Another way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ in the Gospel of John is by leaving the sheepfold of religion and following Christ according to His voice to enjoy the freedom of His salvation and partake of the riches of His feeding pasture (10:1-4, 9). Nearly every person on this earth has a religion. If he does not have another person's religion, he has his own religion. A person may say that he does not have a religion and that he does not believe in God. However, such a person is his own god and is his own religion.
Every religion is a sheepfold. Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism are all sheepfolds. Judaism was the sheepfold mentioned by the Lord Jesus in John 10. In a positive sense, a sheepfold keeps and protects people, but in a negative sense, it imprisons people. For years we were imprisoned within many different sheepfolds. Even we ourselves were a prison to ourselves. Then one day we believed into the Lord Jesus and were released from our prison.
If we would receive, experience, and enjoy Christ, we must leave all the religious sheepfolds and follow Him according to His voice. In John 10:27 the Lord Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Today, we must not follow Christ according to any kind of religion, nor should we follow Him according to our own thought, which in reality is our own self-made religion. We must follow Him according to His voice. This is why we must pray to Him and listen to both His living speaking within us and the holy Bible outside of us. We need the holy Bible outside of us because our listening to His voice within may be inaccurate. The holy Word is our safeguard. Therefore, we must know the Bible. Today the Lord Jesus always speaks to us as the Spirit according to the Bible and through the Bible.
By leaving the sheepfold and following Christ according to His voice, we enjoy the freedom of His salvation and partake of the riches of His feeding pasture. The Lord Jesus said that we would go in and go out to find pasture (v. 9). This is freedom. Christ Himself is the rich pasture upon which we feed all the time. By feeding upon Him as the rich pasture, we enjoy Him.
In the Gospel of John we receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ by taking Him as the resurrection and the life through believing into Him to live the eternal life. In John 11:25 the Lord Jesus told Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live." It is difficult to understand such a verse, but it is very easy to experience Christ according to this verse. If you tell the Lord, "I believe that You are the resurrection and the life," immediately you will live the eternal life in all kinds of situations. If you repeat this prayer before having any dealings with your wife, you will live the eternal life. But if you do not pray such a prayer, you may lose your temper and be altogether in the flesh. Praying such a prayer will save you out of your flesh and transfer you into another realm, the realm of eternal life. This is not superstition or psychology. Many students of Confucius love his teachings very much, but they also mistreat their wives. But I have never seen one person who could say, "Lord Jesus, You are the resurrection; You are the life," and then turn around and mistreat his wife. The reason for this is that Christ is the unique One who is living and real.
Christ is the resurrection and the life. He is not only life but also the life that overcomes death. He is the resurrection. He is living and powerful. If you mention His name, immediately He will "electrify" you, and you will become a different person. By calling on Him, speaking to Him, and praying to Him, you will experience and enjoy Him. Many experienced brothers and sisters have written hymns concerning their enjoyment of calling on the name of the Lord Jesus many times a day (see Hymns, #208 and #73). To call on the Lord a thousand times a day, or even every minute, is not too much. By calling on Him we enjoy Him.
The thirteen items mentioned in this message are the subjective ways to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ. Eating, drinking, and calling on the name of the Lord are all subjective. When we exercise our spirit to contact Him as the life-giving Spirit, He becomes our experience and enjoyment.