on August 10, 1925.
《 The Word of the Cross 》
CONTENTS：
1. Preface 2. The Word of the Cross (Chapter One) 3. The Messenger of the Cross (Chapter Two) 4. Walking in God's Will (Chapter Three) 5. How to Know God's Will (Chapter Four) 6. Where is Heaven? (Chapter Five) 7. Universal Fatherhood: A Fallacy (Chapter Six) 8. A Preface to Modern Science and the Long Day in Joshua (Chapter Seven) 9. Is the Higher Criticism of Modern Technology Believable? (Chapter Eight) 10.Bible Studies for Beginners (Chapter Nine) 11.Once a Year Through the Bible (Chapter Ten)
PREFACE The four major works of Watchman Nee in the 1920s are The Christian Life and Warfare, The Christian magazine, The Spiritual Man, and The Present Testimony magazine. In addition to these, we have collected some of Watchman Nee's miscellaneous works during the early stage of his ministry in this present volume. Chapters one, two, three, and four are of a deeper nature and are for Christians. Chapters five, six, seven, and eight are defenses of the Christian faith against modernistic teachings. Chapters nine and ten are Bible study materials for new believers. Chapter one, "The Word of the Cross," is actually a series of two articles by Watchman Nee, first published in Spiritual Light Journal in Nanking in 1925. The first article, "Dying with the Lord to Sin," appeared in Issue No. 27 on June 10, 1925. The second article, "Dying with the Lord to Self," appeared in Issue No. 28 on August 10, 1925. Chapter two, "The Messenger of the Cross," was a book written in Kulangsu near Amoy in Fukien province on January 15, 1926. The book was announced in
Issue No. 9 of The Christian. An excerpt of the book was printed as a separate article in Issue No. 7 of The Christian (pp. 849-857 of Volume Six in the Collected Works) under the same title. Chapter three, "Walking in God's Will," is an article that first appeared in Spiritual Light Journal in Nanking on November 4, 1924. It is a record of a message delivered by the author to the Quaker Revival Church in Nanking. Chapter four, "How to Know God's Will," is a combination of two articles which first appeared in Spiritual Light Journal in Nanking in February and June of 1925. It was later published as a separate book by the Gospel Book Room. In Issue No. 8 of The Christian (June 1926), the book was announced as a new publication. In Issue No. 10 of The Christian (August 1926), there was the following introduction:
Ten cents per copy. One reader said, "This book has taught me to know that in many ways I have been unwilling to obey the Lord." This book answers many questions concerning knowing God's will. All those seeking after the spiritual way must have a copy on hand. Chapter five, "Where Is Heaven?" was written on board the Ho Sun Liner on the way to Hong Kong on December 13, 1924. It was first mentioned in the "Announcement" section at the end of Issue No. 3 of The Christian (January 1926). Chapter six, "Universal Fatherhood: a Fallacy," was first mentioned in the "Announcement" section at the end of Issue No. 20 of The Christian (August 1927). Chapter seven, "A Preface to Modern Science and the Long Day in Joshua," is the preface written by Watchman Nee to the Chinese translation of the book Modern Science and the Long Day in Joshua by Harry Rimmer, president of Research Science Bureau, printed by Glendale Printers and published in 1927 by Research Science Bureau, Inc. The actual book was a scientific explanation of the long day in the book of Joshua. Chapter eight, "Is the Higher Criticism of Modern Theology Believable?", is a refutation of modernism. It was published in The Salvation Magazine in February of 1926. "Bible Studies for Beginners" forms chapter nine of this volume. It is a compilation of verses into twenty-six topics for beginners and was completed on January 11, 1927. Brief explanations are given for some verses, but the majority of them are quoted without any explanation. Chapter ten, "Once a Year through the Bible," was prepared with the intention of helping new believers read through the Bible in a year. It divides all the verses in the Bible into three hundred sixty-five daily readings. The title appeared among a
list of books published by the Gospel Book Room on the back of Issue No. 27 of Notes on Scriptural Messages in 1932. A few other books and articles published in the 1920s are unavailable to us. These include the following: (1) The Work of the Holy Spirit. In Issue No. 3 of The Christian, the following announcement concerning this book was included:
This book explains in depth the three stages of the work of the Holy Spirit—regeneration, sanctification, and baptism. The important thing about this book is that it affords the saints a clear analysis of the work of the Holy Spirit in their pursuit after the Holy Spirit. In Issue No. 10 of The Christian, the following additional reference to this book was included:
The worth of this book can be seen from the fact that a few months after its publication, we sold more than one thousand copies. A principal of a Bible college remarked, "This book is the word of the Holy Spirit." There are only a few copies left from the first edition. We also have the following excerpt of the book from the notes of Mrs. K.H. Weigh.
The differences between regeneration and filling: (1) Regeneration has to do with salvation, while filling has to do with victory. (2) Regeneration is a matter of life, while filling is a matter of our living. (3) At regeneration we are justified, while at the time of filling we are sanctified. (4) Regeneration is the addition of a new life to that of the old Adamic one, while filling is the development of the new life through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. (5) Regeneration is the result of the accomplishment of the Holy Spirit through the substitutionary death of the cross, while filling is the consequence of the infilling of the human spirit with the realization of the full meaning of the cross. (6) Regeneration is the beginning of life, while filling is the maturity of life. (2) A Diagram of Things to Come. This is a diagram on prophecy. In Issue No. 3 of The Christian, the following announcement concerning the diagram appeared:
The order of events in the diagram is designed by the editor of this magazine. It shows an outline of all the prophecies and sketches of the rapture of the believers, the coming of the tribulation, the establishment of the millenium, etc. At the back are explanations to
the diagram. The pictures in the diagram are drawn by an artist and are very attractive. (3) Bible Exposition in Three Hours. This was a translated work. In Issue No. 11 of The Christian, the following announcement appeared:
This book was written by the great evangelist to Japan, Mr._______. One third of the Christians in Japan today have been saved through his preaching. Every sermon of his lasts for three hours and contains the same message. He is a preacher "with only one sermon." The book has three chapters: (1) God, (2) sin, and (3) salvation. The book is both inspiring and interesting. (4) Gleanings from Matthew. This was a series of studies on Matthew chapters one and two published in The Morning Star magazine, Issue Nos. 220 to 239, between August 1924 and May 1926. We do not have the original manuscripts of these articles. May the various articles in this volume shed light and impart life to the readers.
CHAPTER ONE THE WORD OF THE CROSS I. DYING WITH THE LORD TO SIN When the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, not only did He die for the sinners, opening a living way for sinners to obtain eternal life and to come to God, He also died with the sinners on the cross. If the effectiveness of the cross were merely in the aspect of substitution so that sinners would have eternal life and be saved from perdition, God's way of salvation would not be complete. This is because a person who is saved by believing in Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31) still lives in this world; there are still many temptations. Moreover, the devil often cheats him, and the sinful nature within him operates continually. Although he has received salvation, he is not yet free from sin in this age. He does not have the power to overcome sin. Therefore, in His salvation the Lord Jesus had to accomplish both aspects: to save man from the punishment of sin and also to save man from the power of sin. When the Lord Jesus died for the sinners on the cross, He delivered man from the punishment of sin—the eternal fire of hell. When the Lord Jesus died with the sinners on the cross, He delivered man from the power of sin—the old man is dead, and man is no longer a slave of sin. Sin does not come from without but from within. If sin were to come from without, it would not have much power over us. Sin dwells in us. Therefore, it is deadly to
us. Temptation comes from without, while sin dwells within. Since everyone in the world is a descendant of Adam, everyone has Adam's nature. This nature is aged, old, corrupted, and filthy; it is a nature of sin. Since this "mother" of sin is within man, when outside temptations come, that which is within responds to that which is without, and the result is the many sins. Because we have pride inside (though hidden at times), as soon as outside temptation comes, the opportunity to be proud comes, and we become proud. Because we have jealousy inside, as soon as outside temptation comes, we see others better than we are, and we become jealous. Because we have a quick temper inside, as soon as outside temptation comes, we lose our temper. All the sins that man commits come from the old man within. This old man is truly worthless, irreparable, unchangeable, incorrigible, and incurable. The way God deals with the old man is to crucify him. God wants to give us something new. The old man has to die. God's words charge us to wash away all of our sins in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin" (1 John 1:7). He "loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood" (Rev. 1:5). The sins here refer to the acts of sins committed by a person outwardly. The Bible never tells us that the old man within is to be washed. God's Word never says that the old man should be washed. (The blood of Jesus Christ washes our sins, not the old man.) The old man needs to be crucified. This is the word of the Bible. God does everything in this age through the Lord Jesus Christ. He needs to punish sinners, yet He punished the Lord Jesus instead because the Lord Jesus stood in the position of and on behalf of sinners. God wants the old man to die, but He caused the Lord Jesus to die on the cross instead. By doing so, He brought all the sinners along with the Lord onto the cross. First there was a substituting death, then a participating death. This is the clear word of the Bible. Jesus Christ is the One who "died for all, therefore all died" (2. Cor. 5:14). This point should be emphasized and should not be glossed over easily. A believer, that is, a saved one who confesses that he is a sinner and believes in Jesus, should remember that the crucifixion of his old man is not an independent activity apart from the Lord Jesus, but is done in union with the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus died, our old man died together with Him and died in Him. This explains the failure of many people. Many times believers exercise their own strength to crucify their old man. However, they find out again and again that the old man is still alive. They try, mostly unintentionally, to crucify the old man
independently by themselves without Christ. This can never be done. Unless one dies with the Lord Jesus, there is no crucifixion of the old man. The old man is crucified together with the Lord Jesus.
We do not die by ourselves; rather, we die together with the Lord. We were baptized "into His death" (Rom. 6:3); "we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death" (v. 5); "we have died with Christ" (v. 8); and "our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves" (v. 6). We cannot crucify ourselves and die. This "co-crucifixion" is an accomplished fact. It was accomplished when the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross. The death of the Lord Jesus is a fact; that the Lord Jesus died for us is also a fact, and our being crucified together with Him is also a fact. "Has been crucified," according to the original, is a continuous word; it is in the absolute perfect tense, which means that our old man's crucifixion with the Lord Jesus is an act that was accomplished once for all when the Lord died. But what is the result of dying with the Lord? What is the goal? We know from Romans 6:6 that the result is that the body of sin is annulled, and the goal is to make us no longer the slaves of sin. Let us use an illustration to explain this fact. There are three things: the old man, sin, and the body of sin. Sin is like a master, the old man is like a housekeeper, and the body is like a puppet. Sin does not have the authority and power to take over the body of sin or to direct it to sin. Sin directs the old man; when the old man consents to it, the body becomes the puppet. So while our old man is alive, it remains in the middle. The body is outside, and sin is inside. The sin within tempts the old man, and the lust of the old man is stirred up. This causes the old man to give the order to the body to sin and to engage in transgressions. The body is most pliable; whatever you tell it to do, it will do. It is something that has no dominion over itself. By itself, it cannot do anything; it can only act according to the order of the old man. When the Lord saved us, He did not put our body to death, nor did He destroy the root of sin. Rather, He crucified our old man with Himself on the cross. What is the result of crucifying the old man? The result is "that the body of sin might be annulled." In the original Greek, "annulled" means "unemployed." This means that, without the old man, the body of sin cannot do anything anymore. Formerly, the body of sin functioned daily according to the old man's order. It seemed as if to sin had become its occupation. All it did was commit sins. The old man loved sin exceedingly; it wanted to sin, craved for sin, and was fond of
doing sinful things; the body followed after the old man to sin and became the body of sin. Now, after the old man is dealt with by the Lord and is crucified, the body of sin becomes unemployed; there is no more work for it to do. When the old man was alive, it was the profession and the occupation of the body of sin to commit sins every day. Thank the Lord, this hopeless old man has been crucified! The body of sin has also lost its job! Even though sin still exists and still tries to be the master, I am no longer its slave. Although time and again sin tries to instigate the body to commit sin, it cannot break through because the Holy Spirit has become the Master within the new man. As a result, sin is unable to activate the body to commit sin anymore. Hence, the goal of the crucifixion of the old man and the unemployment of the body of sin in Romans 6:6 is that "we should no longer serve sin as slaves." We have seen these three items: one fact—"that our old man has been crucified with Him," one result—"that the body of sin might be annulled," and one goal —"that we should no longer serve sin as slaves." These three are linked together and cannot be separated. We know the fact, the result, and the goal. But how can we achieve this? What is the condition that we need to fulfill before we can have the experience of dying together with the Lord? It is to believe. There is no other condition except to believe. The way one receives the substitutional death of the Lord Jesus is the same way he dies together with Him. Through faith, not works, one shares the result of the Lord Jesus' substitutional death, which is deliverance from eternal punishment. In the same way, through faith, one shares the result of dying with the Lord Jesus, which is freedom from sin. It is a fact that the Lord Jesus has already died for you. It is also a fact that you have already died with the Lord Jesus. If you do not believe in Christ's substitutionary death for you, you cannot partake of the effectiveness of this death—deliverance from punishment. If you do not believe in your death with Christ, you will likewise not be able to receive the effectiveness of death with Him—freedom from sin. All those who believe in the substitutional death of Christ are saved, and all those who believe in their death with Christ have overcome. To share in the death of the Lord Jesus—whether it be the substituting or the participating death— requires faith. God requires that we believe. We need to believe in the Lord's death for us and our death with Him. Romans 6:11 says, "So also you, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin." The word "reckon" is extremely important. Oftentimes we like to "sense" that our old man has died. We like to "feel" that our old man has died. If we try to sense or feel,
our old man will never die in our experience. Our old man does not die from our "sensing" or "feeling." The more we "sense," the more we notice that our old man is not dead, and the more we "feel," the more we see that our old man is still alive. The old man is not crucified by "sensing" or "feeling." The old man experiences crucifixion through "reckoning." What is reckoning? "Reckoning" is an act of faith; "reckoning" is the application of faith; "reckoning" is the judgment of the will and the execution of the will. "Reckoning" is completely contrary to "sensing" and "feeling." "Sensing" and "feeling" have to do with one's feelings, while "reckoning" has to do with faith and the will. Therefore, the crucifixion of our old man is not something we have to feel. It is wrong to say, "I do not feel that my old man is dead." Whether the old man has died or not does not depend on your feeling; it depends on whether or not you have reckoned it.
