The church life
is Christ
realized, experienced, and expressed
by all the saints
in a corporate way:
God planned the church
for the purpose of expressing Christ;
thus, the church
is the expression of Christ.
The church life
is nothing other than
the all-inclusive Christ
with His unsearchable riches
experienced and enjoyed by us
and expressed through us.
If we would have such a church life,
we need to be constituted with Christ
until all that we are and have
is simply Christ Himself,
who is all and in all;
this is
the essence and the substance
of the church life.
In order to have a church life
to express Christ
according to God’s eternal purpose,
our soul must be subdued
and saturated with Christ
as the Spirit:
On the one hand,
the growth of the divine life
is the expanding of the ground
of the Holy Spirit within us;
on the other hand,
the growth of life
means that every part of our soul
is being subdued.
The more our soul is subdued,
the more life grows;
and the more our soul decreases,
the more life increases;
this is
a certain fact.
The part of a person’s soul
that is particularly strong and outstanding
is the part
by which that person lives;
when he encounters things,
he uses that part
to deal with them.
After we have received
sufficient dealings of the cross,
every part of our soul
is subdued;
our mind, emotion, and will
are subdued
and no longer stand out
as before.
Song of Songs reveals
that after we
have been attracted by the Lord’s beauty
to love Him,
we must learn
one unique lesson
—the subduing of our will (1:9-11):
The more our will is subdued,
the more we will be transformed.
A person’s will
can be said
to be his true self, the person himself,
because the will
represents the person.
In addition to God giving us
eternal life in Christ,
the return of our will to God
is the greatest work
of salvation.
The most important and most complete union with God
rests in
the union of our will with God’s will.
For the church
as the expression of God,
we must allow Christ
as the life-giving Spirit
to live in our inward parts
and saturate them
with Himself:
We need to be constituted with
the divine reality
in our inward parts,
that is, in the parts of our soul:
The divine reality
is the Triune God
—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
—becoming our constituent.
The Spirit of reality
guides us into all the reality
—what the Father has,
what the Son has,
and what the Spirit receives
of the Son
and of what the Father has.
As the Spirit of reality guides us
into the divine reality
by transmitting this reality into us,
the divine reality
—the processed and consummated Triune God—
becomes the essence
of our being.
The divine reality
should become
our reality, life, and living,
and this reality
should be applied to our entire being
in everything and in every way
to become our reality
in our daily walk.
“The spirit of man
is the lamp of Jehovah,
/ Searching all the innermost parts
of the inner being” (Prov. 20:27):
Our spirit
is God’s lamp within us,
and the light shining
within our regenerated spirit
is God Himself.
When God’s Spirit as the oil
soaks (mingles with)
our regenerated spirit as the “wick”
and “burns” together with our spirit,
the divine light
shines in our inward parts.
The Spirit wants to enlighten
all our inward parts,
shining on
our thoughts, feelings,
motives, and intentions.
If we are vessels
open to the Lord,
opening
all the innermost parts of our being
to Him,
we will experience
the shining of the divine light
within us.
In order to have the church life
to express Christ
according to God’s eternal purpose,
Christ needs to be released
from the imprisonment of our soul
through the breaking of the outer man
for the release of the spirit:
We have Christ in our spirit,
but there may be no room or ground for Him
in our mind, emotion, and will:
If this is our situation,
our spirit is
not a residence for Christ
but a prison to Him;
Christ is imprisoned
by our soul.
Christ is indwelling our spirit,
but He may not be occupying
all the inward parts of our soul;
this is
a very vital matter.
Christ is in us
as the hope of glory,
but our soul is
too strong, natural, earthly, and human;
therefore,
whether intentionally or unintentionally,
we imprison Christ
by our soul.
The church life
is Christ
coming out of the saints
for His corporate expression;
however,
if Christ remains imprisoned
within us,
we cannot have
the church life.
We all need to experience
the breaking of the outer man
for the release of the spirit
so that Christ may be expressed
in a corporate way:
Breaking removes
what we originally have
in our natural being,
changing our original appearance
and altering our original condition.
The extent to which we are broken
is the extent
to which we can cooperate with God.
