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The Bible clearly reveals that God’s purpose is to work Christ into His chosen people so that they might be the members of His Body, which, in this age, is expressed in many localities. If we have a heart to mean business with the Lord, then we must have a clear vision concerning Christ and the church. When we speak of a vision concerning Christ, we do not mean Christ in a doctrinal or theological way; we mean Christ in our experience. We must see a vision of the Christ whom we can experience fully in a very subjective way. We do not need messages concerning the doctrine of Christ; we need Christ in our daily experience.
Do you know what religion is? Religion is something that is related to the things of God yet is without the experience of Christ. Anything related to God and to the worship of God that does not have the experience of Christ is religion. In a sense, religion is quite good. It is not related to Satan, to sin, and to the world, but it is related to God and even to the worship of God. There is nothing wrong with Judaism. However, Judaism has a great lack—the lack of the experience of Christ. Today’s Christianity must also be categorized as a religion because it is related to God and to the worship of God, yet in it there is very little experience of Christ. If you still cling to things that are good, scriptural, and related to God but that do not have in them the proper experience of Christ, then these things are a religion. God does not want religion. What God desires is Christ and something in Christ. Are not the orthodox Jews worshipping the true God? Certainly they are, for they worship God according to their Scriptures. Nevertheless, God rejects their worship because Christ is not in it. Only the Christ experienced by us in our worship and service will make our worship and service acceptable to God. In Christianity today there is a great deal of work and service, but there is very little Christ. As a result, the work and service in Christianity are not so acceptable to God. In His eyes, it is not of much value. Whatever we are, whatever we do, and whatever work we engage in must be with Christ. Without Christ, they mean nothing. If we do not have Christ in our life, our life is empty. If we do not have Christ in our service and worship, they are valueless to God. We must have Christ, not in doctrine or teaching but in our experience. If we have Christ in our experience, then whatever we are and do will be valuable in the eyes of God.
God’s purpose is to work Christ into His chosen people so that they might become the members of Christ. Being a member of Christ requires life. Every member of my body certainly shares the life of my body. Any part of my body that does not share the life of my body is not a member of my body. To say that we are the members of Christ means that we have the life of Christ and that Christ is in us. The very Christ who is in us makes us His members. If we lack Christ, we may be members of a society or of Christianity, but we cannot be members of the living Body of Christ. Every member of the living Body of Christ has Christ in him. The Christ in us is not the Christ on the cross or the Christ in the heavens but the subjective Christ.
According to God’s governing principles and laws, everything in this universe has an issue. If we experience Christ in a subjective way, the issue will be the church life. No chapter of the New Testament is stronger than Ephesians 3 in speaking of the Christ in our experience. In verse 8 Paul says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” Paul does not say that he received grace in order to preach the doctrine of Christ, the theology of Christ, or the teaching of Christ. Rather, he received grace in order to preach the riches of Christ. Without experience, we cannot taste of or participate in the riches of Christ. We can only share in these riches by our experience. The riches of Christ need our experience.
In verse 17 Paul says that the Christ who is unsearchably rich is making His home in our hearts. Is this not a matter of experience? The Christ of the unsearchable riches is making His home in our hearts. What is the issue of this? It is the church, which, at least twice in this chapter, is mentioned after Christ. Verse 10 says, “In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church.” This indicates that the riches of Christ produce the church. The experience of the riches of Christ issues in the proper church life. Furthermore, after speaking of Christ’s making His home in our hearts (v. 17), Paul says that we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God and that to Him will be glory in the church (vv. 19, 21).
The church is the issue of the experience of Christ and comes out of the experience of Christ. Even our limited experience of Christ verifies this. When we have a little experience of Christ, not in doctrine but in reality, we desire fellowship with other Christians. This fellowship is simply the practical church life. I have never met a Christian who has experienced Christ and yet who does not seek fellowship with other Christians. But I have met hundreds and even thousands of believers who, after having had some experience of Christ, are eager to be with other saints. If I meet Christ in the morning, this experience will send me to the church meeting in the evening. Many Christians today do not care for the church life because they do not have the real, genuine, and practical experience of Christ. I was born, raised, and educated in Christianity. Everything I was taught came from Christianity. But before I was saved and had the real experience of Christ, I had no desire to talk to the other so-called church members. However, from the day I was saved and Christ came into me, I enjoyed having fellowship with others about the Lord and the Word. I liked talking with them and praying with them. This was the desire for the church life. The more we experience Christ, the greater will be our desire for the church life.
