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Hymn #212 in the Chinese hymnal was written based on the spiritual vision in Ezekiel 1 concerning four things—the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. If you read The Visions of Ezekiel, you will understand the meaning of this hymn. Hymns, #250, which is comparatively simple and easy to understand, was written based on Numbers 21:16-17. Stanza 3 says, “I will dig by praying, / Dig the dirt entirely, / Thus release the Spirit, / Let the stream flow freely.” To say that we “will dig by praying” to “release the Spirit” may sound rather strange. It is common that we obtain water by digging a well, but how can we get the Spirit by digging? This matter is both wonderful and mysterious.
I wrote both these hymns in 1961. This strongly proves that we have put much emphasis on the filling of the Spirit since very early in our history. In the table of contents of our hymnal, the fourth category is “Fullness of the Spirit.” The Chinese hymnal lists the following headings under this category—“As the Spirit of Reality,” “As the Indwelling Spirit,” “As the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” “As the Comforter,” “As the Spirit of Gifts,” “As the Spirit of Life,” “As the Living Water,” “As the Fire,” “As the Breath,” “As the Wind,” “As the Ointment (the Anointing),” “The Filling,” “The Baptism,” “The Two Aspects (the Spirit of Life and the Spirit of Power),” and “By the Cross.” There are over thirty hymns in this category, and I wrote more than half of them. In Christianity there is only a small number of hymns on the Spirit, and the truth in these hymns is unclear and vague.
From this we can see that even since the beginning of the Lord’s recovery among us, we paid much attention to the matter of the Spirit in the New Testament. The New Testament contains a great revelation concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. But the only way for Christ to be realized in a practical way in the believers’ living and experience is through the Spirit. The Spirit is the realization of Christ. Hence, the Spirit is mentioned in every book of the New Testament. Moreover, in his Epistles Paul repeatedly refers to the Spirit and to our spirit. In Romans 8:16 he says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God,” and in 1 Corinthians 6:17 he writes, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Paul makes a particular point to connect these two spirits together. However, even Christian groups that are orthodox, such as the Baptist Church, do not dare to say much about the Spirit. Although the people in the Pentecostal movement do speak about the Spirit, they neglect this truth. In fact, they have made the matter of the Spirit difficult for people to understand because their speaking is without proper discernment and is often rather foolish.
Thank the Lord that when He raised us up over sixty years ago, we began to pay much attention to the Spirit. We particularly paid attention to this matter in all our reading of the Bible. We also focused on this matter when we studied church history and read others’ writings. Then based on our knowledge of the Bible, the help that we received from the writings of others, and our own research, we have published many books concerning the Spirit. Our hymnal is an excellent example of this. However, over the past twenty years I still feel that we have neglected this. This lack is most manifest in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. To neglect the matter of the Spirit is a great mistake.
For this reason we are endeavoring to change the basic form and way that we meet in the church and are focusing on our propagation. This is the change of system that we are trying to implement. The way for the church to propagate and for us to have an increase in numbers is to spread the gospel widely, and the secret for us to be able to do this is the filling of the Spirit. Hence, at this critical juncture, I hope that you young people will pursue the filling of the Holy Spirit so that your gospel may be powerful.
The substance, the essence, of our God is Spirit. The Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24), love (1 John 4:8, 16), and light (1:5). In depicting God’s nature, the New Testament emphasizes only three things—God is Spirit, God is love, and God is light. Regarding these three matters, footnote 3 of 1 John 1:5 in the New Testament Recovery Version says, “Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression.” God Himself is a person, and with this person there is an essence and an expression. The nature of God’s person is Spirit, the nature of God’s essence is love, and the nature of God’s expression is light. God Himself is Spirit, and the third person in His Trinity is the Holy Spirit. Moreover, He became the life-giving Spirit after passing through the processes of incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. This shows us that the story of our God is altogether a story of the Spirit.