How do we "reckon"? To reckon yourself dead to sin is to reckon yourself already crucified. It is to reckon that your old man has already been crucified and that the cross of the Lord Jesus was also the cross for your old man; it is to reckon that the death of the Lord Jesus is the death of your old man and to reckon that the time the Lord Jesus died nineteen hundred years ago is the time your old man died. The old man has already been crucified on the cross with Christ. This is a fact, an accomplished fact. In the eyes of God, the old man is dead. Now we reckon that our old man is dead. If we reckon in our heart the things we believe in, God will accomplish the same things. Furthermore, we should exercise our will to reckon ourselves dead to sin. If we do this, we will no longer be a slave to sin. To reckon is an act as well as an attitude. An act is a one time matter, while an attitude is something one maintains all the time. An act is a one time action toward a certain matter, while an attitude is a lasting evaluation toward something. We should reckon ourselves dead to sin. This means that we should take a definite step to reckon ourselves dead to sin. After this, we should continually maintain an attitude of being dead to sin. The act is the beginning, and the attitude is the continuation. We should have at least one time before God where, in a definite way, from that very day and hour, we reckon ourselves as dead. After that specific reckoning, we should daily maintain this attitude of a definite reckoning, an attitude that declares ourselves dead to sin. The failure of many people is this: they have reckoned themselves dead to sin and have received the word of dying with the Lord on the cross. However, they think that this matter is once for all and that once they have made such a reckoning, they
will have no problem from then on. They think that just as one is dead when his physical body dies, so it is with the death of one's old man. They do not realize that the same is not true in the spiritual realm. We need to daily and hourly reckon ourselves dead with Christ. Whenever a believer stops reckoning, his old man, in experience, will not be dead. This is why many people find that their old man seems to have resurrected. If this is something that can be settled once for all, we do not need to be watchful anymore. But we know that we need to be watchful. Watchfulness is something we need to exercise moment by moment. In the same way, to reckon our old man dead is something that is continual and uninterrupted. If God's children are more aware of this, they will avoid many failures. To take such an attitude is not a mental exercise of the mind, but a lasting evaluation of ourselves in our will. One should be able "to reckon oneself as dead" whether consciously or unconsciously. God's children often find it difficult to do this. Oftentimes, they think that they have "forgotten" to reckon. They have used the wrong organ. To reckon is an exercise of the will, not a grappling in the mind. Whether or not you overcome depends on whether or not you have adopted the attitude of reckoning yourself dead. It does not depend on whether or not you remember to reckon. If you exercise your will by the Holy Spirit to maintain this attitude of death, you will find that consciously or unconsciously this attitude will be with you. The attitude is always the same whether you remember it or not. Naturally, our mind has its place, but we should not let the mind influence the will. The will should control the mind and should cause it to assist the will in maintaining this attitude. Therefore, daily and hourly, consciously or unconsciously, no matter what we do, we should always stand on the foundation of the cross and should reckon our old man as dead. Here is the secret to overcoming sin and the devil. Sin and the devil are related to each other. If sin cannot be our king, spontaneously the devil will not have any ground in our hearts. If the believers realize and receive the truth of the cross, there will not be so many backsliding and failing ones. Long-lasting victory can never be separated from a longlasting stand on the foundation of the cross. However, this is not to say that, after we have "reckoned" the old man dead in conduct and in attitude, the sin within us will be eliminated and nullified. As long as we are still in the body, sin will still be with us. To say that sin can be nullified in this life is not the teaching of the Bible. We can put our old man to death
through trusting in the cross of the Lord on Golgotha, and we can cause the body of sin to be powerless, to wither, and to be paralyzed as dead; but we can never cause sin to be nullified. Whenever we are careless, unwatchful, and not standing on the death ground of Golgotha, our old man will be activated and will exercise its authority and power again. Satan is seeking an opportunity all day long to activate him. Wherever there is an opening, Satan will try to restore our old man to his original position.
This being the case, how we need to be watchful and on the alert so that the old man will never have a day to rise up again! But is not this very difficult? Surely the flesh regards this as difficult. Therefore, in order for the cross to work in the believers, they must have the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The cross and the Holy Spirit can never be separated. The cross makes it possible for the believers to overcome sin; the Holy Spirit makes real in the believers' lives what the cross has accomplished. A believer who wants to be delivered from sins must not make provisions for the flesh; he must be watchful and must be ready to pay any price. He should have less hope in himself and more trust in the Holy Spirit. With man it is impossible; with God, nothing is impossible. The death of the cross is different from any other kind of death. This kind of death is most painful and slow. Therefore, if we truly reckon ourselves dead and take the cross of the Lord as our own cross, it will be painful and miserable as far as our flesh is concerned. The Lord Jesus hung on the cross for six hours before He died; His death was very slow. In the lives of Christians, the experiences of co-crucifixion belong often to this six-hour period. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He had the power to come down if He desired. The same is true for those who are crucified with the Lord. Whenever one allows his old man to leave the cross, his old man will leave the cross. The old man is hung on the cross through one's reckoning. If one maintains the attitude that the old man is dead, the old man will be as powerless as the dead. But once a person relaxes, the old man will be activated. Many of God's children often wonder why their old man keeps resurrecting. They forget that the death of crucifixion is slow. Satan is very alert; he takes any opportunity to resurrect the old man and to cause the believers to commit sin. Whenever we are not watchful, his temptation and deception come. When outward temptation and deception come, the old man within is quick to respond. At such times, we should come back once again to the foundation of the cross and should once again reckon ourself dead. We
should wait (through this reckoning) for the Holy Spirit to apply the power of the cross until the temptation loses its drawing power. Every believer should have this extraordinary experience. When we are about to be defeated, we should come again to the cross and reckon ourself dead; by this we will experience power coming into us, preserving us, and strengthening us to resist the temptation. However, is it not true that sometimes we reckon over and over again and still do not see any result, but instead we sin? This is the experience of many. This means that our "reckoning" has some problem. If we have truly reckoned, we will surely find extraordinary power coming into us. We should remember that this "reckoning" is not to say with our mouth, "I am dead, I am dead"; neither is it to think in the mind, "I am dead, I am dead." It is the judgment of our will to reckon ourself dead and to maintain this attitude of reckoning with a believing heart. We may say that this is a decision in our will by which we declare, "I am dead." In other words, first we are willing to die, then we reckon ourself dead. We need to learn to reckon with the will and with faith. If we really stand on Romans 6:11, we will constantly have the experience of being free from sin. When a believer first takes this attitude, Satan will purposely try to stir up a storm and will cause the believer to feel that things are too much for him to handle. At such times, he should calmly rely on the Holy Spirit to apply to him the power of the cross. Do not struggle. Do not be anxious. Do not think that the temptation is too great, and do not encourage the enemy because of this. You should reckon yourself dead to sin. The cross has the power to overcome the world. If unfortunately we fail, we should rise up even more and should trust more in the power of the cross. The Holy Spirit will lead us to victory in the Lord Jesus. Brothers, "sin will not lord it over you, for you are...under grace"! (Rom. 6:14).
II. DYING WITH THE LORD TO SELF In our experience, death to self is deeper and more advanced than death to sin. Usually God's children pay much attention to overcoming sins. They suffer much from the harassment of sin. They know very well how that after they sin, their regenerated life grieves over the evil and bitterness of sin. They have tasted much of this, and they hope very much to overcome sin and to be no longer a slave of sin. Therefore, after they have received the light and have realized how to die with the Lord and how to reckon themselves dead to sin, they rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and begin to seriously reckon themselves dead and to
allow the victory of the cross to be expressed in their heart and through their body. Yet, frequently there is something lacking: after they have the experience of victory over sin, they think that this is the highest expression of life and that nothing can be higher. They pay too much attention to their sins. As a result, once they overcome them, they become satisfied. It is right for us to pay attention to our sins, and it is right for believers not to neglect their sins. Victory over sins is the basis of all righteousness and is the beginning of a proper Christian living. If sin has dominion over us, we cannot expect to have any spiritual progress. But this does not mean that we can stop at victory over sin and draw a boundary line and call an end to our advance. We have to know that this is only the first step in the experience of a Christian. There is still a long way before us. Do not consider it an end! After overcoming sins, the immediate problem facing the believers is how to overcome the "self." Believers often misunderstand the true meaning of "self." Some confuse self with sin. They consider self as sin and believe it should be put to death. Naturally, self and sin have a lot to do with each other, but self is not sin. They use the yardstick with which they measure sin to measure every outward behavior. Anything they consider as wrong, they condemn as sin and regard as self and as the "mother" of sin. They consider that it ought to be crucified. Little do they realize that as bad as the self is, it is not always evil. It is true that everything that springs from the "mother" of sin is sin and is corrupt and defiled, and it is also true that what is expressed by the "mother" of sin through the self can in no way be good. However, sometimes when the self is expressed, it can appear very good in man's eyes and can appear very virtuous, very kind, and very righteous. If we take the yardstick with which we measure sin to measure the self, we will surely eliminate the evil part of the self and keep its good part—good, of course, according to man's view. Because believers are unaware of the source of self and do not realize that it can produce that which both God and man condemn as evil as well as that which is recognized by man as good, they remain in the realm of the "self" and fail to enter into the enjoyment of the full and rich life of God. Satan is most subtle; he hides this fact and keeps the believers in darkness, causing them to be contented with the experience of victory over sin and to stop looking for a higher experience—the experience of victory over the self. The self life is just our natural life. The natural life has been affected by Adam's fall and has become very corrupt. Through Adam's fall, man acquired the sinful nature. This sinful nature is intimately interwoven with the natural life, which is
the self. Our self is just our ego; it is what constitutes our own individual personality. In other words, it is our soul. Because the sinful nature is so intimately related to the self, it is difficult to separate the two in their operation, that is, in their acts of sins. They are so united that as soon as the "mother" of sin moves, the self agrees and executes, and man commits the outward sins. Of course, we can never make too clear a separation between self and sin. With an unbeliever, self and sin are as one, and it is very hard to separate them. The self is already able to transgress by itself. But sin, being so powerful, affects the self, dominates the self, suppresses the self, and forces the self to come up with more ways to sin. Under the influence of Adam's fall, the self is already corrupt to the uttermost. Now when it collaborates with sin, the two have little reason for conflict. Even though sometimes the conscience makes a very faint protest, it is so short and weak that it disappears in no time. The self and sin cooperate with each other so well that in unregenerated persons, the two are mixed together. To them, sin is just self incarnated. To them, self is just the many evils that appear in the fallen human life; it is the root, the branches, and the leaves of sin. To them, self is not only the origin of sin, but the very life of sin. To them, sin is self, and self is sin. After a man is regenerated, in the initial stage of his Christian life, he still finds it difficult to differentiate in experience between sin and self. Later, as he receives more grace from God, and as the work of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit become more apparent in him, he begins to separate sin from the self. Along the way in their Christian life, God's children are gradually able to differentiate the self from sin. Those who have experienced Romans 6:11 will realize that though a man may have overcome sin, he may still not have overcome the self. To those believers who are advanced in life, victory over sin is easy, while victory over the self is very difficult. If a believer has the full experience of victory over the self, he will have attained the life that the apostles had.
The self-life is just the soul-life. The self is our personality and everything contained in our personality. Out of the self grow our personal opinion, taste, thought, longing, bias, love, and hatred. The self-life is the power by which one lives. We must keep in mind that the self is just ourself plus our likes and dislikes. Its life is the natural power by which we perform good and do work. The self is a life, because it lives in the believers whose self has not been removed. Even in
the believers who have died to their self, it often attempts to rise up. The self-life is a life that centers on one's own self. After the believers receive the dealing of the cross with respect to sin, the body of sin will be paralyzed and will not be able to act anymore. However, because no attention has yet been paid to the self-life, the latter still lives. At this stage, the self-life is like the life of Adam before the fall. It was not spiritual because it was not transformed by the fruit of the tree of life, and it was not fleshly because it had not sinned. It belonged to itself, and as such it could sin if it wanted to sin, and it could be spiritual if it wanted to be spiritual. The believer's life at this time is very similar to this. It is not spiritual because his spirit is still not free, and it has not reached a walk according to God's higher life. It is not fleshly because the person has received the accomplishment of the cross and has reckoned himself dead to sin. He is of the self, soulish, natural, and untransformed. If he is not careful, he will fall and will be contaminated by the sin of the flesh. If he goes forward and claims the accomplishment of the cross, he will become completely spiritual. Nevertheless, if believers stay in the realm of the self, they will mostly fall and will many times become fleshly. At this time believers are in a most vulnerable condition in their Christian life. On the one hand, they must protect themselves from falling; on the other hand, they must resolve to have some practical righteous works. The danger then is to do good by self effort. It may not necessarily be obvious; sometimes it can be very obscure and hidden. Sometimes it takes God a long time to show the believers that they are still in the self and are still trying to carry out God's will by their self effort. The self includes many things. Our will, emotions, love, and intelligence are within its domain. The self is our ego. The life of the self is the power by which we live. The self is also the soul; it is an organ. The life of the self is the life of the soul; it is the power that motivates this organ. When a man is in the self, the life of the self will impart power, that is, the self's own power, into the various parts of the man—the will, the emotions, the love, the intelligence, etc., and will cause the man to do good and to work. Its will is strong enough to resist the outward temptations. Its emotions make one happy and cause one to think that God is very close to him. Its love to the Lord is deep and sincere. Its intelligence causes him to come up with many wonderful Bible teachings and many methods for doing God's work. But, after all, these are done by the self, not by the spiritual life of God. During this time, God often gives special grace to the believers so that
they receive many wonderful gifts. By realizing that all these gifts are from God, it is hoped that man will turn completely away from himself to God. However, in experience what a believer does is completely opposite to what God intends. Not only does he not turn completely to God, he takes advantage of these gifts for his own use. As a result, these gifts become a help for prolonging the life of his self. Therefore, God has to work many days and years before such a person will give up himself and turn to Him completely. After a believer is brought by God to a deep realization of the evil of the self, he will be willing to put his self to death. But what is the way for the self to die? There is no other way but by the cross. We have to read two passages of Scripture to understand the relationship between the cross and the self. "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). What Galatians 2:20 speaks of is something accomplished once for all. After we realize that our self needs to be put to death, we should then by faith acknowledge in a definite way that "I am crucified with Christ." The word in the original text is ego, the "I," the self. Besides the cross, there is indeed no other way to put the self to death. We should also pay attention to the words "with Christ." The crucifixion of the self is not an independent act of the believers. Believers are not to crucify the self on the cross by themselves in their own strength. The crucifixion of the self is to be joined to Christ and in conjunction with Christ. This is not to say that we help Christ to put the self on the cross. Rather, it means that Christ has already accomplished this fact, and we now merely acknowledge and believe its reality. Here the main focus is Christ. This is why it says, "I am crucified with Christ," not "Christ is crucified with me." It is not that we want to put the self to death, and Christ comes merely to accompany us. Rather, it was Christ who in His death brought all our "ego," our self, to the cross and nailed it there. Therefore, we are not crucifying the self again but are merely acknowledging the fact. The word "am" shows us that it is a fact and not a wish. A life that dies to the self is possible, real, and attainable. The apostles in the ancient time obtained this kind of life already; their self passed the test. Therefore, it is possible for us to obtain this life also. However, we should remember that this is "crucified with" and not "crucified alone." Apart from the Lord we can do nothing. To crucify the self with the strength of the self is an impossible task and can never be done. If we are not united with the Lord in His
death, our self will never die. Christ alone brought all the old creation, every part of it, to the cross in His death. If we try to find another way besides the Lord's way and try to accomplish anything besides the Lord's accomplishment, we are not only foolish but also wasting our time. Therefore, we are to do nothing but come to the Lord with full assurance of faith and acknowledge the Lord's accomplishment as ours; following this we should pray for the Holy Spirit to apply in us the work of the Lord's cross and express this very work through us.
