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Matthew 25:12-13 says, “He answered and said, Truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” The phrase I do not know you in verse 12 can also be translated as “I do not approve of you” or “I do not recognize you.” As we know, the difference between the foolish virgins and the prudent virgins is a matter of whether or not they have prepared oil in their vessels. The oil in the lamp refers to the Spirit that we receive in regeneration, whereas the oil in the vessel refers to the filling of the Spirit that we receive by pursuing, after we have been saved.
Why does God want us to pursue the filling of the Spirit after regenerating us, saving us, and giving us the Spirit? The reason is related to the ultimate purpose of God’s salvation. The purpose of God’s salvation in the universe is to work Himself into man and to mingle Himself with man. Thus, those who will go forth to God in the future are simply those who are being mingled with God today. Therefore, everything that we do today must be done by God mingling Himself with us. Only this has eternal value. God regenerated us because He wants to live in us. By regeneration He put His life into us; that is, He incarnated Himself into us so that He could live in us. The Bible mentions several times that God abides in us and that we should also abide in Him (John 14:17-20). Paul even says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Christ’s living in us is God’s living in us. Christ lives in us through the Spirit. The Spirit in us is actually Christ and God in us.
Today the Triune God, who is Christ, the Spirit, and God, is already living in us, but do we give Him the ground in us? For example, in a normal family the parents are the elders and have their proper place. However, some families are in a rebellious situation in which the son assumes the headship and seizes all the position in the family without giving any to his parents. The son may force his parents to live in a small room in the corner, or he may have full authority so that only what he says counts and the parents do not have any authority. In such a family, the parents still live in the family, but they do not have the parental position. Although the parents are the elders in the family, they cannot exercise their authority. The inward situation of many saints is like this. Although God lives in them, they have given God almost no ground. Although the Spirit has touched them inwardly many times, they still tightly hold on to their authority. This is our situation.
We sometimes go against the feelings of our conscience and extinguish the feelings that are in the deepest part of our being in doing things that usurp the authority of God. Although the Spirit is in us, most of the time we do not give Him the authority and thus do not have the filling of the Spirit. Although we have been saved and have the life of God, we often do not give God the authority and consequently are not people filled with the Spirit. Thus, we need to pursue and be dealt with before the Lord. We do not need to pursue to receive the Spirit. Rather, we need to pursue to be dealt with so that the Spirit can gain us. The Spirit is already living in us, and we have already received the Spirit. However, most of us have not given ourselves to the Spirit and have not let the Spirit gain us. Although we belong to Christ today, most of us still live by ourselves and are our own masters. We do not live by Christ and do not let Christ be our Master. In a sense, we have “parents” in our family, but most of the time we do not let them be the masters and do not respect their authority. This is an abnormal situation.
For a human being, it would be very rebellious to be such a child in such a family. For a Christian, it is very unspiritual to be this kind of Christian. No matter what kind of person you are, you need to know the principle of being that kind of person. If you are a student, you should study. The principle of being a student is to focus on studying hard. If you do not study or work hard as a student, you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing and should feel ashamed of yourself. This is true not only for students but also for people with any kind of occupation. Whether you are a storeowner, boss, professor, or doctor, you must follow certain principles. Similarly, there is a principle for being a Christian. A wise person, no matter what kind of person he is, will behave according to the principle for the kind of person he is. It would be very foolish for him to overlook or to violate that principle.
What is the principle of being a Christian? Why are we Christians? What is the purpose of being a Christian? If we truly want to be Christians and to be called Christians, yet we overlook and violate the principle of being a Christian, then we are the most foolish people in the world. The principle of being a Christian is to let Christ mature in us. A Christian is a person who belongs to Christ, who is filled with Christ, and who expresses Christ. To express Christ requires that we be filled with Christ, and to be filled with Christ requires that we be filled with the Spirit of Christ. This is the principle of being a Christian. We must follow this principle so that Christ within us may possess us, govern us, and control us. Our entire inner being, that is, our mind, emotion, and will—including our thoughts, views, insights, opinions, preferences, choices, and decisions—must be brought under the governing of Christ. We must give Christ the right to control us so that He may move freely in us and possess us.