We all must see a clear vision of the church. The church is simply the expression of the Body of Christ on the proper ground with the experience of Christ. The proper ground of the church includes two aspects. Every local church must be genuinely one in its locality, and every local church must be in fellowship with all the churches throughout the world, because all the churches are the one Body of Christ. If we say that we are a local church but do not care for the other churches, we immediately lose the ground of the proper church life and become a local sect, a division in the Body. We all should ask the Lord to grant us the seeing of this vision. If we do not have this vision, we shall be a wanderer, a traveler in Christianity, journeying all the time. Today you will be in a certain so-called church and, when you are no longer happy with it, you will leave and travel elsewhere. After a time you will leave the second place and begin to wander again, constantly looking for something newer and better. But whatever new thing you find will become old after a period of time, and once again you will be unhappy. Many of us can testify of this. In the early years of my Christian life, I traveled through three so-called churches. But praise the Lord that I finally came into my destination—the church. I have been in the church for over forty-four years, and I believe that, for eternity, I shall not travel again. This assurance is entirely dependent upon whether or not we have seen the vision regarding the genuine church life. The genuine church life is the expression of the one Body of Christ with the experience of Christ as its content. Also, the church must be genuinely one locally and be in fellowship with all the churches on earth.
If we see this vision, we shall be bound by it and shall be built practically into the church. It is very difficult to remove material that has become part of a building. If you can be pulled out of the church, it means that you have never been built in. When we are built into the church, we are built in for eternity. Once material has become a part of a building, it is wasted. Formerly, a certain board might have been quite useful, but once the carpenter has worked on it, making it part of a doorpost, it is wasted. On the one hand, to be a post in God’s building is our destiny, and on the other hand, it wastes us. We can no longer be useful for any other purpose. I thank the Lord that I am only useful for His building and that I have been wasted for any other purpose. Many of us can testify that we have been wasted for Christ and the church life. To be in the church life is a great thing. I am a small man, not even worthy to say that I am less than the least, but whenever I consider the Lord’s recovery in which I have a share, I feel that I am great. Whenever I speak of the Lord’s recovery, I feel glorious.
Probably most of us have heard something concerning our human spirit. However, I am concerned by the fact that not many actually live and work in their spirit. They simply do not practice this. They have this concept in their mind, but it is not fully, actually, and thoroughly practiced in their life and work. We have seen that God’s purpose is to work Christ into us in order to have the church life. Where is the Christ who has been wrought into us? He is in our spirit. Do you realize that the Christ who has been wrought into your being is in your spirit this very moment? If you do, it will certainly affect the way you speak to others. Do you talk to others from your spirit? The most crucial and central point in the New Testament is that Christ, as the embodiment of God the Father, is now in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This is not a doctrine. We have been born again by God with Christ as life. To be born means to gain a life. Without life there can be no birth. When we were reborn, we received another life besides our natural life. The life that we received at the time of our regeneration is the person of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Since the time of our regeneration, Christ as the life-giving Spirit has been in our spirit. We all must see this and believe it.
Both Romans 8:4 and Galatians 5:16 speak of walking according to the spirit. We must walk according to the regenerated spirit that is indwelt by Christ. According to the Greek, the word walk means to live, to do things, to behave ourselves, and to have our being. Thus, we must live, behave, and have our being, not according to culture, custom, or even according to the Bible in dead letters but according to our spirit indwelt by Christ. Oh, how we need to see this!