We should come before God to rebuke our self and offer up everything to Him. By the Spirit of the Lord, we should put to death everything that is included in our self-life. We should tell God, "Hereafter, it is no longer I, no longer my own likeness, opinions, tastes, or preconceptions. I will put all these on the cross. Starting from today, I will live only according to Your will. O Lord! It is You...not I." We should submit to the Lord in such a way as to put all we have to death. But this does not mean that from now on we will have the self exterminated. The self cannot and will not be exterminated; it always exists. Why then do we say to nail the self on the cross? Here we must know one important thing: the question before us is one that has to do with the spiritual life. For this kind of question, we must emphasize spiritual experience more than mere literary fluency. There are many things which seem to contradict one another in semantics and which seem utterly incompatible. Yet they fit very harmoniously together and have no awkwardness of any kind in the realm of the spiritual life. This is what happens here. According to the literal meaning, if the self is dead already, how can it not be exterminated? We have to know that the word "dead" here refers to a kind of process in the spiritual experience. The self being dead does not mean that the self is from now on non-existent. It means that the self will hereafter submit to God, that it will not allow its likes and dislikes to take over, but that it will allow the cross to crucify and terminate all its selfish thoughts and activities. To stop the self-life from driving the self means that the living which is derived from the selflife is dead, that there is no more self-life and self-living, and that only the shell of the self remains. The self includes the will, the emotions, the intelligence, etc. This does not mean that when we believe in our self being crucified with Christ, our will, emotions, intellect, etc., will be annulled! No one can annihilate the few faculties which make up his being just by believing in his having been crucified with the Lord! To die with the Lord simply means to no longer allow the self to be the master, to no longer act according to one's own will, emotions, and thoughts,
and to no longer allow the self-life to have its way; it means to allow the Lord's Spirit to rule over everything that the self encompasses so that the person can obey God's life within. As long as the self is not dead, it will not yield to the Holy Spirit. Once the self walks away from the cross, it will right away resume its old posture. Believers have neither the power nor the way to subdue themselves. Galatians 2:20 sheds a lot of light on this point. "I [the self] am crucified with Christ;...and the life which I now live in the flesh...." Does not the Scripture speak very clearly here? In the first part of the sentence Paul made it very clear that his self was crucified on the cross, yet in the second part of the sentence, did he not say that his self still existed? Therefore, the crucifixion of the self does not mean the extermination of the self; rather, it means to cease from the activities of the self and allow the Lord to be the Master. This should be very clear. What has been said above was achieved once for all. But is it enough for us only to believe once that we are crucified with Christ? Will this solve the problem once for all? This leads to the second passage of Scripture: "Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). This verse points out that the three things we ought to do are actually not three but one thing divided into three steps. The first step is to deny the self. Denying means rejecting, discarding, ignoring, and not acknowledging one's demand. The meaning of denying the self is simply to not allow the self to be the lord. This step is a definite act; it is to believe specifically that "I am already crucified with Christ." In order to maintain the work of this step, we must carry out the second step, which is to "daily" take up the cross. This means that even though we have willingly given the self over to the cross once and have disallowed it from being the lord, we should continue to deny the self daily. Denying the self should be daily and uninterrupted. This matter of denying the self cannot be accomplished once for all. The Lord must give us a daily cross to bear. The self is very alert, and Satan who takes advantage of the self is also untiring. Every moment, the self is looking for an opportunity to restore itself and will never let even the slightest chance pass by. Therefore, it is extremely important to bear the cross daily. This is where the believers must be watchful. We should "daily" and moment by moment bear the cross the Lord has given us; we should continuously acknowledge that the Lord's cross is our cross and should not give any room to the self or allow it to assume any position. The third step is to follow the Lord; this is to positively honor the Lord as Lord and to completely obey the Lord's will. In this way, the self will have no chance or possibility to develop itself. These three steps are all based and
centered upon the cross. The first step of denying the self is on the negative side. The second step of taking up the cross is negatively positive. The third step of following the Lord is on the positive side. The teaching in these two passages should not be separated from one another. If we consider them together and practice them together, we will have the overcoming experience all the time. However, we should allow the Holy Spirit to do His own work and should allow the accomplished work of the cross to be wrought into us.
Our common thought is that we are very willing to give our bad, filthy, sinful, and satanic things over to Christ and have them nailed on the cross with Him. We are very willing to get rid of the evil things in the self. However, our frequent problem is that we think we should keep the good things of the self. In the sight of God, the self is totally corrupted and deeply affected by the fall of Adam. According to God, He cannot heal the life of the self, nor can He remedy it. There is no other way but to crucify it with Christ on the cross. The world is willing to let everything go and is willing even to sacrifice its own money and time, yet it finds it too difficult to deny the self and to crucify it. We always consider that the self is not all bad. This is the human viewpoint. Of course, the natural man has no intention of retaining only its goodness. However, unconsciously and unwittingly, one keeps the good part of the self and puts the evil part of the self to death. Little do we realize that the self is either totally alive or totally dead. If the good part of the self is kept alive, there is no guarantee that the evil part of the self will be dead. Therefore, believers have a serious lesson to learn here. They have to be willing to crucify with Christ both the good and the evil parts of their self. Many people's natural self is honest by birth. Some are very patient, and some are loving. It is very hard for those people to put all their self to death. Subconsciously, they keep their honesty, patience, and love and let the other wrong things be crucified with the Lord. These believers must be taught by God to realize that they themselves are not trustworthy. Only then will they submit themselves to the Lord. We can learn a lesson from Peter on this point. Before he experienced the death and resurrection of Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit, he truly thought that his love toward the Lord was right. However, was his promise to die with the Lord carried out? Peter's failure was caused by his total trust in himself; he trusted in his own goodness. Yet he did not realize this. After all, it is difficult to
realize the self. We should trust in God's evaluation of ourselves and should put the self on the cross. If we consider God's evaluation of the world, we will be more sure about this fact. God said, "There is none righteous, not even one" (Rom. 3:10). To the world, is there really none righteous? There are quite a few righteous persons according to the world's point of view! The reason God considers none righteous is that all their righteousness is produced by themselves. The self is deeply cultivated by Adam's nature. "Does the spring, out of the same opening, gush forth the sweet and the bitter?" (James 3:11). Man thinks that he has what the world approves as righteousness. Yet, "because they were ignorant of God's righteousness and sought to establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:3). The self-righteous ones are not righteous. They are also sinners destined to perdition. Only those who receive the entire person of the Lord Jesus are the righteous ones. We can look into another portion of the Word which tells us how the goodness of the self-life should be put to death before one can bring forth good fruit. This passage, however, deals more with the self-life than with the self itself. "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). The Lord is speaking to His believers. His word is a calling. "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me" (v. 26). After He spoke the words in verse 24, He did not leave us in darkness, but He continued by explaining, "He who loves his soul-life loses it [i.e., in eternity bears no fruit]; and he who hates his soul-life in this world shall keep it [i.e., not be barren] unto eternal life [in the original, the spiritual life]" (v. 25). The teaching here is that the self-life should be put to death. Life is very precious. One can suffer the loss of everything except life. Yet here is a call for us to lose our life. Our selflife is endowed to us by birth; it is legitimate and is good. Yet here the Lord requires that we put it to death. What is this life? This is a natural life, a life that we have in common with all animals, a life with mobility. Our intellect, love, and emotions are all dominated by this life. Every faculty of our body is controlled by this life. Every part of our being is controlled by this life. Although it is not wrong to exercise our intellect, love, and emotions, this dominating life, this life which comes by our natural birth, is not a spiritual life. Unless the spiritual life becomes the expression and the motivating power of all the faculties of the believers, a believer will "lose" his life, that is, he will never bear fruit.
This self-life is beautiful and attractive. Our Lord uses wheat as an illustration. The exterior shell of a grain of wheat is very attractive. Its color is golden yellow. Although it is beautiful, it is useless if it remains merely a grain. It must be separated from (or go together with) its companions and fall into the ground—a dark, hidden, suffering place—and die there. When it dies, it will lose its beauty and all it has. It will no longer be an object of man's praise as before.
If we are truly willing to die, and if we truly die, we will lose many praises of man. Our natural beauty will be destroyed. Formerly, we might have had the intelligence to come up with many new reasonings and theories. When the self dies, we will have to wait for the Lord's direction and leading and will not dare to depend upon our own intelligence anymore. Formerly, we might have had love and could have loved many. We could have motivated ourselves to love the Lord. When the self dies, we will have to let the Lord's love love through us, and we will have to allow the Holy Spirit to permeate our heart with the Lord's love. We will not dare to be motivated by our natural love. Formerly, we might have had emotions and could be joyful, angry, sad, and happy at will; we could fellowship with the Lord through our feelings and could sense His joy. With the death of the self, we will have to let the Lord control our emotions. We will be sorrowful when the Lord is sorrowful. We will be happy when the Lord is happy. We will have to let the Lord have the freedom in us. Even though at times we will lack the sense of the Lord, yet we will have to remain faithful, and we will not change our attitude. We will not dare to change because of the emotions. What seemed profitable to us before will be counted loss for Christ's sake (Phil. 3:7). When we die with the Lord to sin, we let go of the unlawful things. When we are crucified with the Lord to self, we let go of the lawful things. This step is indeed hard to take. Narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it. What kind of death is this? It is like the death of the cross that the Lord knew about (John 12:33). Therefore, we do not have any other choice except to fall into the ground willingly and die. We should die joyfully with the Lord and participate in the fellowship of His cross. Every day we should maintain the attitude of hating the self-life so that we can keep it unto life eternal, that is, bearing fruit unto life eternal and bringing forth many grains. This is not an overnight matter. If this were so, it would have been easy. But our Lord's word is, "He who hates his soul-life in this world..." (John 12:25). We should hate our self-
life as long as we live in this world. If we practice this unceasingly, our craving self will be stripped of its power. We must not consider the word "death" lightly. It is not enough to be a grain of wheat alone. As a born-again son of God (Matt. 13:38), one is merely a babe and cannot do much for God. It is not enough just to fall into the ground, for even if one is willing to suffer and to be hidden, he is still not dead and is still one grain; there is still no increase. Death is the ultimate and most important step. Death unlocks the gate of life. Death is the only requirement for fruit bearing. Death is indispensable. And yet how many are there who truly experience this death? Death terminates all activity. Death is the end to our human life. After death, there remains no room for the activity of the self-life. This death is not a reluctant death, because the Lord said we should "hate" this self-life. To hate is a kind of attitude; it is a lasting attitude. Therefore, we should willingly put this life to death; we should have a full understanding of the poverty of this life and should hate it. What is the result of the death of this life? The result is many grains. The reason, the very reason, the Lord cannot use us is that we work by our intellect, love, etc. This soullife is a low-level life; it is not a high-level life. As such it can hardly bear fruit. Although it contains some merits, only "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The self-life, and everything that comes with it, is completely useless. If we really put ourselves, our self-life, that is, all that we can do and all that we are, completely on the Lord's cross, we will see how the Lord will use us. If we are empty within, there will not be any blockage to the gushing out of God's living water from us. This kind of fruit bearing is different from ordinary fruit bearing because the fruit that we bear will be plentiful. Our fruit bearing depends totally on our death. Therefore, believers, just as our self once filled us, even so now must Christ fill us. Otherwise, we have not yet received full salvation. The key for us to receive our salvation and the key for us to be saved is to be delivered from the self. It is easy for a believer who is in the self to fall into sin. This is why in order to die completely to sin, one must die completely to self. Christ is not only our Savior who frees us from sin; He is also our Savior who saves us from the self. To die to self is the only pathway for our spiritual living. Yet, besides God, no one can put our self-life to death. However, if we are not willing, God can do nothing. The activity of the self is sometimes quite hidden under a spiritual veil. A believer may not recognize it at first by himself. This is why God has to remove the veil through all kinds of outward circumstances in order that the believer will come to know
himself. The most difficult thing for a person to do is to know himself. We do not know ourselves. This is why we have to go through God's dealing hand before we realize the evil of the self. If in our experience we have not died to self, we have not made any real progress in our spiritual life. If you and I are willing to let the Holy Spirit of the Lord apply the death of the self in us and to work it out of us today, we will see great progress in our lives. Brothers! May we declare together in one accord, "Not as I will, but as You [the Father] will" (Matt. 26:39). The above article deals with questions on the spiritual life. May the reader not consider this as a theory. One should compare his spiritual experience with the words here. If he does this, he will understand these words. We are all babes in Christ. May the Lord guide us step by step. If we do not have the experience of the death of the self, it is better to say we do not have it. But we must never take the self-life as the spiritual life. May God bless us.
CHAPTER TWO THE MESSENGER OF THE CROSS INTRODUCTION Recently many people seem to be tired of hearing the word of the cross. However, we thank and praise God the Father that He has reserved for His own great name many faithful ones who have not bent their knees to Baal. Still, I feel that there is one thing the faithful servants of Christ should know. Why, after they have done so much preaching of the cross, have the results been so discouraging, and people have not had much change in their lives after hearing the true Word of God? I think this problem deserves our greatest attention. We who labor for the Lord should understand why we cannot gain others by the gospel we preach. I hope that we would pray quietly before the Lord and ask the Spirit of God to enlighten our hearts that we may know where our failure lies. THE FAILURE OF THE MESSENGER OF THE CROSS At the present time, we should pay attention to the word which we preach. We do not have to mention those who preach the wrong gospel. Their belief is in error anyway. What we preach is the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and how it saves sinners from the condemnation of sin and the power of sin. When we preach, we pay much attention to the outline, the logic, and the thought. We do our best to make our doctrines clear. In this way, even the most unlearned person may understand. We also pay attention to man's psychology. We try as
hard as we can in our homiletics to match man's psyche. What we preach is truthful and scriptural—our topic is the cross of the Lord Jesus. We know that the Lord Jesus died for sinners on the cross so that all who believe in Him can be saved apart from any work. We also know that the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is not only for substitution but also for the crucifixion of the sinner and his sin together with Him. We know the way to be saved. We know how to die with the Lord, how to apply the death of the Lord by faith, and how to die with Him to deal with sin and self. We are also clear about other related doctrines in the Bible. Our preaching is presented in a nice and clear way so that anyone in the audience can understand. The audience pays much attention to us when we preach the cross of the Lord; they like it and are touched by it. We may even be gifted in our eloquence and be able to present the truth in a persuasive way which causes us to think that our work is very effective. We may think that our work is very effective! Under such circumstances, we ought to see many people receiving life and many believers gaining the more abundant life. However, the results are the opposite of what we expect. Although the audience may be touched at the meeting hall, they do not gain anything that we hope to see them gain after they leave the meeting hall, even though the speech is still fresh in their minds. They do not have any change in their lives. They understand what we preach, but it does not have any influence on their daily living. They only store the word preached in their brains. They do not apply it in their hearts. One possible reason for this is that what you have is only eloquence, words, and wisdom. It seems that behind your speech you do not have the power that touches people's hearts. You have the best words and voice, but behind the words and voice you do not have the kind of authority that "controls" people's lives. In other words, you can make people listen attentively to you at the meeting hall, but the Holy Spirit is not co-working with you. Therefore, your labor is either ineffective or it lacks lasting results. Your words cannot leave a lasting mark on people's lives. Although your mouth flows out words, your spirit does not flow out life to nourish, raise up, and quicken the dying audience. In recent years, the Lord has told me to be careful about this kind of preaching. We do not want to be popular orators (our Lord is a Life-giver); we want to be channels of life, directing life into people's hearts. When we preach the cross, we should have the life of the cross flowing into others' lives. The saddest thing to me is that so many people are preaching the cross today, but men have not gained God's life. Men seem to agree with and gladly receive our words, but they
have not received God's life. Many times as we preach the substitutional death of the cross, men seem to understand the meaning and reason for substitution, and they seem to be touched at the time. However, we cannot see the grace of God working in the audience to the point where they truly obtain the regenerated life. We also preach the co-crucifixion of the cross. We explain it in a very clear, moving way. At the time when people hear it, they may pray and may make up their minds to die together with the Lord and to gain the experiences of overcoming sin and self. But after the whole thing is over, we do not see them gaining the more abundant life of God. Such results sadden me very much. It humbles me before the Lord to seek His light. If you have the same experience as I have, I hope that you will grieve before the Lord as I do and will regret our failures. What we indeed lack now are men and women who will preach the cross, but what we need more than this are preachers who will preach the cross in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us now read the Word of God. Paul said, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, came not according to excellence of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the mystery of God. For I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling; and my speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. 2:1-4). In these verses we see three things: (1) the message that Paul preached, (2) the person of Paul himself, and (3) the way Paul preached his message.
