that he served God, but it was more a matter of God operating in him and bringing him along to serve God. He served God not because he was happy and convinced and therefore made up his mind to do something for God. No! He served God because he gave and yielded himself to the indwelling God, putting his mind, emotion, and will under God’s control to be occupied and filled by God. In this way God was able to gain all the ground in him and to operate in him through His Spirit, motivating him to work and serve. Because he was moved by God inwardly, there was a strength that compelled him to serve outwardly. He was not compelled by his own zeal or his mind, emotion, and will. No! It was God in him, mingling with him and motivating him to serve. This service did not come out of himself; instead, it came out of God. Apparently, it was he serving; actually, it was God operating and motivating within him.
Before Paul was saved, he was Saul. At that time he also served God, but his service then was not from God but from himself. He was exceedingly zealous for God according to the religious education he had received. He was a young man with a strong will and great passion, with talents and courage. He served God with these qualities according to the Jewish religious ordinances. In such a service there was no ground for God or the element of God. Such a service was not from God or by God but from himself and by himself. At that time he served God by his own zeal, courage, and talent instead of by God.
After he was saved, God lived in him, and he was joined to God. He and God were no longer two, but the two became one. God’s life became his life, God’s nature became his nature, God’s feeling became his feeling, and God’s view became his view. God’s everything became his everything, his content. When he gave God the ground in him in this way, and when he and God fellowshipped together, God operated in him, giving him a sense that motivated him to serve God by preaching the gospel. His service was from God and by God. It issued from his passing through God and allowing God to pass through him. This kind of service was not just a work or an enterprise but the flowing out of God and the overflow of God’s life.
In the matter of service we cannot do it out of our enthusiasm, determination, or capability, nor can we serve merely according to what we were taught. None of these things should be the source of our service. The source of our service should be God, it should be the spirit, it should be God’s operation in us, and it should be the operation, direction, and leading of the Spirit of God in our spirit. Only the service that comes out of these things is the service that is from God and by God.
Therefore, it is not possible to have the service that is from God without meeting, touching, or contacting Him. We must meet Him, touch Him, and contact Him inwardly in order to be able to render the service that is from Him. For example, some preach the gospel merely out of their zeal and excitement without touching, meeting, or fellowshipping with God. Their preaching of the gospel in this way is from themselves; it is not motivated by God’s operation in them. In contrast, others preach the gospel because, while they were drawing near to God, confessing their sins before Him, and dealing with all the things that are not pleasing to Him, they have received the burden from the Spirit of the Lord who has gained the ground to operate and motivate in them. Their preaching of the gospel in this way is not motivated by their zeal. Rather, it is the Holy Spirit motivating them inwardly like a burning fire, causing them to be desperate to preach the gospel to their friends and relatives. This situation is like an electric fan; after coming into contact with electricity, the fan begins to turn by the inward driving force of the electricity. This kind of gospel preaching is from God and is spiritual. This is to serve God, and this is to serve God by Him and through Him. This kind of service cannot be disconnected or separated from God.
When we render service to God, we cannot be detached from Him. Rather, we must rely on Him moment by moment. Therefore, it is not sufficient merely to have experience and thus know how to do things and know how to serve God. Serving God can never depend on our “know how.” You cannot say that because you were able to give a good message yesterday, you can give the same message again today. Yesterday you spoke by relying on God; today when you speak, you still must rely on God. Service to God is carried out not by relying on experience but by depending on God through fellowship and contact with Him.
Some have often said to me, “Brother Lee, teach us some of the secrets of service, because once we have the secrets, we will be able to do it.” I said, “There is not such a thing! If there were any secrets to serving God, it would be this one secret: fellowship with God.” One can do anything for a long period of time and be considered a veteran, an experienced hand, in that thing. However, this is not possible in the service of God. Serving God requires a moment-by-moment, fresh contact with God. The electric fan cannot say that because it has been turning for two years, it has become a “veteran,” an “experienced hand,” and does not need to contact the electricity anymore. Regardless of how long it has been turning, it must maintain its contact with the electricity. On the first day it turns, it must contact the electricity, and on the last day it turns, it still must contact the electricity. Even if we have served God for a long time, we still need to contact Him. Even Paul would have to contact God if he were here serving today. He could not say that he is an old-timer, so he does not need to contact God or fellowship with Him. If this were the case, what he would do would be merely a work, and God’s element could not be found in his work.
