In preaching the gospel two matters are very important. First, we have to pray. We always need to bear the burden for people’s souls with a praying spirit. This not only means that we have to spend time to pray; even more it means that we have to always bear the burden in our praying spirit, looking to the Lord and touching the throne of authority, that the Lord will move in the hearts of those people for whom we have been praying. We must pray in this way, in a continuous way, and in a claiming way, to claim these souls for the Lord’s testimony.
Second, we must learn how to exercise faith to participate in the power that is upon the Body, to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which already has been accomplished upon the Body. The principle of both the spiritual life and the spiritual work is the principle of faith, not of sight or appearance. We must learn to walk and to work by faith, not by sight, appearance, or feeling. To seek feeling, sight, or appearance means that more or less we have an evil heart of unbelief, even an evil heart of disbelief. We have to honor the Lord by taking what He has told us in His Word. This is living faith. Never pay attention to your feeling, to appearance, to sight, or to any kind of circumstances.
We need to learn the lesson of faith, to believe that God is with us. We have to believe “in the dark,” without any feeling (2 Cor. 5:7). In the ancient time, the priests who served the Lord in the outer court used their sight. Under the light of the sun they could see the heavens, the earth, and many things and persons. In the Holy Place, however, there was only the light of the lampstand, which was not as strong as the sun. Enclosed within the Holy Place, the priests could not see the heavens, the earth, and all the surroundings, as they could in the outer court. Then when they came into the Holy of Holies, there was no light at all. The ark was there “in the dark.” However, the presence of the Lord was not in the outer court or in the Holy Place; it was in the Holy of Holies. Here there was no physical light but the Shekinah light, the Shekinah glory of God; here there was not the created light but the uncreated light.
When we were young in the Lord, even childish, the Lord sympathized with us and gave us an “open heaven.” When some people are baptized, they receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They may say, “Oh, I can almost not take it! The heavens are so open to me that I have to dance, even dance in the air and not on the ground.” I know this because I have had many of these experiences. However, children are just children. These experiences are for the young ones. Do not despise this, because it is good, but it is something in the outer court. The Lord will bring us on from the outer court to exercise a little faith in the Holy Place. Eventually He has to bring us into the Holy of Holies where we exercise our faith to the uttermost. There we have to forget about our physical eyes and all the senses of our physical body. We also have to forget about the feeling of our soulish life. In the Holy of Holies we can see nothing naturally; we are “in the dark.” In the spirit, though, we see the Shekinah glory of God. This is the meaning of faith.
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