Prayer: Thank You for Your mercy that we all have been brought into You—into Your mercy. Lord, we have to be all the time in Your mercy. Thank You, Lord, that it is Your mercy that brought us here. Even, Lord, we have been preserved in Your recovery. Oh, it is altogether by Your mercy! We have no trust in anything else. Lord, even we do not deserve Your grace. But, Lord, there is such a mercy that bridges the gap, that brings us into Your grace. Lord, we trust in Your mercy. We say again it is altogether a matter of mercy. And You will have mercy upon whom You will have it. Thank You, Lord, You have chosen us to be the object of Your mercy. We stand on this standing to meet together to look unto You for Your mercy. Have mercy upon us all tonight. We need some further mercy, Lord. The whole situation among the Christians is just pitiful. Oh, what we need is Your mercy. Oh, do bridge the gap with Your mercy! Thank You, Lord, You are the merciful God. You are full of mercy. Amen. Amen.
I feel I should speak a very direct and very practical word to you. This training is not merely for doctrine or for knowledge or for anything else but for the practical experience of Christ and of the church. In the last meeting we pointed out that all the Christian doings and practices eventually all in all have become a kind of trap. Bible reading has become a trap; even prayer has become a trap. Everything has become a trap. Why? Because all these things have distracted us from the living of this living Person, Christ. God’s intention is nothing but for us to live Christ. God’s intention in this universe is so simple and so central—that is for us to live Christ. If you have really seen this vision in such a simple way, you will begin to hate everything else. Whether it is good or bad, you will hate it because it is not to live Christ. Ever since I got this vision concerning the living of Christ I have been very much bothered. In a good sense I have peace with the Lord, and I have a lot of enjoyment with Him, yet in another sense I have been bothered because I have discovered I don’t live Christ that much. I have labored for the Lord, for the Word, for the churches, but I couldn’t say with much confidence that this was living Christ. I surely have discovered that to live Christ is one thing and to labor for Him is another thing. To live Christ is just to live Christ. God has no intention simply to do a work.
Most Christians misinterpret Acts 1:8 which reads, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Yes, the Lord did say go from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth. This was not, however, to do a work, but to be His witnesses. The Lord never charged us to do a work, rather He charged us to be His witnesses. According to the Bible to be His witnesses is just to live Him. If you don’t live Him, how could you be His witness? Of course, many Christians’ interpretation is that it means to preach the gospel. But here is the snare. To change the wording from being a witness to preaching the gospel is a snare.
I have gotten bothered that I don’t live Christ that much. I have the confidence and boldness to tell people according to my pure conscience that I don’t love sin, I don’t love the world, and I don’t even love myself. I do believe the Lord can testify for me. Yet, I don’t have the confidence to say I am living Christ. This bothers me.
During the time of this Perfecting Training I also have been bothered by another point: how to live Christ. I have discovered that I need to live Christ and that I don’t live Christ that much, but thus far I don’t know the way how to live Christ. You have to permit me to say that I am not a young man nor a stranger nor someone who knows nothing of the Bible. I have gotten through all kinds of Christianity. From my early childhood I saw all the things in organized Christianity. I saw how the western pastors did things, and I saw how the native Chinese pastors did things. As a little boy I saw how they celebrated Christmas and how the western pastors and missionaries celebrated the Chinese New Year. As small boys we went to see that, and we got some candy. I saw the Sunday School, and I saw all the different kinds of practices in organized Christianity. I saw how they were fighting, and I also saw how they were united in a falsehood. I even joined in a kind of Christianity march where all the denominations joined together to march and sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.”
Furthermore I got through fundamental Christianity. For seven and one-half years I was under the fundamental Brethren education. Then I got into the inner life matters. I read through a lot of inner life books. I had many experiences, and I was there for quite a period of time. Even today I would not leave this inner-life field. Then I also got involved with Pentecostal Christianity. Finally I got into the Lord’s recovery. For forty-eight years I have been involved in these things, and I have been observing these things. In July 1932 we had the first Lord’s table meeting in my mother’s living room.
I passed through all these things, but I was never told by anyone how to live Christ. I read many books on “how to,” but not one book was on how to live Christ. So over the years I got so much doctrine and knowledge, but now I have been brought to a crucial point, that is, God wants us to live Christ. We could do a lot of things, yet still not be living Christ. As long as we don’t live Christ, whatever we do means nothing in the eyes of God. I surely agree that in one sense God is sovereign. God even uses Satan. Even Paul used Satan. Paul said he delivered an evil man to Satan for Satan to do something (1 Cor. 5:5). Furthermore, God used Satan to perfect Job. Some would ask: Isn’t it good enough that people go to the mission field to bring the name of the Lord to the heathen? Isn’t it good that someone would sacrifice their country, their family—everything—to tell heathen people the name of Jesus? I surely would say that is good. However, there is a big “but.” But God’s desire is for us to live Christ. According to the light I have received I simply couldn’t do anything else. Especially within the last two years I have been much strengthened and charged, confirmed, and even forced to this point. Even if today you offered me the biggest Christian work, I would have no interest in it, because I have surely seen something of what God wants. What God wants is just for you and me to live Christ.