To get to this stage, we must be filled with the Spirit who is the essence of Christ. Christ controls, possesses, and governs us in and through the Spirit. Therefore, we must pursue the filling of the Spirit. This is the principle of being a Christian. Christians who do not live according to this principle do not behave like Christians and do not live up to the standard. To live up to the standard, a Christian must be subject to the principle of the filling of the Spirit. In the parable of the ten virgins, the virgins’ preparing oil in their vessels signifies our pursuing the filling of the Spirit.
No other passage in the entire Bible is as clear as the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 in showing the way a Christian matures after being saved. That way, which is the principle of being a Christian, is extremely simple—it is to prepare oil in his vessel. Those who prepared were the prudent ones, and those who did not prepare were the foolish ones. As Christians, whether we are prudent or foolish in the eyes of the Lord will be determined not by so many other things but by the principle of whether we have prepared oil in our vessels. Whether or not we will be with the Lord, feast with Him, and participate in the heavenly joy with Him in the kingdom age does not depend on so many other things but on whether we have prepared oil in our vessels.
Many Bible expositors agree that to prepare oil in the vessel is to be filled with the Spirit. There is no question that we have been regenerated and saved and have the Spirit within us. The only question now is whether we have prepared the oil in our vessel and have the filling of the Spirit. We may make light of this or may overlook this matter before the Lord, but the Lord wants us to realize that our situation before Him today and our future destiny all depend on our attitude in this matter. In other words, our future destiny depends on whether or not we have the filling of the Spirit. Let us consider the following questions. Have we been saved? Have we been regenerated? Do we have the life of the Lord, and are we children of God? Do we have the Spirit of God in us? I believe that we would all say yes to all these questions. However, if I were to ask whether or not we have given the Spirit the ground in us or whether or not the Spirit has the authority in us, I am afraid that we would find it difficult to answer.
By giving the Spirit the ground in us and allowing the Spirit to have the authority in us, we are preparing our vessels with the oil. However, we must admit that most of us have not given the Spirit the ground and the authority to fill us. We may have many reasons and excuses for not preparing our vessels with the oil. We may not even have the heart to be prepared with the oil. As Christians, we are often foolish and unwise. May the Lord have mercy on us to open our inner eyes and to clearly show that this is the way for a Christian to mature so that we would rise up to pursue the filling of the Spirit.
The fact that we are human beings is not something decided by us. We cannot choose to be human beings when we are happy and choose not to be human beings when we are unhappy. The fact that we are human beings was something decided by God. The authority is in God’s hands. God created us. It does not matter whether or not we like being human beings or whether or not we know how to live as human beings. If God wants us to be men, then we must be men. As men, we are told by God through the gospel that we must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus or else we will perish. There is no point in arguing about this because the universe is not in our hands. We are not the Lord of the universe. The universe is under the authority and ordination of God. God made us as men, so we have to be men. Now, having made us as men, He wants us to believe in the Lord Jesus. If we protest against this, we are being foolish. There is no way to change God’s decision and selection. If we are wise, we will submit to Him and say, “Oh, God, this is good. If You want me to believe in Jesus, then I will believe in Jesus. Hallelujah.” Then we will have peace and joy.
We cannot argue with Him about this because the universe is His, and the authority is in His hands. After we become Christians, He says to us, “You have become a Christian, and you have a regenerated life, but you still have to prepare oil in your vessel.” This is simply a matter of His authority. If we prepare our vessels with the oil, we will be at peace, and the result will be good. If we do not prepare our vessels with the oil and instead protest against Him, He will remain unchanged. We may give eight, ten, or even a hundred reasons in opposing Him, but we will not have the Amen and the peace in the deepest part of our being. Our whole being will be inwardly upset. No matter how many reasons we present to God, the inward Amen and the sense of peace will be withheld from us. We may have many excuses, but our inner being will not be at peace.
