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The co-workers need the foundation of learning the lessons of life and of serving in the church. Everyone who serves the Lord needs to learn and know these two items. A serving one who lacks in either item will have problems in the future.
Life and the church are two aspects, two sides, of one foundation; they are not two separate foundations. A person has only one body, but he stands on two legs. The training of the co-workers has one foundation with two aspects—life and the church. A co-worker who is short in learning either aspect can be compared to a person with only one leg. This shortage will cause problems. A co-worker who is short in learning both aspects can be compared to a person without legs, who is unable to move. It is not a normal situation for a person to have only a torso without two legs to support him.
Many co-workers love the Lord but lack the foundation of life. They have been saved for many years and are pursuing the Lord, loving Him, and giving themselves wholeheartedly, but they have never been trained in the matter of life. They love the Lord and are zealous for Him, but they do not know how to take the Lord as life, how to touch the feeling of the Lord, and how to fellowship with the Lord. Without this kind of training, everything we learn after our salvation is outward, and our experience of being a Christian is also outward. This can be compared to learning the actions in Chinese boxing but not having the internal strength. Such serving ones are merely Christians outwardly, not Christians in their living.
Every Christian who is learning to follow the Lord must turn from outward activities in order to touch the way of life. Being a Christian is not a matter of being zealous, improving, adjusting, or changing, nor is it a matter of being right or wrong, good or bad, proud or humble, or gentle or violent. Those who pay attention to these matters are outward Christians. These things are not reliable or stable, nor do they have much value. God in His salvation wants to enter into us to be our life. He desires to enter into our spirit, to be mingled with our spirit, to be one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17) so that we may be joined to Him and take Him as our life. Then outwardly, it is we who live, but within, we live by His life.
A proper Christian, one who is up to the standard, does not adjust his behavior; rather, he turns from outward things to fellowship and contact God, that is, to touch God, His feeling, and His presence and to take Him as life. This is the foundation of the living of a proper Christian. The meekness of a proper Christian must be the issue of this foundation, and his humility must also be the issue of this foundation. Even his zeal and his activities in the church must issue from this foundation.
Every co-worker must learn the lesson of touching the presence of God, that is, of touching God. When we touch God’s presence, we have a sense within, our inner being is made alive, and we are enlightened. As a result, we will see that there are many things in us that need to be dealt with, and we will be restricted by the Lord. The Lord wants to be the living law within us in order to lead us in every situation. When we sense that He wants us to discard certain things or to be restricted in certain matters, we should pay the price to follow Him. This kind of learning is the lesson of life.
Although many saints love the Lord and desire to be pleasing to Him, few have learned the lesson of life; that is, few have learned to turn to their spirit to contact Him. A brother who is not learning this lesson will experience a great lack. It is possible for him to be a Christian for many years and read the Bible regularly but not to have received this basic training. We need to be Christians in life. If we live by outward reforms, outward activities, and considerations of right and wrong, we are in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
As Christians, we are persons who turn to our spirit to touch the Lord, who is in our spirit as life. He is also the tree of life that has been planted within us and is now growing in us. We do not need to contact the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with our mind; rather, we need to turn to our spirit and eat of the tree of life. As soon as we touch the Lord, we are enlivened and enlightened, and He becomes our restriction, our law of life. Moreover, we become clear concerning the items that we should discard and concerning what we should deal with. He becomes the restraining strength within us, and we become clear as to what He allows and what He forbids, and concerning what things we have done in Him and what we have done in ourselves.
Knowing the things that the Lord forbids is a negative experience of life. On the positive side, the Lord desires to be our energizing power in order to motivate us to obey His will, to accomplish His purpose, and to live Him out. He wants to be everything we do; hence, we need to pay the price to follow Him.
Some may say that they cannot be this kind of Christian. However, only those Christians who contact the Lord can be led by His hand. Having spiritual gifts or leaving the sects cannot solve our problems. The only way to solve our problems is to take the way of life. Only when we turn from all the outward bondages to our spirit can we have genuine growth and progress in the divine life.
The so-called gifts and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are outward. The believers in Corinth spoke in tongues, interpreted tongues, and did not lack in any gift, but the apostle Paul says that they were infants and fleshly (1 Cor. 3:1-3). They did not know God according to life. They were outward Christians; that is, they were Christians according to gifts, not according to life. An outward Christian does not need the cross, but a Christian who is according to life needs the cross and needs to continually touch the Lord, touching His presence and His feeling. Every experience he has needs the cross, and the cross is in every item. The cross is not a matter of suffering but a matter of termination. The cross terminates us so that we are not the ones who are living. Rather, we live by the Lord; we take Him as life and express Him in our living.
We must learn the matter of life because being a Christian is not something outward, nor is it related to spiritual gifts or religious sentiments. Being a Christian is a matter of turning to our spirit, where we can touch Christ and His feeling so that He has a way to live in us. The cross must terminate our person and our preferences, our spiritual inclinations, and the way we work. Even if we are willing to pay a price and sacrifice ourselves in order to serve others, we still need to be terminated by the cross. We must come out of being good, being zealous, sacrificing for Christ, serving others, preaching the gospel, and working for God, all of which are outward, and we must turn to our spirit.