How pitiful is the situation in the religion of Christianity! Week after week, people listen to messages, but they never hear a message telling them to live and have their being according to the spirit. When I was in Christianity, I never heard one message on Romans 8:4. The Scriptures tell us to be patient, and I tried my best to be patient. But after a few hours I failed. When my mother asked me what I was doing, I did not dare to answer her quickly. After a few hours, my patience was exhausted. The Bible also charges us to be humble. I took this word and tried to be humble. But I was born proud—how could I be humble? For someone whose name is pride, trying to be humble resembles a monkey attempting to behave like a man. When I was in Christianity, I never heard that the very Christ who is my life and my Savior is now in my spirit, and that when I walk according to my spirit, it means that I walk by Him, enjoying Him as everything to me. There is no need to try by ourselves to be patient or humble. We have a spirit according to which we can walk.
If you consult the people on the street, you will find that they do not have a spirit regenerated and indwelt by Christ. Their spirit is dead, and Christ is not there. But praise the Lord that our spirit has been quickened and regenerated with Christ as life and that the wonderful Christ who is the life-giving Spirit dwells in our spirit. I am a great person because I have such a wonderful spirit. We all need to walk according to this spirit. Do not try to be patient or humble. Simply walk according to the spirit. In Romans 8 we find no commands about husbands loving their wives or wives submitting to their husbands. We only have the wonderful spirit. The Spirit witnesses with our spirit (v. 16). This indicates that the two spirits have been mingled together to become one compound spirit. By this spirit we can be conformed to the image of the Son of God (v. 29). No matter how hard we try, we could never by our self-effort be conformed to the image of the Son of God. But this compound spirit can conform us to His image. There is no need for us to strive or exercise our self-effort to accomplish anything. We simply need to have our being according to this wonderful spirit.
Ephesians 3:5 says that the mystery, which was not made known to men in other ages, “has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit.” God’s hidden mystery is not revealed in the human mind but in the spirit. Our spirit is the place and the organ in which and to which God’s mystery is revealed. If we remain in our mind, we shall be far away from God’s revelation, but if we turn to our spirit, we shall discover that the revelation of God’s mystery is here. If you stay in your mind to analyze the church, you will find yourself in a maze. But if you turn to your spirit, after a few minutes you will have the vision of God’s mystery.
In the New Testament we have an excellent example of a man in the spirit—the apostle Paul. He was a person absolutely living, walking, behaving himself, having his being, and working for the Lord in the spirit. In 1 Corinthians 2:4 he says, “My speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Paul did not speak in persuasive words but in the demonstration of his spirit. Demonstrating our spirit does not mean that we approach people and say, “Praise the Lord! You must realize that I am now demonstrating my spirit!” Yes, demonstrating the spirit requires a release of the spirit, but it should not be done in such a peculiar way. I do not believe that the apostle Paul always spoke loudly or that he was constantly shouting. Demonstrating our spirit in our speaking means that we speak from our spirit and not from our mind. Every form of speech is a type of demonstration. If I speak out of my mind, my speaking will be a demonstration of my mind. But if I speak from my spirit, whether quietly or loudly, my speaking will be a demonstration of my spirit.
Do not think that in order to demonstrate our spirit we must shout. Sometimes, when we are under pressure or oppression, we must shout. But most of the time, there is no need for this. Some have approached people on the campuses, saying, “Praise the Lord!” When they were asked what they were doing, they loudly said, “Amen!” When others said that they did not understand what they were talking about, the brothers replied, “Turn from your mind to your spirit.” If you behave like this on the campuses, the work will be killed. People will not understand who or what you are and will think that you are crazy. This kind of foolish activity will drive them away. Demonstrating our spirit means to speak from our spirit. Whenever we do this, people will realize that our speech is living and weighty. They will recognize that there is something of God in our utterance because as word after word comes from our spirit, Christ will come out of our spirit in our utterance. This is the demonstration of the spirit.
We all were born, trained, and educated to use our mind. Throughout our entire life, we have practiced using our mind. Thus, whatever we say comes out of the mind.