A Christian who is at peace and is joyful and whose inner being is in harmony with his outer being must be pursuing the filling of the Spirit. If a person is not pursuing the filling of the Spirit, he will surely have no peace within. He may have many reasons for not pursuing and may continually mention these reasons to God, but his innermost being will not be at ease and will have no peace. Because his inner being is in disharmony with his outer being, he will not have the boldness to kneel before the Lord and to pray. The Spirit who lives in the deepest part of his being will not say Amen. He may try his best to deceive the Spirit or to bribe Him, but the Spirit can never be deceived or bribed. Because of his hardness and his many reasons, the Spirit may be silent for a while since the Spirit does not contend with man. After he has given up his reasons and finished his talking, the Spirit may come again and speak to him while he is sitting alone in the middle of the night. The words of the Spirit may be completely contrary to the reasons that he gave. Thus, he will be unable to do anything. No Christian can avoid this. As Christians, we have to mature, and we must be filled with the Spirit.
Whether or not we agree with God or whether or not we are submissive to Him, we can never change Him because the authority is in His hands. There are three facts that we cannot change: first, the fact that we are men; second, the fact that as men we must believe in Jesus; and third, the fact that as believers we must mature. The authority to change these things is not in our hands. Some people commit suicide because they are unhappy that they are men. Actually, to commit suicide is the most foolish thing to do because it only causes one to perish more quickly. God wants us to be men, so we must obediently be men. God wants us to believe in Jesus, so we must obediently believe in Jesus. Having believed in Jesus, God wants us to mature, to pursue the filling of the Spirit, and to prepare oil in our vessels. We must submissively say, “Amen. Yes, God, I am willing to do this.” If we do this, we will be the prudent ones whom the Lord will praise.
Many people say that honest advice often grates on the ear. Although these words may be unpleasant to your ear, they are nevertheless important and faithful. I hope that we would receive these words. If we are Christians, we must be mature Christians, and we must prepare oil in our vessels. Never regard the parables given by the Lord Jesus as playful and insignificant stories. The Lord said that the prudent ones prepare oil in their vessels, whereas the foolish ones do not. He will come one day, and these two kinds of people will have to meet Him. You and I will have to meet Him one day. How will you meet Him? This is a big question. We cannot guarantee how many years we will live on the earth, whether it will be ten, twenty, sixty, or a hundred years. No matter how many years we will be alive on the earth, we must prepare our vessels with the oil within the limited time. How do we prepare our vessels with the oil? We have to buy it. To buy the oil is to pay the price. We have to pay the price to prepare our vessels with the oil.
Salvation and the life of God are given to us freely, but the filling of the Spirit is not. To gain the filling of the Spirit, we have to pay the price. How much of the filling of the Spirit we gain depends on how much of the price we pay. When we are shopping, the more we pay, the more we can buy, and the less we pay, the less we can buy. To have the filling of the Spirit, we need to pay the price. How do we pay the price? According to the principle, we pay the price by giving the Spirit the ground in us. Before we were saved, we lived in the world and were our own masters. We did not give the Lord any ground and did not care about His authority. Everything that we treasured was ours—our family, children, husband or wife, future, business, material possessions, education, statuses, and all the things we enjoyed. The Lord did not have any ground in us.
We did whatever we felt like doing and were not restricted. Some people are seriously fallen because they give the ground in themselves to gambling, movies, and dancing. They neglect their families and put aside their careers. They only want to dance, play mah-jongg, and watch movies. Inside such ones are all kinds of corrupt things. The more proper ones let their future, education, status, career, and family occupy their entire being. There is no ground for God in them, and the Lord does not have any authority in them. This was our situation before we believed in the Lord. Regrettably, many of us who have believed in the Lord are still in this kind of situation today. The Lord still does not have any ground in us.
In the Gospels the Lord repeatedly asked people to leave everything (Matt. 19:29; Mark 10:29; Luke 18:29), to sell all that they had (Matt. 13:44-46; Mark 10:21), and to deny the self to follow Him (Matt. 16:24). What the Lord meant was that if we want to become His disciples, follow Him, and gain Him as salvation, the first criterion is that we must leave everything. What does it mean to leave everything? It means that we do not allow anything other than the Lord to occupy us. We do not allow education, money, fame, career, family, or children to occupy us. We have to empty out our heart for Christ. This is what the Lord Jesus meant. He wants us to leave everything to follow Him. He wants us to pour out everything in our inward being other than Himself so that our heart can be empty for Him.
