Question: I recently met some brothers who are in the same profession as I am. My tendency is to invite the brothers to work together for the gospel’s sake. However, I wonder if this is the Lord or something of my self, my natural man, trying to organize or have an activity.
Answer: A tendency to try to organize something for the gospel comes from our natural life. We do not need to organize or initiate anything, because Christ is the Lord and the Head. We have no right to make a decision concerning what to do or what not to do. We are merely slaves of the Lord. We need to pray, “Lord, I am not the Lord. You are the Lord. I do not have the right to initiate anything. Lord, I just want to live You. I live because You live. If You go, I go. What You do, I do. If You stay, I stay.” If we are truly living Christ, we even do not need to seek His leading in how to preach the gospel, for the gospel will be our living.
In this way we simplify our Christian life. We often complicate the Christian life by thinking about different ways and by initiating different activities. We should forget about all the ways and activities. When we rise up in the morning, we should simply worship the Lord and contact Him. When many Christians pray, they are trying to force the Lord to do something for them, because they have already made a decision and planned something. We need to realize that this kind of prayer insults the Lord’s headship.
I used to plan and make decisions and then ask the Lord to help me. I regret that I insulted the Lord in this way. Today I have no plan, and I initiate nothing. Every morning I simply pray, “Lord, thank You for giving me another day to worship You, live You, enjoy You, walk with You, and take You as my life. Lord, strengthen me and hold me in Your hand.” After praying like this, we should simply follow the Lord throughout the day. If the Lord leads us to work together with some other brothers, we should simply do it. If the Lord does not lead us to do something, we should not do it. As a result of living in this way, we will have no burdens, complications, troubles, or anxieties. We will have nothing but Christ.
In Matthew 11:30 the Lord said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The Greek word for easy means “pleasant.” The Lord’s burden is pleasant. Actually, we do not bear anything. We simply live Christ and enjoy Him. We should not complicate our Christian life. The Lord does not need us to do anything. If He wants something to be accomplished, He can do it simply by speaking a word. Genesis 1:3 says, “God said, Let there be light; and there was light.” The Lord does not need us to accomplish something for Him, but He needs us to live Him. If we see this, we will be liberated from all burdens, complications, considerations, and anxieties. Moreover, we will be full of Christ as peace, rest, and enjoyment.
Question: Before I came into the church life in the Lord’s recovery, I met with different religious groups, which had different doctrines. Recently, when I began reading the Bible, I quickly became distracted, thinking about doctrinal matters. What should I do?
Answer: Because today’s Christianity has become complicated and confused, it is very difficult for a new believer to discern all the different teachings and practices. Nevertheless, the Bible clearly reveals that there is only one God, the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. One day God in the Son became a genuine man named Jesus. After living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, He died on the cross for our sins to accomplish redemption for us by the shedding of His blood. After three days He resurrected physically and spiritually and ascended to the heavens. Now, as our Savior, Lord, and Master, He is sitting at the right hand of God, and one day He will come back to receive us. Moreover, He is now the life-giving Spirit in our spirit as our life. Therefore, today while He is in the heavens and we are waiting on the earth for His coming back, we can live by Him, taking Him as our life. We need to fellowship with Him, pray to Him, and read the Bible. The basic items of the Christian faith revealed in the Bible are simple. We need to come back to the Bible and to the Lord in a simple way.
We also need to meet with the saints in the Lord’s recovery in a pure, simple way. We should never bring in different concepts to complicate the Lord’s recovery. We must keep the Lord’s recovery pure and simple. For this reason, we should not have different concepts, ways, activities, movements, or organizations. We should have only the Bible and the living God. We need only to live by Him according to the truth in the Bible.
We need to be simplified. Especially if we have spent time in different religious groups, thoughts will often come into our mind to bother, distract, veil, and cover us. Therefore, we need to pray that the Lord will cover our mind and thoughts with His helmet of salvation. Then the Lord will save us from many distracting thoughts. If we pray in this way, we will be preserved in a simple and pure way to enjoy the Lord’s presence and the church life.
Question: I desire to have a simple, uncomplicated enjoyment of the Lord. However, I often feel that there are many distracting complications in me. How can I get rid of them?
Answer: We do not need to get rid of these complications. We should simply ignore them. We need to reject the thought that complications are still in us. After we repent and ask the Lord to cover our mind, we should not believe that complications are still in us. According to our consciousness, they may still be in us, but this is a lie from the devil. We need to declare to the enemy, “Any sense I have of complications in me is a lie. Only God is the truth, the reality. There are no complications in me. The simplicity of Christ is in me. All I have is Christ.” Furthermore, our human spirit is indwelt by Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, and these two spirits are mingled together as one. We simply need to walk in this mingled spirit.
We should deny any distracting thoughts that come to us. If the devil comes to us with some accusation, we should not argue with him but flee to our spirit. Satan’s occupation is to bother us, and he is very subtle. He will usually not do something big but will find a small way to bother us. As long as he bothers us, he is satisfied. We need to see through his subtlety and not respond to his proposals. We should deny any distracting thoughts and stay in our spirit, enjoying the Lord.
Question: I want to go on with the Lord and to express Him in my daily life, but it seems that I live two lives—one at my job and another outside my job. I am very busy the whole time I am at work. I do not know how to lay hold of the Lord in the midst of all that I have to do at my job. What should I do?
Answer: The subtle enemy often uses a fact related to our living to deceive us. The biggest lie is often told using the truth. Apparently, something spoken may be a fact, but the intention in speaking it is to deceive. You should not think that you have two lives. You need to tell the enemy and the whole universe, “I do not believe that I have two lives. I have only one life.” Also, begin every day by worshipping and contacting the Lord, telling Him, “Lord, thank You for another day for me to live You. Lord, be with me today. Strengthen me, sustain me, and hold me in Your hand this whole day. I may forget You, Lord, but You would never forget me. I do not trust in my ability or my faithfulness. Lord, I put my trust fully in You for the whole day.” Pray in this way.
Many of us have been influenced by different doctrines from our background in Christianity. As a result, we have considerations that are frustrations and distractions. We need to deny, ignore, and not believe all these things. We believe only one thing, that is, the living Lord. Our trust is in Him. We do not need to plan or prepare how we will face different situations in our daily lives. We have no expectation, plan, or schedule. We have only the living Lord. All day, and especially in the morning, we contact Him and allow Him to sustain us. We do not need to be concerned for tomorrow. We never have tomorrow; we always have only today. Every day is today. The Christian life is simple, real, living, sweet, and joyful.