We must see that every saved one is a person whom the Lord would use. The Lord’s life is a serving life, and the Lord’s life comes into us so that we can serve. However, our ability to serve is often not manifested. What is the reason for this? The reason is that the capacity to serve, which is inherent in the life within us, has not been developed. If because of the Lord’s love, all of us would once again submit ourselves, consecrate ourselves, give up our future, and be broken and dealt with, in less than a year many brothers and sisters among us would be manifested as called ones, as workers, as elders, as deacons, and as those who engage in business, making money solely for the Lord. All the problems lie in the fact that the serving life within us cannot gain a place and has no way to grow. In such a situation, encouragement, teaching, and exhortation are all useless. Rather, what we need is to allow the life within us to find an outlet so that it can be released.

A certain brother who belonged to a wealthy family had followed the Lord for a long time and had also consecrated himself, but the function of life, the serving life, in him had not been manifested. In the spring of 1948, about the time of the Chinese New Year, I arrived at Ku-lang-yu, and the brothers arranged for me to stay in that brother’s house. He had a huge Western style house that was quite magnificent, and the hospitality given to me was excellent. However, the most painful thing to me was that I had no one with whom to fellowship while I was staying there. If it were not for the fact that the Lord’s grace had been constituted into me over the years, I probably would have become lifeless.

Within every cell of this brother’s being was money, and all that he thought about was money. Sometimes he would take me for a little walk on the mountain, and on the way he would ask me many questions that he himself probably knew I would not be able to answer. How could you talk with such a person who was altogether living in money? Nevertheless, since he was the host and I was a guest, it would have been impolite to not answer his questions, so I had to answer something, though I knew that it was altogether useless. The crucial point of this story is that from that time on, at least a few times in my prayers I asked the Lord to remember that brother. I said, “Lord, this brother received Your servants and maidservants. He received me, and he also received some of the serving sisters. Lord, You must visit him. You must do a work of grace in him.” Of course, any worker would naturally offer such a prayer without being exhorted to do so. That brother was saved, was pursuing the Lord, was interested in spiritual things, and also had no problem in the church life, but the big problem was that he had fallen into money and had become a money depository. Thus, the life of Christ in him was restricted. Therefore, although he was a saved one and was interested in spiritual things, the serving life could not be released through him.

A sacrifice that was to be presented to God first had to be brought to the altar, then it had to be slaughtered, cut into pieces, skinned, dealt with in various ways, and then finally burned by fire and offered to God. Therefore, all the dealings came after it was brought for consecration. In other words, our consecration may be considered the basis of the Lord’s dealings with us. Why is this? According to simple reasoning, the Lord should have begun to deal with us immediately after we were saved so that He could begin to live Himself out through us more and more, yet many of us did not consent or agree to this. Since the Lord never forces us to do anything, He tries to draw us and move us to consecrate ourselves and say, “O Lord, I accept Your dealings and Your breaking.” Such a response from us is our consecration; our consecration is our response.

Genuine consecration is to let God work in us. It is not that we work for God, as most people think. Genuine consecration is to let God work in us. It is not for us to work for the Lord. Many people think that after they have consecrated themselves, they have to work for the Lord. Little do they know that consecration is to allow the Lord to work in them, that is, to allow the Lord to carry out the work of dealing with them. Through our consecration the Lord receives the right and gets a response so that He can begin to work in us. Therefore, first comes consecration and then the dealings follow. Of course, sometimes there are exceptions. Sometimes the Lord may want to gain someone, yet this one refuses to consecrate himself. The Lord wants to win him, yet he refuses to say yes. The Lord wants to work in him, yet he would not go along and would not let Him do the work. Then what should the Lord do? The Lord has to raise up environments to deal a blow to him, his business, and to his health. This is still not the breaking but only a blow to force this one to have no alternative but to consecrate himself, to agree with the Lord, and to say yes to the Lord. The genuine dealing and breaking comes after consecration. Only after we have consecrated ourselves can we receive genuine dealing.

The blows mentioned above are outward. Even physical sickness is external. They are blows in the environment, not the dealings of the self within. After you have consecrated yourself, from then on the Lord begins to deal with your very self. We all know that Paul was dealt with not just once but for an extended period of time. He said that a thorn in the flesh was given to him. Concerning this thorn, he entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from him, yet the Lord did not remove it (2 Cor. 12:7-9). The Lord let the thorn remain in Paul, so the dealing never departed from Paul. Why is this? It was because he had not left his flesh yet. We must always remember that before we are transfigured and raptured, regardless of how much we have been dealt with by the Lord, our flesh remains unchanged. Thus, we need to live under His dealings daily.

It is quite a paradox that a person who has not been dealt with does not feel that he is fleshly. Every day his flesh is very active, yet he does not feel it. On the contrary, a person who is being dealt with every day has a strong sense that his flesh is present and that he is truly fleshly. It seems that if he speaks, he is fleshly, and if he does not speak, he is also fleshly. Regardless of what he does, he feels that he is fleshly. This experience is proper. The more we are dealt with, the more we will sense the flesh. Thus, we will submit ourselves to the Lord and say, “Lord, I am too poor.” This is a good situation, a sweet situation. If you feel that after being dealt with once, it was a success-that your flesh has been broken and your naturalness has been purged-then you are being deceived. You have not been broken.

Even at the time Paul wrote the book of Philippians, he still said that he had not yet been perfected, he had not yet arrived, and he had not yet obtained. He was still pursuing and was still being dealt with (3:12-14). It is true that there are some who, even when they become old, are still useless in the Lord’s hand. Why is this? It is because when they are old, they still would not be dealt with. We can never graduate from being dealt with.
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