We need to know at least three things concerning God—first, God’s substance is Spirit; second, the ultimate consummation of the person of the Divine Trinity is the Spirit; and third, God became flesh, passed through various processes, and eventually entered into resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, who includes the elements of His divinity and His humanity, plus His incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. These three items are like three steps. The first step is concerning God’s substance; the second is concerning God’s person; and the third is concerning His ultimate expression after passing through all the processes. These three steps, or layers, are all related to the Spirit—the substance of God is Spirit; the ultimate expression of His person is the Spirit; and after He became flesh and passed through various processes, His ultimate expression is still the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit. This is the God who is revealed in the New Testament. He is such a Spirit.
For us to experience the Spirit, the New Testament points to our human spirit. We also stress this point. In our hymnal we even have a hymn concerning the two spirits—Hymns, #11. It is in the category “Worship of the Father.” This hymn says,
Mentioning Spirit and spirit eighteen times, this hymn repeatedly speaks about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and our human spirit. I hope that you will all pay attention to this matter.
The Bible uses three items to symbolize the Spirit—breath, wind, and fire. The two main symbols of the Spirit are breath and wind. Air, or breath, is the basis for the existence of all living creatures. Without air, there can be no living creatures. Because there is no ozone layer around the moon, there is no air around the moon. As a result, no living creatures are able to survive there. If you want to go to the moon, you have to bring air with you. Similar to air, our God is real and experiential as the Spirit. In addition, the Spirit is the basis of the believer’s living. Without the Spirit, we cannot survive.
When the movement of air becomes strong, it produces a violent wind. It may even form into a typhoon or tornado. When wind comes, air comes with it. If there is no wind in a room, there will not be enough air in the room, and the room will become stuffy. Hence, wind and air cannot be separated. When the movement of air is strong, it is wind; when wind comes, air comes with it, and once wind is weakened, it becomes simply air again.
The Greek word pneuma and the Hebrew word ruach both denote breath, wind, and spirit. In the Old Testament the word ruach in Ezekiel 37 has these three meanings—wind, breath, and spirit. This word may refer to breath in one verse, to wind in another verse, and to spirit in still another verse. In John 3 the Lord Jesus also used the word pneuma with two meanings—the word Spirit in the phrase born of the Spirit in verse 6 and the word wind in the clause the wind blows where it wills in verse 8 are both pneuma in Greek. How do we know that in verse 8 pneuma denotes wind? We know because that which “blows where it wills” is neither spirit nor breath but wind. Thus, to understand the real meaning of a word, sometimes we have to examine its context.
The New Testament says that the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). We can also say that the Lord is the breath (John 20:22) and that He is also the wind (cf. 3:8). In the evening of the Lord’s resurrection, He came in the midst of the disciples and breathed into them for them to receive the Spirit as their life; that is, He breathed the essential Spirit into them. However, on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured down like a strong, violent wind as the economical Spirit (Acts 2:2). Hymn #212 in the Chinese hymnal says, “The Holy Spirit as a strong wind / Blows from heaven / Upon the congregation, / As He did at Pentecost.” In John 20 the Spirit is breath, and in Acts 2 the Spirit is wind.
Today all our experience of the Lord, of God, and of Christ absolutely depends on the Spirit. In fact, the Lord, God, and Christ are the Spirit. This is what today’s Christianity neglects and does not understand. The so-called Modernists do not even acknowledge that the wind and the breath refer to the Spirit. On the contrary, they say that everything is a matter of man’s heart and is merely a feeling or a mental reaction. How do you know when the wind comes? You know because you feel it. How do you know there is air in a house? You do not see it or touch it; you feel it. This is the belief of the Modernists. They deny the spiritual reality and the spiritual facts and focus on the mind, which has been corrupted by Satan. They say that both the God who is spoken of in the Bible and the Spirit who is referred to in Christianity are imaginary perceptions. The fact remains, however, that mental perception is based upon feeling, and feeling is based upon something real. For example, you will sense my love only if I do in fact love you, you will feel pain only if I hit you, and you will feel stuffiness only if there is no air in the room. All of these feelings are based upon something real.
