Today our greatest lack is that we do not exercise to live with the Lord. We all need this kind of exercise. If you go to buy a suit, you should say, “Lord, what should I do in this situation? Which kind of material do you think that I should get? Should I buy this style or that style?” Those of us who love the Lord and are of the Lord are truly different from the rest of the people on the earth. Those who do not love the Lord and are not of the Lord are merely who they are in themselves and nothing more. As such, they are under Satan’s hand. We, however, are different. We are not solely who we are in ourselves. We have the Lord Jesus living with us. He lives in our mind, emotion, will, wisdom, and in our entire being. Since the Lord is with us and in us, we must allow Him to live in our living.
We all need to make the decision to practice to live with the Lord. Making this decision is like signing our name to an agreement. Once we have made this decision, it is as if we have signed our name. From that time on we must have this practice. It is not enough to practice only when we are pray-reading or when we are in a meeting. We must practice in our daily living. When a sister speaks to her husband, she should not think in her heart, “Since I am not talking to the president or to a judge but only to my husband, it is does not matter how I speak.” The married sisters should not think this way. It is probably true that your husband is not the president or a judge, but the Lord Jesus is within you while you are speaking to your husband. The Lord Jesus is higher than the president. He is within you as life, and He wants you to live by Him. When you are about to converse with your husband, you must check with the Lord within. You should say to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, how would You speak? In this situation be my thinking, my joy, my anger, my sorrow, my delight, and my everything.” This is the practical way to exercise to live with the Lord. In every matter, great or small, we must exercise to take the Lord Jesus as our life. This is our destiny—to live by the Lord Jesus moment by moment, to live constantly with the Lord.
When you are about to lose your temper, immediately you should call, “O Lord Jesus! I am about to lose my temper. Please come and lose Your temper!” You have to invite the Lord Jesus to lose your temper for you. Sisters often give their husbands a long face. However, from now on whenever you are about to have a long face, right away you should call, “O Lord! O Lord Jesus!” If you want the Lord to live with you, you also have to live with the Lord. I also suggest to the brothers that whenever you are about to give a message, you must exercise to live with the Lord by praying, “O Lord, You give this message!” You should never again give a message that the Lord Jesus is not giving, and you should never again give a message with words that the Lord who is in you would not say. You have to live with the Lord. If the Lord does not speak, you should by no means speak.
The Lord uses our spirit as the base. Our experience tells us that we can drive the Lord out of our mind, out of our emotions, and even out of the message that we are giving. However, we can never drive the Lord out of our spirit. He is in our spirit, and we cannot chase Him out. This is wonderful. No matter what, He always remains in our spirit. Perhaps then you would ask me, “Since the Lord Jesus does not go away, why is my spirit still depressed sometimes?” Your spirit is depressed because the Lord Jesus in your spirit is depressed. You should remember that whenever your spirit is low, it is low because the Lord Jesus in your spirit is low. He has no way out of our spirit because you have forced Him to be depressed.
When you live by the Lord, do not believe in your feelings and do not exercise your mind. Rather, you should exercise your spirit. Within you there is a spirit. A child does not initially understand that he has legs, but when you put him on the floor, eventually he will use his legs and begin to crawl. There is no need for you to teach a child to stand, for eventually he will stand up on his two legs. He does not understand his legs, yet he knows how to use them. In the same way, it does not matter how little you know about your spirit; you still know how to use your spirit. Do not think too much and do not go by your emotions, being happy when you are stirred up and downhearted when you are not. Do not pay attention to these things. Simply mind your spirit.
It is the same when you are praying. When you pray, do not pay attention to your thoughts and do not stay in your mind. Pray quick and simple prayers from your spirit, using just two to three sentences to hit the point. When many brothers and sisters pray, they go on and on, uttering long, wordy, and aimless prayers. Imagine if you were the Lord listening to this kind of prayer. Would not your patience run out? Instead of depending on your wordiness, pray by the spirit. Do not give histories or speak doctrines when you pray. If you feel that the Lord is lovely, just say, “Lord, You are so lovely. I love You.” That is enough; there is no need to say more.
