The way for a Christian to become mature is to accept the breaking from God. Often God works in us and speaks to us through the speaking of the Spirit, the speaking of the brothers, the speaking in the Bible, and the prophecies and testimonies of the saints in order to shine upon us. However, if we do not care about His speaking, do not listen to Him, and do not even respond to Him, then, because He loves us, He will cut an opening or make a hole in us. He will break our mind, destroy our emotion, and overtake our will so that our whole being will be subdued. In this way, the light of God and the life of God will shine forth from our incomplete and broken being. When there are openings and cracks in our being, not only inwardly but also outwardly, immediately the light shines out from within us. The more the inward light comes out, the more mature we become. When the light comes out completely, we will be fully matured. Then the Spirit of God, the life of God, and God Himself will fill us completely, and God and we will be mingled together completely. Our whole being will be filled with God. We will not only have God in our spirit, but we will also have God in our mind, emotion, and will. In other words, we will have God in our whole being from our inner spirit to our outer soul. This is the way to mature in life, and this is why we have to pay the price to buy the oil.
The oil is the Spirit, who came into our spirit, our lamp, when we were regenerated and saved. This oil was freely given to us by God. We did not need to pay a price. Since then, the work of God has been to spread this oil from our spirit to our soul. He wants our soul to be filled with His Spirit. For this we need to pay a price. We have to drop the thoughts in our mind, the desires in our emotion, and the decisions in our will. This is the price that we must pay. What does it mean to pay the price? To pay the price is to drop all that we have. No matter what our thoughts, desires, and decisions are, we have to drop them all because our thoughts, desires, and decisions are always in conflict with the Spirit. They cannot be at peace with the Lord Jesus. We are always in our soul, that is, in our mind, emotion, and will, but God in our spirit wants to come out into our mind, emotion, and will. However, we always surround and hinder Him to insure that He stays inside. He is a living, moving, and almighty God. He wants to spread in us, yet we argue with Him and hinder Him. This is our situation.
If we struggle with God day by day, unwilling to lose, to drop, all that is in our soul, and to pay the price, then God has no way but to work from the outside and to deal with us through our circumstances. If He cannot win the battle with us from the inside, then He has no other way but to send the angels to deal with us from the outside. Perhaps our family may oppose us or we may have some problems at work or sickness in our body. Sometimes it may seem that God is using all the armies of the devil to attack us until we are torn down. Do not reject God’s discipline. God does not discipline the unbelievers in this way. Those whom God loves, He surely disciplines. Because God loves us, is merciful toward us, and wants us to be His glorious vessel, He has to break our iron walls. In order to transform us into a transparent vessel, He has to discipline us.
If we accept His discipline, we will be bright and transparent people. Our thoughts will be like His thoughts, our love will be like His love, and our decisions will be like His decisions. When people meet us, they will feel that they are meeting God. We will have the taste of man and also the taste of God in us. We will be the mingling of God and man. Not only so, we will have the element of God in us. We will be transformed into God’s image, that is, transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). What is this glory? This glory is the Spirit. When the Lord Jesus was glorified, the Spirit came (John 7:39). Glory is the manifestation of God, and the Spirit is also the manifestation of God. When we have the Spirit in us, we also have glory. In our spirit there is God’s Spirit, who is also glory.
Even though we have the Spirit of God in us, who is glory, this glory has not been manifested because it is only in our spirit and has not yet been manifested in our soul, our outer man. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” This means that our transformation into the image of the Lord is the result of the Spirit spreading into our soul. Our transformation is from glory to glory—from the inner glory, that is, from the Spirit being in our spirit, to the outer glory, that is, the Spirit being in our outer soul. When we are transformed from glory to glory, or from the Spirit to the Spirit, we will have the Spirit both in our spirit and in our soul, both within and without. We will be transformed into the image of the Lord, even as from the Lord Spirit.
Therefore, whenever there is a struggle in our mind, emotion, or will, we have to drop all that is in our soul and pay the price to let the Lord win. Once we submit and lay down ourselves, the Lord will win, and we will gain the Spirit. This is what is meant by paying the price to buy the oil. At every time and in all matters, whenever we struggle with the Lord in our thoughts, preferences, and decisions, we have to be subdued, admit defeat, and lay ourselves down in order to let the Lord win and to let the Spirit spread out. In this way we will have the Spirit in our soul. This is the way to prepare oil in our vessel.
First, we are regenerated and have the Spirit in our spirit. The Spirit is in the lamp of Jehovah; in other words, we have the oil in our lamp. Gradually, we become mature and the Spirit spreads from our spirit to our soul that we may have the oil in our vessel. This is the preparation that we need after salvation. Only transformed and matured people can meet the Lord and be co-kings with the Lord.
In the parable of the ten virgins, the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps when the bridegroom came at midnight (Matt. 25:6-7). This means that whether they were foolish or prudent, the first thing that they paid attention to after their resurrection was their spirit. This is the meaning of the phrase trimmed their own lamps. By that time, the foolish virgins discovered that they had not received sufficient dealings with their person and that in their soul, their vessel, there was a lack of the Holy Spirit and of the element of the oil. They still had to pay the price and go to those who were selling oil in order to buy the oil. This is the parable of the virgins. It shows us the way for a Christian to mature in life. May the Lord have mercy on us that we may prepare the oil in our vessel while we still have time.