Fourthly, the growing out of life passes through our will. We have seen that the heart needs to be pure, the conscience needs to be without offense, the emotion needs to be loving, and the mind needs to be renewed. Then, what does the will need? From the Bible, we see that the will needs to be pliable. As far as the will is concerned, it is a matter of being pliable. To deal with the will is to make our will pliable.
The will is the organ of our proposals and decisions. Whether we want or not, decide or not, all are functions of the will. When we say “I want,” or “I decide,” it means that our will wants, our will decides. Thus, the will is the most essential part of our whole being; it determines our actions and our moves. We may say that it is the helm of our whole person. Just as a boat turns according to the helm, so a man moves forward or backward according to his will.
The will of a man is entirely independent, entirely free. It cannot be forced or compelled to do whatever it opposes or disapproves. Just as it acts in this way toward man, so also does it act toward God. Thus, whether the life of God can grow out from within us is very much related to whether our will is pliable and surrendered. If our will is hard, obstinate, rebellious, and in all things acting according to our own ideas, there is no way for the life of God to grow out. If our will is softened, pliable, and willing to act according to the working of life, the life of God can grow out. Hence, our will is the fourth place through which the growing out of life passes, or the fourth section of the outlet for the growing out of life.
We must note that whenever we mention the heart, we refer to these various parts, either to the conscience of the heart, the emotion of the heart, the mind of the heart, or the will of the heart. When we say that a person’s heart is not pure, we refer to the heart as a whole. When we say that this person’s heart is without offense, without condemnation, we refer to the conscience. When we say that a person’s heart loves the Lord, we refer to the emotion. When we say that a person’s heart does not understand, we refer to the mind. When we say that this person’s heart is hard and stubborn, we refer to the will. When we speak of dealing with our heart, we mean dealing with these five aspects of the heart.
If we can deal with our heart until it is pure, without offense, loving the Lord, clear and proficient, and pliable, then we have a heart which is useful to the life of God, and we can allow the life of God to have a clear outlet from within us.
Having seen where life is, the exit of life, and the passage of life, we know that if we want the life of God to have a way to grow out from us, we must deal with our spirit, heart, conscience, emotion, mind, and will until there are no problems in them. This is because the life of God takes our spirit as its abode, and it takes our heart, conscience, emotion, mind, and will as the outlet. If any one of these six organs has trouble, the life of God is blocked and cannot emerge. Therefore, if we desire to seek growth in life, it really is not so simple. Not only should we touch the spirit and know the spirit; we also should deal with every part of the heart. If we fall short in any way, we will not succeed. For this reason, the brothers and sisters today who have growth in life are exceedingly few, and their growth is very slow!
Sometimes you see a brother who you cannot say does not love the Lord; in fact, he is quite good in every way. But because his mind is peculiar, his whole spiritual future is paralyzed. Some sisters have dealt with their conscience, and there is no problem with their mind; yet because they fall short in their emotion, having other loves beside the Lord, they also do not have much spiritual growth. There are some brothers who have a stubborn will in all things; they insist on their already made-up mind; they are unwilling to be corrected, and they are unable to submit to the shining of light; therefore, life also cannot get out. Thus, to deal adequately with all these parts in our actual living is really not easy. If there is one brother or sister who has no problem at all in these matters, it is really a miracle. May God have mercy on us!