We do not have the habit of speaking from our spirit. Now that we have been regenerated in our spirit, Christ is living in it. But we are still not accustomed to using our spirit. In our speaking, we express our mind, but we do not demonstrate our spirit. Frequently, the sisters cry when they speak, indicating that their speech issues from their emotions. Whenever a sister weeps in this way, she demonstrates her emotions. There is no need for the sisters to demonstrate their emotion by speaking loudly, for by their tears it is easy to tell that they are speaking from their emotions. When these sisters calm down and cease demonstrating their emotions, they can begin to speak from the spirit. This kind of speaking always touches my spirit. My spirit echoes in response to their spirit, and we have fellowship. This is the demonstration of the spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 4:21 Paul says, “What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of meekness?” By reading this verse we realize that Paul was a person who truly walked in the spirit.
According to 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, Paul could even attend a church meeting in his spirit when he was not physically present. In 1 Corinthians 5:4 he said, “In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you and my spirit have been assembled.” Paul seemed to be saying, “You are gathering at Corinth, and I am here in Ephesus. But when you gather together, my spirit meets with you.” How much Paul lived in his spirit! In his spirit he could exercise authority in the name of the Lord Jesus to execute the Lord’s judgment upon a sinful brother. By this we see how strong in the spirit he was.
In 1 Corinthians 16:18 Paul says, “They refreshed my spirit and yours.” Paul’s spirit was refreshed by the saints in the church. This reveals that Paul continually lived, walked, and worked in his spirit for the church life.
Second Corinthians 2:13 says, “I had no rest in my spirit, for I did not find Titus my brother.” Paul also mentions the human spirit in 2 Corinthians 7:13, where he says, “Because of this we have been comforted. And in addition to our comfort, we rejoiced more abundantly over the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.” Paul told the Corinthians that they did a good thing in refreshing the spirit of Paul’s co-worker Titus.
Second Corinthians 12:18 says, “I entreated Titus and sent with him the brother. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? Did we not walk in the same spirit? In the same steps?” Paul and his co-workers were in the same spirit. This verse does not say that they were one in the Holy Spirit but in the human spirit. The apostles constantly lived, walked, moved, worked, and spoke in and from their spirit. Therefore, they experienced Christ and had the proper church life.
Only by living and walking in our spirit can we experience Christ for the genuine church life. This is not a matter of studying the Bible or of reading books. Sometimes books will function as eye openers and render us some help by opening our mind. But our final decision must be made in our spirit. When I first came into the church life, I spent several weeks wondering and watching. I was constantly thinking and considering in my mind. Eventually, after a long period of time, I became finalized in my spirit. I said, “This is all. Now I forget my consideration and my thinking and make my final decision in my spirit.” I can assure you that there is only one way to experience Christ for the church life—it is to be in your spirit. Wherever you are—at home, at school, or on your job—you need to be in the spirit. If we would pray, we must be in the spirit. If we would function, we must be in the spirit. If we would have fellowship with the saints, we must be in the spirit. If we would preach the gospel to sinners, we must do so in our spirit. The key is to be in spirit.
The Christian life, the church life, the Lord’s work, the proper ministry—all must be in the spirit. Talk to the brothers in your spirit. Try to lose your temper in your spirit. Whenever we turn to our spirit, our temper vaporizes. When we turn to our spirit, there is no hatred, only love. When we turn to our spirit, it is no longer the self but Christ. In our spirit there is another world, another sphere, another realm, another kingdom. When we are in spirit, everything is different. Although we are small, we can be in one of two kingdoms: the kingdom in our mind or the kingdom in our spirit. Whenever we are in our mind, we are in one kingdom, but whenever we turn to our spirit, we are in another kingdom. Strictly speaking, we need very little knowledge. We just need to realize that we must live, walk, move, and work in our spirit. We must be burning, zealous, boiling, and aggressive, not in our emotions or in our natural being but in our spirit. Only this aggressiveness is effectual.
The church life is not only great for our enjoyment; it also is great in God’s desire. From eternity past, God planned to have this. His enemy, Satan, has been frustrating Him from achieving this goal. I have the deep sense that today is the end time. At the close of this age, God has revealed His heart to us. We cannot say that we have not seen His heart’s desire. His desire is that a group of His chosen people would practice the real church life with His Christ. We are here on earth for this. It is worthwhile to give all we are for this. If I had ten lives, I would give every one of them for this cause. I would spend one life in Africa, another in Europe, and another in Australia.
