If we would experience Christ and live Him, we need to remain in an atmosphere of prayer. Many of us can testify that by prayer we are brought into the spirit, where we are one with the Lord and take Him as our life. This experience is so precious that when we are enjoying it, we do not want it to end. We like to remain in spirit to be one with the Lord. However, as soon as our time of prayer is over, most of the time we revert to our natural way of living. We are no longer in an atmosphere of prayer. Automatically we begin to try once again to be holy, spiritual, and victorious. Whenever we fail, we repent, confess to the Lord, and resolve to try again. This is not the way to live the Christian life. On the contrary, our daily living should be the same as our experience in genuine prayer. When we pray ourselves into the spirit, we are one with the Lord, we enjoy His presence, and we spontaneously live Him. Without exerting any effort, we are holy, spiritual, and victorious. We have no problems and no anxieties. I believe we all have had experiences like this in prayer.
These experiences of genuine prayer should be the model for our daily experience with the Lord. This means that our experience in our daily life should be the same as that in prayer. However, most of the time we live according to the natural life, not according to Christ. To live Christ it is necessary to persevere in prayer, to pray without ceasing. We need to stay in the atmosphere of prayer. Here we are one spirit with the Lord. He is our life, we live Him, and we are spontaneously holy, spiritual, and victorious. We have no thought of balancing ourselves. Instead of standards, principles, and regulations, we have Christ experientially and in a practical way. Whenever we are in such an atmosphere of prayer, we are one with Christ, and He is our life. This is what it means to live Christ.
The teachings I gave out many years ago about being balanced and subdued did not minister Christ, and they did not bring the saints into direct, living contact with Christ. Instead of refinement, we need a kind of living in which Christ is lived out directly. God has not given us holiness, victory, or spirituality. He has given us Christ as a living, all-inclusive Person. What God desires is this Person, not any virtues or attributes. Therefore, our need is to contact this living Person in prayer. Then we need to remain in an atmosphere of prayer. If we do this, we shall live Christ spontaneously. Furthermore, we shall be freed from our culture without trying to adjust or correct ourselves. Everything other than Christ will fade away. Christ will be whatever we need: life, light, grace, comfort, health, strength, humility, patience, kindness, meekness. When we have Him, we have all the divine attributes and the human virtues. Furthermore, in our experience the Bible becomes living and full of light.
My burden in this message is that our eyes would be opened to see that what God wants is Christ lived out from within us. His concern is not that we be balanced, but that we be one with Christ and live Christ. God wants us to live Christ. You may be a young person, but you should live Christ, not the life of a typical young person. To be balanced, subdued, or refined is not the way to live Christ. The way to live Christ is in prayer to contact Christ as the life-giving Spirit within us. As we pray ourselves into an atmosphere of genuine prayer, we shall live Christ spontaneously. I can testify that this is real and that we all can experience it.
The way to experience the indwelling Christ is to pray in a genuine way. We do not need to pray for a better job or home. That kind of prayer hinders us from experiencing Christ. We need the kind of prayer which brings us into contact with the Lord, prayer that causes us to be one with Him in our spirit. If we pray in this way, we shall enjoy Christ, experience Him as our life, and live Him.
Instead of trying to be a certain kind of person and instead of trying to live up to certain standards and regulations, we should simply contact Christ, be one with Him, and live Him. Our goal should be to know Christ and Christ alone, not to know what to do or where to go. As we enjoy the Lord and experience Him, He will be our life and we shall live Him. How marvelous! This is what Paul means in Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ.”
In order to live Christ, we need to pray without ceasing. As soon as we stop praying, we stop living Christ. I wish to point out again and again that only in an atmosphere of prayer is it possible to live Christ. Therefore, every aspect of our daily living must be brought into such an atmosphere, where we and Christ are truly one. In this atmosphere Christ is real, substantial, practical, and even touchable. It is in this atmosphere that Christ is our life in a practical way. Here we live Him and enjoy all He is to us. This Christ is unsearchable and unlimited. In our experience we are one with Him, we contact Him, and we enjoy all His riches. In this way we spontaneously live Christ.