If we do not suffer, we have nothing to give others. Because the grapevine undergoes many sufferings, dealings, cuttings, and breakings, it produces rich wine to cheer man. Brother Nee realized that the more we suffer, the more we have to give. Without suffering, anything we say is like tinkling brass. We may make noise, but there is no life in what we say. Therefore, as this hymn says, our life is measured not by gain, but by loss. Therefore, the reason Joseph could be so rich was that he had suffered. During the years of his suffering he stored up the riches.

During the seven years of plenty, Joseph stored up the grain. He did not take care of his own interests. It was not an easy task to store all that grain. For seven years Joseph gathered the grain and stored it in barns. This was a big job. On the one hand, Joseph was laboring; on the other hand, he was suffering because he was separated from his father. During these seven years he did not care for himself, but made arrangements for others to be taken care of in the future. What he did in the seven years of plenty was for the people. He did this at the cost of taking care of his own interests, at the cost of seeing his father.

If we would be able to supply food to others, we must undergo a long period of suffering. Joseph did not have all the grain when he was seventeen years of age. He did not have the grain until he was thirty-seven years of age. At that time he became rich not in power, but in food and in the life supply.

It is the same today in the church life. The older, experienced ones have the supply. Again and again, Brother Nee stressed that we must take care of our physical life so that we shall not die at an early age. In one of his trainings Brother Nee asked the trainees what age they thought was the most useful age. Then he pointed out that a brother once said that the most useful age is from seventy to eighty. Because of this, Brother Nee charged the trainees to take care of themselves and not to commit gradual suicide. He told them to sleep well, eat well, drink well, and exercise well so that they might have a long life. When Caleb was eighty-five years old, he said that he was just as strong as he was at forty. The riches are not with the inexperienced ones. In order to be rich, we need to suffer for a long period of time. It took Joseph twenty years, from the age of seventeen to the age of thirty-seven, to become rich. Eventually, after many years of suffering, the food was in his hands. Because he had the food, all the hungry ones came to him.

According to my opinion, Joseph should have been generous with the people and said, "Whenever you need food, simply come to me and I'll give it to you." When I read Genesis 47 as a young man, I thought that Joseph was not generous. It seemed to me that he squeezed everything out of the people. I praise the Lord for showing me why Joseph was not generous. The reason is that the life supply should not be sold cheaply. If anyone in the church life is willing to give away the life supply in a cheap way, we must question whether the supply he has is genuine. The genuine life supply is never sold cheaply. Joseph seemed to be saying to the people, "Do you want the supply? If you do, then you must pay the price." The concept of generosity is a worldly concept. Joseph was in another realm, where there was neither generosity nor scarcity, just the supply and the price. Many Christians today sell things cheaply. But in the Lord's recovery nothing is cheap. If you want the food, you must pay the price. The greater the price you pay, the greater supply you will receive. Some today are opposing the Lord's recovery. But deep in their heart they know that this way is not wrong. They oppose it because the cost of taking it is very high. Thus, they take the cheap way and criticize the costly way. We cannot receive any food supply without a cost. Joseph will not sell you the food at a cheap price.