As you go to the campuses, do not carry on a so-called work of Christianity. Go there to be people living, walking, moving, and working in the spirit as a true testimony of Jesus. We do not preach the gospel simply because we love sinners and want to see them saved from hell to heaven. This is the concept of poor Christianity. Our burden is to preach the gospel in order to bring people into a glorious vision, into the participation of Christ, and into God’s standard in the church life. What goal is higher than this? If you are an ambitious young person, you must take this as your ambition. Our eyes need to be open to see what a wonderful person is the Christ whom we experience in the church. This wonderful Christ is for us to have the proper church life. In the church life today we have a foretaste of the full taste to come in the New Jerusalem. How great it is to experience Christ and to live in the church life!
When you go to the campuses, do not shout, saying, “Don’t you know that I am here? I have come with Christ from the church.” If you do this, others will think that you are mentally disturbed. Be a normal person, a proper human being with a stately and weighty humanity. You even need to be shining with Christ. But do not declare anything or label yourself in any way. Simply be a common and normal person who can easily contact others and be contacted by them. If you live, walk, and behave in the spirit, then you will be a common person. Do not attempt to be holy, angelic, or spiritual. Rather, be a neat, clean, normal human being. You all need to practice this. Do not make yourself peculiar or contact people in an abnormal way. Do not conduct yourself like a preacher. Often, preachers are not very human. Consider how peculiar are the monks in Buddhism and Catholicism. They dress in strange garments and, by so doing, label themselves. We must let people see how human we are.
As you read the four Gospels, you will see that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was a common person, living a normal human life with a weighty humanity yet without being peculiar in any way. His humanity was clean, high, right, and shining. If we also are like this, there will be no need to label ourselves. When we speak to people, they will realize that we are human and common. But they will also recognize that we have a certain something, and this will cause them to respect us. Although you may be just nineteen years old, your professor will consider you to be quite weighty.
We also need to pray to be burdened, saying, “Lord, burden me with Your commission. Burden me with Your move and Your economy.” If you would all go to the Lord and pray like this, after one prevailing prayer you will be burdened. You will be burdened with the Lord’s present economy and with His commission to go to people. In order to work for the Lord we must have a burden. I believe that you all can testify that I truly have a burden. When I speak with a burden, I do not speak vanity. I do not like to speak without a burden. Young people, you must go to the campus with a burden. This burden should not simply be the burden of the gospel construed in the terms of Christianity but the burden of God’s up-to-date move. We have a heavy burden and the clear understanding that the Lord desires to accomplish His recovery in this age. The only way He can do this is to gain the young people. The Lord’s up-to-date economy is to gain young people, not only in this country but in all the leading countries for His recovery. Pray to be burdened with this commission. You should all be able to say, “The purpose of my life is not to be a scholar or a doctor. My life is for the Lord’s up-to-date burden. I do have a burden. For this burden I study and work. For this burden I am what I am today.” Pray that you might become burdened in this way. It means a great deal to have a burden like this.
If I had come to this country without having this kind of burden, I would have given up by now. But since I am burdened, nothing can quench me. I do not care about the opposition, attacks, and rumors. I only care for the burden with which I am burdened. I can testify that the Lord honors this burden. Whenever you have been burdened by Him, He will honor that burden. This is why I have said many times that this work is not mine; it is something wrought by Him. The attacks are not directed against me but against the Lord’s move. One day the opposers will know that they have been attacking His economy. This work is not a work accomplished by a man; it is a work according to the divine burden.
When you go to the campus, go with such a divine burden. Do not shout at people, but in your spirit remind Satan that you have come with a burden. Many times I have spoken to Satan, saying, “Do not touch this work. This is being done according to a burden from the Lord. This is not something of me but of the Lord.” After you pray to the Lord and speak to people, you need to talk to Satan, telling him to stay away from you because you have a burden from the Lord. Get this burden and go with it.
