Some of the new believers may wonder how the fullness of God is related to them. Concerning this we would present two crucial points. One point is the meaning of God’s fullness, and the other is that man was created for God’s fullness. Genesis 1:26 says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” God created man in His image. Romans 9:23 says, “In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.” God not only made man in His image; He also made man as a vessel. This vessel has God’s likeness in order to contain God. Any valuable object is usually contained in a box, and the shape of the box is determined by the object it contains. Man is a vessel to contain God. It is for this purpose that God created man. Therefore, man is not a coat hanger to be draped with clothes or a food bag to contain food. The meaning of human life is not related to clothing, food, housing, or transportation; it is not related to eating three meals a day and sleeping at night. The meaning of our human life is in the content of our human life.
Man is a vessel created by God to contain God; therefore, man is an empty vessel if he does not contain God. For this reason we need to realize that we are precious vessels, just as a box that contains a diamond is a precious box. As vessels created by God to contain Him, we are very precious. Hence, many believers testify that there was meaning in their human life after they received the Lord.
When I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I had a few good friends, and even though we encouraged one another to strive for the best, we still felt the emptiness of life. Many elderly brothers and sisters have had this feeling. Whether a person is a government official, a teacher, or a businessman, whenever he is calm, he has the feeling that life cannot merely be a matter of food, clothing, and work. People have had many considerations concerning the meaning of human life, but they have never found an answer.
One day God caused the wind of the gospel to blow on the earth. Throughout the past two thousand years this gospel wind has been blowing everywhere on the earth through the continuous preaching of thousands of believers. There was a time when it was considerably difficult for a Western missionary to go to China to preach the gospel. Some of them spent six months sailing in a boat and suffered nausea and illness during their journey only to die after they arrived in China. Today, however, transportation is convenient, and the various means of communication are even more convenient. This environment is favorable for the preaching of the gospel. Hence, the gospel wind is blowing everywhere. When this wind blows on a person, it causes him to receive the Lord, and he immediately feels that life is no longer empty. He feels that life is full of content and meaning. Although there are different races on the earth with different skin colors—yellow, brown, black, white, and red—the need within everyone is the same. Jesus is mankind’s common need. He is the all-inclusive dose that is suitable for every kind of person.
Genesis 1 shows that man was created by God and for God. God created man according to His likeness so that man could receive Him. God is now the life-giving Spirit, and all the riches of God are in the Spirit. His love, grace, life, light, holiness, righteousness, kindness, forbearance, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, and caring are all in the Spirit, and the Spirit is God Himself. We not only need to believe in God; we also need to receive Him. We receive Him simply by opening our mouth to pray. This can be compared to receiving air through breathing. Our calling is our breathing. When we say, “O Lord Jesus,” He enters into us. We can all testify that even when we softly call on the name of the Lord in a meeting, we are changed. It is by calling on the Lord that we receive Him. In this way God enters into us, His vessels, and His riches are contained in us. After God enters into us, He desires to fellowship with us. The more He fellowships with us, the more living we become, and the more we call on Him and breathe Him in, the more He fills us.