Some people have the misunderstanding that the Lord wants us to leave and neglect our family, husband, wife, business, career, and everything. Actually, when the Lord told us to leave everything, He did not mean that we should no longer care for the necessities of life but that all these things must not have the ground in us or occupy us. All the ground in us should be given to Christ. For example, consider a saint who is a student. For him to leave everything does not mean that he should no longer study but that the matter of studying should no longer occupy his heart. His heart should be empty for Christ. Then the Christ in him will lead him how to study and how far he should go in his studies. His leading is always higher than our own seeking.
The Lord said in the Gospels that we should leave our parents, wives, and children. However, in the Epistles the apostles tell the parents to raise their children properly, the children to obey their parents, the husbands to love their wives, and the wives to be subject to their husbands (Eph. 6:1-4; Col. 3:18-21). Furthermore, they tell us to not only provide for our immediate family but also for our relatives. If we do not do this, we are worse than the unbelievers (1 Tim. 5:8). These verses show that to leave everything does not mean to abandon everything and to care for nothing. Rather, it means that all these things no longer have the ground in us because the ground in us has been given to Christ.
When we have given Christ the ground, He will tell us that He will keep us on the earth to make us more proper than we used to be. When He wants us to put aside our family, it does not mean that He does not want us to care for our family. He simply wants us to give Him the ground and to not be occupied by our family. When He is the Lord in us and gains the authority, He will strengthen us and make us even more able to bear the responsibilities of the family. As husbands, we will be the best husbands, and as parents, we will be the best parents. We will do everything well and properly, yet our families will not have the ground in us because our ground will have been given to Christ.
The source of all our problems lies in whether or not we are willing to give Christ the ground. Perhaps all the saints may say that they are willing because they all desire to be mature Christians. However, I am afraid that leaving everything may be such a big price that nobody would be willing to pay it. However, those who truly know the Lord know that the Lord whom we follow is not so cruel or harsh. Throughout the past two thousand years there have been many who loved the Lord and who suffered poverty and humiliation for His sake, but their enjoyment of the Lord was much deeper and fuller than that of other people. Madame Guyon is a good example. Everyone agrees that she truly loved the Lord. She was born and raised in a noble family. There were many maids who served her. She did not have to wash her own clothes or even comb her own hair. Materially, she was truly rich. However, these things did not have the ground in her, nor could they touch her.
There was a brother whose clothing was very valuable, but his clothing did not occupy him and was not his world. Under the natural arrangement of God, he had a certain status and position to live this kind of life, but those things did not have any ground in him. He did not love the world. This is the principle of living in the world. On the contrary, someone who may be very poor may want this thing or that thing. This is to love the world. Therefore, those who are rich and have high statuses are not necessarily those who love the world. Twenty years ago there was a brother in northern China who was very poor indeed. He stood up in a fellowship meeting one day and said, “Brothers, we should not love money. We should never love money.” He gave a message on not loving money, but nobody said Amen. Why? It was because he did not truly know the meaning of loving money and not loving money. He came to me for fellowship one day and asked me how his message had been that day. I told him frankly, “Brother, when you have made a hundred thousand dollars or two hundred thousand dollars, then you can give the message again. Only then will you know the meaning of loving money and not loving money.” The fact that we do not have money does not mean that we do not love money. I am afraid that money may have far more ground in us than in those who have eighty thousand or a hundred thousand dollars.
What is the meaning of leaving everything? It means that all the things that are necessary in life do not have any ground in us. Rather, the ground in us has been given to Christ. How should we deal with our children, our family, and our career? The Lord within us will show us. No one can tell others how to deal with these matters. Our lives, statuses, and situations may be different, but our hearts should be absolutely the same. The ground in us should be given to Christ.
It is actually relatively easy to abandon all the things in our lives and to not live by them. It is much more difficult to live by those things and yet not give them the ground. It is like living in a family but not giving the family the ground in us. How difficult this is! Some religions persuade people to abandon their families and even to abandon everything, because they believe that everything is vanity and that people no longer need anything. The Lord, however, does not want us to live such a life. Instead, He wants us to have a family but to not give ground to our family. All the ground has to be given to Christ. At the same time, we must act according to the will of Christ in order to properly bear the responsibilities of the family.
