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In 2 Corinthians 3:16-17 Paul says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Paul says here that whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Who is the Lord? Who are we actually turning to when we turn to the Lord? Paul says in verse 17, “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Verse 18 continues to say, “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
According to the Bible, our spirit is the lamp of Jehovah (Prov. 20:27), and our soul is a vessel for God (Matt. 25:3-4). When we were saved, the Spirit of God as the oil entered into our spirit. Now God’s desire is to have His Spirit worked more and more into the different parts of our soul. When every part of our soul is filled up with the Spirit of God, then we will be mature in the spiritual life. The maturity in spiritual life depends on our being inwardly filled up with God’s element. God’s unique goal for us and His unique work on us are to work Himself and to mingle Himself into our being. Although God has done many things in us to which He wants us to take heed, His unique, central, and primary task in us is to cause our being to be filled up with God’s element, that is, to be filled up with God Himself.
The first step of God’s work is that when we are saved, His Spirit enters into our spirit. From that time onward, His intention is that His Spirit, which is His element, would spread from our spirit to the various parts of our being. When He has completely worked Himself into every part of our being, then we will be mature in the spiritual life. Then we can meet the Lord with boldness because by then whatever the Lord is, we also will be (1 John 3:2). Just as the Lord is God mingled with humanity and humanity brought into God, we also have God being mingled with us and are being mingled into God. Inwardly and outwardly, the condition of our entire being will match and be in harmony with the Lord’s. At that time we will be able to meet and dwell with the Lord in glory.
It is the work of God’s free grace that the Spirit enters into our spirit. This work does not require us to do anything, nor do we need to pay a price for it. As long as we confess in our heart that we are sinners and open ourselves to receive Him as our Savior, the Spirit of God will enter into our spirit without any cost to us. However, from that time on, in order for the Spirit to work Himself into the various parts of our soul, we need to cooperate and pay the price. Why is it necessary for us to pay the price? It is necessary because various parts of our soul have been fully occupied by all kinds of people, matters, and things. The mind, emotion, and will of our soul are full of our natural concepts, thoughts, preferences, and choices. We love our reputations, positions, and money. We love our wives, our children, and ourselves. Our hearts have been filled up with our own desires. This makes it difficult for the Spirit to work Himself into our soul.
How can the Spirit work Himself into our mind if we are not willing to lay down the thoughts in our mind? How can the Spirit work Himself into our emotion if we are not willing to give up what we desire in our emotion? Likewise, if we are not willing to surrender our own choices in our will, there is no way for the Spirit to be wrought into our will. We know that our soul is a vessel composed of three parts—the mind, emotion, and will. Each of these three parts is itself a small vessel. The vessel of our emotion should be filled with the Holy Spirit, yet we allow other things to occupy our emotion. Even before the Spirit enters into our emotion, our emotion has already been filled up with so many other things. What our emotion loves are the things and matters that our emotion is filled with and occupied with. Consider the following questions: We are saved, but how many things other than the Lord are still in our emotion? If these things that are apart from the Lord have filled up our emotion and are occupying it, do you think that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to fill up our emotion?
In order for the Spirit to spread from our spirit to our emotion, we have to pour out all that is occupying our emotion. This pouring out is the paying of the price. For example, a glass may be used to illustrate our emotion. The grape juice that fills the glass symbolizes the desires that fill our emotion. If we want to fill up this glass with air, the only way to do this would be to pour out the grape juice. The more the grape juice is poured out, the more the air can fill the glass. Further pouring out of the grape juice will allow further filling up of the air. When the grape juice is completely poured out from the glass, the air will fill up the entire glass. Therefore, the problem is not that the air is not filling up the glass but that other things are occupying the glass. The Spirit is like the air. Only when we empty ourselves completely can the Spirit fill up our entire being.
Today the problem is not with the Spirit’s infilling but that many things apart from the Lord are occupying us. From morning to evening our emotion desires many things that, although they may not be evil, filthy, or sinful, are not the Lord Himself. The grape juice may be good because it contains ingredients such as water and sugar, yet the grape juice is not the air. Our desires may be good, proper, and noble, yet these things are not the Lord Himself.
