Living to the Lord

What does it mean to love the Lord?

/ livinglywrong

“We need to see that to love the Lord is to allow Him to live in us and for us. He desires a dwelling place and a vessel so that He can be expressed. If we sincerely love the Lord, we need to say, ‘Lord Jesus, I stop all my doing and give You the free way to live in me and to live for me.’

To love the Lord is not to do good things or even spiritual things. Instead, to love the Lord is to be stopped from our doing and to let the Lord take full possession of our being. We need to pray, ‘It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. Lord, live in me and live for me. I repent that for many years I have not given You the opportunity to live in me and for me. Now I see that I need to love You, give myself to You, and let You have all the ground in me and a free course to live in me and for me.’

The best way to express our love toward the Lord is to say, ‘Lord Jesus, I open to You. Take full possession of me.’ Rather than needing us to do something for Him, the Lord needs us to be His dwelling place to express Him. He wants us to open to Him so that He can make His home in our heart. In order to properly express our love toward the Lord, we must stop any kind of doing based on good intentions, such as being a proper spouse or bringing many to salvation.

We need to stop our doing so that it is no longer we who live. We have been crucified, and a crucified person cannot do anything. Not only should we no longer do bad things, but we also should no longer do good things from ourselves. If we do anything, it means that we are not crucified. The way to love the Lord is not to try to do anything but simply to say, ‘Lord, I love You. I present myself to You. I am open to You. Possess me more and more until You reach every part of my being and make Your home in me.’ ”

(CWWL, 1973-1974, vol. 2, pp. 446-447, 453, 451-452)

How should we fellowship?

/ livinglywrong

“After we come together, we should spontaneously fellowship. The fellowship will bring in the need for intercession, and from this fellowship and intercession the mutual care, concern, and shepherding will develop. After that there will be some studying and teaching of the truth, with the rendering of some help in life…. All this must be done in an organic and spontaneous way. The mutual fellowship should be open and spontaneous. The mutual intercession also should be sincere and spontaneous…. This kind of organic meeting is what Hebrews 10:25 describes as ‘our own assembling together.’ Such a meeting is like a family gathering with spontaneous, mutual fellowship in which some may ask questions and others may all answer. There is mutual teaching and mutual learning…. Whether a person has been saved for a long time or for a short time, he can speak like all the others.”

(CWWL, 1989, vol. 2)

Everything should be initiated by God, not by us

/ livinglywrong

“While we live on this earth, our first question should not be whether or not we should do a certain thing. Rather, in doing a certain thing, we should ask to whom are we submitting. It is not a matter of doing or not doing. It is a matter of to whom we submit. Without submission there is no work and there is no service. When Adam took the fruit, the first question that should have been asked was whether or not this was in submission to God. All of the work of a Christian should come out of submission. Nothing is of our own initiative; everything is responsive. No act is active; everything is passive. In other words, everything should be initiated by God; nothing should be initiated by us.”

(Authority and Submission, chapter 2)

Why do the saints not function in the meetings?

/ livinglywrong

“If all the saints live Christ by walking according to the spirit, there will be a great increase in the church. Much gospel preaching will spontaneously issue from our walking according to the spirit. Several years ago I proposed that the saints in a certain locality go out at least once a week to contact others. Everyone listened and agreed, but eventually no one practiced it. I found that it does not work to charge the saints to go out regularly to preach the gospel. However, if the elders in a locality take the lead to walk according to the spirit, and they minister such a life to the other saints, the saints in that locality will also walk according to the spirit and regularly preach the gospel.

Our primary concern should not be how to do things such as preaching the gospel and shepherding the new believers. Instead, we need to see that God wants a people who live Christ by walking according to the spirit. If we practice to continually walk according to the spirit throughout the day, everything else will spontaneously issue forth from such a living…. Our gospel preaching and shepherding should not be activities but should be the issue of a daily life of walking according to the spirit…. All such aspects of the Christian life should be part of our living. For instance, a daily life of walking according to the spirit will issue in our functioning with a released spirit in the meetings. If we do not live Christ in our daily life, we will have no surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings. In order to exhibit Christ, we must gain Christ in our daily life by walking according to the spirit. If the saints are living Christ, they will spontaneously function in the meetings.

