We need to see the obstacles that God’s life encounters in us. I believe that many brothers and sisters know and have seen a little about life. The brothers and sisters also have some understanding concerning the way to obtain life and the issue of obtaining life. However, from our experience, we know that God’s life also faces obstacles and difficulties in us. Every part of our entire being, both inwardly and outwardly, presents some obstacles to life. Although we know that God’s life has come into us to be our life and to be lived out of us, in reality, this life encounters obstacles in us. Thus, it is very difficult for life to be lived out from us.
Our whole being is a hindrance to God’s life. God’s life encounters many obstacles in us. It is difficult to find one Christian in a thousand who allows God’s life to have a free way in him. It is difficult to find a tenth of one percent, much less one percent, who give God a free way. The most difficult problems and severe restrictions that God’s life encounters in the universe are related to these obstacles in man. This is a very serious matter, and it is worthwhile to study this matter in a thorough way.
It is a fact that we have been saved and that God’s life has come into us. We know about God’s life, and we also know how to touch and contact His life. Nevertheless, God’s life still does not have a way in us, and it is unable to get through in us because it faces obstacles in us every day. In our daily living, we do not give God’s life the way, and we do not allow God’s life to have the ground in us. Everything of our natural man is a restriction to God’s life. Even our exhortation of others can be a problem for God’s life. Everything we have, whether good or bad, approved or disapproved, can be an obstacle for God’s life.
We should never think that the lukewarmness and backsliding of some brothers and sisters are a hindrance to God’s life but that the zealous pursuit of the Lord by other saints is not a hindrance to God’s life. This concept is false. Often, our zeal and pursuit are the greatest obstacles to God’s life. Similarly, we should not think that the ungodliness and worldliness of some saints are a hindrance to God’s life but that godly saints, who do not love the world and who forsake sin, do not present any obstacles to God’s life. This is not necessarily true. God may encounter significantly greater and even stronger obstacles in these saints rather than in those who are ungodly and unrighteous.
Therefore, we need to spend much time to see the obstacles that God’s life encounters in us. Although these are negative matters, the danger is quite serious; consequently, we must study them. We have met many people who love and pursue the Lord zealously and who are very pious, but we rarely meet people who allow God’s life to have a free way in them. We rarely see God’s life flowing freely out of anyone without encountering some difficulties. Among today’s Christians, we can hardly find anyone who gives God the free way. If we could find such a person, it would be the greatest blessing and miracle in the universe. This means that it is very rare and noteworthy for us to find someone who does not place restrictions and obstacles before God. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we would not only know life and the way of life but also discover the things that hinder and restrict life.
The first problem that God’s life encounters in man is the problem of ignorance. After any person is saved and becomes a Christian, he still has his thoughts and concepts. After a person is saved, he even has concepts and thoughts concerning what it means to be a proper Christian. A person may believe in the Lord on the first day, be baptized on the second day, and consider what kind of a Christian he should be on the third day. Everyone has human concepts. However, all human concepts are in darkness. It does not matter whether we are wise or foolish, whether we are highly educated or uneducated, all our human concepts are in darkness, and they prevent us from knowing life and Christ. No matter how good, lovely, and precious, all our concepts are in darkness, and they keep us from knowing Christ as life in us.
After some people are saved and become Christians, they have a concept that they need to be zealous and preach the gospel. They do not realize that even this concept can be in darkness and prevent them from knowing life. Other people have a different concept. They think that being a real Christian involves forsaking the world, fame, and wealth. They look down on everything that is physical and worldly, and they even attempt to forsake everything that is worldly. In their view, this is what it means to be a model Christian. Nevertheless, we must remember that these concepts are in darkness, and they prevent us from knowing life. People have such concepts because they do not know life.
Therefore, the first problem that God’s life encounters in us is that we do not realize the darkness of our human concepts. We do not realize that our concepts, even though they seem proper and upright, are actually full of darkness and without life. Most Christians think that they should be zealous and forsake the world once they become Christians. From man’s view, this sounds very logical. But without God, life, this is not practical.
