Before we continue with the central vision of the Apostle Paul’s completing ministry, I would like to tell you some of my history in the hope that you will see my gradual realization of the importance of this vision.
I was born into organized Christianity. After I grew up, I got saved. It was a marvelous conversion. I began to seek the Lord. I loved the Bible. Then I was attracted to the Brethren assembly. It was their familiarity with the Bible that drew me. I stayed with them for seven and a half years. I learned their teachings on prophecy from Daniel, Matthew, 2 Thessalonians, and Revelation.
We were also taught about the Old Testament types and their fulfillment in the New. Furthermore, we were repeatedly charged not to do anything that was not scriptural. We must not celebrate Christmas nor birthdays; both were unscriptural. Again and again we heard that this was scriptural and that that was not scriptural.
Never did I hear a word concerning God’s operating in us. Their Bible seemed not to contain Philippians 2:13: “For it is God Who operates in you.” Hebrews 13:21 was also missing: that the God of peace is “doing in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.” In the famous Brethren teaching nothing was ever said about God in us. About Christ’s indwelling us. About the indwelling Spirit. Occasionally there would be mention of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
I recount this background to you so that you can see how the Lord has gradually showed many things to us. I received much help throughout the years from Brother Nee. Then for these past thirty years or so I have been abroad. The vision I see today is far clearer than it was thirty years ago.
Nonetheless, however much light we have received, we must all admit that our daily practical life is still around those eleven “off” concepts we covered in the previous message.
Those concepts are like circles, closing us in and limiting us. It is not bad to think about God. Surely there is nothing wrong with worshipping our Creator and trying to please and even glorify Him. Man’s ethical concepts also seem commendable. Within man there is a God-created good nature. Of course it was corrupted, but that good element is still in us. On the one hand, we are accustomed to sinning; on the other, we have an intention to do good. These moral inclinations are our ethical concepts. We may, for instance, get angry and quarrel with a member of the family. Later, however, when we are quiet, we are sorry about it and remind ourselves that we must love our family. We may not even quarrel. Under our parents’ discipline we have learned not to fight; thus, the annoyance remains inside us. At the breakfast table we may be exasperated with our younger sister. By midmorning, however, the thought comes, “Oh, I must love my sister; she is younger than I.” Then we pray, “Lord, help me to love my sister from now on.” Later, perhaps while we are at the dining table in the evening, again something comes up, and again the feeling of annoyance comes. Then, perhaps in the meeting that night, we hear something in a message, and the thought returns, “Oh, I must love my sister; Lord, help me to love her.” Is not this the story of all of us? It illustrates our ethical behavior.
Then there are our religious, devotional concepts. We want to be pious or holy or spiritual. These are some of the concepts we hold.
We may want to have everything according to the Scriptures. As fundamental Christians, we take the Bible as our guideline. Being scriptural is another concept.
There are also the concepts of wanting to have power and of being able to perform the miraculous. How easy it is to be impressed when we hear of some miraculous happening!
To serve God is another widely held concept. Some thirty or forty years ago many young American Christians devoted themselves to mission work. To be a missionary on the foreign field was considered the highest career.
Do you believe that you are out of these concepts? Day by day all of us, including myself, still travel in all these places. We try to have a good meeting, to stir up the saints to function; this is the concept of having a good meeting. We want to build up the service groups, to get the hall cleaned, the lawn mowed; this is the concept of Saturday morning service. I know the elders might not be happy to hear this; they think I am undoing the church service!
Many times I have confessed, “Lord, I have been good to this one or to that one, but without You.” We may be devotional, but apart from the Lord. We may faithfully participate in the church service, but with very little of Him. We are His container; as such, we should take Him as our contents. We should not act in an empty way. As His vessels, we should be filled with Him. Whatever we do must be an expression of Him.