THE MESSAGE PAUL PREACHED The message Paul preached was the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The subject of his preaching was the cross of Christ and the crucified Christ. He did not know anything except this. If we forget the cross and do not make the cross and Christ our unique subject, how much will we and our audience miss! I believe that we are surely not those who do not preach the cross. Our message and our subject may be good. However, do we not have the experience of having a good message yet being unable to dispense life to others? Let me point out that inasmuch as the message we preach is important, if it cannot give life to others, our work is mostly in vain. We should remember that the goal of our work is to give life to people. We preach the substitutional death of the cross in order that God can give His life to those who believe. If
others are stirred up or excited or even repent and agree with what we preach, but do not have God's life in them, what good will this do? They may show their sympathy outwardly, but they are not saved. Therefore, our goal is neither to make people repent by themselves nor to influence them in their mind, but to dispense God's life into them so that they can have life and be saved. Even when we preach the deeper truths or try to help others to understand the truth of cocrucifixion, the same principle holds true. It is easy to make people know and understand what we preach. It is also not hard to make others accept our teachings in their mind. Any believer with a little knowledge can understand if you explain matters to him clearly enough. However, if you want him to gain life and power and to experience what you preach, there is no other way except for God to dispense through you the richer life into him. We should know that our only work is to be the channels of God's life, conveying life into others' spirits. Therefore, even if the subject or the message we preach is good, we still need to find out whether or not we are the suitable channels for God to convey life into others. PAUL HIMSELF The message Paul preached was the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message he preached was not in vain because he was a living channel of life. He begat many people through the gospel of the cross. What he preached was the word of the cross. Concerning himself, he said that he was "in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." He was a crucified man! Only a crucified man can preach the crucified word. He had no confidence in himself. He did not rely on himself. Weakness, fear, trembling, being void of self-confidence, considering oneself as totally useless—these are the characteristics of a crucified man. He said, "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20) and "I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31). Only a dead Paul could preach a word on crucifixion. If he had not died in a genuine way, the life of the Lord's death could not have flowed out from him. It is easy to preach the cross, but it is not easy to preach it as a crucified man. Unless one is a crucified person, he cannot preach the word of the cross and cannot give to others the life of the cross. Strictly speaking, unless one knows the cross experientially, he is not worthy to preach the cross. THE WAY PAUL PREACHED HIS MESSAGE Paul's message was crucifixion. He himself was a crucified man, and he preached the cross by way of the cross. It was a man of the cross preaching the message of the cross with the spirit of the cross. Many times what we preach is
the cross, but our attitude, our words, and our feeling do not seem like we are preaching the cross! Many preachings of the cross are not done in the spirit of the cross! Paul said, "I...came not according to excellence of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the mystery of God." Here the mystery of God refers to the word of the cross. Paul did not preach the cross with excellence of speech or wisdom. "And my speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." This is the spirit of the cross. The cross is wisdom to God but foolishness to man (1 Cor. 1:23-24). When we preach the word of this foolishness, we should have the form of "foolishness," the attitude of "foolishness," and the speech of "foolishness." Paul gained the victory because he was a truly crucified man. He preached the cross with the spirit of the cross and the attitude of the cross. Those who have not experienced crucifixion will not be filled with the spirit of crucifixion, and they are not worthy to preach the word of the cross. After seeing the experience of Paul, does it not tell us the reason for our failures? The message we preach may be good, but we should examine ourselves in the light of the Lord—are we truly crucified men? With what kind of spirit, word, and attitude do we preach the cross? May we humble ourselves before these questions so that God can have mercy upon us. We are not talking about those who preach a "different gospel." We are talking only about those who preach "the gospel of God's grace." The word is not wrong, our message is not bad, but why do others not gain life? This must be due to the failure of the preacher! It is the person who is wrong, not the word that has lost its power. It is the man who has hindered God's life from flowing, not the Word of God that has lost its effect. When the man who preaches the cross does not himself have the experience of the cross nor the spirit of the cross, he cannot dispense to others the life of the cross. We cannot give others what we ourselves do not have. If the cross does not become our life, we cannot give the life of the cross to others. The failure of our work comes because we love to give the cross to others before we know whether or not we have the cross in ourselves. Those who are good at preaching to others must be good at preaching to themselves first. Otherwise, the Spirit will not co-work with them. Although the message we preach is important, we must not stress the message too much and forget ourselves. We can gain some knowledge from books about the word of the cross which we preach. We can use our mind to look for many meanings in the Bible. However, all these are borrowed; they do not belong to
us. Those who have clever minds are more dangerous than others. A preacher is in more danger than others, because all the studying, reading, researching, and listening may be done for others and not for himself. He may labor for others only to find himself starved spiritually! We can hear deep words about various aspects of the cross or read from books about the meanings of substitution and cocrucifixion. If we have a clever mind, we can even add a proper order to these teachings, so that when we speak, we can develop the things we have heard and thought in a very clear and sincere way, having everything well-organized and all the points clearly presented and the arguments neatly divided up. We may cause our audience to think that they have understood everything. Yet, despite the fact that they have understood everything, there is not an urging power to make the audience pursue what they have understood. They seem to think that to understand the doctrines of the cross is enough. They stop at the things they understand and do not pursue what the cross promises to give them. Even if the speaker understands the audience's mind, has a loud, sincere voice, and urges them not to understand the doctrine only but to pursue after the experience, his audience can only be stirred up at that moment. They still have not received life. They still have the theory only, not the experience. We must never be selfsatisfied and think that our silvery tongue can maneuver the audience. They may be affected at that one moment, but have we only given them thoughts and doctrines, or do we need to give life to them? Without giving life to man, we contribute nothing to his spirituality. What use is it to give man only thoughts or doctrines? May this thought be planted deeply into our being so that we would repent of the vanity of our previous work! The reasons why no one gains life through our preaching of the cross are: (1) we ourselves do not have the experience of the cross, and (2) we do not use the spirit of the cross to preach the word of the cross.
THE REASON FOR THE FAILURE OF THOSE WHO PREACH THE CROSS Those who are not crucified cannot be and are not worthy to preach the message of the cross. The cross which we preach should crucify us first. The message we preach should burn in our life first so that our life and our message can be mingled together. In this way our life will become our living message. The cross we preach should not merely be a message. We should daily live out the cross in our life. What we preach should not be merely a message but a life which we
daily live. When we preach, we dispense this life to others. The Lord Jesus said that His flesh is meat and His blood is drink (John 6:55). When we partake of the cross of the Lord Jesus by faith, it is like eating His flesh and drinking His blood. But to eat and to drink are not just empty words. After we eat and drink, we digest what we eat and drink so that it can become part of us—become our life. Our failure lies in the fact that many times we study the Word of God with our own wisdom and prepare our notes with our own thoughts. We often take the knowledge we gain from books and the doctrines we hear from our teachers and friends and make them our sermons. Although we have many good thoughts and ideas, and although the audience listens to us with much attention and interest, all the work ends right there. We cannot dispense the life of God to others. Although we preach the word of the cross, we cannot dispense the life of the cross to others. We can only give thoughts and ideas to people. However, what people lack is not good thoughts but life! LIFE We cannot give to others what we do not have. If we have life, we can give life to others. If what we have is only thoughts, we can only give thoughts to others. If we do not have the experience of crucifixion in our life, if we do not have the experience of dying together with the Lord in overcoming sin and self, if we do not have the experience of bearing the cross and following the Lord to suffer for Him, and if we only know the word of the cross from others' speaking and writings but have no experience of it ourselves, we surely cannot give life to others. We can only give the theories of the life of the cross to others. Only when we are transformed by the cross and when we receive the life and the spirit of the cross can we dispense the cross to others. The cross should daily do a deeper work in our life so that we can have solid experiences of the suffering and the victory of the cross. Then when we preach, our life will spontaneously flow out through our words, and the Spirit will pour His life through our life to nourish the dried up ones—the audience. Ideas can only reach man's brain; they only result in more thoughts for man's brain. Only life can reach man's spirit, the result being that man's spirit either receives a regenerated life or a more abundant life. Man's thought, words, utterance, and theories can only move and reach man's soul, because they can only move man's provocation, emotion, mind, and will. Only life can reach man's spirit. All the work of the Holy Spirit is in our spirit (Rom. 8:16; Eph. 3:16). Only when we are in the experience of the spirit, flowing out the life of our spirit, will the Holy Spirit pour out His life to others' spirits
through us. Therefore, it is a most vain thing to save the sinners and edify the saints by man's own mind, utterance, and theory. Although what one speaks may be very persuasive outwardly, we have to know that the Holy Spirit is not coworking with him. The Holy Spirit is not behind his words and is not working with him through His authority and power. The audience only listens to his words; there is no change at all in their lives. Although they sometimes make vows and resolutions, these are only excitements in their soul. There is no life behind his words. As a result, there is no power for them to gain what they have not yet gained. Where there is life, there is power. In spiritual matters, there is no power if there is no life. Therefore, if you do not let the Holy Spirit pour out His life through your life to others' spirits, others will not have the life of the Holy Spirit and will not have the power to practice what you preach. What we desire is not eloquence but the power of the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit of God make us realize that thoughts can only reach man's soul, and only life can flow to man's spirit. The life we are speaking of here refers to the experience of the word of God in our lives and the experience of the message we preach. The life of the cross is the life of the Lord Jesus. We should first test our message through our experience. The doctrine we understand is only a doctrine. We should let the doctrine work in us first so that the doctrine we understand becomes part of our life and part of the vital elements of our daily living and no longer just a doctrine, but the life of our life. It is like the food we eat becoming the flesh of our flesh and the bone of our bones. Thus, we become a living doctrine. In this way, the word we preach is no longer just a theory we know but our own true life. This is what the Bible means by "doers of the word" (James 1:22). Often we misunderstand the word "doer." We think "doers" are those who try their best to follow the word they hear and understand. But this is not the "doing" in the Bible. It is true that we should resolve to practice what we hear, but the "doing" in the Bible is not a "doing" with one's own strength. Rather, it is to allow the Holy Spirit to live out from one's life the word he knows. This is a kind of living, not a kind of work. If there is the living, there will spontaneously be the work. To have some sporadic works is not the "doing" described in the Bible. We should cooperate with the Holy Spirit in our life through our will so that we can experientially live out what we know. In this way we will be able to dispense life to others. We will know what to follow if we will look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, "So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that every one who believes into Him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15) and, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men to Myself. But He said this signifying by what kind of death He was about to die" (12:32-33). The Lord Jesus had to be crucified before He could draw all men to Himself and dispense spiritual life to others. He Himself had to die first, experience the cross first, and have the working of the cross within and without, making Him a crucified man in reality first, before He could have the power to draw all men to Himself. The disciple is not over his master. If our Lord had to be lifted up before He could draw all men to Himself, should not we who lift up the lifted-up Lord Jesus be lifted up ourselves and be crucified before we can draw men to the Lord? In order for the Lord Jesus to dispense spiritual life to others, He had to be lifted up on the cross. In the same way, if we desire to dispense spiritual life to others, we must also be lifted up on the cross. Only then will the Holy Spirit pour out His life through us. The source of life dispenses life to others through the cross. Should not the channel of life also dispense life to others through the cross?
