I have been saved for sixty years. I read books by many different schools of Christians. Each school had its own theory and practice, and I tried and practiced them all. In the end I saw that the Bible only shows us one way, and that way is to walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit in our daily life.
When we wake up in the morning, no matter how busy we are, we should spend a few minutes to have a time with the Lord. We should open ourselves to the Lord and say, “Lord, I come to contact You. You are my life and my everything. Today I am not here to live out my morality. I am here to live out Christ. I do not wish to act merely according to my conscience. I want to act according to the spirit.” After you pray, perhaps you will read a few verses. Then in your daily life you should simply practice to have a walk that is according to the spirit.
Often God will allow our wives or children or other matters to come and trouble us. They are there to test whether we are actually living in the spirit, or whether we are living by ourselves. Sometimes if our wives bother us a little, we begin to exercise our patience. This is nothing but the development of our bright virtue and a cultivation of our behavior. We must see that whatever happens to us is for us to learn to turn to our spirit. We do not care for the development of the bright virtue, nor do we care for the cultivation of our behavior. If the spirit would not move, we would not move. We only know how to walk according to the spirit.
Sometimes when we manage to be patient, we feel very proud of ourselves. We think that we have succeeded in our effort and that we have achieved something. But when we turn to the spirit, we are enlightened. We realize that although we have succeeded in cultivating a good behavior, we have not lived Christ. Although we were successful in exercising our patience, we failed to walk according to the spirit.
In the past certain saints have come to me, saying, “O Brother Lee, you are marvelous! You have done such a wonderful work for the Lord!” When I heard this, I felt like the cherubims. I felt as if I had six wings with which to fly away. Although I said with my mouth, “This is not me; it is all the Lord’s work,” in reality it was all me. It was not Christ; it was not walking according to the spirit. After I confessed this before the Lord, I learned the lesson, and I dared not be so proud. We are all like that. When others praise us a little, we are in the heavens, but when others criticize us a little, we are in hell. We can neither take praise nor take rebuke. We must exercise to walk according to the spirit, and not be bothered by anything else. We would not be distracted either by others’ praise or by their rebuke. We would only pay attention to walking in the spirit.
Today as Christians, in order for us to strengthen the small group meetings, we must have the riches of life; and in order for us to have the riches of life, we must exercise ourselves to walk according to the spirit. We should not be moved when the wind is favorable, and we should not be hindered when the wind is unfavorable. We should not exercise patience, nor should we exercise self-control. We should only walk according to the spirit. We should not live out ethics or morality; we should only live out the Christ who is the Spirit.
If you will walk according to the spirit all day long, you will surely be filled with joy and exultation within. Spontaneously, you will overflow with praise and thanksgiving. You will say to the Lord, “Lord, I worship You. You are truly my life and my everything day by day. Lord, You are truly my enjoyment. My wife may be giving me a hard time, but I am not touched. She may be praising me, but I am not moved. Lord, I only desire to walk according to the spirit.”
If we have this kind of living, when the meeting time comes and we are all gathered together, our meetings will be an expression of our daily life. We should not come to the meetings to perform. The meetings are a testimony of our daily life. If from morning till evening we are led by the Spirit, spontaneously psalms and praises will well up within us, and when we come to the meetings we will continue to be led by the Spirit in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.
This is the aspect of life. Later we will add to this the aspect of truth. We need to be rich in life and shining in the truth. Then when a person sits in our meetings, he will be touched and he will be fed. Those who are rich in life and shining in the truth will spontaneously become the core of the small group meetings and they will become the riches, the strength, the freshness, the livingness, the attracting power, and the supporting power to the small groups. It is in this way that the small group meetings are strengthened.
For this reason we do not agree that one person does all the speaking while everyone else does the listening in every meeting week after week, month after month, and year after year. We hope that the big meetings will render us some help, so that all the saints can be perfected and equipped to seek after the growth in life and edification in truth. Then as we become persons who are saturated with life and equipped with the truth, whichever small group meeting we attend, we will become the riches, strength, freshness, livingness, attraction, and support to that meeting. This is my hope, and this is also the revelation of the Bible.
I hope that all the brothers and sisters will see this. We are not here for a religion; we are not here to practice ethics or to teach morality; and we are not here to go along with traditions or customs. We are here today to live Christ. Our job is not to develop the bright virtue. Our desire is simply to live a life that walks according to the spirit.