Ever since He saved us, the Lord has been continuously working to move us, demand of us, encourage us, and even wait for us to empty out the things that are occupying our emotion so that He can have the ground in us. However, what is our response? The Lord repeatedly touches us, and we are touched, but we do not move. The Lord repeatedly makes requests of us, but although we hear Him, we do not answer Him. Do we not realize that the things that we love and desire are not the Lord? Do we not realize that the Lord has been wrestling in us with the things that we desire? Sometimes we bargain with the Lord until He gives in. Even when we agree to the Lord’s requests, eventually, we still break our promises.
Many times we encounter frustrations and difficulties that we cannot overcome. At those times we may yield to the Lord, saying, “O Lord! You are asking too much from me. Please reduce Your demand a little.” Our Lord is not cruel and will sometimes go along. Then we may have an inward sense of peace, and we may tell the Lord, “Lord, the difficulties are gone, and I want to love You more.” However, as time goes by, does our being change? What happened to our promises to the Lord? We are indeed unfaithful. Our emotion is still occupied by the matters that occupied us before. We still shut the door on the Lord, leaving Him outside the door. Our condition is like that of the church in Laodicea. Although we love the Lord and consistently pray and attend the meetings, we are not willing to practically pay a price, and in the end we become lukewarm. The Lord has no ground in us and has been shut outside the door by us, the lukewarm Laodiceans.
In Revelation the Lord says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me” (3:20). The Lord desires to have mutual enjoyment with us. Even though He is in our spirit, we often shut Him outside the door. We shut Him outside the door of our emotion. Our spirit is like a refrigerator in which we keep the Lord. Therefore, the Lord has no way to enter into our inner chambers and into our heart. The Lord is standing and knocking in our cold spirit, longing to enter into our heart and our emotion, yet our heart remains so hard and cold.
Not only is our emotion like this, our mind is even more so. The Lord has hardly any ground in our mind. Our mind is filled with many things other than the Lord. Once a brother in Shanghai told a story concerning our mind. He said that there was a sister attending a meeting in which a brother was giving a message. This brother asked the sister how many chapters were in the Gospel of Matthew. She said that there were thirty-eight chapters. He then asked her how many chapters were in the Gospel of Mark. She replied that there were twenty-six chapters. The brother went on to ask her how many of her clothes were blue and how many were red. She answered that she had exactly five items of clothing that were blue and three that were red. This sister knew the number of clothes she had that were blue or red, but regarding the number of chapters in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, her memory was confused. Her confusion in this regard indicated where her mind was. Since her mind was so occupied with her clothing, how could there be room reserved for the Lord? If our mind is like a glass that is fully occupied, how can the Lord occupy even a small part of it? Since we have been saved by grace, our thoughts and considerations may not be evil. However, neither are they the Lord Himself. In our mind we are continually thinking, calculating, and planning. We are unable to stop thinking for even a second. Only we ourselves know what we are thinking about.
What is our response when the Spirit touches us, enlightens us, gives us a feeling, or makes a request of us? We may still try to bargain with the Lord. Is this the way to give ground to the Spirit? No, when the Spirit makes a demand on us, we should immediately pay the price, lay down our opinions and desires, and deal with and get rid of all these things. To deal with and get rid of these things is to pay the price. This is the case not only with our emotion and mind but also with our will. How many of our opinions, decisions, and selections are of the Lord? The decisions we make in our will are mostly made for ourselves. Thus, the Spirit cannot fill us, and the Lord cannot spread into the three parts of our soul—our mind, emotion, and will. This is because our soul has been fully occupied by ourselves, not the Lord.
What is a mature Christian like? The deepest and innermost part of our being is our spirit. One day the Lord entered into our being. His entering in was actually the entering in of the Spirit of the Lord. Our spirit was then filled with the Lord, and we were regenerated. This happened in our innermost part, the center of our being. Now we have the Lord who is the Spirit inside of us. When we receive the Lord, we receive the Spirit and are regenerated. For this we do not need to pay a price. We simply receive Him by believing. However, our outer man, which is our soul composed of three parts—our mind, emotion, and will—has been filled with ourselves and the things of the world. Our mind, our emotion, and our will are filled with ourselves and the things of the world. Can the Lord enter into our soul when it is in such a condition? He cannot. The Spirit of the Lord in our spirit would like to spread outward, yet our soul has fenced Him off, restricting Him in every way. Thus, He is unable to touch us and move into our soul. When the Lord touches us, we are touched, but we do not move. This is the reason why the Spirit is unable to fill us up.