Christians who fall into sin and the world are not proper. However, Christians who pursue being good and zealous and who seek tongue-speaking, power, spiritual gifts, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are outward. We must turn away from the outward things to our spirit; that is, we need to forget about being good, being zealous, paying a price, and serving others, as well as our suffering, sacrificing, and working for the Lord. The way to follow the Lord does not begin with these things. If we are still dealing with these things, we will not be reliable. The way for us to follow the Lord has only one starting point, which is to turn to our spirit. We must be willing to be stripped of anything that is apart from Him, even if it is our best virtue. We must desire only Him. Here is an example. If the Lord were in me as my life, I would be willing to be stripped, imprisoned, restricted, and ruled by Him. I would not have ambitions, plans, goals, insights, inclinations, choices, preferences, decisions, wishes, or expectations. I would drop everything and be a person who turns to my spirit so that I could touch Him and contact Him. This is the beginning of learning the lessons of life.
When I meet with the Lord, contact Him, and touch His feeling, my inner being is enlivened and enlightened, and I know what He wants me to deal with. I also know His intention and see that my intention and my attitude are apart from Him. I also see that my actions are not in conformity with His intention, nor are they in Him. Then I am willing to be restricted by Him and to live in Him. As a result, He can move within me. Although I have stopped my activities, He is moving in me, urging me to obey Him, to pay the price, and not to care for my future or my position so that I can live in Him. These are the basic lessons that we must learn.
Now we will consider the aspect of the church. We must know the purpose of God’s being our life. It is not for our individual spirituality but for us to be the church, the Body of His Son (Eph. 1:22-23). The church is produced by the Son of God building Himself into His redeemed people. The church is something unique in the universe, and the expression of the church in every locality is also unique. The things of the world and human opinions do not have any place in the church. We cannot expect every Christian to know what the church is, but we should know what the church is. Everything in the church is corporate; there is no place for individuals. A hand, for example, has its place, but that place is in the body. As believers who know the church, we meet together with the building up of the church as our goal. Our spiritual pursuit and our willingness to learn the lessons of life are not for our personal gain but for the church. We are not for our own spirituality; we are for the building up of the church.
If we desire to have good coordination, we must see that there is only one church, one Body. Then we will be open to coordination, which is the building up of the church. Coordination is not a matter of organization according to human will but a matter of the growth and expression of life. It is a practical matter because when we coordinate, we know the order in the Body, and we know our place. This means that we know God’s arrangement; we know the place that God has arranged for us, His order in the Body, and the deputy authority in the church. By knowing the church in this way and by touching the Lord in our spirit, we are saved from the things that do not correspond with the nature and the vision of the church. This experience is not according to an outward law but according to an inward vision.
Furthermore, when we coordinate, we see that we cannot be individualistic, because the life of Christ, which is the life of the church, is a corporate life. The Body is a matter of coordination and building. There is an order in the Body, and there is also authority in the Body. Human opinions and concepts of so-called democracy and equality cause the Body to fall apart; they cut the Body into pieces. Hence, we need a clear understanding of what the church is and how to live in the church.
Many people have asked me whether the many Christian groups who zealously preach the gospel are the church. We do not deny the importance of preaching the gospel. The Catholic Church also preaches the gospel; this is undeniable. However, it is not a matter of whether or not a Christian group preaches the gospel. The real issue is whether, by the Lord’s mercy, we have seen the vision that God desires to be our life. His purpose is that all those who have His life would be built up to be the church. This church is one universally and also one locally. Concerning the church, we can either be one hundred percent correct or one hundred percent wrong. There is no ambiguity in this matter because there is only one Body of Christ, and there is only one church of God. If we are clear concerning this vision, we will understand that there cannot be more than one church in the universe and that there cannot be more than one church in any given locality. There can be only one universal church because there is only one Body of Christ, and this one universal church can have only one expression locally. Hence, we should not participate in any group that is not the one Body. We cannot participate in the Catholic Church even though it has many believers, because it is not of the one Body, and its system is not scriptural.
In this age God desires to be our life and to build us up to be His church. We may not be able to bring every believer into this vision, but we must be faithful and loyal to this vision. When we see the Body, we will no longer serve God individualistically; instead, we will serve in coordination in the one Body. We cannot require every Christian to be in this coordination, but since we have seen this vision, we are willing to be restricted by it and to serve in coordination with the other saints. No matter how good or how effective other groups may be, my concern is to serve according to this vision.
A friend once told me that he felt it was the Lord who told him to do what he was doing. I told him that those in the Catholic Church would also say, with absolute assurance, that they were doing what the Lord wants them to do. I said that only the Lord knows who is right.
I hope that all the co-workers will learn to fellowship with the Lord more in order to see a vision and to know the Lord’s feeling. They should also learn to fellowship and follow the Lord. At a certain point in time you will see His Body—the universal church and its local expression. You will also see that the church is a coordinated Body, that there is an order in the Body, and that there is also restriction in the Body.
All the talk by other groups concerning the church can be compared to the talks between Job and his three friends; these talks are words without knowledge, which darkens counsel (Job 38:2). They are the expression of human opinions. The more we listen to them, the more confused we will be. There is only one way to be clear, and that way is to turn to our spirit. When we touch the Lord, we should deal with whatever He wants us to deal with. In whatever way He would restrict us, we should be restricted, and if He wants us to pay a price, we should be willing to pay a price. If we are willing to follow the Lord in this way, we will see the glorious vision of the universal church and its local expression. We will also realize that we have received mercy to be members in the Body. Hence, we will be in coordination, knowing our place and the order in the Body. The Head is in this coordination, and the order and deputy authority come out from the Head. We will also realize that this living testimony is what God desires to gain in this age and that Satan hates this testimony. Only this vision can destroy Satan’s scheme and bring in God’s kingdom. This is the way we serve in the church.
Every saint must be established in two aspects: learning the lessons of life and having a proper knowledge of the church. Concerning the aspect of life, we must learn to turn to the Lord and fall before His face. Without a clear vision of the church, we will have problems in our service. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we will learn the lessons of life and the way to serve in the church.