The Modernists deny the spiritual reality and talk only about its outward manifestations. They say that zealous Christians have been captivated by preachers and drawn into the doctrines of regeneration, transformation, and being filled with the Spirit. It may be true that some preachers have the power to captivate believers. But if there were no spiritual facts or reality behind what they preached, how could they have power and how could the believers be captivated? One time a sister testified that she had emptied herself out to the Lord and had thoroughly confessed and prayed. Initially after doing this, she did not have any feeling, but an hour later she felt relieved throughout her whole being. The Modernists would say that this was merely a mental reaction. However, would the sister have felt relieved if she had not prayed? Likewise, you feel refreshed after taking a deep breath because there is air all around you. If there were no air, you would not feel refreshed after taking a deep breath. The Modernists also say that the feeling you have after calling on the Lord is just a mental reaction. However, if you call on other names, do you still have this feeling or this supposed mental reaction? This is something that is worthy of their consideration.
God not only created us with eyes to see, ears to hear, and senses to touch but also with a spirit to contact Him and to perceive spiritual reality. As soon as you breathe, you can sense the fresh air in the room. Similarly, once you exercise your spirit, you can contact and touch the spiritual facts and reality. The key is using the right organ. Hence, Paul says, “‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of the faith which we proclaim” (Rom. 10:8). This word is the Lord Himself. The Gospel of John says that in the beginning was the Word, that the Word was God (1:1), and that God is Spirit (4:24). The word, which is the Spirit and God, is not far from us; it is in our mouth and in our heart, just like the air. The question is not whether He is there but whether we are willing to receive Him. How do we receive Him? Paul tells us the way—“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). As long as we pray, call, and exercise our spirit, we will receive the Holy Spirit.
I hope that you not only understand and focus on this truth but that you also release this truth and pursue the filling of the Holy Spirit. Without deep breathing and fresh air, it is hard for us to be physically healthy. In the same way, without the Spirit and the exercise of the spirit, it is impossible for us to be spiritually healthy and victorious. Thus, you should not merely speak about some spiritual terms, such as the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit; neither should you simply analyze whether the Spirit is in us essentially or upon us economically; instead, you should pursue to be filled with the Spirit. The people in the region surrounding the lower Yangtze River have a saying—“In the morning the skin encompasses the water; at night the water encompasses the skin.” There are not two different waters; it is just that water has two functions. When you drink water, the water is within you, but when you take a bath, you are in the water. This is a picture of mingling. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly and outwardly, we are mingled with the Holy Spirit. This should be our emphasis today.
The burden of this chapter is to cover some practical matters in your living so that as young people pursuing to serve the Lord, you may receive some practical training and learning in three main categories—eating, clothing, and sleeping and exercise. Sleeping is inactive, whereas exercise is active. I am going to teach you something practical about food, clothing, and being inactive and active. Do not think that being active or inactive are small matters. If you are inactive when you should be active, or if you are active when you should be inactive, you will have great problems and much trouble. Therefore, you must be trained in these matters. I thank the Lord that He has kept me on the earth for so long a time. There is a Chinese proverb which says, “Since the ancient times it is rare for human life to reach seventy years.” In the Bible Moses said something similar—“The days of our years are seventy years, / Or, if because of strength, eighty years” (Psa. 90:10). I am over eighty years old now, so I am a man with strength. Of course, this is the mercy of God, and I have nothing to boast of. However, you have to realize that the dealings between God and us are always of two sides. For example, suppose that God desires to give us water to drink, but we close our mouth and refuse to drink. If we do this, He cannot do anything about it. Suppose also that God wants to give you longevity, but instead of appreciating His desire to do so, you jump into the sea or run in front of someone’s car. If you did this, you would die sooner than others. If this were to happen, it would be because you acted contrary to God’s will.
Therefore, from your youth you have to pay attention to your daily living so that you will be healthy and will live longer on the earth. You should not think that since you are young, you are very useful and can be used to do many things. This may cause you to use your body excessively. Of course, you are useful while you are young, but you will be more useful as you become older. No one desires to die early; everyone wants to live longer. I can tell you that the secret to good health depends on eating, resting, and exercising properly. Eating refers to our diet, resting refers mainly to our sleep, and exercise refers to our activities, our bodily exercise.