THE CHANNEL OF LIFE We have said that our work is to dispense life to others. However, we ourselves do not have the life to give to others, to enliven others, and to nourish others. We are not the source but the channel. The life of God flows through us and flows out from within us. We are the channels. The channels should not be silted or else water cannot flow through. The word of the cross is doing the dredging work, removing all that belongs to Adam and the natural man, so that we can receive the life of the Holy Spirit and be saturated with the Holy Spirit. In this way, our spirit will constantly bear the cross of the Lord to the extent that our life becomes the life of the cross. We will cover this point shortly. Since we are saturated with the Holy Spirit and have the life of the cross, the Holy Spirit will use us to pour out the life of the cross from within to those who are surrounding us. If we truly allow the cross to do a deep work in us, to the extent that we become filled with the Holy Spirit, we will spontaneously flow out life to nourish those whom we touch whenever we speak or preach in public or to individuals. This is something that requires no intentional effort or pretension; it will be something very spontaneous. Spontaneously we will bear fruit. This is what the Lord Jesus means in John 7:38: "He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." There are several meanings here. The innermost being of the believer must first be emptied and must first receive the full work of the cross. His innermost being must be filled with the
living water of the Holy Spirit. The life in him is not only sufficient for his own need, but is overabundant and sufficient to the extent that out of him flow rivers of living water to supply others with the same living water. We should heed the word "flow" here. It is not by maneuvering, by voice, by psychology, by eloquence, by doctrine, or by knowledge. Although these methods may help us sometimes, they are not the living water. Neither is the employment of these methods the flowing out of the living water. To flow is something very natural; it does not require any human labor. Rather, everything glides along. We do not need any eloquence or theory. We only need to preach the word of the cross of the Lord faithfully, and others will receive the life which they lack. The life and power of the Holy Spirit will somehow spontaneously flow through our spirit. Otherwise, even if we teach diligently, the audience will listen indifferently! Sometimes one's audience may listen attentively and may understand and be touched by what they hear. Yet they will only respond with the word, "Wonderful." They will still not have the power and life to carry out what they hear. Oh, may we be the channels of God's life today! In order to be the channels, we must have the experience. We have covered this in the above discussion. Unless we have this, the Holy Spirit will not work with us. After we have received the power of the Holy Spirit, all our works will be in the nature of a witness (Luke 24:48-49). Actually, all our work is a witness to the Lord. A witness cannot witness what he has not seen. One cannot even witness what he has heard from others. One cannot witness what he has not experienced. Seriously speaking, one bears false witness if he has no experience in what he preaches! If we do this, the Holy Spirit will not work with us. Another thing we should know is that whether it is the Holy Spirit who is working or the evil spirit who is working, there must be men as the outlets of power. If we have no experience in what we preach, the Holy Spirit will definitely not be able to use us as His channel through which He pours His life into people's hearts. Hence, may the cross we preach crucify us on it! May we bear the cross we preach! May we first gain the life which we want to dispense to others! May the cross we preach be the cross which we daily experience in our life! If the message we preach is to have a lasting effect, it must first become the food of our spirit. It must be deeply engraved on our heart and be burned and seared into our life through the sufferings in our daily living. By this, our every move will bear the brand of the cross. Only those who bear in their bodies the brands of
Jesus (Gal. 6:17) can preach the Lord Jesus. Brothers, let me tell you, although the thoughts that suddenly come across your mind or the knowledge that you gain from books earn you your audience's smile, they will not have a lasting effect. If our work is just to make people smile, we may think that we are doing a great work with our sermons by merely collecting some material from the mind and the emotion. This, however, is not the goal of our work! THE SUCCESS OF THE APOSTLE The message of the cross deeply touched Paul. His life was a manifestation of the life of the cross. He was not only one who preached the cross but one who lived the cross. The cross he preached was the cross he lived. Therefore, when he spoke of the cross, he could add to it his own experience and testimony. He not only knew the Lord Jesus' substitutional death, but he took the Lord Jesus' cross as his own cross in experience. He was able to say, "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:20) and, "The world has been crucified to me and I to the world" (6:14). His meekness, endurance, infirmities, weepings, sufferings, and chains were all the manifestation of the life of the cross. Because he was one who lived the cross, he could preach the cross. Men sometimes criticize others as being those who do not practice what they preach. Yet, in reality, no one can ever preach what he does not practice! Because Paul was able to live out his gospel, he was able to beget many spiritual sons and daughters through the gospel. He himself possessed the life of the cross. As a result he was able to "reproduce" this cross in others' hearts.
THE CROSS AND ITS MESSENGER Personal Experience After we read 2 Corinthians 4 (please read it), we will realize the inner experience of this servant of the Lord. The secret of all his work was "death operates in us, but life in you" (v. 12). He passed through death daily. Every day he allowed the cross to do a deeper work in his heart so that others could gain life. If one does not have the death of the cross in himself, others cannot gain the life of the cross. Paul was willing to be put to death that others could gain life. Only those who have died can give others life. Still, how difficult this is! What does death mean here? The death here is not only a death to sin, self, and the world. The death here has a deeper significance than this. This death is the spirit that is manifested by the Lord Jesus' crucifixion. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not die for His own sin. His cross was a manifestation of His holiness. His
crucifixion was altogether on behalf of others. He died in obedience to God's will. This is the meaning of death here. It is not only for our own sake that we are crucified to sin and the world, but it is for the sake of our obedience to the Lord Jesus that we are daily opposed by sinners and are put to death. We should allow the death of the Lord Jesus to work in us to the point that we truly have the experience of death to our self and are sanctified. Furthermore, we should allow the Holy Spirit, through the cross, to do a deeper work in us so that we can live out the cross. We should not only have the death of the cross, but even more we should have the life of the cross. When we have the death of the cross, we are dead to sin and the Adamic life. When we have the life of the cross, we go one step further and take the spirit of the cross as the very life in our daily living. This means that we manifest in our daily living the spirit of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb, who suffered silently and who "being reviled did not revile in return; suffering, He did not threaten but kept committing all to Him who judges righteously" (1 Pet. 2:23). This is a step deeper than being crucified to sin, self, and the world. May the cross become our life so that we can be a living cross and manifest the cross in everything. Paul was able to give others life because for him to live was the cross. He not only passively applied the death of the cross to terminate everything from old Adam, but he actively took the cross as his life and daily lived out the cross. Day by day, he apprehended the significance of the Lord's cross. At the same time, day by day, he expressed the life of the Lord as the Lamb (the cross). He was "always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in [his] body" (2 Cor. 4:10). He was willing to be "always...delivered unto death for Jesus' sake that the life of Jesus also [the cross] may be manifested in...mortal flesh" (v. 11). Therefore, he could be "pressed on every side but not constricted; unable to find a way out but not utterly without a way out; persecuted but not abandoned; cast down but not destroyed" (vv. 8-9). He allowed the death of the Lord Jesus to "operate" in him (v. 12). A death that can operate is a "living death." It is the life of death, the life of the cross. He was willing to be always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. He was willing to endure ear-grating words, high-handed methods, cruel persecutions, and unreasonable misunderstandings for the Lord's sake. He was willing to be delivered unto death without saying one word. Under such circumstances, he was like his Lord who, though having the power to ask the Father to send twelve legions of angels to His rescue and to evade the
circumstances by human method, would not choose to do it. He would rather let the "living death" of Jesus—the life and spirit of the cross—work in him to the extent that he acted and behaved in the spirit of the cross. He realized that with the cross there was the power, a power which enabled him to yield to death for Jesus' sake and to suffer persecution and tribulations under man's hand. How deeply had the cross worked in Paul! How good it would be if we could also bear "about in the body the putting to death of Jesus"! Who can say to the Lord that he is willing to die and not resist in the midst of all opposing and suffering circumstances? If we want others to gain the cross, the cross must first take hold of us in our lives. It is only after the cross has been wrought into our lives through the fiery sufferings and oppositions that we can duplicate this cross in others' lives. In other words, the life of the cross is the life that puts into practice the Lord's Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5—7, see 5:38, 44). The passage here in 2 Corinthians clearly tells us that we are not just for preaching, but we are for the manifestation of the life of the Lord Jesus, and we are to flow out the life of the Lord Jesus from our body. We can flow out His life only when we always bear about in the body the putting to death of Jesus, when we are delivered unto death for the Lord Jesus' sake, when we suffer loss in our reputation, mind, and body for His sake, and when we express the way of the Lamb of Golgotha in the midst of all such sufferings (vv. 10-11). Unfortunately, we often like to take the shortcuts! Little do we realize that there is no shortcut in manifesting the life of the Lord Jesus! "Death operates in us, but life in you" (v. 12). "You" refers to the Corinthians and all the saints (1:1); they are Paul's audience. Because the death of the Lord Jesus was able to work in Paul, he was able to have the life of the Lord Jesus work in his audience and to have them receive the spiritual life. The word "life" in this verse is zoe, which in the original language means the spiritual life, the highest life. What Paul was able to lift up and give to others was not just his speech, thoughts, and a wooden cross. Paul desired that they gain the spiritual life of the Lord. This spiritual life operated in their hearts and enabled them to reach the goal of Paul's message. This was not a vain preaching, but one that entered the dried-up hearts of his audience with extraordinary life and power so that they actually received the life of the cross which he preached. Our preaching of the cross should produce such a result. We should not be satisfied if our preaching does not have a result like Paul's. In summary, one who does not live the cross as Paul did cannot expect to have a result as Paul had. If we are not
crucified persons, it will surely be hard for us to preach the cross and to give others life.
The Method of Preaching We know that Paul not only preached the cross as a crucified person, but he preached the cross in the spirit of the cross. In his daily life he was a crucified person; in his preaching he was also a crucified person. He announced the cross by living the cross. Paul was a person who was crucified with Christ. This was his experience in life. When he announced the cross, he did not exercise his "excellence of speech or wisdom," or "persuasive words of wisdom" (1 Cor. 2:1, 4) which he was good at. He knew that these would not serve as proper outlets for God's channel of life. Instead, he relied on the "demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (v. 4). Such preaching is one in which the word of the cross is preached with the attitude of the cross. With his genius and experience, Paul could surely have articulated the truth of the cross in persuasive words and clever theories, capturing his audience's attention and making them understand what he had to say. He could have made the cruel cross sound very interesting. He could have used many suitable illustrations and simple proverbs to expound the mystery of the cross. He could have quoted the Scripture and expounded on the philosophy of the cross, clarifying to others the substitutional death and the co-crucifixion of the cross. Paul was capable of doing these things, but he would not do them. His heart did not rely on these things because he knew that these things could not give life to others. He knew that for him to do this would be to preach the great truth of the cross with ways that are contrary to the cross. To the world, the cross is humble, low, foolish, and ugly. This is what the cross is anyway. To announce it with worldly excellence of speech and wisdom would be contrary to the spirit of the cross and would not be of any profit. Paul was willing to abandon his natural intellect and to announce the cross with the attitude and spirit of the cross. This was why God used Paul greatly. Every one of us has our own natural gifts. Some may have more while others may have less. After we have gone through the experience of the cross, we tend to rely on or draw upon our natural gift to announce the cross which we have newly experienced. How our heart desires that our audience could see what we have seen, or would desire to acquire the same experience as we have! Yet, how cold and indifferent is our audience! How they disappoint us! Little do we realize that our experience of the cross is still immature, that our natural, excellent gifts
need to be crucified with the Lord, and that the cross should work in us. We should manifest the cross not only in our lives but in our work as well. Before we reach the place of maturity, we tend to consider that our talent is not harmful but profitable. We wonder why we cannot draw upon our natural strength. It is not until we see that the work done by drawing upon our natural genius only elicits temporary acceptance from others and that it does not bring about a solid work of the Holy Spirit in others' spirits. It is then that we begin to understand that our natural gift is insufficient and that we ought to seek for greater power. How numerous are the ones who preach the cross with their own self strength! I am not saying that these do not have the experience of the cross. It is possible that they do have the experience of the cross. While they are working, they do not declare that they are trusting in their own gifts or power. On the contrary, they pray diligently and seek after God's blessing and the help of the Holy Spirit. To a certain extent, they know that they are not trustworthy. Yet, all these realizations do not help them, because in the deepest part of their hearts they still trust in themselves, thinking that their eloquence, logic, thoughts, or parables will move others! The meaning of crucifixion is to be helpless, in weakness, and in trembling and fear. It means to die. This is what happens when a person is crucified. Hence, if we are manifesting the life of the cross in our daily lives, we should also manifest the spirit of the cross in the Lord's work. We should reckon ourselves helpless and should always consider ourselves untrustworthy, being in fear and trembling for ourselves. If we do this, we will gain fruit through trusting in the Holy Spirit. Only those who are crucified are willing and able to trust in the Holy Spirit and His power. Whenever we have a little trust in ourselves, we will not trust in the Spirit. Paul himself was one who had been crucified with the Lord. When he worked, he manifested the spirit of the cross. He was not at all self-assured. Because he preached the Savior of the cross with the way of the cross, he had the demonstration of the Spirit and of power (v. 4). We ought to be able to say with Paul that "our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance" (1 Thes. 1:5). If the Spirit and His power are not working behind our speaking, our words are useless even if they are enticing. May we despise our natural abilities, and may we be willing to lose all to gain the power of the Holy Spirit of God!
Herein lies the key to the difference between fruitfulness and fruitlessness in an evangelist. Sometimes, we see two evangelists having the same utterance and expressions. Yet God is able to use one to gain much fruit. The other may be spiritual and scriptural in his speaking, and his audience may also pay much attention to him, but nothing results from his speaking; there is no fruit. It is not difficult to discover the reason behind this difference. According to my observation, I can see that one is a genuinely crucified person; he has the experience. The other only remains in his imagination. Those who have nothing but imaginations surely cannot preach the cross with the way of the cross. If those who have the life of the cross proclaim their experience from their spirit, the Holy Spirit will surely be with them. Even if some have better eloquence than others and are able to analyze and illustrate well, the Holy Spirit will not be working with them unless the cross has done a solid work in their hearts already. What we lack is the deep work of the cross in us, which results in the Holy Spirit working with us in our gospel preaching and in His life flowing out through us. Although the Lord may at times use our natural gifts, this is not the source of fruitfulness. Those works done through the natural life are mainly vain works. Only those works done through the supernatural life can produce much fruit. Here we can consider another passage of the Scripture. This will explain to us the difference between trusting in the natural life and trusting in the supernatural life. The Lord Jesus said, "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his soul-life loses it; and he who hates his soul-life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life" (John 12:24-25). Here the Lord spelled out the principle of fruit bearing. The grain of wheat must first die before it will bear much fruit. Death is the necessary pathway to fruit bearing. Death is the unique way to fruit bearing. We usually pray for the Lord to grant us greater power so that we can bear more fruit. However, the Lord told us that we must first die and must first have the experience of the cross before we can have the authority of the Holy Spirit. Often we try to skip over Golgotha to reach Pentecost. Little do we realize that without the cross crucifying us and stripping us of everything natural, the Holy Spirit cannot work with us to gain others. Only through death can there be fruit bearing. The nature of the fruit here also proves what we have said before, that the purpose of our work is to give life to others. When this grain of wheat dies, it begets many grains. When it dies, it dispenses life to many other grains. All these
other grains contain life in them. The life that they possess originates from the one dead grain. If we truly die, we can become God's channel of life and can dispense life to others. This life is not an empty term; with it there is the genuine power of God. When this power is released from us, it gives life to others. Here, the fruit resulting from this grain of wheat is manifold; it is "much fruit." When we are confined to our own life, the most that we can gain through our work is one or two persons. This does not mean that we will not save anyone. However, when we die like the grain of wheat, we will gain "much fruit." Whatever we do, even if we are negligent in a few words, will still cause others to be saved or be edified. May we bear much fruit. But what exactly does it mean to fall into the ground and die? We will understand it when we read the following word of the Lord: "He who loves his soul-life loses it; and he who hates his soul-life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life." Here soul-life is mentioned a few times. In the original text, different words are used for "life." One denotes the soullife and the natural life. The other denotes the spiritual life and the extraordinary life. Therefore, what the Lord Jesus is saying here is, "He who loves his soul-life shall lose the spiritual life, and he who hates his soul-life in this world shall keep his spiritual life unto eternity." Simply put, this verse tells us that we should put our soul-life to death in the same way that a grain of wheat is put into the ground. Afterwards, we will bear much fruit in our spiritual life, which will remain forever. We want to have much fruit. However, we do not know how to put to death the soul-life and how to make alive the spiritual life. The soul-life is just our natural life. Our flesh is able to live because of our soullife. The soul-life is the organ by which we live. Everything that a person possesses by nature, such as his will, power, emotion, and thought, are all part of the soul. Everything that the natural life possesses is the by-product of our soul-life. Our intellect, thought, eloquence, emotion, and abilities all belong to our soul-life. The spiritual life is God's life. This life does not evolve from any part of the soul-life but is specifically given to us by God when we believe in the Lord's cross and are regenerated. What God is doing in us now is developing this spiritual life and causing it to grow. All our good works and the power to work issue from the spiritual life. His intention is to bring our soul-life to death. (The death here is different from the death in 2 Corinthians 4. The death there is another aspect of death.)
