In the book of Genesis there is a person named Enoch. He walked with God for three hundred years. Today, however, we are not only walking with the Lord but also living with the Lord. God was outside of Enoch while Enoch walked with God, but today the Lord is within us, and we live with Him. The Lord is our life and our person, and we are living with Him.
We need to have the real practice of living with the Lord, not only living with Him in the meetings, but also in our daily lives—in our home, on the street, and at our office. We should not only receive this teaching; we should practice it and live it. We must pay attention to the Lord Jesus. We must not put Him aside. We should not abandon the Lord Jesus when we get busy and then eighteen hours later come to the realization that we have left Him and hurriedly pray, “Lord, forgive me for not drawing near to You,” and then three minutes later go back to our busy life of not living with the Lord.
The focal revelation in the Bible shows us that our Lord, our God, has done everything. He passed through death, entered into resurrection, and having completed everything, ascended into the heavens. Now there is only one thing left for Him to accomplish. He wants to enter into us to be our life, to live with us, and to have us live by Him. Today He is in us in a real and practical way. This glorious God, who is the Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—and Jehovah, is living in our spirit. This is not a doctrine but a glorious fact. Our Savior, who is the expression of God the Great, is in our spirit today to be our life and to live with us. What we need is not the understanding of this teaching but the practice of this living. If we love the Lord sincerely and genuinely, then from now on our top priority should be to practice living with the Lord. Every one of the saints should say, “Lord, have mercy on the church where I am. From now on I will not practice anything else except living with the Lord.” We need to have this start in our personal life. The local church that we are in also needs to have this start.
The Lord Jesus is real and living. He is living right inside of us. In the winter many of us wear gloves. A glove is made to look exactly like a hand, except that a glove is empty. A glove is an exterior covering. The reality of the glove is the hand. According to the revelation in the Bible, every created human being is a hollow shell. Our mind and intellect, our will, and our emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight are all shells. All of our desires are also shells. In fact, our entire life and our whole being are an outward shell. When God Himself enters into us, He becomes our content and the reality of our life and being. The God who enters into us is Jesus Christ as the life-giving Spirit. He is the reality of God. We are a shell, and God desires to enter into us to fill every part of our being. First He enters into our spirit. Then He fills our mind, our emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, and our will with its power. Outwardly we are but a shell. Christ is meant to be our inward content.
Since we are a shell, our content must be Christ. He has already entered into us to be the content of our spirit, so now we need to live by Him and with Him every day. We should not wait until just before we come to the meeting in the evening to pray to the Lord, saying, “Lord, I am going to the meeting. Lord, do remember this meeting, take care of the brothers and sisters, and take care of me.” If we have not prayed all day, it is too late for this kind of prayer. This kind of prayer is religious prayer.
Since we should not wait until just before the meeting to pray, what then should we do? When we wake up in the morning, it is not necessary to purposely kneel down. While we are brushing our teeth, washing our face, and getting dressed, we can begin living with the Lord by contacting Him, praying, “Lord, what will You do today? Lord, how will You lead me today?” The minute we wake up, we can contact the Lord. The best way to do this is by calling on the Lord—“O Lord! O Lord Jesus! What do You want me to do today? How do You want me to live by You today? O Lord! How will You lead me today?” If we simply communicate with the Lord in this way, gradually over time we will have the practice of contacting the Lord. Then whenever we are thinking, we will say, “Lord, I am going to use my mind. My mind is an empty shell. Your mind is the real content. Lord Jesus, come and think for me. I want Your mind to be my mind. O Lord, do think over this matter in me. In this matter, let Your mind fill my mind.” This is very clear. When we go to the store to shop, we should not speak to the salesperson on our own. We must say to the Lord, “Lord, I ask You to speak. Lead me in my speaking.” In everything we must let the Lord come in. When we need to think, we must allow the Lord to think for us. We should not depend upon our own mind. When we are about to use our emotions, we need to open ourselves to the Lord and say, “Lord, come in now! Are You happy? Are You sad? O Lord Jesus! My emotions are just a shell that needs Your filling.” We also need to allow the Lord to come into our will to fill our will and to make decisions in us.