When I was young, I did not pay proper attention to my eating. I was always under stress and busy, and sometimes I ate without restraint. Consequently, I developed stomach problems very early in life. Before I reached the age of thirty, I already had a very serious stomach problem. Therefore, you have to be warned. Do not eat under stress, eat in haste, or eat without control. Second, do not pay too much attention to the taste of the food that you eat; rather, pay attention to the nutrition that you receive from it. You should know something about nutrition, and you should also have a little knowledge about such things as oil, sugar, salt, and meat. Third, learn to eat a regular amount—avoid eating too much at times and too little at others. Perhaps in these days you frequently fast. Although this is very good, you should not do it too irregularly. To do so will ruin your stomach. Fourth, as much as possible eat at a regular time. According to your present schedule, I am afraid that you may not eat at regular times. You may either skip supper or eat after the meetings. This is not right. This may be acceptable occasionally, but in the long run you will have stomach problems.
We must know the way our body works. Once a certain part is damaged, it is hard to restore it to the original state and condition. Some of the parts may recover, but it is still not possible to restore them a hundred percent. It is best not to allow anything to damage your body. Do not allow this to happen and then seek to be cured after the damage is already done. The best thing to do is to cherish and maintain your body now. I remind you to pay much attention to the matter of eating.
Regarding resting, you should sleep at night and avoid constantly burning the midnight oil. It is best to sleep early and rise early. Generally speaking, this is the proper way. After lunch you should have at least ten minutes to close your eyes and rest. It is best if you can lie down and take a short nap. However, to nap for more than an hour is excessive.
You should consider exercise and being active as your recreation and leisure, but you must be careful not to fall into sin. It is necessary to be active for the sake of your physical health. Therefore, you should exercise regularly, either doing calisthenics or “shadowboxing” for at least twenty minutes each day. Moreover, it is good to have a little exercise after each meal. There is a Chinese saying—“Walk a hundred steps after every meal; live for ninety and nine years.” Doctors, nurses, and all those who are experienced know that eating meals in bed or refraining from any activity after eating is detrimental to one’s health. Doctors even encourage the patients who are confined in bed to try to stand up for a while or to take a little walk after meals if possible.
It is also not good to read or work immediately after eating. The best thing to do after a meal is to walk for three to five minutes, taking around a hundred steps each minute. In this way you will enjoy longevity. A certain senior statesman in Chinese politics who lived to an advanced age wrote a proverb that contains a formula for longevity. The gist of the proverb is—“To enjoy longevity, you have to sleep seven hours at night and walk seven thousand steps during the day.” This man walked one hundred steps a minute, so it took him seventy minutes to walk seven thousand steps. If an elderly man can walk seven thousand steps a day, he will be very healthy, but walking seven thousand steps is not enough for young people. They need more exercise, and it is better for them to have some more vigorous activities. Elderly ones should walk seven thousand steps a day, but it is not too much for children to walk ten thousand steps a day. As young people, you are in between the children and the elderly ones, so you also should have the proper amount of exercise. While you are exercising, however, you have to bear in mind that you are doing so because you love the Lord. I hope that the Lord would grant me another twenty years, because I still have many burdens. The Lord gives us life and breath for us to love Him. This is why we need to be trained from our youth.
Clothing is also related to health. In the Bible the main purpose of clothing is for covering. After man’s fall, man began to have the sense of shame, and there was the need for him to cover his nakedness with clothing. The first time that the Bible mentions clothing is in Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve fell, they began to have the sense of sin, and they discovered that they were naked. Before man’s fall, although man was naked, he did not have the sense of sin. Thus, after the fall God made them coats of skins to cover their shame. Clothing is also for protecting us from cold. If we do not wear enough clothing, we will catch a cold. In the Bible clothing is mainly for covering, and the more our clothing covers us, the better. The priests in the Old Testament had to have their robes long enough to touch the ground so that others could not see their body. The priests were also forbidden from going up by steps to the altar, lest their nakedness be uncovered (Exo. 20:26).
The purpose of clothing in the Bible is first for covering, and second, for protecting oneself from the cold. Once our shame is covered, we look pleasant before God. However, today people in the world love to expose themselves. Suppose a brother were to come to the meeting in shorts with his calves and knees exposed. If he preached to you wearing shorts, would you be able to receive what he said?