Many times the power of our work comes from our natural ability or our soul-life. We find that frequently we need to use our eloquence, wisdom, knowledge, and abilities. One of the most awesome things is the power we employ in our preaching; it comes from our soul-life. We are exercising our natural power. This greatly diminishes our fruit. In our work, we do not know how to apply the power of the spiritual life. Many times, we take the soul-life as the spiritual life. As a result, we end up drawing upon our natural power. Often, we have to wait until all natural power of our body is depleted before we begin to rely upon the power of the spiritual life. Many people do not even come up to this standard. Whenever they feel weak in their physical strength, they concede that they can no longer work. Others who are more advanced would continue on in their weakness and would go on working by trying to trust in the Lord's strength. However, if we truly realize the way to die to our natural (soulish) strength, and if we trust in the power of the spiritual life which God put within us, we will not depend on the natural strength for our work when we are without strength as well as when we are full of strength. I feel sad that many believers' work remains in the soul, despite the fact that these believers are very zealous and sincere. Such work never touches the spiritual realm. The difference between the use of spiritual power and soulish power is something that words cannot explain. We can only comprehend it in our spirit and in our heart. Yet when the Holy Spirit enlightens us, we will come to the full realization of it in our experience. For the sake of taking care of the weakness among many of God's children, we will discuss this question in detail. However, we can only look to the Holy Spirit of God to personally show us the real significance of this truth and the way to practice it in our experience. There are mainly three characteristics of the work of the soul. First is the natural ability, second is the emotion, and third is the mind.
Natural Ability We have mentioned earlier the matter of our natural abilities. Some people are more intelligent; they are naturally sharper than others. Some people are very eloquent; when they speak, their arguments are always very reasonable. Some people are very analytical; they can analyze a problem logically. Some people are very strong physically; they can labor day and night without any rest. Some people are very capable; they are very good at managing affairs. We know that God does use man's natural abilities, but man often takes occasion in God's use of his abilities to trust in all his natural abilities. For example, here may be one
person who is slow in communication but capable in managing affairs, and another person may be very eloquent but incapable in managing affairs. If the Lord asks both to give a message, the first one will surely feel that he is slow in utterance and that he must therefore fully trust in the Lord. The second one will consider himself very eloquent. Although he also will pray, he will not be as desperate as the first one. On the other hand, if the Lord asks both of them to manage an affair, the first one will not trust in the Lord as desperately as the second one! Our natural ability is the power of our soul-life. We do not realize how much we are confident in ourselves and how much we depend on the power of the soul when we work! In God's view, too many of our works are done through the power of the soul. Emotion Some emotions originate from ourselves. Others originate from other people. Sometimes our loved ones are not saved, or they have not come up to our expectation. As a result we are stirred up. We try our best to save them or to edify them. This kind of work is usually ineffective, for the motive of such work originates from our emotion. Sometimes we receive special grace from God; our hearts are filled with light and joy. It seems that a fire is burning within which gives us unspeakable joy. At such times, the presence of God becomes very real. When our soul is stirred up this way, emotional feelings run high. At such times, it is easy to work for the Lord. Our hearts feel as if they are ready to overflow. We can hardly hold ourselves back from speaking to others about the Lord. Ordinarily, we may be conscious that we ought to be careful in our words. However, at such times when the heart is filled with special light, we babble unceasingly about the things of God. Such works are fully of the emotion. Some think that they can only work when they sense this kind of fire in their hearts and when they themselves are carried away as if in the third heavens. When the Lord takes away this "noticeable" joy, such ones will feel that tons of weight have come on their shoulders and that they cannot go one step further. Sometimes their hearts are cold as ice; there are no emotional feelings at all. At such times, they feel that they can no longer preach. They feel dry and cold within. As a result, they are unable to work. Even when they force themselves to work, they have absolutely no taste for it. Their labors are absolutely controlled by their inward feelings. When the right feelings are present, they soar like eagles. When the right feelings are gone, they wobble and refuse to go forward. Feelings, stimulations, and emotions are all parts of the soul-life. Hence, those saints who
are dominated by their feelings, stimulations, and emotions are working by the power of their soul-life. They are not yet capable of putting these things to death and still are not able to work in the spirit. The Mind Our work is often influenced or controlled by our mind. Because we do not know how to seek after God's will, many times we take the thoughts of the mind as God's will and are led astray. To go along with the mind and to base one's conduct on the mind is a very dangerous thing. Sometimes when we prepare a sermon, we try hard to exercise our mind to come up with outlines, sections, expositions, significances, and examples. Such sermons are very dead. They may stir up others' attention and may generate some interest, but they cannot dispense life to others. There is another work of the mind. I believe many of God's workers often find themselves falling into such ill. It is the memory. We often preach to others from our memory! We memorize the messages that we have heard, and we speak to others from what we remember. Sometimes we speak to others from the Scriptures that we have memorized or from our old sermons, old commentaries. These are all works of the mind. This does not mean that we have never experienced what we preach. Perhaps what we know and what we remember are things taught by God. Perhaps we have indeed experienced the things we know and remember. However, this does not take away the fact that they are still works of the mind. We may have experienced a truth, which at the time of our experience may have been life to us. However, after a while the knowledge of the truth remains only in our head. We begin to preach from our memory the truth that we formerly experienced, but this has become merely a work of the mind. Our mind and memory are both organs of the soul. For us to trust in our mind and memory is for us to trust in the power of the soul-life. We are still under the control of the natural life. These three things are the chief items in the work of the soul. This type of soulish work is not sin or absolutely incapable of saving people. However, the fruit will be rare. We should overcome this work of the soul by trusting in the cross. The Lord Jesus told us that the soul-life should fall into the ground and die like a grain of wheat. According to our experience, we love our natural abilities very much. We love our feelings, and we trust in our mind. However, our Lord told us that we should hate our soul-life. If we do not hate it but instead love it, we will lose the power of the extraordinary spiritual life. In this matter, the death of the cross
should perform a deep work. We should hand over to the cross the soul-life which we cherish. We should be willing to die with the Lord here and remove our dependence on the natural abilities, the feelings, and the mind. We are not removing these works with reluctance. Rather, we hate these works from our heart. In our work, we should not only be unconcerned about having or not having natural abilities and we should not only be unconcerned about having or not having emotions and thoughts, but we should go further to nurture a direct hatred for such power of the natural life and be willing to hand them over to the crucifixion of the cross. If we take the constant attitude of hating our soul-life on the negative side and if we will not compromise at all, we will learn in experience how to trust in the power of the spiritual life and bear fruit unto God.
THE WAY FOR A CRUCIFIED PERSON TO PREACH THE CROSS In our practice, every time and anywhere the Lord burdens us to testify for Him, we should drive away afresh any desire that is in us to rely upon our natural abilities. We should set aside our emotions and pay no attention to our own feelings. Even at times when we have no feelings at all, or when our emotions are as cold as ice, we need to kneel down before the Lord and ask Him to do a deeper work of the cross in us so that we can be able to direct our emotions and can act according to the Lord's command, regardless of whether our emotions are cold or hot. We can ask the Lord to strengthen our spirit and apply a fatal blow to our soul on the cross. If we do this, the Lord will be gracious to us and will defeat our cold emotions. Even though we already know what we are going to preach, we do not try to dig out such teachings from our head or our mind. Rather, we humble ourselves before God and ask Him to freshly enlighten us with the teachings that we have known before and to freshly impress such teachings upon our spirits so that what we preach does not become merely a recollection of our old experience but a fresh encounter in our life. In this way, the Holy Spirit will confirm what we preach with power. It is best for us to spend a long time before the Lord prior to our preaching to allow His word (some of which we have been familiar with for a long time already) to be impressed upon our spirit afresh. Sometimes it does not take a long time. The Lord can impress His message upon our spirit within a few minutes. In order to do this, our spirit must be very open to the Lord and be intimately connected to Him at ordinary times.
We must pay attention to this point. It has much to do with our success or failure. One can ask a backslidden saint to deliver a message. He can speak of his former experience by exercising his memory. He may even speak persuasively. However, we know that the Holy Spirit cannot possibly work with him. All the works done by us through the exercise of our memory are more or less equivalent to the preaching of backslidden believers. We have to realize that many times the work we accomplish through our mind is a waste of energy. The mind can only reach others' minds; it can never move their spirit or give life to them. Old experiences can never equip us for fresh works. We must let God renew in our spirit the old experiences. The same is more true in the matter of preaching the salvation of the cross to sinners. We may have been saved many decades ago. If we work from our memory, is not our message too old and tasteless? Only when we realize afresh in our spirit the evil of sin, taste afresh the love of the cross, and sympathize with Christ in His intense desire for sinners to come to Him, will we be able to portray the cross vividly before men (Gal. 3:1) and cause men to believe. Otherwise, if we try to persuade others by our love and zeal, we may end up being hardened and cold ourselves! It is possible that while we are preaching the suffering of the cross, our hearts are not at all touched by the sufferings and are not melted by them! We should open up our spirit before the Lord and should allow the Holy Spirit to pour out His words and His message through our spirit, so that we may first be infused in our spirit by the Lord's word and by the message we preach. We should not depend on our feelings, natural abilities, and thoughts, but should trust solely in the power of the Holy Spirit and should allow His message to be impressed upon our spirit as well as the spirit of the audience. Every time we preach, we should be like Isaiah, who received first a burden for prophecy and then uttered his prophecy. In Isaiah 13—23, the phrase "the burden concerning such and such which such and such saw" is very meaningful. Every time before we preach God's word, we should first receive God's burden in our spirit. Every time we preach, we should bear the burden of the message we preach in our spirit and should not consider this burden relieved until our work is done. We should pray that the Lord would give us this burden so that our work would not be of the emotions, the natural abilities, and the mind. We should also have the experience of Jeremiah, who said, "If I say, I will not mention Him / Or speak any more in His name, / Then it is in my heart like a burning fire, / Shut up in my
bones, / And I am weary of holding it in, / Nor can I" (20:9). We should not preach His words carelessly or foolishly. Rather, we should first let His words burn in our spirit to the extent that we are compelled to speak. However, if we are not willing to put our soul-life and its strength to death, we will never be able to receive the word of the Lord afresh in our spirit. Therefore, brothers, if we want to be used by the Lord to save sinners, to revive the saints, and to announce the word of the cross, we should let this cross work in us. Through this working, on the one hand, we become willing to be put to death for the Lord's sake, and on the other hand, we become willing to put our soul-life to death. At the same time, we no longer rely on ourselves or on anything that issues from us. Instead, we hate all our natural strength. In this way we will see the life of God and His power flowing into others' spirits through our speaking. However, although as the preacher of the gospel we are ready on our side, we may still fail. Of course we may not fail completely, but why do we fail? It is because there is:
OPPRESSION AND ATTACK FROM SATAN Satan does not like our preaching of the cross at all. When we are faithful in speaking about the cross of the Lord, he surely will raise up many oppositions. He can frequently initiate the following attacks against the messengers of the cross. Satan attacks the messengers of the cross by causing them to be ill or to lose their voice in the course of giving a message. He may put them in dangers, cause them to be depressed in their spirit and to lose their freedom, and suffocate them. He can also work in the environment to stir up misunderstandings, oppositions, and sometimes even persecutions. He can bring in bad weather to discourage people from coming to the meetings. He can cause a sudden disturbance or confusion in the meetings. He can bring in animal noises and baby cries. Sometimes he works in the meeting atmosphere, making it heavy and suffocating and bringing in drowsiness and darkness. All these are works of the enemy. The preacher of the cross should be well aware of these things. Since we have such an adversary and such oppositions, it becomes necessary for us to know the victory of the cross. The Lord's accomplishment on the cross not only solved the problem of the sinners, it also pronounced the judgment on
Satan. The Lord has defeated Satan on the cross already. Hebrews 2:14-15 says, "That through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil, and might release those who because of the fear of death through all their life were held in slavery." Colossians 2:15 says, "Stripping off the rulers and the authorities, He made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in it." The cross is the place where Satan is overcome. Satan received his death wound on the cross. We know that "the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8), but where were the works of the devil undone? The obvious answer is, "at the cross." We also know that the Lord Jesus came to bind "the strong man" (Matt. 12:29), but where did He do this? Naturally, it was also at the cross of Golgotha. We need to know that the Lord Jesus has won the victory on the cross. THE VICTORY OF THE CROSS We should know that Satan is already a defeated enemy. For this reason, we should not be defeated anymore. The enemy should not be able to claim victory over us anymore. He has no right to be victorious anymore! He can have no claim to anything except total defeat. Hence, both before we see Satan's work and after we see his work, we should lift up the victory of the cross. We should praise the victory of Christ with our voice. Before we begin our work, we should say before the Lord, "Praise the Lord, for He is victorious! Christ is the Victor! Satan has been defeated! The enemy has been destroyed! Golgotha means victory! The cross means victory!" We can declare this continually until we are assured in our spirit that the Lord will win the victory this time. We should stand on the ground of the cross and pray for God's victory. We should ask God to defeat all the works of the devil. Both for ourselves as well as for those coming to the meeting, we should beseech God to cover us with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus so that we will not come under the attack of Satan but will overcome him instead. "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 12:11). This time while I was working in south Fukien province, Satan came to oppress and attack me many times. What the Lord showed me was that I should stand on the ground of the cross and should praise Him. Sometimes my spirit felt a great oppression; I could not be free. It was as if a thousand tons of weight were on my heart. A few times when I entered the meeting hall I could feel the atmosphere polluted; the devil was busily working. Under such circumstances I prayed much, but to no avail. However, the minute I began praising Christ's victory on the cross, boasted in the cross, and scorned the enemy, telling him
that he could no longer work and that he was doomed for failure, I felt a genuine release, and the atmosphere of the meeting hall was changed. Praise the Lord! The cross is victorious! Praise the Lord! Satan is defeated! We should learn to apply the manifold victory of the cross through our prayer to oppose the wiles, the power, and the attacks of the enemy. Should oppositions and confusion arise, we can call upon the victory of the cross at Golgotha. Although we may not feel anything, we should believe that as soon as we invoke the victory of the cross, the enemy is defeated. If we are truly identified with the cross in this way, if we allow the cross to do a deeper work in our lives and our work, and if we fully trust in the victory of the cross, God will grant us the victory everywhere we go. May God make us, the useless servants, His blameless workers.