Our service and our work are not so much a matter of having some accomplishments as they are a matter of expressing God and flowing out His life. If we do not serve or work according to God, and if we do not have the presence of God, then how can He be expressed or flowed out in what we do? Therefore, our service must come from our fellowship with God and our relying on Him. Every time we serve, we must fellowship with God and allow Him to operate in us. We must set aside our excitement, thoughts, and opinions to allow Him to gain the ground in us, to fill us, and to operate in us. This is the source of our service, and it is the most precious source.
In the early days, in the church in Antioch there were five prophets and teachers. While they were praying together, ministering to the Lord, and fellowshipping with Him, the Holy Spirit came and sent two of them out to work for the Lord. These five men did not hold a meeting for discussion or use their mind to think and then make a decision to send two of them out to work. It was not like that at all. They gave themselves to the Lord and allowed Him to have the ground in them. Under these circumstances the Lord was able to get through and operate in them, thus sending them out to preach the gospel. When they went out, they were filled with God, relying on Him and bringing Him with them. When people came across this kind of work, what they felt and obtained was not a thing but God and the life of God.
Is our work for the accomplishing of an enterprise or is it for the overflowing and release of God? If we want our work to flow out and release God, then we must learn to reject our zeal, thought, emotion, and decisions and to always prostrate ourselves before God, looking to Him and fellowshipping with Him. We should do this not only when we pray, but all the time we should be fellowshipping with God inwardly, giving Him the throne and authority in us, allowing Him to occupy us and operate in us as He pleases. When we fellowship with God in this way and allow Him to occupy us, He can easily reveal His heart’s desire to us and flow Himself out of us. This is especially true of the brothers who are elders in the churches. If they do not receive God’s leading in fellowship, God’s burden, or God’s commission, then the service in the local churches will rarely flow out God.
Some brothers who are elders have asked me how they can receive a burden or commission from God. The way is this: You should turn yourself to God, allow Him to occupy your every part, and give Him the first place in every part. Instead of allowing your emotion, mind, and will to be number one, you should give Him the preeminence in you. Thus, when you draw near to God and fellowship with Him, it will be easy for you to receive God’s burden. God gives His burden only to this kind of people. If you give God the ground and opportunity, then it will be easy for God to operate in you, causing you to receive a commission and a burden. This kind of burden causes your service to be a service that comes out of God’s motivation within you. Hence, you will be able to flow out and release God.
Thus, the service that is from God requires us to have fellowship with God and minister life to others. The service that God wants from us does not focus on doing a work but on ministering life. The center and goal of the service of the saints and of the church are not to build up an enterprise or a work but to minister God’s life. It does not matter what profession the worldly people are in—farming, business, industry, education; all emphasize having a successful enterprise. If their enterprise is successful, then they have reached their goal. However, the service of the church and of the saints is not like this. The service of the church and of the saints is nothing and is worthless in God’s eyes if all we have done is successfully finish our work, having built up either a big or a small enterprise. God’s desire is that the emphasis of our service be on ministering God’s life instead of producing a work or enterprise.
For the sake of the new believers we will use words that are easily understood to explain this. For example, the church is here serving God, but the emphasis is not on how many meeting halls are built, how many enterprises are established, how many activities are carried out, how much work is done, or how many people are brought in. These are not the center and goal of the church service. To use these items to measure and judge the church service is a huge mistake. How weighty the church service is, how high it is, how much value it has, and how acceptable it is in God’s eyes—all these are not measured by the aforementioned items as the standard, such as the number of people, the material things, the size of the enterprise, and the amount of work. Rather, the only standard of measurement is how much the church has ministered God’s life to others and how much element of the divine life has entered into people through the church’s help and service.
God measures the work and service of the church according to one point: how much supply of spiritual life the church has given people and how much increase of the element of God’s life people have received when they were helped by the church. God uses only this standard to measure the church’s service. Even if we were to bring all the people in this locality into the church, convert all the houses into meeting halls, and stir up so many people to zealously preach the gospel, in God’s eyes it would all be empty and worthless unless these people have the divine life, are filled with some of the divine element, have received enough of God, and have sufficient knowledge of God. God absolutely does not measure our service and work by anything apart from Himself. He measures our service and work only by how much of His element people have gained and been filled with inwardly. It is not that our service and our work are weighty before God if we build huge meeting halls, do things in an orderly way, or have large numbers of people. There is not such a thing! The weight of our service and work does not depend on the number of people, things, and activities. Instead, it depends on the amount of God’s life people have touched, gained, been filled with, and experienced. It is not that our service, our work, is weighty if we gain a few more people, do a few more activities, and obtain a few more things. We can never use these as the standard for measuring our service and work. We must see how much our service and work have ministered the divine life to others. Some do not have the divine life yet, but after our contact with them and our help to them, God’s life gets into them. Others have a little of God’s life but are very immature and have only a shallow knowledge of God, but after our contact and fellowship with them, they have a deeper desire for God inwardly, they pursue God more deeply, and they gain more of His life.
