Scripture Reading: John 12:24-25; 15:1-2, 5 Romans 6:3-5 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 INTRODUCTION God's purpose in creating man was that Christ might dwell within him and that He might fill him up to his fullness and ultimately be manifested in all His fullness. From this we can see how lofty, honorable, and glorious you and I have been created to be. Do not underestimate yourself, thinking that our 70 or 80 years on earth will be nothing more than labor and sorrow, and that we will die and go to heaven. We must know that God's original purpose in creating man was that all men would display the glory of His Son, Jesus Christ. However, because mankind is fallen and in need of Jesus Christ's salvation, when a person believes in Jesus, God does not use artificial efforts, nor does He rely on man's wisdom and methods to achieve the process of manifesting Christ's glory. Rather, He gradually and progressively grows in us through Christ's life until Christ's glory is manifested in living form. Therefore, if we do not pay attention to or neglect the experience of spiritual life, then God's plan will not be realized and completed in you and me. In other words, if we do not enter into the path of inner life and grow in God's life to maturity, so that Christ's glory and deity can be manifested, then God's eternal plan will not be accomplished. Therefore, after a person is saved by grace and has Christ as his life, from that day onward, he must always be attentive to walking on the path of the inner life, so that Christ's life will gradually grow in us until it reaches maturity, and finally Christ will be filled and manifested. In the course of time, we are to allow the life of Christ to grow in us until the Lord returns and the body is transformed. In this way the whole person is filled with the glory of Christ from the inside out. Because God uses His own life as the driving force for multiplication and growth in us to accomplish His will. Therefore, the Lord Jesus instructed His disciples, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14). This means that the way of life is set before you, and you must enter into it, step by step, and go deeper and deeper. Regarding the experience of entering into the inner path of life, we have already talked about seven points. When we are born again by grace and saved, we receive the life of God (Jesus Christ), and He enters into you and me. Naturally, from the depths of the inner path, we pray to God, and in this way we unite our hearts and minds with Him, and our spiritual life is sustained and grows. Therefore, the prayers of the saints are inward prayers. Bible study is no exception. Honestly, although we read the Bible with our physical eyes and minds, inside we are in a constant relationship with the Lord, that is, we allow the Word of the Bible to enter into our souls, so that not only is our spiritual life fed by the Bible (the Word of God), but also we are able to enjoy the fattening of our souls and grow. At the same time, the life we receive is also a life of ministry. Therefore, a normal saint by grace will ask for ministry as soon as he or she is saved, but the ministry must be an internal one. Further, a saint's life and behavior must be sensitive to the inner sense of life, or else life cannot be developed. Whether it is the sense of conscience or the sense of life, one must be sensitive to it. At the same time, the saint's behavior is guided by the inner guidance, by the peace and the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is true that people in society must have common sense to judge right and wrong, but saints are guided by the peace within and the voice of the Holy Spirit. However, when we pay attention to our inner experience and grow in our spiritual life, we will find that there is a difficulty, that is, we, as the outer man (the life of the soul), have been destroying and blocking the growth of the inner life. According to 2 Corinthians 4:16, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day." This means that through the destructive work of the cross, the Lord destroys our outer man, but on the other hand, the Spirit of regeneration wears this soul on the inside, growing and renewing it all the time. So that the life of Christ will continue to flow out of the inner man, even to the point of overflowing. If we are attentive to the demolition of the cross, our minds, emotions, and wills will naturally be subdued. Because since the fall of man, the life of the soul has become independent and refuses to surrender to God, and because the life of the soul is centered on one's own interests, and because the life of the soul protects itself and refuses to allow God to work, God arranges to mobilize all people, things, objects, and environments to tear us down, so that our minds, emotions, and wills are stricken, thwarted, and shattered and have to surrender to the Lord. The inner man (Christ as life) can grow. The Inner Man Enters Into Abundant Life The fact that the cross destroys the whole outer man is the negative side, but the positive purpose is to bring the inner man into the abundant life. By “outer man” we mean those who have the born-again spirit as their master and the soul as their servant, that is, Christ is in you and me, or the Holy Spirit of God and the life of God are in our souls, so how can the inner man enter into the abundant life? It is still through the cross. I. The meaning of the cross is to rise from the dead First of all, we must realize and understand the meaning of the cross. For a fallen person, God's way of salvation is through the cross. The meaning of the cross includes death and resurrection. When we talk about the destruction of the cross, we are referring to the "death” side, but there is another side, the "resurrection". This message focuses on the resurrection side. Romans 6 is one of the clearest chapters in the Bible that explains the meaning of the cross. Verses 3 and 4 say, "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." All brothers and sisters here have been baptized. When we enter the baptismal font, the church baptizes us in the name of Jesus Christ, and then we come up from the water, the main experience means to die, be buried, and be resurrected together with the Lord, which also indicates that the experience of the cross is the resurrection from the dead. In terms of the experience, when we are baptized, it is a testimony that I have trusted Jesus as my personal Savior, and it is also a sign that from now on, I am one who is united with Christ and belongs to Him. It is an objective fact that Jesus was crucified more than 1900 years ago and we are all crucified in Him. This is an objective fact. But when do we take this fact and apply it to us? It is when we believe in Jesus, when we begin to be united with Him in our spirit, and when we are witnessed to by baptism. Now we are truly united with Christ. I went down into the water to die with Christ, and I came up out of the water, and it was Christ who clothed me and raised me up with the Lord. That is why Romans 6:4-5 specifically says, "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." The Greek word for "united” is a union of vitality, as when one branch is cut down and another is put up. As Romans 11:17 says, the Jews were God's chosen people, united with the Lord, but because of their unbelief and rejection of Jesus, they were like the branches of an olive tree that were cut off, so that we Gentiles, like wild olive branches, could be grafted in among them, and with them become a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree. In recent years, Taiwan produces a kind of fruit called apple mango, which has an apple and a mango flavor, and is both fragrant and sweet. It is said that this kind of fruit is made by cutting down the branches of the mango tree and attaching them to the apple tree, and then it is cultivated and improved through grafting. Our union with Christ by baptism is a union of vitality. Thus we can grow in his resurrection.  A. Christ's death ends the old creation and destroys the outer man In Romans 6:4-5, it is said that we are buried with Him by baptism into death. This means that to be united with Christ is to be immersed in His death, which puts an end to our natural old creation. Experientially, when we are baptized and united with Christ, we are like branches attached to a tree, it is a living union, therefore Christ's death is living. In other words, Christ's death is dynamic, it has an energizing function. Therefore, Christ's death has the function of killing and will put an end to our natural, physical, and old creation. Therefore, when we are united in Christ's death, our outer man is always being torn down. As John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) B.  Christ's resurrection brings in the new creation, enlarging the inner man Therefore, the Apostle Paul further said, "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." This shows that our union with Christ by baptism is a vital union, and naturally we grow, live and move in His resurrection. Experientially speaking, when we are united with Christ in the resurrection, His life passes through you and me in the inner man. Naturally, the life within will continue to multiply and flourish. From this we can see that the reason for the vital union is that when God, through the arrangement of circumstances (the demolition of the cross), demolished our outer man all the way through, that is, Christ's death put an end to our old creation. On the other hand, when we are united in Christ's resurrection, the life of His new creation runs in us and brings in the new creation to those inside of us, so that the new man inside of us keeps growing and expanding. As in the past, when the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, that is, when they separated themselves from the Egyptian world and returned to God, and went through forty years of life in the wilderness, that is, referring to the work of the cross, and at the end of their journey to the border of Canaan, they had to cross the Jordan River, how did they cross the Jordan River at that time? It is written in Joshua 3: 14-17, "So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan." Twelve Stones at the Bottom of the River - Deeper Death Destroys Those Outside Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Tell each tribe to choose one man to come, and each man to carry a stone and place it in the middle of the river where the priests are standing." The "twelve stones" are indicative of the twelve tribes of Israel, i.e. all Christians. The "placing of the stones in the Jordan" signifies that all Christians died and were buried with Christ (Joshua 4:8-9). The Jordan was a symbol of the deeper death of the cross. The Twelve Stones of Gilead - Entering into the Fullness of Life in the New Creation But it did not end there. When the people came up from the Jordan, they had to take twelve stones from the Jordan and set them up in Gilgal in the land of Canaan (Joshua 4:19-20). "Canaan" prefigures the fullness of Christ. The "twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan” refers to the resurrection of all Israel through death. These twelve stones had to be set up in Gilgal in the land of Canaan, signifying on the one hand a departure from the old creation, and on the other hand an entrance into the fullness of Christ's life in the resurrection. From this we can see that the experience of the cross, on the one hand, destroys the outer man and, on the other, brings the inner man into the fullness of life. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:10, "always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." This "dying of the Lord Jesus" is a verb that refers to a living action that is taking place, i.e. Jesus' death by crucifixion, and this "death" has the function of killing, which is happening to you and me. So every shock, frustration, hardship, pain, and damage that comes to us is the death of Jesus. In other words, in our daily life, when we encounter difficulties in our family, some of them are the wife's flirtatiousness and spiciness, some of them are the husband's rudeness and tyranny, some of them are the children's tyrannical and rebelliousness, some of them are the parents' insistence and stubbornness, and some of them are the unsuccessful ministry, all of them are the cross. All these pressures are the death of the cross. What is the result? I thank God that life is developing in me because the cross kills, ends the old creation, and destroys the outer man on the one hand, and on the other hand, it unites the inner man with the resurrection of Christ, so that the life of Christ increases and the new creation grows and reaches fullness. May the Lord be gracious to us, so that we may truly see in our spirit that every time the suffering of the cross comes, it destroys the outer man, so that the inner man may enter into the abundant life. Because God's way of salvation is to live from death to life, we are nailed to Him by faith in the cross, and we can live out His life from you and me. II. The Inner Man wins through the power of the resurrection In fact, your victory over sin, the world, difficulties, hardship, etc., is not a result of your own natural instincts, but of Jesus Christ in you and me, the so-called "power of the resurrection", which is also known as the power of the infinite life. There used to be a mango tree in the backyard of the assembly hall, and because of the power of the roots of the tree, it cracked the concrete floor. In the same way, Christ is in you and me, and He is the power of infinite life, enabling us to overcome the temptations of sin, the lures of the world, and difficult circumstances.  A. The power of a treasure in a vessel is great. That is why the apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." The word "treasure" refers to Christ. The “vessel” refers to us as human beings who are as fragile as a vessel. The"treasure in the vessel" is the life of Christ when we are born again. "To show that this great power is of God and not of us" means that this life of Christ is a resurrection from the dead, i.e. the power of the resurrection. In terms of experience, we as human beings are sometimes unable to sleep when we are belittled or despised by others, or we are overwhelmed when something difficult or frustrating comes our way. It is as if a vessel is shattered by a single blow. But when you and I are born again and saved, this treasure (Jesus Christ), because He was raised from the dead, this life is the power of the resurrection, so that you and I may be surrounded by enemies, but not be trapped; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; knocked down, but not destroyed. In the church, there are some young brothers and sisters who were born in a Gentile nonbelieving family, and were persecuted because their parents did not understand and refused to allow them to meet and serve, but they still love the Lord, and meet, serve, and pursue the Lord's cause, and this is all because of the power of the resurrection of life. Some brothers and sisters who are parents have suffered repeated setbacks in their careers, and even lost the people, things, and objects that they love, and thus their hearts were devastated and they seemed to be in a state of grief. Miraculously, after a short time, not only did they come to the meetings, but they even shouted out thanks, praises, and testimonies during the meetings, and they were strong and moving forward. The power of the resurrection is the life of victory The power of the resurrection is the life of victory, that is, the very person of Christ Jesus. The power of the resurrection not only enables us to overcome sin, the world, and difficulties, but also enables us to overcome the flesh and death. In the old days, it was a Japanese custom to fly a carp flag during one festival each year. Carp is one of the longest-lived fish in the aquatic world. While ordinary fish die instantly when they leave the water, the carp will always swim to the water source in the streams. If it reaches a place where there is no water, it leaps away. Carp are said to be the most energetic of all aquatic species. The Japanese symbolize men by the courageous nature of the carp, which swims against the water, indicating that they have a personality that is capable of overcoming circumstances and difficulties. A normal Christian must also be able to break free from the bondage of sin, overcome the temptations of the world's vanities, and triumph over the evil desires of the flesh, and be a witness for Jesus Christ, for the life we have gained by being born again is the power to resurrect life without end. III. Inner man enters into abundant life through the resurrection We have mentioned time and again that those on the inside have the born-again spirit as their master and the soul as their servant, and that Christ dwells in the spirit. While those on the outside are being torn down, those on the inside are being renewed day by day and are entering into abundant life through the power of the resurrection.  A. One grain of wheat falls to the ground and produces many grains Jesus said to His disciples in a parable in John 12: 24-25, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." And behold, this very small grain of wheat in my hand, if it were laid on the table, would be but a grain. This grain of wheat is like Jesus Christ. All the fullness of God in form and body was in Jesus. When He was crucified, He was like a grain of wheat that fell to the ground and was covered up by the earth, and first the outer shell rotted and decayed (i.e., the dismantling of the cross). Since this grain of wheat is the seed of life, we thought it was buried in the ground and died, but after a period of time, it sprouted, and indomitably broke through the hard ground and sprouted (i.e. the power of the resurrection); when the new sprout stood tall and strong, it grew into ears of wheat (i.e. Christ's increase, the growth of life); and finally it bore much fruit (i.e. the abundance of life); the parable illustrates that people enter into the abundant life through the power of the resurrection. When Jesus finished this parable, He went on to say, "He who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life will keep it for eternal life." This means that it is through the loss of soul life that the Lord will release His eternal life in the resurrection and bring us to eternal life. If we are willing to lose our souls, we can enjoy eternal life in the resurrection to its fullness. In this case, in terms of experience, the original life was Jesus Christ, or the first grain of wheat was Jesus Christ. After He fell into the ground and died (i.e., when He was crucified), He gave birth to you, me, and Him, so that you, I, and He came from the first grain of Jesus, and it is the life of Christ that produces us. In the same way, all saints have Jesus Christ in them, and then Jesus led you, me and Him to the ground, that is, to the hardship, torture, pain and destruction of the cross. When we lose our souls in this way, our minds, emotions, and wills are repeatedly battered and torn down, like the husk of wheat cracking and rotting. Wonderfully, while the outer man is being torn down, the inner man is being resurrected and brought into the fullness of life, i.e., producing many grains. The Apostle Paul was no exception. He was also a grain of wheat, and this grain of wheat went through many hardships, suffered whippings, imprisonment, insults, curses, and sufferings, and fell to the ground like wheat, but in the end his life was resurrected and he produced many grains. When he wrote letters to the churches, they were helped everywhere. When he went out to preach the gospel, people were saved by grace and visited the saints, and many were supplied, so that churches were established throughout Asia. B. The vine branches bear more fruit In the second parable in John 15:1-2, the Lord Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." Then verse 5 says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." It says here that Jesus is the vine, and the disciples (the saints) are the branches, and as long as the branches are attached to the vine, they will naturally bear fruit; and then the Lord said, "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." It is no wonder that many saints do not love the Lord and do not serve Him, but are safe and sound. On the other hand, those who love the Lord, pursue and serve much are in trouble; undoubtedly, because you do not love the Lord in a sloppy way, and you do not pursue and serve, it is as if the branch is no longer on the vine. Of course, in terms of status, when we believe in Jesus, God places us in Christ and unites us with Him, but in terms of subjective experience, anyone who does not draw near to the Lord and pray and read the Bible is like a branch that has left the vine. Naturally this branch cannot bear fruit, and the one who repairs it has to set it aside. On the other hand, as long as you pray, read the Bible, pursue, and serve, you are like a branch attached to the vine. Though it doesn't bear much fruit, it can be seen to have a little bit of Jesus, and a little bit of His life is touched. At this point, the Father who is cultivating and pruning begins to prune you and me and sees the hardened part of our flesh, which has too much talk, or is selfish. If this branch is too thick, or if this branch has thorns, cut it off. When the branch is cleaned up, that is, when the cross cuts away the old creation, the new branch bears more fruit, that is, the resurrected life enters into a state of abundance. From this we can see that while the cross destroys the outer man, the inner man enters into the fullness of life in the resurrection. Therefore, if the saint accepts the cross (death and resurrection), the ministry will have a supply of life. In the Old Testament, Jacob, when he blessed the prophecy of his twelve sons, said of Joseph, "Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a well; His branches run over the wall." (Gen. 49:22) These prophecies were fulfilled in Joseph. The history of Joseph's life shows that he accepted the work of the cross from an early age. His brothers were jealous of him, so they sold him to a foreign land in Egypt, where he suffered a lot of hardship and degradation, and was alone and in a difficult situation. Later on, he went through an even deeper crucifixion, that is, he was wrongfully and falsely imprisoned by the mother of the Lord, and due to the successive adversities, grievances, and sufferings that came to him, he had the old creation in his body cut off, and was finally promoted by Pharaoh to be the prime minister of all the land of Egypt, that is, he became the king in his life. Life was abundant, and in the end, he not only preserved the life of his family, but also supplied his family and all the land of Egypt, and through him his life was preserved. If the Lord is gracious and merciful to us, and if we too have been worked by the cross, we will likewise become conduits of life, canals of blessing, full of grace and life, supplying the hungry and thirsty and the needs of the church. C. Carrying in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus be manifested Finally, let us look at 2 Corinthians 4:10-12, where the apostle Paul says, "always carrying about in the body the dying (killing in original text) of the Lord Jesus” , which means that the subjective experience of the cross is to allow the killing function of the cross to work in us, and to allow the "killing" of the cross to be carried out in you and me at all times. What is meant by the killing of the cross in us is that we gladly accept all the blows, setbacks, and painful and disgusting encounters that cause us pain, so that the outer man will be demolished, so that the life of Jesus will be manifested in the body, i.e., the inner man will enter into the fullness of life in the resurrection. In other words, the life of the resurrected Christ is thus made abundant and manifest. And then verse 12 goes on to say, "So then death is working in us, but life in you." Here "death is working in us" refers to the demolition of the cross, i.e. after a person has been worked on by the cross, "life working in you" refers to the fullness of the resurrected life, which is shed on the other person. For example, there is an outpouring of life in his words and actions, whether in prayer or in fellowship, so that the other person receives spiritual provision, or so that the other person's spirituality is revitalized and renewed to run the race ahead. The size of our church today is due to the grace of the Lord, the blessing and the work of the Holy Spirit, and to God be all the glory. On the other hand, according to the law of life, we should not overlook one thing, which is that there is a group of people who are walking on the path of life inside, who accept the cross secretly, pray for brothers and sisters in secret, and serve with great diligence, helping to supply brothers and sisters to walk on the path of life, and thus there is a flow of life going out. Especially in meetings, when we pray or fellowship with the Lord, we release life. Though the words or content of the fellowship are simple, there is life being given out. Especially during the summer and winter special meetings, the life of all the saints is released, so that those brothers and sisters who are weak and lukewarm, or who are not alive and dying, will be revived as soon as they come into contact with life. This is because we have accepted the cross, so that the resurrection life grows in us until it becomes abundant, and becomes the content of the whole church. On the other hand, if no one in the church is willing to accept the cross, then no one will be able to show their life, and the words of testimony and fellowship will be just words; prayers will become consuming and burdensome, and the brothers and sisters attending the meetings will not be supplied, and people will not be attracted to them. Gradually, the meetings will become traditions, formalities, and burdensome, and they will only have an appearance without any spiritual life and content, and thus the church will be in a state of decadence and deadness. From this, we can see that the future of the church depends on walking on the path of life on the inside, and the most important thing is that those on the outside will be torn down, and those on the inside will enter into the abundant life. Brothers and sisters, in the eternal New Jerusalem, there is the throne of the Lamb. The word "Lamb" refers to the sacrifice of Christ, the experience of the cross. Jesus Christ went through the cross to reach the throne. So living water flows down from the throne of the Lamb. This stream of living water, His resurrection life, flowed throughout the city as a testimony of life. If you and I will release the life of Christ from the whole church today, our gathering will be the holy city, the New Jerusalem. For the holy city, the New Jerusalem, is full of abundant life, manifesting all the virtues of Christ, which is the testimony that God wants to appear in the world. <-- Back to "The Pathway of Inner Being" Next Chapter -->

Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:4, 11 John 8:28 Hebrews 8:11 Psalm 103:7 Ephesians 1:17 Galatians 1:16, 2:20 Introduction   In God's eternal plan, He established Christ as the center of the universe and filled it with Jesus Christ. In the course of time, He created man in the first place to dwell in man and then to be fully manifested in man. Therefore, everyone who has been born again by grace has received Christ as his life, but in order for the full manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ to take place, the experience must be driven by life; not by reasoned teaching, nor by manual practice, but by the living out of life, as wheat falls into the ground and dies, but grows up and bears many grains. Therefore, the path we are on is called the path of the inner life, which begins with being born again and saved, and then slowly grows and matures until it is filled with the fullness of the full stature of Christ, and ultimately reveals the fullness of Jesus Christ.   When we begin to enter into this inward path of life, all our experiences are inwardly related to God; in other words, our relationship with the Lord begins in the Spirit and continues to experience God in the Spirit. Therefore, when a Christian has begun to live after the Holy Spirit and in the light of God, and has had the experience of the cross, and the outer man has been torn down, and the inner life has been growing, there is one more spiritual experience that we must pay attention to, and that is the inner understanding.   Hosea 6:3 reads, "Let us seek to know the Lord, and let us strive to know him" . The pursuit mentioned here is not the outward knowledge of God, because the outward knowledge is the knowledge of the outside, it is just the understanding of the mind, and it will soon pass away, so we have to long for and pursue the knowledge of God from the inside. From this we can see that our relationship with the Lord is based on the inner knowledge. What kind of God is this great God we believe in? What kind of relationship we have with Him depends on knowing Him from the inside.   I. Knowing the Works of God Let's read Psalm 103:7, "He made His statutes known to Moses, that Israel might know His works." Here it is stated that God taught His people Israel to know His works. We can see from the history of the Exodus of the Israelites that the first relationship between the Israelites and the Lord was to have a relationship with the Lord in terms of "works", that is to say, to know who the Lord really is. Before the Exodus, the Lord called Moses and sent him to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. And Moses answered the Lord, and said unto him, I went unto the children of Israel, and said unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you. And if they ask me, saying, What is his name, what shall I say unto them? And the Lord said unto Moses, I am he that liveth for ever: thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, He that liveth for ever hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:10-14) The Lord further instructed Moses to take the shepherd's staff in his hand, for I, the Lord, will bring the people of Israel into direct knowledge of the works of God.   A.  God wants His people to know what He is doing   How do we know that there is a God in the universe? How do we know that God is all-powerful? Undoubtedly, it is when God shows His works that we begin to know Him.   Therefore, when Moses negotiated with Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, Pharaoh's heart was hardened and refused to do so. Therefore, the Lord sent a series of great plagues on the land of Egypt, which the Israelites had never seen before, and through these ten plagues that came on the land of Egypt, the Israelites came to know the Lord who had led them out of Egypt as the true and living God.   Especially when the tenth plague killed the firstborn, the Israelites came to their senses. The whole congregation further realized that the Lord was not only true and living, but also a great and almighty God, and they followed Moses out of Egypt without fear. At that time the Bible specifically says, "With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of slavery in Egypt." (Exodus 13:14)   Unexpectedly, when the whole congregation of Israel reached the Red Sea, the Egyptian army came from behind, trying to take the Israelites back to the land of Egypt. When the Red Sea was in front of them and the Egyptian army was behind them, the Lord ordered Moses to stretch out his staff to the Red Sea, and immediately the waters separated and the sea became dry land. Moses then led the whole congregation of the Israelites to go down to the sea and walk through the dry land in a calm manner, and when they reached the other side of the Red Sea, the Lord told Moses to stretch out his staff to the sea, and the sea would be restored to its original state. The whole army of Pharaoh that followed the Israelites down to the sea, not even one of them was left. At that time, the Bible specifically said, "When the Lord thus saved the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians ...... the Israelites feared the Lord ...... when they saw the great things that the Lord had done to the Egyptians" (Ex. 14:30-31). So the whole congregation rejoiced and sang and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone has done marvelous things, and His glorious name forever and ever Amen, Amen .......   B. Knowledge of God's works is in the Spirit, not outward reason But crossing the Red Sea in peace was not the goal, so Moses followed God's command and led the whole congregation onward. They set out from the Red Sea and began to travel the wilderness road. The wilderness was endless, with no signposts to point the way, so the future was really far away and there was no way to follow it; at the same time, the wilderness road was also drought-ridden, hot, and rugged. How could these two to three million members of the congregation, including women, children, the elderly and the young, as well as tens of thousands of herds of animals, survive and walk forward?   Thank God! Biblical history shows us that along the way, God has not ceased to show His marvelous and great works. In the daytime, the Lord led them in the pillar of cloud, and in the nighttime, He illuminated them in the pillar of fire. Thus the Lord did not leave them day after day, year after year, until they had finished the way of the wilderness. When the food they had brought out of Egypt was exhausted, the Lord sent down manna from heaven for forty years, until they entered the land of Canaan. Later, when they were tired and weary from traveling and had no water to drink, God asked Moses to strike the sounding rock with his staff, so that water would flow out of the rock and become a living fountain, supplying them with ...... water all the way. However, the Israelites' knowledge of God's works was not a spiritual knowledge, but an external rational knowledge. Therefore, Hebrews 3:9 reads, "For forty years your fathers tried me and searched me and watched my works. Their minds were often perplexed, and they did not recognize My works. Therefore the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Tell them, 'Your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness, and whosoever of you shall be numbered, and shall murmur against me from twenty years old and upward, he shall not enter into the land which I have sworn that I will make you to dwell in,  but  only  Caleb,  the  son  of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, shall enter into it.'" (Num. 14:28-30).   C. Born-again Spirit Recognizes the Works of God   From this historical fact, we can see that the adults of that generation, because of their confusion and not recognizing the works of God, were rebelliou s and perished in the wilderness. But there were only two of them, Caleb and Joshua, who "had another mind and another spirit, which followed me alone, and I led him into the land whither he went" (Num. 14:24; 32:12; Deut. 1:36). The word "another mind" in the original language is "another spirit," which refers to the Holy Spirit. Spiritual means to know the works of God in the revelation of the Holy Spirit. In terms of experience, when we are saved by grace and born again, we naturally realize that Jesus is God, He is the Savior, and His works are marvelous and great. This is a very important experience and one that must always be lived out.   When Joshua succeeded Moses and led the people of that generation into Canaan, the Bible says, "When Joshua sent the people of Israel, they went to their own land and occupied it. And all the people served the Lord while Joshua lived and while Joshua died, while the elders remained, who had seen the great things which the Lord had done for Israel" (Judges 2:6-7).   But after the death of Joshua, all the people of that generation also returned to their fathers, and afterward, another generation arose, because they "did not know the LORD, nor the things which the Lord had done for the children of Israel. And the children of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baal, and forsook the LORD, who had led them out of Egypt" (Judges 2:10-12).   It is a common phenomenon in churches today that the first generation of believers in Jesus is very godly, but the second generation becomes lukewarm, and the third generation leaves the Lord Jesus. The biggest reason for this is that they do not have a direct relationship with the Lord, they do not have a real experience of Jesus, so they only have an outside knowledge of Him. I don't realize that in order for a Christian to be strong in faith and follow the Lord to the end, it is necessary to know the Lord inwardly, to have revelation inwardly, and to know God's works in order to follow the Lord until the end of the road.   A young sister from Taiwan who came to Manila for a music evangelism program was going to come to us and present a guzheng program. This sister serves the Lord with her music, and she is a third-generation Christian, and her father and grandfather both feared the Lord and served Him. How is it that the third generation can still live godly lives for the Lord? It is because she personally saw God's work in her grandfather. Shortly after his surgery for stomach cancer, her grandfather found gallbladder cancer, and soon after he recovered from the surgery, he had cancer in his intestines, and then he had a bunch of them cut out by surgery, and he is still healthy and living for the Lord, and he is dedicated to serving Him. He has published a testimonial in which he said that he has experienced the Lord's miracles for 20 to 30 years, and that he serves the Lord with joy and thanksgiving every day, and that his son has seen God's works in his father, and his grandson has seen God's works in his grandfather, and so the three generations have always been in awe of the Lord and have served the Lord. Therefore, Christians must experience God's living leadership through the born-again spirit to know God's works, and because of this knowledge, they can follow the Lord all the days of their lives.       II. Knowing the Laws of God  As a Christian's spiritual life grows, he not only recognizes that God is true, living, and faithful, but he also recognizes God's laws. For our God is a God of laws, and He acts according to them. Therefore, in order to serve God, we must know God's laws. This is one of the main points of our training for the youth every Saturday night. If you don't know God's rules, you will sin against God, and if you don't follow God's way of doing things, your service will be futile and ineffective. Therefore, Psalm 103:7 tells us, "He (God) made Moses aware of His rules" . This shows that in order to serve the Lord, one must know God's rules.   A.  God told Moses to know God's laws On that day, when the Korahites and the 250 leaders of the Israelites came together to attack Moses and Aaron, the Lord split the earth and made them fall alive into the Hades. The day after this tragedy, when the whole congregation of Israel was complaining against Moses, a cloud suddenly appeared and the glory of the Lord appeared. Then the Lord commanded Moses, saying, depart from this congregation, that I may destroy them in the twinkling of an eye. And immediately the plague was upon the people, and it is written, "And they fell down, both of them, to the ground. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take thy censer, and put fire upon the altar thereof, and add incense thereto, and bring it quickly unto the congregation, to make atonement for them ...... And Aaron brought it according to the word of Moses ...... Not knowing that the pestilence had broken out among the people, he added the incense, and made atonement for the people. And he stood in the midst of the living and the dead, and the pestilence ceased." (Num. 16:44-48)   This shows that Moses knew God's law, and knew that where there is atonement, there is forgiveness. No matter how great the sin, God's forgiveness would come when there is atonement. On the other hand, it also says that God made Moses came to know His laws and ruled the people. Moses worked with God because of his knowledge of God's laws. B.  Born-again Spirit recognizes God's Laws   Paul was one of God's most used apostles. When he wrote his letters to the churches in different places, he often ended by asking the saints there to pray for him. Did a man so highly used by God need the saints to pray for him? Oh! Paul knew God's law, and he knew that he needed prayer behind him to go out and work for the Lord, to preach the gospel, to build up the churches, and to strengthen the saints, and so at the end of his letters he asked the saints to pray for him, because God has a law of doing things by prayer. Recently I was reading Watchman Nee's testimony about how he learned to lead people to the Lord. He testified that since he was saved, he had a heart of love for the souls of sinners in him, so he was constantly preaching the gospel and testifying to his classmates at school, and this went on for about a year, but no one was saved. Later, he met a westerner, Miss Gooes, who asked him how many people he had saved, and he replied, "I preached the gospel to my classmates, but they didn't like to listen to it and wouldn't believe it. She asked Brother Nee how he had saved some people. He replied, "I preached the gospel to my classmates, but they didn't like to listen and wouldn't believe. He replied, "I just drag people to listen to me regardless of whether they listen or not." Rabbi Lau then instructed him that this is not the way to serve God. You should speak to God before you speak to people. You should pray to God first, write down the names of your classmates, ask God which one He wants you to pray for, pray for them daily by name, and then when God arranges for an opportunity, witness to them. Brother Nee followed the rules of God's work as instructed by Rabbi Liu, praying behind his back day after day and testifying whenever he had the opportunity. Sure enough, after a few months, of the 60 to 70 people in his notebook, all but one were saved. Because he fulfilled the law of God's work that the will of God passes through prayer, and he knew that God works through prayer. Of course, there are many other laws in the Bible, so we will just mention one.   III. Knowing God Himself   Hebrews 8:10-11 reads, "And the Lord said, after those days, this is my covenant with the house of Israel: I will put my law in their hearts, and write it on their minds; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not every man teach his neighbor, and his brother, saying, Thou shalt know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them."   A.  Everyone from the least to the greatest will know God The book of Hebrews tells us explicitly that in the New Testament era, the Lord has put the law of life (eternal life) in us. This is a characteristic of the New Testament, so that those who have been born again from the least to the greatest can know our Lord directly. There is no need to be taught by others, for teaching is external, but only the knowledge by the revelation of the Holy Spirit is internal. It is true that the Lord often opens us to the knowledge of Christ through the words of the pulpit, such as evangelistic meetings that open our eyes to Jesus as Savior, and message meetings that reveal Christ to us, so that we may develop a relationship with Him, or know Him better, so that we can keep moving forward to walk in His ways. However, the knowledge of the Lord Himself can only be realized through the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the individual.   B. Realize that all the fullness of God is in Christ Colossians 2:9 reads, "For in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and spiritually.” This plainly tells us that if we know Christ, we know God. For example, one day when Jesus was living with His disciples on earth, He revealed to them, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father.” “Philip said unto him, ‘Lord show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied. And Jesus said unto him, Philip, I have been with you a long time, and yet knowest thou not me? If anyone has seen me, he has seen the Father; how can you say, "Show us the Father?’” (John 14:9) It means that all the fullness of God, whether it is God's life, love, faithfulness, justice, holiness, glory, power, wisdom, etc. ...... are all in Christ Jesus, so when we know Christ, we also recognize God.   C.  Revelation of the Born Again Spirit to Know Christ Therefore, the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:17, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know Him truly." It says here that we know the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Therefore, after we are born again, we have to pray, and this prayer enables us to receive the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, so that we can "truly" know Him, that is to say, we can know Him from inside, and only the knowledge of the revelation is everlasting and unshakable.   On the day of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, that is, on the first day of the seventh month, early in the morning, when it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb of Jesus, and saw the stone removed from the tomb, and the disciples also saw it, and they returned to their own homes, because they saw that Jesus was no longer there. But Mary did not leave, she insisted on standing outside the tomb and weeping. Her longing heart to see the Lord, her heart to find the Lord, was seen by Jesus, so the Lord could not help but appear to her. When Jesus appeared to her, he asked her, "Woman, why are you weeping? At first, Mary thought it was the gardener. Yes, from the outside, the Lord was a gardener, but she had not yet seen it from the inside, she had not yet realized that Jesus had been resurrected. So she said unto Jesus, Sir, if thou hast removed him, tell me: and Jesus said unto her, Mary. And the Scripture said, "And Mary turned to him." (John 20:16) This turning around meant that she was enlightened by the Holy Spirit in her heart, and she immediately said to Jesus in Hebrew, "Rabboni" (John 20:16), which means that she knew the Lord Jesus in her heart.     IV. Knowing Christ   We know Christ inwardly, sometimes through the Bible, through prayer, through circumstances, or through our daily experiences. There are three things that we need to provide in order to know Christ:   A.  Revelation of Christ from within   A Christian's knowledge of Christ begins with the revelation of Christ. In Galatians 1:16, Paul said, "God...was pleased to reveal His Son in my heart," it is an indication of the Christian's first relationship with the Lord. This means that the first time a Christian has a relationship with the Lord is through the revelation of Christ. In fact, before Paul said this, he first traced back his past experiences and said that because he only knew Jesus as a Jew from the outside, many people followed Him and seemed to be confused by Him, thinking that the name Nazarene should be attacked, so he did his best to persecute the believers in Jesus, and brutalized and persecuted the church.   