CHAPTER THREE WALKING IN GOD'S WILL This is an important subject. Many believers do not grow in their spiritual life because they do not know how to walk in God's will. They have many thoughts in their mind. This appears to be God's will, and that also appears to be God's will. They are lost concerning which way is the right way. Since they are not conforming to God's will in their walk, thoughts, and work, they do not grow spiritually. We would exhort those who are not seeking God's will to seek after God's will and to be free from self-confidence and self-will. God is our Redeemer, and He has the right to demand obedience from us. This is based on God's right; it is also based on His love for us. We are constrained to seek after His will because His love has touched our hearts. I would extend an invitation to those who do not know how to walk in God's will to read the following: I. SEEKING FOR GOD'S EXPRESSED WILL INSTEAD OF HIS PERMITTED WILL God's expressed will is the original will in His heart; God leads and guides us toward His original will. God's permitted will is what God permits as a result of man's pleading. For example, a father and mother may see a need for a picnic with their children and then take them on an outing. The children may be attracted by the country scenery and request another outing. The parents may not see the need for this, yet because of the request and their failure to dissuade the children, the parents grant the request. In the first case, the parents' expressed will was involved, while in the latter case, the parents' permitted will
was involved. What a pity that many believers only ask God to permit them to do certain things, but do not come before Him to ask if He has expressly commanded them to do such things. We can understand this point from a case in the Old Testament. In Numbers 22, Balak sent men to invite Balaam to curse the Israelites; he enticed Balaam with much gold and many benefits. Balaam was moved (Jude 11; 2 Pet. 2:15), and he wanted to go. Yet he feared God and thought that he ought to first inquire of Him before he should make any decision. God had told him clearly, "You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed" (Num. 22:12). This was God's expressed will. Balaam should have canceled his plans right there and refused to go. But he told the messengers, "Jehovah has refused to let me go with you" (v. 13). How reluctant was his expression refused to let me go! The reason for this reluctance was that he wanted to go, but the Lord would not allow him. When Balak baited him the second time with greater honor, Balaam again went to God. This was strange! Balaam, did God not clearly tell you His will the last time? Why are you asking God again? Has your heart been touched by the offer of honor? Has God been touched by the same thing? Do you think that God's will constantly changes? Do you not realize that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever? If Balaam was sincere in doing God's will, he should have told the messengers, "God clearly told me the last time that I should not go. Please go back. I will not go." But he was too greedy for gain, and he went to God again. The Lord then told him, "Rise, go with them" (Num. 22:20). This word means, "Since I cannot keep you back, go." Many people do not understand why the messenger of Jehovah tried to stop Balaam and kill him. They do not realize that his way before the Lord was a "crooked pathway." This is true of many Christians. They know the Lord's will in their heart concerning what they should not do. Yet their heart craves to do it. As soon as an opportunity arises, they bother God again. They may refrain for a while, but their heart is far away from the Lord. When they finally have the Lord's permission, they cannot escape the Lord's rebuke either. We should strive for the Lord's "best," not His "second best." If our heart is not in a matter, but we still pretend that we are seeking after the Lord's will, the result will be nothing but chastisement.
II. NOT SEEKING THE LORD'S WILL BY TAKING THE SCRIPTURES OUT OF CONTEXT
God's will has been fully declared in the Bible. All those who seek to know His will can find His intention concerning any matter through searching the Scriptures. But many believers take one or two verses and consider that to be God's will and act accordingly. They do not care what the Bible as a whole has to say concerning this matter. This is very dangerous. Consider Matthew 4:7: "Jesus said to him, Again, it is written." Again! Again! Again it is written! The devil can tempt by quoting the Scriptures. If the Lord was like believers today, He would have considered the devil's words the words of the Bible and followed them. Did He do this? No, He did not. He considered the teaching of the whole Bible. He said, "Again, it is written." Therefore, if we want to seek after God's will, we must not take things out of context. We must not choose some verses randomly and think that they are the teaching of the Bible! We must always consider if there are other teachings in the Bible that have more to say about the matter in view and not decide in a rash way. The devil is the same today as he was then; he will use many isolated verses to deceive man, cause man to listen to one-sided truths, and do many things which are against the Bible and God's will. Some believers are quite peculiar in the way they quote verses out of context. For them, reading the Bible is a kind of fortune-telling. When something comes along and they do not know what to do, they open up the Bible and pray, "Lord, I am about to do something, and I do not know if this is according to Your will. I will open the Bible. The first verse that catches my eyes will be Your instruction to me." Some may say, "I will open the Bible, and whatever verse my finger points to will be Your will." Still others may say, "When I open the Bible, a certain number of verses down (or up) from my finger will be Your will." This kind of soothsaying style of seeking after God's will is bound to be filled with errors. Satan can easily make our fingers slip to the wrong verse or wrong page. He can devise many ways and supply many opportunities for us to fall into his traps. It may be that we should stay in a place, but the devil can make us move away. It may be that we should say something, but the devil can make us shut up. It is entirely against God's will to make the Bible a fortune-telling book. It is very difficult to know God's will with a method that is far from His will! We should never seek after the Lord's will this way. We have to spend much time in the Bible in our daily life so that we can know the teaching of the Bible concerning a certain matter. When things happen, we will not be caught by surprise and not pick a verse hastily, taking it as God's will and acting accordingly.
III. NOT PROCEEDING WITH THINGS THAT DO NOT BRING PEACE TO THE HEART "And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts" (Col. 3:15). "You will keep the steadfast of mind / In perfect peace / Because he trusts in You" (Isa. 26:3). If we encounter some difficulty and do not know God's will, a good principle is to consider if we will have the peace afterwards. If we will not have the peace, we should not do it. The meaning of peace is not a sensation of peace. It means an unchanging and normal calmness in our spirit. If by doing a certain thing, we will lose the calmness in our spirit, it is better that we do not do it. However, this is not an absolute indicator. Sometimes we feel peaceful when we do things that we ought not to do, and we are restless when we do not do them. Satan can work in our feelings to give us a false peace or false restlessness and cause us to do what he wants. Therefore, in considering if a matter is according to God's will, we should regard the matter of peace as a partial factor for consideration and should not trust in it completely. IV. NOT CONSIDERING SOMETHING AS GOD'S WILL BASED ON CIRCUMSTANCES OR NEEDS Many people consider their circumstances when they seek after God's will. Their circumstances are their only guide. The result of this practice is confusion and failure. We can look at the story of Jonah. God's will was for Jonah to go to Nineveh, but Jonah wanted to go to Tarshish. When he reached Joppa, he met a ship which was sailing for Tarshish, paid the fare, and went aboard. The Bible says, "But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah, and he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare for it and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah" (Jonah 1:3). If Jonah had considered the circumstances, he surely would have thought that it was God's will for him to go to Tarshish! Otherwise, why else would the circumstances have worked out so well for him? The first part of verse 3 says that he intended to go to Tarshish, and immediately there was a ship going there (v. 3b). He had money in his pocket and could pay the fare. The circumstances were absolutely favorable for taking this way. If a Christian was put in these circumstances, he would surely say that he was walking according to God's will. "When I do this, my relatives agree with me, I do not lose my natural friendships, and I can serve the Lord. There is no need to spend too much time or money, and the accomplishments are great. I can go when I want to go and stop when I want to stop. There is no hindrance whatsoever in the environment.
Is this not God's leading for me?" Little does he realize that he has gone astray from God's will. Truly I say, the ships to Tarshish are numerous, and money for the fare is plentiful! Yet neither the ship nor the money can guarantee that your journey to Tarshish is the right one. God's will is for you to go to Nineveh. Therefore, in seeking after the Lord's will, you must not merely consider the circumstance. Otherwise you will be led into the wrong path. Another great attracting force in the environment is certain needs. Many times, we think that there is a need or a lack, that we are well qualified to meet the need, and that we should go to render help to the situation. "I may be short of training in theology. But there is an opportunity to meet my need. Perhaps this is God's provision for me." A common mistake of most believers today is to take the need in the environment as their indicator. Their slogan is, "We have to do it, because this matter has to be done." Little do they realize that what is needed may not be what God wants them to do. Consider Paul and his companions: "Having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia...they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them" (Acts 16:6-7). Before verse 6 of this chapter, they did many works in many places. Believers were edified and sinners received salvation. They were going to go to Asia (which is today's Asia Minor). It seemed as if there was a great need there. Many people had not heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus' dying for man's sin and on man's behalf. There were so many needs. It seemed that God was leading them to go to Asia. Yet in reality this was not the case. The Spirit of the Lord did not allow them to go. The same was true when they wanted to go to Bithynia; the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Therefore, in seeking after God's will, we cannot depend too much on needs, and we cannot be attracted by them to the extent that we lose sight of God's will.
V. NOT CONSIDERING VISIONS AND DREAMS AS GOD'S WILL Many believers in the church today depend solely on supernatural visions as a guide for their conduct. This happens more frequently among women than men. They speak a great deal about their supernatural experiences. They tell others about their encounters with Jesus and what the Lord has said to them. They dream about heaven on certain days, and they tell others what the Lord has revealed to them concerning their future and what they should do. They claim that they have some visions or interpretations and that they should therefore do
this and do that. There are many things of this nature. I cannot say that all of them are false. But these things can only be an aid in our seeking after God's will. We cannot fully depend on them to show us God's will. Satan can counterfeit many dreams and visions to deceive believers and distract them from God's ordained way. Many supernatural experiences of the believers are only Satan disguised as an angel of light. They catch many of God's children unaware and cause them to do many things that bring dishonor to God. "And a vision appeared to Paul during the night: A certain man, a Macedonian, was standing and entreating him and saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision, we immediately endeavored to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to announce the gospel to them" (Acts 16:9-10). Did they not become clear about God's will through a vision? No, they did not. If we read carefully, we will find that only Paul saw the vision, but "we" decided to go to Macedonia. It says, "And when he had seen the vision, we immediately endeavored to go forth." They went to Macedonia not because Paul saw a vision. It was incidental that Paul saw the vision first. After he saw it, they were led of the Lord. This is why there was the one accord to go to Macedonia. They did not consider it God's will to go just because of a vision or dream. Moreover, the word concluding in verse 10 has the sense of making a deliberation after investigation. They did not move rashly upon a dream. Rather, they made the decision based on some conclusion. Therefore, in seeking after God's will, we should not depend merely on supernatural experiences. Rather, we should investigate thoroughly to see if something is according to God's will. VI. NOT PREJUDICED: PREJUDICE HINDERING ONE FROM UNDERSTANDING GOD'S WILL The worst thing for a believer to be in seeking God's will is prejudiced. Once there is prejudice, he cannot hear God's voice. Paul said, "I thought to myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus the Nazarene" (Acts 26:9). This was Paul's thought when he was persecuting the church. He did not know the relationship between Moses and Jesus. He thought that Jesus was the chief culprit against Judaism. He made up his mind to eradicate this new religion even at the expense of killing others, shedding their blood, and chasing down believers. He was willing to stir up these clashes and act according to his conscience. He thought that these acts were proper. He was wrong. He thought he was doing everything according to God's will, but he was actually doing the
opposite. His mistake lay in his prejudice and self-will. He considered that his actions were proper. So he did not see God's will. It is very easy for us to be prejudiced and biased because of our self-will. Our heart cannot forgive people who hate us and tolerate the things that we do not like. We are not willing to calm down and seek a solution according to God's will. We boast in our own prejudice and self-will, and consider them as God's will. We may find out that we were wrong, but it may be too late when we do find out! Every time we come before God, we have to drop all our prejudice and ask the Father to guide us. Although many times His leading is contrary to our concepts and ideas, we should still willingly yield to it. We must not plan and make decisions, and then pray. If we do this, our prayer is a kind of wasteful ritual.
VII. NOT BEING HASTY, BUT WAITING Some believers are used to making decisions on their own. Seeking after the Lord's will in everything and acting accordingly is like putting a bridle in the horse's mouth for them; it is not easy for them to be subdued. Sometimes they reluctantly seek after the Lord's will, but before the Lord tells them anything, they charge ahead anyway. Our flesh is too quick to move. We feel that seeking the Lord's will and following Him is too slow. In seeking the Lord's will, we want Him to speak to us immediately so that we can move. Our Lord is happy to reveal His will to us. For our benefit He often cannot show us His will immediately because we are either not ready or the time has not yet come. Under such circumstances we should not be hasty; we should wait in His presence. When the Lord sees fit, He will show us His will. It is unfortunate that we seek after the Lord's will in many things, yet we do not seek after His will in the very matter of waiting for His will. We ought to seek after the Lord's will in everything. Even in the matter of waiting for His will, we should seek after His will. We should wait for His timing to reveal His will to us. If we do not wait on Him or seek according to His timing, our seeking after His will is probably unjustified and vain. Please consider one incident in the Bible. "And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came....And Saul said...I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept
the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee....But now thy kingdom shall not continue" (1 Sam. 13:8-14). Samuel had made an appointment with Saul for seven days. Before the seven days ended, Saul offered the offering while Samuel was still on the way. After he finished offering the offering, Samuel arrived as scheduled. Because Saul did not wait, he went against the Lord's will and was rebuked by the Lord. Although it appeared that Samuel was late, Saul offered the offering on the last day of the appointed time; immediately after the offering was made, Samuel appeared. He did not miss his appointment. Otherwise, how could he have rebuked Saul in the name of the Lord and pronounced judgment? Saul was rebuked because he could not wait; he was too hasty. Many people are like Saul. They are momentarily touched by something and think that they have to do this or that to worship God; they think that they should go to certain places to do certain works. The feeling can be so strong that they cannot wait any longer; they are desperate to exercise their arms and legs. Have you ever experienced a kind of fire burning in your heart, forcing you to do something? If you do, please go to sleep. Sleep soundly for a night, and you will determine whether the pressing feeling is from God. Rest for a few days! During your rest, God will show you His will. You must practice this. If thoughts are suddenly injected into your mind by Satan, they will quiet down after a night's sleep or a few days' rest. We should never initiate our work based on some feelings. We should be very sure of what we are doing before we proceed with our first step. Otherwise, we will suffer the Lord's rebuke. May the Lord preserve us so that we will not wait for six or more days and give up before the end. May the Lord keep us from doing anything rashly before we are very sure so that we will not offend Him. VIII. NOT GOING BEFORE THE LORD, NOR FALLING BEHIND HIM "And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tent, after that, the sons of Israel set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the sons of Israel encamped. At the word of Jehovah the sons of Israel set out, and at the word of Jehovah they encamped; all the days that the cloud abode over the tabernacle, they remained encamped. Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the sons of Israel kept the charge of Jehovah, and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the word of Jehovah they remained encamped; then according to the word of
Jehovah they set out....or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud was taken up they set out. Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding on it, the sons of Israel remained encamped and did not set out; but when it was taken up, they set out" (Num. 9:17-22). Here we see a perfectly submissive life. Both the tarrying and journeying were completely up to Jehovah. Wherever they were, whether by day or night, whether for two days, a month, or a year, they followed God's will. They did not go ahead of the Lord, nor did they fall behind the Lord. They walked absolutely together with the Lord. Many believers are not like this. Some walk ahead of the Lord, making many proposals ahead of time, prearranging many plans, schemes, and strategies. They first consider and decide on many things and then work out ways to carry them out. After this they kneel down and pray, "Lord! I am planning to do a certain thing. Please help me so that I can succeed." Although they address God as Lord with their mouth, they are really saying, "My Servant! I have decided to do a certain thing. I cannot do it by myself. My Servant, come and help me!" What a pity that many believers have made God their servant without even being conscious of it! Sometimes when we make ourselves the center, we should not ask the Lord for help. Asking the Lord for help then only makes the Lord our servant. May we not make ourselves the center, and may we not go before the Lord and force Him to come after us. Some Christians behave the other way; they fall far behind the Lord. They often shy away from the Lord's commands. The Lord has called them to some work, but they are fearful and give excuses, thinking that this is humility. They do not finish the daily course which the Lord has ordained for them. They are like Moses, who declined again and again even though he was called, and would not take up any responsibility. May the Lord preserve us so that we will not be ahead of Him, nor fall behind Him.