A co-worker once said that our heart is like a Chinese medicinal patch. Whatever it is applied to, it sticks to that. Likewise, whatever our heart touches, it sticks to it. When it touches education, it sticks to education. When it touches business, it sticks to business. When it touches money, it sticks to money. When it touches our family, it sticks to our family. Someone may say, “If our heart is like this, then I do not want anything.” However, the Lord will tell that one, “No, that is not the way of My salvation. In My salvation you should have a family, bear responsibilities, become a husband and a father, do business, have a career, and lead a proper life, but all these things should not have the ground in you.” This is the price that we must pay. What is it to pay the price? It is to empty our vessel for God to come in. Every inch of ground in us has to be given to Christ. When we give Him the ground, we will have God in us, and we will have the filling of the Spirit.
Some fifty years ago in a Western country, there was a group of saints who were pursuing the filling of the Spirit. One of them was a sister who loved the Lord very much. She prayed and waited. Then she prayed and waited again. While she was praying and waiting there, she felt that she had given the Lord the ground in her. It seemed that the Lord could do whatever He wanted to do in her except deal with her hair. During that time in the West, the most fashionable way for a woman to arrange her hair was to set it very high, like a tower. This sister allowed the Lord to touch everything she had except her tower-like hair. When she had the feeling that the Lord wanted to deal with her hair, she told the Lord, “Lord, if You touch my money, I am willing to offer it. If You want me to deal with my sins, I am willing to do it. However, my hair is really an insignificant matter, so please leave me alone.” We can see that this sister’s hairstyle was not sinful, nor was she loving the world by having this hairstyle. Many sisters today cut their hair very short and do not consider that they are loving the world. The problem is that man likes to reason. Who can say that setting one’s hair very high is loving the world, while cutting one’s hair very short so that it looks like neither a man’s nor a woman’s is not loving the world? The question we must ask is, who has the authority? Is the authority over your hair in your hands or in the Lord’s hands? Who is the master of your head—you or the Lord?
Our reasons may be very plausible, but the Lord never listens to our reasoning. In a sense, He is unreasonable. Our “lawsuits” with the Lord are always one-sided. There are no plaintiffs and defendants. There is only His side. Whatever He says, that is it. There is nothing to argue about. During a meeting, the sister mentioned earlier came and, kneeling down, cried out loudly, “Lord, why do You not answer my prayers? Why have You not filled me with the Spirit? Lord, I have been so desperate. I have been praying and waiting. Whatever You wanted me to do I did. Why have You not given me the filling of the Spirit?” Then the Lord asked her, “Have you done all that I asked you to do? What about your hair?” She was speechless. On that day she knelt down and pulled her high hair down. Then she received the filling of the Spirit. Once her hair was subject to the Lord, she was immediately filled with the Spirit. This is to pay the price.
What the Lord wants is not our wealth, our time, and our everything. What He wants is for us to allow Him to question us about everything. The Lord is not so cruel that He would ask us for everything that we love. The Lord wants us to allow Him to go through everything and to allow Him to have the ground in everything. The Lord will not necessarily fight against us to take away all our material possessions. The Lord may even give us more enjoyment, but the question is whether we will give Him the ground. All things are His. If we truly want to enjoy Him and love Him, we have to give Him the ground in us. Then we will be satisfied and will receive the filling of the Spirit. The Lord cares not for your hairstyle but for whether or not He has the ground in you. When you decide on your hairstyle, the Lord cares whether He is in it or not. What the Lord is fighting for is His authority and ground. Are the authority and ground in your hands or the Lord’s hands?
If we bring all these questions before Him and give Him the authority and ground, we are paying the price to “buy” Him. He will have the ground in us to fill us. Perhaps one day He will give us clothing that is much more beautiful than the clothing we wore in the past. The Lord is merciful to us. The question is whether we will completely give Him the ground in us. What is it to be a vessel? To be a vessel is to be empty within. Then the oil can be put into the vessel. In order to contain the oil, the vessel has to be emptied and has to give room for the oil. If the vessel has no space and is not empty, then the oil cannot be put in. We are vessels, and we have to be emptied for the Lord. This is to pay the price.
