In the last chapter we covered the matter of our being watchful in the spiritual life so that we may have an extra portion of oil. This extra portion of oil is not in the lamp but in the vessel, and is not concerning the Spirit in our regenerated spirit, which is the lamp of Jehovah, but concerning the Spirit of God in our soul, our entire being. The word soul in the Bible has several denotations. One of the denotations is our being (cf. Gen. 2:7; Exo. 1:5; Acts 2:41). Every soul is a person, and every person is a being. The soul refers to our being, to our person. Our being, our person was made by God as His vessel. Romans 9:21-23 tells us that we human beings were made by God as His vessels to contain Him. Therefore, in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13 what is covered and what is stressed is the extra portion of the Holy Spirit in our soul, the saturation of our entire being with the Spirit. This is the need of all Christians, yet this is the thing that is neglected by Christians. Today not many of us are paying attention to this saturating Spirit, moving from our spirit into our soul, even into our entire being, so that we may have not only the oil in our spirit but also an extra portion of this oil to saturate our entire being.
Since I came to this country in 1962, I have spoken many messages on the matter of transformation. I have stressed very much that transformation could only be possible by our being saturated by the Spirit of God. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we all “beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” The Lord Jesus is for our redemption; the Lord Spirit is for our transformation. To be transformed is to be saturated by the Spirit. To speak of an extra portion of oil in our soul to saturate our entire being is another way to express the transformation by the Spirit. You may say we are to be transformed by the Spirit, or that we are to have an extra portion of the Holy Spirit in our soul that our being might be saturated. These two expressions indicate the same thing.
Christian preachers and teachers may stress that wives must submit themselves to their husbands, husbands must love their wives, children must love their parents, and that fathers must not provoke their children. However, it is difficult to find one who stresses that you need to be filled in your spirit that you may have a flow out of your spirit to have an extra portion of the Spirit in your soul. If you are filled in this way, then your love, your submission, your obedience, and your care for your children will all be a spontaneous flow out of the saturating Spirit. Since I came to this country, it has been hard for you to hear me telling the wives how to be subject to their husbands. My stress has always been on transformation. Even now I need more transformation. Do not think that I do not need it. As long as I have breath, I shall still need transformation. You also need this every day. Transformation is just like breathing. Breathing can never be terminated. Once you terminate my breathing I will be through. Therefore, we have to stress this matter. Every day in the morning you must go to the Lord, saying, “Lord, thank You that I am here. Fill me up. Saturate me. Soak me. I want to be soaked in You and with You.” We need such a prayer. It is not too much to have this kind of prayer three times a day. I advise the young people to have this prayer ten times daily. The more we pray this way the better. People may teach you that you should not eat so much, but no one has ever taught you not to breathe too much. Your breathing should not be reduced. Rather, you had better exercise to have more breathing, and to breathe deeply. To pray in this way is to gain the oil in your vessel.
The two portions of the Word listed in the Scripture reading relate to being faithful in the Lord’s service. However, there is a difference in these portions. Both are on the faithfulness toward the Lord in His service, but the first portion in Matthew 24:45-51 is on the faithfulness in the Lord’s commission. In this portion we are told that the Lord committed something to His slaves, His servants. That committal is a commission given by the Lord to all of us. The Lord’s commission is His charge to us to minister the life supply to His household.
In the second section, Matthew 25:14-30, faithfulness is not in the Lord’s commission but in His gifts. Whenever the Lord would give us a commission, at the same time He would always give us gifts. Without gifts being given by Him to us, how could we carry out His commission? To carry out His commission, to take care of His household, we need His gifts. Both of these portions are on the faithfulness in the Lord’s service, but one is in His commission and the other is in the gifts He has given us.
I would advise you all to be faithful in the Lord’s service. Every believer, old and young, great and small, would consider that John 3:16 is the word of the Lord, but we must consider Matthew 24 and 25 in the same way. These chapters are the word of the Lord, but we did not hear much speaking and teaching about this portion. It is easy to receive John 3:16; it seems that there is no obligation or requirement in this verse. But here in Matthew 24 and 25, especially in these two portions concerning being faithful in service, this is not the case. No doubt, the talent has been given to us. That was something free. However, all the other items in these two portions are requirements and demands, demanding your watchfulness and demanding your faithfulness. Furthermore, the word in John 3:16 is short, and many of us can recite it. However, the word in these portions regarding our faithfulness is rather long, altogether twenty-four verses. Could you recite these two portions? When the Lord spoke concerning God’s love in giving His Son for our salvation in His divine life, He seemed to indicate that this was very simple, speaking only a few verses. But when the Lord touched these two matters—watchfulness in life and faithfulness in service—He knew that He was touching some of the things which are not so easy for us to get into. Therefore, He gave twenty-four verses concerning faithfulness in our service to the Lord. If the Lord spoke more about a matter, this indicates that this matter is more important. Therefore, we have not only to recognize these portions of the Lord’s word, but also to regard them as something not so simple. We must spend some time to get into this. With John 3:16 we will have no problem, but with these words in these two portions we have to be careful.