Each of us who has believed into the Lord Jesus has Him within us. He is within us, and He does not want us to do anything. This is altogether different from our religious concept. Our religious concept always tells us that we should do many things and that we should do our best to be a proper husband or wife. We have heard enough of these teachings. Now I would like to tell you in the Lord that the Lord Jesus within you does not want you to do anything. You are not able to do anything anyway, and even if you could, it would be worthless. The Lord tells us clearly in John 15, “For apart from Me you can do nothing” (v. 5b). However, I am afraid that many people believe that apart from the Lord they can do many things. It is true that apart from the Lord we can do many things. We can do things like lose our temper and throw things at others. If a wife is apart from the Lord, she may even steal her husband’s money, and if a husband is apart from the Lord, he may even lie to his wife. We can do many things apart from the Lord; however, whatever we do is worthless. Therefore, the Lord said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Hence, all of us should stop all of our doing. We need to resign from being humble and retire from loving others. Whether we are over sixty years old or we are teenagers, we must stop all of our doing. Even if we try to so something, it is useless, because apart from Him we can do nothing. The way to be blessed is to inwardly resign and retire from all of our doing. Then the Lord Jesus will be the One who is living with us. The Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4). He also said, “Because I live, you also shall live” (14:19b). In saying these words, the Lord seemed to say, “I want you to live in Me, and I want to live with you. You and I are meant to live and move together.”
I believe that we have all heard this teaching before. However, we cannot deny that in our living there is not much of this experience. From now on, we must be strict concerning this matter. We must say, “From now on it must be no longer I who lives. It must be Christ who lives in me. When I love others, I do not want to be the one who is loving them; rather, it must be Christ in me who is loving them. Even when I sing hymns or pray, it must be no longer I who pray and sing but Christ in me who is praying and singing.”
Countless times young Christians have asked me whether or not they should do certain things. When asked questions of this kind, I often answer that it is not a matter of whether or not we can or cannot do something. What is important is that we ask the Lord. For example, if we want to go to a movie, we should simply say to the Lord, “Lord, my going to the movie is Your going. I am going to see this movie in You.” If we are able to say these words to the Lord, then we can go to the movie. When I answer the young people in this way, they often reply, “I know that Jesus does not go to the movies, so I cannot say this. Thus, I cannot go to the movies.”
I use this example to show us that the real Christian life is not something that is out of ourselves. It is not out of our own doing or behaving. The real Christian life is the living of the Lord Jesus within us. It is His living, not our living. Many Christians have heard this teaching, but very few live it. My burden in fellowshipping with you concerning this matter is that today we would make the decision that our living will be the living of the Lord Jesus, that our living will be the Lord Jesus living in us.
Each one of us must see that the Lord has done a great thing. Not only has He solved our problem of sin on the cross, but He has also become the Spirit. As the Spirit He has entered into us. Now He desires to live for us and that we would live together with Him. This is the unique characteristic of a Christian. A normal Christian is one who has the Lord Jesus as the living Spirit living within his spirit. No Christian should live by himself. Every Christian should have Christ living within him. Thus, we all must stop our doing and stop our living.
Our need is to practice living with the Lord in our daily living. However, I know that in practice many of us neglect this. When we come to the meeting, the Lord should be coming in our coming; we should come to the meeting because the Lord in us is coming to the meeting. We must have one life, one living, and one move with the Lord. When we come to the meeting, we should have the real sense that we are not coming by ourselves but that the Lord and we are coming together.
The teaching that we hear in the meeting is very clear— we are dead and buried, and it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us. However, when we are in the midst of our busy lives, the Lord Jesus is not there. We are busy with many things all day, but the Lord Jesus is gone. Outwardly we may appear to be zealous Christians, but in reality the Lord is not present in all of our busyness. We may be so busy that it is not until we sit down in the meeting hall for the meeting that we discover that we have abandoned the Lord and that He is not with us.