Whatever is broken by God
will enter into death
in order to pass through death;
once it passes through death,
it will enter into resurrection,
and once it is resurrected,
it can attain to God’s goal.
The more breaking we receive,
the more our spirit will be released;
in whatever matter we experience the breaking,
our spirit will be released
in that matter.
When our soul is subdued and broken,
Christ will be expressed;
in this expression of Christ
we are one,
and we will have the church life
as the corporate expression of Christ.
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Prophecy note, 18 January 2015
We may have
numerous good and noble things,
but God still must tear down and destroy
these good and noble things.
Everything is simply destroyed.
In man’s concept,
tearing down or breaking
are not positive words.
However,
everyone who is useful
in God’s hand
must pass through
His breaking.
A person who has not been broken by God
will not be able to cooperate much with Him.
Being broken
is a prerequisite
for God
to gain our cooperation
and to use us.
The extent
to which we are broken
is the extent
to which we can cooperate with God.
We must pass through God’s breaking
in order for us
to match God
and to be useful to Him.
In terms of experience,
it is
not sufficient
to merely see
the death of the cross.
Unless we pass through
various breakings from God,
we will not know
the reality of the death of the cross.
Breaking is
the process of the death of the cross.
One who has not been broken
has not passed through death
and has not passed through the cross.
We may be able to clearly speak of
the doctrine of the cross,
but unless we are broken,
we will not have
any trace of the cross in our being.
What God builds up,
He also tears down.
In order to attain to God’s goal,
everything that is created by God
must pass through
His breaking and tearing down
so that what is broken and torn down
can pass through death
and enter into resurrection.
The more breaking we receive,
the more our spirit will be released.
In whatever matter we experience the breaking,
our spirit will be released
in that matter.
This is
a spiritual fact;
it can never be artificially engineered.
This is the reason
we must accept
the discipline and breaking
of the Holy Spirit.
If we try to save ourselves
in a certain matter,
we will lose
our spiritual usefulness
in that matter.
If we try to protect or excuse ourselves
in a certain matter,
we will lose
our spiritual sense and supply
in that matter.
This is
a very basic principle.
Those who have much experience
will be able to render much service.
Only those
who have gone through much breaking
will acquire much feeling.
Only those
who suffer much loss
will have much
to give others.
Day 6
In order to be useful
in the Lord’s hand
and according to God’s heart,
we must pass through
much breaking by God.
Breaking removes
what we originally have
in our natural being,
changing our original appearance
and altering our original condition.
We may have numerous good and noble things,
but God still must tear down and destroy
these good and noble things.
When a structure is built,
it is built according to a logical order;
however,
when a structure is torn down,
there is no logical order,
and everything is simply destroyed.
Hence,
in man’s concept,
tearing down or breaking
are not positive words.
However,
everyone who is useful in God’s hand
must pass through His breaking.
In His redemptive work
God needs man’s cooperation.
Every matter related to serving God
is based upon
God gaining man’s cooperation.
A person’s usefulness in the service
is based upon his cooperation with God.
However,
a person who has not been broken by God
will not be able to cooperate much with Him.
Although this is
a shallow illustration,
if we want to move into a house,
it will need
some adjustment and tearing down
in order to be suitable for dwelling.
Being broken
is a prerequisite
for God
to gain our cooperation
and to use us.
The extent
to which we are broken
is the extent
to which we can cooperate with God.
We must pass through God’s breaking
in order for us
to match God
and to be useful to Him.
All spiritual matters
must pass through
death and resurrection.
Anything that has not passed through
death and resurrection
is raw and wild.
Anything that has not passed through
death and resurrection
is natural.
God’s breaking
is the procedure, the process, of death.
In terms of experience,
it is
not sufficient
to merely see
the death of the cross.
Doctrinally,
it is sufficient
to see the death of the cross,
but unless we pass through
various breakings from God,
we will not know
the reality of the death of the cross.
Breaking is
the process of the death of the cross.
One who has not been broken
has not passed through death
and has not passed through the cross.
We may be able to clearly speak of
the doctrine of the cross,
but unless we are broken,
we will not have
any trace of the cross in our being.
