In the past six months, after much seeking of the Lord, I have realized a basic problem. As long as a man has the gift, the eloquence, and the biblical knowledge, and is logical in organization and quick in grasping doctrinal points, he can conduct a big meeting. His daily living has little relationship to the meeting, and he does not need to grow in life. But for a man to build up the small groups, it is not sufficient to depend on eloquence. There must be adequate life plus truth.
Every human being has his basic needs in life. These needs cannot be met by human eloquence. We must take care of the small groups in a basic way. We must have some basic elements in us. When people come and taste of this basic thing, no one can chase them away. In brief, this basic thing is our life and our living. The first subject of these few weeks of training is to see the living that a Christian should have. What kind of living do we need for the building up of the church life? In a word, it is a living that is out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit.
The Bible is all-inclusive. According to my understanding of the Bible and my experience through so many years, I can say that in summary what the Bible talks about is this kind of living—a living that is out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit. The Christian life is not a life of ethics and morality; neither is it a life of purity in conscience. It is true that the Bible speaks of these things. In fact, it speaks of them in an even higher way than Confucius and all the sages spoke of them. However, these things are not the focus of the Bible. The reason that the ethics and morality mentioned in the Bible are higher than those of all other teachings, is that they are produced out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit.
Many Christians have read Ephesians chapter five. They see in verses 22 and 25 that husbands should love their wives and wives should obey their husbands, and they determine to keep these words. But no one has ever succeeded. Even the minister who conducts the wedding does not succeed. Actually, they forget that in the earlier chapters of Ephesians there is a basis for the teachings in chapter five. This basis is that the Holy Spirit has entered into our spirit. When we live by this spirit, spontaneously the husbands can love their wives, and automatically the wives can submit to their husbands. This is not produced by teaching; it is produced out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit.
For example, the Bible says, “children...honor your father and mother,” “fathers, do not provoke your children,” and “be angry, and do not sin” (Eph. 6:1-2, 4; 4:26). All these words are right, but when your anger rises up, it is so easy to sin. When you are stirred up, you forget that you are to honor your parents, or that you are not to provoke your children. These words are from the latter half of Ephesians. In the first half Paul explained clearly that the Triune God has become the Spirit, that He has entered into you, and that He has filled you in your spirit, so that you can live by this spirit to live out a superb living. This living is out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit. Only this kind of living can build the church.
Verse one of Hymns, #499 says:
Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!
The Christ who’s all within me lives.
With Him I have been crucified;
This glorious fact to me He gives.
Now it’s no longer I that live,
But Christ the Lord within me lives.
You can sing this hymn enthusiastically, but you may not have the reality of what it says. Christ indeed lives within you, but you may not have much realization of what it means to be crucified with Christ. You can sing “now it’s no longer I that live,” but how much have you really experienced this? How much have you understood this? This is not a doctrine. This requires us to exercise and to deny ourselves in our daily life. Only then will we experience the fact of being crucified with Christ and living with Christ.
It is easy to preach, and it is easy to listen. It is easy to sing, and it is not difficult to pray. But when it comes to the real situation of our daily life, it is a different story. Christ is gone, the Spirit is gone, and we are all left with nothing but self and the flesh.
Verse two of Hymns, #499 continues:
Oh, what a joy! Oh, what a rest!
Christ now is being formed in me.
His very nature and life divine
In my whole being inwrought shall be.
All that I am came to an end,
And all of Christ is all to me.
We must experience all these things in our daily lives. When a situation arises and circumstances become difficult, we should tell the Lord, “Lord, grant me grace, that I may allow You to constitute Your life and nature into my whole being. I desire that all that I am would come to an end, and that all of You would be all to me.”
I know that it is easy to sing this kind of hymn, but it takes time to experience these things. This experience cannot be ours simply by being excited in the meetings. We must allow all these things to be constituted into us in our daily life. This is an organic metabolism. It terminates everything of ourselves, and makes all of Christ to be all to us.
Verse one of Hymns, #841 says:
Thou art all my life, Lord,
In me Thou dost live;
With Thee all God’s fulness
Thou to me dost give.
By Thy holy nature
I am sanctified,
By Thy resurrection,
Vict’ry is supplied.
How can His holy nature sanctify you? This requires much work of permeation. How can His resurrection supply you with victory? This also requires a kind of transforming work.