I have discovered that some of you have a new way of singing. You pick only one hymn, and then you pray-sing it verse by verse. I am not criticizing or correcting you. I wish only to say that there should not be any method to our singing. Everything and everyone should be according to spirit with no set method. Perhaps today when we sing a hymn, we may pray-read the whole hymn. Then perhaps tomorrow after we finish singing the hymn, we may not pray-read at all. The hymn singing should be something living. It should not be according to any set way. This does not mean that you should purposely learn different ways to sing, because the different ways that you learn would also become set ways. Every one of us should learn to live in spirit with the Lord. There is no need to have a set method in picking hymns, singing hymns, or pray-reading, because we are all living with the Lord.
In our daily living, it is easy to live alone. For example, it may be quite convenient for a young lady to live and walk by herself. However, once she gets married, her life as a married person may become more difficult. The husband has his ways, and the wife also has her ways. A married person has to live his life with another person. Our Lord’s living with us is even more involved than the living together of a husband and wife, for He is living right within us. No matter how close your husband is to you, he cannot live inside of you, and he cannot be your life or your person. However, our Lord lives inside of us to be our person. Thus, we absolutely must exercise to have the habit of going along with Him rather than having Him go along with us.
The Lord told Peter, “You follow Me” (John 21:22b). When the Lord said this, He was already in resurrection, and shortly after He said this, He ascended to the heavens. Once the Lord ascended to the heavens, how could Peter follow Him? Peter could follow the Lord because the Lord not only ascended to the heavens, He also entered into Peter. How do we follow the Lord today? Someone once told me, “The way to follow the Lord is to do whatever the Lord did. He left us a model.” Gradually, I discovered that this is the religious way. Today the Lord lives in our spirit, so whenever He makes a move in our spirit, we just follow. This is the way to follow the Lord.
You and I are no longer single today. We all have this wonderful One living in us to be our life and our person. He wants us to put ourselves aside completely and to live by Him. Our mind should be filled with His mind, and our emotions should be filled with His emotions. He wants our entire being and our entire living to be filled with His element. He can sympathize with us, but He does not want to take our way. Thus, we must learn from Him and follow Him. He is in our spirit, so we also have to learn to release our spirit, exercise our spirit, use our spirit, and turn back to our spirit. Each time we turn back to our spirit, we touch the Lord, because the Lord is there. I hope that the brothers and sisters do not take this only as a teaching. Instead, I hope that you would promise to practice, to exercise, living with the Lord.
According to my experience, I suggest that if you want to live by the Lord, you should not cease calling on the name of the Lord. You must call on the name of the Lord continually. Besides this there is no other way. Do not think that calling on the name of the Lord is of no importance. The Lord’s name is real, for His name denotes His person. If a certain brother is dead or not present, then for me to call his name is useless. However, if he is real, living, and present, then when I call him, he will come to me right away. Jesus is our Lord’s name, and the Spirit is His person. Once you call “Lord Jesus,” the Spirit is here. Do you want to receive the life-giving Spirit? Just call, “O Lord Jesus!” When you call, He comes.
Perhaps you would say that this is all superstition. If you believe this, then let us call on the philosophers. Let us say, “O Plato! O Socrates, where are you? O Confucius, I love you!” You may love these ones and call upon their names, but they will not respond. But if you simply call “O Lord Jesus!” mysteriously you will be filled with feeling within. The more you call, the more feeling you will have. Why is it that when you call on a philosopher or a sage, you have no feeling within, but when you call on the Lord Jesus, you do? This is because all the philosophers are dead and are not here. Only the Lord Jesus died but lives again. He is real, He is living, and He is experiential. He is right here, and He is even inside of you. When you call on Him, your spirit will be released. However, all calling is not the same. If while remaining in your mind, you call with your mouth—“O Lord Jesus!”—nothing will happen. When some electrical switches are turned on, the electrical current comes in right away. However, when other electrical switches are turned on, the electrical current still does not come. This illustrates that not all calling is the same. Never think that calling on the Lord is a superstition. It is a spiritual reality. Our Lord is the Spirit today within our spirit. When we call on Him from our spirit—“O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! I love You!”—there is such a sweetness within. Even when you are reading the Bible, do not use your mind to think. Call “O Lord Jesus” as you read, and you will be refreshed within. This is the way to call on the name of the Lord and to pray-read the Lord’s word. I hope that every brother and sister would practice this kind of living with the Lord every day. In all the churches all the brothers and sisters should be led to live in this practice of living with the Lord.