We need a clear view from the heavens to see that what the Lord wants is a group of people who walk according to the spirit. The Lord’s desire is not for many co-workers, elders, or activities, or much organization. As leading ones, we primarily need to walk according to the spirit in our daily life and help other saints to enter into this kind of living.”

(CWWL, 1982, vol. 1, “The Importance of Living Christ by Walking according to the Spirit,” pp. 388-390)

The sisters are more important for the accomplishment of God’s economy than the brothers

/ livinglywrong

“In God’s administration of His economy, a very important position is assigned to the women. After man was created, what happened to man was very much related to the woman. By this we can see that whether or not God can have His way today in His purpose depends very much upon what the sisters will do. If the women, or the sisters, will function properly, God will have a success; otherwise, there will surely be a failure or a loss. After the fall of man, God came in, not to do something through the man but to do something through the woman. The subtle serpent, the enemy of God, came in through the woman. Therefore, God chose to defeat the enemy also through woman—through the same channel by which he came. In Genesis 3 the serpent came in through the woman, and in the same chapter God promised that this woman would bring forth a seed who would bruise the head of the serpent (v. 15). Thus, the fall occurred through the woman, and the deliverance was promised also through the woman. This shows us the importance of the sisters’ position in the Bible.

The first account in the New Testament concerning a direct relationship with the Lord is related to a woman—Mary. The story of the life of the Lord Jesus begins with this woman. Of course, we know that this is the fulfillment of the promise given in Genesis 3:15. In Genesis God promised that the woman would bring forth a seed who would destroy the damaging serpent. This promise is fulfilled at the very beginning of the New Testament.

Mary the mother of the Lord Jesus is not the only Mary mentioned in the New Testament. Do you realize that there are at least six Marys mentioned in the New Testament? The first Mary is the mother of the Lord Jesus, and the second Mary is the sister of Lazarus. The third Mary is Mary the Magdalene, out from whom seven demons were cast out. While the Lord Jesus was dying on the cross, a few sisters were standing there with Him. Besides Mary the Lord’s mother, there were two other Marys. One was Mary the Magdalene, and the Gospel of John tells us that the other Mary was the wife of Clopas (19:25). This fourth Mary, with the other sisters, saw the death of Christ. On the morning of the resurrection, Mary the Magdalene went to the tomb. The Gospel of John mentions only that Mary the Magdalene went there, but the other Gospels tell us that there was another Mary (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10). This other Mary was the first Mary, the Lord’s mother (Matt. 13:55). The fifth Mary was the mother of John Mark. In Acts 12:12, after Peter was released from prison, he went to Mary’s home, where many saints were gathered together praying. The sixth Mary is in Romans 16:6. Here Paul says to greet the Mary who labored much for the church.

These six Marys are very meaningful. One Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus; another loved the Lord Jesus and followed Him, ministering to Him; two other Marys saw the Lord’s death and prepared something for His burial, to anoint His body. They saw the resurrection and also received the vision of the ascension of Christ. Another Mary was related to the church, praying all the time. Finally, a Mary was laboring over so many in the church life. In the New Testament there are not so many Peters or Johns, but there are so many Marys. This simply means that to fulfill God’s purpose and accomplish His economy, there is a great need for the sisters. In a sense, the sisters are more important for the accomplishment of God’s economy than the brothers.

The little family at Bethany spoken of in John 12:1-9 is a type of the church. That family was composed of one brother and two sisters. This means that it consisted of one-third brothers and two-thirds sisters. A strong, normal, proper church should have one-third brothers and two-thirds sisters. In the church life we need more sisters.”