As you go to do a work among the young people, go praying. Although you may not have much time to pray privately in your room, you can still pray at every moment. Pray to the Lord about the chosen ones, saying, “Lord, give me Your chosen people. Lord, You are sovereign. I believe that among all these students there are a number who have been chosen by You in eternity past but who have not yet been called. Lord, give me Your chosen ones.” As you pray in this way, you must believe that the Lord will give them to you, granting you the proper people whom He has chosen for His purpose in eternity past. I can give many testimonies concerning this. I can testify that in the Lord’s work I have never selected one co-worker. The Lord gave me so many co-workers. Ask the Lord to give you His chosen ones. He is sovereign in this matter. Simply be one with the Lord in the spirit. You are not going to the campus to do your own work, to carry out a work started by you. No, you are going there with the Lord to do a work originated by Him. Therefore, you can ask Him to give you His chosen ones, and He will do it.
As you contact people, you must have a very sensitive spirit. You need a spirit that is living, capable, and full of spiritual sensitivity. When you contact people, you must exercise your spirit to sense them out. If you do this, you will be able to recognize their need. Eventually, you will learn the different needs of people. For example, you may meet a person who is a Christian in name but who has never experienced salvation. There will be no need for him to say that he has not had this experience. At a certain point in your contact with him, you will sense that he is this kind of person. After sensing his need, you will be able to help him by feeding him, by supplying what he needs. There will be no need to say, “Friend, I sense that you have not been saved. I will exercise my spirit by the grace of God to help you experience salvation.” If you do this, he will think that there is something wrong with you. A good doctor does not reveal very much to his patient. The less a doctor talks, the better. When you sense the need of someone, there is no need to tell him. Instead, supply his need unconsciously, helping him to have the proper experience in life. Use the instant wisdom that the Lord will give you. Perhaps you will give a testimony either of your experience or of the experience of others. The testimony of your experience of salvation may help him.
Perhaps you will meet someone who has experienced salvation yet who has little interest in the Lord. In other words, he does not love the Lord. He is open to you and enjoys talking to you, but he does not love the Lord. You must look to the Lord for the wisdom how to help him to be stirred up to love the Lord, to be constrained by the love of Christ. I am certain that the way of preaching doctrine will not work. Do not say, “Friend, Jesus loves us, and we all must love Him.” This is preaching, and it will not avail. Mainly what will work is fellowship with testimonies. I cannot give you a method. You must look to the Lord and exercise the wisdom that He will give you. This is similar to driving a car. In driving, you must be alert and flexible. No one can tell you ahead of time everything you must do in your driving. Rather, you must drive flexibly and alertly.
The way we contact people depends upon how living our spirit is. If our spirit is constantly living and has a living consciousness and intuition, we shall have the wisdom we need. Sometimes people have come to me when my spirit was occupied or exhausted. Although I listened to them, I had no clear sense and no wisdom. All I could sense was numbness. When I was asked how I felt, I had no feeling whatever because my spirit was not keen. But when my spirit is keen, like a sharp knife, I can tell what someone intends to say after they utter only one sentence. The spirit knows. In 1 Corinthians 2 Paul says that the spirit knows all things. You need to exercise your spirit. Every time you go on campus, you must go with a living, aggressive, and alert spirit. However, do not expose the fact that you have such a spirit. This all depends on your experience. Without experience, you will have nothing with which to search people. Knowledge and preaching do not work. Never take the way of preaching or of passing on knowledge. You must serve people by exercising your spirit with the wisdom given by the Lord. Then you will know how to feed them and to take care of their needs. We all must learn this.
From 1940 until the early part of 1943, I was in my hometown caring for the church there. Every Monday morning the shepherding ones came together for training. I asked them to present all the difficult cases, and I told them how to take care of them. We all learned from this, and this practice of caring for people was prevailing. Contacting young people is not simply a matter of telling them that the Lord Jesus is the Savior and of asking them to come to the church meeting. This will not work. You all have to learn the proper way—to be living in your spirit.
