Question: Sometimes as I enjoy the Lord, I receive His grace, and when situations arise, I am able to overcome them to remain in fellowship with the Lord. But at other times, when the Lord seems to be very distant, a situation comes in, I react, and it seems to take some length of time to restore my once peaceful situation. Is this normal?
Answer: The Christian life is not a philosophical life of reasonings. The Christian life is a life of the three factors I have mentioned earlier. It is a living Person with His history of death and resurrection. This Person with His history should be our experience today. We should forget about all kinds of philosophy. Today most Christian teachers have turned biblical teachings into something philosophical. Though I would agree that the Bible is the most philosophical book, the most thoughtful book, to make its teaching a philosophy is a big mistake. The Bible does not reveal different kinds of philosophies. It unveils a living Person, who is the Spirit today as the very consummation of the processed Triune God. This One is our need.
There is a great deal of scientific knowledge concerning electricity. The need in our daily life is not this knowledge, but the power of electricity. In the same way, Christ with His death and resurrection should not be a philosophy to us, but something living and experiential. In Philippians 3 Paul sought to know Christ as a living Person, to participate in His sufferings, and to be conformed to His death. This was not a philosophy to Paul, but a living Person with two living points. We must have the same desire, even the same vision, as Paul. When we see such a vision, many of our improper prayers and foolish seeking will come to an end. Our need is to be unveiled to see a vision of Christ and His death and resurrection.
I am concerned that many of the young people will merely learn things in this training as they would in a school with a “textbook,” without really seeing something. My real burden is to help you see something. As you read this message, I hope that you could see the living Person of Christ, His death, and His resurrection again and again.
A hymn such as #642 in Hymns does not merely teach us. On the contrary, it unveils spiritual reality to us. Our need is not just to learn doctrines, but to open ourselves to the Lord so that we can see something. We should pray, “Lord, I open myself to You. I want to see more of You as an all-inclusive Person. Show me how Your all-inclusive death and resurrection includes me.” Then as we listen to the speaking concerning Christ, we will begin to see something. What we see becomes a reality within us. Then we live by what we have seen.
The death and resurrection of Christ must become a vision to us. On the cross, not only was Christ crucified there, but also all the existing things in the universe were crucified with Him. He was on the cross representing the entire old creation, so when He died, we died with Him. His death was our death. Likewise, when He resurrected, we also resurrected with Him to be the people of His new creation. His resurrection was the birth, the germination, of the new creation. Christ is an all-inclusive Person, so His resurrection, based upon His all-inclusive death, is also all-inclusive. My burden is to help you see this vision.
Vision comes from hearing and hearing comes from speaking. In Christianity, the subtle enemy has cut off the proper speaking of Christ and His death and resurrection. But praise the Lord that He is still speaking today. As long as He speaks and you hear, you also see a vision. Once you see something, you also enjoy the reality. The reality is mainly composed of three factors: the all-inclusive Christ as a living Person, His all-inclusive death, and His all-inclusive resurrection. When we see these factors, we are brought into the realization and experience of them.
Home | First | Prev | Next