(The Six Marys, pp. 1-4)

The goal of the local church is the building up of the Body of Christ

/ livinglywrong

“…God showed us the Body of Christ through Brother Nee. The Lord showed us that the local church is the procedure and not the goal. The goal of the local church is the building up of the Body of Christ. Here, regretfully, among us there were quite a number of brothers who were weighty, yet they saw only the importance of the local church and did not see the Body of Christ. Hence, they rose up to argue, saying that Brother Nee said very clearly that all local churches are autonomous, each having nothing to do with the others. Not one local church, whatever it may be, should interfere with another local church. This is their total disregard for the Body of Christ. Therefore, through Brother Nee the Lord showed us further that what God wants in the end is not the local church. Although at the end of the Bible there are seven lampstands, they all become one city, the New Jerusalem. However, those brothers who stressed the local aspect of the church insisted very much that what Revelation shows us in the beginning is individual churches. Moreover, they were influenced by the Brethren and considered that all the seven churches were different. However, their view is off the mark because they do not see that the seven golden lampstands are indistinguishable in nature, shape, and function. If we put the seven lampstands in front of us, unless we give each a number, it is impossible to tell which is which. Although Revelation 2 and 3 show us seven different churches, the biased brothers do not see that the differences among the churches are not on the positive side but on the negative side. The seven churches have their distinctive characteristics only in their negative conditions, such as their failures, degradation, mistakes, and shortages.

Not only so, Revelation does not have only three chapters. If we read on, first we see the overcomers. Although they are the overcomers in the local churches, in chapter twelve we see that they are one man-child, not seven man-children. In chapter fourteen we see that they are one group of 144,000 overcomers, not two groups, and much less seven groups. These 144,000 overcomers cannot possibly be out of one church. In the entire book of Revelation we see only one man-child, one group of overcomers. Furthermore, Peter was the apostle who set up the Jewish churches, and Paul was the apostle who set up the Gentile churches (Gal. 2:8). But at the end of Revelation the churches set up by the twelve apostles are one building, the holy city New Jerusalem, the Body of Christ.

The matter of salvation released by Brother Nee was received by everyone. People also received what he taught concerning the local church. As to the matter of Christ as our life, apparently people received what Brother Nee spoke, but in reality not many entered in. We must live with Christ day by day, receive Him as our life, take Him as our person in our daily life, and have a co-living with Him. But those who truly practice this, not to mention the outside Christians, even among the saints in the Lord’s recovery, are as few as the morning stars. All of you are very sincere, and you have paid not a small price to travel from the other end of the world to be here. Since you have come with a sincere heart, I will speak to you a sincere word. May I ask you, among the approximately twenty of you, how many can say from your spirit, from your conscience, with full confidence, “I am a person who lives by Christ”? How many of you can say, “Regardless of whom I am dealing with, regardless of what I am doing, even in my clothing myself and my eating, even in speaking to my wife, in big things or small things, I always live with Christ, I do everything in the spirit and according to the spirit, and in my living I daily experience the Christ whom I have received and allow Him to be magnified in me”? In these three months while I was sick and was recuperating, I do not know how much I repented to the Lord regarding this matter. I cannot deny that I have seen this light most thoroughly. Since 1950 I have released numerous messages on this matter and have taught people about this. But when the Lord put me in quietness, I examined myself according to this light and found out that I have not really entered into it that much. What I have seen is very thorough, and what I have preached may also be considered quite complete, but it is really questionable how much of the reality of Christ as life I have in me. In this matter we all must enter in practically.

Although beginning from 1939 Brother Nee already saw the Body of Christ, his preaching concerning this matter was equivalent to “playing the Piano to cows”; no one took it in. Therefore, the local churches everywhere just acted according to their own desire, even to the extent that Brother Nee was forced to stop his ministry. He stopped ministering for six years. In that period of six years, among us we had many who were capable of preaching, yet they did not see any vision or revelation. From 1942 to 1948, not one among us wrote a book that had any value or could be counted as anything. Our vision did not increase one bit; everything stopped there. Concerning the matter of the Body of Christ, many simply disagreed with it and completely ignored it. At the time of the turmoil in Shanghai in 1942, how many saw the Body of Christ? None. How could anyone who had seen the Body of Christ have stirred up that kind of turmoil? That would have been impossible.”