On that day, however, as he was leaving Jerusalem by order of the high priest with some attendants to arrest Christians in Damascus, while he was walking, a great light suddenly shone from heaven on all sides, and as soon as it had struck him, he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Paul came to his senses at the question, and said to the Lord, "Who art thou, O Lord?" And the Lord said to him, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." This statement, this revelation of a heavenly vision, was deeply rooted in Paul's heart, and this manifestation enabled Paul to know Christ from the inside.   Therefore Paul said, "God was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles" (Gal. 1:16). That is, if God had not been pleased to reveal His Son to me, I should have died and perished. So after he received the revelation, his whole outlook on life changed, and he made it his life's goal to pursue Christ. He went into the city to promote Jesus as the Son of God and to prove that Jesus is the Christ. From our experience, when we participate in an evangelistic meeting or small group evangelism, through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, we can see in our spirit and realize that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. It is natural to pray and accept Jesus, which is called receiving the revelation of the Son of God in our hearts. Unfortunately, most Christians stop at knowing Jesus as their Savior for the rest of their lives. Unbeknownst to them, this realization is only the beginning of the process. We must continue to seek to know this rich and infinite Christ.   B.  Christ is our life Therefore, after receiving the revelation of the Holy Spirit, a Christian must further realize that Christ is our life. In Galatians 1:16, Paul speaks of "being enlightened by the Son of God", that is, he refers to the indwelling of Christ, and then in chapter 2:20 he further says, "I have been crucified with Christ, and now it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." This shows that he had come to a better knowledge of the Lord. He not only knew that Christ was the Son of God, but he had further received the revelation of Christ as the life of the world. He saw that "I have been crucified with Christ, and I, the sinner, am dead; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It is now Christ who is my life.   Colossians 3:4 reads, "Christ is our life." And then verse 11 says, "Christ is all in all" . This means that the knowledge of Christ is always progressing and expanding. As the revelation of the Holy Spirit increases and expands to the end, we will see that Christ is all in all.   For example, when you are sick, you pray to the Lord, and you are healed, you not only know Jesus Christ as Savior, but you know Him as the Great Physician. Or if you are tired and weak before the meeting, but wonderfully, after you barely attend the meeting, your physical and mental weakness disappears, then you further realize that Christ is the power. ...... The more you experience, the more you know Him, and the more the revelation is enlarged.   C. The Gospel of John reveals that Christ is our life, our everything The Gospel of John has many meanings, but we will look at it from the point of view of "Christ as our life:   Christ dwells in the Spirit as life   In the contact between Jesus and individuals, see chapter 3, Nicodemus came to Jesus that night and Jesus talked to him about being born again. Jesus told him that unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus did not understand, so Jesus took great pains to tell him that unless a man is born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. This means that only after being born again can one have the experience of indwelling life. At the same time, only those who have been born again can be enlightened to see the Kingdom of God and understand the things of the Kingdom of God. In other words, Christ has to live in the spirit as our life.   Christ is the Water of Life   Chapter 4 tells us that on that day at about noon, Jesus passed through Samaria and came to Jacob's well in Sychar and waited for the Samaritan woman to come and draw water. When she came, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink." She answered him, "You are a Jew, I'm a Samaritan woman, why do you ask me for a drink?" Then Jesus answered her, saying, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." He further said to her, "Whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. At that time, the woman saw that Jesus' speech was full of sense, and that he must be a man of great knowledge. So she said to Jesus, "Sir, please give me this water." Jesus answered her, "Go and tell your husband to come here too." The woman said to Jesus, "I don't have a husband." Jesus said, "It is good for you to say you don't have a husband, because you have five husbands." The woman realized that Jesus was not just a learned man, but He was not just a man, He was a prophet. Jesus further explained to her that God is a Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The woman then said, "I know that the Messiah (Christ) is coming, and when He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said, "I, who speaks to you, am He." Now when the Samaritan woman had received a revelation, and had met Christ, she left her pitcher of water, and went out into the city, and said unto the multitude, Behold, there is a man that speaketh unto me all things whatsoever I have always done: is this the Christ? So the people went out of the city to Jesus, and many of them believed in Him.   This historical fact shows us that Christ is the water of our life. Water is for quenching one's thirst, and it is a sign of fulfillment. Therefore, when Christians believe and accept Jesus and receive the water of life, they will be satisfied.   Christ is the Bread of Life   Chapter 6 records that Jesus said to the crowd following Him, "Our [Israelite] fathers fed on manna in the wilderness. But the bread from heaven was not given to you by Moses, but the true bread from heaven has been given to you by my Father". And they said, "Lord! Give us this bread always." Jesus said, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." This means that Christ is our satiety.   To be "satisfied" is to stop our desires from chasing after the things of this world. But the "bread of life" makes us full, it makes our spirit strong and active to cope with difficult circumstances. Through this experience, every morning when we get up and approach the Lord in prayer, we receive the provision of Jesus Christ from God's Word (the Bible), just as the people of Israel ate the manna in the old days, and were strengthened to walk the roads of the wilderness. Christ is the Light of Life   In each chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus repeatedly shows us in different capacities that He is to be experienced as our life. In chapter 8, Christ is spoken of as the light of life. First "the water of life," then "the bread of life," and then "Jesus said to them, "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). The Christian experience is the story of life. Christ is our life so that we may have the light of His life. "If a person is not in the light, he does not know his own difficulties and does not recognize his own faults, so he will always condemn others and look down on them. Sometimes when brothers and sisters are weak, fail, or leave the Lord, if we are not in the light, we will either judge or condemn them. If we are not in the light, we will either judge or condemn them, not realizing that if you and I were not kept by the Lord, we would be even more pitiful than they are. It is only when the light comes that we realize that although we have not left the Lord outside, we have abandoned our initial love for Him, and slowly draw nearer to Him, and see that the time we spend reading and praying is too short, and that our ministry is too sloppy and perfunctory. ...... Instead, we confess our sins in the light, and receive adjustments, and then we are led to walk in the way of the Lord.   Christ is everything in life   In John 8:28, Jesus concluded, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will know that 'I am'”. The "I AM" means that Christ is able to meet all our needs. As far as experience is concerned, you say, "Lord, I am weak" but the Lord says, "I am the strength", you are sorrowful and in pain, but the Lord is your joy and comfort; you are doubtful in your heart, but the Lord is faithful; you are quick-tempered, but the Lord is your gentleness and patience; you are foolish, but the Lord is your wisdom. Watchman Nee was sitting with a coworker one afternoon, and suddenly he asked the co-worker, "Brother, what is patience? This brother was puzzled because the question was too simple. We all know what patience is, but since the question came from Brother Nee, there must be something to it, so the co-worker did not dare to answer. Brother Nee then asked what patience was, and the co-worker answered: "To me, patience is a kind of endurance. People treat you bitterly, they persecute you, but you endure.” Brother Nee shook his head and said, "No," and the co-worker said, "It is not”. The co-worker then said, "Then please tell me what patience is." Brother Nee replied, "Patience is Christ." The coworker then asked, "Brother, what do you mean by patience is Christ? Could you please explain?" Brother Nee did not explain a word, but repeated over and over again that patience is Christ. So the two of them stayed in that state of mind for a long time, and they did not ask or say anything else until evening. When the co-worker returned to his place, he was still confused and went to his room to pray, "Lord, patience is Christ, what does this mean?” Thank God, one day suddenly his inner eyes were opened and he saw that Christ Himself is my patience. True patience is not an act, but Christ living out of me. (This  testimony  is  quoted  from "Prophecies of Divine Revelation for the Present Age," p.330)   Thank God! God has made Christ the answer to all our questions, Christ is our life and everything. I hope that the Lord will be gracious to us so that we will seek to know Christ as our life and everything in our lives! <-- Back to "The Pathway of Inner Being" Next Chapter -->

Scripture Reading: Revelation 3:14-22, Colossians 3:15, Romans 8:1-2 Thank God! As soon as we were saved by grace, God set us on the path of life. Admittedly, when we look at the ecumenical Christian community today, we can see that all the saints are at peace and love one another. But more importantly, we must go back to the Bible to see what is pleasing to God and what is the path that the church should take. Undeniably, God has entrusted people with different tasks, some of which are to evangelize and save souls; some are to perform miracles, heal the sick and cast out demons; some are to open hospitals, schools, or various charitable organizations; some are to establish churches and expand on a large scale outside, and some are to focus on preaching the truths of Scripture, and so on. All of these organizations, which receive different trusts from God, are part of the Kingdom of God. But what is the main and central path that runs through the entire Bible? Abraham is the ancestor of the Israelites and the main Old Testament character. At the beginning of the New Testament, Matthew records the genealogy of Jesus Christ from Abraham. This shows that the Lord Jesus Christ was born from this line. Abraham lived in the land of Canaan all his life, and he looked to the city of foundations, which was built by God's handiwork (Heb. 11:10). It is also the New Jerusalem, the holy city that came down from heaven as recorded in the last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. Therefore, from the conclusion of the whole work of God, it is clear that God's focus and attention is within the holy city of the New Jerusalem, and what is this holy city like? The Bible describes it! The city is glorious and resplendent: "having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal..... the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light." (Rev. 21:11, 22-23). Then chapter 22:1 says, "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of it's street..." This road with rivers of life-giving water in it is the way of life. This shows that the way the saints (the church) should walk is the way of life. However, few people have seen this path, and even fewer have entered into it. We hope that the Lord will use this message to open the eyes of our spirit to see that the Lord has placed you and me on the path of life in the spirit, not the outside path, but the inside path. Management from the inside We have looked at nine experiences of how to enter into the way of the inner life, and in the morning we will look at the tenth experience, "The Inner Management" . When a Christian goes deeper into the path of the inner life, there is a kind of light that allows Christ to manage this person, the so-called spiritual man, on the inside. I. Christ Reigns in the Heart to Govern A spiritual person is not just a person who loves the Lord passionately, serves the Lord faithfully, or has an elegant demeanor that is admired. In fact, the so-called spiritual man is to let Christ live in our hearts and manage our minds, emotions, and wills; and in our lives, work, and ministry, we are governed from the inside in our dealings, judgments, and rules. In other words, Christ is on the throne in our hearts. This is also the picture of a person who is at the peak of spiritual maturity.  A. In the Laodicean Church, the Lord has Lost His Position It is written in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 that the Lord wrote through the Apostle John to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea (representing the churches of the people). As each letter ends with the same sentence, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." , it is clear that these letters were written to the churches of the people. It is clear that these letters are addressed to all the churches, and to all the churches of the earth throughout the ages. At the same time, the different characteristics of these seven churches illustrate the seven processes of church history. They represent the churches from the time of the apostles to the present day, which is nearly 2,000 years ago. One of the last churches is called Laodicea, which refers to the near return of the Lord Jesus and the end of the church. We are now in the age of the church of Laodicea. What was the church of Laodicea like? Where is Christ in the last days of the church? Revelation 3:20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." Oh! The head of the church is rejected at the door, which means that the Lord has lost his place in the church. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer in charge of the Church. From the personal experience of the saints, Jesus is no longer in charge of the people. The Church is a gathering of saints. Do you, me, him, all of us, let Christ rule? If so, it is the Church of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was a pre-Laodicean church, that is, there was a great revival in about the 17th century when a group of Christians were raised up by the Lord, and not only did they realize that they loved one another, but they stayed in the Word of the Lord, and they allowed Christ to have the first rule in all things. Unfortunately, it has continued to the present day, and the church has deteriorated into Laodicea because of its deviation, and we would like to be reminded of this by the Lord. With regard to the Revelation's reference to the Laodicean church and the loss of Christ's position, we would like to briefly point out three scenarios: The heart has not fully surrendered to the Lord - Neither cold nor hot Look at verse 15 of chapter 3: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot" . "Neither cold nor hot" means half and half, i.e. lukewarm water. Spiritually, it means half love for the Lord and half love for the world. Do you say you don't love the Lord? Whenever there is a church meeting, you always attend it, and you even give a little bit of money, but do you really love the Lord? When things come to a head, you are surrounded by worldly matters and become timid to serve the Lord. Anyone who is not absolutely devoted to the Lord is lukewarm. Why is he lukewarm? Because the heart is not fully turned to the Lord. Admittedly, life on earth requires that one must work for a living, except for a few who are called by the Lord to serve Him full-time in prayer and preaching. This does not mean that to serve the Lord full-time is to serve Him, or that to serve Him professionally is to love the world. In fact, every saint should live for the Lord full time, just in different positions. For example, when sisters take care of their children for the Lord, or when brothers do business for the Lord, as long as their hearts are directed to the Lord, it is right. However, it is a pity that the hearts of many saints do not fully turn to the Lord, but are occupied by the world. 1 John 2:15 tells us, "If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” . Before the Lord Jesus left this world, he said to his disciples, "For you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world." (John 15:19) Then He turned to God the Father and prayed, "I have given them your word. And the world hated them, because they were not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (Jn 17:14). It is clear that Christians are despised by the world because we are not of the world, and therein lies the key to the strength of the witness of some Christians and the weakness of the witness of others. Let's say a young man and woman are in love, and they must talk about everything. If the man loves the woman passionately, and the woman loves several other men in addition to her boyfriend, can she love him exclusively? Naturally, this is impossible, because her heart is divided among her other boyfriends, and this man is only a fraction of her heart. Similarly, many Christians also have other loves outside of the Lord Jesus, especially young brothers and sisters, who love to swim in the mountains, play in the water, play ball games, watch TV, and read novels. As their hearts are not fully devoted to the Lord, it is no wonder that their response to the Lord's love is like that of the Laodicean Church, neither cold nor hot, and their hearts are not devoted to the Lord. Please ask yourself, is your heart cold or hot? A Christian who is on fire in his spirit is used by the Lord in his ministry because in the depths of his spirit there is always a fire burning. As the prophet Jeremiah said, "Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name. But His word was in my heart like a burning fires shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not." (Jeremiah 20:9) May the Lord be gracious and give light! Spiritual things replace Christ The attitude of the Laodicean church toward the Lord was lukewarm and self-assured, saying, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing." . (Rev. 3:18) The Church's Work Blessing Replaces Christ - I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no lack of anything. Since the Laodicean Church had been blessed by the Lord, it had many works of great magnitude and performance. Therefore, she was proud to say, "I am rich, I become wealthy, and I have need of nothing." Unknown to them, they are replacing Christ with the blessing of the church's work. In this regard, I always remind myself and my co-workers that when we are blessed by the Lord in our ministry, we must not let the work of the church replace Christ. For example, there is a brother who has a desire to love the Lord, so he participates in the ministry of building clubhouses. Since he has taken on this responsibility, he tries his best to plan on how to decorate the clubhouse so that it will be magnificent, instead of paying attention to how to make the people who come to the meetings feel that they have the Lord's presence, or pay attention to God's glory; in other words, his attention is not on the Lord, but on things other than the Lord. A famous and authoritative theology professor once visited the world-famous St. Peter's Catholic Church in the Vatican in Rome. On that day the Pope himself took him around the whole Catholic Church. During the conversation, the Pope said to the professor of theology in a boastful tone: "What we didn't have in the apostolic age, we have now. Today, it is no longer like the apostolic age when the Church still lacked ...... Look at the amount of money spent on this chapel, the materials, the equipment, the furnishings. The professor of theology, upon hearing this, immediately replied to the Pope, "Yes, we now have all the wealth that we did not have in the time of the Apostles, but what the Apostles had, we do not have today”. The apostles said at that time, "I have not silver or gold, but what I have, I give to you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to raise up the lame and to walk,  a power which we have lost." Oh! Brothers and sisters, from this we can see that if the eyes of our heart are not opened by the Lord, we will also focus on the outside of the church, the things that can be seen as vanity, rather than the reality of the spiritual life that cannot be seen on the inside. Spiritual Gifts Instead of Christ - Buy gold refined in fire and be rich! Thus the Lord said to the church in Laodicea, "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in fire, that you may be rich." (Rev. 3:18). "Gold refined by fire" is pure gold that has been forged in a fiery furnace, denoting high value and purity; spiritually, it means faith (1 Pet. 1:7) on the one hand, and abundant life on the other. Because the way to the inner life is through the valley of tears, everyone who passes through the valley of tears will shed tears, but the result of all the pain and suffering will be an abundant spiritual life. Today's churches need those who walk the path of the inner life to have deep spiritual experiences and abundant supply of life, so that the churches can be enriched. But if we are not careful, we can replace Christ with spiritual gifts. As in the case of the Corinthian church, God gave them the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-7) for the purpose of furthering their lives. Unfortunately, they emphasized the use of the gifts more than the growth of life (Christ). As a result, the Corinthian church, though full of eloquence and knowledge, was not inferior in any of the gifts (1 Cor. 1:5, 7), but Paul said they were babies in Christ (1 Cor. 3:1), which means that they took the place of Christ with their gifts. Therefore, they do not grow in life and become spiritual babies. Replacing Christ with spiritual knowledge - Buying eye salve so that you can see The Laodicean church is not only replacing Christ with gifts, but further replacing Christ with spiritual knowledge. Knowledge is arrogance; pride is blindness, because knowledge (reason) instead of Christ means there is no sight of Christ, i.e. no revelation. No wonder the Lord said to the church in Laodicea, "and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see." (Rev. 3:18) A brother repeatedly said to me, "Brother Jeng, it is rare that you come to Taiwan preach more when you have the opportunity, because the brothers and sisters there are very eager." I answered him, "I know, but some sermons need a period of time to be digested, because if they are not digested into experiences, we may fall into the trap of replacing the foundation with spiritual knowledge." Don't think that the sermon becomes ours after hearing it. No, it takes time to experience it personally, for if knowledge only increases, but not actual experience, it will remain at the beginning of Christ's doctrine (Heb. 6:1) and will not grow, just as the church in Laodicea did. Christ Loses His Place in the Church - I knock at the door. The Laodicean church is neither hot nor cold, and replaces Christ with the blessings of works, spiritual gifts, and spiritual knowledge. Naturally, Christ has lost His place in the church altogether. What we see in the church is man's "self" on the throne, man taking the lead, and the impression is that man's opinions, claims, and voices fill the church, while the voice of the Lord is not heard, and there is no supply of life. No wonder the Lord said, "Behold, I knock at the door! I am knocking at the door", indicating that Christ is already outside the church, outside the believer's heart, and that it is man's "self" that is on the throne in the church, not Christ.   