Matthew 25:12-13 says, “But he answered and said, Truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” The phrase I do not know you in verse 12 can also be translated as “I do not approve of you” or “I do not recognize you.” As we know, the difference between the foolish virgins and the prudent virgins is a matter of whether or not they have prepared oil in their vessels. The oil in the lamp refers to the Spirit that we receive in regeneration, whereas the oil in the vessel refers to the infilling of the Spirit that we receive by pursuing after we have been saved.
Why does God want us to pursue the infilling of the Spirit after regenerating us, saving us, and giving us the Spirit? The reason is related to the ultimate purpose of God’s salvation. The purpose of God’s salvation in the universe is to work Himself into man and to mingle Himself with man. Thus, those who will go forth to God in the future are simply those who are being mingled with God today. Therefore, everything that we do today must be done by God mingling Himself with us. Only this has eternal value. God regenerated us because He wants to live in us. By regeneration He put His life into us, that is, He incarnated Himself into us so that He could live in us. The Bible mentions several times that God abides in us and that we should also abide in Him (John 14:17-20). Paul even says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Christ’s living in us is God’s living in us. Christ lives in us through the Spirit. The Spirit in us is actually Christ and God in us.
Today the Triune God, who is Christ, the Spirit, and God, is already living in us, but do we give Him the ground in us? For example, in a normal family the parents are the elders and have their proper place. However, some families are in a rebellious situation in which the son assumes the headship and seizes all the position in the family without giving any to his parents. The son may force his parents to live in a small room in the corner, or he may have full authority so that only what he says counts and the parents do not have any authority. In such a family, the parents still live in the family, but they do not have the parental position. Although the parents are the elders in the family, they cannot exercise their authority. The inward situation of many saints is like this. Although God lives in them, they have given God almost no ground. Although the Spirit has touched them inwardly many times, they still tightly hold on to their authority. This is our situation.
We sometimes go against the feelings of our conscience and extinguish the feelings that are in the deepest part of our being in doing things that usurp the authority of God. Although the Spirit is in us, most of the time we do not give Him the authority and thus do not have the infilling of the Spirit. Although we have been saved and have the life of God, we often do not give God the authority and consequently are not people filled with the Spirit. Thus, we need to pursue and be dealt with before the Lord. We do not need to pursue to receive the Spirit. Rather, we need to pursue to be dealt with so that the Spirit can gain us. The Spirit is already living in us, and we have already received the Spirit. However, most of us have not given ourselves to the Spirit and have not let the Spirit gain us. Although we belong to Christ today, most of us still live by ourselves and are our own masters. We do not live by Christ and do not let Christ be our Master. In a sense, we have “parents” in our family, but most of the time we do not let them be the masters and do not respect their authority. This is an abnormal situation.