What God builds up,
He also tears down.
Whatever is broken by God
will enter into death
in order to pass through death.
Once it passes through death,
it will enter into resurrection;
once it is resurrected,
it can attain to God’s goal.
In order to attain to God’s goal,
everything that is created by God
must pass through
His breaking and tearing down
so that what is broken and torn down
can pass through death
and enter into resurrection.
Without being broken,
it cannot pass through death;
without entering into death
and passing through death,
it cannot enter into resurrection.
The more breaking we receive,
the more our spirit will be released.
In whatever matter we experience the breaking,
our spirit will be released
in that matter.
This is
a spiritual fact;
it can never be artificially engineered.
If we have it,
we have it.
If we do not have it,
we do not have it.
This is the reason
we must accept
the discipline and breaking of the Holy Spirit.
Those who have much experience
will be able to render much service.
Only those
who have gone through much breaking
will acquire much feeling.
Only those
who suffer much loss
will have much
to give others.
If we try to save ourselves
in a certain matter,
we will lose our spiritual usefulness
in that matter.
If we try to protect or excuse ourselves
in a certain matter,
we will lose
our spiritual sense and supply
in that matter.
This is
a very basic principle.
Day 5
There is no doubt
that we have Christ in our spirit,
but there is much doubt
as to whether Christ
has any place in our soul.
There may be
no place, no room, and no ground
for Christ in our mind, emotion, and will.
If this is the case,
our spirit is
not a residence for Christ
but a prison to Him.
Christ is imprisoned
by our soul.
At the time we believed,
we exercised our mind to repent.
We turned our mind,
which means that our mind
was open.
At the same time
we also confessed our sins.
Along with our believing
there is always our confessing.
In this way
both our mind and our conscience
were opened,
so we received the Lord Jesus,
and He came into us.
After this, however,
many believers close
their mind and conscience.
The Lord Jesus
came into them,
but they enclose Him
within their spirit.
To say it in another way,
they imprison Him
by their conscience, mind, emotion,
stubborn will, and self.
Christ is in our spirit,
but He may be imprisoned.
This is the reason
why the apostle Paul,
after revealing the vision of the Body
in the first part of Ephesians,
realized that we
need our inner man, our spirit,
to be strengthened
that Christ may make His home
in all the parts of the heart
—the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience.
This means
that Christ
will occupy all the inward parts
of our human being
and settle down in them.
A brother may love the Lord,
but his mind
may never have been renewed;
it is still natural.
Likewise,
his emotion is earthly,
and his will is too human and selfish.
We can check ourselves
by the way
we talk.
When the brothers and sisters
come together to talk,
they are very strong,
but when we ask them to pray,
they are weak.
You have your opinion,
I have my idea,
and everyone has something to say.
We are very strong
in the mind.
However,
when we ask people to pray,
the weakness in their spirit
is immediately exposed.
This is
why we are stressing this matter
once again.
Similarly,
this is
why Paul,
when he comes to
the matter of experience in Ephesians,
prays,
“For this cause
I bow my knees unto the Father
… that He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened
with power
through His Spirit
into the inner man,
that Christ may make His home
in your hearts”
(vv. 14, 16-17a).
Christ is indwelling our spirit,
but He may not be occupying
all the inward parts of our soul.
This is
a very vital matter.
There is no doubt
that Christ is in us,
but our soul
is too strong, natural, earthly, and human.
Therefore, eventually,
whether intentionally or unintentionally,
we imprison Christ
by our soul.
It is the same with
all of us.
We all have Christ,
but our Christ
has been imprisoned within us.
If Christ is imprisoned
by the soulish life in you,
and He is imprisoned
by the soulish life in me,
how can we have
the church life?
Christ is within us,
but He cannot be expressed,
and He cannot be realized by us
because of our soul.
One person’s soul is strong,
and another person’s soul
is even stronger.
One person exercises his mind,
and another exercises his mind even more.
Yes, we are brothers,
and we are the members of the Body,
but all these members
are covered and concealed with
a layer of soulish “wax.”
This soulish “wax”
is very strong.
We are too strong
in our mind, in our emotion, and in our will.