Second Corinthians 3 gives us the way to break through this situation. “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (vv. 16-17). We saved ones all have the Lord who is the Spirit in our spirit. Therefore, the Lord and we are very closely joined. There is no distance between the Lord and us. Nevertheless, why does it often seem that the Lord is not so near and accessible to us? This is because there is a veil between the Lord and us. When we were regenerated, the Lord entered into our being and dwelt in our spirit. At that time we were face to face with the Lord, fellowshipping with Him. However, as we faced the people, matters, and things in our daily life day after day, we unconsciously turned away from the Lord. This turning away is the veil.
Paul says that whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. This veil is neither a matter nor an event but our turning away from the Lord. Suppose a brother and I are very close together and are facing each other. However, if I turn away from him, even though I am still very close to him, I cannot see him. This is the meaning of having a veil. My turning away from this brother is the veil. However, when I turn toward him again, this veil is taken away, and we can behold each other again. It is the same with the Lord who is in us. He is near to us in our spirit. In the beginning the Lord and we were face to face. However, our hearts did not love Him that much and turned away from Him, facing our children, studies, reputations, positions, and money instead. When our heart pursues the things in the world and not the Lord, a veil comes between the Lord and us.
The heart is a very special part of our being. It has the component of the conscience and also the components of the mind, emotion, and will. For instance, self-condemnation in the heart issues from the function of the conscience, the desires of the heart issue from the function of the emotion, the considerations in the heart issue from the function of the mind, and the decisions made in the heart issue from the function of the will. Therefore, the mind, emotion, and will all rest upon the heart. In other words, the heart is connected with the mind, emotion, and will and is also connected with the spirit because the conscience is a part of the spirit. In view of this, the heart is a master switch, a key control point in man’s inner being. Everything must go through the heart. Nothing can go through us unless it goes through our heart.
The heart is like an electric switch. When an electric switch is turned on, electricity is supplied. When the electric switch is turned off, the supply of electricity is terminated. In our spirit is the Spirit, which is the electricity, and our heart is the electric switch. Unless the heart is “turned on,” the Spirit cannot come out and reach our mind, emotion, and will. How can the heart be turned on? It must be turned toward the Lord. The Spirit cannot enter into our emotion because our heart is not turned toward the Lord. The Spirit cannot enter into our will because our heart is not turned toward the Lord. To turn to the Lord is to love Him. When our heart turns to the Lord, we will love Him. When we love Him, we will spontaneously be open to Him. When we are open to Him, there will be no more veils. Before, our heart was turned away from Him, did not love Him, and was not facing Him. Now our heart has been turned around. When we turn our heart around, there is no more veil, and we can behold the Lord face to face.
We have the Lord in us, and we have the Spirit of the Lord in us, but we and the Lord are often not in fellowship each day. Why? This is because our heart is not turned toward the Lord and because we love other things and not the Lord. We realize that the Lord is in us, yet we do not love Him. We do not want the Lord and do not turn to Him. Thus, our heart is turned away from Him, and a veil comes between the Lord and us. However, once our heart turns around to be face to face with the Lord, the veil is taken away. At this time our heart is open and the Spirit can spread out from our spirit into our emotion through our heart. Through our heart the Spirit can also spread to our will and to our mind. The more we love the Lord, the more our heart will open to the Lord and the more the Spirit will enter into our emotion. Also, the more we love the Lord, the more the Spirit will enter into our mind and our will. The more we turn to the Lord and the more we love Him, the more the Lord will have a way to spread out from our spirit through our heart into every part of our soul.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” This verse indicates that when our heart turns to the Lord, the veil will be taken away, and we will behold the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face. For instance, sisters love to beautify and adorn themselves. This desire to beautify themselves issues from the function of their emotion. When they think about the different things and ways to beautify themselves, their mind is functioning. As they decide what cosmetics to buy, their will is functioning. Because of this matter of beautification, their entire soul is functioning. This kind of soul, which consists of the mind, emotion, and will, does not have the Lord. Many sisters confine the Lord in their spirit. Even as they pray, they tell the Lord, “Lord, let me beautify myself this time. There is a special need this time, so please let me do it this one time.” What is the outcome? The outcome is that they can no longer fellowship with the Lord because there is a veil. As their heart turns away from the Lord, He has no way to get through them. It is as if He were hitting a brick wall or being shut outside the door.
