The Lord Jesus is not a religion or a set of forms, regulations, or teachings. He is a living Person whom we may contact day by day. As the all-inclusive Spirit indwelling our spirit, He is real and available. Hour by hour and even moment by moment, we should exercise our spirit to contact Him in an intimate way. We need to develop the habit of calling on the Lord’s name at all times and in all places. If we build up this practice, we shall be able to say, “O Lord Jesus, Your name is the sweetest name on earth.”
As we contact the Lord and call on His name, we must walk with Him, live by Him, and do everything according to the index of His eyes. The index denotes the area of the face around the eyes, the look as being the index of the inward thoughts and feelings to signify the presentation of the whole person. According to 2 Corinthians 2:10, Paul lived in the person, the index, of Christ. He did everything according to the expression conveyed through the index of the Lord’s eyes. We also should live according to this index of Christ. However, this is possible only when we are in His presence. If we are away from Him or if there is something between us and Him, we cannot live according to the index of His eyes. For example, a good wife will carefully watch the index of her husband’s eyes and live according to it. This is the way we should live in relation to the Lord. Everything we say or do should be in the index of the eyes of the Lord Jesus. As I am speaking to a brother, I should speak according to the indicators of the Lord’s index.
It is possible for us all to experience this. We can live in such intimate contact with the Lord Jesus that in every detail of our daily life we can behave according to the index of the Lord’s eyes. As I am about to put on a particular tie, I spontaneously know whether or not the Lord likes that tie. If He approves of it, I shall put it on. But if it displeases Him, I will gladly get rid of it. Oh, how sweet it is to live in the index of the eyes of Christ!
We have been emphasizing the need to have intimate contact with the Lord, even to live according to the index of His eyes. When we live in this way, we find out how real, living, and present the Lord is. However, the tragedy is that in the meetings we proclaim, “It is no longer I—Christ lives in me,” but in our daily living we may not allow the Lord to live in us. For example, we may insist on going to the department store, even though we sense deep within that the Lord does not approve. We may bargain with the Lord, asking Him to let us go just this one time and promising Him that we shall not go again. When we speak this way to the Lord, we are not honest or truthful with Him. Whenever we say, “Lord, let me do it just this once,” there will always be a second time. If we do not contact the Lord daily and live by Him, what shall we have of Christ to exhibit in the church meetings? Surely we cannot show forth our disobedience to the Lord, or testify concerning how we went shopping in spite of the Lord’s inward protest. Because they have nothing of Christ to exhibit, many saints are silent in the meetings. But if we enjoy the Lord in our daily life and testify in the meetings of this enjoyment, we shall have even more enjoyment of the Lord. The more we speak of Christ, the more we enjoy Him and the more we are filled unto all the fullness of God.
My burden in this message is to impress you with the simplicity of the early Christians. May the Lord restore such a simplicity among us in His recovery today! If we are brought back to this simplicity in our meetings, we shall not use the hymnal or even the Bible to replace the all-inclusive Spirit. Sometime we may have a meeting in which we use neither the hymnal nor the Bible. Instead, we may simply show forth Christ through the exercise of our spirit. I can be deprived of my hymnal and of my Bible, but I cannot be deprived of the all-inclusive Christ in my spirit. However, if some Christians did not have a hymnal or Bible, they would have nothing. They know how to sing from the hymnal and how to use the Bible, but they do not know how to exercise the spirit to experience Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Oh, may the Lord cause us to put our trust in nothing other than the living Christ Himself!
We have seen that although the Christians in the early church did not have the Bible or a hymnal, they did have the living Christ. They called on His name and spoke a great deal of Him and regarding Him. They also sang and praised the Lord. Therefore, whenever they gathered together, they could exhibit what they had experienced and enjoyed of Christ in their daily living. By this we see that a proper Christian meeting should be an expression of the Christian life. We should not make the meetings something different from or apart from our daily walk. If we do this, our meetings will become a performance, the meeting hall will become a theater, and the saints will become performers. Our meetings should not be performances—they should be exhibitions of the way we live at home, at school, and at work. They should be an expression of the Christ by whom and in whom we live day by day. In order to have proper meetings, we must first have a proper daily life.