The inner life is nothing other than the Lord Himself as life within us to be mingled with us. I would ask you to pay your full attention to this brief word. Not all Christians are clear about this. As we have pointed out many times, God’s purpose, God’s economy, is to work Himself into us to make Himself one with us. This is the main and central item. God’s way to make Himself one with us is to be life within us, so that we may take Him and experience Him as our life. Concerning life, there are three necessary matters: the fellowship of life, the sense of life, and the law of life, which correspond with the three functions of the human spirit-the fellowship, the intuition, and the conscience as the representative of the divine law. These matters should not be merely lessons that we speak about; I would ask you to put all these matters into practice in your daily life. It is too easy merely to bring our two ears to listen to messages and grasp them with our understanding. This helps, but it does not work out these matters. When you put what you have heard into practice, you will truly learn it, and it will be so practical and living to you. Try to practice how to have the fellowship of life in the spirit; try to exercise your spirit to sense God’s intention, will, and mind; and try to exercise the conscience to realize and cooperate with the law of life.
We have also seen that God Himself, the Triune God-the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit-is working, moving, acting, operating, and energizing within us. In the New Testament, this working is called the anointing. The anointing is the very work of the Triune God. God Himself as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is working by anointing us. Previously we used the illustration of painting. God’s anointing within us is just like a painter painting us. I have the assurance that even in one week’s time you have experienced something of this painting. We have been painted by the Lord many times. He Himself is the painter, He Himself is the paint, and His working within us is the painting work. God paints us with Himself as the paint. Eventually, the issue is that God has been painted into us.
Thus far we have seen three matters of the inner life and one matter concerning working. These three plus one, however, are on God’s side. No doubt, the fellowship of life, the sense of life, the law of life, and the anointing within us are very subjective. Yet these four matters that are so vital and necessary to the inner life are still somewhat objective because they are on God’s side; they are not on our side. Because they are within us, they are subjective, but in themselves they are objective. The things that are subjective, as far as we ourselves are concerned, are our inner organs, or inner parts. We have to know all these inner parts.
All good drivers agree that in order to drive well, you must know the inner parts of a car. Every smart, experienced driver knows the inner parts. I do not drive, but for a long time I was with Brother Watchman Nee, who had a car. He told me, “There is no need to look inside the car. When you drive, you just listen to the sound of the car. Then you will know if it is right or not, and if you are an expert, you can realize what part is wrong just by listening to the sound.” Recently when I listened to someone start my car, I could tell by the sound that she did it incorrectly. I begged her to ask her driving instructor the right way to start the car. She answered by complaining that I just had a poor car. However, when another brother drove my car, it started very smoothly and softly, like music. After that, the first person learned the secret to starting the car. If the starter in the car is something fine, not rough, we should treat it finely. This illustrates that we need to know the inward parts.
In the same way, medical doctors study the whole body with all the inward parts. If one does not know the inward parts of the entire body, he cannot be a good doctor. Even for our own health, we must know our members and inward parts. Otherwise, we may feel that something is wrong in our head or feet and say there is a problem with our kidneys. This may seem laughable, but many Christians are like this with their spiritual life. Some things people say are nonsense, because they do not know the inner parts of the person; they do not know what they have within them. Learn to know the inner parts.
Home | First | Prev | Next