B. Christ Reigns in the Heart Regarding the point that Christ reigns in the heart, we are quoting the Lord's warning to the Laodicean church as a lesson to us so that we will not repeat the same mistake. Spiritual Humility - If anyone hears my voice abd opens the door "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door" signifies that it is not easy to hear the voice of the Lord. In the morning we preach the message here, and all the saints are also listening to the sermon, but some of them hear the voice of the Holy Spirit (the word of the Lord), and some of them even get nothing from the meeting from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. On the path of spiritual life, "hearing the voice of the Lord" is absolutely indispensable. When we come to a meeting, we must be touched, grabbed, or touched by at least one word of the Lord in the message, or a certain passage of the word, so that you can be helped or supplied. That's why we often hear brothers and sisters praying to the Lord, "Lord! Use the words of your servants to pierce the hearts of men. We can see that hearing the voice of the Lord has the effect of piercing your heart. I wish that every time we come to the Lord, we would have the grace to recognize with an open heart that we have nothing and that we need the word of the Lord to illuminate me, correct me, remind me, and heal me. Isaiah 57:15 says, "For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'” This means that whoever has a contrite heart and a humble spirit, the Lord dwells in it. May we all pray to the Lord to empty our hearts so that we may hear His voice. For the Lord has promised that whoever is humble, He will enter into him and dwell with him. In this way we can maintain the presence of the Lord between us and Him. There is a world-famous picture of the twelve disciples observing the Lord's Supper with the Lord. It is said that this picture was made centuries ago by a famous artist, who spent his heart, soul, strength, and years to paint every figure and every object in the picture in a meticulous and precise manner. The cup for dinner alone took several weeks of work, and it took him at least a few years to complete this masterpiece. When he had finished the painting, he invited a number of people to view it, and they all praised it for its beauty! They all praised the painting for its beauty, especially the dinner cup. However, the artist was disappointed and saddened because the centerpiece of his painting was Jesus, but the audience's attention was diverted from Jesus to the cup. So he erased the cup and painted an ordinary cup with an ordinary hand. As a result, no one would pay special attention to the cup, but rather to the central figure, Jesus.  Let Christ Come in - I will come in to him "I will come in to him" indicates that the Lord is going to come in to us. Spiritually, it means to let Christ come in and live in us. If you and I have truly received the Lord Jesus into our hearts, we should not substitute anything else for Christ. Let me give you a simple example: If there is a brother or sister among us who has bought a diamond ring worth 10 million dollars and put it in his pocket, he will be very fidgety when he comes to the meeting, he will feel it to see if it is still in his pocket, and then he will feel it again, and he will be unable to listen to the sermon, or even listen to the Lord's word because the 10 million dollar diamond ring is in his pocket. It's a pity that you can't listen to the Lord's word because of the 10 million dollar diamond ring in your pocket! The psalm says, O Jesus, Lord, with me abide; I rest in Thee, whate’er betide. There is another hmn that tells us the same thing: Dear Lord Jesus, precious Jesus, Thou hast won each love from me; Who like Thee—so fair and comely? Who like Thee—so sweet and lovely? Matchless One, unrivaled beauty, None can e’er compete with Thee! Christ makes His home and is enthroned in the heart - Dine with him and he with Me. Further the Lord promises, "I will dine with him," meaning that Christ has come unto us in order to dwell in us, to make us His dwelling-place, His home, to show that He will make His home in you and in me. And He says, "I will dine with him," and He will ascend the throne in you and in me. Oh! May the Lord be gracious and merciful to us, and open the eyes of our hearts so that we may truly see that Jesus Christ in you and in me is better than silver and gold; better than riches and wealth; better than a vast expanse of land; better than kings ruling over the nations; better than the world's glory and fame; better than the world's wealth and riches; better than the world's glory. Best of beauty, best of sweet, best of all . ...and the heart is drawn not only to love Him, but to cherish Him, as the psalmist prays to the Lord, "Lord, I love You dearly! I love Thee dearly, and would that I were Thine forever, and that Thou wouldst dwell in my soul, and never be parted. Who have I in heaven? I have no one to love on earth, but I wish to pour out my heart to the Lord!". I believe that in this invisible way, I enter into a seat where the Lord sits with me and I with Him, where the Lord is on the throne of my heart, ruling me and ordering me, and from now on it is not I but the Lord, but the Lord is the Lord. Ephesians 3:17 reads, " That Christ may dwell (make home) in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love." We are told that Christ not only sits on a throne in heaven, but also makes his home in our hearts through our faith. He will make our hearts His home, and He will reign freely in our hearts. There was a young man who testified that he not only participated in the ministry training, but also served in the meetings. As we talked about "according to Christ" during the summer, the title "Mount Zion" was mentioned in the message, which refers to Christ's ascension to the throne. Therefore, in order to experience the ascension of Christ to the throne, one must get off the throne. This brother was very helpful. I didn't realize that the Lord was really gracious to him. After the special meeting, he went down to the mountains and loved and served the Lord with a greater fervor in his spirit than before. Soon after, one night at home, he remembered that a young brother had not come to the meeting for a long time, so he called him, and found out that he had a problem and was in a sympathetic situation. So they got into a conversation on the phone, and because of the pain in his heart, the other party complained to him, but his father came over and urged him not to use the phone for too long, but the other party was in the middle of his speech, and his father impatiently shouted at him to hang up the phone right away, but the other party was still talking, and his father got angry, and he had no choice but to hang up the line, and his father, because of his unceasing fury, kept on scolding him, and he couldn't help but to reply back said, I'm not a man and a woman to talk about love, I did not think that his father was so angry that he slapped him in the face, he was already a university student, and at that time there were other younger brothers and relatives on the scene, he was humiliated and furious, although he did not dare to return the favor, but inwardly angry from here on out on his father's grudge, and so a week after a week, a month passed, he and his father do not talk to each other, and it seems to be a deeper and deeper separation, because he thought his father was too much, too unsympathetic. He thought his father was too much and too unreasonable. I have a clear conscience towards people, but by a marvelous work of the Holy Spirit, he happened to be assigned to speak at a youth meeting about the meaning of Mount Zion, which is to put Christ on the throne. He struggled for a long time because he knew that in order for Christ to be on the throne, a man had to get off the throne, and because he did not want to be a man who only preached but did not experience. He wanted to push back and not fellowship with his leaders, but the words he heard at the special meeting hit him hard, one by one, that a bowed down man allows everything to be led by the Lord, submits to what He has ordained, and that every circumstance has been permitted by the throne of Christ. He struggled, but thanked the Lord! Eventually he submitted and the Lord's grace won him over, and the Lord's grace was enough to give him the courage to go to his father and confess his sins to him, saying, "Father, you beat me that day, and I was very sorry in my heart, and I hated you, but the Lord wanted me to confess my sins to you, and miraculously, not only was his heart released after he confessed his sin, but they were reconciled as father and son, and they became friends. I was very touched by this testimony. May the Lord be gracious to us, so that we can study seriously and experience the throne of Christ, so that the Lord can rule over you and me. All who strive for the body are men on the throne; may the Lord give us light through this.   II. The Peace of Christ Rules When Christ rules over you and me, there is one proof, namely, peace. For Colossians 3:15 tells us, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts." This means that we, as human beings, are governed by the peace of Christ. A. The Peace of Christ Reigns in Your Hearts On the night of the resurrection after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, because the Jews were going to further persecute the disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples were afraid and shut their doors tight. While the disciples were in fear and trembling and losing peace of mind, Jesus came to them and appeared to them, saying, "Peace be with you" (John 20:19). Not only that, but when Jesus appeared to them again eight days later, He said, "Peace be with you" (John 20:26).  It is clear that when Jesus came in, peace came in with him. Therefore, a person who really lets Christ rule is one who lets peace reign in our hearts. "Letting peace rule" means letting peace rule our life, work and ministry. Therefore, when a saint realizes that he has lost peace, he must quickly return to the Lord to receive illumination, because we are no longer under the Lord's control. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, after feeding 5,000 people with bread, He urged His disciples to get into the boat first; and when He had told them to disperse, He went up on the mountain alone to pray. The boat was in the middle of the sea, and the wind was rough, and the waves were shaking it. During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus was walking on the sea, going to the disciples. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified and cried out in fear because they thought He was a ghost. Jesus said to them quickly, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” As soon as He got into the boat, the wind ceased and the waves were calmed (Matthew 14:22-33). This history shows again and again that when Jesus comes, he brings peace. Experientially speaking, when saints have been in a state of internal dissension, or when they have been in a state of anger, or when they have been in a state of advocacy, or when they have been struggling with "I" and "I", it is a sign that either peace is reigning, or that Jesus has lost his position, because as soon as he came, the wind and the waves were calmed. B. Christ's name is called the Prince of Peace, He brings peace Isaiah 9:6 reads of our Lord, "His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This means that Jesus' name is the "Prince of Peace", and when He reigns, there is peace. Therefore, if the Lord is the Lord, it is certain that there will be peace like a river in our hearts. We can draw a foreshadowing from the Old Testament that during the reign of Solomon, there would be peace in the land, and the Israelites would live and work in peace and contentment. The word "Solomon" means "King of Peace" in reference to Christ. When Christ reigns, peace reigns, and as a result, our whole person, family, and church enjoys spiritual peace and rest. C. Stop the activities of the flesh and Let Christ reign to have peace The reason why a Christian cannot enjoy the peace of Christ and experience Christ's reign in his heart is that he is too active in the flesh, and he acts according to the dictates of his own mind and emotions, and lives according to his own preferences. Once he loses peace in his heart, he is prone to live in the activities of the flesh, and to live a life of struggling and suffering. Therefore, Psalm 46:10 tells us, "Be still, and know that I am God." This means that God is the Almighty God, and the power of His throne rules over all things, so we must stop all the activities of the flesh, stop struggling, and surrender completely to God. If we allow our own life to rule, we will end up being filled with fleshly activities and lose our peace. If we do not let ourselves be the master, then we can stop the activities of the flesh and let Christ be the master, so that the peace of Christ can be the master over us.  D. Not to Struggle by Effort, But to Enjoy Peace by Total Surrender Sooner or later, in the pursuit of the inner life, young people will find that there are more failures than victories in their experiences, and that is not the case, for many times they are passionate, talk too much, and are arrogant. It seems that there are a lot of spiritual difficulties, and so they want to practice self-mortification, learn to be more gentle, to talk less, and to be humble, that is, when they aspire to pursue victory, they will enter into the stage of struggling. When you set your mind on the pursuit of victory, you enter the stage of hard struggle. Some people stop at this stage for a long time, until one day the Lord's mercy comes and they see that He is God, and they must stop everything and let Christ be their life, so that they can live as Christ and no longer be me, and they do not have to work hard or aspire to anything, and naturally stop themselves. This is what Isaiah 30:15 tells us: "In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." In the New Testament, Hebrews 4:10 says, "For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” III. The Law of the Spirit of Life When Christ rules over you and me, as Romans 8:1-2 says, "Now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who[a] do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." This is a statement that God, by the law of the Spirit of life, saves man from the law of sin and death, and gives him victory. A. The Power of Sin is the Law of Man We know that one of the reasons for the failure of a Christian is the fallen life in man, the power of sin and the power of death, which is a "law" that calls man to sin (Rom. 7:23). In other words, the reason why man sins is because sin has a power to make him sin, and the reason why man dies is because death has a power to make him die. It is said through experience that there is a law of sin and a law of death in man. This law is a natural power that operates in man. In the case of the law of sin, man is called to do what he dislikes; in the case of the law of death, man is called to weakness. For example, if someone wants to serve the Lord in his heart, but has no power to do so, the law of death will always lead the saint into weakness and death. Therefore, we must not allow this weakness (the predecessor of death) to overcome us, i.e., when we want to serve, we must not say, "I am weak and have no power to serve", or else we are giving the devil room. For the power of death is a law unto weakness and death (Rom. 7:13). This law of death causes us to lose our spiritual functions, so that we cannot pray, read the Bible, or serve, and even our spirit remains weak and sinks. B. The Law of the Spirit of Life Frees Me from the Law of Sin and Death It is true that everyone is under the law of sin and death, but when Jesus Christ is in us, we are released from the law of sin and death. How are we released? The Holy Spirit puts the life of God in you and me the day we believe in Jesus and are born again. In other words, our born-again spirit means that the Holy Spirit puts God's life in us, and this Holy Spirit carries life. The Bible calls this the "Spirit of life". Since it is the Spirit of life, it means that there is life in it, and all life has a law. It's true that a flower, if you leave it there and don't care about it, it will naturally grow. It is also like a grain of wheat that falls into the ground, and after a certain period of time, marvelously germinates, grows, and grows ears. Because this is the law of life, it is true in Taiwan, and it is also true in the United States, and it is true in Japan, and it is true no matter where you are, because there is a law of growth in life. The life of God also has its law, and this law is holy, strong, and victorious. God's law of salvation is law over law, that is, the law of the Spirit of life over the law of sin and death, so that the saint does not have to strive or struggle. Just believe and accept Jesus as Savior, and this law of the Spirit of life overcomes the law of sin and death. This means that the law of the Spirit of life governs us internally. For example, no matter how I put this handkerchief in my hand, if I let go of it, it will surely fall to the ground, and I don't have to help it to fall, because the center of the earth has gravity, and this law governs it. So how do you stop the handkerchief from falling to the ground? As long as there is an upward law (power) to hold it, it will not fall. I went to San Diego USA for three weeks. One day I saw dozens of colorful balloons flying high in the sky, and a brother told me that it was not far from where I lived, and that for only fifty dollars you could take a ride in a balloon for an hour and see the whole city of San Diego. The balloon goes up into the air and you go up with it. In the same way, we are called to sin by the law of sin, and the law of death is like gravity pulling you and me into death, but the balloon is like the law of life lifting us up into the air. Therefore, the Christian does not have to struggle to win, but the victorious life of Christ is in us, and this victorious life, the law of the Spirit of life, gives us victory over the law of sin and death. We can see that there is an inner management, which is administered by the law of the Spirit of life. In terms of experience, how to let Christ rule over us from morning to night, there is nothing else, that is, to be close to the Lord, to live in intimate fellowship with the Lord, and will naturally overcome, and Christ is invisible in you and me, to be a life of victory for us, so that we can enter into a life of deliverance and transcendence. But when you and I do not live in the Holy Spirit, we are disconnected from the law of life, and immediately overcome by the law of sin and death. So when do saints allow Christ to rule, that is, the law of life to rule over this person? The Psalmist says, Abiding, we are strengthened with each breath; In fellowship, His life will swallow death. Abiding, we sin's power need not fear; In fellowship, the self will disappear. Pray that the Lord will be gracious to us, so that not only will our hearts yearn to enter into the path of life within, but that the Lord will lead us into the experience of letting the Lord rule over the whole person! <-- Back to "The Pathway of Inner Being" Next Chapter -->

