Third, finality is essential. It is not enough to go through many experiences. If we have spent the required amount of time and passed through the necessary experiences, we must ask if there has been a result. This can still be a problem. We must reach a place of finality. In carrying out a chemistry experiment in school, there is a principle: "Carry it to its finality." This means we must persist with the experiment until we get a result. Many times things are done but not thoroughly. If the work is not done thoroughly, it is useless. Everything must be thorough.
The Bible makes it abundantly plain that when God deals with a person, He does not let go easily; He does things thoroughly. It does not matter whether cattle are stolen, sheep and servants are burned, the house falls down, or the children die. It does not matter whether there are sores on the body. The lips and tongue must submit and the mouth must be pressed to the dust (see Job 1:6—2:10; 42:1-6). Such a day must come. The Epistle of James uses the word end in 5:11, saying, "...his end from the Lord." Here we see that it is not a matter of the frequency of our trials but a matter of God reaching His end through the trials. Job's sons died. How many sons do we have that we can allow them to die? One person does not have that many sons to lose. This is a very serious matter. Job received a very heavy dealing, but he was still poor. We should not think that God can give us unlimited trials. There was a sister whose husband died, and she was a widow. However, she was very loose in spiritual matters. After she finished giving a testimony one day, I was very bothered inwardly. I spoke very frankly to her and said, "Your attitude is wrong. It is a serious matter that God took your husband away, but you have not learned the lesson! A person does not have that many husbands to lose." Many people want to go up to Kuling Mountain, but we should not think that Kuling is a nice place to go. Kuling is a place of heartless judgment. Your "cow and sheep" can be stolen, your "houses" can collapse, and your "sons" can die, but the matter still may not come to an end. Your entire body can be "covered with boils," but the matter still may not come to an end. This is the meaning of having no finality. A person must pass through many experiences, but there are only a limited number of situations he can go through. If a person does not learn the lessons from what he passes through, he cannot reach the end from the Lord. This means that the Lord will not attain His goal. Please remember that if the Lord does not gain anything, we will not have much reserve. If this is our case, we are just wasting the days, the dealings, the trials, and the discipline! This is a fearful matter. Many people go through dealings, but they become broken, useless vessels when they come out of them. This is like the potter's shop spoken of in Jeremiah 18:4. The floor is covered with vessels that did not turn out properly. Even though the vessels can claim that they have been put into the fire, they remain broken on the floor.
Therefore, our hope is not only that we would spend sufficient time before the Lord and pass through enough experiences, but also that we would become vessels unto glory after we pass through these experiences.
Job did not just pass through experiences. One day God saw that a point of finality had come. There was a new constitution in him; he had changed. This is a matter of fundamental importance. It is not a matter of receiving more life, but a matter of constituting the human life with the divine life.
I will make a statement that I fear is often misunderstood by people: The old man cannot be changed. It is a fact that God has crucified the old man, and it is also a fact that God has put a new life within us. If God took this life away, the old man would still be the old man. However, the Bible also says that man can be changed and that the mind can be renewed and transformed (Rom. 12:2). Please remember that it is not merely the new life within us that makes us different from others; we become different from others by the working of this new life within us. When we live with someone for a long time, we begin to resemble that person. When we live together with God for a long time, it is really strange if we do not change in the slightest. Since the Holy Spirit lives in us, there must be something that we have learned of Him that makes us like Him. This is renewing and transformation.
Therefore, we hope to learn our lessons, and we hope to arrive at a finality. Hopefully, the time we spend before God and the lessons we have learned before Him will have an end. The Lord put His Spirit inside us to enable us to learn the lessons and reach an end. Only then will the Lord be able to use us to supply others. We cannot obtain this from reading or from listening to Paul; it only comes from learning Christ (Eph. 4:20). We do not do things merely because the Bible says so. We do them because we have learned them for ourselves. We must have this quality before we can serve God and before our words can supply others.