The Lord Jesus in Revelation 3 told the church in Laodicea that they were lukewarm, neither cold nor hot; so He must spew them out. Lukewarmness does not suit the Lord’s taste. If you are cold, just be cold; if you are hot, be hot. But if you are lukewarm, the Lord will spew you out. What does this mean? It means that you have nothing to do with His life.
It is not only a matter of being saved or of being lost. We must take care of the enjoyment of Christ. Are you enjoying Christ, and are you enjoyable to Christ? We all must enjoy Christ, and we all must be enjoyable to Him in order to have the life fellowship with Him. We simply need to enjoy His sevenfold Spirit.
Today’s Christianity always has teaching, teaching, teaching. We came out of a background of religious teachings. Today’s Christianity is altogether a religion of teachings. The Lord has no intention of giving a religion to His people. The Lord did speak to the Jewish people, and it was put into writings, comprising the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. But the Jewish people made a religion out of these books. They only care for doctrines and religion.
Some years ago, I met a Hebrew believer. Both he and his wife told me how they were orthodox Jews before they became believers of Christ. The Jewish religion had so many regulations, even how to wear your shoes and in what direction to place your shoes at night. Every regulation was based upon a verse of the Bible. They could tell you why they had to put their shoes in a certain direction by referring to a verse in the Old Testament. Would you laugh at them? If you would laugh at them, you must laugh at yourself first.
The Lord had no intention of giving the Jewish people a religion. His intention was to give them the living Word that they might gain and enjoy Him. But they made a dead religion of the Word, causing the Word to be dead. They had the knowledge of the Bible without a living contact with the Lord. So when the Lord Jesus came, they did not know Him.
When the Lord Jesus was born, the magi came from the heathen world. They did not have the Bible, and they did not have the knowledge of the Word. They did not have religion, yet they saw the star. King Herod called the leaders of the Jewish people to ask them where Christ should be born. Immediately, they told Herod that He should be born in Bethlehem. They had the knowledge, but they did not go to Bethlehem. However, the magi, who did not have knowledge, went there and found Christ.
When I was young, I was taught that as long as we have the Bible, everything is all right. But later I discovered that this is not true. Here is the proof: The magi were told by the people who had the Bible that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, and they went to Bethlehem. But still they had a problem. The Bible tells us He was to be born in Bethlehem, but it does not say on what street, in what house, and at what address. Praise the Lord, when the Bible was lacking, the living star came. The living star was above, and the magi were walking beneath. It was the star that led them to the very place where the Lord Jesus was born (Matt. 2:9). If the Bible were everything, there would be no need for the Lord to be the Holy Spirit within. The Bible may tell us the principles, but the details must come from the inner anointing of the Holy Spirit.
I would say that it was not the Bible that eventually led the magi to Christ, but the living star. I do believe in the Bible, and I do love this book. But the Bible is without, and the Holy Spirit is within. These are the two great gifts that God has given us. The Holy Bible must be one with the Holy Spirit; then it becomes living. Without the Holy Spirit, the Bible is dead. Without the Holy Spirit, the Bible is just the dead letters that kill.
The Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). The Bible should not be the word of knowledge in letters, but the word of life in the Spirit. The Bible must be a book of life in the Spirit.
Christianity has even made so many different kinds of religions out of the New Testament. Some take verses about immersion and develop a religion out of immersion. Others take verses about the presbytery (eldership) and make a religion out of them. Some take verses about speaking in tongues and make a tongue-speaking religion. Some take a passage about head covering and make a head-covering religion. Then some argue that you should not cover your head, so they make a non-head-covering religion. Some insist to cover the head with a black head covering, and others with a white head covering. So there are two kinds of religion for head covering. Even more than this, some have a short covering, and others have a long covering. Some take verses about foot-washing and make a foot-washing religion out of them. All these religions have come out of Christianity’s doctrinal use of the Bible. But none of them is right. I do believe that the Lord is going to tear down all these religions.
Do not be religious. Do not have a self-made religion. We all have a kind of self-made religion. Some like to be silent, some like to be loud, some like to do this, and some like to do that. Some say that Los Angeles is too noisy, and they do not like it. They prefer silence. But this is just their self-made religion. They do not like it, but the Lord honors it. What can they say?
There is something quite peculiar which exists in China. Some Christians shake their chairs whenever they meet. I am not for it, but I have discovered its principle. It is so easy to be in our mind, but when they all shake the chairs, their mind is gone. The more they shake the chairs, the more their mind is gone. We do need the “chair-shaking”! I do not encourage you to do this literally, but we need this in principle.
In my last trip to Taiwan, some of the brothers told me that the chair-shaking Christians had built a big magnificent church building, and they told me where they got the money. A rich man was sick, and no doctors could help him. Then the chair-shakers went to see him, knelt down around him, and shook their chairs and prayed. He was healed! I am not preaching for them, but there is something here. He was thoroughly healed and so happy, so he gave them a large amount of money and told them to build a church.
You may say that it is not good to shake the chairs, but the Lord healed the man. What would you say? I do not encourage you to shake the chairs, but there is a principle we must see. People who are so much in the mind really need to shake the chairs. They are so religious and so full of doctrines. They know everything, but they are so dead and cold and have nearly nothing of life. What they need is the shaking off of all their knowledge so that they may be turned to the Spirit to enjoy life.
The Lord has turned the age. In Revelation there is no religion and no doctrine, but the tree of life, the water of life, the crown of life, and the book of life. The Lord is living, not religious. We too must be full of life, not full of doctrines and teachings. We must not be religious. We must drop all the doctrines and teachings and be filled with the sevenfold Spirit.
The last book of the Bible has no doctrine and no religion but is full of life. We must be filled with this life, and we must express this life. This is today’s age. May the Lord turn us to the age of the sevenfold Spirit for the realization and enjoyment of life.