Our service and work should only minister God’s life to people and should only use God’s life to attract people. When people come to our meetings, we should give them the sense that they have touched the spirit, met God, and received the supply of life. We should not let them feel that they have touched some other good things besides these items. Perhaps our meeting halls are primitive with only a small number in the meetings, but once a person enters our meetings, he should sense the presence of God and touch God. When a person walks into this kind of meeting, he has an indescribable sensation that his darkness has turned into light, that he has found a way through his difficulties, that his weaknesses have been made strong, and that he has been uplifted from his depression.
The corporate service of the church should be like this, as should our individual service. When people contact us, even just for a moment, they should gain the help of life inwardly. It is as if we have something that comes out from within us and touches them inwardly to enliven them. They were in darkness inwardly, but after contacting us for a moment, they are enlightened. In the past they were lacking in their inward knowledge of the life of God, but after contacting us for a moment, their knowledge improves and increases. We bring them into the Lord and enable them to receive the supply of life. The help that they receive from us is not material, social, emotional, or doctrinal. Rather, it is spiritual, of life, from God, and in Christ. What they obtain from us in life in this way is truly God Himself and the divine life.
In our work we should not use other things to attract people. We should not use social contacts, money, or anything apart from God, because all these things belong to death. In our work we should attract people only with God and minister His life to them. Only this kind of service is spiritual, is from God, and is able to touch God.
In John 15 the Lord said that He is the vine and we are the branches. Apart from the vine the branches can do nothing. The branches on the vine are not there to be its material; they are there to bear fruit. Bearing fruit is to minister life, that is, to release the supply of the vine’s life. This is our function with respect to the Lord. Today the Lord does not need people to be His material, nor does He need human talent. He only needs people to abide in Him, to be filled with Him, and to release the supply of His life. This is truly like the branches of the vine being filled with the sap of the vine and releasing the supply of the vine’s life. The branches of the vine do not know how to do anything but abide in the vine and allow its life to be ministered and to flow out through them.
This is the service of the church, which is not a great work or large enterprise with a huge accomplishment but the ministering and flowing out of the life of Christ. It requires us to be joined to Christ, to abide in Christ, and to give Him the ground in us to fill us so that His life, His nature, His likes, and His inclination can become our life, our nature, our likes, and our inclination. In other words, His all becomes our all. When we abide in Him, live in Him, and fellowship with Him like this, we allow Him to pass through us and flow out from us. What flows out from us is His life, the life of the vine. This will minister life to others, and it will give them life. When people touch this, they touch Christ and the life of the vine. This is the service of the church.
George Müller, who founded an orphanage in England, was such a person living in God to serve God. Regrettably, however, some of the biographies written about him place too much emphasis on the success of his enterprise while neglecting the matters of his spiritual life, such as his abiding in God and living before Him. When I read his journal, I did not feel that he was operating a large business. I only felt that I was touching a person who lived before God, fellowshipped with God, allowed God to rule in him, allowed God to have a place in him, and was filled with God inwardly. Every time I read his journal, I was brought before God and given the sense of God’s presence. This made me feel that Müller was one who lived in the light and who lived before God. You touch God when you read his writings. This is the life of George Müller; it is not a life that emphasized a successful enterprise but a life that knew God and flowed out His divine life.
We must always remember that the service of the church is God’s flowing out to supply others with the divine life. It is not a matter of how many things we accomplish or how many works we do. Instead, it is a matter of how much God we flow out and how much of God’s life we minister to others. This is where all the issues lie. God never uses other things to judge our work. He only uses His life to judge our work. The more our work has God Himself and the element of His life, the weightier and more valuable it is. If we do not have this, then our work is empty and a failure.
May God truly have mercy on us that all our service and work would be from Him, would come out of our fellowship with Him, and would be able to overflow with Him and His life as a supply to others.
