The third step, or stage, in the experience of Christ is that Christ is formed within us (Gal. 4:19). The experience of Christ is not the experience of humility, patience, or any aspect of good character. All those things are not the real experiences of life. The real experience of life is Christ Himself experienced by us. It is regrettable that today there are very few Christians who can differentiate between Christ experienced by us and mere patience. Someone can be very patient or humble yet be one hundred percent without Christ. To experience Christ as our patience or humility is absolutely different from simply having patience or humility.
A brother may have been taught to be patient, and he may have made up his mind to be patient. Day and night, morning and evening, he tells himself to be patient, and he may even place a slogan or proverb in his room to remind him to always be patient. This is mere patience and nothing more. When he succeeds in being patient, he may be very proud of himself. He may say, “I am the most patient one. Look at that brother and sister; they are not patient.” However, he is self-deceived, and he is also deceiving the other brothers and sisters. Others may say, “Oh, look at that brother! He is so patient. He is very much of the Lord and like the Lord.” This is a form of deceit. It is not the real experience of Christ.
The real experience of Christ is that day by day, even today, Christ meets us and we meet Him. We may not know anything about patience, but we do know something of Christ. We may have no intention to be patient. In our dictionary there may not even be such a word as patience, but we have it unconsciously. When we go to the Lord, we may not feel or sense that we are patient. Rather, we may confess, “O Lord, I do not love You enough, and I do not keep myself in contact with You moment by moment.” However, the brothers and sisters can realize that within us there is a divine, spiritual, and pleasant patience.
The real experience of life is nothing other than the experience of Christ Himself. In this spiritual dictionary there is only one word: Christ. It is very easy to have this spiritual vocabulary. There are not many words but only Christ Himself.
Whenever we pray to ask the Lord to help us in certain matters, such as loving others, being humble, and being patient, He never answers such prayers. The more we pray to love others, the more we find that we hate others. The more we pray to be humble, the more we find that we are proud. The Lord never answers this kind of prayer. Real prayer is to say, “Lord, I feel that I have not contacted You much this day. I did not go along with You moment by moment.” The real experience of life is the experience of Christ Himself, that is, Christ revealed in us, Christ living in us, and Christ formed in us.
The fourth stage of the experience of Christ is that Christ is magnified in us (Phil. 1:20). For Christ to be formed within us is something inward, while for Christ to magnified in us is something expressed outwardly. We need Christ revealed in us, Christ living in us, and Christ to be formed within us, and we also need Christ magnified in us.
For Christ to be magnified in us means that there is always something of, or something as, Christ Himself expressed through us. People can always sense something of Christ expressed and magnified in us. This is the real experience of life. It is not simply to be humble, to be patient, and to love others. To be humble, patient, and loving is common among humans. In the history of China there were certain men who succeeded in their practice to be good. They were so good that compared to them, many Christians may be put to shame. Many Christians put together could not compare with them in their good character. However, that is not Christ. Good character is not Christ Himself. Christ Himself is something else. Do not try to teach Christians simply to have a good character. This is the teaching of fallen Christianity. Rather, do your best to experience Christ as everything in the spirit, and try your best to help others to experience Christ in such a way.
How can we realize what the real experience of Christ is and what the experience of something other than Christ is? When we experience something other than Christ, we are always aware of it. When we love others merely by ourselves, we know that we are loving. When we are patient and humble merely by ourselves, we know that we are the most patient and humble person. To be aware that we are humble and patient with the brothers simply proves that we are not experiencing Christ. When we experience Christ, we simply sense Christ Himself, and we are not aware of anything else. Other people realize that in us there is something strange, heavenly, and divine, but we ourselves do not sense it. As long as we know we are loving the brothers, that means we are not loving by Christ; we are not experiencing Christ. Try to test this. If we can say, “O brothers, do you realize how humble and patient I have been with you?”, this simply proves we are now out of Christ. If we can feel how good we are, this shows how much we are out of Christ.
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