Scripture Reading: Galatians 5:17, 24 Proverbs 17:3 Jeremiah 48:11 Philippians 1:20-21 When a Christian enters the path of the inner life and is led deeper by the Lord, there is an end result that is characterized by inner purity. This spiritual experience can only be achieved after years of pursuing, letting God work, and learning day and night, but it is the most pleasing thing before God. I remember once I ate a ponkan, the flavor of which seemed so sweet I had never tasted it before, so I couldn't help but ask a store where it was purchased. This small example shows us that there are many varieties of fruits, but it is not the size and color of the outside that counts, it is the taste inside that counts, whether it is tart or sweet; likewise, one day when we have finished our journey in this world and have entered into glory, and have become the firstfruits of God's creation (James 1:18), and are letting God enjoy us, He will be most satisfied with the purity that is in us. This message is to show us that the ultimate goal of our inner life is the purity of our inner being. Now we will briefly look at the process of how the saints achieve inner purity by walking this inner path.   I. After man's fall, his natural life became self life In the beginning, after the Lord God had created the heavens and the earth in six days, He created man and woman in His own image. At that time, the natural life did not have a sinful nature in it. Therefore, it was the human spirit that governed the soul, and the soul governed the body. So the Lord God set up a garden in Eden in the east, and put the man who had been created there, to repair and to guard the garden. In this way, day by day, the relationship between man and God was established in intimate fellowship. Because the spirit governs the soul over the body, the spirits of God and man are in communion. However, because the devil lured the patriarchs through the serpent and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the toxin of Satan entered into man. As a result, the order of things in man was reversed, and the "spirit" of man's communion with God was put aside, and the soul rose up to dominate the body. In other words, the mind, emotions, and will of man dominated the body. This is how it has evolved until today, when all human beings are "I", "I", "I". This "I" is the soul. In Chinese, the soul is said to be combined with the spirit, but in the Bible, the spirit and the soul are separate. When the spirit is set aside and the soul is in charge, man acts according to his mind, emotions, and will. The whole person is disconnected from God, and the spirit becomes chaos and darkness. Since God's dealings with man are through the Spirit, we can only know God. Now the "Spirit" has lost its position, so man's life is dominated by the soul over the body, and he has become a man of the flesh. Therefore, Genesis 6:3 reads, "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not abide with man forever, for he is indeed flesh.'" In this way, the human spirit loses its function and the soul comes out to dominate the body, which is called "flesh" in the Bible. This fleshly life is called the life of self. Matthew 16:24 reads, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'" This means that a person's physical life is also called "self" life. However, when a person believes in Jesus, his spirit comes to life, and the spirit has to do its best to be the Lord, but the soul in the person also wants to be the Lord, so the spirit and the soul are at war with each other. Therefore, Galatians 5:17 says, "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." Speaking of experience, today's TV programs in Taiwan are very exciting, especially the serial dramas. For example, if you are sitting in front of the TV and you are watching TV, the Holy Spirit reminds you that you have little time to read the Bible lately, and the flesh says, "Now is the right time to watch the program," and you choose to watch the TV, this is a picture of the flesh and the Holy Spirit fighting against each other so that you can't do what you want to do. I am not saying that we should never watch television. As a citizen, we should be concerned about the current situation in the country and abroad, and we can watch world news reports and weather reports, but the question is where is our heart? There is one thing that we must not overlook lightly, and we must pay attention to, and that is the conflict between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. This flesh is also called "self". The life of the soul is also the life of "self". No wonder the Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, said to those who followed Him, "If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me". This is because the life of the "self", i.e. the "soul", is an enemy of God.   II. The life of "self" is centered on one's own interests. We are all members of Adam's fallen race, and since the fall of our fathers, the "self" life has always been centered on self-interest. But God's eternal plan is to establish Christ as the center of the universe. He is not only the center of all mankind, but also the center of salvation. But our "self" life is centered on our own interests. Therefore, God's work is to transfer man's interests to Christ, so that Christ can be the center. There are at least three major manifestations of man's "self" being centered on his own interests: Gaining honor There is no man who does not want to be honored. Of course, a country needs a president to govern, and a place needs a mayor to manage the provinces, counties, and cities. Therefore, once the election day arrives, in order to win the precious votes from the voters, some candidates even kneel down and beg the public to do so, but in fact, there is no lack of candidates who are really working for the rights of the country and the people, but there are only a few of them, why? Why? It is because being an important official in the country is worth a hundred times more, and it is a great honor to be a dignified person! We can see that one of the manifestations of the "self" life is to gain honor, to seek fame, to strive for respectability, and to be vain. This is the same thing even after believing in Jesus. Isn't it? Christians should be intent on pleasing the Lord and satisfying His heart in their ministry. Unfortunately, as we go from one ministry to the next, over time, it has become a matter of serving the Lord in the ministry of the Lord. It has evolved into grabbing credit and competing for glory in the ministry, which is a manifestation of "self". Grasping for Authority Another manifestation of "self" is grasping for power. That is to say, to strive for position and power. This is hidden in the "self" of man. It is no wonder that when people get along with each other, there will be disputes, gangs, and selfishness ...... resulting in you fighting for power and me seizing profits, causing the whole world society to be in turmoil and insecurity. The church is no exception. Today, some brothers and sisters in the church, in order to get elected as elders and deacons, secretly use every means to canvass for votes by caging or cozying up to the community to elect board members, council members, and chairpersons, which is really unique. On the surface, they serve as elders and deacons, and are faithful to the Lord with great diligence and hard work, but their hidden "selves" are secretly competing for status and grasping for power. May the Lord be gracious and merciful and give us light! However, do not listen to the Word wrongly and think that Christians are all mediocre and incompetent. We hope that some Christians will take up political positions or important positions in society, or even the presidency of a Christian who fears the Lord, which is much better than the position of an unbeliever.  Striving for Profit Striving for profit means selfishness. Who is not selfish? Even Christians who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord are no exception. Whenever they want to serve, they always consider what is at stake and weigh the gains and losses first, and they do not really say from the bottom of their hearts, "O Lord! I am willing to lay it all down if it is not Your will; but rather, Lord, I am willing to lay it all down if it is not Your will or mine! I will submit to Your will if it is in accordance with my wishes, but if it is against my interests, I will think twice about it. In this way, considering one's own interests and weighing one's own honor, disgrace, and dignity as a prerequisite is a manifestation of striving for interests. We can see that a Christian who serves with spiritual fervor and performs well in the church is no different from an unbeliever if he does not follow the path of the inner life, and if his "own" life is not directed. It is not difficult to see how terribly the "self" life is hidden in people. III. The "self" life in ministry violates God's sovereignty Not only that, but the "self" life often violates God's sovereignty in ministry. Christ is the head of the Church, as Hebrews 3:6 tells us, "Christ as a Son over HIs own house." Therefore, every saint should unconditionally surrender to the Lord, and let Him rule and lead us. Violating God by means of "one's own" life However, when it comes to ministry, one's "own" life will sneak in and invade one's life. Therefore, people have to use their knowledge and intelligence to fulfill God's will, instead of looking up to the Lord and relying on Him. Unbeknownst to them, in the universe, when God's will passes through the earth, man's knowledge, intelligence, and methods are obstacles and interruptions to God's will. Thank the Lord! Because of the Lord's mercy, the Church of God has laid a foundation on the spiritual path in the past few years. Therefore, every time before a ministry is promoted, we always spend a considerable amount of time bowing down before the Lord, praying, seeking, and recognizing that there is nothing that man can do. Violating God with the power of one's own life Anyone who prays little must be a person who is full of his own abilities and methods, and when he comes to the promotion of ministry, he relies on his own abilities and power to fulfill God's will. Therefore, the apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:1-3, "O ignorant Galatians! The crucifixion of Jesus Christ has been painted before your eyes, and who has bewitched you? ...... For if you were initiated by the Holy Spirit, how much more are you being made perfect by the flesh? Are you so ignorant? It is clear that there is a vision of "self" that seeks to fulfill the will of God through the flesh. Like the saints in the Galatian church, they did believe in Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and it was the Holy Spirit that moved them to confess their sins, repent, believe in the Lord, and be saved by grace. But soon they went back to their old ways and kept the law. Relying on the Holy Spirit instead of talent and power to accomplish things In ministry, if we do not rely on the Holy Spirit, but apply what we have learned in society to church ministry, that is to say, we violate God with the power of our own life. That is why we have been reminded here again and again that we should always emphasize prayer, showing that we should not rely on human talents, power, or methods, so as not to infringe on God's sovereignty. Speaking from experience, whether in life, work, or ministry, when you encounter difficulties, do you first seek the Lord? Or do you look to man for help to cope? May the Lord be gracious to us and remind us that By doing so, we are reminded that the life of "self" is an infringement of God's sovereignty and does not allow God to lead us directly.   IV. God puts an end to "self" through the cross Since "self" has been infringing on God's sovereignty, and this "self" is centered on self-interest, how does God save and solve the problem of "self"? He put an end to man's "self" through the cross. Romans 6:6 reads, "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." It means that when the Lord Jesus was crucified, He cried out, "It is finished". It means that the cross has put an end to all that we are as human beings. In other words, when Jesus was crucified, we were all crucified and finished together in the cross of Christ. As a matter of objective fact, Jesus Christ not only bore all the sins of all mankind on the cross, but also we, our "selves", were crucified with Him. "Self" was also crucified with Him, and in this way "self" was finished. Just as this book in my hand is Jesus Christ, you, I, and he are this piece of paper, and when this piece of paper is in the book, it is as if you, I, and he are in Christ. When this book is thrown into the water, this piece of paper is thrown into the water with the book, which means that Jesus Christ was crucified, and we are crucified with Him, and when the Lord Jesus died, we all died. This is also the metaphor of God ending man's "self" through the cross. But in terms of experience, we, on the human side, must accept the work of God's hand, just as Jesus was crucified, and all our sins were taken on by Him. But in terms of experience, you and I must believe in order to receive this blessing. On the contrary, if you refuse and do not believe, you will still go to hell. It is not the case that after Jesus' crucifixion and completion of salvation, all people will go to heaven. The subjective experience is whether or not you believe in Christ's salvation. Let's say I am sued for a $5 million debt, and a brother who loves the Lord goes to court on my behalf and pays off the $5 million, then the judge summons me and declares, "Someone has paid off your debt for you, now please sign the certificate, and if I don't sign, it means that I don't accept. It is true that someone has paid off a five million dollar debt for me, but if I refuse, I still have to keep on paying the five million dollar debt. Galatians 5:24 says, "And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." This means that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ has ended our "self" life, but I still have to believe and accept this objective fact. However, I still have to believe and accept this objective fact, and then subjectively, I have to accept Christ's work of curing "self", i.e. the purification of the cross.   V. God removes the impurities of self life through the purification of the cross Jeremiah 48:11 tells us, "Moab has been at ease from his youth; He has settled on his dregs, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent has not changed." The historical source of "Moab" is the descendants of Abraham's nephew, Lot, who had committed incest with his daughter (Gen. 19:36-37), which is an indication of the physical body. How can we solve the problem of our natural "self" which, like Moab, is adulterated with the flesh? The prophets of old spoke of Moab as the dregs of wine that needed to be cleansed, which means that our "self" is adulterated and must be cleansed. In ancient times, wine was made by hand. Grapes were picked and pressed in a winepress to crush the grapes, and after the juice flowed out, the grapes were placed in bottles and then poured from one vessel into another. So pouring and pouring, each time to pour, there will be some residue left in the bottom of the vessel. And so they clarified and filtered it until the dregs were pure wine, and then they sealed the bottle. The prophet's analogy of Moab being carnal and not having gone through the purification process of the cross is like the impurities of unclarified wine. From this, we can see that the "self" in us must be purified by God's cross and the impurities of our "self" must be removed. Therefore, if God is merciful and gracious to us, in order to make our lives pure, sooner or later He will do the work of refining and purifying in you and me. There are three main experiences of God's purifying work. Refining Faith to Purity How does God purify the dross of our lives? First of all, He purifies our faith so that we can become pure. Temporary grieved in the midst of various trials In 1 Peter 1:6-7, we read, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ," It says here that we are in the midst of trials and tribulations today, just as the apostle Peter was in his old age, when the saints of the church suffered many hardships. As we understand this truth and see the history of the saints of old, we should learn to endure all kinds of trials, whether it is the attack of the evil one, the pressure of the family, the rejection of the colleagues, the misunderstanding of the believers, the financial loss, and so on, God always makes us feel as if the trouble comes one after another in different ways, and the sufferings come in a swarm, so that we may be sorrowful for a while. A brother was introduced by an unbeliever to buy a piece of land at a comparable price, but later the price of the land increased many times, causing the agent to change his mind, so that he had to appeal to the court. After the court's judgment, the brother had already won the case and was able to obtain the land rights, but the litigation was delayed again and again, and the brother was saddened, and seemed to be in the midst of a lot of trials and tribulations. Thank the Lord! The couple was blessed by the Lord's grace in this matter, and had not complained against the Lord for several years, and firmly believed that the Lord had a good will in it. After fellowshipping with the brothers, we experienced the Lord's words, "Though now for a little while, you have been grieved by various trials while, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire". They are convinced that the Lord will make a way for them. Faith being tested is more precious than gold that is tested by fire and still perishes There are many kinds of gold, including 20% gold, 50% gold, 90% gold, and some people want to buy pure gold. Ordinary metals are half gold and half copper, but gold must be refined by fire before it becomes pure gold. The faith of a saint is more precious than gold that has been refined by fire. In order for saints to have true faith and pure faith, God allows all kinds of adversities and difficulties to come to us, so that we can be like the saints of old, who did not panic and rely on people, things, and objects other than the Lord in the midst of unsatisfactory and frustrating circumstances, but instead, in the midst of severe trials, relied on the Lord to be strong in our hearts, and were able to be patient until we came out of the trials, and experienced the sweetness and the bitterness of the trials. The brother we mentioned just now, the litigation case of the land he purchased has been delayed for several years, and is still pending today. After fellowship with the brothers in the church, he received the help of God's word again, and saw in his spirit that Christians are just travelers in the world, and that what we hope for is a spiritual, heavenly and heavenly foundation, which is imperishable, incorruptible, and cannot decay, and which will last forever. We hope in the precious Jesus Christ, who is spiritual, spiritual and heavenly, imperishable, undefiled, incorruptible, and enduring forever. In this respect the brother is like the apostle Paul who said, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Phil. 3:7-8) Therefore, instead of being anxious, he was filled with joy and went on with his ministry. Having experienced firsthand that faith, when tested, is more precious than gold that can be broken. In the old days, the two to three million people of Israel traveled out of Egypt through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and finally into Canaan. This journey lasted forty years, and geographically speaking, it would have taken only eleven days to travel from Egypt, through Mount Sinai and Galilee to the border of Canaan (Deut. 1:2). However, because of their unbelief (faith not being tested), they failed again and again, so the Lord caused them to delay in the wilderness, circling around and around, for 38 years, and it took them a total of 40 years from the time of their exodus from Egypt to the time of their entry into Canaan. The word "forty" in the Bible refers to the number of trials. During the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites had been wearing out and refining their impure fleshly "self". Their wavering faith was refined and strengthened through trial after trial. Therefore, Caleb and Joshua led those under twenty years of age to enter the land of Canaan. This historical fact shows us that God wants pure faith, so He must purify the impure part. Let's look at Abraham, the progenitor of faith, and see from his life history how God purified his faith to achieve purity. He was first led out of Ur of the Chaldees by the Lord, and the Lord appeared to him, and promised him, "Then He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." (Gen. 15:5-6). However, as year after year passed by, Sarah was still not pregnant. She was so anxious and impatient that she suggested to Abraham that she should lie with her daughter Hagar and give birth to Ishmael. After this, God was greatly displeased, and hid it from Abraham. Not only that, but because of the consequences of the birth of man's fleshly "self," to this day the descendants of Ishmael, that is, the Arabians, have always been at enmity with the Israelites, and the Israelites (the descendants of Isaac) have always suffered from the descendants of Ishmael. From this historical fact, we can see that Abraham thought that by having a son with Hagar, he could fulfill the will of God. Instead, the descendants of Ishmael have been enemies of Israel for all eternity. Meanwhile, after the birth of Ishmael, the Lord did not appear to Abraham for 13 years. In the past, God often communicated with Abraham, and Abraham was called God's friend. However, since he slept with his daughter Hagar, and used the "self" method to fulfill God's will, there were thirteen years in the Bible, and there was no more record of Abraham's deeds. In other words, these thirteen years were wasted and wasted. Although the Bible does not record this explicitly, one can imagine that Abraham must have felt great spiritual remorse during these thirteen years. When he was ninety-nine years old, and Sarah had ceased to bear children, God appeared to him and said, "Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac." (Gen. 17:19) And it came to pass, when Abraham was a hundred years old, that the Lord showed favor to Sarah according to his word; and Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son, and called his name Ishmael, in the day which God had told her. This event enabled Abraham to experience for himself that God is an almighty God, who is able to change nothing into something, and to raise the dead. After Abraham's faith was tested, his "own" ways were gone, his "own" power was gone, and he relied on the Lord alone in pure faith. Further, God put Abraham in a deeper and more extreme test, i.e. when Isaac grew up, the Lord called Abraham and asked him to say, "Take now your son, your only son, Isaac whom you love,...and offer him there as a burnt offering" (Gen. 22:2) Thank God! Abraham's faith was tested again and again, and it became mature and pure. He firmly believed that he was old and Sarah's fertility had been cut off, but the Lord is almighty, and He is able to raise the dead and turn nothing into something. Now he was convinced that the Lord would raise Isaac from the dead after he had offered him to the Lord. Hebrews 11:19 specifically says, "(Abraham) concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead," So he did not hesitate, but went forward, as God had commanded him, and brought Isaac, his only beloved, to the altar on Mount Moriah, where God had directed him to go, and when he had the sword in his hand to kill Isaac, the angel of the LORD called out, and stopped Abraham, saying, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Gen. 22:12) From the spiritual journey of Abraham's life, we see again and again that God had been testing his faith. First, God called him to leave his native land, tribe and father's house, and to go to the place that God showed him, and then he obeyed the command by faith until the final trial. Refine love to attain purity Not only must our faith be tested to be pure, but also our love must be tested to be pure. How many Christians today love the Lord because of the benefits they receive from Him, just like a merchant who buys and sells? If the Lord hears my prayers, then I praise Him, if He blesses my business, then I worship and thank Him, if He promotes me to a higher position, then I love Him more and serve Him more. On the other hand, when the Lord's trial comes, and I can't make any money, I don't get promoted, and my circumstances are not favorable, then I will praise Hallelujah and stop loving and serving the Lord. This shows how impure people's love for the Lord is! Therefore, God often comes to the saints through trials in order to test whether our love for the Lord is true and pure. There was a young sister who loved the Lord and was very happy to be introduced to the Lord for marriage, so she was more serious and active in prayer, fellowship, and visiting in the meetings than before. Suddenly, the man felt that he was not compatible and distanced himself from her, and her whole spiritual life collapsed. Not only did she not hear any prayers in the meetings, but she lost her energy for fellowship and visiting, and she had no burden to serve, and she even grumbled against the Lord. I am not saying that we are stronger than our sister, but the facts show us how adulterated and impure the love of Christians for the Lord is. However, there are some very good sisters who have been introduced to each other and have reached a point where they are in love with each other and are ready to talk about marriage, but then the man leaves without saying goodbye for some unknown reason, which is a blow to the sister, but this sister even submits to it. She deeply felt that the Lord is reliable, that He has loved me and sacrificed His life for me, and that I should live for Him, and that she should continue to love the Lord and serve Him. Because she recognized that she did not love the Lord for the sake of her marriage partner, her heart of love for the Lord became purer than ever after she had been tested and deprived of love. As 1 Peter 1:8 says, "Though you have not seen him, yet you love him. And now, though you do not see him, yet because you believe in him you have great joy that is inexpressible and full of glory. This time I went to a church on the west coast of the United States to release the message of the Lord's love. For two or three moments during the message, I couldn't help but weep. I couldn't hold back my tears, and the audience was also moved to tears. After the message, I returned. After two weeks of this, on this Sunday, it was not only pouring rain but also hail in the area. But I was glad to receive a call from a brother who thought who would be willing to come to the meeting on Sunday morning in the pouring rain and hail? Thank the Lord! He didn't realize that the message of the Lord's love had really gone out that Sunday, and not only did the number of people not decrease, but a few more came in. He thought it would be good if half of the regular attendees could come today. But he didn't realize that there were a few more. Oh! What can separate us from the love of Christ? Is it a storm? Is it hail? It is clear that our pure love for the Lord is born of trials and tribulations. No wonder! Madame Guyon once said, roughly meaning: Even if the Lord were to cast me into hell, I would still love Him and praise and worship my God. This is pure love. In the course of following the Lord, the Lord will allow us to face the hardships of the fire, and I hope that we can accept them by the Lord's grace, knowing that all these things are the refining of our love for the Lord, so that it will become pure. Refining the impurities of the motive of the heart The "motive of the heart" is in the deepest part of the human being. If there is an intention or hope other than the Lord's, it is not really for the Lord alone, and the Lord purifies and removes it through difficult trials. Proverbs 17:3: "The pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts." Silver is a precious, it must be refined into pure silver in a pot. Gold is more precious than silver, so it needs to be refined into pure gold in a furnace that is several times hotter. The heart of man is most deceitful and adulterated, so the Lord Himself refines the hearts. David was born a shepherd and eventually ascended to the throne as king of Israel. He had gone through many long periods of trial and tribulation in his life history. He also felt that he had become quite spiritual. He once wrote a psalm, "Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully." (Psalm 24:3-4) It is implied that David was a man with a clean heart and clean hands who could climb the mountain of the Lord. Unexpectedly, while he was on the throne and in the height of his popularity, he stayed in Jerusalem while his men were away at war, rising at sunset and walking leisurely on the flat roof, when Satan caused his eyes to rest on Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, who was bathing; and he summoned her to the palace to sleep with him. Soon after the crime, Bathsheba sent word that she was pregnant. Upon learning of this, David tried to shirk his responsibility and quickly ordered Uriah to be recalled from the battlefield. But Uriah, thinking that her comrades were still sleeping on the battlefield, stayed at the entrance of the palace for the night instead of going home. Knowing that this plan would not work, David ordered Uriah to return to the line of battle and sent a letter to Joab, the commander-in-chief, imploring him to send Uriah to the front line to die in battle. The Lord then sent the prophet Nathan to condemn David. David immediately went before God in sincere sorrow and repentance. He wrote his confession into Psalm 51. He sincerely repented of his sins and begged God, "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. ......I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me....... Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow....... Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me......A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise." Thank the Lord! He is the God of forgiveness, and after He forgave David, He disciplined him in love, thereby purifying David's heart and motives into purity.   VI. Purity of the inner life The last point is the light that God desires for believers who walk in the way of the inner life, that is, the purity of the inner life. Christ as Lord rules over the spirit, soul, and body Because Christ is Lord in us, naturally Christ is Lord over our spirit, soul, and body. In this way Christ lives in us and is the life of the whole man, which is naturally what Philippians 1:20, 21 says: "so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Christ fills the whole being, revealing His holiness and glory Further, Christ fills our whole being, that is, our spirit, through our soul, including our mind, emotions, and will. At that time, the mind of Jesus Christ is our mind, and the liking of the Lord Jesus is our liking. As the psalm says, O let me think how Thou didst leave Untasted every pure delight we also put aside pure delights, and do not seek our own pleasure, but make Christ's rules our own. To be filled with Christ in this way is to be completely united with the Lord, not only in Christ's resurrection, but also in Christ's victory, and to live out Christ's life and character, and to exude Christ's pure life. As the psalm says, Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, For my very life art Thou; <--  Back to "The Pathway of Inner Being" Next Chapter -->

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:30, Galatians 2:20, 4:19, Ephesians 3:17, 4:13, Philippians 1:20 Our series of messages have been in the context of fellowship with the "Pathway of Inner Being". The pathway of the inner life is the hidden experience of spiritual life. The ultimate goal is to achieve complete union with Christ. For a normal Christian, from the day of salvation by grace, begins to enter into a relationship with Christ. Naturally and invisibly, he or she enters into the threshold of union with Christ, and thus enters into the path of inner life throughout his or her life. Then their spiritual life not only grows continuously, but also becomes more and more united with God, and the more united they become, the deeper they become, until they are completely united with Christ, that is, they reach the fullness of Christ, the fullness of the whole man. At that time, Christ and I will never be separated from each other. Just as a drop of water is lost in the sea, so also does the apostle say in Philippians 1:20-21: "...so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ," This indicates a state of complete union with Christ. However, there are two things that we must pay special attention to and not overlook in this journey of inner life. The first is to know Christ. The second is union with Christ. For the more we know Christ, not only do we enter into union with Him, but we also have access to all His riches. This is what it mean in Colossians 2:9-10 we are told, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." The process of union with Christ, from initial to full union, can be summarized in three stages: Stage One In Christ Christ in me Stage Two Abiding in Christ Christ abiding in me Stage Three Christ grows and is formed in me Christ is manifested in me In Christ We have just read 1 Corinthians 1:30, which says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus" . This means that all human beings in the world, throughout the ages, handed down from generation to generation, are all in Adam. Let's say my last name is Jeng, and my son's last name is also Jeng. As soon as he came out of his mother's womb, he was in a family with the surname of "Jeng", and he was in the lineage of the "Jeng" family. Since the beginning of mankind's history until today, we have been in Adam's lineage. Until the day we believed in Jesus and accepted Christ as our Savior, God put us in Christ or moved us to Christ. It is not to run into Christ, for no man can run into Christ by himself, but when we call on the name of Jesus Christ, God moves us from Adam into Christ. In Romans 11:19-20, when the Apostle Paul talked about this experience, he quoted the analogy of a tree receiving a branch, that is, God receives us as a branch into Christ. He said that we (the Gentiles) were originally branches of the wild olive tree, and the Jews (God's elect) were branches of the olive tree, but because they rejected the Son of God and did not accept Christ as their Savior, they were rejected by God. They were rejected by God because they rejected the Son of God and did not accept Christ as their Savior, just as the branches of the olive tree were cut off. Now you and I, Gentile Christians, the wild olive tree branches, are taken up and we are united with Christ. Like the vine and its branches, we are united to Christ. Christ in me Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," . This signifies that when we believe in the Lord Jesus, God not only puts us in Christ, but He also looks at us as if we have never sinned, meaning that He justifies us and pleases us. In other words, God not only forgives our sins, but also brings Christ into us, which is called Christ in me. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?" This means that we have asked for the name of Jesus Christ, and God has recognized us as belonging to Christ forever, and will not forsake us, but will justify and accept us (Romans 5:18). From this we can see that when we believe in Jesus, Christ comes into us through the Holy Spirit. Obviously, Christ is in you and in me, one side of me is in Christ and the other side is Christ in me, and this experience happens at the same time. The riches of our Lord Jesus Christ are limitless, like an endless ocean. You and I are like a small bottle. When we believe in Jesus Christ, on the one hand, God puts this small bottle in the big ocean; on the other hand, the sea water pours into the bottle until it is full of water, and both of these things happen at the same time.  3. Abiding in Christ We have said that "In Christ" is a spiritual fact, referring to the divine status that we have attained by believing in the Lord Jesus, the fact that God has done it for us so that we can be united with Christ. Now we move on to the experience of "Abiding in Christ". John 15:5 is a key to the treasury of the Bible, which, once opened, reveals the riches of God's glory. The Lord Jesus Himself said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him..." This speaks of entering into the experience of union with Christ. But in fact, we often run away from Christ again, so we have to keep practicing and enter into a continuous abiding in Christ and union with Him. For example, in today's society there are some young people who have been caught by the government and put in a reformatory because they have often committed crimes. As a matter of fact, this young man is incarcerated in a reformatory and no longer lives at home. However, if his name is Huang, even though he has run away from his family and is incarcerated in a reformatory and no longer lives at home, his family name does not change because of this!   Similarly, after you and I believe in Jesus and are saved, God moves us to Christ and we become Christians. So wherever we go, we are Christians. We are Christians no matter where we go. We are Christians if our behavior is good, but we are still Christians even if our behavior is bad, and we are Christians even if we win or lose. For example, the young man surnamed Huang, who is supposed to live in the Huang family, is still a son of the Huang family, even though he has run away from home to do evil. But even though he is a son of the Huang family, he cannot live in the Huang family and enjoy all the riches of the Huang family. The day we believe in Jesus, we come to Christ, live in Christ, experience the sweetness of fellowship when we pray and draw near to the Lord, sometimes enjoy the richness of the Lord's words in reading the Bible, or enjoy the Lord's grace with all the saints in the church, bask in the depth of the Lord's love, and live the highest Christian life. However, some Christians, unable to withstand the temptations of the world, go out to socialize with their friends, and gradually stop praying, then stop reading the Bible, and stop meeting; although they are called Christians, they have in fact gone out of Christ. Therefore, the third experience of the Christian must be built up to maintain "abiding in Christ". This is because abiding in Christ is like a branch connected to the vine, allowing the life, sap, and nourishment of the vine to be passed on to the branches, which then thrive and bear much fruit. Therefore, a person who abides in Christ must receive the abundant life of the Lord and be able to provide for the life of the Lord, exuding His riches and manifesting His glory. The Old Testament records that Moses went up the mountain for forty days and forty nights to draw near to the Lord, just as the Christians of the New Testament era have the experience of abiding in Christ. On that occasion when Moses went up to the mountain to draw near to the Lord, the Bible specifically says, "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai....did not know his ski n shone while he talked with Him" (Exodus 34:29). Likewise, the Christian who enters into intimate fellowship with the Lord, without realizing it, will shine with the glory of the Lord. Oh! There is no one so close to us as the Lord, for Christ is in us. As the psalm says, Within the Veil: be this, belov’d, thy portion, Within the secret of thy Lord to dwell; Beholding Him, until thy face His glory, Thy life His love, thy lips His praise shall tell Back in my youth, I used to draw near to the Lord with a group of companions who pursued the Lord with a pure heart. At first, when I was learning to draw near to the Lord, twenty minutes seemed to be enough, but the closer I got to the Lord and the more I was brought into fellowship with Him, the time was increased to half an hour or even an hour. Oh! The closer I get to the Lord, the sweeter I feel; the closer I get to the Lord, the more I am attracted by His glory. The closer I get to the Lord, the more my heart longs for Him, and I wish to be immersed in Him, to be one with Him forever. Christ abides in me If we abide in Christ, Christ abides in us. The experience of "abiding in Christ is not the same as Christ abiding in us. We have already mentioned the experience of abiding in Christ, but now we will look at the process of Christ's abiding in us. Christ living in me "Christ lives in me" refers to the fact that Christ governs me in me, that is, as Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." It means that I, the sinner, have been crucified with Christ, and I am no longer the master; it is no longer I, the sinner, who live, but Christ who lives in me. It is Christ who is the master, who leads me, who dominates me, who governs me. When a Christian is in this experience, he can be considered to have grown considerably, for it is Christ who is the life in him. Christ is our life Colossians 3:4 says, "Christ is our life" . But are we really letting Christ be our life in our experience? A person who lets Christ be his life is one who lets Christ take the lead. For the nature of Christ's life is of a divine nature, and the characteristics of God's nature are experienced naturally, not artificially created or cultivated through hard work, but by accepting the characteristics of His own life. It is the acceptance of the characteristics of His own life. It is like a pig on a farm, an animal whose odor is smelled before you can see it. The characteristic of a pig's life is that it likes to roll around in the sludge and manure. On the other hand, if you put a sheep in a pigpen, it will immediately struggle and will not be able to rest; for sheep are clean animals, and the characteristic of their life is that they like to be clean. In the same way, Christians, because Christ is our life, are called to live a life of holiness. Christ is our wisdom Further, 1 Corinthians 1:30 reads, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." It is stated that we can be in Christ today because we believe that God put us in Christ when we were born again and saved; at the same time, Christ came into us and became our life. When we experience Christ as our life, one of the main elements is to experience Christ as our wisdom. This means experiencing Christ as our method and guide in life, work, and ministry. One Thursday night in the witnessing meeting, a young sister shared that over the past few years, she had not dared to accept being assigned to speak on topics about the truth, she only dared to share her testimonies. Because whenever she was assigned to share, she would be in a state of fear and panic, and even though she tried to prepare for fellowship in a different ways, she still had no clue and was unable to get the hang of the situation. This year, however, she decided to go to Taipei for the summer conference, and a co-worker arranged for her to do some sharing. At first, she repeatedly refused, but the sister encouraged her to practice so that she could make progress, and she finally reluctantly agreed. So she prepared very seriously on Monday, and during her visitation, she repeatedly asked several sisters for advice, hoping to get help from them. However, she was still in a state of panic and her mind was so worried that she didn't know how to interweave her testimonies. Until Friday she decided to give up, but her co-worker said, "If you give up now and arrange for someone else, that person won't have enough time to prepare. So she had to accept it, and she went to the Lord to pray and look up. Thank God, that night, the Holy Spirit suddenly gave her words and many points to share, and she was suddenly anointed and assured in her spirit. The following Saturday, the sisters were concerned and asked her if she was ready. She said she was not ready, but that the Lord's word had come. Sure enough, on Sunday, she stood up boldly, and when she opened her mouth, she experienced a river of living water flowing out of her belly. On the other hand, she was spiritually released and anointed in a way that she had never been before. She truly experienced Christ as our wisdom. Christ is or righteousness We have just read 1 Corinthians 1:30 which says that it is God's work that we are in Christ. On the other hand, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became.... righteousness...." This means that God has made Christ to live in us, to be our righteousness, and He will guide us to act in righteousness and enable us to live out our righteousness. For example, in the United States, a country with a high level of culture and education, almost all citizens obey the laws of the land, especially traffic discipline. Whenever a vehicle arrives at an intersection, although there is no police or traffic light to direct the driver, the driver will automatically stop at the intersection, and then give way to each other and wait for the first person to go through before driving through the intersection. Thank God! Christ dwells in us, He is the Righteous One who naturally calls us to act or live out righteousness. There is a testimony that talks about a military dormitory. There was a devout Christian who, every day before going to bed, would kneel down before the Lord and pray. The soldiers in his room used to deliberately make fun of him, making him cry. One night when a storm was raging, his fellow soldiers came back from duty, soaked to the skin and their boots were covered with mud. When they saw this Christian kneeling in front of his bed and praying, they deliberately put their boots, which were covered with mud, next to his head. They saw the Christian kneeling in front of his bed, so they deliberately put their boots, covered with mud, next to his head. The Christian ignored them and continued to pray, so they were bored and went to bed. Miraculously, the next morning, when the soldiers in the same room got up, they found that their boots were not only free of mud, but also polished and neatly placed in front of their beds, and their hearts were moved with guilt, and they repented and returned to the Lord. This is an example of Christ's indwelling righteousness. Christ is our Sanctification The life of Christ in us is characterized by the holiness of God. That is why 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us .... sanctification..." The qualities of Christ's life in us make us naturally holy. In other words, the secret of holiness is not that we try to be holy, but that He is holy. When we allow Christ to live in us, we live a holy life, free from sin and unholiness. Another Thursday night fellowship. A young adult testified that he had recently taken up a higher position in a new company. Many of his organization's subordinates are unbelievers. Although they have received higher education, they often speak in obscene and delusional language, especially after work, when they open their gossip boxes, they talk about men and women, and always bring in obscene and dirty language. At first, it was very hard for him to hear this, but since he had just been appointed to a new company, he smiled and catered to the colleagues in order to please them, so every time he went back home, he was in great pain inside, and his conscience often scolded him, "You are a Christian, why do you mix with people who do not believe in Jesus? Thanks to God's mercy, the brother quickly avoided his coworkers when they chatted and gossiped, and maintained a life of holiness, which is the experience of Christ's holiness in us. Christ is our Redeemer I Corinthians 1:30 not only speaks of Christ as our wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, but finally it speaks of Christ as our redemption, which means that Christ is the life in us, and that He will fill our souls, and through our souls, we will attain to the experience of the body. Of course, this will not happen until Christ returns and our bodies are transformed to resemble His glorious body. This means that our bodies will be resurrected and transformed to reveal Christ and be raptured in the Glory.  Christ makes His home in us Regarding the experience of Christ's dwelling in us, Ephesians 3:17 reads, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." This means that Christ lives and reigns in us and governs us freely. The phrase "Christ has made His home in us" means that Christ has made our hearts and minds His dwelling place, or His home. It means that He wants to be the Lord, not as a guest, but as a host. A host is one who has the right of ownership, the right to control, and use of all things in the home. A guest is a visitor who has no right to use and move the furniture around as he pleases. This shows that Christ treats us as His own home, which means that He manages and uses us as He pleases. Therefore, when we give Christ full sovereignty over us, we allow Him to live in our hearts and minds and to freely rule over us and use us. In this way we experience Christ living in us. Christ grows and is formed in me The spiritual experience is getting deeper and deeper because Christ is not just going to live in us; He is going to grow and be formed in us. How Christ grows and is formed in us, there are two important experiences to be mentioned: Through the cross, Christ is formed (structured) within Galatians 4:19 reads, "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you." It is stated that the step for Christ to be formed and grow up in us is through "labor in birth". "Labor in birth" describe the experience of a woman in labor. When a woman goes into labor, she suffers severe pains that increase until the baby is born. No wonder some young women who have just conceived their first child and are nervous when approaching the time of labor, they are anxious, and worried about whether or not the labor will be difficult, and so they go around asking questions about the labor process. The apostle's use of "labor in birth" to describe the painful experience of the cross is really appropriate. When we are born again and saved, the life of Christ comes into us, and this life will gradually grow and take shape in you and me, and will expand to our whole being, including every part of our mind, emotion, and will. When a hen lays an egg, it is an egg on the outside, but there is the life of a chick inside. If the egg has to be incubated, and the life of the chicken will grow until the chick is fully formed, and then the chick will break out of the shell. In terms of experience, when Christians are born again and saved, God puts Christ (life) in us. God then arranges all kinds of people, events and things to interact with each other, causing our souls to be tormented, even beaten and broken, so that the life of Christ can gradually grow and be formed in us. If we are merciful to the Lord and go through the experience of accepting the cross again and again, then the life of Christ will continue to grow and take shape in us. In ancient times, most of the cloth was woven on a loom. First, the thread was put on the loom, and then it was woven vertically, horizontally, and vertically to form a large piece of cloth. If it was not woven vertically and horizontally, it would not be able to become a large piece of cloth, and these are two different directions.   