IX. NOT CONSIDERING ANSWERS TO PRAYER AS AN INDICATOR OF GOD'S WILL Once I asked a Christian, "How do you know that this is the Lord's will?" He answered, "Because I have prayed over it." I responded, "I wish you had done this without praying over it," because his action was absolutely contrary to the Scripture. Many believers think that as long as they have prayed over a certain matter, their actions will be according to God's will. But this is not true! There is no difference between doing something after praying and doing something
without praying. (I am referring to the believers who act without becoming clear through prayer that their activity is according to God's will.) Some people think that the first thought that occurs to them after they pray, or the first voice they hear, is from the Lord. Little do they realize that it is very easy for Satan to come in at this time, exercise his deceptions, and deceive man. Some consider the thoughts and voices they receive during their prayer as being from the Lord. But if this is so, can we say that all the confused and wild thoughts we have in our prayers are also from God? Of course they are not. If we cannot say this, we should not consider everything we hear or think during our prayer time as being from the Lord. Some people think that if they receive some answer to their prayer, it must be according to God's will. For example, you may pray for the Lord to open a way for you to do something. The way may eventually be opened and everything may be ready so that you can do that certain thing. Under such a circumstance, it is very easy to think that it is God's will for you to do that certain thing. This can be true at times. But this can never be a perfect guide and tell you for certain that you are walking in His will. Consider one example: the Israelites lusted in the wilderness and desired meat. The Bible says, "And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul" (Psa. 106:15). Did not God answer their prayer? Did not God perform a great miracle among them and give them meat? Yet their soul became weak (lean) because they were outside God's will. It is easy to be misled into thinking that since God answered their prayer, the provision of meat must have been according to His will. Yet this was the very reason for the leanness of their soul. When we beseech the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, He hears us. But we have to be careful to not necessarily think that we are walking in His will because He has answered our prayer. Sometimes we should ask Him not to answer all of our prayers so that we may stand firm in His will. Therefore, do not think that because we prayed for a certain matter and received some thoughts, voices, or answers, our request was according to God's will. We must discern God's will clearly and not be led astray by the answers. (Please note that I am not saying that answers to prayer are unreliable. I am only saying that we should not rely solely upon them.) X. NOT BEING STUBBORN AND IGNORANT AND NOT WAITING FOR GOD'S CHASTISEMENT
Many children of God are often not at peace with God. When their wild nature erupts, they follow their own will. To deal with the lawlessness of this group of believers, God, at times, has to use sufferings, pain, and even calamities to show them His will and turn them. They will not stop the advance of their self-will unless they see God's strong hand. When they make up their mind to go to a certain place, they will immediately act without waiting for God's will. They insist on charging forward until they reach the end of the road and all bridges are gone; then they realize that they have not followed God's will. They do not inquire about God's will. When they set their mind to do a certain thing, they will not stop unless God intervenes with a strong hand to make them sick, financially depleted, or faced with unexpected calamity. These are the most pitiful kind of believers. We can take Balaam and Jonah's cases as examples. Balaam was not clear until the Angel tried to kill him; he thought that his journey was according to God's will and that he could reap both material gain and fame for himself. Jonah had to wait until the storm arose and he was swallowed up in the fish's belly before he repented. If we are willing to be taught and desire to seek after the Lord's will, we will avoid many ill-fated encounters in our daily life. Much of the suffering, pain, and sorrow in our life is unnecessary. Only our stubbornness and ignorance drive these things upon us! Do not think that this is the experience of a special group of believers. We have to admit that many times in our experience, if God had not raised His intervening hands, we would not have stopped doing what we were doing. "I will instruct you and teach you concerning the way you should go; / I will counsel you; my eye is upon you. / Do not be like a horse or like a mule, without understanding; / Whose trappings consist of bit and bridle to constrain them, / Else they do not come near you" (Psa. 32:8-9). These two verses clearly tell us that God has no intention to guide us with strong hands. He does not want us to be horses and mules, who only obey when they are led with bits and bridles. His intention is that we fellowship with Him, understand His will through intimate fellowship, and walk accordingly. The Lord promises that He will guide us with His eyes. This means that we should look to Him all the time; we should look to Him continuously. He does not have to open His mouth. He can guide us with His eyes. How wonderful this is! In order for the Lord to guide us with His eyes, we should be in fellowship with Him so that as soon as there is the command, we can immediately act according to the command. Please remember that we must
wait on Him, look to Him, and obey Him. If we do, He will not have to deal with us through bits and bridles, and we will not have to learn about His will through the use of bits and bridles. CONCLUSION Those who desire to walk according to the Lord's will should pay particular attention to these ten points. Please remember that if we want to walk according to the Lord's will, we should try to understand His will from many aspects. We should not follow one kind of guidance alone. If we do, we will fail. If we make a decision by mistake before we are clear about the Lord's will, we should resolve to stop advancing and give up our opinions as soon as we know it is not the Lord's will. If we are clear that something is according to His will, we should not be discouraged and doubt the Lord's will, even though there appear to be many oppositions and persecutions (which may not actually be real) that may push us down. We should pursue the Lord's will all the way to the end and "press on." Then we will realize that the sufferings and oppositions that come upon us are Satan's strategies, which try to go ahead of God's move; they are but empty threats. When we obey the Lord to take on these challenges, they will become nothing to us! Then we will regret and realize how meaningless were our fears and doubts. After we are clear about the Lord's will, we should proceed on and not hesitate. There may be many threats along the way. But we will know that they are only "paper tigers" put up by the devil; they cannot hurt us. Therefore brothers, "Rise, let us go from here!" (John 14:31).
CHAPTER FOUR HOW TO KNOW GOD'S WILL An architect must have a blueprint to lay down the specifications of a building he is about to build. The size, height, and dimensions must first be drawn out in detail. Only then can he carry out his plan according to his design. Most modern buildings are designed in this way before they are built. The Israelites in the wilderness also had a design for the tabernacle before it was built. They did not build the tabernacle carelessly according to their imagination. Rather, Moses received instructions from Jehovah, who showed him the pattern on the mount and then revealed the items of the tabernacle to him one by one. After this, Moses built accordingly. The building of the tabernacle was according to a plan and carried out according to the plan. Even the smallest detail of the tabernacle was specified by God. An object as small as a needle had to be made
with material specified by the Lord. Moses had no freedom to design even the smallest object of the tabernacle. The entire tabernacle, including its many parts, was designed absolutely by God, and the chosen people were only asked to make them accordingly. Man's life and daily work are planned by God. God has a plan for the life and daily activities of every believer. He has His good will concerning everyone who is redeemed by the blood. God has a plan concerning every move and act of a regenerated child of His. Since the Father has His plans, He desires that a Christian walk according to these plans. If an ignorant builder disregards the careful plans of an architect and builds according to his own way, he will surely fail. If the Israelites did not build the tabernacle according to Jehovah's instructions, how could their work be accepted? In the same way, if a Christian does not walk according to God's plan for him, he will surely fall. The reason believers fail is because they disobey God's will. Here a question arises: "How can we know God's will?" Many believers think that they have not rejected God's will because they say that they love God's will. But they do not do God's will because they do not know God's will. We do not need to consider those who have no heart to carry out God's will. But whoever has their heart set on doing God's will must confront a big problem: "How can we know God's will?" Many brothers and sisters in the Lord have this problem. They have consecrated themselves to the Lord and desire to please the Lord. They love to do God's will, but they do not know God's will concerning their life and work. They do not know God's will concerning many matters. They grope in darkness and easily fall into errors. God's children have shed many tears and endured many heartbreaks because of this. Even though this is a painful matter, we should realize the following points: IT IS GOD'S RESPONSIBILITY TO REVEAL HIS WILL It is easy to understand God's will. If God wants us to do His will, He will surely make His will known to us. He cannot expect us to walk according to His will if He does not tell us His will. If He does not reveal His will to us, He will have to bear the responsibility of our mistakes when we err. It is God's responsibility to reveal and make known to us His will. Suppose a father wants a son to do a certain thing on a certain day, yet does not tell the son. If the son does what he normally does on the specified day and does not do what his father desires, whose responsibility is this? Is it the son's responsibility? No, it is the father's responsibility. If a father does not tell him his will, and the son fails to do the
father's will through ignorance, the blame should not be on the son. If a father wants his son to do anything, he has to tell him. Our Father surely cares for us. If He desires that we walk in His will, He must first tell us His will. In our beloved Lord's parable of the two sons, the father wanted his sons to work in the vineyard and told them his intention. The son who followed his instructions was obedient, while the one who did not follow his instructions was disobedient. Thank God the Father! He will reveal His secret plans to us. IT IS OUR FAULT IF WE DO NOT KNOW GOD'S WILL We know that God will tell us what He requires and make us clear concerning His will. But in our experience, is it not also true that even if we want to know God's will, there are many times when we do not know His will? Why is this? God desires that we know His will. Why do we not know His will? If we do not know His will, there must be something wrong on our side because, on His side, it is necessary for us to know His will. There must be some kind of hindrance on our side if we do not know God's will. Abraham was always obedient before God. When God intended to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the Bible says, "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" (Gen. 18:17). There must be no barrier between God and us so He can reveal His will to us. Otherwise, even if God wants to reveal His will to us, we will not have an open heart to receive it, and we will not be able to see, hear, or understand it. Harmony with God is an important condition for knowing His will.
THE CONDITIONS FOR KNOWING GOD'S WILL In knowing God's will, the most important thing for us to do is to drop our opinions. Our prejudice often hinders God from revealing His will to us. When a man is prejudiced, God will not reveal His will to him. Our own experience indicates that our self-will keeps us from understanding God's will. Sometimes, our self-will is hidden in the innermost part of our heart. If we do not remove our own will, we will encounter many difficulties in understanding His will. Once it is removed, God will reveal to us His will. Concerning removing our self-will in order to understand His will, no matter how much we emphasize the matter, we cannot overdo it. This is the most crucial point and deserves the greatest attention. Our hearts are very wicked. Sometimes even though we are outwardly seeking God's will, we are inwardly full of self-will and self-opinions; our prime motive is to please ourselves. Sometimes when we kneel down to pray, our mouth may say,
"Lord, show us Your will. We are willing to do Your will." But our heart is unwilling to do His will and disagrees with it. Sometimes we say with our mouth, "Father! Your will be done. We only seek after Your will." Our heart seems to agree with our mouth and may even act as if it is very willing to follow God's will. Yet, at the same time, within the deepest part of the heart, there is a desire to walk according to our own will. If we do this, we will probably not be able to find His will. This is a false seeking and will not result in a genuine finding of His will. The promise of "seek and you shall find" is not for insincere ones. Unless we seek after God's will in a sincere way, He will not reveal His will to us. Even if we comfort ourselves by saying, "I have known God's will," it is probably a fabrication of our own mind and a counterfeit of His will! If we have desires in our heart, and if we have already made up our mind on a matter, we are seeking the Lord's will in vain. If we have our own will and our own desires, all our prayers will be in vain; even if we pray every day to seek for His will, it will be useless. Therefore, every time we seek His will, we have to trust in His strength to examine ourselves. We have to ask if self-will exists in the deepest part of our heart, if we have any inclinations or desires, and if we are seeking the Lord's will out of a clean and undefiled heart. If we do not do this, our seeking will not be effective. When two ways are set before you, if you would love to take one way and hate to take the other way, you should ask yourself, "If the Lord wants me to take the way I hate, will I take it?" If you are not willing to take the way you hate, what profit would it be to you even if you knew His will? Every time we come to a crossroad, the best thing for us to do is to hold an unbiased heart. This means that our heart is balanced; we neither prefer nor hate any particular way. We consider all of the ways the same, and we take whatever way the Lord shows us. If we are not biased in our heart, it will be easy for the Lord to show us His will. Bigotry and unwillingness to obey are the greatest hindrances to knowing His will. Being unbiased does not mean being passive. It means being unbiased concerning the ways ahead of us. We have to exercise discernment with our will and choose His will. Being unbiased does not mean that there are no more likes and dislikes within us. It means that even though we are unclear about God's will, we are not biased towards any way; but, at the same time, we have determined that we will do His will. As soon as we know His will, we will do it. Our own will should not dictate our likes and dislikes concerning the ways ahead of us. However, there should be a difference between what we
want and what we do not want with respect to God's will (even though it is not yet known) and our will. We must choose to "want" God's will and choose to "not want" our own will. We should choose His will and remove our own will. Therefore, we are not without a will or choice. We do have a will and choice; our will and choice are to do His will. We are not void of desires. We do have desires; our desire is to want what the Lord wants. Concerning this point, we can learn from the example of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord's will and the Father's will were not one will; they were two wills. When we read the words, "Not as I will, but as You will" (Matt. 26:39), we realize that the Lord Jesus' will and the Father's will were two different things. There is clearly a distinction between "My own will" and "the will of Him who sent Me" (John 5:30). Although the Lord Jesus' desire and the Father's desire were two different wills that issued from two different channels, we see that our dear Lord's will and the Father's will never contradicted each other. Although the Lord Jesus had His own will, He dropped His own will to do the Father's will. He placed His will on God's side. He subjected His preferred will to the Father's will. He did not do God's will in a passive way. Rather, He voluntarily laid down His own will to do the Father's will. He chose to "not want" His self-will and to "want" the Father's will. His only will was to do the Father's will. Originally, His will was different from the Father's will. Yet He resolved to do the Father's will with a will that was different from the Father's will. Thus, His own will was to do the Father's will. This is why the Father was pleased with Him all His life. Briefly, the first step in seeking God's will is to have neither a love nor a fear for the ways ahead of us (when one is not clear about the Lord's will). At the same time, our hearts should adopt the attitude that we are ready to do God's will. If we are willing to subject our will to God's will, we have accomplished more than half of the work necessary to understand the Lord's will. Most of our failures in knowing God's will come at this point. The Lord reveals His will to those who are willing to do His will. As for those who are not willing to do His will, their seeking is a false seeking. His will can never be found by those who are seeking after Him in a false way. Therefore, if we have inclinations in our hearts, we should not speak of the Lord's will so quickly. Instead, we should first trust in the Lord's strength to deal with the desires of our hearts in a clear way. Then we can expect the Lord to show us His will. Otherwise, it will be useless even if we know and exhaust all the methods.