For example, suppose a sister is moved by the Spirit of the Lord and responds to His love, saying, “Lord, although I love to dress up and to adorn myself, I love You even more. I turn my heart and face toward You.” Once she turns to the Lord in this way, the veil will be taken away. Immediately, she will be face to face with the Lord and will behold the Lord and the glory of the Lord. As her emotion turns, she will begin to love the Lord. She will then realize in her mind that such beautification is not something after the Lord’s desire, does not glorify the Lord, and is not pleasing to the Lord. Then she will pray to the Lord, “Lord, if this is the case, then I am willing to lay down and surrender my views and opinions. Lord, what You like is what I like, and what You consider good, I also consider good.” The Spirit of the Lord will thus come out from her spirit through her heart to her emotion and to her mind. Then she will be able to declare boldly, “Lord, by Your grace I would not beautify myself in this way and would not purchase these kinds of clothing anymore.” Thus, the Spirit will also move into her will through her heart.
If in every matter in our daily living our heart would be open and turned to the Lord, allowing Him to pass through and allowing the Spirit to enter into every part of our soul, then our mind, emotion, and will would be filled with the Spirit. But for this we have to pay the price, yield ourselves, and surrender ourselves again and again. This repeated surrendering and yielding is the paying of the price to buy the oil, that is, the paying of the price to be filled with the Spirit. The more our soul is filled up with the Holy Spirit, the more mature in life we will become.
Whether or not we become mature in life depends on whether or not our heart loves the Lord. If our heart turns away from the Lord, He will be bound in our spirit and will have no way to come out or spread out. One day, however, the Lord may touch us, and our heart may turn back to Him. Through the turning and opening of our heart to the Lord, we are able to behold the glory of the Lord face to face. As we behold the Lord day after day in all our situations, we will eventually reflect the Lord’s glory and be transformed into His image from glory to glory. In other words, if we open to Him a little today, then we will see something of Him today. If tomorrow we open to Him further, then tomorrow we will see something more of Him. We are like a mirror and an unveiled face aimed at Him. The more we focus on Him and draw near to Him, the clearer and more glorious our reflection of His glory will be.
What is the meaning of an unveiled face? An unveiled face is a heart that is turned to the Lord. If I turn my back to a person, I would not have an unveiled face to him. However, when I turn and face him, my face is an unveiled face to him. Likewise, whenever our heart loves the Lord and turns to Him, our heart and our face toward Him are unveiled. We can then behold Him face to face and fellowship with Him every day. The Lord through His Spirit will fill our being—our mind, emotion, and will—with His glory and with Himself as the Spirit. Consequently, whatever we think about, love, or choose will have the Lord’s image because they will all have the Lord’s element. Then we will be mature.
There are two characteristics of someone who is mature in the Christian life. One characteristic is that he has glory, and the other is that he has freedom. When the Lord through His Spirit works His glory, which is Himself as the Spirit, into us and saturates us from our spirit into the three parts of our soul, then we are becoming mature in life from glory to glory. Eventually, our entire inward being will be glory. Our mind, our emotion, and our will will be glory. Our entire being will be glory. Not only so, our entire being will be free. There will be no more bondage in our mind, emotion, and will. There will be no bondage from our spirit to our soul. Every part of us will be set free.
Based on our experience, we can all testify that anyone who loves something other than the Lord not only binds up the Lord but also becomes bound himself. For instance, many sisters love to beautify themselves, with the result that the Lord has no ground in them to move. As a result, they themselves are also under bondage and have no freedom. Those brothers who love their future will be in the same situation—the Lord will be bound, as will they. Only when we are willing to pay the price and to lay down whatever the Lord wants us to lay down will our heart turn to the Lord. Then He will gain the ground in us and will be able to freely operate in us. We will also be released and will have freedom. Then when people touch us, they will sense a taste of the Lord. This is to have the image of the Lord. May our heart turn to Him.
