The real experience of Christ as everything is that we sense only the presence of Christ and nothing else. Other people can realize many good, heavenly, eternal, spiritual, and divine things with us, but we ourselves do not sense them. What we sense is the presence of Christ. We are not aware that we are patient or that we are loving others, but, praise the Lord, we are dealing with and seeing the Lord Christ Himself! This is the real experience of Christ.
We must be careful. Today Christians talk much about power. Many think that when they are powerful, they are full of Christ. It is not so. Many powerful people have very little of Christ. To have power is one thing, while to experience Christ as life is another thing. We must differentiate between the so-called spiritual power and Christ Himself as life. To experience Christ as life is absolutely something in the Spirit of life, but to experience spiritual power is something else. In the Old Testament times there was a very powerful person named Samson. Does this mean that he truly knew something of Christ as life in reality? Far from it! Someone may be powerful in a certain way, but he still may not have experienced Christ as life. This is not something from our imagination. In the past years I have seen many persons who were powerful in preaching the gospel, yet when we look into their lives, we feel sorry for them.
A person may be powerful in a certain way, but that may not be the right way to be powerful. The right way to be powerful is to be powerful not in power only but also in life. It is possible for Christians to be powerful in a wrong way. We need to differentiate these two ways. To be powerful in a wrong way is one thing, while to experience Christ as our life as well as our power is another thing. The apostle Paul was very powerful, but in his writings we can realize that he was a man full of Christ. He was full not merely of power but of Christ. Perhaps some people will not agree with me; that is their business. We commit this matter to the hand of the Lord. As a mouthpiece of the Lord I must speak what I have been burdened with. I am purposely raising this matter once again because there is an urgent need for this kind of knowledge.
Today many Christians pay too much attention to the so-called gifts. We must realize that the gifts are one hundred percent different from Christ as life to us. We may have all the gifts, but we may not have experienced Christ. This is illustrated and explained clearly and emphatically in 1 Corinthians. In 1:7 Paul told the Corinthians that they did not lack in any gift, but in 3:1 he says, “I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshy, as to infants in Christ.” In the first two chapters of this Epistle, Paul indicated that whereas the Corinthians taught concerning the gifts, he preached Christ crucified (1:23), and he did not determine to know anything among them except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified (2:2). Christ and the cross of Christ are the answers to all the problems in the church today. To have all the gifts is one thing, but that is not the experience of life. The experience of life is to experience Christ Himself revealed in us, living in us as life, formed within us, and magnified through us.
I can never forget a story which was passed on to me more than twenty-five years ago. In the fifth or sixth century, one of the Lord’s servants was very learned, eloquent, and powerful in ministry. One day after he ministered, a young brother remained after the meeting had been dismissed. The minister came to him and asked, “Young man, why are you still here?” The young man replied, “I feel there is something I must fellowship with you.” This minister, an aged, qualified, learned, eloquent, and powerful man, looked at the young man and asked, “What do you have to fellowship with me?” The young man said, “I will speak to you humbly. In your ministry, there is knowledge, eloquence, and power, but very little Christ.” The aged man trembled, prostrated himself on the floor, and cried, “Lord be merciful to me! I am here doing something with so little of Yourself.” From that time on there was a revolutionary change in that minister. He changed from being eloquent and powerful to being a person with Christ.
We must realize the difference between gifts and Christ. We may have the best gift, but we may not have the real experience of Christ. It is very possible to be this way. This is why we have often said that, as far as the experience of life is concerned, many persons have been damaged by their “gifts.” The so-called gifts are one thing, while to experience Christ as life is something else.
If you would ask me what the best record of the experience of Christ as life is in the entire Scriptures, I would say that it is 2 Corinthians. Second Corinthians is the best record of how the apostle experienced Christ as life. In the first Epistle to the Corinthians the apostle deals with the gifts, but in the second Epistle the apostle reveals to us the right way to have the real experience of Christ as life. There is a big difference between these two Epistles; we should read them once again to see this.
The fifth stage of the experience of Christ is that we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). This, of course, is a corporate matter. To have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is not a matter for individuals. It is a matter of a corporate Body. When we are built together in Christ by experiencing Christ, we will have the stature of the fullness of Christ, and this stature will come into full measure. We will have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
All the above experiences of Christ are in the Holy Spirit. The real experience of life is the experience of the Spirit, not as the Spirit of gifts nor as the Spirit upon us, but as the Spirit of life, the Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit now is the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of life, living and dwelling within us as the reality of the indwelling Christ, causing us to experience the indwelling Christ. The real experience of life is the experience of the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of life living within us to make the indwelling Christ a reality in our daily life.
For this matter we need to read Romans 8:1-30. Verses 9 through 10 say, “But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” Verse 9 speaks of the Spirit of Christ, and verse 10 speaks of Christ Himself. This means that when we experience the Spirit of Christ, we experience Christ. Verse 11 begins, “And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.” This proves that this Spirit of Christ, who is the reality of Christ Himself, is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God who raised up Christ from the dead. Here we have the three-one God, the Triune God. To experience the Holy Spirit is simply to experience Christ and to experience God, because God is in Christ and Christ is realized as the Spirit.
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