This is
why we need to be strengthened
into our inner man.
Then
Christ will fill us
and spread from within
to take over our heart.
Day 4
The truth concerning the person of Christ
is the basic and central element
of John’s mending ministry.
When he found
that his children were walking in truth,
he rejoiced greatly.
To walk in truth
means that the Triune God
becomes our enjoyment in reality.
Therefore,
our daily walk
is the walk in truth,
which is
the reality of the Triune God
enjoyed by us.
In verse 3
John speaks of “your…truth.”
“Your truth”
is the truth concerning Christ,
especially His deity,
by the revelation
of which
the recipient’s way of life
is determined
and to which
the recipient holds
as his fundamental belief.
The thought here
is deep.
John’s thought
is that the objective truth
becomes ours.
Hence,
the truth becomes subjective to us
in our daily walk.
This truth
is the reality of Christ’s deity.
Our life
is determined and shaped
by the revelation of this truth.
This means
that we live, walk, and behave
in the divine reality
of the Triune God,
who is our enjoyment.
This enjoyment
shapes our walk, our way of life.
This truth
is actually the Triune God
becoming our enjoyment.
According to my experience
nothing pleases the Lord
so much as
for us
to realize
that He doesn’t want us
to do anything.
He only wants us
to love Him,
to open ourselves up to Him,
and to let Him live
from within us.
This may sound
quite familiar to you,
but if you look into such a sentence,
you will realize
it is not so common.
It is not so familiar to you.
From the very beginning
when God created man,
God had no intention
to ask man
to do anything for Him.
God’s intention
was to create a vessel
to contain Him
and to express Him,
so God only wants
an opening of the vessel.
If the vessel is open,
God can fulfill His purpose,
but if the vessel is closed,
God’s purpose is frustrated.
Man’s spirit
is God’s lamp within man.
The light
shining within man’s regenerated spirit
is God Himself.
Just as a lamp contains light
and expresses it,
man’s spirit
was created to contain God
and express Him.
In order for the divine light
to shine into man’s inward parts,
God’s Spirit as the oil
must soak (mingle with)
man’s spirit as the wick
and “burn” together with man’s spirit.
When we use our spirit to pray,
it functions as a shining lamp,
searching all the parts of our soul.
It may shine on our thoughts,
but we refuse to have the Lord probe there.
We may not say,
“No, Lord! Don’t touch there!”
but that is
what we mean.
The spirit may shine on our emotions,
especially the sisters’,
but we close up,
sometimes even weeping,
begging the Lord
not to touch that area.
The same thing
may happen with our will,
especially the brothers’;
if we close our will,
the spirit cannot fulfill
its function of shining.
When we close the doors to the Lord’s shining,
we no longer have any words
to pray.
When we pray properly,
using our spirit,
there is
a lamp shining.
If we sense it shining on our thoughts,
we can say,
“Lord, I open my mind to You.
Shine in me.
Expose my thoughts.”
In His light
we confess our sins.
When He shines on our emotions,
we can open and confess
what He reveals to be wrong.
Then
He will shine on our will,
and we can open this room also
to Him.
As we open all these chambers one by one,
the spirit will shine
and we shall confess our sins.
We can keep praying
for a long time.
The more we pray,
the more we are enlightened.
Our inward parts
will all be thoroughly searched
by the Lord.
After such a time of prayer,
we shall feel
bright and transparent,
filled with God.
This is
one aspect of
the lamp, our spirit shining within.
Day 3
Salvation is nothing other than saving man
out of his fleshly, natural, created, animal, and selfish will.
In addition to God giving us a new life,
the return of our will to God
is the greatest work of salvation.
God gives us new life
for the purpose of
turning our will back to Him.
The gospel is
to lead us to a union with God in our will.
Otherwise,
the gospel has not achieved its mission.
God does not intend to save
just our emotion or our mind;
He intends to save our will
because once the will is saved,
the rest will be included.
To a certain extent,
man may unite with God
in the mind.
He may also share the same emotion with God
in many things.
But the most important and the most complete union with God
rests in the union of man’s will with God’s will.
This union of the will
includes all the other unions of man and God.