(The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, Chapter 1, Section 2)

keyword: symphony

Only the living and work that are Christ can withstand the fire

/ livinglywrong

“Matthew 7:21-23 says, ‘Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, was it not in Your name that we prophesied, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name did many works of power? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ We need to be assured that what we have done is not lawlessness but the will of the Father.

That day in verse 22 refers to the day of the judgment seat of Christ. When Watchman Nee was excommunicated by some of the co-workers in the early years of his ministry, he wrote a hymn that says, ‘Unto the judgment seat of Christ / I daily look away; / May all my living and my work / Abide the fire in that day.’ Only the living and work that are Christ can withstand the fire. We should seriously consider whether or not the Lord will approve our living and work at His judgment seat.”

(CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, The Present Need Among the Churches in the Lord’s Recovery, ch. 12)

What is the Lord worth to us?

/ livinglywrong

“Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him, having an alabaster flask of ointment of great value, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at table. But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste?” (Matthew 28:6-8)

“In the world’s estimation the service of the Lord, and our giving ourselves to Him for such service, is sheer waste. He has never been loved, never had a place in the hearts of the world, so any giving to Him is a waste. Many say: ‘Such-and-such a man could make good in the world if only he were not a Christian!’ Because a man has some natural talent or other asset in the world’s eyes, they count such people are really too good for the Lord. ‘What waste of a useful life!’ they say.

Let me give a personal instance. In 1929 I returned from Shanghai to my home town of Foochow. One day I was walking along the street with a stick, very weak and in broken health, and I met one of my old college professors. He took me into a teashop where we sat down. He looked at me from head to foot and from foot to head, and then he said: ‘Now look here; during your college days we thought a good deal of you and we had hopes that you would achieve something great. Do you mean to tell me that this is what you are?’ Looking at me with penetrating eyes, he asked that very pointed question. I must confess that, on hearing it, my first desire was to break down and weep. My career, my health, everything had gone, and here was my old professor who taught me law in the school, asking me: ‘Are you still in this condition, with no success, no progress, nothing to show?’

But the very next moment—and I have to admit that in all my life it was the first time—I really knew what it meant to have the “spirit of glory” resting upon me. The thought of being able to pour out my life for my Lord flooded my soul with glory. Nothing short of the Spirit of glory was on me then. I could look up and without a reservation say: ‘Lord, I praise Thee! This is the best thing possible; it is the right course that I have chosen!’ To my professor it seemed a total waste to serve the Lord; but that is what the Gospel is for—to bring us to a true estimate of His worth.

Judas felt it a waste. ‘We could manage better with the money by using it in some other way. There are plenty of poor people. Why not rather give it for charity, do some social service for their uplift, help the poor in some practical way? Why pour it out at the feet of Jesus?’ (See John 12:4-6.) That is always the way the world reasons. ‘Can you not do something better with yourself than this? It is going a bit too far to give yourself altogether to the Lord!’

But if the Lord is worthy, then how can it be a waste? He is worthy to be so served. He is worthy for me to be His prisoner. He is worthy for me just to live for Him. He is worthy! What the world says about this does not matter. The Lord says: ‘Do not trouble her’. So let us not be troubled. Men may say what they like, but we can stand on this ground, that the Lord said: ‘It is a good work. Every true work is not done on the poor; every true work is done to Me’. When once our eyes have been opened to the real worth of our Lord Jesus, nothing is too good for Him.”

(The Normal Christian Life, chapter 14 — italics in original)

How do we draw closer to the Lord?

/ livinglywrong

“…Even though our Lord is great, He does not neglect the small things. We may think that what we tell Him must also be something great, or else He will not listen. Little do we realize that our Lord never neglects the small things. There is nothing that is too small for the Lord to listen to. He is willing to listen to everything. He is willing to listen to everything concerning us. He was willing to listen to His own disciples, and He was willing to listen to John’s disciples. The disciples of John had followed their teacher for a long time. One can imagine the affection there was between them and John. When their teacher was killed, how could they not be brokenhearted? The Bible does not say that they complained about Herod, nor does it say that they cried all day long. They only buried John’s body and then came to tell Jesus.

