If you come to the church meeting with Christ in these aspects, you will not come in a traditional way, in a common way, in a way according to the religious background. No, the way you come to the meetings and function in the meetings will be absolutely different. I do not know what you will do, but I believe that spontaneously you will offer praise to the Lord and testify of Him. The Bible reveals that whatever fills us will eventually be poured out. This means that if we are filled with Christ, we shall pour Him forth in praise and testimony.
Our way of meeting is still too formal and traditional. For instance, we may think that testimonies should be given at the end of the meeting. According to this concept, if we testify at the beginning of the meeting, we break the rules or regulations of the meeting. Actually, there is no rule that says we should testify at the end of the meeting and not at the beginning. If this rule exists, it exists in the saints as a self-made rule. Suppose we come to a church meeting or even to a ministry meeting and testify one by one. There may be so many testimonies that there will not be an opportunity for anyone to give a message. My intention in saying this, however, is not to present a proposal concerning the way of meeting. My burden is to point out how formal, religious, natural, and traditional we are. My intention is to show that we are still under the influence of traditional Christianity. In our daily practice and in our meetings we need to get away from this influence.
I would take as an illustration my experience of turning from the old, Oriental culture to the modern, Western culture. As a result of much contact with Westerners, my family began to be influenced by Western culture. But the influence of the old, Oriental culture was so strong that it took a while before we could follow the modern way. When we are in a situation where we must choose between two cultures, we need to exercise discernment to know which is better. From my youth, I began to realize that the modern culture was better than the traditional culture. But the vast majority of the Chinese did not realize this and even opposed modern culture. I use this as an illustration of our situation today. Today there are two atmospheres, one more prevalent than the other. The more prevalent atmosphere is that of Christianity; the other is that of the Lord’s recovery. We need the proper discernment to know which atmosphere we should be in, the atmosphere of Christianity or of the Lord’s recovery.
Christ is living, present, and real. In reality and in actuality He is our sin offering, our trespass offering, and our burnt offering. He is the fine flour for the meal offering composed of flour mingled with oil, which signifies the life-giving Spirit. He is also the wine with which we are filled and which we pour out as a drink offering for God’s enjoyment. Christ is all these things. But we need to have a life not only to match this, but also to reflect it. Our living should be the reflection of such a Christ.
If we attend ministry meetings week after week and year after year and do not put into practice the things we hear in the messages, then this kind of meeting becomes merely a class for Bible teaching. We all need to practice the things revealed from the Word through the Lord’s ministry. I hope that I myself shall receive mercy and grace to take the lead to practice these things. May we put all these matters into our daily life and make them a reflection of Christ according to the picture of the Old Testament types.
We need to experience Christ daily in a practical way as our present sin offering and burnt offering. We should also experience Him as the meal offering, that is, as our life supply. This means that we should have the fine flour mingled with an adequate amount of oil. We should not be dry; we should have the oil of the life-giving Spirit not only poured upon us, but also mingled with us. Then we should be thoroughly saturated with the oil of the Spirit. Following this, we need to have Christ as our wine to fill us up and make us so happy that we shall be willing to sacrifice everything for the Lord and pour out everything for Him.
The fine flour comes from grains that have been ground. This grinding of the grains is a picture of the working of the cross in our experience. The dealing of the cross is a grinding. We may be grains, but we may not be fine flour. This means that we may have the experience of Christ as grain, but may not have the experience of Him as the fine flour, because we do not have the experience of being ground. We need this experience, this dealing of the cross.
The olive oil comes from olives that have been pressed. If olives are not pressed, no oil can flow out. Olives flow out oil only through the process of being pressed. The same is true of grapes. Unless grapes are pressed, they cannot flow out wine. The pressing of the olives and the pressing of the grapes are both illustrations of the dealing of the cross. Thus, the grinding and the pressing both signify the operation of the cross in us. If we would enjoy Christ as fine flour, we must be conformed to His death. We must live a life under the grinding of the cross. Moreover, in order to flow out oil and wine, we must live a life under the pressing of the cross.
As we consider these matters, we may feel that they are difficult to comprehend. But if we put them into practice in our daily life and have a living that is a reflection of this picture, spontaneously we shall experience the grinding of the grains and the pressing of the olives and the grapes. If we are not under the pressing of the cross, we cannot have oil. We cannot have a life rich in the life-giving Spirit. In like manner, if we are not under the pressing of the cross, we cannot have any wine to drink, much less have wine to pour out for the Lord and for others. Wine and oil come from the pressing, and fine flour comes from the grinding.
Verses 42 and 43 say, “It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet with you to speak with you there. And I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by My glory.” These verses indicate that if we have the life described in this chapter, the Lord will meet with us and will speak with us. According to verse 43, He will meet not only with the priests, but with the entire congregation. Furthermore, everything will be holy, sanctified. Verses 44 and 45 say, “And I will sanctify the tent of meeting and the altar, and Aaron and his sons I will sanctify to serve as priests to Me. And I will dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel, and I will be their God.” This also is the outcome, the issue, of the kind of life depicted in this chapter. Finally, in verse 46 we have the conclusion: “And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt that I might dwell in their midst; I am Jehovah their God.” The result of experiencing Christ according to Exodus 29 is that the Lord dwells in our midst.