God’s purpose is to have man live Him. God’s redemption and transformation have this same goal. Since 1963 I have given many messages on transformation, but I did not point out strongly that transformation is just to make us flexible to live God. Transformation is not just to change us, but to make us flexible to live God. However, we may get a lot of transformation, yet we still may not like to live God.
What then is our peculiarity? It is just to live ourselves. According to our dictionary, peculiarity may imply some strange trait. That is the human interpretation. From the spiritual point of view you may be a very common and very general person with nothing particular and nothing strange, yet you are a strong person to live yourself. You just like to live yourself. You have to realize that the most common person, the most general person, lives himself the most. Some peculiar person may not live himself that much. Some who are very peculiar are also very flexible. But some who are very general and very common are altogether definite with no flexibility. Many peculiar people are very flexible. Yet some very common and very general people are not flexible because they like to keep their way.
So the human way to define peculiarity is different from the spiritual way. The spiritual way to define peculiarity is just to live yourself. The common ones from the spiritual point of view are the most peculiar because they don’t live Christ. They only live themselves. It doesn’t mean that they are selfish. Of course, they condemn their selfishness. But probably they have never condemned themselves for living themselves. You may have condemned yourself that you didn’t live Christ, but probably you have never condemned yourself that you live yourself. We don’t live Christ because we live ourselves. Unconsciously, subconsciously, unintentionally, even habitually we live ourselves. You don’t need to intend to live yourself. To live yourself is a habit. As long as you have life, you live yourself. We need to see a vision that regardless of what kind of good Christian you may be, you don’t live Christ. We all must believe that we don’t live Christ. Although I have tried and tried, still I don’t live Christ that much. If you would receive such a vision that you don’t live Christ that much, you would condemn yourself.
Furthermore, you need to hear an even sharper word, that is, you live yourself. This is your peculiarity. Your peculiarity is not a peculiar trait; it is just to live yourself. In a sense I don’t need to ask you to condemn your living of yourself. As long as you know that to live yourself is your peculiarity, it is good enough. Then you have to practice all the day to live Christ.
Now we need to consider a few doctrinal points: who is Christ? and what is Christ? Doctrinally we know that He is the life-giving Spirit and that He is now in our spirit. You are clear that your peculiarity is just to live yourself, so you would reject this. You would practice to live Christ realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit right now in your spirit. But, what shall you do practically? Once again I tell you that you have to pray all day long. By prayer I don’t mean prayer in your regular way; I mean prayer in your daily life. At anytime and anywhere you must always pray from your spirit saying, “Lord, live in me. Lord, live out of me.” This brings us to the very crucial point—you must practice to live Christ. This is not a doctrinal matter; this must be a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment practice. Don’t say something without praying, “Lord, You say it. I’m going to say something to this man. Lord, You say it. You be my life.” Pray every moment in anything, in everything, and everywhere.
Again and again I have confessed that I didn’t live the Lord so much because this practice has not been fully and absolutely built up in my life as a habit. But you must believe that some day this will be built up in you as a habit. Then you will live Christ habitually. This needs some practice. If I were to play the piano I would use my fingers in a wild way. To learn to play the piano is to practice using the fingers. It is to touch every key, not in a wild way, but in a trained way. We live ourselves in a wild way, but now we must have a change of habit. Instead of living ourselves, we must practice living Christ. Don’t say anything before praying; don’t go any place before praying. You must pray. Now you understand why Paul told us to pray unceasingly. And now you also understand how we could pray unceasingly. If you simply pray according to the way you have all these years, it would be hard to pray unceasingly. You cannot kneel or stand there unceasingly. Nor can you concentrate yourselves to pray all the day. But you can pray in this way. Before doing anything you can pray, “Lord, You live in me.” Pray in this way all the day long. Then you will build up a habit always not to live yourself but to live Christ.
Because we were fallen, we were trained according to some ethical points and also by some religious teachings. After we were saved, we desired to be sinless. We desired to be overcoming and victorious over sin. Although these matters are apparently in the Bible, actually the Bible doesn’t want us to live a sinless life. The Bible wants us to live Christ. When you really live Christ, you are away from sin. If you are really living Christ, there is no need for someone to tell you not to love the world. When you live Christ, you are away from the world. If you don’t live Christ, although you might overcome the world, you are still in the world. No one can be separated from the world if he doesn’t live Christ. The Lord wants us to live Him all the day long in everything. Even when you are going to rebuke or discipline your children, you have to do it by living Christ. Before you discipline you have to pray, “Lord, live Yourself through me.” If you would take this word and put it into your daily practice, I believe we could stop the Perfecting Training. You must realize you have to pray unceasingly.