If the mind or the emotion is united with God,
but the will is not,
this union is still short.
The will stands for
the attitude, opinion, and condition
of man’s true self;
therefore,
it has the power and sufficiency
to represent the whole being.
If the will is not joined completely to God,
other unions are shallow and empty.
If the will that governs our entire being
is in complete union with God,
our entire being
will be totally submissive
under God’s hand.
When we open ourselves to the Lord,
He comes in
to fill us,
spreading from our spirit within
into all the parts of the soul.
Jeremiah 31:33 calls these parts
the “inward parts.”
All our inward parts
will be saturated
by the Spirit with Christ.
Then
our mind will be renewed,
and our will and emotion also
will be renewed.
All the parts of our soul
will be renewed
and saturated with Christ.
In other words,
all the parts of the soul
will be occupied, taken over, by Christ.
Then Christ will settle down
in all the parts of our soul.
All the parts of the soul,
plus the conscience of the spirit,
compose the heart.
Therefore,
Christ is making His home
in our heart.
The central factor in 1 John
is the divine reality.
This reality
is actually the Triune God.
The divine reality
is the Triune God
not merely in theology or doctrine;
this reality
is the Triune God
in our experience,
that is,
the Triune God
dispensed into us
for our enjoyment.
This is
the divine reality
in 1 John.
In John 16:13-15
the Lord says,
“But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes,
He will guide you
into all the reality;
for He will not speak from Himself,
but what He hears
He will speak;
and He will declare to you
the things that are coming.
He will glorify Me,
for He will receive of Mine
and will declare it to you.
All that the Father has
is Mine;
for this reason
I have said
that He receives of Mine
and will declare it to you.”
According to the context,
“the reality” in John 16:13
refers to
what the Father has,
what the Son has,
and what the Spirit receives
of the Son and of the Father.
What the Father has
is a reality,
what the Son has
is a reality,
and what the Spirit receives
is also a reality.
What the Father has
becomes the Son’s,
what the Son has
is received by the Spirit,
and what the Spirit receives
is disclosed to us.
The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and we, the believers,
are all involved
in this process.
The Spirit, who is the truth, the reality,
testifies that Jesus is the Son of God,
in whom is the eternal life.
By thus testifying,
He imparts the Son of God into us
to be our life.
Day 2
The growth of life
subdues every part of our soul.
The more our soul is subdued,
the more life grows,
and the more our soul decreases,
the more life increases.
When we meet a saint,
there is
no need
to measure
what has been increased in him;
rather,
we should observe
what has been decreased in him
and whether he has been poured out and broken.
If there is a decrease of himself,
then God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit
have surely gained ground in him
and have increased in him.
Only this
is the real growth of life.
The part of a man’s soul
which is particularly strong and outstanding
is the very part
by which that man lives;
when he encounters things,
he definitely uses that part
to deal with them.
Once Brother Nee said
that it is similar to a man
who carelessly walks into a wall;
when he does so,
his nose always hits first.
Whatever part of the body stands out,
that part will hit the wall first.
The situation of our soul
is like this.
If a person’s mind is particularly strong,
whenever he has an encounter,
his mind will definitely come first.
If his emotion is particularly thriving,
whenever he has an encounter,
his emotion will move first.
If his will is particularly strong,
whenever he has an encounter,
it will certainly be his will
that takes the lead.
When a man has received
sufficient dealings of the cross,
every part of his soul
is subdued.
His mind, emotion, and will
are all broken and subdued;
they do not stand out
as before.
Whenever he encounters something,
he is afraid to use the mind,
he is afraid to use the emotion,
he is afraid to use the will.
The mind does not come first;
the spirit comes first.
The emotion does not move first;
the spirit moves first.
The will does not take the lead;
the spirit takes the lead.
After we are attracted by the Lord’s beauty
to love Him,
we must learn
one unique lesson
—to be subdued.
To take Christ, the living person,
as our life
requires us
to be subdued.
Simply to love Jesus
is not enough.
The Lord’s intention
is that we
take Him and experience Him
as our life.
There is
no other way
except to love Him
and be subdued by Him.
Then
we will be one with Him,
having one personality.