Being a Christian is not a matter of zeal, nor a matter of spreading the gospel, nor a matter of forsaking the world, nor even a matter of not caring for material enjoyment. Being a Christian does not depend upon doing anything; it does not depend upon anything under the sun. Being a Christian depends upon how we take care of the Christ in us. The day we were saved, we received a living Christ, who became our life in us. From that day forward, our being a Christian has not depended on anything other than taking care of the living Christ in us. The only thing that matters is how we take care of the living Christ in us.
After we are saved, the concept of trying to be good is within all of us. We think that being a Christian means to forsake the world, to be zealous, and to preach the gospel fervently. This is a natural, human concept. This is our thought, not God’s thought. As soon as we are baptized, we typically think that we should be zealous and preach the gospel. However, when we pray and fellowship with God in the morning, the living Christ in us may touch us in a different way according to His constant operation and move in us. Then things truly begin to happen in us. For example, as He operates in us, we will see that some things we may have done in the past are inappropriate, such as beating our wives, blaming our husbands, and complaining about others. We will even have a sense that we should apologize. Therefore, we need to lose our face and go to those whom we have offended and say, “I am truly sorry about how I treated you in the past. I also offended God. Now I ask you to please forgive me.” This is what Christ is doing in us. When we pray, the living Christ will move in us and touch us to apologize to those whom we have offended.
However, after experiencing this kind of moving within, a brother may not apologize but instead begins to reason, “I am a man, a real man. I will lose my face if I apologize to my wife. I will go and preach the gospel, and that will be enough.” So he asks the Lord, “Grant me the power to preach the gospel.” If we are this kind of Christian, we are wrong because preaching the gospel and zealousness have become our goal, rather than following the living Christ in us. I have been in the church life for many years, and I have seen some people who are very zealous and tireless in preaching the gospel, but when we go to their homes, their wives say, “Others may believe in Jesus, but I will not believe. Others may preach the gospel, but I do not believe what my husband preaches.” This often is our situation.
We may preach the gospel and be zealous, but this does not mean that the living Christ is living Himself out of us. We can be zealous and active in preaching the gospel but totally ignore the sense of the living Christ in us. The living Christ wants to conquer and break us, but we are not willing. From the day we were saved, we have not allowed Christ to break us even once. We accept what fits our taste, such as zealousness and preaching the gospel, but we completely ignore anything that does not fit our taste, such as apologizing to our wife. This is our true situation. While we are spending much effort in considering what to do before we go to preach the gospel, our wife or husband may be thinking, “You are going to preach the gospel! You have no Christ and no reality.” This shows that our zeal and preaching of the gospel are merely religious activities. The living Christ is not moving or being lived out of us.
If we genuinely know the Lord, when we pray to Him in the morning, He will move in us and give us a sense of our need to apologize to our wife. After praying, we should humble ourselves and apologize for our past wrong doings to our wife. After apologizing, we need to say to the Lord, “O Lord, thank You. I have obeyed Your moving in me. I have no choice; I do not want to have my own concept. You are my only choice and my only concept.” If we would all do this, the living Christ would have more ground and opportunity to speak to us and to give us even more feelings. The result of this continual operation would spread to our dealings with others, or it may touch our wrong actions toward others. At such moments, we need to care only for Christ, not for our face or self-esteem. We need to go to people and apologize for our past wrong doings. In this way, Christ will surely have more ground in us.
I believe that those who have experienced this can testify that after such an experience, they truly feel that they are filled with Christ’s presence. Even though we are on the earth, we feel as if we are in the heavens. We cannot describe the sweet, happy, peaceful, and clear feeling in us. At this point, we may ask the Lord, “O Lord, how will You lead me? I care for Your feeling.” Then the Lord will direct us to do something else, and without relying on our own concepts and opinions, we can simply follow Him. This is what it means to be a Christian, and this is the Christian’s pathway of life. Our old concepts involve us only in religious activity; they cannot cause us to become normal Christians.
It is difficult to change our concepts, but we will not have a way to go on unless we put aside our own concepts and opinions. Being a Christian means not taking anything other than Christ as our aim. Many people have difficulty in their spiritual life after they are saved because they do not know the pathway of life, and they do not take Christ as their life.