When I was a young Christian, I loved the Lord. I tried hard to overcome my shortcomings. From reading certain spiritual books, I learned that I had been crucified with Christ, and that this was the key to my being victorious over my weaknesses. My little mind, however, could not figure out how I could have been crucified with Him, when He died in Israel and I was in China thousands of miles away! And how could I have died with Him when I was not born until two thousand years later?! How could there be a relationship of any kind between His death and mine?
In my reading I eventually came across a book saying that we must reckon ourselves dead, as Romans 6 teaches. This seemed logical to me. Since two and two are four, I reckon on that fact when I do calculations. A message I heard also encouraged me to reckon. The Chinese are all supposedly the descendants of Huang Ti. If someone had killed him before he had any sons, the Chinese would all have died in him. By the same principle, the preacher said, we could reckon that when Christ died, we died.
Impressed with this logic, I began to reckon. I also taught others to reckon. What I discovered was that before I started reckoning, my evil self was dormant. Whenever I reckoned, it became active. The more I reckoned it dead, the more alive it was. No doubt many of you have also gone through this experience of trying to reckon yourself dead and finding it does not work.
Before 1937 Brother Nee also preached this message of reckoning to us. He had A. B. Simpson’s hymn, “Let us reckon, reckon, reckon” (Hymns, #692), included in our Chinese hymnal. After 1937, however, Brother Nee saw something further regarding Romans 6. He told us that this chapter declares the fact, but that it cannot be the experience. Only when we go on to Romans 8, he said, could we experience what it is to die with Christ. Death with Christ can only be experienced in the Spirit. I surely said amen when I heard that.
When we are filled with the Spirit, the effectiveness of the death of Christ is our experience. If we keep praying until we are in the Spirit, we shall find the killing. There is no need to reckon. We have all experienced that when we are filled with the Spirit, our bad temper, our wrong attitude, our feeling of jealousy, and our opinions are all killed.
This effective praying is the way to take nourishment into us. Just as eating the proper food helps destroy the germs in our body that make us ill, so when we are filled with the Spirit, the effectiveness of the death of Christ kills all the negative things in us.
In the Spirit is also the power of resurrection. When you pray until you are filled by the Spirit, you will sense that you are free and in the ascendancy. Oppression will be gone. Life and the power of life will comfort and heal you, bringing you into peace and quietness. Sometimes you will even feel that you are soaring in the heavens, far above all. Others may quarrel and be dissenting, but you are in resurrection. As you further pray, you will find that Satan and all the demons are under your feet.
As you pray and are filled with the Spirit, you will sense that all authority is yours. You will be reigning in life. Then there will be the kingdom. Simultaneously, overcoming, sanctification, and spirituality are also yours.
To enjoy all these riches in the Spirit, spend time before the Lord. Pray with your spirit, opening your whole being to Him. Praise Him, behold Him, fellowship with Him, and let Him fill you. Pray whatever He leads you to pray; do not exert your mind. If He leads you to confess, confess. If He leads you to repent, repent. If He leads you to weep, weep. If He leads you to be joyful, be joyful. Simply pray according to His leading. Then you will be filled with the Spirit, and He will be your constant supply. Practice this all the time, every day.
Confucius taught that there is a bright virtue within us. He no doubt meant the conscience. His teaching was that through great learning we could develop this virtue and thus attain the ultimate goodness. In man’s concept this may be a noble idea. This is not, however, what we are doing. The conscience is only a third of our spirit. We want to have our entire spirit filled with the Spirit. Rather than developing the bright virtue, we are having the Spirit added into our spirit. How marvelous this is! Our spirit and the Spirit become one. How much higher it is to have this rich Spirit within our spirit! How much more this does for us than the great learning to develop the bright virtue! We are in graduate school! The great learning is only kindergarten!
How blessed we are! The bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit is our portion. May we all keep turning to our spirit and let our natural concepts go. Then the Spirit will supply us day by day. As we taste His riches, we shall enjoy Christ as our life and we shall be His living. Then we can say, “Christ lives in me! For me to live is Christ!”
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