In addition to reading the Bible to learn the doctrines, we need to open to the Lord to see the truth, praying, “Lord, I need Your enlightenment, revelation, and vision so that I may see the reality in every doctrine.” As the pillar and base of the truth, the church should stand firmly, bearing all the reality—the reality of life, light, power, holiness, salvation, redemption, and many other items. The Word does not say that the elders or the apostles are the pillar and base of the truth; rather, it says that the church is the pillar and base of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). This means that everyone in the church, including the sisters, the young ones, and the new ones, should know and bear the truth.
We all need to know the truth of matters such as reconciliation, justification, sanctification, renewing, transformation, and conformation. The young saints may sing and release their spirit in the meetings, but if no truth is taught in the meetings, the release is vain. After being in the meetings for a few years, the saints should know the truth. The meetings should be full of reality, full of truth.
The top universities do not give students a good time; rather, they give them a hard time for four years. For students to have a hard time means that they will receive a valuable degree after four years. If a student has a good time every day, his or her education will mean nothing. Having a good time and being entertained are vanity. The church life is not for vanity but for reality. In every meeting we should receive some reality. We should care not for having a good time but for learning the truth. We first need to read and study the Bible. We then need to open to the Lord and pray, looking to Him for His enlightening. Eventually, we will receive a vision and see the truth.
I was born into a Christian family in China. From my youth I heard speaking concerning redemption and salvation. However, these matters were taught only as empty terms. Many Western missionaries whom I heard in China preached doctrine; few preached reality. Many Christians I knew as a youth were not truly saved. They learned doctrines but lacked reality.
In the province of Hunan there were several Lutheran congregations, and all the Lutheran pastors knew and preached the doctrine of justification by faith. One such pastor was also an opium smuggler. A Norwegian missionary named Marie Monsen came to his city preaching not doctrine but the reality of regeneration. After giving a message, she asked this pastor in front of several members of his congregation if he had been regenerated. He said that he had been regenerated, but Miss Monsen said that the appearance of his face and the tone of his voice showed that he had not been regenerated. He was filled with shame and anger. That night he even began planning to kill Miss Monsen. However, while he was plotting, the Holy Spirit spoke to him, saying, “Look how evil you are! It is true that you have not been regenerated.” As soon as he began to open, the gift of repentance was bestowed on him. He repented with tears and was truly regenerated. When he returned the next day and gave his testimony, a genuine revival began and hundreds more experienced regeneration. This case illustrates the difference between doctrine and reality.
The reality of regeneration is Christ, who today is the life-giving Spirit. A person must repent and open to receive the Spirit of reality, which is Christ Himself. When we receive the Spirit, we have the reality of regeneration. Christ is also the reality of holiness. If Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit is daily wrought into our being, we will have not only the objective doctrine of holiness but also the subjective experience of sanctification. Thus, sanctification is Christ as holiness wrought into our being. The experience of Christ in sanctification is the reality of holiness.
Today in the Lord’s recovery we need both the proper doctrines and the truth, the reality. We should know the doctrines and also experience the reality by the enjoyment of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Christ to us is not only the objective Christ in the third heaven but also the subjective Christ as the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit to be wrought into every corner and avenue of our inward being. Christ experienced as the Spirit in our spirit is the reality of every human virtue, including patience, humility, holiness, righteousness, and kindness. True patience and humility are Christ wrought into our being.
We need to spend much time reading the Word, first to receive nourishment, and second to gain knowledge of the doctrines. Then we need to pray that the Lord would grant us light to see the reality conveyed in the doctrines. The light needed to see the truth may come to us days, months, or even years after we read a portion of the Word. As a young believer, I studied the Bible intensely for seven and a half years, from 1925 through 1932, and learned many doctrines. Even today, forty-eight years later, those doctrines become truth under the Lord’s enlightening.
When we read the Bible, we may find several key verses concerning a certain matter, such as holiness and sanctification. Then we will have a general sketch of the doctrinal knowledge of this matter. If we seek the Lord in prayer and are open to Him, the light will eventually come to enable us to see that holiness and sanctification are Christ Himself, who today is the life-giving Spirit. We will not only know the doctrine of holiness and sanctification, but we will also see the reality of these matters. Once we receive the Lord’s enlightening to see the reality, we have much of the reality. The next step is for the reality to become our experience. If we are open, the life-giving Spirit will have the opportunity to work something of what the Lord has shown us into our being. Then the revelation will become our experience, and we will have the full reality.
Reality comes from knowledge of the Bible plus heavenly enlightenment and personal experience. We all need to gain reality in this way. To see the reality, we first need to spend time in the Word to be nourished and to become familiar with the doctrines of the Bible. The basis for enlightening is our knowledge of the doctrines. Then we need to daily walk in Christ, looking to Him for enlightenment. We do not know when, where, or how the light will come. Once we see the reality by the Lord’s light, the reality will become our experience. Then we will have life and truth.
Each saint should be full of life and truth. When every brother and sister is full of life and truth, the church will be strong as the house of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth. This is what is needed in the Lord’s recovery today. May the Lord have mercy upon us all and grant us the sufficient grace to have the proper practice to be filled with life and truth.