Hence, verse two continues:
Now Thy flowing life, Lord,
Doth enlighten me,
Bringing in the spirit
Fellowship with Thee;
All my need supplying,
Making Thy demand,
Leading me to cleansing
And in Thee to stand.
When the Lord’s life flows, we will be enlightened. If we live in the light of the Holy Spirit, the light and fellowship of that life will not only bring us all kinds of supply, but will also bring in demands. It will ask you to deal with your problems. It will ask you to deal with the hidden world within you. It will ask you to deal with your sins, your trespasses, your selfishness, and even your self, your disposition. Since you love the Lord, come to meetings, seek after the Lord, and pray, surely the Holy Spirit will flow through you. But here is an unbreakable law: every time He flows, you will be enlightened. If you do not have any light within, it shows that you have no flowing; you are still in darkness. If you have not experienced this enlightening recently, you must realize that this is a proof that you are definitely not in the flow of life. Life has no way to flow within you. As long as life flows, this life will become light. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” When this life flows, it shines within you, causing you to see your own corruption, sin, desire for the world, and selfishness. You will realize that you belong to the flesh and are filled with the self. Then you will pray, “Lord, take away the world here, and my self there; and put to death the flesh here.” If you will pray this way, you will be cleansed, and you will enjoy all that the Lord is. Only then will you truly enjoy His riches.
Verse three of Hymns, #841 says:
Thy anointing Spirit
Me shall permeate,
All my soul and spirit
Thou wouldst saturate;
Every part transforming
Till conformed to Thee,
Till Thy life shall bring me
To maturity.
All this takes time and work. It is by this process of life and transformation that your whole being is transformed.
In a small group meeting, if two or three would have this kind of living, then the small group meeting would surely be rich, strong, fresh, living, attractive, and supporting. Furthermore, it will be difficult to find out who the “leaders” are in the small groups. In all the small groups we have not assigned any leaders, because we all can be wrong. All of our assignments can be wrong. In the Lord’s recovery we should avoid this kind of assignment as much as possible. Everyone has an opportunity; everyone can rise up. But if you try to rise up by your flesh or self, that is not genuine. You can cheat others, but you cannot cheat their spirits. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit will not testify to it; He will not follow you nor bless you. In that case, you are not the riches and strength of the home meeting. Neither are you the freshness, vitality, attraction, and support of that meeting.
But if you would be in the reality of hymns 499 and 841, if you would allow life to flow and would fellowship with the Lord, you will be enlightened. You will see that many things in you need to be dealt with. You will confess your sins before the Lord and will deal with them one by one. Consequently, the blood will wash you, and the Holy Spirit will be in you to deal with all the elements that need to be dealt with, and will replace them with Himself. If you are such a person, whenever you come to the meetings you do not need to say much, and you do not have to exhibit yourself. The minute you pray, sing, or share, you are the riches, the strength, the freshness, the vitality, the attraction, and the support of that meeting.
Brothers and sisters, if we love the Lord, if we love the church, and if we have a heart for the Lord’s recovery, we need to see clearly that we must put our efforts here. We must put our effort into the growth in life, so that daily Christ can be formed in us, and daily His life and nature can be constituted into us, that all of Himself can be all to us. This must become our daily experience. Furthermore, when His life flows, we will be enlightened, and we will be able to have fellowship with God. In this fellowship, God will make demands on us, and we will realize what is the world, sin, the flesh, the self, and everything of the old creation within us. By allowing Him to remove these things little by little, we will be cleansed and will be able to enjoy all that He is. In this way we will spontaneously grow and be matured. If every small group would have two or three such persons, that small group meeting would surely be rich, strong, fresh, and living, and would be full of attraction and supporting power.
May the Lord be merciful to us, that we would not take this merely as a message. Surely I have a heavy burden concerning this matter. I would even fast and pray for this, hoping that the church would be brought into the reality of the small group gatherings. This is a high mountain, and we have to climb over it. May we all strive for this.
A concluding prayer: Lord, You know that we desire to accomplish Your purpose. Lord, may You bless these words. Bless every heart and spirit, so that we would touch You from within, and we would touch this way of the spirit. May we live this kind of living day by day and moment by moment, a living that is out of the Holy Spirit and through our human spirit. Lord, hear this prayer. Pour down Your answer, so that we would see a real revival. Amen.