Everything in this universe is initiated by God. The Bible opens with these words: “In the beginning God...” God is the beginning of everything in the entire universe; this is true both spiritually and physically. The old creation was begun by God, and the new creation also was begun by God. If God does not call us, how can we answer His call? If God does not shine on us, how can we be enlightened by Him? God is first, and we are second. God must shine on us, and then we can see. God must make a demand, and then we can obey. Never forget this sequence. God first sent Jesus, His Son, to preach the gospel to people; then people could believe. Next, from among those who believed, God sent out twelve apostles to preach the gospel. After others heard and believed, some of them also were sent. Then more people obeyed and accepted the gospel.
In the universe God has always had a spiritual operation, a spiritual work, which is initiated by Him and then answered and accepted by people. In all the thousands of cases in which people have met God, it has always been that God first came to seek and shine in them, and then they answered Him. God then shone on them again, and they responded again. This sequence should never be reversed. Spiritual operations are always initiated by God. God must first do something in man before man can answer and obey.
In our experience of salvation we always receive God’s shining and God’s demand. According to this principle, no Christian can truthfully say that he does not have any call, demand, or feeling from God. This call, demand, and feeling are all God’s shining. The question is, when we sense the demand and hear the call, are we willing to go and answer this call? Having heard the call, seen the light, and sensed the demand within, if we are willing to accept it, we will enter into the way of following and touching God. This will bring in a cycle in which God calls us and shines on us, we obey Him, and then our obedience and response bring in God’s greater call and greater shining.
After people are saved, they are touched by the Lord for the first time and know that it is the Lord’s calling. However, because some ignore this calling, the feeling and the light within them cease. When others receive a call, they answer it right away, and when they receive light, they follow it immediately. As a result, more calling and more light come. There is such a cycle within us all the time, much like a child drawing circles that become larger and larger. In time, those who experience this cycle within will become completely transparent; they will be like the four living creatures, which are full of eyes, as recorded in the Bible (Ezek. 1:18; Rev. 4:6). Conversely, there are Christians who do not have a single hole; they are like walls of brass and iron, being completely in darkness. This is because since the time they were saved, they have never obeyed the inner sense or accepted God’s shining.
If a Christian answers right away when God calls and obeys immediately when he has a sense from the Lord, he will have a hole, an opening, through which God can work Himself into him. Some people are full of openings; thus, it is easy for them to be enlightened in the Lord’s light. This is our way. Simply put, what God desires is to work Himself into us and then work out through us. Our responsibility is to work with God through consecration and submission, allowing Him to have a way to work Himself into us and then out through us. In practice, from the day we are saved, we should learn to be enlightened in God’s light, to obey the inner sense, to respond to the inner call, and to answer the inner demand. This is a serious matter, and it is also a simple one.
Some boast that they love the Lord, but in their daily life they do not answer God’s call but rather ignore His voice. They say that they love the Lord only when they are emotionally excited. For example, when they wish to see a movie, a sense within forbids them to go, but they go anyway. They know that they should not commit big sins, but they are unconcerned about the small things. When praying in the meetings, they can even testify that they are touched by the Lord’s Spirit. There are many Christians who are like this. Actually, loving the Lord in this way is useless. Recently, I have been very much influenced by a word spoken by a certain brother: “The natural voice is the natural life, and the natural life is the life that is not real.” Someone may pray with you, indicating that he truly desires to serve with you in coordination, yet immediately after praying he may lose his temper toward you.
A certain sister may be so zealous for the Lord that ten brothers combined cannot match her. When she speaks about loving the Lord, those listening to her may be touched to tears. Incredibly, however, when such a sister gets angry, no one is able to stop her. The natural life is the unreal life. One day all that is of the natural life must be broken. We need to be truly touched by the Lord to see that our enthusiasm, our zeal, our love for the Lord, and our service to the Lord are all natural and short of God’s element. Regardless of how many layers of brass and iron walls we have, and regardless of whether it is the outer gate, the middle gate, or the inner gate, all of these must be opened one by one to the Lord according to the sense within. We will then realize that in our expressions of enthusiasm and zeal we cannot see the Lord Himself. Only when we are touched by the Lord to the extent that He can be released from within us will we bear much fruit as mentioned in John 15; the fruit on the tree comes from the life within (v. 2).
Loving the Lord is not a matter of being zealous; it is a matter of touching the Lord from deep within and submitting ourselves to His love. From now on, we do not need to care for how much love we have for the Lord; we need to care only for whether we are willing to submit ourselves in the matters in which God has touched us within. We must pay attention to our relationship with the Lord. If the Lord touches us, how should we respond? If the Lord gives us a sense, how should we obey? We may pray in the morning, “Lord, I do not love You enough; I hope I can love You more today and be more zealous,” but I am afraid that this kind of prayer is of religion, not of revelation. We need to care not about how we behave before Him but about whether we have met Him and have sensed and obeyed His feeling. He may touch us, asking us how we could treat our wife or husband in a certain way or how we could wear certain kinds of clothes. We must then submit to Him, taking care of His feeling within. We do not need to care about what we should do for Him. We simply need to care about His demand and what He desires to do within us, and then cooperate with and submit to Him.
According to this principle of cooperating and submitting, if God does not move, we should not move. We should move only when He moves. This is to work according to revelation and not according to religion. Caring for what one must do for God is a man-made religion produced out of man’s strength and effort. Some may point out that the Lord Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” However, what is seen here is Peter’s response to the Lord’s demand for love, not Peter first loving the Lord. Peter did not love the Lord enough; he loved fishing. But when he was fishing and ignoring the Lord, the Lord came and appeared to him. The Lord’s appearing was a revelation to Peter. Under such a light the Lord asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” The Lord’s appearing caused Peter to respond to the Lord’s demand (John 21:1-17). This is the God who is living and who gives light.
Man’s concept is that if God desires to give us a revelation, He will speak to us outwardly and objectively. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. When God desires to give us a revelation, He does it by coming into us, clothing Himself with us, bringing us along, and giving us a certain feeling so that we sense that the revelation is from within us, yet it is of God. We can say that when God gives us a revelation, He actually mingles Himself with us. God mingles Himself with us to the extent that even if our will wants to rebel against the Lord, we are not able to; we realize that our being rebellious is of ourselves. We must know that revelation is not objective but subjective. All the outward harassments are Satan in disguise.
Something happened at the time I was in the southern part of Fukien Province. There was a brother who had gone to the United States to study medicine. When he came home, he denied that the Lord Jesus had come in the flesh and that He was the Son of God. This was the work of evil spirits. God’s revelation to man is not from the outside but is exceedingly subjective. If the circumstances and feelings obviously contradict the Bible, they are manifestations of Satan. Even the apostles and the churches in the past went through times when they lost the revelation because many circumstances and situations made it difficult for them to know God. Revelation is subjective; it is God coming into us and becoming one with us. He clothes Himself with us, mingles with us, and holds on to us from within. Eventually, everything that we do, while apparently of ourselves, is actually of God. If we have this kind of understanding, we will no longer aspire to know God merely objectively.