Once I asked a ticket vendor at the Taipei bus station if a certain bus number was passing by, and he seemed like he didn't hear, so I asked him again, and he answered me in a displeased tone, saying, "You have eyes to see for yourself! I thank the Lord that I walked away in peace and silence in Christ. If I had not had Christ in me, I would have blamed this man for being so uneducated, and for being so unreasonable when he was asked with courtesy. Oh! If we are attentive in our lives, we must find that there are many encounters, crosses of different sizes, to be experienced every day. If we receive it once, the life of Christ will be organized once, and if we receive it again and again, it will be like the weaving of a loom, which will soon become a large piece of cloth, and Christ will be formed in us. Psalm 45:13 says, "The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; her clothing is woven with gold." Here, the embroidered garments are used to depict the fact that the more we accept the cross, the more Christ is formed in us. Naturally, this kind of Christian has allowed Christ to grow and be formed in him. Seriously, there are a few keys to spiritual experience that must be firmly grasped. The first is to abide in Christ— and continually remain in Him. Because when the cross comes, the natural man will not be able to accept it, and the human flesh will not be able to submit to it, so how can one accept it? By the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if one does not abide in Christ, when the cross comes, he will either refuse or run away. Therefore, we must practice and build up a life of abiding in Christ. The second step is the secret of fruitfulness mentioned in John 15:5. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit." But before this statement, there is a statement that you need to pay attention to: " Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. " (John 15:2) A person who abides in Christ is a fruitful branch. The "pruning" refers to the ensuing cross. When the vinedresser sees a bunch of grapes growing, he prunes the fruit-bearing branches so that new branches will spring up and bear new fruit. Experientially speaking, there are parts of us that are carnal, hard, and old, and the gardener (Jesus Christ) came and pruned me of my talkativeness, you of your hardness and strength, and him of his loitering and idleness. In short, the Lord raises up the circumstances, the difficulties, and the blows that come. For the cross is the means by which Christ is formed in us. No wonder the Apostle Paul tells us, "We must go through many difficulties to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). How much of the image of Christ we have in us is based on how much we accept the cross. But how much we accept the cross is based on whether or not we continue to "abide in Christ". May the Lord be gracious to us in the remaining years of our lives, and may we treasure the experience of abiding in Christ. As the psalm says, Enter the veil and go without the camp, Taste heaven’s sweetness, thus the earth forsake; If by the Holiest I am satisfied, How can I of earth’s vanities partake? Recognize the Son of God and grow to manhood in it A Christian's experience of union with Christ begins with seeing the Son of God, i.e., knowing Christ, the Son of God, inwardly. This knowledge is not a reasoned concept, or a head knowledge. It is a spiritual seeing and knowing. That is why Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" This means that the inner spirit receives the revelation of the Holy Spirit and sees that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and immediately we enter into union with Christ, which is the initial experience. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1:16, "It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me ......." This means that when we are born again, we receive the revelation of the Son of God in our spirit. At this time, Christ is born as a baby in you and me, and then the Holy Spirit leads us to gradually have a wider and deeper understanding of the Son of God. The more we know Christ, the more we gain His fullness, and naturally, the more our spiritual life grows. As our knowledge of the Son of God grows, our experience of Christ grows, and naturally the life of Christ is not only fully organized in us, but we also reach full maturity in the life of Christ. So Ephesians 4:13 tells us, "Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." The meaning is that when the knowledge of the Son of God is perfected, the spiritual life experience reaches its highest peak, that is, the life of Christ pervades all the parts of the person, including the mind, emotions and will in the soul and spirit, all of which are filled with the life of Christ. Christ is manifested in me The last point is that when spiritual life reaches its peak, not only does the stature of Christ grow and take shape in you, but the life (nature) of Christ is also manifested in us. This is what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:20, "Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death." Human life consists of two words, "life and death". "Life" started after we leave the womb of our mother, we live in the human society. "Death is the end of life. When we finish our journey in life, the impression (image) that we leave behind is whether or not it is Christ. If so, it shows that the spiritual life of the Christian has reached a spiritual peak, and that the person has been closely and deeply united with Christ. It is indeed difficult to explain "union with Christ". Thank the Lord! Brother Nee once told the story of a blacksmith who was making iron. He put a piece of black iron into a hot furnace and burned it until it turned red, then he took it out, and his apprentice rolled a piece of paper on the iron to start the fire, and the fire started to burn, and Brother Nee was very amazed that the iron actually produced fire. Later, he realized that this piece of iron was different from ordinary iron; it had been burned in a furnace, and now it was both iron and fire. In other words, the fire was in the iron and the iron was in the fire, and it had the weight of iron and the shape of fire. God's ultimate work is for us to be united with Christ as iron is with fire, so that not only is everything in iron, but also everything that is fire is in iron. May the Lord bless His own words, so that we may see that the ultimate spiritual peak of the Christian life experience is to be filled with Christ and to manifest Christ in complete union with Him. Therefore, we are encouraged to be kept by the Lord in the remaining years of our lives, and to continue to move forward on this path of life until we enter into a complete union with Christ, where God and man will never be separated again. --- E N D --- <-- Back to "The Pathway of Inner Being"

Introduction Colossians 3:3–4 says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Christ is our life.” This reveals that the relationship between a Christian and Christ is a hidden one—an inner life, hidden in God Himself.Sadly, in these last days, Christians tend to focus on what is visible, external, and self-exalting. How greatly this runs contrary to the heart of God! (2 Corinthians 4:18) In 1993, the author delivered ten messages on “The Pathway of Inner Being” in churches across Taiwan and the Philippines. These teachings were offered to saints earnestly pursuing spiritual growth in the hope of attaining a fuller life in Christ—a deeper journey into spiritual maturity. T A B L E O F C O N T E N T Chapter 1:  Prayer, Bible reading, and Ministry Chapter 2: The Inner Feeling Chapter 3: The Inner Fellowship Chapter 4:  Inner Guidance Chapter 5: The Outer Man is Destroyed Chapter 6: The Inner Man Enters Into The Fullness of Life Chapter 7: Inner Knowledge Chapter 8: Inner Management Chapter 9:  Inner Purity Chapter 10: Inner Union with Christ <-- Back to "LIFE OF CHRIST"

Preface Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and might have [it] abundantly.” (John 10:10)  This means that Christians must reach the stage of abundant life in their progress along the walk in the path of life.  On the other hand, the Apostle Paul spoke about how the Israelites left Egypt, walked through the wilderness, and entered Canaan to signify walking in the path of the Lord.  Their failures serve as admonition for us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (I Corinthians 10:1~11). The author of this book, in his messages delivered during the summer conference held at Baguio City, Philippines in 1990, pointed out 24 important spiritual experiences.  He used as background the journey of the Israelites—how they left Egypt, walked through the wilderness, and entered Canaan.  With their being born again as the starting point (observing the Passover at Rameses); followed by walking through the pathway of heavenly life station after station (journeying through the wilderness); and finally attaining the abundant spiritual life (entering Gilgal of Canaan to observe the Passover). These messages point out to Christians the goal and pathway of their lifetime pursuit.  At the same time, they provide the saints who are walking the spiritual pathway of life the means to check the extent of their own spiritual growth.  They also serve to encourage the readers to continue straining forward to what lies ahead and press on toward the goal (Philippians 3:13~14)!            Christian Ministry Training Center Bookroom October 1993 Synopsis The Journey of Spiritual Life  - out of Egypt, through the wilderness, into the land of Canaan Bible verses: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 Ephesians 4:13 Exodus 3:8      God has a great plan to accomplish in the universe, and so He created all things and mankind. Knowing that man would fall, He prepared a perfect redemption.      This eternal plan of God is to establish Christ as the center of all things, granting Him the highest position, so that Christ may fill all things in the universe.     The reason God redeemed us is to connect us with His eternal plan and to make us co-workers with Him to fulfill this eternal plan. Therefore, after we are saved and born again, we must determine the direction of our lives, which is to align with God’s eternal plan. We must also recognize our calling, which is to fulfill God’s eternal plan.     The process of fulfilling God’s eternal plan is what we call the "Journey of Spiritual Life." Regarding this journey, there is a clear typology in the Old Testament: the Israelites' journey from Egypt to Canaan. This time, we use the Israelites' journey from Egypt, through the wilderness, and into Canaan as the background to discuss the spiritual experience of Christians entering the fullness of Christ. Coming out of Egypt, journeying through the wilderness, and entering into Canaan is the representation of the spiritual journey      1 Corinthians 10:1-6 mentions that our forefathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea, referring to the Israelites coming out of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. Later, they ate spiritual food and drank spiritual water. This means that while walking through the wilderness, God provided manna from heaven for them to eat and caused water to flow from the rock to sustain them. However, on this journey, most of the Israelites failed to enter Canaan and instead died in the wilderness. This serves as a warning for believers in the last days.      1 Corinthians 10 mentions twice that the experiences of the Israelites is our type (type means symbol in the original text). It shows that what the Israelites experienced in the past reflects what believers in the New Testament experience today, as a reminder for us, the saints of the last days, to be vigilant and avoid failure by living in indulgence and following the flesh, just as the Israelites did. As Romans 15:4 also says, "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning..."      Therefore, we must specifically highlight two aspects of the spiritual experience of Christians: the first is the goal , and the second is the path . Goal — The Fullness of Christ      Exodus 3:7-8 records: "The Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry... I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey" This passage clearly reveals that when the Lord planned to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, He explicitly set their goal: to enter the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan was the goal of the Israelites      In other words, God placed Canaan ahead as the goal for the Israelites. Although the Bible does not explicitly record this, it can be assumed that when they were about to leave Egypt, the children would certainly ask their parents, "Where are we going?" I strongly believed that their parents would have answered, "Moses is leading us to the beautiful land of Canaan." Thus, it is evident that from the young to the old, they all clearly understood that their destination was Canaan.      Similarly, today, as we walk on earth (the wilderness), we are not without goals or direction. Although it may seem far away and out of sight, there will come a day when we reach Canaan. So what does "Canaan" refer to? Thank God! The New Testament explains this to us: Canaan refers to the fullness of Christ, the abundance of Christ, the riches of Christ. Before the Israelites entered Canaan, the Bible used three expressions to describe it: "good" "spacious" and "a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8) Good — The glorious beauty of Christ      In the entire universe, only Christ is the most beautiful. King David of Israel, who held the highest throne, enjoyed the greatest authority, honor, and glory. However, when he wrote Psalm 27:4, said: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." This means that the beauty of the Lord surpasses everything; among millions, He is the most glorious. The attraction of His beauty makes us forget the pleasures of the earth, causing us to adore and long for Him. From this, we can see that Canaan is a good land, symbolizing Christ's glory and beauty. May the Holy Spirit reveal to us so that we can be captivated by Christ's beauty throughout our lives, acknowledge Him, follow Him, pursue Him, and seek nothing else. Spacious --- The breadth, length, depth and heigth of Christ      The Bible mentions the land of Canaan and further describes it as "vast" (or spacious). This indicates that Canaan is not only beautiful but also immeasurably large. "Vast" also refers to Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul devoted his life in pursuing to know Christ, and in Ephesians 3:18, he said: "may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height...to know the love of Christ" The dimensions of "length, width, height, and depth" signify something beyond measurement—something unfathomable and surpassing human understanding. Throughout history and across cultures, people are left in awe when speaking about the vastness of Christ. Oh, my Savior Jesus Christ, Your vastness exceeds human comprehension, human discussion, and human praise. In other words, Christ's vastness is infinite. How long? Endless! How wide? Boundless! How high? Infinite! How deep? Unfathomable! Land flowing with milk and honey --- The infinite abundance of Christ      The third description of the land of Canaan is "a land flowing with milk and honey". Milk is produced when cows and sheep graze, and honey is produced after bees collect nectar from flowers. Therefore, "milk" and "honey" are the combined essence of both animals and plants. Additionally, the phrase 'a land flowing with milk and honey' also portrays the sweetness and abundance of that land. Colossians 2:9 says: "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form." This illustrates the infinite richness of Jesus Christ. As the hymn goes: He is so rich! He is so full! How can I tell all that I know? He is so sweet! He is so true! This I have tasted in my soul. The fullness of Christ is the goal of the saints      In the past, the Israelites regarded the land of Canaan as their goal.  Similarly, the saints of today (Christians) also consider Christ’s fullness as their goal in life.  Therefore, from the moment we are born again and baptized into Christ, we have to be clear and certain about our direction in life.  We must be aware that attaining Christ’s fullness is our goal. Count all things as rubbish to gain Christ      Before the apostle Paul met the Lord, his goal was to become a leader within Judaism. The direction he pursued was one of earthly wealth, fame, and status. However, through the Lord's mercy, one day on the road to Damascus, he met Jesus, and his life’s goal instantly transformed. He became clear about the meaning and purpose of life and determined that Christ would be the ultimate goal of his life. From then on, Christ became the focus of Paul's lifelong pursuit. When he wrote Philippians 3:7-8, he described how he regarded Christ as the goal of his life: "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Strain forward      Before he met the Lord, Paul was filled with great ambition and lofty aspirations within the religious world. He strictly adhered to the law, became a Pharisee, and was taught under Gamaliel—all of which demonstrated his hope to become a leader in the religious community, gain fame, and achieve power. However, after meeting Christ, he regarded all these things as loss, realizing that reputation, status, and glory would prevent him from entering into the fullness of Christ. Therefore, Paul considered all things as garbage in order to gain Christ. Hence, he devoted himself daily to pursuing Christ. Even at that point, he did not consider himself to have already attained it. By then, Paul had believed in the Lord and had been greatly used by Him for some years, accumulating profound spiritual experiences. Yet, he still said, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me." (Philippians 3:12) Press on toward the goal—Christ is our goal      Furthermore, he said: "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal." (Philippians 3:13-14). The goal is Christ. This signifies that although Paul was advanced in age and spiritually mature, the fullness of Christ is so infinite that there was still much to attain. Just as when Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, he was already old, yet the Lord said to him: "...there are still very large areas of land to be taken over." (Joshua 13:1). From this, we see clearly that the fullness of Christ is the ultimate goal for us Christians throughout our lives. Pathway      In the past, two to three million Israelites, led by Moses, left Egypt in a grand exodus and crossed the Red Sea. However, the Red Sea was not their destination; they had to continue their journey through the wilderness until they reached Canaan. This historical fact serves as a foreshadowing, illustrating how Christ today leads us on the journey of spiritual life, guiding us into His fullness. Thus, when we meet each other, we may ask one another,"Brother, what is your goal?" Some might reply, "My goal is to purchase a large piece of land in the future and build houses." Others may say, "My goal is to become a renowned entrepreneur." Still, others might express desires like immigrating to a certain place or other ambitions. Yet, these are not the true goals for us Christians, for we have only one goal—Christ. In Christ, there are infinite riches awaiting us to enter into, experience, and make our own. Regarding the path to entering into the fullness of Christ, there are four aspects of significance:" The pathway of Life      The path toward Canaan (the fullness of Christ) is the pathway of life. When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, the Lord provided manna from heaven daily as their food, meaning their sustenance did not come from the earth. Today, we consume rice, vegetables, and fruits that are products of the land, but during their forty years in the wilderness, they had no time to cultivate crops. Instead, they relied on gathering manna every morning for survival. When Jesus was on earth, He spoke to the people about manna, saying, "'It is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said, 'Sir, always give us this bread.' Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life.'" (John 6:32–35). To walk the pathway of life, one must rely on the bread of life for sustenance, which is why this path is called the pathway of life.      The Lord is the "bread of life". In a spiritual sense, it is through the bread of life that spiritual life grows. This is the pathway of spiritual life. Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." Therefore, Christians, having received Christ’s life, must continuously progress toward greater abundance. By receiving the spiritual sustenance from the Lord, they gradually grow and attain fullness.      David wrote a renowned golden psalm, saying of the Lord: "You are my Lord; my goodness is nothing apart from You. Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup." (Psalm 16:2, 5). Toward the end, he declared, "You will show me the path of life." (Psalm 16:11). Outwardly, David ruled as king, governing the nation of Israel; but spiritually, he walked the path of life. This idea was highlighted when, on Pentecost, the apostle Peter stood to deliver his first sermon. He quoted Psalm 16, emphasizing how David sought the Lord to reveal the path of life.      Matthew 7:13–14 records: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and [b]difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." This passage presents two paths before us. The people of the world walk the road to destruction, which has a wide gate and a broad path. However, the Christians walk the path of life, which leads to eternal life and enters into the richness of Christ. Yet, the gate is small, and the road is narrow. Therefore, anyone who has received grace and believes in Jesus but returns to walking the same path as the world—the wide gate and broad road—ultimately chooses the path leading to destruction. May the Lord show us mercy and preserve us throughout our lives, helping us enter the narrow gate and walk the path of life. Hence, in the church, we do not speak about morality or religion, nor do we concern ourselves with discerning right and wrong, good and evil.      