We will be
so soft and submissive to Him.
In this picture in the Song of Songs,
the lover of Jesus
is exceedingly strong
at the beginning,
with such a stubborn character.
Yet at the end,
she is so soft and submissive.
This is the lesson
that we all must learn
in order to really experience Christ
as our life.
Many times in the past forty years
I have come back to the Song of Songs.
I have had many experiences
in this book,
and I have come to realize
that it speaks
not only of love
but also of the subduing of the will.
To have complete, adequate, and thorough transformation,
there must be
the subduing of the will.
Man’s will
is the organ
with which man makes decisions.
Our willingness or unwillingness,
our wanting or not wanting,
and our deciding or not deciding
are all the functions
of our will.
The will of man
is his “rudder.”
As a ship turns according to the rudder,
a man moves according to his will.
Man’s will can be said
to be his true self, the man himself,
because the will represents the man.
All the actions of the will
are actually the actions of this “man.”
When we say, “I am willing,”
we actually mean
that our will is willing.
When we say, “I want this”
or “I decided to do this,”
it means that our will wants it,
or that our will decided it.
The function of the will
is to express the intention
of our whole being.
Therefore,
when a believer pursues after
the spiritual life,
he has to pay attention
to the will.
Day 1
The church life
is Christ
realized, expressed, and experienced
by all the saints
in a corporate way.
This Christ
comes out of all the persons
and mingles us together.
God planned the church
for the purpose of expressing Christ;
thus, the church
is the expression of Christ.
But how can the church
be the expression of Christ?
In what way
can the church express Christ?
The only way
is by the church
being the Body of Christ.
Christ is not only the Head,
but He is also the Body,
because the Body’s life
is Christ,
and the Body’s nature
is Christ.
The Body is Christ,
and Christ is the Body.
In the church
there is
only Christ.
Christ is all
in all.
If there is only Christ,
how can we have any opinions?
If there is only Christ,
how can we have any self-exalting factors?
The divisions
come from the different peoples,
not from Christ.
In the Body, the expression of the church,
there is only one person
—Christ.
We must enjoy Him
and let Him swallow up
all the different peoples.
This is
why in the church
there is no Greek and no Jew,
no cultured, and no barbarians.
All are swallowed up by Christ,
not by being taught
but by being nourished with
the riches of Christ.
The church
is a real mystery
of godliness.
Outwardly,
the people may be of
several races and nationalities,
but inwardly,
the church is Christ.
Christ is
in the church
as the manifestation of God,
and this is
the mystery of godliness.
This is
the church.
The key point
is that we all
must enjoy Christ
so that Christ
can swallow us up.
Then
all that we are and have
will simply be Christ.
This is
the essence and the substance
of the church life.
In the church
we are
the members of the Body.
We can never be independent or separated
from the church.
We must realize
that we are
a member of the Body
wherever we go.
How could we be a Christian
without the Body, the church?
As members of the Body,
we do need the church life,
and the church life
is nothing but Christ Himself
enjoyed by us
and expressed in a corporate way.
In the new man
there is room
only for Christ.
He is
all the members of the new man
and in all the members.
He is everything
in the new man.
Actually,
He is
the new man, His Body.
In the new man
He is
the centrality and universality.
He is
the constituent of the new man,
and He is all
in all
in the new man.
The secret of the oneness
is first with our spirit, our inner man,
and then with our soul.
Our inner man
must be strengthened,
and our soul
must be subdued, renewed,
taken over, occupied, and possessed
by the indwelling Christ.
Then
Christ will be freed,
and we will be
under Him and in Him.
It is
through this indwelling and released Christ
that we are one.
In this way
we can have
the church life.
When we speak of
what the growth of life is,
we should pay attention to
the soul being subdued.
Positively speaking,
the growth of life
is the expanding of the ground
of the Holy Spirit;
negatively speaking,
it means
that every part of the soul
is being subdued.
This means
that we should not allow the soul
to take the lead
but let the spirit
be in the position of the head;
that we should not live by the soul
but by the spirit.
Such people
then have growth in life.
Thus, to grow in life
is to have every part of the soul
subdued.