Some would bury their dead and then say, “Everything with me is over. I have lost all hope. He is dead, and I have lost everything. Everything I had left with him.” Yet these are the times when we should draw near to the Lord. We can tell the Lord our sorrow. He will not rebuke us as being too worldly, too affectionate, or too attached to our dead ones. He knows our emotion, and He sympathizes with our heart. Some may have never experienced the sorrow of losing their parents, wife, brothers, or relatives. Nevertheless, when they lose something, they still feel as if their “John” has died, and they are left in despair and disappointment. They feel that the sky above them is no longer blue and that everything around them has lost its ardor; they find no way out. At such times it is most unprofitable to not bury the corpse, to cry, and to be sorrowful over it all the time. They should bury the corpse, like the disciples of John did, and go and tell the Lord. We should realize that when we have a thorough talk with the Lord and pour out our heart to Him, our intimacy with the Lord is one step further, and we know Him a little more. Intimate contact with Him at these times is hundreds of times better than our ordinary fellowship with Him. By these contacts we advance in life. We should bring our problems to the Lord and tell Him about them. He can comfort us and help us. If a person has never shed tears before the Lord, if he has never shared his joy or sorrow with the Lord, and if he has never talked with the Lord about his private matters, he has never had any intimate fellowship with the Lord; he has never had any deep acquaintance with Him. We are not saying that you cannot ask others to pray for you or ask others to help you. We are saying that one can only be drawn closer to the Lord through telling Him everything.

Once John’s disciples told the Lord of their sorrows, every problem dissolved. No matter what we tell Him, He will listen. No man can sympathize with everyone. But our Lord can sympathize with everyone. He is sympathetic to every one of our problems. He cares for the affairs of us all. In His heart, there seems to be no one else’s affairs but ours. He bears all our sorrows. No matter how weak we are, He will sympathize with us and bear our sorrow for us. Our Lord is willing to bear all our anxieties and patient to listen to our speaking. Do not think that He will not listen. We should never be lazy in bringing our matters to Him. He is waiting for us to tell them to Him, and He is happy to listen to our speaking.”

(Tell Him)

How do we live a life free of anxiety?

/ livinglywrong

“If we would have a life free of anxiety, we need to realize that all our circumstances, good or bad, have been assigned to us by God. We need to have this realization with a full assurance. Suppose a brother is in business as a merchant. His business may prosper, and he may earn a good deal of money. Later his business may fail and he may lose much more than he earned. Both earning money and losing it are God’s assignment to him. If this brother has the full assurance that his circumstances come from God’s assignment, he will be able to worship the Lord for His arrangement. Perhaps losing money will benefit him more than earning money, for through such a loss he may be perfected and built up.

Likewise, both illness and good health come from God as His assignment. We should all aspire to be healthy. But sometimes good health does not perfect us as much as a period of illness. Furthermore, when our health fails, we may be more inclined to pray than when we are in good health.

The first prerequisite to having no anxiety is to have the full assurance that all the sufferings we experience are God’s assignment. What need is there to worry about things? God has assigned them to us. He knows what we need.

When I was very young, I read a story about a conversation between two sparrows who were talking about the sorrows and the worries common among human beings. One sparrow asked the other why people worry so much. The other sparrow answered, “I don’t think they have a Father who cares for them like we do. We don’t need to worry about anything because our Father takes care of us.” Yes, our Father does care for us. But sometimes He sends us hardships and sufferings to serve in fulfilling our destiny to magnify Christ. We can be freed from worry not because God has promised us a life without suffering, but because we know that all our circumstances come to us as God’s assignment. Paul did not care about life or death. He cared only that Christ would be magnified in him. He realized that every circumstance was for his good. This is the way to have no anxiety.”

(Life-Study of Philippians, message 60)