We must see the vision that as saved ones the Lord is within us and is one with us. We cannot be separated from Him. He is our life within, and He does not want us to continue to live by ourselves. In our daily living, in matters great and small, we must learn to stop ourselves and say to the Lord, “Lord, You are here with me, and I am living by You.” When it is time for a meeting, we must say to Him, “Lord, You go to the meeting, and I will go with You. I will go to the meeting in You.” If we pray in this way, we will spontaneously be living with the Lord when we enter into the meeting hall. As a result, we will not gossip, asking about this or that, because the Lord does not do this. When we are in the meeting, we will cooperate with the Lord and allow Him to flow out from within us to praise, testify, sing, or call upon the Lord’s name. Today, the Lord needs a group of people on the earth who are like this.
Today we all need to repent and confess concerning one thing. We need to repent and confess to the Lord, saying, “Lord, for years I have known that You are living in me, but for years I have not lived by You. Although I do not commit any great sins or do bad things, I do not live by You. Instead, I always live by myself.” We all need to have this kind of repentance and confession. We also need to acknowledge that the Lord has suffered by being frustrated and limited within us. We need to confess to the Lord, “Lord, You have not been able to flow out from within me because I have not lived by You. I am still I, and You are still You. I have not allowed You to be my life. Forgive me. Outwardly, it appears that I have not done anything wrong—I do not scold or offend my spouse— but in reality You are not my living, and I do not live You.”
The Lord’s intention is not for us to be good or to improve ourselves. Of course, neither is it His intention for us to be evil or to do wicked things. The Lord’s intention is that we would give Him the absolute opportunity to live in us. The Lord wants us to completely stop all of our doing and to take Him as our life, to live by Him, and to live with Him. Since this is the Lord’s desire, we must forget about everything else. We must forget about our zeal, diligence, and all the good things or bad things about us; simply be one with the Lord within. We must understand, realize, and know absolutely that the Lord Jesus is within us as our life, Lord, person, God, patience, humility, love, strength, and everything. Then we must stop ourselves and live by Him. Even when we share in the meetings, we should have such a realization and practice. We should pray, “Lord, as I stand and speak, I do not want to be the one who is speaking. I will not take the old way of speaking by myself. When I speak, I will not speak; I will let You speak.” The Lord’s desire today is to gain a group of people who are like this that they may be His witnesses on the earth.
At the end of the Gospel of John, John tells us that the God who was in the beginning, who became flesh, and who is also the Spirit, abides in us and we abide in Him. We and He, He and we, are united as one entity. He is the vine, and we are the branches; we and He are one. Our living is His living, and His living is our living. Our living allows Him to live out of us. For this we all need to go before the Lord, opening ourselves up, stopping all of our activities, and saying, “Lord, now I see and realize that it is not a matter of whether I am good or bad. It is altogether a matter of Your living in me and of Your being lived out of me.”
God’s desire is only this—to work Himself into us to be our life and person and to be one with us. Today God has come into us to abide in us and to be our person. He desires that we would live Him, that is, live by Him, live with Him, and walk together with Him. Every time that I stand up to speak for the Lord, I inwardly exercise faith and say, “Lord, as I speak, You are speaking in my speaking. I am not speaking by myself. I have nothing to say in myself, so when I speak, You speak in my speaking. Lord, You and I, I and You, are united. When I open my mouth, speak through me, and when I speak, flow out through me.” We should be this way when we give a message and in our daily living. Every action in our living should be done in one accord with the Lord. When we love, the Lord should flow out of our love. When we are humble, the Lord should flow out of our humility. Every action that we take in our daily living should be the Lord living Himself out through us. I have spoken concerning this matter again and again, but many of us still have not opened ourselves to receive the Lord’s grace to live entirely in this reality. May the Lord have mercy on us to wake us up out of our stupor that we would see clearly that we should not live or do, but that the Lord Jesus—the great God who is inside of us, who has become our life, who has put us on, and who is joined with us—should be the One who is living and doing. Our living must be His living, our speaking must be His speaking, and our moving must be His moving.