In 1 Timothy Paul says that we should adorn ourselves in proper clothing (2:9). The word proper in this verse is hard to define. To dress properly means to dress in a way that does not appear peculiar to other people. My clothing does not look peculiar to others; both older people and younger people feel comfortable with what I am wearing. This is proper. If a brother were to wear a wide tie that had a big cross and the words In Christ written on it, how would you feel? Would this not look strange? What about our shoes? If someone were to come to the meeting wearing sandals or slippers and having his toes exposed, and if this one were to stand in front of you to speak, you would surely feel uncomfortable. This is an example of improper dress. If a brother’s hair is as long as a sister’s hair, and he wears it in a ponytail and puts ornaments in it, this is not sin and is not explicitly forbidden by the Bible, but it is not fitting and is improper.
Paul was wise. He does not go into detail concerning the matter of clothing. He mentions only that our clothing should be proper. The word proper is deep in meaning and broad in definition. Today as you are learning to serve the Lord and to contact people, your clothing should be proper. When you stand up to speak for the Lord, many people will be listening to you and watching you. Thus, you must be careful about your speaking and your behavior, and you must learn how to dress.
Today people pay much attention to fashion and beauty. To them to be beautiful requires exposing their body as much as possible. This is the trend and fashion of the world today. The women’s skirts are too short. This is not beauty. This corrupts others’ eyes and adds to the women’s shame. The more a woman covers her body, the better. This is the reason why there are ancient traditions like head-covering and face-covering. The less the body is exposed, the better it is. It is not only wrong to expose one’s bones, flesh, and skin; it is also a shame to expose the shape of one’s body with tight clothing. Modern females always try their best to expose not only their skin and flesh but also the shape of their body. They think that this is beauty. Actually, this is to be void of the sense of shame. It is not right for one who serves the Lord to dress like this. If you dress this way, no one will dare to look at you, much less listen to your words.
We should also carefully consider the color of our clothing. Those who serve the Lord should not wear clothes with colors that are too striking or too sharp. It is improper if the color of our clothing is so striking that it draws attention. We should also consider the style of our clothing. If the style of our clothing is too strange, it will make others feel uncomfortable. Even the combination of the colors of our tie and shirt should be fitting. Suppose you wear a navy blue suit with a green tie and a pink shirt. Your skin and flesh may not be exposed, and the style of your suit may be very elegant, but the minute you appear before others, they will be shocked. This is improper.
The colors of your tie and suit should match. They also should not be overly plain, lest they draw unnecessary attention. The colors of your socks should also match the color of your suit. Suppose a brother wears light brown shoes, purple and red socks, and a gray suit with a blue tie. If he were to speak to me, I would not be able to listen to what he was saying, because I would be distracted by his shoes, socks, suit, and tie.
God’s creation is beautiful, and there is no ugly color anywhere in it. Today while we are working for the Lord, we are constantly contacting people. Therefore, our clothing, which is a form of our expression, should be proper. I am not telling you to have a high standard of living, but I hope that you would pay attention to your status. You were students in the past, and as students you might not have had the means to pay much attention to your clothing. But now that you are working for the Lord and going out to contact people, you should pay attention to the way that you dress, including the style of your clothing, the type of your clothing, and the color of your shoes and socks. If you are careless in the way that you dress, you will compromise your outward expression and depreciate yourself. Today everybody pays attention to outward appearance. Whenever you buy something, you should examine what it looks like before you decide to buy it. I wish that all of you would pay attention to these things and practice and learn faithfully in this matter. All these things that I have mentioned are part of our character training.
Prayer: Lord, we consecrate ourselves completely and entirely to You. We belong to You, and we are willing to be those who are always filled with You within and transformed by You without. We do not want anyone to despise our youth; instead, we want to be a proper pattern. Lord, have mercy on us and cause us to be aggressive and have much training in all these matters—in eating, in clothing, and in being active and inactive. Lord, adjust us in our character that we may be vessels unto honor, those who are filled with You to express You. Amen.