After God created the first ancestors of humanity, He established a garden in Eden in the East and placed the man He had created there. God caused every kind of tree pleasing to the eye and good for food to grow from the ground, and in the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil... God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. He also commanded, "Of every tree of the garden you shall freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:7-17)      This historical account reveals that God's intention for humanity is to engage with life and walk the path of life. Today, as we set Christ as our goal, we too walk the path of life. Reflecting on this, we might ask ourselves: Have our lives grown? Are they abundant? The heavenly path      When the Lord sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of the land of slavery in Egypt, He called them to walk the path of the wilderness. This road symbolized a heavenly journey until they entered the land of Canaan, which represents the fullness of Christ. During the Israelites' forty years in the wilderness, they dwelt in tents. Tents could be dismantled and set up again, move from place to place according to their journey and having no fixed shelter. The wilderness was a place where they could not take root, meaning that they had nothing on earth. In other words, the path was not an earthly path but a heavenly path. The Israelites' observance of Passover symbolizes Christians' acceptance of redemption and being saved and born again. Being born again is being born from above.      John 3:31 states: "He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all." This explains that we are born from above, born of heaven. Therefore, Philippians 3:20 says, "But our citizenship is in heaven." It is like the Chinese emigrants living in the Philippines today—through the Lord's care, many have applied for and obtained Filipino citizenship. Yet, no matter what, they still feel that their ancestral home is China; they firmly identify as Chinese. Likewise, while Christians live on the earth among the people of this world, we are born of heaven, and our identity is as citizens of heaven.      The Lord Jesus further told His disciples, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:16). This means that we are not people of this world; we are heavenly citizens, those who walk on the heavenly path. A servant greatly used by the Lord, Brother Bunton, once said, "Christians have only one road in life and only one grave in death," signifying that Christians leave the world without gaining anything from it.      No wonder Abraham longed for a better country, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:16). Since we are citizens of heaven, it is only natural that we return to our homeland to enjoy our territory, inheritance, and heritage. A defining feature of Abraham's life was living in tents on earth, signifying that he was a sojourner and a temporary resident. His eyes were always fixed on that city with foundations, which is in heaven.      Brothers and sisters, there is a spiritual book called "Pilgrim's Progress." It states that we are all travelers walking this heavenly path. Abraham's eyes were always set on the city with foundations, and after many years, the holy city of Jerusalem was revealed in the Bible. However, Abraham in the Old Testament had already seen it through faith. Today, we too use the eyes of faith to see this glorious holy city, this better homeland. Therefore, we must tread firmly on this heavenly path today. The Bible records that when the Israelites walked in the wilderness, the Lord specifically instructed them to sew a blue tassels on the corners of their garments (Numbers 15:38). This signifies that they are heavenly citizens walking a heavenly pathway. The way of the cross      According to the typology in the Old Testament, the path the Israelites walked through the wilderness is the way of the cross. The Bible describes it as a "great and terrible wilderness" (Deuteronomy 1:19), meaning a harsh and challenging path—the way of the cross. This was ordained by God, for only by passing through the wilderness could they enter Canaan. In terms of experience, it signifies that only through the cross can one enter into the fullness of Christ. The Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness. In the Bible, "forty" is the number of trials. For instance, the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days, which also signifies the experience of the cross. Thus, walking this path of the cross entails many hardships, carrying the meaning of trials from the Lord.      When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24). This means that the path of following the Lord is the way of the cross. Luke 9:23 further states, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." This implies that we have to take up the cross daily to follow the Lord and to walk the way of the cross, not attempting to put the cross down any single day. Those who lack revelation may shrink back in fear upon hearing this. However, there is truly nothing to fear, for the cross is not greater than His grace, and storms cannot hide His blessed face. I am satisfied to know that with Jesus here below, I can conquer every foe. Therefore, for those with revelation, the way of the cross is not difficult to walk.      Back then, the Israelites traveled from Rameses in Egypt to Gilgal in Canaan, completing a journey of forty-two stations. In the Bible, "forty-two" is the number representing suffering (Revelation 12:6). Indeed, the way of the cross is marked by hardships and trials, yet it is filled with God's grace, enabling us to complete this journey. Revelation 14:1-5 records, "The Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him were one 144,000... They follow the Lamb wherever He goes." This signifies that Jesus, as the Lamb, lived His life walking the way of the cross. The 144,000 followers of the Lamb symbolize those of us who dedicate our lives to following the Lord and walking the way of the cross. Having suffered with Him on earth, we now stand gloriously with Him in eternity on Mount Zion! How glorious! May the Lord reveal to us the preciousness of the way of the cross, so that we may stay on this path for life, and on that day, share in His glory in heaven. The path of faith      The path the Israelites took—from leaving Egypt, through the wilderness, and into Canaan—was also a path of faith. For the Lord gave them His promise: "I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites..." (Exodus 3:8). This signifies that the Israelites were to hold fast to the Lord's promise and walk this path of faith.      For the Israelites of that generation, they had never seen Canaan and relied entirely on believing in the Lord's promise, not on what they saw. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." They trusted in the Lord's word and moved forward in faith. However, the facts tell us that during the forty years in the wilderness, all those over twenty years old perished in the wilderness (except for Caleb and Joshua). They did not enter Canaan to inherit the promised land because of one reason—unbelief (Hebrews 3:19).      Today, we are like the Israelites, setting our goal towards the fullness of Christ. Our feet tread on the path of faith, aiming to enter into the fullness of Christ. The road we walk is a path of faith. If we lose faith or harbor an evil heart of unbelief, the result will likewise be failure and collapse, unable to enter into the fullness of Christ.      On the other hand, there is also a glorious example—Caleb and Joshua. After forty years in the wilderness, they ultimately entered Canaan, completing the journey of faith. The Bible says, "But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully..." (Numbers 14:24). Caleb became a witness of victorious faith, inspiring us to walk the path of faith.      So how should we proceed, and what attitude should we have to complete the journey of faith? It is by "looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and finisher of our faith..." (Hebrews 12:2). Christ enters into us, and His faith becomes our faith. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He will guard our faith, make it grow, and nurture it to perfection in the end. Spiritual Journey of the Israelites 1. The Feast of Passover  Christ is the everlasting life 2. Feast of Unleavened Bread Christ is the holy life 3. Consecrated to God Christ is Lord 4. Pillar of cloud and pillar of fire Christ’s guidance 5. Crossing the Red Sea The death of Christ 6. Bitter waters turned sweet Christ’s loving kindness and grace 7. Springs of water and palm trees Christ is our satisfaction and rest 8. Manna Christ is the bread of life 9. Rock of living water Christ is the water of life 10. Defeating the Amalekites Christ is the victorious life 11. Handing down of the Law Christ is the power for service 12. The Making of the Sanctuary Christ is the wisdom (vision) in service 13. Fire consumed all the complaints The trial and refining of the cross of Christ 14. Smote the greedy Christ is everything (world) 15. Miriam contracted leprosy Establishing the upright spirit of Christ 16. Not allowed to enter Canaan Establishing Christ’s spirit of faith 17. The destruction of the tribe of Korah Establishing Christ’s spirit of submission 18. Plague befell the assembly Establishing Christ’s spirit of gentleness 19. The budded staff Knowing the body of Christ 20. Moses acted without authorization Knowing the authority of Christ as the Head 21. Raised up the serpent of brass Setting our eyes upon Christ 22. Fornication and idolatry were punished Being filled with Christ 23. Crossing the Jordan The deeper death of the cross of Christ 24. Entering the land of Canaan Attaining the fullness of Christ   T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S The Spiritual Journey (1) The Spiritual Journey (2) The Spiritual Journey (3) The Spiritual Journey (4) The Spiritual Journey (5) The Spiritual Journey (6) The Spiritual Journey (7) The Spiritual Journey (8) <-- Back to "LIFE OF CHRIST"

This book contains messages shared by the author between the years of 1985 and 1987, during times of training held at spiritual retreats for coworkers, church ministers, and preachers in locations such as the West Coast of the United States, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Indeed, we have witnessed the Lord’s clear confirmation and blessing. May glory be unto Him! The transcripts of these messages have been lightly edited and compiled into this volume to meet the needs of ministry. May the Lord use this work to guide readers into the path of serving Him, and bring revival to His Church! T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Chapter 1 —　 Ministering in the Lord’s Presence Chapter 2 —　 Ministering with the Lord's Co-working Chapter 3 —　 Ministering in the Lord's Blessings Chapter 4 —　 Ministering in the Great Love of the Lord Chapter 5 —　 Ministering in the Flow of the Holy Spirit Chapter 6 —　 Ministering in the Grace of the Lord Chapter 7 —　 Ministering in the Tearing Work of the Cross Chapter 8 —　 Ministering in the Pathway of Life Chapter 9 —　 Ministering in Coordination with the Church Chapter 10—　 Ministering in the Attainment of the Testimony of the Fullness of Christ <-- Back to "Ministry"

This book is based on oral Bible study sessions on the Gospel of Matthew, conducted by the speaker every Sunday afternoon in Manila, Philippines, in 1974, together with a group of young brothers and sisters who were devoted to the Lord and earnestly seeking Him. These studies took place . The recorded notes have been slightly refined and compiled into this book as a reference for Testimony Bible Reading. May the Lord grant wisdom and the spirit of revelation so that, as readers diligently study the Scriptures, they may receive greater light, teachings, illumination, cleansing, and nourishment from the Lord, leading to a purer and more abundant spiritual life! I. Introduction to Testimony Bible Reading Over generations, books on biblical interpretation have accumulated, becoming a precious spiritual heritage for the church. Whether for foundational faith or the edification of truth, they provide rich nourishment and guidance to believers. 2 Timothy 3:16  states: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work."  This verse tells us that Scripture originates from God's inspiration and serves to teach, correct, and guide believers into righteousness, enabling them to grow in spiritual maturity and be prepared for good works—this is the fundamental understanding of the verse. However, if we delve deeper, we discover that the phrase "All Scripture is inspired (revealed) by God" carries a profound and elevated meaning. It speaks of God’s eternal plan, His will, and His purpose, which He desires all believers to pursue, understand, and ultimately fulfill. To accomplish God's eternal plan and fulfill His heart’s desire, believers need to advance in spiritual growth through Bible reading. The maturity of a Christian’s inner life, the increase of Christ's stature in the church, and the victorious testimony of individuals and congregations all require further strengthening. Thus, learning how to read the Bible in a way that daily provides spiritual nourishment and enables spiritual growth is a pressing priority for believers today. John 6:63  records: "Jesus said, 'The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.'"  This verse clearly explains that the Lord’s words are meant to supply spiritual life. Just as the Israelites were sustained for forty years in the wilderness by manna, believers grow and live spiritually through God’s Word. The prophet Jeremiah once said: "Lord God of Hosts, when Your words came, I ate them; Your words were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear Your name."  (Jeremiah 15:16) Again, this shows that Scripture is God’s Word—it is spiritual food, life, and strength, allowing believers to grow spiritually, live powerfully, and have the strength to overcome. John 5:39  records Jesus Himself saying: "You study the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about Me."  This reveals that the Bible is a testimony to Christ’s divine and supreme authority. First, through the Word of God in the Bible, we receive eternal life. As 1 Peter 1:23  states: "You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." Second, through the word of God in the Bible, we live out the testimony of Christ. When God's Word enters the believer, it becomes life—this life is the life of the Son of God, which grows within and manifests Christ, and be a testimony of Christ. This way of reading the Bible—where believers are transformed to live out Christ's testimony—is called "Testimony Bible Reading" . In other words, Testimony Bible Reading  means r eading Scripture to receive divine illumination and apply spiritual principles to a believer’s daily life, work and service, knowing Christ, experiencing Christ, and ultimately living out Christ II. Basic Principles of Bible Reading A. Understanding the eternal nature of the Bible God is the eternal God (Psalms 90:2) An eternal plan as blueprint Revealing the Bible through the eternal Spirit The Bible transcends time and space and is applicable in every era and place B. Understanding the present nature of the Bible God is the eternal God, yet He is also the God of the present. With God, there are no time limitations—everything is "now".  (Hebrews 13:8) Every part of the Bible is applicable to present-day spiritual experiences. C. Understanding that the content of the Bible is Christ The Bible is the manual that reveals God's Son, Christ  (Luke 24:44-45 ). The central figure of the Bible is Christ. Through explicit texts, prophecies, symbolic representations, historical narratives, and poetry, the Bible expresses Christ. D. Understanding the infinite spiritual meaning of the Bible  (Ephesians 3:8) The Bible contains literal facts. Spiritual meaning is revealed through these literal facts. Because Christ is spiritual, heavenly, eternal, and infinitely rich, the Bible’s spiritual significance is also limitless E. Understanding that the interpretation of the Bible depends on the revelation of the Holy Spirit  (John 15:26; Ephesians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 2:10-11) The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit; therefore, only the Holy Spirit can interpret it. Knowing Christ requires revelation, so interpreting the Bible also requires the revelation of the Holy Spirit  (John 15:26). III. The Spiritual Principles and Application of Testimony Bible Reading A. Clearly understand the literal meaning of the Bible Understand the literal meaning of the Bible Comprehend the spiritual significance of Biblical text B. See illumination and spiritual principles with the revelation of the Holy Spirit Receive the illumination given by the Holy Spirit through the literal text of the Bible. Gain revelation from the Holy Spirit through biblical facts to understand spiritual principles. C. Apply the illumination and spiritual principles in life, work and ministry Apply the literal meaning of the Bible in daily life, work, and service. Practice the spiritual significance of biblical texts in life, work, and service. Apply the illumination revealed by the Holy Spirit in life, work, and service. Apply the spiritual principles received through the revelation of the Holy Spirit in life, work, and service. T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 1 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 2 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 3 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 4 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 5 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 6 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 7 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 8 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 9 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 10 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 11 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 12 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 13 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 14 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 15 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 16 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 17 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 18 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 19 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 20 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 21 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 22 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 23 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 24 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 25 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 26 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 27 Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 28 Conclusion: Reflection after reading Gospel of Matthew Key Verse:  "The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." (Matthew 1:1) Reflection: Jesus is King. He not only holds the rightful position but also exemplifies the life of a king. Based on the key verse, the characteristics of His kingship are outlined below: A. Wisdom (1 Kings 4:29–34) The first notable trait of Solomon, the son of David, is wisdom, which reveals a king’s life. Solomon’s wisdom was unparalleled (1 Kings 3:12), as seen in the famous ruling where he proposed to divide the infant in dispute. Jesus Christ is full of wisdom: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."  (Matthew 22:15–22) Christ is the answer to all problems: "What do you think about the Christ?"  (Matthew 22:42) B. Authority (1 Kings 4:20–28) Solomon exercised great authority, displaying the life of a king. He ruled over many nations, and peace prevailed in his kingdom (1 Kings 4:21–24). Jesus Christ possesses supreme authority: His teachings were with authority (Matthew 7:29). He healed the sick and cast out demons (Matthew 8:1–34). He calmed the storm (Matthew 8:23–27). C. Peace Solomon’s name means “peace.” He was a king of peace, and his kingdom enjoyed tranquility, demonstrating the life of a king (1 Kings 4:24–25). Jesus Christ embodies peace: He is gentle and humble in heart, giving rest to those who come to Him (Matthew 11:28–29). He entered Jerusalem on a donkey, symbolizing humility and peace (Matthew 21:1–11). Isaiah prophesied that His name would be "Prince of Peace."  (Isaiah 9:6) D. Building the Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1) Solomon built the temple, and God was pleased (1 Kings 8:11–12). Jesus Christ is building His church (Matthew 16:18). Among the four Gospels, only Matthew records Jesus speaking about building the church. Between Christ’s ascension and second coming, His work is to build the church (Ephesians 4:11–13). E. Death and Resurrection (Genesis 22:1–14) Isaac, the son of Abraham, was placed on the altar (Genesis 22:1–14). His offering prefigured death and resurrection (Hebrews 11:19). The life of a king is marked by death and resurrection, signifying complete victory: Like a grain of wheat that dies and bears fruit. Jesus Christ went through the cross, death, and resurrection: He did not resist when arrested (Matthew 26:50–52). He did not come down from the cross or save Himself (Matthew 26:53). He died on the cross (Matthew 27:50). He rose again (Matthew 28:5–6). He received all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18): The life of a king is a life of dominion. His resurrection secured His reign.

鄭兄長三十年於菲、台、美事奉中 如農夫舉鋤揮汗，忍辱含辛 不遺餘力地栽種、灌溉、施肥、修剪 終於在這屬靈園地 看到含苞開花結實 今年2020 鄭兄長安息主懷屆十八年了，他在世時為提供有心追求主的兄姊們在小組裏，得以深入扎根的屬靈追求，曾將他主日講台釋放信息中摘取七篇，略加整修，彙集編印，出版兩輯『拾取麥穗』。這十年來由於主屢次藉兄姊們的索求，於是今再摘取七篇，彙編出版第三至九輯。願主祝福主僕從神所領受豐碩的經歷、靈感與亮光；深信必使我們在屬靈生命與經歷上，受益匪淺。阿們！ 惜乎！鄭兄長已於2002年10月22日安息主懷, 內容未克經他過目修正，難免有遺漏之憾！敬希諸屬靈前輩與讀者們見諒是幸 。 拾取麥穗（一） 拾取麥穗（六） 拾取麥穗（二） 拾取麥穗（七） 拾取麥穗（三） 拾取麥穗（八） 拾取麥穗（四） 拾取麥穗（九） 拾取麥穗（五）

加拉太書與羅馬書講因信稱義同時闡釋生命路線 （一） 屬靈人的表現（原則） 1. 愛的服事（供應生命） (1-2) (1) 你們屬靈的人，就當用溫柔的心把他挽回過來 (1) a. 溫柔 ----- 充滿愛 b. 挽回 ----- 愛的服事 (2) 各人的重擔要互相擔當 (2) ----- 愛的服事 2. 儆醒 (1) 謹慎 ----- 當自己小心 (1) (2) 自守 ----- 恐怕也被引誘 (1) 3. 行在光中（接受光照認識自己）(3-4) (1) 自己還以為有，就是自欺了 (3) (2) 應當察驗自己的行為 (4) ----- 自守 4. 順從聖靈 (8-10) (1) 順着聖靈撒種的 (8) (2) 有機會就當向眾人行善，向信徒更當這樣 (10) 5. 誇基督的十字架 (14) (1) 以十字架為榮耀 (2) 就我而論世界已經釘在十字架上 (3) 就世界而論，我已經釘在十字架上 6. 作新造的人 (15) (1) 乃重在裏面 ----- 受割禮不受割禮都無關緊要 (2) 成為新造 ----- 要緊的，就是作新造的人 (3) 因十字架的工作成為新造 (14-15) 7. 作基督的囚奴 (17) (1) 不受基督以外人事物影響 ----- 從今以後,人都不要攪擾我 (2) 作基督的囚奴 -----因為我身上帶著耶穌的印記 （二） 屬肉體的表現（原則） 1. 大意（輕意隨便） ----- 有人偶然被過犯所勝 (1) 2. 自欺 ----- 無有,自己還以為有 (3) 3. 順着情慾（肉體） ----- 順着情慾（肉體）撒種的，必從情慾（肉體）收敗壞 (8) 4. 愛體面 ----- 希圖外貌體面 (12) 5. 拒絕十字架 ----- 是怕自己為基督的十字架受逼迫 (12) （ 三） 屬肉體與屬靈的不同後果 1. 人種的是甚麼，收的也是甚麼 (7) ［種瓜收瓜, 種豆收豆］ 2. 順着情慾撒種（肉體）的,必從情慾（肉體）收敗壞 (8) 3. 順着聖靈撒種的,必從聖靈收永生 (8) 4. 行善到了時候就要收成 (9) << 第五章 << 回 綱 目 >>

1-15節 基督叫人得自由 （一） 基督叫我們得自由 1. 基督成功救贖釋放我們 ----- 基督釋放了我們 (1) 2. 脫離律法的轄制 ----- 叫我們得以自由 (1) ［林肯釋放黑奴］ （二） 要站立得穩 1. 不靠肉體 ----- 靠着聖靈 (5) 2. 憑信心 ----- 與基督聯合 （三） 不要再受律法轄制 受割禮,守一條律法是欠着行全律法的債 靠律法稱義的,是與基督隔絕 (4) 靠律法稱義的,是從恩典中墜落 (4) （四） 十字架廢除律法轄制 1. 十字架已廢掉肉身的割禮 ----- 我若仍舊傳割禮，為甚麼還受逼迫呢？(11) 2. 接受十字架就遭逼迫 ----- 我若仍舊傳割禮,那十字架討厭的地方就沒有了(11) （五） 十字架廢除律法轄制 (13-15) 1. 重生的改變 ----- 你們蒙召是要得自由 (13) 2. 自由身的要獻給主 ----- 只是不可將你們的自由，當作放縱情慾的機會 (13) ［黑奴得自由仍歸主人］ 3. 成全律法活出生命 ----- 你們蒙召得自由,總要用愛心互相服事 (13) 4. 愛就活出律法以上的標準 ----- 全律法都包在「愛人如己」這一句話之內 (14) 16-26節 聖靈裏的得勝與豐富 （一） 要順從聖靈 (16-18) 1. 脫離律法的轄制 ----- 順着聖靈而行，就不放縱肉體的情慾 (16) 2. 屬肉體與屬靈是兩範疇（界限） ----- 聖靈和情慾（肉體）相爭 (17) 3. 自由不受捆綁 ----- 被聖靈引導,就不在律ｘ法以下 (18) （二） 聖靈的光照顯明肉體 (19-21) 1. 肉體十五種記號 ----- 姦淫、污穢、邪蕩、拜偶像、邪術、仇恨、爭競、忌恨、惱怒、結黨、紛爭、異端、嫉妒（有古卷加：兇殺二字）、醉酒、荒宴 (20-21) 2. 屬肉體無法受主管理 ----- 情慾的事都是顯而易見的，就如姦淫……行這樣事的人,必不能承受神的國 (19-21) （三） 聖靈的果子 (22-23) 1. 聖靈所結的果子 ----- 聖靈所結的果子，就是仁愛 (22) 2. 聖靈所結仁愛的果子包括八種 ----- 就是仁愛、喜樂、和平、忍耐、恩慈、良善、信實、溫柔、節制 (20-21) （四） 靠聖靈治死肉體 (24) 1. 同釘的事實 ----- 凡屬基督耶穌的人，是已經把肉體同釘在十字架上了 (24) 2. 靠聖靈治死肉體主觀的經歷 ----- 凡屬基督耶穌的人，是已經連肉體的邪情私慾，同釘在十字架上了 (24) （五） 靠聖靈行事 (25-26) 1. 靠聖靈活着 ----- 靠聖靈得生 (25) 2. 順服聖靈的聲音 ----- 靠聖靈行事 (25) 加拉太書五章與羅馬書八章之對比： (馬丁路得根據此兩本書信傳因信稱義堪稱姊妹書) << 第四章 << 回 綱 目 >> 第六章 >>