What we must do today is just go along with the stream, just subject ourselves to the current of the work of the Holy Spirit. In this matter I have no personal liberty. It is not according to my thoughts, but according to His flowing. The words of a hymn say:
Not where we elect to go,
But where Jesus leads the way;
There the living waters flow,
There our darkness turns to day.
Out of the flowing of the stream come the gold, the pearls, and the precious stones. Look at the picture in Genesis chapter two. These precious substances are for the building of God's dwelling place. Wherever the flowing is, material will be produced for the building of the church. Look at the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God in the Old Testament. On the shoulder pieces and on the breastplate of the high priest were precious stones set in gold. The Apostle Paul tells us that the Church is built with gold, silver, and precious stones. These are the materials that come out of the flowing of the current of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation we are told that the entire city, the New Jerusalem, is built with gold, with pearls, and with precious stones. How did all these materials come into being? Simply from the flowing of the current of the divine life. Where the stream of the divine life is, there some material, some precious material, for the building of the church will come into being. You and I can never produce material for the building of the church. Only the flowing of the divine life, the current of the Holy Spirit, can do this. It has been flowing through the generations and is flowing today; and wherever it goes, gold, pearls, and precious stones are produced for God's building.
May the Lord grant us to be impressed by this picture. May He always keep us in the flowing of the life, in the fellowship, in the testimony, in the work, and in the building of the house of God. May we also pray toward this end.
W.L.